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Thinking of Deep Space Nine as "the Dark Star Trek" without digging into what made Deep Space Nine work is so reductive. Like when people discuss Star Trek being "dark" now people bring up "DS9 was Dark and you loved that! Trekkies would hate it now!"

Deep Space Nine didn't work bc it was Dark and it wasn't Dark out of nowhere. Deep Space Nine is intimately tied to TNG in a way no other series is with another (Voyager could've been just as rooted in DS9, but. Y'know. Wasn't). Not only in characters, but that the show is so devoted to exploring deep cuts from TNG: the Bajorans, but also the Ferengi, long dismissed as failed villains, and the Trill, one-off aliens-of-the-week who DS9's writers turned into one of Trek's major species. The central thesis of DS9 isn't that the Trek Universe Is Fucked Up Actually. It's that things get more messy and complicated when Starfleet has to stick around and not dash off to another planet at the end of the episode

DS9 is darker than other Treks, yes, but DS9 is also the warmest, with the most grounded, human characters, not in spite of the fact that two-thirds of the cast are aliens but because of it. The writers treat alien characters as not representatives, but individuals. They treat everyone as individuals, with foibles and flaws, not as perfect, straitlaced future people. DS9's dark episodes are darker than other Treks, but also it's more willing to get silly and emotional. Only DS9 could do the "Sisko confesses to a conspiracy to get the Romulans in the war" episode, but also only DS9 could do the "a holographic lounge singer tries to get Odo and Kira together" episode right after it. Boiling the entire series down to "Deep Space Nine was the Dark Star Trek! Grimdark!" is...just not it

The Assignement: an episode where Rom is a man to count on.

THIS IS WHAT IM FCKING TALKING ABOUT

i allow myself one suicide joke a month because a well-placed “i’m going to kill myself” can be REALLY funny but like for real yall, if you’re suicidal or depressed in any capacity, or even if you aren’t, if you make suicide jokes constantly your brain will internalize it and you will actually want to kill yourself. which you don’t want to do. and if you stop making suicide jokes then you will feel better. same with any kind of self deprecation— stop doing it and you will start to feel better. i’ve been suicidal at several points in my life and i can guarantee you from personal experience that it fucking works. stop making kms jokes every day and your life will improve. and other people get uncomfortable when you make kms jokes constantly. be nicer to yourself

some memes for season 5

EMH and friends doodle dump………..hi

my question is why did tom never create a holodeck arcade?? or like... bowling alley?? that seems so him??? can you imagine that... seven tries bowling and literally can ONLY get strikes. and tom is like tch yeah of course i can do that! but he literally cannot hit a single pin... but then for whatever reason he can play skeeball like NOBODY’S business.

an arcade date with b’elanna where he secretly replicates whatever she buys with her tickets?? and brings it to her the next day??? also obviously weekly ddr competitions. janeway is the leading champion there, but tuvok’s been known to “bust a move.”

harry would probably be really good at like, claw machine games? he strikes me as a claw machine game kid. also like pacman. b’elanna really likes those games where you sit inside a little dark booth and shoot things. TOM PLAYS THOSE MOTORCYCLE RACE GAMES... but chakotay somehow beats him EVERY time. but that’s okay because chakotay’s usually following janeway around and playing 2p games with her.

seven can and will DESTROY you at any kind of fighter game, but generally chooses to stand behind people and watch what they’re doing instead. neelix is running around making sure everyone’s having a good time (and occasionally jumping in to play ddr) and the doctor, KNOWN to be extremely competitive and has a need to be the best, is uncharacteristically sitting at the bar drinking some fancy fizzy drink the whole time. except for when HE decides to get in on the ddr, and puts the captain to shame in a single game. although if there’s any kind of golf game, he’s there.

