{"id":2816,"date":"2012-02-28T12:48:17","date_gmt":"2012-02-28T20:48:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hotnerdgirl.wordpress.com\/?p=2816"},"modified":"2024-02-28T09:30:39","modified_gmt":"2024-02-28T09:30:39","slug":"5-reasons-why-i-heart-deep-space-nine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hotnerdgirl.com\/index.php\/2012\/02\/28\/5-reasons-why-i-heart-deep-space-nine\/","title":{"rendered":"5 reasons why I heart Deep Space Nine"},"content":{"rendered":"
Hey guys, what are ya talking about? Huh? Oh, Tribbles? That's cool.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

–<\/p>\n

Right now my brother is halfway around the world serving his country.<\/p>\n

Right now I am sitting comfortably in my house in sunny San Diego.<\/p>\n

He is a better man than I, it\u2019s true.<\/p>\n

But there\u2019s one thing we have in common right now.\u00a0 We are both rewatching that great soap opera in space, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine<\/em>.<\/p>\n

–<\/p>\n

DS9<\/em> is the red headed step-child of the Star Trek<\/em> universe.\u00a0 A little too dark, a little too stationary, a little too outside the norm compared to the other series.\u00a0 It started off with Commander Sisko showing obvious disdain for Captain Picard, one of the most beloved characters in the entire franchise and it continued to take the road less traveled.\u00a0 You either loved it or you hated it.\u00a0 I remember when the The Next Generation <\/em>cast spoke of Nemesis<\/em> being their last movie there was talk that Sisko\u2019s batch of oddballs would be skipped over in favor of the Starfleet-full Voyager<\/em> crew.\u00a0 Obviously neither was selected and JJ Abrams took the franchise in a completely different direction.\u00a0 But the message was clear, you\u2019ve had your fun now don\u2019t expect anything more.<\/p>\n

In my opinion DS9<\/em> was the most poetic of the series.\u00a0 It wasn\u2019t clean and bright.\u00a0 Instead of just adventure it had intrigue.\u00a0 Instead of a story of the week it had story arcs that spanned all seven years.\u00a0 It marked the first killing of a major character since Tasha Yar back in the first season of TNG<\/em>.<\/p>\n

It brought imperfection to a previously perfect universe.<\/p>\n

I loved it for that.<\/p>\n

Here are 5 more reasons why I heart DS9<\/em>:<\/p>\n

1. The Women<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n

Y\u2019all know I love strong women and Star Trek<\/em> is full of them.\u00a0 In Star Trek<\/em> women are equal to men.\u00a0 Period.\u00a0 It\u2019s what our mama\u2019s fought for.\u00a0 But one strong woman stands in a class all her own and that\u2019s Colonel Kira Nerys.\u00a0 A battle-hardened freedom fighter, Kira struggled with her new role as part of the status quo, often picking battles with her superiors and searching for a new cause to believe in.\u00a0 If she lost a fight it wasn\u2019t for lack of trying. Fiercely stubborn, she could quickly change gears and be extremely kind.<\/p>\n

And on the other end of the spectrum you have the Dabo girls.\u00a0 Submissive, obedient, scantily clad but strong in their own way as they fought to find a place for themselves in the universe.\u00a0 Leeta, for example, started off as a Dabo girl, formed a labor union, joined the resistance against the Dominion and ended up the wife of the Grand Nagus.<\/p>\n

All in a days work Leeta<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

However, the honor of my favorite female Star Trek<\/em> character ever goes to Jadzia Dax.\u00a0 I\u2019m pretty sure that we would be BFF\u2019s if she was a real person.\u00a0 I was way into RPGing in High School and College and I was almost always a Trill joined with the Dax symbiont\u2026.usually Tra\u2019cia Dax.\u00a0 I know, super original, right?\u00a0 What can I say?\u00a0 I have no excuse other than the fact that I love Jadzia so much.\u00a0 A friend and I used to promise each other that we\u2019d name our daughters Jadzia.\u00a0 And while I don\u2019t see that happening if and when I ever have a kid, I still totally love that name.\u00a0 I named my pet rats Jadzia Maria Dax and Ezri Ann Dax.\u00a0 Don\u2019t ask me where the middle names came from; I totally pulled them out of my butt.\u00a0 I even painstakingly drew Trill spots down each side of my face when I wore my TNG<\/em> uniform once.\u00a0 I cried the ugly cry when Jadzia died.\u00a0 Not when the possessed Gul Dukat went all Pah-wraith on her, but when she and Worf said their goodbyes. Ugh.<\/p>\n

