Nine Deeps of Space

I've had an axe to grind with this overrated episode for a long time. I thought a long, hard look at recent news had finally crystallized that, but maybe not.

It's about stuff.

Ignore what I say in the supplemental; it's our second season but Deep Space Nine's first. 

We talk a little bit about this season past, the future of characters and stories, and how likeable flawed characters have to be.

The future of Nine Deeps of Space is currently undecided, but regular episodes of The Beige and The Bold are starting today over there. https://anchor.fm/tbntb

We talk about a lot of stuff in this one. I think it's a good episode for the overarching story. It underutilizes Keiko a bit. I just don't think it or we know what it's really about.

Better than I remember, but not really 'good.'

Nine Deeps of Space is a Trekalong podcast that lets you watch Deep Space Nine along with us on Netflix. It updates every Sunday night at 10 PM CST. NDoS alternates with its partner series, The Beige and The Bold, which is about Star Trek: The Next Generation.

We talk about...war crimes mostly. We crack jokes. About the war crimes, now that I think about it. It sounds bad, but you're going to laugh at those war crimes jokes.

It's also worse than "Progress." "Progress" had the moral complexity and messiness that becomes a strength of Deep Space Nine. Despite the twists and turns and great acting, "Duet" has the clean ending of an episodic TV show. It's--and secure your monocles--way closer to Star Trek: The Next Generation's wheelhouse than Deep Space Nine's.

The movie I was thinking about was 2016's Denial, which dramatized the events of the Irving v Penguin Books Ltd case.

Nine Deeps of Space is a Trekalong podcast that lets you watch Deep Space Nine along with us on Netflix. It updates every Sunday night at 10 PM CST. NDoS alternates with its partner series, The Beige and The Bold, which is about Star Trek: The Next Generation.

It's not just a contagious, telepathic energy field; it's a contagious, telepathic energy field that's good at improv. It puts the fiction in science fiction. No one is good at improv (except for Star Trek: The Improvised Generation).

Odo lords his lack of frail, human feet over us, Kira makes a seduction attempt with martial law, and Commander Sisko buys a 3D printer. It's a good one, actually.

Also, Dax would have been great in Odo's place here, but what about Kira? O'Brien? Bashir?! Odo was probably the best choice, but it's such a one versus many episode that it's fun to think about.

Nine Deeps of Space is a Trekalong podcast that lets you watch Deep Space Nine along with us on Netflix. It updates every Sunday night at 10 PM CST. NDoS alternates with its partner series, The Beige and The Bold, which is about Star Trek: The Next Generation.

The B-Plot outshines the A-Plot again as we study Odo, Lwaxana Troi, and what it is to need other people.

That Babylon 5 episode came out a year after this one, but it's still way better. Babylon 5 lacks a lot of DS9's subtlety and nuance, but it fucks around far less. 

I can't find a good source for the charges of plagiarism, so here's the highest honor I can confer on this conflict: a grudge-match.com fight from the dawn of the internet: http://www.grudge-match.com/History/ds9-babylon5.shtml

Nine Deeps of Space is a Trekalong podcast that lets you watch Deep Space Nine along with us on Netflix. It updates every Sunday night at 10  PM CST. NDoS alternates with its partner series, The Beige and The  Bold, which is about Star Trek: The Next Generation.

To quote a great man, "Nothing good happened here today! None was entertained, nothing was achieved, and no child's life was saved. Everything's going to go on as normal and babies are sometimes going to die and no one fucking cares!"

"If Wishes Were Horses" happened and it only happens again when you want it to. Think about that.

Nine Deeps of Space is a Trekalong podcast that lets you watch Deep Space Nine along with us on Netflix. It updates every Sunday night at 10  PM CST. NDoS alternates with its partner series, The Beige and The  Bold, which is about Star Trek: The Next Generation.

"Are some main characters a little more main characters than others?" Is a big question, and one I cannot answer in season one.

We will have to see together, friends.

I usually ask a question here to prompt engagement, but this isn't really a questiony episode. It's what Game of Thrones thinks its being when it's showing us boobs and gore; a survey of hard realities seen through the eyes of our main characters.

'nuff said.

Nine Deeps of Space is a Trekalong podcast that lets you watch Deep  Space Nine along with us on Netflix. It updates every Sunday night at 10  PM CST. NDoS alternates with its partner series, The Beige and The Bold, which is about Star Trek: The Next Generation.

It's about the limitations of Bajoran territorial law. Bajor has clans I guess. Also villages threatened by monsters. I usually quote twenty thousand years as the age of Bajoran culture. That's actually the age of the lost city of B'hala. Bajoran culture is cited as being five hundred thousand years old.

I appreciate an episode about the diversity and nuance of Bajoran culture. But 500,000 years seems like a lot to convey when Bajorans...I'll talk about it in season three.

But did The Sirah really plan for things to shake out this way or did he sincerely believe some higher force (The Prophets) wanted O'Brien to stick around? Was it the will of The Prophets that O'Brien failed and that the village would be destroyed? Did Miles miss his true calling in life as a guy who cheerleads a Bajoran village once per year?

Nine Deeps of Space is a Trekalong podcast that lets you watch Deep Space Nine along with us on Netflix. It updates every Sunday night at 10 PM CST. NDoS alternates with its partner series, The Beige and The Bold, which is about Star Trek: The Next Generation.

I've been vocal that I don't care about "universe will change forever" type of events because TNG episodes like "The Chase" and "Unnatural Selection" tell us none of it will matter. Canon in general doesn't matter to me unless I know creators care about canon. It's all the difference between "Rick and Morty" and "The Good Place."

So I don't even like "Battle Lines" for it's implications for the setting. At this point, we don't know if DS9 is any different from TNG. What matters is the human story. Not the story about Mike from Breaking Bad in a well-worn story about retribution. Not the story about a leader of a religion based on prophecy being pretty good at prophecy. But about Kira learning how to forgive herself for learning how to survive and fight.

For veteran viewers; is Kit right? Are some DS9 main characters more "main" than others?

Nine Deeps of Space is a Trekalong podcast that lets you watch Deep Space Nine along with us on Netflix. It updates every other Sunday night at 10 PM CST. NDoS alternates with its partner series, The Beige and The Bold, which is about Star Trek: The Next Generation.