| 1 | * AlternativeCharacterInterpretation: |
| 2 | ** The Maquis as pissy and entitled Federation civilians who can't accept that peace comes at a high price, or a group of settlers who had their lands switched out for a supposed peace that is in no way enforced by the Cardassians who used fear and murders to try to scare them away. Another option: "A little bit from column A & B", depending on which colony they come from. |
| 3 | ** Michael Eddington in particular: heroic MagnificentBastard freedom fighter? Or entitled, charming narcissist who betrayed his country because he was [[PassedOverPromotion passed over for promotion]] too many times, and now has the "perfect" opportunity to jump into the spotlight and play the hero? |
| 4 | ** Section 31. |
| 5 | *** WellIntentionedExtremist spies who do what it takes to protect paradise from people who don't share its idealistic view of the universe, or mass murderers who grasp at any straw they can to justify despicable and evil actions, be it kidnapping, conspiracy or genocide? [[WordOfGod Ira Steven Behr]] argued it was a [[NecessarilyEvil Necessary Evil]], based on the former reasoning, but others argue that this was ''already'' the job of Starfleet Intelligence (which Creator/RonMoore had introduced in ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' over Creator/GeneRoddenberry's objections), and criticize the addition of a new, [[EliteAgentsAboveTheLaw unaccountable]] agency and the borderline-ultranationalist ideas its operatives often spout, as well as pointing out that what it actually ''does'' in this series is usually counterproductive. |
| 6 | *** Also, are they [[NoSuchAgency officially backed, if covertly]], or [[RenegadeSplinterFaction a rogue agency]]? |
| 7 | *** For an ultra-elite black ops agent, Luthor Sloan isn't terribly subtle. He wanted to recruit Bashir, but kept demeaning his ideals and constantly trying to dominate rather than persuade or coerce him. He also antagonized everyone on [=DS=]9, calling a bunch of attention to himself and the rest of Section 31. Also, after having Bashir witness his elaborate plans, first hand, twice, he openly gloats about how effective his scheme was. The third time, Bashir is able to outwit him easily. Is Sloan really using Section 31's autonomy to its most effective end, or is his bruised ego causing him to make stupid mistakes? |
| 8 | *** Played with in the ''TabletopGame/StarTrekAdventures'' roleplaying game, where Section 31 can be a rogue agency, the actual power behind the throne of the UFP, or even simply Sloan himself. |
| 9 | ** Major Kira and the Bajoran resistance can be seen in many ways. Kira justifies her actions through the lens of every member of an occupying species being a legitimate target, thus her actions are acceptable and even good. Otherwise you can view her acts against the Cardassians as anything across the spectrum of unforgivable, to NecessarilyEvil, right up to tragic but necessary in a BlackAndGrayMorality situation, as they resisted the occupation of their entire planet against horrific crimes of mass-murder, attempted genocide, slavery, torture, rape, and concentration camps for 50 years making life beyond miserable for nearly every Bajoran on the planet. |
| 10 | ** Were Li Nalas' exploits really distorted by retelling? He hated his fame so much it's not hard to imagine him making up the "I shot an unarmed Cardassian in his underwear" story. Even after Sisko convinced him of his importance as a symbol he might have let Sisko continue to believe he was a fraud so that he had someone to talk to who saw him as just a man. |
| 11 | ** What "Rejoined" suggests about Jadzia's sexuality has been a hot topic over the years. Initially the debate was between the most obvious reading is that she and Lenara are two women who love each other vs. those who saw Jadzia as a straight woman who was influenced by the feelings of a previous straight male host, suggesting that maybe re-association is illegal for a reason. [[NoBisexuals The idea that Jadzia herself might be bisexual regardless of symbiote didn't come up much]]. As fans have become more comfortable with reading characters as queer and especially multi-sexual, and after [[WordOfGod Terry Farrell]] confirmed that Jadzia was pansexual, this debate has lapsed as fans have settled on the first option. It's worth noting that other episodes both before and after hinted at Jadzia's interest in women -- for instance, Bashir being threatened by her presence when he's flirting with Leeta, or her joke about stealing Kasidy from Benjamin, or her flirty moments with Vanessa Williams in "Let He Who Is Without Sin." And Lenara makes it clear in the episode that she'd be less interested if Dax were still Curzon, suggesting it's not ''just'' about their former identities. In any event, modern fandom consensus is that Jadzia is attracted to people (or usually, aliens) of multiple genders. |
| 12 | *** There are also those who view "Rejoined" as more about being trans than being lesbian or bisexual, with how their desire is rooted in a heterosexual relationship from a previous lifetime. One can certainly draw parallels to the experience of a cis person experiencing a romantic partner's gender transition. |
| 13 | *** Some see the struggles Ezri has with trying to blend into Jadzia's old life by living on the station with her old friends -- including rekindling a relationship with Worf, and starting one with Julian (who had had feelings for Jadzia) -- as making a case '' in favor of'' the re-association taboo. The reasons why these relationships don't count as "re-association" in-universe have undergone a lot of fan theorizing over the years, with the most common suggestion being that it only counts regarding other joined Trill, but regardless they seem to violate the ''spirit'' of the law (that Trill should vary their experiences across their symbiote's different lifetimes). Unfortunately, the most likely [[WatsonianVersusDoylist Doylist]] explanation is that what worked to keep a lesbian couple from lasting beyond one episode was [[DoubleStandard no longer convenient]] when the writers wanted to put Ezri in ''heterosexual'' relationships with pre-existing characters. |
| 14 | ** Some fans suspect Bashir didn't actually have any health problems, and he simply wasn't progressing fast enough for his parents' liking so they got him augmented. The major evidence is that the Mirror Bashir is presumably not augmented as it wouldn't be available to Terrans, yet he doesn't seem to be noticeably intellectually slower than his peers and is shown doing complicated tasks like piloting a ship, even if he DOES appear to fill the role of DumbMuscle. |
| 15 | *** On the other hand, some claim that Mirror Bashir looks like [[Film/StarTrekIITheWrathOfKhan Khan]], and take that as foreshadowing that he WAS augmented, in both universes. |
| 16 | ** Bashir's genetic engineering reveal makes it easy to reinterpret his early UpperClassTwit behavior as ObfuscatingStupidity to keep everyone from catching on to him. |
| 17 | ** Rom. Obviously not as stupid as his brother thinks he is, Rom seems to suffer from the Ferengi equivalent of ADD. In early seasons he can barely converse without changing the subject, but later on he manages to become an engineer and even help design the systems that blockade the wormhole--while still changing the subject midway through to how he doesn't have enough closet space to accommodate his new wife. |
| 18 | *** Rom might be smarter than Quark in one sense: he realizes how bad he is at obtaining profit and [[KnowWhenToFoldEm found a new job at the first opportunity]]. Quark made mention of his narrow profit margins on a few occasions and even those profits came because Sisko admitted he "forgets" to collect Quark's rent for the bar and holosuites. |
| 19 | ** "Profit and Lace" shows Quark being quite comfortable assuming the role of a female. It shows Quark as an actual progressive Ferengi (alongside other instances of his progressive views, such as in "Rules of Acquisition" where he works with a female Ferengi to close a business deal, "Family Business" which deals with him breaking with Ferengi Law by standing by his mother's earning of profit, and "Ferengi Love Songs" wherein he works with his mother Ishka to help the Grand Nagus take her council and run the Ferengi Government). Quark normally presents himself as a proud traditional Ferengi, but persuades himself towards more progressive tendencies (for a Ferengi) on a regular occasion. He usually blames this on his exposure to the Federation, but more often than not, it's because he is a good person who wants to help others. |
| 20 | *** However, it could be argued that Quark has a pragmatic reason for being so progressive. By ingratiating himself to the Federation and the Bajorans by adopting their culture and values, he guarantees customers and can take advantage of their charity. This is shown when Quark's bar property is seized and the station's staff and residents all donate a bunch of items to get him back on his feet, or when he takes up the arms business and finds that no one will come to his bar. His mother and the female Ferengi also demonstrate that he can make more money by allowing female Ferengi more rights. This makes it pretty easy to argue that he is a traditional Ferengi, since Ferengi believe that profit trumps all other values and therefore abandoning your traditions to make more money is, in fact, the most Ferengi thing to do. |
| 21 | *** On another note, the episode also makes it clear that sex reassignment surgery in the 24th century can be performed in its entirety in the space of an afternoon, which has interesting implications for actual transgender people in that world, as well as trans readings of canonical characters. |
| 22 | ** Also, Quark is either a brilliant businessman who'd be rolling in latinum were it not for bad luck, StatusQuoIsGod, and the few morals he picks up from the Federation, or a classic case of SmallNameBigEgo. In column A, he has many powerful friends and has been at the center of many important events in Ferengi history (although this could be excused as by the MST3KMantra and TheMainCharactersDoEverything), he's come very close to fame and fortune many times, and has dispensed latinum nuggets of wisdom multiple times. In column B, however, he's apparently so bad at keeping secrets that Odo foregoes arresting him to catch all his contacts, he's been outshined by every living member of his family save Rom, he was handed a very favorable position as the only Ferengi business owner on the galaxy's most important station on a silver platter, and all the stories that focus on him show him as stupidly out of his depth in dangerous or complex situations. On the other hand, there's the fact that Odo never did manage to put him in prison in over a decade. |
| 23 | *** It's worth noting that Quark was going behind the backs of the Cardassians to help Bajoran slaves on a regular basis long before he had any interactions with the Federation. In fact this wasn't kept particularly secret as Brunt was aware of it, which he insulted Quark over. |
| 24 | ** The Jack Pack, Bashir's genetically-engineered cohorts from "Statistical Improbabilities" and "Chrysalis." Thing is, while they're certainly abnormal in behavior and intelligence, they also display a considerable amount of symptoms typical of the autism spectrum (''especially'' Jack and Sarina). In light of the controversy in the autism community surrounding eugenics, you may find Bashir attempting to "fix" Sarina in "Chrysalis" a bit questionable. On the other hand, since Sarina's catatonia was caused by a botched attempt at genetic enhancement when she was a child, the scenario can also be read as Bashir trying to help someone already severely harmed by eugenics, undoing some of the damage. Bashir's conversation with his own parents in "Dr. Bashir I Presume" makes clear his loathing for eugenics, even though it was successful in his own case. |
| 25 | ** Should Odo be considered a collaborator with the Cardassian occupiers, or a fair man who was trying to maintain order on Terok Nor in spite of the Cardassian occupation? Several characters throughout the series consider him one or the other, and one can make legitimate arguments for either position. In several episodes Odo himself looks upon those considered collaborators with utter contempt. One of them was a Bajoran puppet government functionary who signed work orders to send people to an almost certain death in mining camps, at the same time Odo was on Terok Nor "maintaining order" by among other things, sentencing innocent Bajoran workers to death because he was distracted. |
| 26 | ** An InUniverse case: while Kira (and most Bajorans) see [[Characters/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineGulDukat Dukat]] as basically UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler, Dukat sees himself as more of an Oskar Schindler who, supposedly magnanimously, did all he could to save Bajorans from even worse abuses. |
| 27 | ** Keiko O'Brien: a housewife with little to do because she's forced to live where her husband is assigned, or a nagging crybaby that thinks she's entitled to more than she has? It doesn't help that in her very first appearance on ''TNG'' she's already displaying selfish traits. She chastises Miles for saying something rude about Cardassians, despite his own personal history with them, their occupation of Bajor, their known methods, etc., yet has no problem insulting the religious beliefs of the Bajorans to one of their Vedeks (an act that Winn seemed to know would happen, as she used it to her advantage). Her role as a teacher, even when Keiko insisted she could teach multiple races, leaned hard on Federation science and viewpoints which created detractors. Having her go off on botanical excursions seemed to be a convenient excuse for the writers to get rid of her for a bit. |
| 28 | ** Is Kai ([[TyrantTakesTheHelm formerly Vedek]]) Winn ''really'' a case of the Prophets managing to CreateYourOwnVillain by callously ignoring her appeals to them all her life, leading to her pride and arrogance taking over and her allying with Dukat and the Pah-Wraiths and nearly [[ApocalypseHow dooming the universe]] before Sisko averted it? Or did the Prophets, in their own [[TheChessmaster non-linear way]], know all along that they ''specifically needed'' someone with her ItsAllAboutMe temperament in place as the Kai, both to have the power to access the [[TomeOfEldritchLore Book of the Kosst Amojan]], which was the only way to unleash the Pah-Wraiths, and also to be alienated enough to ally with them and Dukat to try, since the resultant destruction of said book was the only plausible way to end the threat and seal them away in the Fire Caves of Bajor forever? |
| 29 | *** More broadly, every instance of the Prophets being ignorant about, or misunderstanding, affairs of corporeal life can be interpreted as them using something akin to the ObfuscatingStupidity technique to achieve results like Sisko's epiphany in the pilot episode. As the above paragraph implies, non-linear beings ''can'' be the perfect [[TheChessmaster Chessmasters]]. |
| 30 | * AluminumChristmasTrees: "[[{{Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS06E13FarBeyondTheStars}} Far Beyond the Stars]]" seems to be a full episode about Creator/ECComics's ''[[http://asylums.insanejournal.com/scans_daily/54803.html Judgment Day]]'' (printed around the same time this story is set), which killed the magazine when the publishers and editorial disagreed over having the hero be black. Note also the reference to D.C Fontana, a woman who wrote pseudo-anonymously for The Original Series way back in the sixties. |
| 31 | * {{Anvilicious}}: |
| 32 | ** "The Siege of AR-558." A lot of people didn't want to make the episode but the writers (and the director, a Vietnam veteran) pushed on because they wanted to make an episode showing the horror and dehumanizing trauma of war. Unsurprisingly, the Ferengi actors are big fans of this episode because they got to do something different and be the moral conscience of the show for once. |
