i don’t think i ever explained that the idea of this AU was to eventually actually illustrate a set of cards, but art block and everything else has been making me sit on these designs for awhile without actually finishing the clubs category. i will certainly add more as time goes on, but here’s what i got for now
Icons, 200x100, slightly sharpened, from DS9 S1 HERE.
Benjamin Sisko #26,000
Ferengi (Nog, Rom, Quark & the Grand Nagus) #9,800
Garak #161
Jadzia Dax #11,300
Jake Sisko #4,000
Jean Luc Picard #700
Jennifer Sisko #1,000
Julian Bashir #11,600
Kai Opaka #1,500
Kai Winn #900
Keiko O’Brien #1,800
Kira Nerys #19,000
Lwaxan Troi #1,700
Miles O’Brien #14,400
Odo #17,000
Q #1,700
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I would have liked a Translator Breakdown episode where it turns out some of the characters do know one another’s language but only at like a “two years in highschool” level.
O'Brien: Tá an ríomhaire briste. Tá fadhbanna againn.
Sisko: The WARP CORE is *points to his own face, frowning* ??
Kira: Fuck! Fuck computer, fuck! *hand gestures* Computer is fuck!
my favorite part of this is the implication that apparently by the 24th century the prevalence of the irish language will be such that a man from dublin will speak irish as his first language.
*side eyes tng “irish reunification of 2024″ screengrab and whispers* don’t mess this up for us.
Translator Breakdown is my favorite fic trope! Yes yes all of this. Also I want Dax to know like five dialects of Standard, plus French, Klingon, and also Bajoran because she likes to flirt with Kira when it’s slow in Ops
Most DS9 episode titles are thoughtful or clever but they got bored with this one and just named it after a character.
Oh man I will never get tired of the “entire station falls apart without Miles at the helm 24/7” trope
Ah! The first mention of the existence of the infamous raktajino! Love seeing the first time things get introduced that become such a show staple.
I’m laughing so hard at Dax not even deflecting, just flat out ignoring each line of flirtation Julian tries on her.
Dax always walks with her arms folded behind her back and I’ve tried this and it is uncomfortable
Kidnapping! Punching! No, Julian! Eek! Intense!
“Which not only compromises Bajoran security but also… *makes a crazy face* annoys us.” I luv you, Kira. Marry me.
I can picture it, as soon as Sisko said they needed a place to do the hearing, Odo leaped at the opportunity to run to Quark’s and inform him they would be commandeering his holosuite. It’s the biggest joy in his life.
I am also in luv with Anne Haney’s performance as the snappy Bajoran arbitrator, Renora. Marry me. (She played on an ep of TNG too!)
Ahhh another Space Mystery™. Why won’t Jadzia explain? Who was the real murderer? How will this be wrapped up in a neat package in just 40 short minutes!?
“If this is true I’d hang Curzon Dax up by his heels myself.” “Thanks for the confidence.” Odo and Sisko dry-sarcasming to each other makes my day.
This makes me realize how carefully the DS9 creators worked to create unexpected characters for this show. The two ‘warrior’ types, Dax and Kira, are beautiful young women, not typical beefy men. The doctor is brilliant but socially awkward to the extreme. The commander is as unlike Picard, the captain of the previous show, as they could possibly make him. With each character they tried to take what we would expect and turn it on its head. (These were the days before 'subverting audience expectation’ was abused so much that it’s become almost a stereotype of bad writing, today.)
They did a good job balancing the ep, it’s an entertaining murder mystery plot but also lets us learn about Dax’s character and Trills in general
Julian getting all indignant when Tandro interrupts his testimony hee hee. Aww but then he gets distraught when the questioning turns against him and he walks right into it! He baby…
I like that Odo is the one to interview Enina Tandro. He sees things in such black and white, the truth is the truth, that’s all there is. But then he gets exposed to this culture that won an entire war based on a lie, based on the person they thought this general was, but he wasn’t. Sometimes there’s more to truth than just facts.
“Live, Jadzia Dax. Live a long, fresh, and wonderful life.” Wow. The last lines of this ep turned out to be heavily ironic…
Julian’s a dork, we all know this and love him, but I want to give an Emmy to Colm Meaney for the faces he’s making during the whole scene of Julian’s academy finals story. Miles never says a word the entire scene, his face says it all for him. Just puffs out a tiny sigh as he walks away. It’s perfect.
Kira: Finally, a chance to shoot through a runabout door like I’ve always wanted! Sisko: Major. No.
Miles only exists in episodes like this to identify who the TNG cameo characters are.