Sucks to be me!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

2. The Religion<\/strong><\/p>\n

The other four series dabbled in alien religions occasionally, namely Klingon rituals, but DS9<\/em> is the only series to have it be a major plot point.\u00a0 Some would probably argue that this made Gene Roddenberry turn over in his grave.\u00a0 Gene was famously agnostic and had a strict no-religion rule that was stretched occasionally but rarely broken. DS9<\/em> portrayed religion as a complicated and tenuous thing.\u00a0 It wasn\u2019t always good, it wasn\u2019t always bad.\u00a0 Politics got in the way.\u00a0 But even Sisko accepted it in the end.\u00a0 The powers that be got away with this because it was the Bajorans who were religious, not the Starfleet officers.\u00a0 Deep Space Nine itself acted as a gateway to the celestial temple and was therefore the location of many heated debates.\u00a0 Bajoran piety affected everyone on board, especially Quark. He not only lost a crapload of income during the Time of Cleansing, but got bitch slapped by a brand spankin\u2019 new union when he tried to cut his employee’s wages.\u00a0 Because religion is such a hot topic in the world today, what with wars being fought and elections being influenced by them, it\u2019s easy to see why Star Trek<\/em> would want to discuss religion.\u00a0 Star Trek<\/em> has always taken current events and explored them in such a way that it becomes clear when we\u2019re getting it right and when we\u2019re frakking it up.\u00a0 It took guts for the producers of DS9<\/em> to make it such a large part of the show and for that I applaud them.<\/p>\n

3. The War<\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019ve never been in a war.\u00a0 I don\u2019t know what it\u2019s like to fight for a cause or to fight merely for survival.\u00a0 I really hope that I never have to. \u00a0I come from a military family and I hear the stories they are willing to share.\u00a0 I have stood by proudly and watched as my Dad retired and my brother graduated from boot camp.\u00a0 I\u2019ve cried when they left and cried when they returned half a year later.\u00a0 I\u2019ve never been in a war myself but I can tell you that it is not easy to send someone you love to one.\u00a0 Naturally, anything with a war in it has a bit of an impact on me.<\/p>\n

War in space can seem remote when you\u2019re watching it on TV or in a movie.\u00a0 You watch as spaceships get destroyed but you don\u2019t see much about the people inside them getting hurt.\u00a0 Deep Space Nine<\/em> took the battle to the ground.\u00a0 We didn\u2019t just see the starships battling it out with phasers and photon torpedoes, we saw the soldiers in the trenches.<\/p>\n

Including my favorite Ferengi<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cThe Siege of AR-558\u201d is one of the greatest hours of television ever produced.\u00a0 I will freely admit that I cried like a baby the first time I saw it and every time I\u2019ve seen it since.\u00a0 It showed war for the messy, confusing, exhausting thing that it is. It didn\u2019t sugar coat it and it didn\u2019t try to make it seem glamorous. \u00a0Our loved ones fight for us so that we won\u2019t have to think about these things but it\u2019s something that people need to be reminded of every once in a while lest we forget to be grateful for their sacrifice.<\/p>\n

4.\u00a0The Money<\/strong><\/p>\n

In general Star Trek<\/em> avoids the topic of money like the plague.\u00a0 They acknowledge its existence only long enough to balk at it and proclaim that they have no use for it, that the betterment of mankind is payment enough for their service.\u00a0 Don\u2019t get me wrong, I love that.\u00a0 The idea of a world without greed is especially appealing in these perilous economic times.\u00a0 But there\u2019s something very amusing about watching Quark scheme and plot for gold-pressed latinum.\u00a0 Or watching Jadzia Dax throw it down as she spanks all the Ferengi guys at tongo.\u00a0 Or having to pay to use the holodecks instead of just walking in, never knowing what dirty program had been played just a few minutes before.<\/p>\n