| 33 | --->'''Ira Behr''': [[WarIsHell War sucks...]] You win, but you still lose. And we needed to show that as uncompromisingly as possible. War isn't just exploding ships and special effects. |
| 34 | ** "Badda-Bing, Badda-Bang". The A-plot grinds to a halt just so Sisko can blast Vic Fontaine (and, by proxy, the writers) for [[TheThemeParkVersion white-washing history]]. Ira Behr wanted to make sure an episode of ''Star Trek'' didn't betray its core principles, and to remind audiences that Vic's is fiction, and 60's Vegas "was very, very, very, ''very'' white" |
| 35 | * BaseBreakingCharacter: |
| 36 | ** Ezri Dax. She had to succeed the fan favorite Jadzia and was basically a first-season character in the show's final season (and thus needed a good few episodes to flesh her out), so she already had some big hurdles to be liked -- and it certainly didn't help after [[StuffedInTheFridge the way Jadzia died.]] She's characterized as someone who was totally unprepared for being joined, particularly to the legendary Dax symbiont, and is still trying to find her feet while the other characters have already matured through several character arcs. |
| 37 | *** Some fans liked the character well enough, but objected to the amount of episodes and screen time devoted to fleshing her out and then, even worse, endless Worf/Ezri scenes of Worf whinging over Dax. Which was made irrelevant as this plot ends in a giant case of StrangledByTheRedString as she ends up with Bashir. All this during the season that was wrapping up the series long arcs. |
| 38 | ** The Prophets, especially concerning "Sacrifice of Angels" and "What You Leave Behind". While some think they were interesting and were another mark of ''Deep Space Nine's'' unique flavor, others contest that they acted as a DeusExMachina and distracted from the Dominion War as the "real" plot. |
| 39 | *** Their omnicidal enemies the Pah-Wraiths, who are presented as "false" prophets who wish to use Dukat as their [[TheAntichrist Anti-Emissary]] and take back the wormhole. Complete with Pah-Wraith cultists who turned away from the Prophets once the wormhole closed. Unlike the Prophets, who had [[BlueAndOrangeMorality trouble understanding corporeal morality]], the Pah-Wraiths were basically presented as cackling fire demons who knew exactly what they were doing. This resulted in a sort of [[BlackAndGrayMorality Blue and Black]] morality that relied on old fantasy tropes rather than the morally grey setting the show had been so careful to construct. |
| 40 | ** Section 31, mostly in regards to their attempted genocide of the Changelings. Was it justified or not? Cue endless arguments on if it helped or hurt the war effort (would the Female Changeling have surrendered if Odo didn't have the cure, or did the illness just make her more ruthless and eager for a TakingYouWithMe ending), if genocide can be justified if it's against an implacable enemy, if it was crossing the line for Section 31 to engineer the virus at all. While WordOfGod has repeatedly established the {{Canon}} to be closer to the pro-Section 31 sides of the argument (and even the non-black-ops parts of the Federation were pissed at Picard for refusing a similar measure against the Borg) some fans still draw the line at actual genocide. |
| 41 | ** The addition of Worf. Necessary upgrade to the cast? A little testosterone in a cerebral show? Ron Moore's obnoxious AuthorAvatar? A whiny version of TNG Worf with none of the fun TNG traits such that he's practically a completely different (and quite dour) character? Though at least everyone tends to agree that his no longer suffering TheWorfEffect (at Michael Dorn's own request, having gotten understandably tired of it) was a big improvement. |
| 42 | ** Gul Dukat. Some people find him to be a sympathetic antagonist because of his comedy and love for his daughter Ziyal and because they felt sorry for him when he lost his daughter, status, and mind. Other people see him as vile because of him leading the occupation and [[NoYay coming onto Kira]] despite being old enough to be her father, having slept with her mother, and, well, leading the occupation. |
| 43 | *** Another debate surrounding Dukat arose following the episode "Waltz" as fans debate whether his story reached a natural conclusion and should have died, as opposed to continuing on as the emissary of the Pah-Wraiths. Many feel this simplifies his character to a complete villain with no greater complexity or redeemable traits, while others believe it fits his character and completes his transformation to the complete antithesis of Benjamin Sisko. |
| 44 | * BetterOnDVD: The show has a lot of long multi-episode plot arcs, especially toward the end, making it ideal for bingeing. |
| 45 | * BrokenBase: Fans who like ''Trek'' for the [[AnAesop morality plays]] and spacefaring action may be turned off by the [[{{Soaperizing}} soapy melodrama]] and {{deconstruction}} of Roddenberry's utopian themes. On the other hand, those who ''do'' like [=DS9=] tend to prefer it over other ''Trek'' shows, forming a little subculture of their own called "Niners". |
| 46 | * CargoShip: In the grand Star Trek fashion, arguably the most popular [[{{Pun}} ship]] in all of ''[=DS9=]'' is Sisko/the ''Defiant.'' Same with Worf, even though he's technically not her commanding officer. |
| 47 | * CompleteMonster: |
| 48 | ** [[TheVamp Intendant Kira]], a high-ranking member of the Klingon-Cardassian Alliance of the [[Characters/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineMirrorUniverse Mirror Universe]], turns out to be the most despicable and vile of them all. The overseer of the Mirror Terok Nor, Kira orchestrates a brutal Terran [[SlaveryIsASpecialKindOfEvil slave-mining operation]], dooming the upstarts to a painful death at the hands of her enforcers while enjoying the company of her {{sex slave}}s. After the Prime Major Kira and Doctor Bashir start the Terran Rebellion, Kira [[ManipulativeBitch manipulates]] Jennifer Sisko into creating a modified sensor array for Kira to slaughter the Rebellion and its members, happily ordering anyone that she suspects is involved in the Rebellion killed. After the Rebellion captures Terok Nor and imprisons her, Kira happily gives them the weak points of Alliance warships, purely for the sake of revenge on Mirror Garak for ruining her reputation. Reappearing next to Mirror Bariel after escaping from captivity, Kira manipulates him into stealing a Bajoran Orb to unite Mirror Bajor behind her. After that plan fails, she appears one last time, manipulating her other lover, Mirror Ezri, into obtaining a cloaking device for the Alliance Regent to quell the Rebellion in order to regain favor and gain more power. Kira heartlessly kills Ezri's only friend in front of her before abandoning the Regent to the Terrans. |
| 49 | ** "[[Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS01E09ThePassenger The Passenger]]": [[MadScientist Rao Vantika]] was a member of a dying alien race called the Kobliads. Vantika was obsessed with becoming [[ImmortalityImmorality immortal]], performing experiments on prisoners. Eventually captured, Vantika sets fire to the ship carrying him. When Dr. Bashir arrives to give medical aid, Vantika secretly [[GrandTheftMe transfers his mind to Bashir's body]]. Meanwhile, Deep Space 9 is about to receive a shipment of deuridium, a chemical the Kobliads need to survive and prolong their lives. Vantika plans to steal the deuridium for himself to continue his experiments, [[ItsAllAboutMe not caring about the suffering of his countrymen]]. Vantika hires some mercenaries to help him steal the shipment and uses a runabout to hijack the freighter carrying the deuridium. After foiling an attempt by Vantika to cripple the station with a computer virus, the crew of Deep Space 9 lock on to the freighter with a tractor beam. Vantika threatens to send the freighter into warp, which will break apart the freighter and spread deuridium across the Bajoran solar system, making it uninhabitable, if Sisko does not let him escape. When one of the mercenaries decides to back out, Vantika coldly guns him down. |
| 50 | * ContrivedCoincidence: It seems every time a new character arrives on Deep Space 9, their MirrorUniverse counterpart becomes an important player in the affairs of that universe. |
| 51 | * CreatorsPet: Vic Fontaine. Ira Behr was so stoked at convincing one of his favorite musicians, James Darren, to join the show that he created a part just for him, a holographic lounge lizard. Darren, who was initially skeptical of returning to acting, became very invested in the part and eager to return, so Behr was obliged to keep inviting him back, over fan protest. His many detractors felt that his constant presence in the back half of the final season (he was given several focus episodes) took screen time away from resolving ongoing plots and character arcs that fans had become invested in over the years. It didn't help that his presence in those episodes that ''didn't'' revolve around him often felt shoehorned (characters with no particular nostalgia for the period of Earth history he represents, like Quark or Odo, would go exclusively to him for advice, despite the fact that the station had ''just'' gotten a professional counselor) and many characters (most notably Julian) would [[CharacterShilling go on at length]] about what a great and insightful "person" he was before the audience had a chance to judge for themselves. Or else he'd be singing a full Frank Sinatra song, which could get pretty tedious for viewers who weren't Sinatra fans and just wanted to get on with the episode, but (back when it was first broadcast) didn't have the option of skipping to the next scene. |
| 52 | * CreepyAwesome: The Breen, who we learn almost ''nothing'' about, and are all the more terrifying [[NothingIsScarier because of it]]. Even the [[HorrifyingTheHorror Klingons, Romulans, and Cardassians]] fear them. [[EstablishingCharacterMoment They make their entrance into the Dominion War known by]] [[spoiler: ''successfully'' bombing Starfleet Headquarters in San Francisco.]] And they're incredibly cool at the same time, because their skills and uniforms are [[EvilIsCool just so]] ''[[EvilIsCool snazzy.]]'' |
| 53 | * DesignatedLoveInterest: Bashir and Ezri in the eyes of many fans. They get pushed together rather hastily at the end of the series after most of the season has focused on Ezri's relationship with Worf. Bashir and Ezri haven't had a ton of one-on-one scenes before this, and their actors don't have much chemistry. Ezri's "reasoning" for being interested in Bashir seem to be based mostly on finding him pretty and having dreamed about him, but she mocks his hobbies with Worf. And yet they don't just sleep together, but confess that they're passionately in love with each other out of nowhere. Even many who don't hate the relationship think it would've made more sense to have them just hook up ([[GladToBeAliveSex as is common at the end of a long, brutal war]]) without over-the-top feelings declarations. The fact that Bashir had feelings for Ezri's symbiote's previous host, Jadzia - the thing that doomed her relationship with Worf, Jadzia's husband - also adds the ugly subtext of Ezri being a ReplacementGoldfish for Jadzia, which pissed off fans of both characters. |
| 54 | * DiagnosedByTheAudience: Given his highly orderly habits, blunt affect and hyper-awareness, Odo is sometimes viewed as similar to autistic by fans (those on the autism spectrum especially). Bashir's social awkwardness, tendency to ramble about specific topics he finds more fascinating than anyone else, and especially his backstory also get many fans viewing him as being on the autism and/or [=ADHD=] spectrum. |
| 55 | * DracoInLeatherPants: |
| 56 | ** This sometimes extends to the Cardassian Authorities during the Bajoran occupation. Some fans think that Cardassia "had" to invade Bajor because of its limited resources--a story we mostly got from [[UnreliableNarrator Gul Dukat and other military officers who were pissed that they lost Bajor]]. Never mind the horrific atrocities that the Cardassians committed--the slave labor, the persecution of monks and nuns, the sex slavery and the murder, and ending the Occupation by salting the earth so the Bajorans couldn't use it--they ''haaaaad'' to do that! For the resources! |
| 57 | ** Weyoun, come on. He ''was'' programmed by the Founders to be evil... (Except for Weyoun 6, who deserves [[TheWoobie Woobie]] status through his HeroicSacrifice.) |
| 58 | ** Some fans even felt that the Klingons' suspicion that Changelings had infiltrated and taken over the Cardassian Union at the start of Season 4 was actually quite reasonable -- albeit ultimately wrong, though the Federation didn't have any proof of this until Sisko got involved in the conflict -- and that while the Federation shouldn't have actively supported their invasion, they should at least have stayed neutral in the conflict rather than condemning it. |
| 59 | ** Gul Dukat himself. Not helping was that his ''own actor'' was part of this, and played him as such right up to the end. |
| 60 | ** Garak is more of an AntiHero than a straight-up villain, but he still does a lot of morally questionable things that some fanfiction writers are more than happy to ignore or handwave away (for example, suggesting he was never ''really'' going to blow up the Changeling homeworld in "Broken Link"). |
| 61 | * EnsembleDarkhorse: |
| 62 | ** Morn. We nearly always saw him sitting silently at the bar having a drink, but his popularity was immense. Lampshaded in one episode where Morn was away from the station on business and Quark installed a hologram of him because people didn't come to the bar as much when Morn was absent. He never speaks on screen. He is frequently described as talking Quark's ear off every chance he gets, we learn that he has troubles with his mother, and an episode dedicated to his seeming death reveals that he practiced bat'leth with Worf and used to be a successful bank robber. He also has a lovely singing voice. |
| 63 | *** On his way to ParodySue, it's also revealed in this episode that Dax wanted to start an intimate relationship with him but he ''wasn't interested''. In ''Dax.'' |
| 64 | *** To drive it home, when ''VideoGame/StarTrekOnline'' launched Morn wasn't there. Massive whining ensued until Cryptic added him. |
| 65 | *** He ends up saving the day in the Dominion Occupation arc by smuggling out a message (in a present for his mother no less). |
| 66 | ** Garak. His impeccable sense of sarcasm, flippant cynicism and contrast with the Starfleets, combined with his MysteriousPast and excellent focus episodes, make him a favorite among Niners. |
| 67 | ** There's also Weyoun, a secondary villain whose great acting and great lines have caused no small amount of gushing even on This Very Wiki. |
| 68 | *** Creator/JeffreyCombs' first job as Weyoun was so impressive, the producers came up with the idea of Vorta cloning for the sole reason of bringing him back. |
| 69 | *** The same goes for J. G. Hertzler, who played Martok. He did such a good job in "The Way of the Warrior" that he was brought back for "Apocalypse Rising" and, instead of him being killed by the Changeling impersonator who died at the end of the episode, the writers and producers decided to have the ''real'' Martok show up later on in the fifth season; he went on to become a fairly important supporting character. |
| 70 | ** Damar. Initially little more than a generic Cardassian bad guy who even his own actor thought was just an extra, the character's sense of honor and quiet charisma [[AscendedExtra earned him]] some of the most radical CharacterDevelopment in all of ''Star Trek'', going from simply being [[TheDragon Dukat's lapdog]] to eventually [[spoiler:[[HeelFaceTurn leading the Cardassian rebellion against the Dominion.]]]] |
| 71 | ** Grilka, Quark's Klingon love interest, has quite a fandom despite only appearing twice. |
| 72 | ** The 'Jack Pack' were pretty well liked as well. |
| 73 | ** Lenara Kahn appeared only in "Rejoined", but she's well-remembered to this day, especially on Tumblr and other fan sites, for being one of the first LGBT character in Star Trek (okay, [[DiscountLesbians kind of]]) and her sweet relationship with Dax. |