I admit, as a kid I tried to convince myself I didn’t like Q much because he was such a popular character and I was one of those kids who felt threatened if I liked popular things, like it would erase my own identity to go with the crowd. Regardless, as an adult I love Q. I am so glad he gets a DS9 ep. And VGR eps! And yeah, throw him in a MLP cartoon, why the hell not!
I think it’s kinda weird Vash was in the Gamma Quadrant for two years and her accumulated wealth for that whole time is just like five things? That’s the whole auction? Maybe Q took the rest of her stuff.
Promethean quartz. Yes, Star Trek writers, that is totally an alien gem stone you got there, I can now tell. Thanks.
“The captain likes a good challenge, sir.” Miles gossiping about Picard’s sex life to Sisko. Just DS9 things.
Hahaha the dresser drawer makes a little electronic hiss as Vash puts her clothes away. Because it’s a space dresser, you see. This is the future.
“What did they call you, the god of lies?” “They meant it affectionately.”
Oh to be a fly on the wall when Sisko attended the official Starfleet briefing on Q!
The entire boxing scene. Enough said.
They ran out of prosthetics for some of the auction aliens so they decided blue fabric wrapped around the head was good enough
Oh I love it when the A plot and the B plot come together so perfectly in the end! And hey, a space moth! Love it. Spaaace mooooth.
I remember how much I loved this ep the first time I saw it. I really wish there had been more “whoa something random just came from the Gamma Quadrant, how we gonna deal with it?” plots during DS9’s run.
Props for the opening scene, with the crew at Ops wanting to beam the alien to safety and he saying no, he won’t leave his damaged ship. Rather than waste time pointing out he’s being needlessly obstinate, they just find a different way to help him. They respect his opinion even though they don’t agree with it. It’s a small thing, but it’s very Star Trek.
They kinda borrowed the idea of Tosk’s invisibility for the Jem'Hadar, later on, eh?
“I am Tosk.” “That’s your name or your species?” “I am Tosk.” “Oh.”
O'Brien makes himself a friend! I’m crying! Bless him.
Tosk and O'Brien’s little shop talk about ship propulsion gives me life
Tosk is SO much cute. Is there fanart of Tosk out there? I'mma gunna go look after I finish this episode.
You know Odo could just disguise himself as part of the bulkhead but he chooses to be a painting. A really ugly painting. Just putting that out there.
“Nobody’s abducting a prisoner out of my brig as long as I’m alive.” Mr. 100% Extra Forever, everyone.
Anyone else kinda get the feeling the head Hunter might have known how this was all going to go down? After seeing Sisko’s sympathetic to Tosk, he’s just like “Release him to us” and goes back to his ship without waiting for a reply. Like he might have been hoping Tosk would get the chance to get out of his “cage” and the hunt could resume.
Quark dragging conversation out of reluctant O'Brien, priceless
Every time a Starfleet officer takes his comm badge off and throws it on a table to symbolize he’s going against his oath in order to follow his heart. I just… *chef kiss*
Nice set up and pay off with the force fields. The earlier scene with Tosk and Odo shows us how easy it is to cut off an intruder in the corridors, so that we later understand how simple it would have been for Sisko to have Tosk and O'Brien stopped. Then we understand that, even with the dressing down Sisko gives O'Brien at the end, he really understands the action he took.
I would be fully on board for a whole episode where we just follow Miles around as he solves station problems for everyone
Mr. “I hate him but I will jump to save the stupid Ferengi from his customers who attempt to harm him via bad soup” Odo. You’re not fooling anyone.
Sisko’s “What did I do!?” face when O'Brien blows up at being asked to fix the replicator
“She’s flower units about the lad herself.” Can we give a giant shout-out to all the actors who must have practiced their asses off to speak random words and make it sound like attempted conversation? It’s one thing to memorize a flowing dialogue with other actors you’re sharing a scene with, but to memorize all these random words and deliver the lines as if you’re speaking English is just wow. Everyone did a great job.
Man, watching this in 2020 gives a whole new perspective to the freight captain who wants to leave the station in the middle of quarantine. “None of my crew are showing symptoms so we should just be allowed to go on our way la la la that’s how it works right?”
In later seasons it must have gone something like this: “We want Rom to be an engineering genius but we established in early episodes that he’s an idiot, what do we do about it?” “Why not both?”
Noooooo not Julian! How will they find an antidote now!?
Young Cirroc Lofton’s acting in this ep is adorable. I love when he runs to grab the nurse to help O'Brien.
I approve of Kira’s way of solving issues
Odo and Quark running Ops together because everyone else has the virus. That’s it. My day is complete now.
I mean, do we assume all of the other Ferengi on the station are, like Quark, unaffected? And they didn’t show up at Ops because they just didn’t want to help?
