Deep Space Nine

I've been rewatching a bunch of Deep Space Nine episodes. Not all of them, but the good ones. I will always like The Next Generation more, since that's where I was really introduced to Star Trek, but man, DS9 has the best story arcs of any Star Trek. So many great moments. I actually haven't seen many episodes more than once, except for the very end, which I rewatched with my wife a few years ago. And there were a few I had never seen, either because of scheduling, or because the previews made me not want to see them. But yeah, it's glorious. 

First, some thoughts on the intro. It is quite different from its predecessors' intros - there's no monologue about the "final frontier", and only slow camera movement. And of course, the music is slow and sort of melancholy instead of upbeat and adventurous. Even the gold-colored text sets it apart - it's less glowy and more down to earth (or Bajor, or whatever). All that could be considered objectively worse than the Next Generation counterpart. But the DS9 intro is amazing. It captures the feeling of isolation that permeates the show. Starfleet is not coming to help. You can't run very far from problems, even at the end of an episode. You're stuck where you are, and you have to deal with things long-term. 

And one final thought about the intro: It's important to note that, for a few years in there, DS9 was the only source of new Star Trek we had. When I was watching it back in the day, I wasn't comparing the show to TNG. I was just basking in the glory, grateful to have a window into that world. And the music and visuals of the intro still capture that feeling for me, no matter how many times I've watched the show.

[Spoilers for the series]

I started with the three-part thing about the Circle, which I had never seen, and the previews seemed stressful so I hadn't bothered before. The episodes are... fine. Like most Star Trek series[es], DS9 wasn't amazing in its first two seasons. (But still better than most shows.)

Then I started reviewing episodes that introduced the Dominion. The Jem'Hadar showed up in the finale at the end of Season 2, in an episode that starts out all happy and peaceful. Incidentally, it also contains a great monologue from Quark, about how humans don't like Ferengi because they remind us over ourselves (and the audience is like, yeah) - but then he points out that Ferengi haven't abused each other the way humans have, so they're better. (I'd point out that in the case of women's rights, they have absolutely been worse than humans. I kind of hate any episode that involves Ferengi, except for the ones actually stationed on DS9.)

Then at the start of Season 3, they introduced the Defiant. Man, I love that ship. (It will surprise no one to hear that Nemesis in The Plasma Master is heavily based on the Defiant.) I was reading about how some producers were hesitant to give the show its own starship because it might compete for attention with Voyager. That, of course, is nonsense. But it was wise of them to make the Defiant an uncharacteristically-battle-oriented ship, with plenty of flaws that set it apart from everything else. But forget about those, because when that thing starts shooting, it is absolutely glorious.

About the end of that episode: I don't love it when stories have cool things happen and then say they didn't (especially Garak's line about "the plan"). But finding out about about the Changelings - that was huge. I've read that the twist there wasn't the original plan for the Dominion (or for Odo), but it was a good idea, because makes the Dominion that much more intimidating.

I skipped ahead to "Improbably Cause" / "The Die is Cast". The visuals at the end of that episode are great. Romulan and Jem'Hadar ships are cool, but of course what's really great is that the Defiant gets to blow things up again. (And the story here is very important for Garak, and of course Odo.) I also watched the finale of the season, which I didn't really remember. But it seemed important for the next thing:

The start of Season 4 is where things really fire up. If you aren't familiar with the show and want to be, don't read past this sentence before you're properly caught up, because it will spoil things.

Bringing Klingons in was nice, because they have some of the coolest ships in Star Trek. But when the camera pans up to show Worf - that was amazing, a total surprise. It was like this life-changing gift that the producers had just thrown at us. A piece of TNG (which had ended years prior), just... it was just wonderful. And you know what else gave me warm, fuzzy feelings? The moment near the end, when the station's new weapons deploy. The missile launchers and phasers and stuff,  hammering away at the Klingon fleet. It's not just visually cool. It marks a major change in the show. Deep Space Nine is no longer helpless in its isolation. It has evolved. And the station has gained a bit more character, taking a step closer to the Enterprise D that we all know and love.

I skipped something else about that episode. They changed the intro. Instead of the quiet isolation from before, we now see runabouts and other ships docking. There's a Cardassian ship. There are even some people in space suits doing maintenance. And of course the Defiant is there, and at the end it detaches and flies into the wormhole - another reminder of how the station has gained importance and the characters have a greater sphere of influence than they did at the start.

They also tweaked the music, adding a steady beat behind the main theme. This is sort of controversial - this new track doesn't always land a beat at the same time as the rest of the music, and that's because they were too cheap to re-record it. But to be honest, I was happy with the change. It creates a more energetic tone, which matches the changes to the show. ("Growing the beard", as they say, although Sisko already had a beard by this point. But he did shave his head over the summer.)

Then I watched "Our Man Bashir", an episode that's not important, but I had never seen it. I might skip ahead quite a bit. The end of Season 4 is where Odo loses the ability to shape-shift, a condition that lasts for the next TWELVE EPISODES. That was so stressful for me when I watched it before. I wasn't sure they'd ever give it back - it seemed like maybe they needed the Founders to have that advantage over Odo or something. When he finally gets the ability back, it's such a relief. But I'm not sure I need to relive it.