| 74 | ** In spite of only appearing in one episode and dying at the end of it, Marritza is rather popular for being one of the most complex and tragic one-off ''Star Trek'' characters, and the episode he appeared in is widely cited as the point where ''[=DS9=]'' started GrowingTheBeard. |
| 75 | ** Senator Vreenak, despite only appearing in one episode and dying at the end of it, is one of the most popular one-shot characters in the series for his glorious hamminess. |
| 76 | --> [[MemeticMutation It's a]] ''[[MemeticMutation faaaaaake.]]'' |
| 77 | * EscapistCharacter: O'Brien's shift to noncom made him one for fans who felt they might not make through the notoriously difficult Starfleet Academy, but would nevertheless enlist in Starfleet in a heartbeat and still be able to become a skilled and respected crewman through hard work and determination. |
| 78 | * EvenBetterSequel: Even if there was a drop-off in audience numbers compared to ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' and it took a few seasons to really find its legs, ''[=DS9=]'' pioneered the long story arcs that would become standard not just in science fiction shows but in dramatic television as a whole. |
| 79 | * EvilIsCool: So, so many. [[ANaziByAnyOtherName Dukat]], [[NobleDemon Damar]], [[AffablyEvil Weyoun]], [[RetiredMonster Garak]] (for a given value of [[TheUnfettered "Evil"]]), [[NoSuchAgency Section]] [[StateSec 31]], [[AsskickingLeadsToLeadership Gowron]], [[TheBrute the]] [[ProudWarriorRace Jem'Hadar]], the entire [[TheDreaded Breen]] ''species''.... |
| 80 | * FandomRivalry: |
| 81 | ** Most notably, at the time that the shows were broadcast, there was incredible fandom rivalry with ''Series/BabylonFive'', partly because the creator of ''Babylon 5'' accused Paramount of plagiarizing the show's concept from him. (Although ''Deep Space Nine'' premiered before ''Babylon 5'', Straczynski had pitched B5 to Paramount and been turned down before [=DS9=] was created. Just swap out "Centauri and Narn" for "Cardassians and Bajorans", and you're set for Season One.) Nowadays, things are more friendly, with fans of both shows admitting that they both had good and bad points, and that ''Deep Space Nine'' responding to ''Babylon 5'' by starting its own long-term arcs was a positive development. Even during the worst rivalry, a lot of people quietly watched and enjoyed both. [[note]]Straczynski himself stated that while he does believe it's possible that Paramount lifted ideas from B5 to influence [=DS9's=] development, he doesn't believe that showrunners Rick Berman & Michael Pillar had any involvement if this occurred; overall the writing teams of both shows got along quite amicably. |
| 82 | ** Keeping up with the BrokenBase trope, there was a rivalry between TNG and [=DS9=] fans, for the reasons pointed above. The official website itself saw people grading episodes not according to their quality, but to the show they belonged to. |
| 83 | ** As the only ''Trek'' series to overlap with not one, but ''two'' other ''Trek'' series at various points in its run, [=DS9=] got hit by this twice, developing a rivalry between folks who preferred it for being DarkerAndEdgier and less episodic than previous Treks, and folks who preferred ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'' for sticking more closely to the "exploring the unknown" concept of previous Treks and not feeling as thematically different. |
| 84 | * FandomSpecificPlot: |
| 85 | ** Stories of Garak helping to rebuild Cardassia after the war (usually with an assist from Bashir, and often involving the two of them [[SlashFic getting together]]) are so popular that "Post-Canon Cardassia" is one of the most popular tags for [=DS9=] fic on Website/ArchiveOfOurOwn. |
| 86 | ** Various storylines involving the Trill: from having Ezri or original Trill characters go through the ''zhian'tara'' ritual from [[Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS03E25Facets "Facets"]], to fleshing out the backstories of the previous Dax hosts, to having other canon characters temporarily take on the Dax symbiont (building on the [[Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration TNG]] [[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS4E23TheHost episode "The Host"]] where Riker temporarily takes on a symbiont), and much more. |
| 87 | * {{Fanon}}: |
| 88 | ** The first names of Dukat, Damar and most other Cardassian characters are not given in the show, but most fans accept the names given in ''[[Literature/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineAStitchInTime A Stitch in Time]]'' (written by Garak's actor) as canon. |
| 89 | ** A lot of Cardassian-focused fanfiction (especially focusing on the [[FanPreferredCouple Garak/Bashir]] ship) has elaborated on Cardassian anatomy, often basing them on Earth reptiles (due to Cardassians' scaly skin and alligator-like ridges, and coming from a much hotter climate than Earth). There's some WordOfGod behind this, with Creator/AndrewRobinson speculating in an interview that the forehead spoon is an erogenous zone, but fans don't stop there. And some have taken it even further, with at least two fan-created [[{{Conlang}} conlangs]] floating around for the Cardassian language. |
| 90 | ** Whether or not The Sisko ever brought baseball down to Bajor is never stated in the show, which has opened the door to a lot of speculation premised on the idea that either he ''must'' have (given that its place in his psyche is right next to the loss of his wife when Sisko first meets the Prophets) or the Bajorans found out on their own and it's become a part of their religious practice. This has lead to many lighthearted headcanons about Bajor forming its own league and Bajoran schoolkids being able to take baseball for both P.E. ''and'' religion class. |
| 91 | * FanNickname: |
| 92 | ** Kai Opaka was called "Deep Space Nun" during the first season but was PutOnABus midway through the season. |
| 93 | ** A number of fans refer to Jadzia as "Sex Giraffe" due to her giraffe-like spots and, [[MsFanservice well...]] |
| 94 | ** Website/SFDebris coined the name "Ben Sisko's Mutha***in' Pimp Hand" for the ''Defiant'', which appears to have caught on over the Internet. |
| 95 | ** [=SFDebris=] also coined "This is the one that even the Prophets call 'The Sisko'. First name: 'Don't F*** With'." |
| 96 | ** Damar was derisively referred to as "Dumbar" on certain fan forums for his [[TheDragon blind loyalty]] to Dukat. [[spoiler:Of course, this was before his HeelFaceTurn.]] |
| 97 | ** It's become popular on Tumblr to refer to the Obsidian Order as the "Lizard [[UsefulNotes/TheStasi Stasi]]." |
| 98 | ** Bajoran Jesus has become a common nickname for Benjamin Sisko. |
| 99 | ** For those who point out Sisko's closer parallels with a certain Jewish prophet--born of a place he was raised apart from, reluctant to take up his role, argues with god(s)--"Space Moses" is more popular. |
| 100 | ** On the other hand, Kai Winn has been dubbed Space Karen. |
| 101 | * FanPreferredCouple: |
| 102 | ** Garak/Bashir was far more popular than the eventually canon Ezri Dax/Bashir, and in the years since it has become the most popular couple in [=DS9=] and one of the most popular in ''Star Trek'' fandom period. (For example, it vastly outnumbers every other ship in the [=DS9=] tag on Website/ArchiveOfOurOwn, and in [[https://www.startrek.com/news/the-top-15-star-trek-fanfiction-ships a StarTrek.com article from 2021]] about the most popular Trek ships, it came in ''third'' out of ships from all ''Trek'' series.) It also has met with ApprovalOfGod over the years from the two characters' actors, culminating in them [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Tq8zaSObWU&ab_channel=SidCity performing a fanfiction play on Zoom in 2020]] in which Garak and Bashir are [[RelationshipUpgrade married]] and living on Cardassia together 20 years later. |
| 103 | ** In recent years Jake/Ziyal has developed a following, despite them never interacting in canon, as they’re close in age and could have bonded over their respective creative interests in writing and art. They're certainly more popular than the near-universally-reviled Garak/Ziyal, or Jake's various one-off love interests. Garak/Bashir usually appear as ShipMates, acting as supportive mentors. |
| 104 | ** After Garak/Bashir, the most popular couples in the Website/ArchiveOfOurOwn and Website/{{Tumblr}} era of the [=DS9=] fandom seem to be Jadzia/Kira -- also making it onto the aforementioned Star Trek dot com list -- and Quark/Odo, who got a major boost from an unearthed outtake of their goodbye scene where the two characters kiss. The pairings are also more popular than the canon Kira/Odo, Jadzia/Worf, or Quark with any of his canon love interests. |
| 105 | * FranchiseOriginalSin: ''Deep Space Nine'' introduced Section 31 to ''Star Trek'' canon, but unlike later portrayals (and despite protestations of Ira Steven Behr) it was overall portrayed relatively negatively as a recurring antagonist to Dr. Bashir: he and O'Brien notably faced zero consequences for [[spoiler:Sloan's death, and ultimately achieved peace with the Dominion by ''thwarting'' their attempted genocide of the Founders]]. Its reappearance in ''Series/StarTrekEnterprise'' after 9/11 was where the notion of Section 31 being a "good" thing really took hold. |
| 106 | * FriendlyFandoms: Ironically, this has developed with ''Series/Babylon5'' as the [=21st=] century has gone on and both shows have found new life on streaming; far from competitors, many fans now deeply appreciate both shows and even see them as companion pieces (and with almost inverse thrusts from what you might expect: ''[=DS9=]'', despite being from the usually high-concept ''Trek'' franchise, is ultimately a story of personal discovery, revelation and transcendence, while ''[=B5=]'', despite having a whole religious thrust to some of its main players around revelation, is more about the dynamics of civilizations and checking or repairing the tendency toward despotism, tyranny and "enlightened guidance"). The two fanbases are now on very good terms and it is common to be a fan of both shows. |
| 107 | * GeniusBonus: In the endgame of the Dominion War, Martok points out that the Dominion retreating to Cardassian space shortens their supply lines while forcing the alliance to lengthen theirs. This actually demonstrates Martok's competence, which you realize if you're aware of a saying in the U.S. military; "Amateurs talk strategy, professionals talk logistics." |
| 108 | * GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff: |
| 109 | ** After taking an extended break to raise her son, Creator/TerryFarrell finally started making the rounds at conventions. When she appeared at [=FedCon XIX=] in Bonn, Germany (the largest fan gathering in the world) in 2010, the standing ovation [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PbceUaHkzyM#t=185s lasted for over three minutes.]] |
| 110 | ** One noticeable thing about the Ferengi episodes is how beloved they are in the UK and how much Americans seem to loathe them. This may have something to do with [[FawltyTowersPlot British humor.]] As a whole, Europeans react much better to Ferengi episodes than Americans, as the humor, while not necessarily ''bad'', is peculiar and not in the show's usual vein. Only the universally loathed "[[{{Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS06E23ProfitAndLace}} Profit and Lace]]" is disliked. |
| 111 | * GrowingTheBeard: |
| 112 | ** Most fans agree that the introduction of [[CoolStarship the]] ''[[CoolStarship Defiant]]'' in season three was a very good step. And Worf's introduction in the fourth season happened to coincide with Captain Sisko growing a beard and shaving his head, cementing his unique characterization among Star Trek captains. |
| 113 | ** Most of the first season was full of weak attempts at philosophy and downright stupid episodes ("Move Along Home" anyone?). "Duet" is a solid episode that started the drama, moral searching, and politics for which much of the series is remembered. It also showed the realistic aspect that no single nation is completely evil (or good). Unfortunately, it also set up the start of Kira's AesopAmnesia. |
| 114 | * HarsherInHindsight: |
| 115 | ** "Duet" is already one of the most heartbreaking episodes in the whole series, but it's even ''more'' depressing when you consider one of Aamin Marritza's lines, "Cardassia will only survive [[TheAtoner if it stands in front of Bajor and admits the truth.]]" He's right: the failure of Dukat and others like him to acknowledge their crimes during the occupation of Bajor not only drives Cardassia into the arms of the Dominion but [[spoiler:leads to the devastation of their homeworld when the Female Changeling orders the entire Cardassian race wiped out for defying her]]. |
| 116 | ** Mrs. Tandro's request that [[spoiler:Jadzia]] "live a long, fresh and wonderful life" becomes this after the sixth-season finale. |
| 117 | *** In the same vein, in the future timeline shown by "The Visitor", [[spoiler:Jadzia is alive decades in the future]]. |
| 118 | ** The show was made at a time when the word "terrorist" wasn't ''quite'' as politically charged as it is now, which can make its open acknowledgement that that's exactly what Kira was during the occupation come off rather strange. Of course, [[YourTerroristsAreOurFreedomFighters the show could have alternatively used "freedom fighter" or "occupation resistance" or "partisan"]], but even then, it's hard to get around Kira speaking positively of their decision to bomb civilian targets ''including children'' ForTheGreaterGood. |
| 119 | ** The show's use of O'Brien as the constant ButtMonkey who often goes through horrible pain, after a former reporter named Miles O'Brien needed to have his arm amputated after what at first appeared to be a minor accident with his luggage. |
| 120 | ** The 2-part "Homefront" and "Paradise Lost" story became this after 9/11 with many of the same overtones and messages concerning the aftermath present in a story written many years before the event. |
| 121 | *** A bonus in "Homefront" has a scene where O'Brien and Bashir are trying to take their minds off of the bombing. Quark mentions having to suffer through 'the Great Monetary Collapse,' which isn't quite as funny given the economic crisis in the second half of the 2000's. |
| 122 | ** In "Progress," Brian Keith plays a man who wants to suicidally stay in his home despite the area soon being unlivable. He really did commit suicide a few years later. |
| 123 | ** The Klingon-Cardassian War ("The Way of the Warrior" through "By Inferno's Light") bears a number of odd parallels to [[UsefulNotes/TheWarOnTerror the 2003 American invasion of Iraq]]: a leader who came to power in a hotly disputed succession[[note]]Gowron, UsefulNotes/GeorgeWBush[[/note]] who launches a politically motivated invasion of an antagonistic but neutral-in-the-current-conflict country[[note]]Cardassia, Iraq[[/note]] backed up by bogus intelligence[[note]]Dominion changeling involvement in the Cardassian democratic uprising, Iraqi [=WMDs=][[/note]], that succeeds at little more than destabilizing the entire region for a very long time[[note]]the Dominion overthrowing the Cardassian government and installing Dukat to be their PuppetKing, multiple civil wars and the formation of Da'ish from a schism in the Iraqi branch of al-Qa'ida[[/note]]. |
| 124 | ** More recently, the "Past Tense" two-parter, due to the controversial border detention centers in the United States and the vibe many people get from [[https://www.foxnews.com/politics/trump-tucker-exclusive-interview-homelessness?fbclid=IwAR33yJauGjEnUNHcmL9FFnF96LQgVRCiSswIHBdm2rhPmbRL_ozRzzfFOEY this interview]]. |
| 125 | ** A lot of fanfiction focusing on Garak and Enabrain Tain became this after the reveal in season 5 episode "In Purgatory's Shadow" that Tain was Garak's father. Before that, one of the most common fan theories about their relationship had been that they were ''[[RelativeError exes]]''. |
