ok sorry for longposting but i dont have any drugs so this is how im entertaining myself now. For me, sisko being the pragmatic™ captain comes through less in episodes for the uniform/in the pale moonlight/etc than it does in the way he’s able to manage everyone around him on an episode to episode basis by matching their energy and style of communication to be efficient as well as nice
kira initially treats him as a threat to her goals and assumes he doesn’t care what they are so he only pushes back on her as much as she challenges him, but compromises and even defers to her judgement when she’s honest about why she wants what she wants (also i’ve been rewatching s1 and in ‘progress’ there’s this great moment when he’s trying to order her back to the station as gently as possible and kneels down next to her instead of looming or demanding that she stand at attention, it’s a very sweet little detail). bashir is ignorant out of inexperience and acts before he’s done thinking, so sisko clearly tells him how, not just when he’s out of line, walks him through his more impulsive decisions step by step, entertains questions that aren’t immediate challenges and even offers anecdotes about his own life to convince him to do things he doesn’t want to. jadzia is younger and newer to the chain of command as curzon, and likely leans on ben’s input far more frequently than she would if she were still his superior, so ben reflects what he learned from curzon back to her honestly, without any illusions about how she’s kind of a better person, and comes to her for advice in turn to confirm that it’s herperspective he values. when he has to intervene in odo’s investigations or pair him off with another officer, he stays clear and firm about why that’s necessary and what the new chain of command is because he knows odo flounders without certainty. he can quote the rules of acquisition to quark at the drop of a hat and has no problem openly telling garak he’s blackmailing him. i joke about him being completely impervious to dukat/weyoun/eddington/etc’s mind games but it’s not like the antagonists in the series don’t give him a lot of moral grief, it’s that he refuses to engage with them while they’re actively trying to undermine his goals
the reason his Moral Ambiguity Moments work so well is because his deep, willing understanding of other people always informs his actions, so when he has to outplay someone to protect the lives of his compatriots, or even uphold necessary morale – or when, like in in the pale moonlight, he grievously misjudges someone’s character – it’s a much more tragic twist on the same qualities that make him a compassionate leader, an effective diplomat, a trustworthy protector, a tender & nurturing father
I wish we had gotten more of Martok and Julian’s friendship. Both bc I like their dynamic and also bc I’m losing it at the idea of someone asking this little twink ass nerd who still has his childhood teddy bear how he knows the Chancellor of the Klingon Empire and him saying “Oh, we were in prison together :)”
“we broke out of the a POW camp where I was regularly put in solitary for starting shit”
Some Klingon at a feast or whatever: Chancellor Martok, tell us the story of your escape from the Dominion prison camp again
Martok: Oh, the Dominion tried to break me. They took my freedom and confined me in a small place. They forced me to fight their strongest warriors. They locked me in with an annoying twink to break my spirit,
Lost plots of ds9: Jake and Nog go on a double date that turns out to be a recruitment seminar for Quark’s pyramid scheme. Dukat comes aboard the station and no one cares. He leaves in a rage.
(^ guy who watched 1 ep of snw and thinks he can criticize all of new trek) okay the problem with SNW and why it doesn’t feel the same as old trek is because it feels the need to do that quippy marvel “well that just happened” type humor or whatever where Pike gets hung up on while on subspace with an alien and he turns back to his crew like “um…. Okay… ” or he beams in on heated debate between two leaders of an alien race and he’s like “Erm…. Hi? ” like really just serving the “wow… this is awkward!!” Vibe and it’s like bro. Imagine if Sisko did that. Imagine if when the worm hole opened for the first time Dax was like “um guys…. Big hole in the sky alert… ” and Kira was like “what the fffferengi is that!” LIKE NO THAT WOULD NEVER HAPPEN, INSTEAD THEY ALL JUST REACTED BY DOING THE JOBS THEY WERE TRAINED AN HIRED TO DO. And that’s the huge issue with having your characters point out how weird everything that’s happening to them is and making comments about it because like yeah, it’s super weird to us as the audience to be flying around space and interacting with aliens, but to them IT SHOULD JUST BE THEIR LIVES. New Trek isn’t confident in itself enough to play it completely straight. The inherent nature of Star Trek is that weird shit is going to happen. That is the show. And back in the good old days, no matter how weird the shit was, it was always played straight. Even when Beverly crusher was getting her back blown out by a Scottish ghost the character didn’t turn to each other and go “I’m sorry…. Dr crusher is having sex with a ghost?…. Ummm imma need you to run that by me again ” NO THEY WERE LIKE “okay how are we going to defeat this evil Scottish ghost” BECAUSE it was a story about professionals doing their jobs. It’s so un-immersive when a show keeps reminding you how weird everything is, it kills the magic and makes it hard for the viewer to really get into the story they are trying to tell. Be confident about your weird shit or don’t add it at all
Annnddddd you know I feel like this is a problem that comes from the fact we all have to pretend like we are cool these days. Like even on here I see people post all the time like “Star Trek my dumb little stupid unrealistic camp shitty budget horrible show (affectionate)” and it’s like why. If we like Star Trek can’t we just say that we like it. Can’t we go back to a time when we just loved stuff with our entire hearts and didn’t have to put some contingent where we acknowledge it’s stupid. Like guess what. If you like something then it’s not stupid. Have some self respect man. Say it with your chin up and your whole chest and heart. Say it with seriousness. Look straight into the eyes of everyone you talk to and tell them with everything that’s in you “I love Star Trek” enough with this post ironic bullshit it ends here.
Transitioning in the star trek universe where they replicate the estrogen right into my raktajino and my holographic AI surgeon whips me up a mathematically perfect hyper vagina over the course of a lunch break which somehow leads to a wacky scenario that threatens to expose 5 ensigns to the vacuum of space
It can be two things
i read statboosts’s comment in Miles O’Brien’s voice in my head and now i’m laughing so hard i’m worried i might fracture a rib
I wish we had gotten more of Martok and Julian’s friendship. Both bc I like their dynamic and also bc I’m losing it at the idea of someone asking this little twink ass nerd who still has his childhood teddy bear how he knows the Chancellor of the Klingon Empire and him saying “Oh, we were in prison together :)”
“we broke out of the a POW camp where I was regularly put in solitary for starting shit”
Some Klingon at a feast or whatever: Chancellor Martok, tell us the story of your escape from the Dominion prison camp again
Martok: Oh, the Dominion tried to break me. They took my freedom and confined me in a small place. They forced me to fight their strongest warriors. They locked me in with an annoying twink to break my spirit,