As much as I would like for it to be true, I just can\u2019t imagine a life without some kind of currency.\u00a0 They never satisfactorily explain how normal people within the Federation purchase clothing or food without money.\u00a0 I would argue that they simply replicate everything but I\u2019ve seen too many shops and markets and bottles of Chateau Picard wine for that to be the case.\u00a0 So how does that work?\u00a0 Someone walks in and they just give him bottles of wine?\u00a0 Why doesn\u2019t everyone have huge swaths of land to do with as they please?\u00a0 I know that World War III wiped out much of the population but it\u2019s recovered enough that there\u2019s not enough land on Earth for everyone to do whatever they want with it.\u00a0 I seem to remember that the DS9<\/em> crew gets some kind of allowance so that they can partake in Quark\u2019s Bar and the holodeck for recreation, etc. etc.\u00a0 But if the Federation doesn\u2019t have money, where are they getting the funds for the allowance?\u00a0 I\u2019ve heard the term \u201ccredits\u201d thrown around a few times but then a producer will say that credits don\u2019t exist in Star Trek<\/em>.\u00a0 I finally looked it up here but it only confirmed my suspicion that no one really knows.<\/p>\n

At any rate, the presence of gold-pressed latinum on the station has made for some very amusing episodes and I\u2019m glad that it\u2019s there.<\/p>\n

5. The End<\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019m one of those people who likes things to be all wrapped up.\u00a0 I don\u2019t like loose ends.\u00a0 Maybe it\u2019s the list maker perfectionista in me.\u00a0 As much as I love Star Trek<\/em> and The Next Generation<\/em>, they didn\u2019t have proper conclusions imho.\u00a0 Star Trek<\/em> was cancelled before they could write one (although it was wrapped up nicely in the movies) and TNG<\/em>\u2019s left me unsatisfied (both on TV and in the movies).\u00a0 DS9<\/em> has a real, honest to God ending.\u00a0 Yes, it left on a cliff hanger with Sisko but it gave you the feeling that this was truly the end, the last time you were ever going to see your friends together in one place, that there would never be a moment like this again so you\u2019d better savor it.\u00a0 I wept like a baby during that final episode.<\/p>\n

In short, I love DS9<\/em> for all the ways in which it ISN\u2019T like Star Trek<\/em>.\u00a0 Which is kind of weird because I really REALLY love Star Trek<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Whatcha talking about? Huh? Huh? Oh, still Tribbles. Ok cool.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

“The more things change, the more they stay the same.<\/em>”<\/p>\n

– Quark<\/strong>, quoting Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr, last spoken line of the series<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

– Right now my brother is halfway around the world serving his country. Right now I am sitting comfortably in my house in sunny San Diego. He is a better man than I, it\u2019s true. But there\u2019s one thing we have in common right now.\u00a0 We are both rewatching that great soap opera in space, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[12,13,19],"tags":[96,97,160,209,210,230,250,265,277,321,323,365,384,388,394,434,476,550,574,727,768,885,931,977,983,1004,1024,1057,1093],"class_list":["post-2816","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sci-fi","category-star-trek","category-what-why-how","tag-bajor","tag-bajorans","tag-captain-picard","tag-commander","tag-commander-benjamin-sisko","tag-dabo-girl","tag-deep-space-nine","tag-dominion","tag-ds9","tag-federation","tag-ferengi","tag-gene-roddenberry","tag-gold-pressed-latinum","tag-grand-nagus","tag-gul-dukat","tag-holodecks","tag-jadzia-dax","tag-kira-nerys","tag-leeta","tag-pah-wraith","tag-quark","tag-star-trek","tag-tasha-yar","tag-the-nexy-generation","tag-the-siege-of-ar-558","tag-tng","tag-trill","tag-voyager","tag-worf"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hotnerdgirl.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2816","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hotnerdgirl.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hotnerdgirl.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hotnerdgirl.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hotnerdgirl.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2816"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.hotnerdgirl.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2816\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hotnerdgirl.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2816"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hotnerdgirl.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2816"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hotnerdgirl.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2816"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}