| 126 | ** If you've seen "Doctor Bashir, I Presume", Julian telling the story about how he blew an exam question to drop to second in his class comes across as this where it was previously a demonstration of his MotorMouth tendencies. It's later implied that he chose to deliberately underperform so his genetic engineering would be less obvious. That's got to sting, and the guy's just trying to spin it into a positive by using it as a story to get laid. |
| 127 | ** In season 5's "Apocalypse Rising", Worf fights Chancellor Gowron, believing he's a Changeling imposter, and almost kills him before it's revealed that [[spoiler:General Martok]] was the actual Changeling imposter. Afterwards, Gowron says to Worf "You should have killed me when you had the chance. I promise you will not get another." In season 7's "Tacking into the Wind", Worf fights Gowron once again [[spoiler:and kills him this time]]. |
| 128 | ** In the 2019 documentary ''What We Left Behind'', several of the producers and writers of the series come up with a story to begin a hypothetical eighth season of ''[=DS9=]'', including the deliberately shocking death of then-Captain Nog. A few months after the documentary premiered, the actor who played Nog, Aron Eisenberg, [[https://www.cnn.com/2019/09/22/entertainment/aron-eisenberg-star-trek-actor-dies/index.html passed away at the untimely age of 50 years old]]. |
| 129 | * HeartwarmingInHindsight: |
| 130 | ** In "Trials and Tribble-ations", there's a great moment where a delighted [[TheKnightsWhoSaySquee Dax]], watching the original series crew, tells Sisko, "he's so much more handsome in person", then clarifies to Sisko that she was actually talking about ''Spock'', not Kirk. Creator/TerryFarrell would later announce her engagement to Adam Nimoy, son of [[Creator/LeonardNimoy Leonard]], and the two of them married on March 26th, 2018, on what would have been [[SugarWiki/CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming his father's 87th birthday.]] |
| 131 | ** After all the crap O'Brien went through in this show with the writers determined to keep putting out "O'Brien must suffer" episodes, ''WesternAnimation/StarTrekLowerDecks'' reveals that he's revered by future generations as one of Starfleet's greatest heroes. |
| 132 | * HilariousInHindsight: |
| 133 | ** After Kim Kardashian and her family became HouseholdNames around the late-2000s, the fact that [=DS=]9 included an alien race named the "Cardassians" led to more than a few {{obligatory joke}}s from the Trekkie community. Including a [[https://web.archive.org/web/20201212084145/http://media4.teenormous.com/items/www.tshirtbordello.com/images-keeping-up-with-the-cardassians-l1_thumb_400x300.gif pretty sweet t-shirt]]. [[note]]And considering the media's obsession with certain of Kim's..."physical features", she probably still would have gotten the nickname "Kim [=KardASSian=]" even if the writers of ''Star Trek'' hadn't come up with the name first...[[/note]] |
| 134 | ** Similarly, the Breen who show up late in the series to help the Dominion use the title "Thot" for their senior commanders. This has become impossible to take seriously once it became street vernacular and internet slang for a slutty or skanky woman, i.e. "that hoe over there". |
| 135 | ** A season one episode, "Vortex" had Quark commenting that "paranoia must run in Odo's species," and that ''that'' was the reason why no one had ever seen or heard from them -- "They're all hiding!" Later on, it turns out that Odo's species ''are'' all paranoid, and they ''are'' all hiding. |
| 136 | ** "The Jem'Hadar" has plenty involving Nog. |
| 137 | *** When he first boards the runabout, he (jokingly) asks how to fire the phasers. Well, Starfleet Academy will teach him sooner or later. |
| 138 | *** When the grown-ups are captured by the Jem'Hadar, Quark figures that Nog will do the smart thing and find someplace to hide. This is in sharp contrast to the gung-ho soldier that Nog becomes. |
| 139 | *** By the same token, Sisko figures on Jake being more likely to try something reckless. In [[Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS06E22Valiant a later episode]], Jake will be the one who advocates running from an unwinnable fight. (Of course, considering that Nog won't listen to him, and considering how bad the results are, this could also be HarsherInHindsight.) |
| 140 | ** "Our Man Bashir" had a HolodeckMalfunction replace one of Julian's in-game LoveInterests with Kira Nerys. [[RomanceOnTheSet Alexander Siddig got Nana Visitor pregnant about half a year later]] (leading to the Kira-carrying-the-O'Briens'-baby story arc). |
| 141 | ** In “Trials and Tribble-ations” there’s a throwaway joke that Jadzia finds Spock (and not James Kirk) attractive. In 2017, Creator/TerryFarrell (Jadzia) announced her engagement to director Adam Nimoy, son of Spock’s actor Creator/LeonardNimoy. |
| 142 | ** Armin Shimerman would later voice the arch-nemesis of a [[VideoGame/RatchetAndClankUpYourArsenal Captain Qwark]]. |
| 143 | ** Joseph Sisko wanted his son and grandson to come home and take up the restaurant business, and he put them to work in his restaurant whenever they returned home. Cirroc Lofton, who played Jake, got into the restaurant business after ''[=DS9=]'' ended. |
| 144 | ** "Looking for par'Mach in All the Wrong Places" has Jadzia dismiss Grilka as a "statue" in the same episode she and Worf become the show's BetaCouple. ''VideoGame/StarTrekOnline'''s backstory has Worf marrying Grilka in 2385. |
| 145 | ** The Cardassian military units are called "orders" listed by ordinal numbers, such as "[[Film/TheForceAwakens The First Order]]". |
| 146 | ** This show making such a big deal about Section 31 being a super-secret organization that's impossible to expose becomes pretty funny when later entries in the franchise portray it as being no secret at all both [[Series/StarTrekDiscovery before]] and [[WesternAnimation/StarTrekLowerDecks after]] this show's time period. |
| 147 | ** In "The Way of the Warrior", Worf sees Drex, Son of Martok being an asshole and proceeds to pimp-slap him, beat the crap out of him, and steal his d'k tahg, thus humiliating him in front of his friends. A year and a half later, Martok inducts Worf into his house. What must Drex have thought of that? For that matter, what must Martok (the real Martok, not the changeling impersonating him) have thought when/if Drex told him of that little incident? Or did Worf ever tell him that his son was being a bully? That would make for a ''very'' awkward conversation. |
| 148 | ** A lot of the station's hallway carpets are colored in various patterns of blue, pink, and white stripes. After 1999, one of the more common patterns was adopted as the transgender pride flag. (Though technically it's pale red or deep salmon color than pink.) |
| 149 | ** The relatively-unflattering aging makeup used on Alexader Siddig and Terry Farrell in episodes like "Distant Voices" and "The Visitor" doesn't stack up so well now that both are in their 50s and still very good-looking people. More than a few fans on social media have had a field day with this. |
| 150 | ** "Move Along Home", in which several officers find themselves as living game pieces inside the world of a tabletop game, ends with a bunch of rocks falling from the ceiling and killing them all... at which point [[AndYouThoughtItWasReal they all materialize back on board the station, no worse for wear]]. Fast forward nine years, and ''Webcomic/SomethingPositive'' would establish "RocksFallEveryoneDies" as shorthand for a GameMaster killing off an entire RPG party at once. (To be clear, though, this '''wasn't''' what happened in the episode; it was the game's own rules that killed the characters, not Falow.) |
| 151 | ** In the episode "Explorers", Doctor Bashir's academic rival at the academy apparently somehow came to believe that he was an Andorian (y'know, with blue skin and antennae?). While at the time this looked pretty baffling, ''Lower Decks'' would have an Andorian named Jennifer (who going by the character's age would only be a few years removed from the [=DS9=] cast) with whom one of the protagonists Mariner had been mistaken for, suggesting her belief wasn't so far fetched after all. |
| 152 | ** Watch any episode with Garak pre-''The Wire'', and remember that Garak is ''constantly'' tripping balls in all of his scenes. |
| 153 | * HoYay: Garak and Bashir. The actor for Garak [[RealitySubtext actually stated he was playing Garak as pansexual]] in the first episode he appeared in (where he totally came on to Bashir) before complaints made him tone it down. They have lunch together (canonically said to be weekly throughout the years) and have saved each other's lives at least once. They've snarked, given each other gifts, and really sometimes seem to be the only people who can stand the other. Plus Garak wants Bashir to "Take that rod... and eat it." [[ItMakesSenseInContext (Actually, it was a data rod.)]] |
| 154 | ** As can be seen [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k2q2ySAOyqo here]] |
| 155 | ** Alexander Siddig has also remarked that his reaction to Garak and Bashir's first scene together was "Oh, so are we going to be Star Trek's first gay couple? Cool." |
| 156 | ** Also Bashir and O'Brien. There's one episode where Julian spends most of his time trying to get Miles to admit he likes Bashir more than his wife. And in "Broken Link", he jokes that he should invite Julian to come live with him, Keiko, and Molly, to "balance out" the gender distribution. |
| 157 | *** In the series finale, the main characters are reminiscing on their times aboard the station, and we get to see a series {{happy flashback}}s for each character, with scenes from earlier episodes. ''All'' of O'Brien's flashbacks are of him and Bashir doing various things, while Keiko doesn't appear in any of them. |
| 158 | ** Odo and Quark. In "Move Along Home" Quark asks Odo to "blow on his dice" (literally), and then in "Fascination" Odo claims he likes to stop by Quark's three or four times a day, "just to let him know I'm thinking about him." |
| 159 | ** Odo and Laas in "Chimera". Odo and Laas link in private, but Odo declines when Laas wants to link with him in public. Also, Quark remarks that people won't want to see a "Changeling pride" demonstration on the Promenade. Considering that director [=LeVar=] Burton said that Odo and the female Changeling's scenes were GRatedSex, it's hard not to see their Linking as a quasi-love scene. (Changelings may have a fluid relationship with gender, but that doesn't mean they can't be attracted to anyone.) |
| 160 | *** Laas also reminds Odo of the fact that he can't link with Kira. |
| 161 | ** Dukat's obsession with Kira is the one [[LampshadeHanging lampshaded]] on the show, but his obsession with Sisko, and all-consuming desire for his approval, is in many ways far deeper. |
| 162 | * HypeBacklash: With the show having picked up quite a fanbase in the years since its initial airing, it correspondingly got this reaction from some other fans, with opinions ranging from it being a decent series but not especially better than any other ''Star Trek'' show, to just being boring and overhyped. It greatly intensified following the release of the much DarkerAndEdgier ''Series/StarTrekDiscovery'' and ''Series/StarTrekPicard'', which caused a vocal minority of the ''Star Trek'' fandom to become outright hostile towards this series, seeing it as the [[FranchiseOriginalSin starting point]] for everything they consider to be wrong with those two shows. |
| 163 | * InformedWrongness: |
| 164 | ** "[[Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS04E18RulesOfEngagement Rules of Engagement]]" is lousy with this, due to a pair of {{Plot Hole}}s regarding the [[spoiler:purported]] civilian ship Worf blows up. Miles and Sisko both argue that Worf should have verified his target before firing (though Miles qualifies this with the point that your decisions in the moment can be different from what [[ArmchairMilitary somebody armchair-quarterbacking the battle later sees]]). In fact, Worf had no rational reason to believe that there were any cloak-capable ships within a light-year of his position other than the ones attacking him: [[SciFiWritersHaveNoSenseOfScale in space, there's no sensible reason for a civilian ship to come anywhere near an active firefight]], and that's before you get to the unasked question of why a ''civilian'' ship would even have ''access'' to a cloaking device. Never mind the fact that [[Film/StarTrekVITheUndiscoveredCountry Kirk and Sulu once fired on a cloaked attacker]] ''without'' waiting for him to decloak. |
| 165 | ** "[[Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS05E07LetHeWhoIsWithoutSin Let He Who is Without Sin]]": Worf is depicted as nothing but a big party-pooper throughout his trip to Risa. Yes, he should ease up a bit, but with how much Jadzia keeps shrugging off his requests to discuss their relationship, which was ''the'' reason they were going to Risa to begin with (which was also where ''she'' wanted to go, by the way--''he'' had suggested a hiking vacation on Qo'noS), it's hard to blame him for finally losing his cool when he does. |
| 166 | ** "[[Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS06E16ChangeOfHeart Change of Heart]]": Worf gets raked over the coals because he chose to save Jadzia rather than extract a Cardassian defector who had information that potentially could save millions of lives. He's told he probably won't face charges, but only because a court-martial would risk exposing sensitive information, the incident will be entered into his service record, and he'll probably never be offered a command. But you can't expect ''anyone'' to be so coldly rational as to sacrifice his fucking ''wife'' even for the sake of millions, which is ''exactly'' why real-life militaries don't send married couples out on missions together. Even most businesses are leery of employing married couples. Starfleet absolutely should have been aware of this issue and never sent them in the first place. Sisko issues an order that they not go on missions with just the two of them from now on. You're just now realizing this, Sherlock? (Notably, the episode side-stepped the whole issue of conflict of interest from the start by way of having KIRA, who is not a member of Starfleet, pass on the order to go after this informant, rather than Sisko, their chain-of-command superior, who probably would have brought this up long before Dax and Worf found themselves suffering from mission creep.) Of course, it's worth noting that Sisko admits he would've made the same choice, and the novel ''Literature/StarTrekPicardTheLastBestHope'' has the newly-promoted Admiral Picard muse that nine out of ten officers would've followed suit. |
| 167 | * JerkassWoobie: |
| 168 | ** The Bajorans sometimes fall into this. While the Occupation was an atrocity committed on their people, there are more than a few episodes that demonstrate that the Bajorans became equally ruthless to get their planet back. Episodes such as "Duet" demonstrate there are still cases of Cardassians being randomly murdered by Bajorans simply because ''they're Cardassian'', and they're as capable of mob-driven racism as anyone else in episodes like "A Man Alone." (To be fair, though, they do get a good share of WhatTheHellHero when these things happen.) |
| 169 | ** The Maquis also count at the end. They attack both the Cardassians and the Federation, won't negotiate, are constantly attacking any Cardassian because they are Cardassian with indiscriminate terrorist attacks to - in Eddington's words - "make the Cardassian empire crumble." It was ''their'' attacks that in part contributed to Cardassia joining the Dominion, and they still don't take responsibility for their actions (or at least, Eddington is incredibly reluctant to, and blames everything on Sisko). Even when Sisko saves the last few Maquis members after a bloody massacre, they still maintain their self-righteous approach. |
| 170 | * LesYay: |
| 171 | ** Jadzia/Kira are a ''very'' popular ship: the two are shown to be very close friends off-duty and even have an implied foursome with a pair of holographic male spa attendants, and Jadzia is more-or-less canonically pansexual. The romantic tension between those two could power the ''Defiant'' for a week. |