But no, if that was true Julian would have studied the Ferengi immune system to help whip up an antidote. So Quark is just randomly super healthy against this particular virus, I guess.
Regardless, I’m now picturing a pack of Ferengi running Ops and it’s like that scene at the end of Ratatouille where all the rats are running the restaurant.
You know with 100% certainty if this episode was made today, it would have been written that the freight captain Jaheel would have died as his ship exploded. We’re very into “you get what you deserve when you’re an idiot” morals in our society right now. But my favorite thing about Star Trek has always been that it shows a universe where we rise above the petty feelings we’re dealing with in our culture today. It shows a future where we are better than we are now. The future is better. So yes, Jaheel was a selfish idiot who almost blew up a station full of innocent people. And yes, Odo saved him and he survived anyway. That, my friends, is true Star Trek.
Julian Bashir: meets new person, completely flustered, immediately accuses him of being a spy for his people. Smooth.
The thing he does with his hand when the plant gets in his face!
No but seriously these two are adorable. I remember wanting much, much more screentime for these two than they ever got, the first time I watched this series.
And then he runs straight to Ops to tell everyone! Ahaha I love you Julian.
Dax: “What do you think he might want from YOU, Julian?” *straight face* Oh, she knows…
Watching this on Netflix. Not even gonna click Skip Intro cuz I love the opening song so much.
I forgot about Kira and Sisko butting heads early on. I love how the relationships of this show evolve.
Lursa and B'Etor! The somewhat random TNG cameos continue! Bring them on, I say!
Okay Sisko gets his reputation as the Daddy because Bashir and everyone else always runs to him like, “Ah this scary thing happened what do I do!?”
Garak guiding Bashir through the first steps of spy-dom awww~
Joranian ostrich!? Haha gotta love the Star Trek trope that is “name something from Earth and put an alien word in front of it because this is THE FUTURE!!” If you do that today your audience would roll its eyes but with Classic Trek it’s just quaint and adorable. (I mean you can still roll your eyes but it’s also quaint and adorable)
But really, Kira and Odo’s relationship is laid out so perfectly in this scene. They have so much mutual respect for each other and take strength from each other’s presence and I’m so here for it for the whole ride.
Why are the character interactions so much more interesting to watch than the actual terrorist plot of the episode? Good writing that’s why!
Clever to connect DS9 to TNG right in the first ep, so that fans would come over to check out the new show
This opening where we get to see the battle of Wolf 359 was intense!!
Can’t say enough about how much I love the DS9 opening theme. The blue comet, the rotating shots of the station, the brassy instrumentals. Yes!
Setting up Picard as someone Sisko hates was really ballsy. Picard was/is a super popular character. It’s taking a chance to start your new show with your lead at odds with an old favorite, but at the same time, we just saw Sisko’s wife die, so we sympathize with him even knowing it’s not fair for him to blame Picard for his pain.
I love every single thing Avery Brooks does with his face
I can’t believe they said “We need to show off our futuristic sci fi show’s shapeshifter’s abilities so we’ll just have a thief chuck a fucking mace at his head and shoot it as awkwardly as possible.”
Glad to see any Sisko and Quark interactions are always a delight, right from day 1
Kira offended by Bashir’s tactless enthusiasm~
O'Brien’s farewell look at the Enterprise bridge! Trying to sneak off without saying goodbye! Oh, feels!
“Computer, you and I need to have a little talk.”
I always really liked the idea that the Prophets use your memories of people to appear to you because they don’t have physical forms of their own.
“You exist here.” Such a power line.
Sisko explaining the concept of linear existence–what it means to live as a person–is one of the best ideas from this whole show. Having to analyze and accept your own grief in order to communicate with creatures who have no concept of grief at all makes for some great science fiction.
And we end with that great crane shot as it pulls back and up to the Promenade’s upper level! Love it. Love it all.
Hmm, this two-part opener feels incomplete to me somehow, compared to my memories of seeing it 25 years ago. But I think I also had The Emissary novelization as a kid, so it’s probably just that I had more of an understanding of the scenes from reading the novel. Especially about the Prophets and Sisko interacting. Perhaps time I re-read that book.
[Image description Jim from Our Flag Means Death with their face replaced by Jadzia Dax from Star Trek saying “I’m gonna keep this very simple. You know me as Dax? So just… keep calling me Dax.” Second panel is Frenchie with his face replaced by Captain Sisko saying “Yeah, good ol’ Dax, Always liked Dax.”]
Sorted caps from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, season 1. HERE.