I will definitely be rewatching the finale to Season 5. That was the start of another huge story arc, which was also filled with stress, but in a much more satisfying way. And it looks like the second-to-last one is important because it introduces Weyoun, who everybody hates, but is also important.

I'll update this later.

Who’s in Charge of Starfleet Ship Deployment?

[spoiler alert on Star Trek movies]
There are currently eleven Star Trek movies. Take a quick guess at how many times Starfleet left Earth undefended. As we discuss this, keep in mind two relevant facts:

• Earth is the capital of the Federation.
• Utopia Planetia, a major starship production facility, is located on (and in orbit around) Mars. (For those who aren’t up on geography, that’s next door to Earth.)

So let’s see:

1. Star Trek (The Motion Picture): A hostile alien entity is headed for the Earth, and the only ship that’s within a day’s travel is a newly-refitted Enterprise, crewed by a bunch of cadets.
2. Star Trek 3 (The Search for Spock): Kirk steals the Enterprise. The Excelsior attempts pursuit but is thwarted due to Scotty’s ingenuity. Evidently it is the only other ship in the area, because Kirk gets away.
3. Star Trek Generations: (I believed this was about the biggest plot hole ever, before I re-watched the preceding movies and realized that it’s a pattern.) A weird spacial anomaly threatens some Tholian refugees, and the only ship with warp capabilities – having just left Earth for a training run – is the incomplete Enterprise B. It wouldn’t even have taken a warship to save a hundred lives or so – anything with warp drive and a tractor beam would have done the job.
4. Star Trek (the new one): The Vulcans are under attack, and the fleet is away – the entire fleet. An army of cadets is sent to help, resulting in a death count in the hundreds (not to mention all of the planet Vulcan).

Oh, and while we’re on the subject of that movie, how is it that Kirk’s dad was able to hold off those Romulan torpedoes for so long, and yet a fleet of ships (cadets or not) couldn’t deal with one mining vessel? They could have just stayed far enough away to avoid the missiles, while they fired phasers from farther away. Just saying.

Okay, so that’s only four – less than half. But it’s enough to send a dangerous but clear message: it is surprisingly easy to launch an attack on the Federation.
For some bonus trivia, let’s consider how many movies involve a rogue mission:

1. Star Trek 3: Kirk steals the Enterprise to search for Spock
2. Star Trek 4: On his way to stand trial for theft, Kirk violates the Temporal Prime Directive to kidnap two humpback whales from the 1980s.
3. Star Trek 5: Almost all of Kirk’s senior staff mutinies in order to help Cybok on his religious quest.
4. Star Trek 6: Spock ignores orders from Starfleet Command in order to search for Kirk
5. Star Trek: First Contact: Picard ignores orders to patrol the Neutral Zone in order to fight the Borg.
6. Star Trek: Insurrection: Picard undermines the Federation’s attempt to harvest the medicinal qualities of a planet’s rings.

In defense of the Enterprise and its captains, they were generally right. I guess Starfleet probably chooses people for the Enterprise that it figures will do the right thing regardless of what the ignorant (and arguably incompetent) bureaucracy says.

The Prime Directive (and the Main Deflector)

Star Trek morality is kind of messed up. First of all, the Federation is totally atheistic, and I don’t really see how you can argue for a moral code in that sense. (Which I guess explains why they don’t have a problem with the messed-up morality of some of the cultures they encounter.) But what really bugs me is the virtue that they uphold as the Prime Directive. That is, that you don’t interfere with the natural progression of pre-warp civilizations. There’s a Next Generation episode where the Enterprise is sent to witness the destruction of all life on a planet due to some natural phenomenon. They can’t relocate the people, because that wouldn’t be “natural.” Likewise, they can’t stop terrorists or provide medical care or anything else to anyone who hasn’t developed warp drive. What’s so sacred about warp drive? That’s sort of like us saying that any we can’t do business or provide humanitarian aid to any country that hasn’t developed its own aircraft.

I should note that I do agree with the Temporal Prime Directive, which states that you shouldn’t mess with the timeline. This is especially important because I’m pretty sure that time travel is impossible, in the same sense that drawing a four-sided triangle is impossible. Actually I think that involving time travel is one of the worst decisions a science fiction writer can make, because the moment you involve it, readers/viewers end up asking “Why didn’t you just use that to solve that problem?” to every problem. (Hence the Temporal Prime Directive.)

Speaking of innovative solutions that make you wonder why characters don’t repeat them, Starfleet engineers have a habit of using their ships’ main deflector arrays to do magical things that apparently only work once. I was recently watching a Deep Space Nine episode where they were trapped in this special anomaly, and I was thinking, “Use the main deflector!” And moments later, Chief O’Brien proposed just such a solution, which worked perfectly. Starships should be equipped with two or three main deflectors, just so they’d never run out of magical solutions.