| 172 | ** Female examples are hinted at in the Mirror Universe episodes, although it was originally simply intended that Mirror Kira was such a [[ItsAllAboutMe narcissist]] that the thought of [[ScrewYourself having sex with herself]] was appealing. |
| 173 | ** Kira's line in the Season 2 premiere "The rocks are straight, I'm the one that's crooked" easily lends itself to claims that she's canonically not straight. |
| 174 | * LGBTFanbase: |
| 175 | ** Trek's queer fanbase ''loves'' Jadzia (and shipping her with Kira). The Jadzia-centric episode "Rejoined" featured Trek's first same-sex kiss and was a fairly explicit allegory for institutional homophobia, and Creator/TerryFarrell herself went on record saying that Jadzia was pansexual. |
| 176 | ** Dax and the Trill also have a lot of fans in the trans community, with how the experience of changing between hosts of various genders resonates with the trans experience. Especially in early episodes where there is a lot of emphasis on Dax being a man the last time around, many trans women saw themselves in Jadzia. (However Jadzia's tendency to constantly gush about Curzon and even enjoying being called "old man" is generally the oppositte on how Transpeople tend to feel about their Deadname) |
| 177 | ** Meanwhile other Transwomen see themselves in Ezri and especially her determination to be seen as her own person and not as "Jadzia's new body", which mirrors transpeople trying to stop people refering to them by their deadname and/or comparing them to "their previous self". |
| 178 | ** The popularity of the Bashir/Garak pairing and the two actors' support of it has earned a lot of this too. Like with Terry Farrell and Jadzia above, Creator/AndrewRobinson has long maintained that he played Garak as "omnisexual" and in his novel ''A Stitch in Time'', wrote the character as having loved both men and women. And in a Zoom meeting with his fan club in 2020, Creator/AlexanderSiddig also confirmed that he saw Bashir as being interested in partners regardless of gender. More generally, Bashir often struggled to appeal to straight male viewers of the show but has drawn a lot of queer as well as female fans. |
| 179 | * LoveToHate: |
| 180 | ** Leaving aside the [[DracoInLeatherPants leather-pantsing]] they get from some, Weyoun and especially Dukat are extremely popular as villains. Dukat in particular can be very charming and is a very good naval officer, making an excellent EvilCounterpart for Sisko, and has several episodes such as "Defiant" where he's presented sympathetically. Weyoun, meanwhile, has a placid and almost always upbeat temperament, and some moments that make you actually [[TheWoobie feel sorry]] for the diplomat of a totalitarian theocracy. Not to mention him getting [[SendInTheClones repeatedly killed off in amusing ways]]. |
| 181 | ** Kai Winn still inspires ''seething'' hatred from Trekkies to this day thanks to her infuriatingly smarmy self-righteousness and [[BitchInSheepsClothing complete moral hollowness]], but the character's excellent writing and Louise Fletcher's brilliant performance made her one of the most popular villains in the whole series. |
| 182 | * MagnificentBastard: |
| 183 | ** [[ConsummateLiar Elim Garak]] presents himself as merely a plain, simple [[AlmightyJanitor tailor]], but is quickly revealed to be [[TheAce much more then that]]. A former member of the Cardassian Intelligence outfit, the Obsidian Order, Garak is exiled from Cardassia and forced to live on Deep Space 9. Garak is able to defeat several of his enemies, outwitting arrogant Cardassian military officials like Gul Dukat and Gul Toran. Garak also is able to manipulate the heroes as well, spotting an assassin on the station sent to kill him, Garak blows up his own shop to get Odo investigate the situation and deal with the assassin and gets Worf to defy his orders by playing to his sense of honor. After Cardassia joins the Dominion, Garak is resolved to freeing Cardassia from the Dominion. Garak's masterstroke is forcing the Romulan Empire to declare war on the Dominion by manipulating Sisko into manufacturing evidence of an upcoming attack on Romulus and presenting it to a Romulan Senator. When the Senator decides the evidence is fake, Garak blows up his shuttle, so that [[FalseFlagOperation the Romulan Empire will think the Dominion killed him and declare war on the Dominion]]. In the final season, Garak works with Colonel Kira and Legate Damar and uses his skills to help a [[LaResistance Cardassian resistance movement]] overthrow Dominion rule on Cardassia. |
| 184 | ** [[TheParagonAlwaysRebels Michael Eddington]], a Star Fleet officer assigned to be Deep Space 9's new chief of security, is also secretly the leader of the Maquis, a rebel group that fights against Cardassian oppression of Federation citizens. After the Klingon Empire declares war on the Cardassians, the Federation plans to give 12 replicators as aid. Eddington makes Sisko think his girlfriend Kasidy Yates is a Maquis agent who is going to steal the replicators, with Sisko suspecting Yates and following her, allowing Eddington to steal the replicators. Later Eddington plans to use [[SyntheticPlague biogenic weapons]] on Cardassian colonies and uses misdirection to throw Sisko and Star Fleet off, allowing Eddington to use the biogenic weapons on one colony and attack a Star Fleet vessel. Sisko is only able to force Eddington to surrender by threatening to use [[BeatThemAtTheirOwnGame biogenic weapons against the Maquis colonies]]. After Cardassia joins the Dominion and the Dominion forces wipe out most of the Maquis, Eddington's remaining supporters claim to have launched missiles at Cardassia, which will start a devastating war. Sisko freed Eddington to help him disable the missiles though the missiles were fake, a ploy Eddington used to get Sisko to save his remaining supporters. In the end, Eddington dies [[HeroicSacrifice saving his supporters]] from Dominion shock troops. |
| 185 | ** Luther Sloan is an [[TheSpymaster agent]] of [[StateSec Section 31]], Star Fleet's secret black ops division, tasked with defending the Federation from threats. In his first appearance, he kidnaps Dr. Julian Bashir and puts him in a holodeck simulation to see if he will make a good operative. In his second appearance, he contacts Bashir and asks him to spy on the Romulans during a medical conference on Romulus, manipulating Bashir into helping have Senator Cretak arrested and have her duties taken over by Chairman Koval, who is a [[TheMole double agent]] working for Section 31. Later, Bashir finds out that section 31 infected Odo with a virus during a medical examination, hoping he would spread it to the rest of the Changelings. Bashir lures Sloan to him by claiming to have a cure. When Bashir captures him, Sloan tries to kill himself and Bashir has to put him on life support. Bashir links with Sloan's mind to get the cure and Sloan uses every distraction he can to make sure [[TakingYouWithMe Bashir dies with him]]. |
| 186 | ** "[[Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS04E10OurManBashir Our Man Bashir]]": [[DiabolicalMastermind Dr. Hippocrates Noah]] is a brilliant MadScientist created as the villain in Julian Bashir's Secret Agent Holodeck program. Kidnaping several of the world's most brilliant minds by luring them into a trap, Noah has all of them brought to his base on the slope of Mount Everest. Noah developed a series of powerful lasers and placed them at specific spots all over the Earth. When Bashir is brought to his base, Noah [[EvilIsHammy dramatically]] reveals his EvilPlan, believing that human decadence has ruined the world, Noah plans to use his lasers to raise the sea level and kill everyone on Earth except those in his base, who he will then use to repopulate the world. Noah has Bashir and Garak tied up beneath one of the lasers and when Bashir escapes and pretends to have turned to Noah's side, Noah simply calls his bluff and tries to kill him. |
| 187 | ** "[[Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS04E23ToTheDeath To the Death]]": First Omet'iklan is the leader of a [[ProudWarriorRace Jem'Hadar]] unit under the command of Weyoun. Omet'iklan is tasked by Weyoun to kill rogue Jem'Hadar who have turned against the Founders after finding an Iconian gateway. Weyoun and Omet'iklan team up with Sisko and the ''Defiant'' crew after the rogue Jem'Hadar attack Deep Space 9. Weyoun is keeping his Jem'Hadar troops in the dark about the gateway, worried they would turn against the Founders if they knew it exists but Omet'iklan reveals he knows about the gateway and doesn't care as his [[UndyingLoyalty loyalty is unquestionable]]. When Omet'iklan and his allies arrive on the planet with the gateway, Omet'iklan uses his blade to defend himself and fight his way into the rogue Jem'Hadar compound, when his phaser is not working. Sisko [[WorthyOpponent earns Omet'iklan's respect]] when he saves him from a rogue Jem'Hadar. When Weyoun arrives after the gateway is destroyed, Omet'iklan [[UnfriendlyFire kills him]] for questioning his loyalty. |
| 188 | * MemeticBadass: |
| 189 | ** Benjamin Sisko, who holds the respect of the Maquis, Klingons, Founders and the Jem'Hadar as being a WorthyOpponent and as such, demonstrates he can even make them stand down simply by showing up in some episodes. He also [[DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu punched Q to the ground]]. He ''demanded'' a heavily armed warship to [[RoaringRampageOfRevenge rain hellfire down on the people who hurt his wife]], in direct defiance of Starfleet regulations and protocol, and ''received one.'' According to WebSite/SFDebris, if Sisko had been in ''Film/StarTrekFirstContact'', the movie would've only been five minutes long. There is a reason why hardcore Star Trek fans can be identified by asking them "Kirk or Picard?" and they answer "Sisko". |
| 190 | ** The runabout ''Rio Grande'' is somewhat famous among fans for how it managed to be the only runabout to survive the series, with only the ''Rubicon'' (delivered to the station near the end of season 3) coming close to matching its length of time. In universe, the way that [=DS=]9 goes through runabouts got a {{lampshade|Hanging}}, making the ''Rio Grande'' notable in its survival. |
| 191 | ** And then there's Morn, the functional mute who basically lives at Quark's onscreen, but offscreen [[InformedAttribute is apparently quite talkative]] and [[OffscreenMomentOfAwesome keeps having these incredible adventures]] (an entire late-season episode revolves around him having been part of a gang that robbed the Bank of Bolias many years ago). [[http://sto-forum.perfectworld.com/showthread.php?t=1104861&page=7 Fans are convinced]] that the Borg would run screaming from him. |
| 192 | * MemeticMutation: |
| 193 | ** "I hate temporal mechanics."[[labelnote:Explanation]]From "[[Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS03E17Visionary Visionary]]", two Miles O'Briens from a few hours apart hanging a lampshade on the trope TimeyWimeyBall. Often used in the fandom in reference to time-related silliness.[[/labelnote]] |
| 194 | ** "It's a ''faaaake!''"[[labelnote:Explanation]]Senator Vreenak in "In the Pale Moonlight" telling Sisko he's seen through Sisko's evidence. Stephen [=McHattie=]'s [[LargeHam delivery]] makes the line [[{{Narm}} come off a bit sillier than was presumably intended]]; the Internet did the rest.[[/labelnote]] |
| 195 | ** "Plain, simple, Garak." [[labelnote:Explanation]] How Garak describes himself, even after it's become obvious to ''everyone'' that he's anything ''but'' plain and simple. Something of a RunningGag both in the series and in the fandom. [[/labelnote]] |
| 196 | ** "Glory to you... and your house!" [[labelnote:Explanation]] How Gowron in "[[Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS05E01ApocalypseRising Apocalypse Rising]]" addresses Klingons being inducted into the Order of the Bat'leth at the initiation ceremony. Has a parody meme where Gowron is a real estate agent, and has been paraphrased to generally wish someone well along with whatever their close social circle happens to be.[[/labelnote]] |
| 197 | ** Attention Bajoran workers![[labelnote:Explanation]] Gul Dukat's CannedOrdersOverLoudspeaker from the episode "Civil Defense" have become a RunningGag in the fandom along the lines of [[{{WesternAnimation/Futurama}} Professor Farnsworth's "Good news, everyone!"]] [[/labelnote]] |
| 198 | ** Klingons said trans rights/Be more like Kor. [[labelnote: Explanation]] In [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ED5V1KCqbpU this scene]] from "Blood Oath," Kor, a Klingon, encounters the Trill woman Jadzia Dax, who is also the [[TheNthDoctor latest incarnation]] of a symbiont alien named Dax that has taken multiple hosts. The last was a male Trill named Curzon Dax, who Kor knew personally. Upon learning that Jadzia is Curzon, he [[{{Glomp}} gives her a huge hug]] and declares "Curzon, my beloved old friend!" When she politely corrects him about her name and identity, he immediately declares "Ah, well--Jadzia, my beloved old friend!" The scene is used to demonstrate how to properly treat transgender people after they transition--recognizing that their identity is the same even though their gender is not, and respecting both--and fans encourage people to "be more like Kor" when it comes to being a trans ally. [[/labelnote]] |
| 199 | * MisaimedFandom: |
| 200 | ** The [[AliensAreBastards Cardassian]] [[{{Villains}} villain]] Dukat was intended to come across as a [[{{Narcissist}} narcissistic]] [[TheSociopath sociopath]], complete with [[AGodAmI delusional]] [[JustFollowingOrders rationalizations]] of his [[NecessarilyEvil evil]] actions both during the [[LaResistance Bajoran]] [[TheEmpire Occupation]] and after. However, partly due to Marc Alaimo's strong, [[FauxAffablyEvil charismatic]] performance, many fans ''defended'' his actions as [[IDidWhatIHadToDo justified under the circumstances]]. Doesn't help that Dukat embracing his genocidal ambitions is a direct result of the hero prodding him into it when Dukat is mentally unstable and emotionally destroyed. Moments like Dukat giving up everything to spare a half-breed daughter don't hurt either. And it definitely didn't help that the show ran on GreyAndGrayMorality, [[DeconstructedTrope deconstructing]] Starfleet and the Federation's ideals. The writers themselves were split over how sympathetically they should show Dukat, with some proposing a HeelFaceTurn and having him shipped with Major Kira (the latter idea was rejected after Nana Visitor firmly objected against that). |
| 201 | ** The same also goes for the Maquis, which ''Deep Space Nine'' gave the DesignatedVillain treatment many times, while many people saw them as taking reasonable action to defend their homes. It doubles once we see just how villainous the Cardassians are - most fans ''do'' understand that horrible acts of oppression are not a nice thing to do even if one of the guys doing them has charm, and it's not like the Maquis do a [[TheRevolutionWillNotBeCivilized great deal of harm to people who aren't bad guys]]. There's a reason the Starfleet characters who must go after the Maquis can't hate them. In the episodes with Michael Eddington as a Maquis, it's clear that Sisko doesn't hate the Maquis per se, especially since his love interest Kasidy Yates was a sympathizer, but he ''does'' feel more directly betrayed by Eddington, who was once an officer under his command. ''[[Series/StarTrekVoyager Voyager]]'' didn't help much here, given that a number of the main and major recurring characters on that show (which ran concurrently with ''Deep Space Nine'' for five years) were former Maquis, and they all had complex backstories explaining their reasons for getting involved with the Maquis. |
| 202 | * {{Misblamed}}: Ronald D. Moore sometimes gets heat for the darker nature of the latter seasons, as well as the show more wholeheartedly embracing the religious aspects of the Prophets after depicting them as a race of {{Sufficiently Advanced Alien}}s early on, things which would later become a hallmark of ''Series/BattlestarGalactica2003''. While he certainly had a lot of pull in the writing staff, Moore was never the showrunner on this or any other ''Franchise/StarTrek'' show; Ira Steven Behr was the showrunner for all but the first two seasons of this show, with his main co-writer being Robert Hewitt Wolfe until the end of Season 5, and Hans Beimler thereafter. |