and lastly, naturally, bumper cars. tuvok wants nothing to do with it, but neelix begs him to join. tom and b’elanna are menaces they WILL bump into you and they WILL send you spinning into oblivion. janeway chases tuvok specifically, tuvok wishes he was not present. neelix is just roaming having a good time. the doctor is trying to pose as much of a threat as tom and b’elanna, and eventually surpasses them to become Bumper Car King. harry and chakotay just kinda spin around and are happy to be there. thank you for coming to my ted talk

Miscellaneous things about the first half of Amok Time that I love:

Initially, Spock won’t tell Jim what’s wrong. He asks Jim for leave, that he needs rest and needs it on Vulcan. He asks Jim to accept that’s all he will say. Jim does and alters course to Vulcan. At this point the Altair ceremony is still over a week away, and a 2.8 day delay is not a problem at all, but I love how respectful Jim is of Spock’s privacy. He pries at first and even has a little angry outburst, but calms himself down almost immediately and stops asking when Spock explicitly asks him to.

The ceremony has been advanced 7 days. They don’t have time to go to Vulcan. Jim obviously doesn’t like it much, and takes the time to comfort Spock about it: he offers sympathy, he jokes, he reassures Spock he’ll get his leave ASAP. It’s palpable how much he cares.

That night, Jim can’t sleep. He comms the bridge to ask how late they’ll be if they do divert to Vulcan real quick: this thing Spock won’t even really tell him about is more important to him than obeying direct orders. Remember he has no idea it’s life or death here yet. He just knows that Spock wouldn’t have asked like that and been so secretive if it wasn’t really important.

Jim here finds out that Spock has already ordered a change of course. Jim’s obviously pissed, it’s all over his body language, but he’s uncharacteristically calm when he confronts Spock about it. He knows something is very wrong here. Spock tells him he doesn’t remember changing course, but believes Jim when Jim tells him he’s done it. Jim believes Spock doesn’t remember without a second thought. Again he asks what’s going on once, and no more after Spock tells him to stop asking. 

Jim does order Spock to go to sickbay, but can you blame him? Memory loss? Really? Something is clearly very wrong with Spock’s health. He makes it an order in order to get Spock’s cooperation, but his wish for Spock to get a physical comes from a place of concern. If Spock won’t take care of himself, Jim will force him to.

Bones does his physical. Jim now knows Spock will die in 8 days if they don’t get to Vulcan. He immediately goes to ask again what’s happening, and he justifies it by saying, after the smallest hesitation, that it’s because Spock is an enormous asset to him. He doesn’t know Spock’s logic is impaired, and he thinks this might be the easiest way to get through to him: it’s unemotional, practical reasoning, to appeal to Spock’s logical side.

Spock replies that’s it’s too personal. Jim orders him to explain. This is the second angle that would normally work with Spock: if not logic, then duty. Spock refuses, says some things transcend duty. Jim changes tactic, he says he will keep it completely confidential: this is a different angle, based on trust and friendship. Spock finally caves here, and tells him everything. It’s fascinating, isn’t it, that Spock won’t answer to logic or duty, but he will answer to a personal request from Jim, to the promise this secret stays between the two of them.

Jim asks Komack permission to go to Vulcan, but refuses to explain or even hint at why, keeping the promise he made to Spock. The word is no: Jim is therefore doing it anyway. When they hear the no, Bones is like “welp, that’s it then” but Jim immediately replies “no it’s not.” Immediately. He has his motives: there’s two other ships going to altair, nothing will really happen if they’re one day late, but Bones is adamant that Jim will get fired if he disobeys. Jim doesn’t care. He knows, he didn’t need Bones to tell him, he’d already made up his mind.

Basically, just Jim caring for Spock an insane amount already, to the point that the first half of the episode to me is almost more homoerotic than the second. Jim’s big sacrifice of the Enterprise in SFS is already here in “Lay in a course for Vulcan. Tell Engineering I want warp eight or better. Push her for all she’ll take.” and “I owe him my life a dozen times over. Isn’t that worth a career?”

stop loafing around, we’ve got a whole universe to explore.

new away mission just dropped!

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