Benjamin Sisko #26,000
Ferengi (Nog, Rom, Quark & the Grand Nagus) #9,800
Garak #161
Jadzia Dax #11,300
Jake Sisko #4,000
Jean Luc Picard #700
Jennifer Sisko #1,000
Julian Bashir #11,600
Kai Opaka #1,500
Kai Winn #900
Keiko O’Brien #1,800
Kira Nerys #19,000
Lwaxan Troi #1,700
Miles O’Brien #14,400
Odo #17,000
Q #1,700
Vash #3,100
This content is free for anyone to use or edit however you like; if you care to throw a dollar or two my way for time, effort, storage fees etc you are more than welcome to do so via my PAYPAL. Please like or reblog this post if you have found it useful or are downloading the content within. If you have any questions or you have any problems with the links or find any inconsistencies in the content, etc. please feel free to drop me a politely worded message via my ASKBOX (second icon from the top on my theme!)
[Image Description: Two images set to the background of a flag with three stripes; the upper and lower stripes are both light red, the middle stripe is a darker red. The first picture has Benjamin Sisko from Star Trek Deep Space Nine. He is a black, bald man with a beard and moustache wearing a uniform with gray shoulders, a black body, and a red undershirt. The second image has the Autism Speaks logo crossed out with a ‘no’ sign. End Description.]
sisko: no, don’t worry guys, i don’t need grief counseling. i went on a soul journey to explain linear time to aliens i met in wormhole and now I Am Fine :))
As someone who spent a fair portion of our 365 Days of Movies project covering the Marvel Cinematic Universe it truly pains me to say this but… I’m kind of over comic book movies: at least for the moment. As much as I heart Marvel and as much as I hate DC, I’m just… I’m good on the comic book front for a while. I’m a bit shell shocked from these larger than life struggles watching characters that are essentially gods use their magical powers and chemically enhanced talents to save space time forever while straining to save their personal relationships in the B line.
It’s fun, it’s been brilliantly executed (at least by Marvel), and I want more of it, just… not yet. I love the grounded realism and the honest human relationships that the MCU has built their success around but sometimes I want some subtlety, some nuance, and most of all some optimism.
The world of comic book movies has been a dark and serious place over the last decade and for the most part, that’s a great thing. Grounding such fantastical characters such as Thor, Loki, and even Superman in a realistic modern world with concrete motivations, abilities, and limitations is exactly what needed to happen for the medium to thrive in our present day. But in a world where death can rain from the sky at any time be it aliens through wormholes or planes through buildings, even the smartest, snarkiest, and bravest of SUPERHEROES can’t avoid a healthy dose of PTSD. So where does that leave US? Where can we turn when the ominous pressure of looming apocalypse gets to be too much? I believe the answer is the same now as it has been for the last 50 years.
The world needs Star Trek.
Now to be clear, I don’t mean JJ Abram’s masterful re-envisioning of the Star Trek Cinematic Universe, if you will. Although I love it and have literally received permission from my wife to name our first-born son Abram, the Star Trek television series have always dug deeper and swung harder than their big screen counterparts. While most casual viewers will remember Star Trek for it’s wild costumes and seemingly endless configurations of almost human foreheads, real Trekkies/Trekkers appreciate it for its deep geopolitical roots, it’s philosophical quandaries, and it’s glimpse into an ideal human future where the best weapons are our words, our integrity, and diplomacy. Maybe with a photon torpedo or two for flavor.
Trek has always been a home for morality, exceptionalism, innovation, and humanity. It asks questions that don’t always have cut and dry answers. As much as I love seeing city destroying robots take a hammer to the face, sometimes I want to see Captain Picard trying to explain to Data why terrorism is effective, and sometimes it’s the only choice, but that still doesn’t necessarily make it right. I know we still have seven whole seasons of TNG to get into that stuff but for one, I’ve seen them all, and secondly, we live in a very different world than we did twenty years ago.
We have new problems and new questions. We have technology (thanks largely to Trek in the first place) whose ultimate ramifications we may not fully understand. Of course there are elements of these issues in modern storytelling. Black Mirror for one does a jaw-dropping job of taking our current cultural and technological obsessions to their logical futuristic extremes. But coming from the mind of biting British satirist Charlie Booker leaves the entire series with a decidedly pessimistic tilt. Game of Thrones has a huge expanse of characters and settings but their politics are largely driven by scandal and flashy reveals. House of Cards is the closest we come to the geo-political aspects but it centers entirely around the sociopathic power grab of a literal murderer. In a world run by Frank Underwoods, we need a Captain Picard.
We need something to help us explore these issues in a way that doesn’t just pretend we can pound these problems into the ground. We need to see people ask questions, think them through, collaborate, and innovate their way to the kind of solutions that Trek always makes us believe are possible. We need a new signpost to the best possible versions of ourselves and that’s what Trek has always been. I need Star Trek. The world needs Star Trek.