| 203 | * MoralEventHorizon: See [[MoralEventHorizon/StarTrek here]]. |
| 204 | * {{Narm}}: See the ''Deep Space Nine'' section of the [[Narm/StarTrek Star Trek Narm]] page. |
| 205 | * NauseaFuel: In "The Magnificent Ferengi", the team of Ferengi men warmly reminisce about their home planet's torrential downpours, rivers of muck, and rotting vegetation. |
| 206 | * NeverLiveItDown: |
| 207 | ** ''To Boldly...'' sit on their ass. (They actually visited a lot of places in [=DS9=], if anyone cares. Almost stupidly so in fact. The entire upper echelon of station officers routinely left on a runabout or the ''Defiant'' to visit some planet where aliens tried to kill them. Either that or aliens showed up at their doorstep to try and kill them.) |
| 208 | ** Ira Behr hit a note of terror when he predicted his tombstone will read, ''He who wrote Ferengi episodes.'' |
| 209 | ** Admiral Nechayev has never been well-liked since her main job is to be an ObstructiveBureaucrat, but in [=DS=]9 she goes beyond the pale because she was ''willing to sell the Federation to the Dominion''...! Except that was not actually her, it was a hologram/mental simulation that the Founders used to test just how far they could push the Federation. It was a rather large plot point, but apparently forgettable in favor of complaining about her. (It probably doesn't help her case that this was only six episodes after she'd turned up for real and invoked HeadInTheSandManagement regarding the Maquis insurgency.) |
| 210 | * OlderThanTheyThink: "Extreme Measures" feels like a WholePlotReference to {{Film/Inception}}, except for one thing: it was made 11 years earlier. |
| 211 | * OnceOriginalNowCommon: While far from the first television series to utilize it, the series' growing emphasis on long-term arcs and serialization in its later years set it apart from not just other Star Trek series but most other Non-Soap-Opera television at the time, which typically relied on episodic stories in order to make reruns more accessible. In the Post-Prestige Television era and the rise of "binge-watching" on streaming, long-term arcs and running plot-threads are considered the norm, borderline expected, from a television show, and a modern viewer can be forgiven for not understanding what set the Dominion War era of Deep Space Nine apart at the time. |
| 212 | * OnlyTheAuthorCanSaveThemNow: |
| 213 | ** The ending of "Sacrifice of Angels". Even the transcript calls it "the ultimate deus ex machina cop-out." |
| 214 | ** "Extreme Measures". The writers succeeded a little ''too'' well in creating Sloan. Weren't Section 31 supposed to be big thinkers? To trap Sloan behind a forcefield seems a bit easy (hell, the ''Jem'Hadar'' would laugh at something like that!) and introducing a 'Good' Sloan ("thanks, Muffin!") in his dreamscape is even cheesier. Good!Sloan's speech about wishing he were more like Bashir smacks of revisionism; it's as if someone upstairs was nervous about keeping Section 31 in canon, and this episode was a half-measure to appease the critics. But you gotta love Bashir’s simple way of shutting Sloan up: turn off the forcefield and shoot him! |
| 215 | * TheProblemWithLicensedGames: Between the first four live-action ''Star Trek'' shows, this one probably fared the worst when it came to tie-in games. ''The Fallen'' was a decent, if unspectacular third person shooter, while ''Crossroads of Time'' was a generic platformer, ''Harbinger'' was an FMVGame that may have been technically impressive but wasn't much fun to play, and ''Dominion Wars'' came across as a pale imitation of the much more successful ''VideoGame/StarTrekArmada''. |
| 216 | * RetroactiveRecognition: |
| 217 | ** In "[[{{Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS02E25Tribunal}} Tribunal]]", O'Brien faces the worst, most ill-tempered Cardassian judge on the circuit: [[Series/GossipGirl CeCe Rhodes]]. |
| 218 | ** Two actors from ''Series/BreakingBad'' appear at the beginning and end of the series; Jonathan Banks (''BB'''s Mike Ehrmantraut) appears as an exiled criminal in Season One's "[[{{Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS01E13BattleLines}} Battle Lines]]", while Raymond Cruz (Tuco Salamanca) plays a PTSD-suffering soldier in Season Seven's "[[{{Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS07E08TheSiegeOfAR558}} The Siege of AR-558]]". |
| 219 | ** [[Series/TwentyFour Jack Bauer's wife]], Kira Meru, plays the mother of Kira Nerys in the flashback episode "[[{{Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS06E17WrongsDarkerThanDeathOrNight}} Wrongs Darker Than Death or Night]]." |
| 220 | * ReplacementScrappy: Ezri. If she been present from the start of the series she would probably have worked well, but given only one season there was just no way she could fill the void left by Jadzia. Making things worse, whereas Jadzia had been smart and extremely capable, Ezri spent the first third or so of the season being literally a worse counsellor than the much-mocked Deanna Troi, and a serious contender for the most incompetent Starfleet officer ever seen on a ''Star Trek'' show. The post-show novels would go a long, long way toward redeeming her. |
| 221 | * RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap: |
| 222 | ** Bashir and Nog, after CharacterDevelopment sanded off their rough edges: Bashir gained experience and became less of an EnsignNewbie (and stopped being a DoggedNiceGuy toward Jadzia and others), while Nog evolved with the rest of the Ferengi cast and joined Starfleet in season 3, ending the series as a combat veteran with a battlefield commission. The [[Literature/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineRelaunch Expanded Universe novels]] do this for Ezri in the eyes of a lot of the fanbase. |
| 223 | ** The Ferengi. While Ferengi episodes still tend to be comedic {{Breather Episode}}s, the show develops the Ferengi from a PlanetOfHats into a believable culture and features three regular Ferengi characters who are portrayed sympathetically to varying degrees. Nog and Rom show that the Ferengi are good at more than just business and Rom and Quark show that being good at business doesn't make a person irredeemable. |
| 224 | ** Vic Fontaine is a minor example. As mentioned above, Vic rubs some fans the wrong way for his [[CreatorsPet frequent presence]] towards the end of the series, but "It's Only A Paper Moon" - where he's in an OddFriendship scenario with a traumatized Nog - is probably his most well-received appearance, and sometimes considered the first ''good'' Vic episode, since it explored his character most effectively. |
| 225 | * RomanticPlotTumor: Admittedly a short-lasting one considering that it only popped up in the final two episodes of the show, but many felt that Bashir/Ezri was a clumsy bit of PairTheSpares that distracts from all the varied fronts of the end of the Dominion War, and that the finale would have been stronger had they just not bothered pairing either of them up at all. There were also some who felt that it would have made for a more satisfying EarnYourHappyEnding moment to have Ezri eventually pick up where Jadzia left off with Worf, especially considering that Dax was shown not to care much about the cultural taboo around re-association -- or put her with Quark, the only one of the three crushees who seemed to really see Ezri as separate from Jadzia, or even make good on the queer subtext surrounding her and pair her with [[LesYay another woman]]. Regardless, the spin-off novels wasted no time in [[ShipSinking sinking, torpedoing, and otherwise burning the Bashir/Ezri coupling]], and most fanfiction featuring the pairing is about breaking them up so Bashir can get with [[FanPreferredCouple Garak]] and Ezri with one of the above options. |
| 226 | * RonTheDeathEater: |
| 227 | ** Section 31 gets this treatment. WellIntentionedExtremist types? Sure, pragmatists who are willing to subvert Federation principles in order to expand its influence? Probably. ObviouslyEvil forces of darkness? That rather misses the point they raise of whether or not any great power can exist ''without'' such a group and how far people can go to protect themselves in a desperate situation like the Dominion War. WordOfGod even states that they were intended to be a [[NecessarilyEvil necessary evil]] of sorts, to allow an idealistic society to exist in a universe where more pragmatic races would take advantage of its high idealism. There's also the fact that they get bashed on for their underhanded tactics and attempt to wipe out the entire race of changelings, but rarely get any credit for how these things are largely responsible for the allies winning the Dominion war. Not to mention how many '''innocent''' lives were saved. |
| 228 | ** Sisko gets this sometimes as well. While he's certainly not a Federation ideal like [[Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration Captain Picard]], he still does plenty of good things over the series. You don't have to like him or everything he does, but there's a contingent of Trek fans who paint him as an immoral and violent person who doesn't deserve to wear the uniform, even going so far as to call him ''genocidal.'' (This last is mainly from "For the Uniform", when he uses a bioweapon to make a Maquis planet uninhabitable for humans--a weapon that operates on a long enough delay for everyone to get away safely, and an idea he got ''from'' the Maquis when they did the same to a Cardassian colony.) While Sisko is definitely a fighter, he's also dealing with many more violent situations and is still quite a GuileHero. |
| 229 | ** Kira has gotten this post 9/11. Her history as a terrorist just didn't win her any favors in a world where terrorists have become more hated, especially since she explicitly defends having bombed civilians in "The Darkness and the Light." |
| 230 | *** Worth pointing out as always that the series was made pre-9/11, and even AFTER it's incredibly important to note that many insurgent and extremist groups in the Middle East were formed in response to an outside aggressive force not known for its human rights record, or armed and spurred along by another outside interest. Looking at it critically, this is an Anvil that needs to be dropped now more than ever--to say nothing of the countless thousands of innocent lives that have been lost in the two decades since. |
| 231 | ** The Bajorans as a whole as well. It doesn't help that many parallel modern religious extremists and/or the war hawk right. People who give the DracoInLeatherPants treatment to Dukat and his ilk are extremely prone to this. |
| 232 | ** The Cardassian people are sometimes hit with this because of their ruthless, totalitarian government (who usually represent them onscreen). There are still plenty of Cardassians who recognize that the government is horrific and committed incredible atrocities on the Bajorans (and themselves). There's even a resistance and an overthrow of the military dictatorship partway through the series. |
| 233 | * TheScrappy: |
| 234 | ** Ezri Dax, who filled in after Jadzia was killed. Animosity eventually cooled, though, and the character soon developed a fanbase of her own as people became willing to view her differently from her "replacing-a-well-loved-character" status. Her [[Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS07E22TackingIntoTheWind brutally honest speech]] about the Klingon Empire certainly helped her too. |
| 235 | ** Vic Fontaine gathered a significant hatedom, not because he was a terrible character in his own right, but because he showed up in the back half of the final season and [[CreatorsPet took up a lot of screentime]] right when a lot of the ongoing plot arcs that viewers were heavily invested in were wrapping up and everything was revving up for the big finale, making any time spent fooling around in the holosuite feel wasted. (Many fans had the same objection to "Take Me Out to the Holosuite," a non-Vic-related holosuite episode.) Had his appearances been kept to a restrained minimum, he would probably have been far more popular, as is, the character is disliked not so much for what he is, as for what he isn't (i.e. rarely anything [[TrappedByMountainLions plot-relevant]]), and because [[SpotlightStealingSquad he showed up too damn much.]] |
| 236 | ** Quark's mother Ishka. Now at the end of the day, it's obvious why they don't have a happy relationship: He is a misogynist who treats women like property and she is a staunch advocate for women's rights on a planet where women are treated like dirt. Why is she a Scrappy when she wants equality among her people? She very blatantly favors Rom - because he doesn’t act like a stereotypical Ferengi male - and she doesn't seem to give any concern ''whatsoever'' that her actions may completely ruin Quark's life from the literal loss of his livelihood and assets to their government threatening to kill him. Even after Quark [[Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS06E10TheMagnificentFerengi rescues her from the Dominion]] whilst nearly getting killed in the process she ''still'' hates him in her next appearance [[Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS06E23ProfitAndLace “Profit and Lace”]], seeing absolutely no problem in the world using him against his will. It’s one thing to champion for equality, and another to not give a damn about your son. Additionally, what Quark ''says'' re his stereotypical views don’t always match his ''actions'', making Ishka's contentious relationship with him all the more egregious. |
| 237 | *** The worst part: Ishka's first episode has her as ''much'' more sympathetic, complex and likable--and even ends with the implication that she and Quark are on their way to repairing their past animosity. Her very next episode, however, arguably began the {{Flanderization}} process. It doesn't help that [[TheOtherDarrin she's played by a different actress from that point on.]] |
| 238 | *** It certainly didn't help matters when, in "Ferengi Love Songs," Ishka casually told Quark that he was wrong to break a contract with another Ferengi, even though fulfilling that contract (with Brunt in the earlier episode "Body Parts") would have required Quark to ''kill himself.'' |
| 239 | * SeasonalRot: |
| 240 | ** Season 3 is distinctly weak, due to two factors: the departure of Peter Allan Fields (who was responsible for the first two seasons' best writing), and an increasing reliance on Ferengi-centered comedy episodes. It was back on its feet by season 4, though. |
| 241 | ** Seasons 5 and 7, while not exactly regarded as ''bad'', are considered noticeable steps down in quality from Seasons 4 and 6. Season 5 features a number of universally despised episodes (most notably "Let He Who Is Without Sin...") and spends a lot of time spinning its wheels and resetting the Klingon War and Maquis arcs in order to make way for the eventual Dominion War storyline, while Season 7 suffers a combination of the show's religious symbolism becoming overwhelming, Gul Dukat being turned from a complex villain into a straightforward OmnicidalManiac, and Ezri Dax... [[ReplacementScrappy just being Ezri Dax]]. |
| 242 | *** It doesn't help that the Prophets/Pah-Wraiths plot is resolved almost as quickly as it starts. Almost as if they were planning for a season 8 with which to resolve it, and found themselves forced to do it within the latter half of the 7th season instead. |
| 243 | * ShippingBedDeath: |
| 244 | ** Jadzia/Julian was one of the more popular ships in the fandom during the show's initial run, but by the middle of the show, the series seemed to have settled on them with other people -- Jadzia was HappilyMarried to Worf, and Bashir had accepted her rejection and decided they were BetterAsFriends. So when the series attempted to revive it near the end of season 6, complete with a RetCon of Bashir claiming he'd never moved on, a lot of fans saw that as an AssPull. Season 7 made things worse with Ezri's "it would've been you" comment suggesting Jadzia would've eventually reciprocated Bashir's feelings if Worf hadn't come along, and when Julian and Ezri themselves got together at the end. Rather than celebrate, a lot of J/J shippers felt insulted by the "consolation prize" of a woman who might've shared Jadzia's memories, but who was quite different from her in most other ways and lacked any chemistry with Julian. |
