Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - I'll Always Be a Fan, But a Conservative One

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A show that only got better over the years!  Standout characters for the entire series were just as likely to be names from outside the core ensemble as in.  Although they did a good job on a few episodes of showing the loving family bond Sisko has with his son Jake, such as “Explorers” and “The Visitor,” I could never quite get into Sisko and his family, and O’Brien was always more interesting playing off of others, especially Dr. Bashir, than he was playing opposite his wife, Keiko.  Kira and the Bajorans were interesting, and even though they were overwrought on occasion, I still enjoyed it!  Another alien culture that was featured prominently was the Cardassians, and while Marc Alaimo’s Gul Dukat was a fully fleshed out, multi-dimensional villain, the more interesting Cardassian was always Garak, the simple tailor/spy played superbly by Andrew Robinson.  I love Garak!  His character is so interesting, and full of subterfuge! He should have been a major character rather than just a recurring guest.  For that matter, Rom was sometimes annoying, but was usually every bit as funny a character as brother Quark (who was usually hilarious), though I usually found Nog to be rather annoying.  Odo was a great character, but was often too grumpy.  And speaking of grumpy, I’m getting just a little tired of Worf and the Klingons.

A few favorite characters: Garak, Bashir, Quark, and Dax

     Dax was fine in either incarnation, Jadzia or Ezri, even though Terry Farrell as Jadzia was sometimes too liberal and pc, (I'm going to step on some toes here, if anyone actually reads these) like the episode the actress loved in which she got to passionately kiss costar Susanna Thompson, another Trill who used to be the wife of one of Dax’s previous male hosts, Torias.  It was all a heavy handed ploy that served only to allow the liberal writers to show their support of the gay movement and ideals, but I’ll merely point out how politically incorrect Star Trek usually is in this department by mentioning how seldom these gay relationships pop up in the world of Trek (never on the old show, or on Voyager, and between Next Generation and Deep Space Nine, I can think of 3, really, two of which center on the joined-Trill species).  How come nobody points out how none of these relationships last, and how the overwhelming majority of relationships in Star Trek, and I’m guessing about 99.9%, is heterosexual?  Jadzia Dax may not have a problem with picking things up again when old flame Lenora Khan visits the station, but on every other episode, she’s got her eye on men, and when she talks about Dax’s previous hosts, they always had relationships with the opposite sex, such as Torias Dax being married to a woman, Audrid Dax enjoying life as a wife and mother, and Curzon Dax being constantly described as quite a lady’s man.  If homosexuality is so accepted in the world of Trek, why aren't the Trills even more gay?  If anybody has a right to be, they do!

     The most improved character of the series was, without question, Dr. Julian Bashir, and that may be due to the fact that his character was so blasé to begin with.  The writers obviously didn’t know what to do with him at first, but they finally hit pay dirt in the fourth season.  In two separate stories, Julian tries to prove his medical expertise with two different alien cultures, and having to deal with failure both times.  Some of the best episodes of that season where Bashir episodes, like the excellently written James Bond parody “Our Man Bashir.”  In later seasons, shows dealing with his being illegally genetically engineered as a child, or the ones where he becomes involved with a super-secret Federation spy ring known as Section 31, or the shows where he comes to the aid of a group of genetically engineered misfits helped to make this character as complex and interesting as all the others, which he hadn’t been during the first three seasons.

     All in all, as with The Next Generation, this series seemed to hit its stride in about the fourth and fifth season, and they managed to keep things fresh and interesting!  Bravo, guys!