Episode 49 is up, “The Holo Stepford Wives”

| June 27, 2012

News:
TNG “Measure of a Man” may be extended on the Season 2 Blu-Ray.
Star Trek 2013 has a title, nobody’s saying what it is.

Ten Forward:
How would you introduce someone to Star Trek?

Trek in pop culture:
DS9 on Jeopardy

Episode Insight: Voayger’s “Real Life”

Character Insight: The Doctor from Voyager

Subspace communications

Collectables:
Figures and Puzzles

Here is pazerfire’s email:

Hey ThisWeekinTrek,I meant to send out this long-winded letter, sooner, but I guess I’ll blame it on bad subspace connections. Subspace interference, maybe? At least I’m not still on subspace dialup.

You guys have started making an effort on doing Episode Insights on some of the better Trek episodes, which is great. It’s been commented by listeners of TWiT, and has clearly been seen how DS9 has been somewhat alienated on TWiT. I do not scowl at you guys in the least bit for giving DS9 less attention or appreciation than the other shows, however.

We’ve all heard how Mike’s infamous “Move Along Home” scared him away from the great series that followed. That episode didn’t have me running away, however, as it unfortunately did for Mike. I have my own personal experience starting DS9 for the first time, which has turned out much beyond my expectations.

Starting in the summer of 2011 to early 2012, I finished going through all 178 episodes of TNG. While starting Season 6, I heard our fellow Trek Nerd bashing Season 7. Dear God, I tried to rationalize it, thinking it might just be another unenthusiastic, strong opinionated viewpoint on Darrell’s part. Well? Darn it, he was 100% right… and more!

Darrell jinxed Star Trek: The Next Generation, Season 7, for me. (Please take that for the joke it is…) In short: Season 7 of The Next Generation sucked. But it sucked, bad. We all know how a bad episode can hurt. Especially when it’s a show that you not only admire, but hold a passion for.

When you have something that is not just a TV show, or TV show alike for you, but lives inside of yourself, your imagination, daily thoughts and lifestyle, sure, the mediocre episodes are there, and forgotten. (Until revisiting such episodes twenty years later for the Star Trek podcast you host… right?)

When you have a thing you hold onto that transcends above any level of other mere passable entertainment, it can bruise you when you’ve got a stinker. But it’ll throw you out a seven-story building when you’ve got a whole string of ’em. As is the case for TNG Season 7. Nearly a whole season’s worth of offensive misdirection, within the same show that you hold above everything else.

As a result, I can no longer watch Star Trek: The Next Generation, and will be staying away from it until I am no longer haunted by the remembrance of the series’ concluding season, and am not sick of it, in general. (Thank God I knew “Sub Rosa” was not to be acknowledged as a real episode before going into it. Partial thanks to you guys and the chatroom, on this.)

Aside from an infrequent tradition of mine, viewing “The Inner Light” again, as an attempt to get back in the TNG as-we-knew-it vibe, I haven’t returned to TNG, since. But after going through a fairly long-running show from start to finish, I guess it’s natural to move on to the next thing. If there is a recognizable next thing. In this case, there was a most glaring one.

Enter: Deep Space Nine!

DS9, VOY, ENT. All were patiently waiting for me to launch into them, full throttle. But right then, there, and now, and for time to come, it’s all DS9 time, baby!

“Emissary” opened strong, but lead me into a state of mild boredom, as did the following episodes. I was still appreciative of the them, overall, however. But midway through Season 1, I fell in love. Season 2 only gets better. And the opening of Season 3? I’M GOIN’ NUTS OVER THIS…

As I’ve gone through the first two seasons of DS9, and have just started the third, it is an amazing show. Before immersing myself in the world of DS9, I would do more than slap myself for saying what I’m about to shockingly utter, here: Screw TNG.

I know this blasphemously disturbing and slightly tear-inducing attitude is temporary, and superficial in the long-run, but with the heartbreak of Season 7, and other things, DS9 was there to take me to another place. The next time I’ll revisit TNG, again, will be in the theater with some Trek buddies of mine on July 23rd.

If you want me to ramble on about what I’m lovin’ about DS9 as I go through them, give me my own segment. If not, I’ll just say that I’m looking forward to the day when TWiT will focus more on the show, and to see you guys get into it in your expanding Trek fandoms. All your years of being heavily influenced in Star Trek, and there’s still a fresh, beautiful world to tap into.

There was something Ronald D. Moore said about DS9 in relation to TNG, that I first deemed as blasphemy. Nothing can be better than TNG, right? I understand his thoughts a bit better now, and somewhat nod my head to them, as I’ll quote him, below:

“I think Deep Space Nine was the show that really took Star Trek as far as you could take it. You have the original series which is sort of a landmark. It changes everything about the way science fiction is presented on television. At least space-based science fiction. Then you have Next Generation which, for all of its legitimate achievements is still a riff on the original. It’s still sort of like, okay, it’s another starship and it’s another captain – it’s different but it’s still a riff on the original. Here comes Deep Space Nine and it just runs the table in a different way. It just says okay, you think you know what Star Trek is, let’s put it on a space station, and lets make it darker. Let’s make it a continuing story, and let’s continually challenge your assumptions about what this American icon means. And I think it was the ultimate achievement for the franchise. Personally, I think it’s the best of all of them, I think it’s an amazing piece of work.”

Back in the classic days of ThisWeekinTrek, many episodes ago, Mike provided the idea as inspired from listener feedback to introduce a segment, or simply set aside time on the show to talk about going through Deep Space Nine, as you’d revisit it. It seems this idea hasn’t been touched upon, yet really, and I’m sure I speak for some of your other listeners, here, when I say I hope you’ll do something with that in the future.

Going back to the theme of your doing the memorable good episodes of Trek for your Episode Insights, DS9’s Season 3 opener cannot be left out. Its two-parter is titled “The Search”. It blew me away, and left me with that feeling I used to get after watching TNG as the TNG font and blue closing credits would fade in and out, with the stars racing underneath.

Go ahead and start watching this crazy-good show: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, A to Z. I hope you’ll dig it as much as I. Can’t wait for when you guys, personally, and ThisWeekinTrek, will head in that direction!

Beaming out,
-Phazerfire

P.S. And Micheal Gains says, “Whew! The letter’s over…”

Category: Podcast

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Comments (2)

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  1. phazerfire says:

    Nice email. 😉 Thanks for posting it up!

  2. soulless_swede says:

    Here’s how to do DS9 on the podcast: set aside 44 minutes per day to watch an episode and once a month review a whole season.