| 245 | ** Kira/Odo was also very popular during the runtime, and remains one of the more popular canon couples in [=DS9=] fanfiction... and yet a lot of fans of it will complain that the series didn't really do them justice, whether because they didn't build up Kira's feelings enough in advance, or the episodes about them were cheesy, or both. |
| 246 | ** It's also a common complaint that while Jadzia/Worf were cute in their initial getting-together and had great chemistry, the episodes once they became an OfficialCouple tended to give Worf the JerkassBall and treat Jadzia like a SatelliteLoveInterest. |
| 247 | * SoBadItsGood: Armin Shimerman (Quark's actor) has a fondness in his heart for "Move Along Home", and whatever else may be said about it, it's pretty easy to get a chuckle out of a [=DS=]9 fan by using one of the show's abortive attempts at a CatchPhrase ("Allamaraine! Third shap!") or the title as spoken by Falow in the simulation, for example. |
| 248 | * {{Squick}}: |
| 249 | ** Quark as a Ferengi female in "Profit and Lace". He even shows his (her?) parts off to a lecherous future business partner and a horrified Brunt. |
| 250 | ** Dukat took Kira's mother as his mistress during the Occupation, and goes on to be pretty obviously interested in Kira herself. This is basically the equivalent of Adolf Hitler hitting on Anne Frank. |
| 251 | *** This gets worse when you learn the writing staff actually did want to make them a couple, until Nana Visitor flatly refused to go along with it. |
| 252 | ** Once Kasidy Yates shows up, Jake seems rather disturbingly invested in getting his dad laid. |
| 253 | ** [[spoiler:[[CrackPairing Winn/Dukat]]]]. She even has an in-universe squick reaction once she realizes who he is. |
| 254 | ** In "A Simple Investigation", Odo and Arissa spend the night together. A solid. And a shapeshifter. |
| 255 | ** The NoirEpisode has Quark imply that he ''slept with Kira''. |
| 256 | * StrawmanHasAPoint: Worf in "Let He Who is Without Sin." Yes, he should ease up a bit, but with how much Jadzia keeps shrugging off his requests to discuss their relationship, which was ''the'' reason they were going to Risa to begin with - which was also where ''she'' wanted to go, by the way -- it's hard to blame him for finally losing his cool when he does. Probably still shouldn't have aided terrorists on Risa, though. |
| 257 | * TakeThatScrappy: A gun-toting Vic Fontaine appears in the final Mirror Universe episode, "The Emperor's New Cloak". But it seems this version of Vic is some sort of traitor to the Terran cause, because moments later he gets gunned down by Mirror Bashir and his wig. Whether this was a request by James Darren, a reference to his role in ''Film/TheGunsOfNavarone'', or just plain self-deprecation by the producers is an open question. |
| 258 | * TheyChangedItNowItSucks: A sizable faction of fans had this reaction when it was announced that the show was going to be set on a space station instead of a starship. Most of them came around eventually, but you still run into the occasional holdout who sneers at [=DS9=] for not being "real Star Trek." |
| 259 | * TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodCharacter: |
| 260 | ** On the level of a whole organization. The Maquis were created entirely to set up the situation on ''Voyager'', with little thought to what role they could play on ''Deep Space Nine''. This wasn't helped by the bizarre decision to kill off the character who founded the organization, a charismatic captain who had a long personal history with Sisko, and replace him with [[spoiler:Eddington, a GenericGuy who never espoused any personal connection to the Maquis and therefore seemed motivated largely by career frustration and a desire to play Jean Valjean.]] And when the story reached a point where they might have an interesting role to play, they were unceremoniously wiped out between episodes. Despite this, out of the three shows that featured the Maquis, this one ''still'' made probably the best use of them (they were introduced too late in the run of ''The Next Generation'' for that show to do much of anything with them, while ExecutiveMeddling over on ''Voyager'' resulted in the "no conflict" rule being strictly enforced, quickly rendering the former Maquis officers functionally no different to their Starfleet counterparts). |
| 261 | ** A lot of fans who really like Ezri Dax and how she served as a potential foil to Jadzia (someone who didn't want to get joined having it thrust upon her vs. someone who'd been preparing for it her whole life and was almost rejected) hate how her identity crisis ultimately boiled down to which man she would date. |
| 262 | ** And, by contrast (and curiously for a character who had a lot of episodes focused on them) Jadzia herself, as opposed to Jadzia ''Dax.'' We learn almost nothing about the pre-joined Jadzia (not even her original family name!) other than that she was shy and retiring but worked passionately to be joined. |
| 263 | * TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot: |
| 264 | ** "Looking for par'Mach in All the Wrong Places". It's the return of Quark's Klingon ex-wife (and [[EnsembleDarkhorse fan favorite]]) Grilka! And she's starting to show romantic feelings for Quark! Unfortunately, Worf falls in LoveAtFirstSight with her. Even more unfortunately, the plot's basically a rehash of ''Theatre/CyranoDeBergerac'' with Worf in the role of Cyrano for Quark. A couple of problems with this: 1) Quark and Grilka already know each other, so one wouldn't think he'd really need a Cyrano, and 2) Worf has always despised Quark and continues to do so at the end of the episode (the last thing Worf has to say about Quark here is, "[[WhatDoesSheSeeInHim What does she see in that parasite?]]" Worse still, the whole Quark/Grilka story is sidelined [[StrangledByTheRedString just to bring Worf and Jadzia together.]] Even worse, Jadzia actually insults Grilka (albeit not to her face), contemptuously referring to her as a "statue", which combined with Worf's sustained contempt for Quark, puts a really ugly spin on Worf and Jadzia helping Quark to get together with Grilka. Worst of all, just a few episodes later in the abysmal "Let He Who Is Without Sin", Quark's back to chasing women on Risa, and [[ChuckCunninghamSyndrome Grilka's never seen or mentioned again.]] |
| 265 | ** The reveal in Season 5 that Bashir had been replaced by a Changeling for several episodes. It was a complete {{Retcon}} only thought up for that episode, and nothing at all was done with the idea of what the Changeling might have been up to outside of his plot after being revealed. The next time that particular plot thread was mentioned wasn't until the following season's "Inquisition," and even then only as an excuse to help set up Section 31. Alexander Siddig himself was annoyed, as he only learned the truth when they were filming the episode it was revealed in, and didn't have a chance to do anything with his performance before the reveal. |
| 266 | ** The Dominion was originally planned to be much more of an EvilCounterpart to the Federation, in the form of having many more major species than just the changelings, Jem'Hadar, and Vorta (not including subject races like the Karemma). Plans were scaled back due to the Jems' popularity after their debut. |
| 267 | ** There was a way that they could have partially saved the otherwise infamously bad ''Profit and Lace'' and that would have been to set the episode on Ferenginar and kick all of the comedy to the curb. Because as it stands, the highly chauvinistic and traditionalist Quark spends the majority of the episode sitting in the privacy and familiarity of his safe Federation/Bajoran quarters. The only truly negative experience he has is a brief bout of sexual harassment (which is still bad obviously, but hardly up to what Ishka and every other Ferengi woman has had to deal with their whole lives). If he had to experience the day-to-day toil of a species so misogynistic he wouldn't even be allowed to wear clothes in public, it would have brought him closer to his mother and given him a real reason to actually change his ways and that of others as opposed to being guilted into it. It also would have helped immensely if they brought back Pel from ''Rules of Acquisition'' (maybe even in the form of a FreakyFridayFlip given how that horrible body suit would ''always'' have been an obstacle for the audience to take seriously). |
| 268 | ** Come the climax of season seven, there's an epic showdown between Dukat and Sisko... and yet despite them being the Emissary of the Prophets and the Pah-Wraiths respectively, their conflict really doesn't feel earned. The two of them hadn't interacted at all since the sixth season, and Dukat was always very much established as ''Kira's'' nemesis rather than Sisko's. |
| 269 | ** One from the show's very first minutes: Sisko has a ''damn'' good reason to hate the Borg. He even designed the ''Defiant'' explicitly to combat the Borg. And yet, after the opening teaser where we see Picard as Locutus, we don't see a ''single'' Borg throughout the entire series, and any possible grudge between Sisko and the Borg is left unexplored. It's possible this was avoided because ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'' leaned a little too heavily on the Borg as villains and ''Deep Space Nine'' wanted to keep its own identity. Oh well, at least ''Film/StarTrekFirstContact'' let us see the ''Defiant'' go up against a Borg cube where it proves to hold its own quite well. |
| 270 | ** One of the reasons that fans of the Garak/Bashir ship find the later seasons of the show so incredibly frustrating is that the series ''did'' [[https://cardassiangoodreads.tumblr.com/post/678222024492056576/okay-but-the-maddening-thing-about-garashir-the give the two a pretty standard romantic build-up]]... in fact, one of the last stories that focus significantly on the pair, the two-parter "In Purgatory's Shadow"/"By Inferno's Light," features Garak revealing a major secret and another major vulnerability to Bashir that should bring them much closer, along with them surviving a harrowing experience together. [[PlatonicWritingRomanticReading If the writers had wanted to make them a couple]], it would've been a great place to make that leap. And then the opposite happens. In the following episode, "Doctor Bashir, I Presume" Garak isn't even mentioned as someone to interview for Bashir's hologram, even though he's one of his closest friends on the station. And from there, they get fewer and fewer scenes together and no more focus episodes. Even if you don't interpret Garak and Bashir's relationship in a romantic way, it's genuinely strange how their storyline comes to such an abrupt halt, and it still feels like a massive missed opportunity to explore, for instance, how Garak's working with the Federation once the Dominion War starts, or his actions in "In the Pale Moonlight," might strengthen or weaken that bond. As with the missteps involving the Maquis, it's a case where the ExecutiveMeddling becomes extremely obvious. |
| 271 | ** Lots of fans felt it was a waste that the show never really explored Trill society in any depth, other than it being forbidden for joined Trill to resume past romantic relationships and the Symbiosis Commission covering up how many people are actually suitable to be joined. Here you have a species where people can aspire to be host minds and attain extreme long life beyond 'death', barring an accident befalling the symbiont, save that it's only (officially) feasible for a tiny percentage of the population -- and the show never capitalized on any of the implications for such a culture. What's the attitude of the non-joined towards the joined, and is there any resentment? How do the friends and families of joined Trill react when their loved one essentially becomes a completely different person, as their personality is absorbed into the mass of all those who came before them? ''Is'' there an elite sub-culture of joined Trill, despite all the attempts to prevent it? |
| 272 | * TransAudienceInterpretation: |
| 273 | ** While not making her trans in a ''literal'' sense, a lot of trans women see Jadzia Dax, whose recent previous host was male, as having an experience very similar to their own -- from talking about how different it feels to move through the world as a woman, to correcting people who still see her as Curzon, and so on and so forth. Ezri gets moments of this too, like discussing how confusing pronouns are for her. Fanfiction sometimes writes joined Trill (including Jadzia and Ezri) as having nonbinary identities, referring to themselves with gender-neutral or alternating pronouns. |
| 274 | ** However some Transwomen find Jadzia uncomfortable as she is often gushing about her previous hosts, most of all Curzon, and has no problem with being called "old man". Meanwhile most transpeople get very uncomfortable whenever people bring up their deadnames, especially saying things akin to "I really liked the old you", which is the oppositte on how Jadzia reacts to this. Also Jadzia treats the joining as a great honor and something she worked long and hard to get chosen for, Transpeople don't view their condition as something desirable but as a state they were born with. These Transwomen tend to rather see themselves in Ezri in both her "I didn't chose this" and "Stop comparing me to/meassuring me against Jadzia". |
| 275 | ** There's a fringe theory that Quark, of all people, is possibly not-quite-cis. While he often acts like a stereotypical Ferengi male, he seems to take quite naturally to an EasySexChange in "Profit and Lace": he actually has slightly more trouble adjusting ''back'' in the epilogue. |
| 276 | ** It's also not uncommon for fans to interpret Bashir as trans. As with Jadzia, a lot of fans see parallels between his having to hide his augmentations and the experience of being a closeted trans person. Additionally, Bashir has a line in season 4's "Body Parts" where he says that the only other option for where to transfer Keiko's baby (besides Kira) was himself, and it's delivered in a strange way that makes it sound like Bashir seriously considered it... maybe because Bashir actually has the equipment? |
| 277 | ** Similar to the Trill, a lot of fans have suggested that it doesn't make a lot of sense for the Changelings to have a sense of binary gender, and write Odo and other Changeling characters as effectively agender. |
| 278 | * TrappedByMountainLions: With the B-stories in episodes quite often having nothing whatsoever to do with the main storyline -- the writers later admitted that it wasn't uncommon for them to lift a B-story from one script and drop it into another one -- this trope can crop up from time to time. In the first season this tended to manifest in an excess of subplots focusing on Jake and Nog, which quickly grew repetitive, while mid-series the writers sometimes tried throwing light-hearted subplots into more drama-heavy episodes to make them more "balanced out," causing severe MoodWhiplash. |
| 279 | * UnpopularPopularCharacter: Weyoun is very popular with fans, but virtually all the characters in the show dislike him (understandably, given that he's an agent of the Dominion and a SmugSnake). |
| 280 | * UnintentionallySympathetic: Quark. Nobody will deny he's greedy, very demeaning towards women, treats his employees and brother like crap, and resorts to illegal schemes to get rich quick. Yet, the universe sometimes treats him like he's the next Khan, even if he's done nothing wrong. He buys salvage legitimately? Sisko chews him out for finding an abandoned baby in there he literally had no idea about. He tries offering sympathies to O'Brien and Bashir's own worries on Earth by relating to his own people's major financial crisis? They brush him off and think it doesn't even compare to their own troubles. He gets a misdiagnosis of a fatal disease and loses his business license because he refuses to kill himself to sell his body parts to Brunt? ''His own mother'' thinks he should have killed himself rather than break the contract. He goes into weapons smuggling so he can pay off his debts? Everyone on the station disowns him despite their own morally grey baggage. He saves his mother from the Dominion at great risk to himself? She acts like an UngratefulBastard in her very next appearance and keeps treating him like crap. Creator/ArminShimerman wanted to make Quark more human... [[BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor it's safe to say he succeeded.]] |
