An open thread dedicated to discussing books, movies, and tv shows we love. And occasionally some politics.

Why don't we take a dip into science fiction?

I've been watching a lot of Star Trek lately; binge-watching, actually, via Netflix. I watched the original series in reruns when I was a kid back in the 70s. I continued to watch it over and over again throughout my life; I now own two out of the three special edition DVD sets which come in their own color-coded tricorder-shaped boxes.

Yes, I am one of those people that occasionally bursts into caveman-sounding quotations from "The Omega Glory."

I also watched a lot of Star Trek: The Next Generation when it originally aired, although I admit that I took a sabbatical a little way into the first season, which was abysmal:

And only returned with the 9th episode of the second season, "The Measure of a Man," which was top-notch:

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjuQRCG_sUw]

Many years later, I watched the series in its entirety by, again, binge-watching it on Netflix.

As all of you who are Trekkers know, there are high points and decidedly low points in any Star Trek series, but the old show (abbreviated as TOS) and the Next Generation are widely believed to be the best Trek series. Going beyond that, well, it's a little dangerous...

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ztHsyY1plMs]

But since I use television, and science fiction in particular, as an aid to ease my anxiety, times like these have caused me to plumb depths I might otherwise have avoided:

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d8Fsyld7YD0]

And I found myself contemplating Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. Now, in the 90s, when this originally aired, I was a huge Babylon 5 fan, so I was otherwise engaged. I'm still such a huge Babylon 5 fan that it no doubt will make an appearance in a later Open Thread. But suffice to say, I hadn't given Deep Space Nine the time of day--until recently.

OK, before I get to the part where I make anybody mad, let me say the good things there are to say about Deep Space Nine. First, Benjamin Sisko, the commander of the space station, is one of the most awesome father figures I've seen in TV. His relationship with his son is just realistic enough to let you suspend your disbelief--and beyond that, he's the dad everybody would have liked to have had. This is particularly great because Sisko, played by Avery Brooks, is Black, and in the 90s there weren't a hell of a lot of great Black fathers portrayed on TV.

Second, there's Quark. For those who don't know, Quark is a Ferengi who runs a bar, and the black market, on Deep Space Nine. The Ferengi are an intensely materialistic alien race obsessed with commerce, competition, and wealth. As an aside, I am mortified to say that it wasn't until this year that I realized that the Ferengi were an odious Jewish stereotype, and I didn't even notice it for myself! My boyfriend had to tell me! In my (somewhat meager) defense, I had always assumed that the Ferengi were an attempt to represent America's dark side. Although it's never explicitly stated, the Federation always looked to me like Gene Roddenberry's idealized vision of the United States--searching for new frontiers, interested in diversity, friendly and wanting everybody to join in their absolutely awesome political experiment because hey, who wouldn't want to trade and engage in cultural exchange with the absolutely awesome Federation? Their flagship is even called the Enterprise , for god's sake, a reference to capitalism even though the Federation has transcended the need for money. I'm obviously poking at Trek here, but I wouldn't be a fan if I didn't also love the ideal Roddenberry comes up with. Well, I always assumed that the Ferengi were the writers' way of saying, gently, "We know America can be a bastard too, and this is how. We're greedy and obsessed with money. This is what our dark side looks like."

Nope. It's an anti-semitic image. Just look at them:

But Quark, despite all that, is one of the highlights of Deep Space Nine. I sometimes think it's because Armin Shimerman, who played him, is one of the best actors on the show, but it's also because Quark makes the Ferengi more than a stereotype for the first time. He's a three-dimensional character, and the show is better every time he's on screen.

Finally, there's Odo, played by René Auberjonois. He also makes the show better every time he's on screen, again because he's played by one of the best actors on the show. However, he also demonstrates what's wrong, very wrong, with Deep Space Nine.

Odo is a shapeshifter. In his natural state, he's liquid in a bucket. He can transmute back to a liquid state whenever he wants, or shapeshift into just about any form. Because of this, he's ideally suited for his job, which is security chief, because he can go anywhere and look like an inanimate object and monitor, basically, anything that's going on anywhere without anyone knowing they're being watched. In fact, Odo is mass warrantless surveillance turned into a Star Trek character. To make it worse, he's nicknamed "Constable" which takes the creepy aspect of his character and tries to make it seem like Officer Friendly.

Given this, the fact that he's played by one of the two best actors on the show, and hence is one of the show's most enjoyable characters is, well, a little creepy in itself. I'm not sure I want this creepy Orwellian phenomenon to be the guy that makes me engage more deeply with the show. When I realized this, it started to make me uncomfortable with Deep Space Nine.

But that's not what made me stop watching Deep Space Nine, which I did recently, replacing it with Star Trek: Voyager. No, it was the horrific, canon-breaking episode "Crossover," in which characters from Deep Space Nine visit the parallel universe explored in TOS episode "Mirror, Mirror."

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I9xN0Ol5vZQ]

If you're not a Trek fan yourself, you may not know that "Mirror, Mirror" is one of the best, and best beloved, episodes of Star Trek, possibly second only to "City on the Edge of Forever" in fan regard. Kirk, Uhura, Scotty, and McCoy beam up to a different starship Enterprise than the one they left. They enter a parallel universe, in which the Federation is a brutal Empire, which commits genocide every time it doesn't get what it wants, and officers move up in rank through assassination. Torture is used regularly as a disciplinary measure. They find a way to leave, of course, and switch places again with their brutal counterparts who had beamed up to the "good" Enterprise by the end of the episode, but Kirk, who hates tyranny, can't leave it at that. In one of the most well-loved moments in Trek history, he gives the following speech, which, along with Puddleglum's speech to the Witch in C.S. Lewis' The Silver Chair, formed one of my first ethical touchstones when I was a child:

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=deq6_p47g54]

I don't know anything about the writer, Jerome Bixby, but whoever he is, or was, he's now succeeded in moving my heart in five different decades.

So what did "Crossover" do that was so unforgivable that I stopped watching Deep Space Nine for good and forever, and decided summarily that "Crossover" was not canon to me, and that I did not accept it as part of the Federation's fictional history?

Whoa boy.

In "Crossover," Kira Nerys and Doctor Bashir enter the mirror universe, as Kirk and the others had before. There they discover that all humans are enslaved and, in some cases, literally working in the mines. Why? Because the speech Kirk gave to Spock against tyranny worked. Spock started a movement that successfully dismantled the brutal Empire and made it peaceful. But once it was peaceful and no longer a brutal Empire, it couldn't defend itself, and all the races it had previously oppressed tore it apart, took the entire human race, and enslaved them, replacing a brutal human Empire with a brutal Bajoran/Cardassian/Klingon empire.

See, you shouldn't be peaceful or do the right thing, because that's the same thing as being weak. Once you're weak, you'll be the prey of all those you previously abused. So you'd better remain a militaristic, torturing, colonizing, enslaving behemoth, or you'll end up a slave in the salt mines.

Now that's an ugly message, Mr. Gardiner.

Any other Trekkers out there? Share your Trek stories, or take a potshot at Trek if you want (I won't bite), or share other science fiction you love. If you're not into science fiction, share whatever you like!