| 281 | * ValuesDissonance: |
| 282 | ** The good guys include former terrorists who brag about having killed civilians, and a new terrorist group formed during the series is portrayed as having some reasonable motives. Yes, this series was made before 9/11. |
| 283 | ** In the episode "Homefront", Quark tries to sympathize with Chief O'Brien and Doctor Bashir's fears for Earth's safety in the aftermath of a Changeling terrorist attack by sharing his past fear for Ferenginar during an economic panic. Chief O'Brien proceeds to mock him about it, with the implication that it's petty to panic over things like money. Now watch this episode in the aftermath of Great Recession which has people fearing for their families and even countries in the face of one of the worst economic situations in decades. |
| 284 | ** A minor example in ''Sanctuary''. Jake tells Nog that a Dabo girl is studying entomology, and explains that this is the "study of bugs." Nog responds "You mean she wants to be a chef." This seems to be an example of the Ferengi as a bizarre alien culture. In the 21st century there are attempts to remove the taboo against eating insects, particularly grasshoppers and crickets, by major food companies trying to promote them as a more efficient source of protein than livestock. |
| 285 | ** While a popular pairing at the time the show aired, a lot of newer fans are less enthused by Julian Bashir/Jadzia Dax especially in early seasons, when Jadzia keeps repeatedly rejecting Bashir's advances. His persistence despite her lack of interest comes off as a lot creepier now than it was likely intended. Ezri's line about how "if not for Worf" Jadzia and Julian would've eventually gotten together is more frustrating in this light, too. In general a lot of Bashir's romantic relationships come off this way, as he has a habit of establishing relationships with patients, a serious breach of ethics that looks even worse in the post-Me Too era. Luckily, Bashir has enough other things to recommend him (as well as that Creator/AlexanderSiddig portrayed him as more awkward and clueless than deliberately predatory) to remain a popular character. |
| 286 | ** The reveal of Curzon's feelings for Jadzia in "Facets," ''especially'' the fact that they were the reason that he initially rejected her from the Symbiosis Commission, seems to have been intended to be sadly romantic based on the way the episode frames it, but is actually enormously creepy and a major abuse of power on Curzon's part. As with Bashir dating his patients, this is even more obvious post-Me Too, especially with greater awareness of [[https://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/06/opinion/sunday/she-wanted-to-do-her-research-he-wanted-to-talk-feelings.html how much this exact dynamic has pushed so many talented women out of academia]], which the Trill Symbiosis Commission strongly resembles. |
| 287 | ** Likewise, the Garak/Ziyal romance already wasn't particularly popular, but it's even more distasteful now, both due to the fact that it involves a ''teenager'' (even if Ziyal's actor was older) with a middle-aged man who is suggested to be similar in age to her father, and the RealitySubtext that it was a way for the producers to [[GayPanic make Garak seem "less gay"]] once he started becoming important to the larger plot. Thankfully, Garak's actor plays it as though he doesn't return and is puzzled by Ziyal's feelings -- and it does make a lot of sense that a lonely kid would develop a crush on one of the few people to seek out and value her company. But still, sheesh. |
| 288 | ** "Profit and Lace" was few people's favorite episode, but the way that crossdressing is PlayedForLaughs looks a lot more tasteless now than it did in the 90s. To director Creator/AlexanderSiddig's credit, he supposedly tried to portray it more dramatically, but while some of that survived he was overall hampered by ExecutiveMeddling. |
| 289 | ** Odo's open derision for Ferengi, abuses of authority, resistance to oversight, and general attitude of feeling like he should be able to do whatever the hell he wants all make him a little less sympathetic since police brutality became a hot-button political issue in the late 2010s. It's almost certain that a character of his compunctions would be treated as more morally questionable in today's climate. |
| 290 | ** The lack of explicit queer representation outside of "Rejoined" despite the ''mountains'' of gay and trans coding and homoerotic subtext among the characters, is one of the aspects of the series that has aged the poorest and feels the most dated. Of particular note is moments such as Quark insisting that a man and a woman meeting one-on-one must be a date, especially since it involves the heavily-gay-coded Garak with Ziyal. |
| 291 | * ValuesResonance: |
| 292 | ** The two-part episode "Past Tense" has proven extremely relevant throughout the post-2008 Great Recession and constant fights since then over what and how much the government should do for the poor. There's a subtle racial subtext that's relevant for many as well: Jadzia, played by and able to pass as a caucasian-white woman, is found by a wealthy businessman who can make her lacking-ID problem go away, while Sisko and Bashir, a black man and a British Arab, are picked up by the police and sent to the local FantasticGhetto. |
| 293 | *** As of the tail end of 2020, it seems that Past Tense is aging like fine wine. The country never really recovered much from the Great Recession, and with the new COVID-19 recession, and looming eviction crisis, it's looking like 2024 will likely be very similar to how said year portrayed in this two-parter. |
| 294 | ** In a very odd way, watching this show after 9/11 actually makes it far more poignant and the moral arguments far more important. That the arguments raised in this show have often been ignored in the political climate of the last decade would be tragic if it wasn't so ironic. |
| 295 | ** After the whole NSA/PRISM/Xkeyscore thing went down, the events of "Homefront" and "Paradise Lost" become a LOT more scary, and Sisko's problems with Leyton make a whole lot more sense. Not to mention all the security measures Starfleet implements on Earth that end up doing nothing except invading people's privacy. Sound like any airport security agencies you know? |
| 296 | ** See also the constant arguments over the necessity and morality of Section 31, reflecting real-world questions over how far the national security apparatus should be allowed to go in doing its job, and how much oversight should be imposed on it ([[EliteAgentsAboveTheLaw Section 31 appears to have none whatsoever]]). |
| 297 | *** Notably, Season 3 of ''Series/StarTrekPicard'' deals with the consequences of Section 31's actions during the Dominion War, with that season's villains being [[RenegadeSplinterFaction Founders that refused to recognize peace with the Federation]] due to the revelation that they seemingly thought nothing of Section 31 inflicting the mutagenic virus against the Founders, as well as [[ColdBloodedTorture torturing those they'd managed to imprison]]. [[TheMillstone All suggesting that, if anything, Section 31 actually made things]] ''[[TheMillstone worse]]'' [[TheMillstone for the Federation, not better]]. |
| 298 | ** The episode "Babel," in which the station is hit by a highly contagious disease, features a scene in which Quark argues he should not have to shut down his bar to comply with quarantine orders. Come the COVID-19 pandemic, his argument (right down to describing the bar as an "essential business") sounds like a freakishly accurate satire of some of the arguments around real-world shelter-in-place orders. |
| 299 | ** "Far Beyond the Stars" was celebrated in its time, but has become even more so with the growing national reckoning in the United States about police violence against black Americans. There's also more generally, Creator/AveryBrooks' insistence on highlighting Sisko's race as a key part of who he was: a less popular opinion in the 90s (where the idea of being "colorblind" was more popular, especially in Franchise/StarTrek's supposedly post-racism future) but is now the more prevalent attitude about how to best portray minority characters. |
| 300 | ** Nobody is creeped out by Dax being a woman who used to be a man. Part of it is how attractive she is, and how Trills work, but it’s a loved trans allegory regardless. Even Bashir’s crush on her, as irritatingly dogged as he is, doesn’t waver when he knows she used to be a different gender. The scene where her old friend Kor immediately accepts it and corrects himself after being informed of her new identity is model behavior as well. |
| 301 | * VindicatedByHistory: |
| 302 | ** At the time the series faced a lot of scorn from Trekkies, complaining about the stationary setting when the franchise was supposed to be about exploration. But with television now having moved much more toward the kind of long term character development that [=DS9=] favored (while ''Series/StarTrekEnterprise,'' plus ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'' to a lesser extent, were derided for ignoring this in favor of more exploration) it now seems quite ahead of its time. Nana Visitor is fully aware of this trope, and she ''loves'' it: |
| 303 | -->'''Nana Visitor:''' I remember sitting with Armin Shimerman on set and saying "they don't really get us, the ''Star Trek'' fans." And they didn't at the time, but we said, "Ten, twenty years from now they'll get it." That's proven to be true; people are discovering it now thanks to streaming. And the show holds up. |
| 304 | ** Kira herself was apparently hated at the start, with fans deciding they now preferred Deanna Troi and Beverly Crusher, and saying she acted like a man. As time went on, she became a beloved character for her complexity and passion. |
| 305 | * WalkingSpoiler: It takes quite a while before the show reveals that Odo's race [[spoiler:is alive ''and'' that they are the Founders, who run the Dominion.]] It's hard to know anything about the show without finding out about these plot points. |
| 306 | * {{Wangst}}: Sisko gets a lot of it, especially related to his status as Emissary. |
| 307 | ** Some fans also think that it also applies to his personal log in "In the Pale Moonlight," when he is upset over [[spoiler:trading his personal sense of honor for a Romulan alliance via lies and assassination]]. Although it's well-established that Starfleet places a lot of value on honesty and personal integrity and not being involved in clandestine murders, some viewers think the decision was a no-brainer in the first place. |
| 308 | ** Kira arguably wangsts far more than Sisko throughout the entire series. |
| 309 | ** '''Bashir'''! For a genetically enhanced, super doctor, you'd think he'd be better at walking the balance between principle and practicality. Instead, he whines incessantly every time someone doesn't go 100% towards the former, no matter how right they are, how sound their reasoning, or how much their pragmatic decisions keep proving to pay off. |
| 310 | * WhatDoYouMeanItsNotPolitical: |
| 311 | ** There are many contemporary readings on the occupation of Bajor. Some people say the Holocaust, some say Gaza. Ira Behr once likened Dukat's tenure to UsefulNotes/RichardNixon's 'exit strategy' for Vietnam. While this isn't true of Dukat's portrayal generally, you can definitely see it in his 'trial' in ''Waltz''. |
| 312 | ** Ferengi culture's love of profit above all else has been read as a parody of (U.S.) libertarianism. |
| 313 | * TheWoobie: |
| 314 | ** O'Brien, who's suffered such indignities as [[{{Doppelganger}} abduction/replacement]], arrest and [[KangarooCourt trial]], death (''thrice'' in one episode), arrest and [[FakeMemories 20 years' imprisonment in 20 hours]], threatened by his [[DemonicPossession possessed wife]], etc. Kira's suffered just as bad, if not worse. And Odo gets his fair share of suffering as well.) The writers even said "O'Brien must suffer" at least once a season because they thought Colm Meaney was great in that kind of story. |
| 315 | ** Dukat also gets this treatment in one episode, at the end of Sacrifice of Angels and the beginning of Waltz. Sisko's log, at the beginning of Waltz puts it into words: [[spoiler: "He lost an empire, he lost his daughter, and he nearly lost his mind. Whatever his crimes... isn't that enough punishment for one lifetime?"]] Of course, since it's [[BigBad Dukat]]... |
| 316 | ** Ziyal, much more so. Born a war bastard to one of Dukat's mistresses, enslaved by the Breen, her biological father hunts her down planning to kill her and then later leaves her to die in a Dominion-triggered supernova (which is avoided), goes to art school on Bajor only to quit due to being subjected to FantasticRacism, and is finally gunned down as a traitor by her father's NumberTwo after she helps Kira and the others end the Dominion occupation of the station. The girl could ''not'' catch a break. |
| 317 | ** As if dealing with 8 lifetimes' worth of memories without 1 lifetime's training wasn't bad enough, Garak makes Ezri cry by saying she doesn't deserve to be a Dax. |
| 318 | ** Aamin Marritza, from the season 1 episode "Duet", was a filing clerk who worked at the infamous Gallitep labor camp during the Cardassian Occupation of Bajor. The camp was commanded by a cruel psychopath named Gul Darhe'el, who had the Bajoran slaves tortured, raped and killed on his whim. Marritza would cower under his bunk and cover his ears to block the screams from the Bajorans. After Darhe'el died, Marritza arrived on Deep Space 9 masquerading as Darhe'el, pretending to be a genocidal psychopath in hopes of being executed by the Bajorans so that Cardassia will admit its crimes. Though fooling Kira for a while, Kira confronts Marritza with evidence of his lies and Marritza breaks down, blaming his cowardice for allowing those acts of horror to continue in the camp. Kira releases him, but he is later stabbed by a drunken Bajoran, just for being a Cardassian. |
| 319 | ** Garak becomes one too at the end of the series. His father dies, barely acknowledging him. His mother is murdered in cold blood by Jem'Hadar. Most of his contacts/friends are dead. The defeat of the Dominion was a PyrrhicVictory for Cardassia, and he knows it. He doesn't get to kill the Female Changeling who started it all either, which would not normally be something to feel sorry for him over, but by this point, she had killed hundreds of millions of innocent people, most of them Cardassians. The fact that he had previously come real close to killing off the changelings, albeit at a cost, probably just made this worse. |
| 320 | ** Damar is a good candidate as well, considering that he not only desperately tried to make the best of the terrible situation that Dukat had put Cardassia in, but that he stayed absolutely loyal to Dukat ''despite'' how he screwed him and everyone else in the Alpha Quadrant over. What's more, because he had a conscience, trying to work with the Dominion (despite being effectively conquered by them had him DrowningMySorrows) with a diligent resolve that would make any Klingon proud. He suffered through the entire war, tried to protect Cardassia as much as possible, and then when he tried to resist and stop the bloodshed, millions of Cardassians died. That has ''got'' to hurt. Sad thing is, he would have made a brilliant leader for the new Cardassia if he hadn't [[spoiler:been KilledOffForReal]]. |
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/context.php
FollowingContext YMMV / StarTrekDeepSpaceNine
Go To
- Show Spoilers
- Night Vision
- Sticky Header
- Wide Load
