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crack_van2003-12-24 09:19 pm
nostalgia-lj.livejournal.com) wrote in crack_van2003-12-24 09:19 pm
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DS9 - TrekCrack for Grown Ups
I knew I'd get this done eventually... By popular non-request, I bring you a brief intro to Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, a show best described as the product of an unholy union between Babylon 5, Angel and depressing British soap Eastenders. Here be spoilers, if you can really call them that anymore...
The Main Players
Benjamin Sisko, Captain
Benji ends up on DS9 despite himself, and stays when he realises thateveryone there is as mad as he is he might be able to do some good. Despite the Beard Of EvilTM, he's definitely one of the good guys, even if his ethics are grey in places. His best moment was lying to bring the Romulans into the Dominion War, narrowly beating the time he forced his crew to play baseball. A family man, he brought up his son Jake alone after his wife Jennifer died in the Borg attack at Wolf 359 (see The Next Generation for that one) before finally marrying cargo-ship captain Kassidy Yates. The biggest problem in Ben's life is the fact that the religious population of the nearby planet Bajor believe him to be the Emissary of their gods (the Prophets), who are in fact aliens who live in the local wormhole. Season 7 attempts a not-entirely-convincing retcon where his mother was possessed by a Prophet at the time of his conception - the woman he always thought was his birth mother was in fact his father's second wife. Ben ends the series by, err, ascending to a Higher Plane. Umm. Yeah.
Kira Nerys, first officer and former terrorist
After spending most of her life fighting the Cardassian occupation of Bajor, Nerys finds herself working with the Emissary of her gods on an old space station admninistered by the Federation. Never entirely happy with anything, she spent an inordinate amount of time bitching and yelling. Bless 'er little 'eart. A series of dull boyfriends ended when she got together with Odo in Season 6. Irony levels hit overload when she ended up fighing in the Cardassian resistance to free her former enemies from the Dominion.
ETA: And, yes, I forgot the most disturbing Kira moment - when the O'Brien's baby was transplanted into Kira to cover the fact that Nerys had been knocked up by Dr Bashir. Err, that her actress and his actor had... errr... just EWW, OK?
Odo
Chief of security with the handy ability to change shape into, err, other shapes. Angsty because of a) Kira and b) the fact that his people are the leaders of the Dominion. Ouch. Enjoys solving crimes and reading about fictional people solving fictional crimes. Controversially avoided controversy over his role in the Cardassian Occupation when the station was known as Terok Nor.
Worf, err... he's Worf, dammit!
Helpfully brought over from TNG at the start of Season 4, DS9 broke the Trek tradition by actually giving him something to do and making him Any Good. Also provided an excuse to watch TNG on the basis that "It's DS9 back-story! Honest!" Commanded the Defiant and deadpanned a lot. Oh, the deadpan! Married Jadzia Dax in S6 and shagged Ezri Dax in S7. The randy sod...
Jadzia Dax, science officer
Part woman, part slug. Has a Trill symbiote in her gut that gives her the memories of various people including sleazy old man Curzon Dax, Ben's sleazy friend and mentor. Jadzia was the only DS9 regular to actually die and stay dead, the symbiont being passed on to Ezri Dax. Became the first Trek character to have a same-sex kiss when she got it on with a former spouse (of sorts). The spots, FYI, go all the way down to her ankles.
Ezri Dax, awful therapist
While most Trill hosts get years of training, Ezri found herself Dax'd when the symbiont got sick and needed an urgent transplant into her. As a result she's vastly confused by all the memories and the whole split-personality thing. Managed to shag two regulars in the space of about six episodes, and kissed the Mirrorverse Kira. Sadly she's a bloody awful counsellor, being particularly adept at causing heartbreak and saying the wrong thing.
Miles O'Brien, engineer bloke
My personal favourite character, he's the Everyman of Trek. Married to Keiko and father of Molly and Yoshi, he's a refreshingly sane part of the Trekverse. Sadly he gets a bit overlooked, save for the traditional annual "Let's Torture O'Brien" episode. Likes darts, whiskey and re-enacting dead wars on the holodeck. Appears to spend most of his free time with...
Julian Bashir, poncey doctor
Genetically enhanced chief medical officer, and commonly held to be Trek's only bisexual character. Worked with the 'Jack Pack', a group of genetically enhanced misfits he was supposed to make normal. Failed at that. Quite badly. Also got roped in to Section 31, the Federation's shadowy CIA-type espionage organisation. Likes playing spy and gets self-righteous when he has to actually be one. Pined after Jadzia for six years and shagged Ezri in the final episode. But his big relationships were the flirty one with Garak and the bizarre are they/aren't they "friendship" with Miles. Sleeps with a teddy-bear called Kukalaka. (No, really.)
Quark, capitalist
Owner of the station's pub and an incorrigable chancer. Tended to be used as the voice that says things the other characters couldn't, and provided a fun outsiders view of the Federation "utopia". As a child he replaced his brother's toys with old vegetables and sold them for more than their father paid for them. Which is all you need to know, really.
Jake Sisko
AKA The Forgotten regular. Son of Ben Sisko he hung around in the background and earned our love as practically the only 'Fleet Brat to take up a civilian career - journalism. Once sacrificed the entire universe to save his dad. Aww, bless.
Yer Concepts
The Mirrorverse
Based on an old TOS episode no one remembers, it's an alternate universe "where everything's... alternate." Best remembered as the universe where all the women are gay, it features the traditional leather outfits and rugged dystopianism.
The Dominion
Essentially an evil Federation from the Gamma Quadrant, they turn up early on and end up at war with the Feds by the end of Season 5. Led by Odo's people - the Founders - and with an army of clone soldiers that look suspiciously like Buffy demons, the Dominion wants to bring order to the galaxy, which is really a big euphemism for taking over and being mean.
The Prophets
Aliens living in the wormhole to the Gamma Quadrant who exist outside time and thus on a technicality can see the future. Messed about with time to bring Sisko to them and then stole him at the end of the series. Worshipped as gods by theannoyingly credulous Bajorans.
Bajor and Cardassia
Long story short - the Cardassians invaded Bajor and occupied it for 50 years. Then they went away. Unsurprisingly, neither people is really over this yet.But the Bajorans look more like us so they must be the good guys.
Fandom
Such as it is, the fandom likes to gush about the intense brilliance of the show and tries to convince other Trekkies that their vision is as valid asthe flaccid god-awful turd that is The Original Series or that lame-ass imperialist propaganda The Next Generation. Which are both great, obviously. DS9 is far darker than your usual Trek fare, and more like a soap opera than Voyager ever managed to be. Which may be why subsequent Trek seems to like to pretend that DS9 never actually happened.
The het pairing of choice is either Odo/Kira (bleh, canon!) or Julian/Jadziaset in some weird other universe where he's straight. For slash there's a mountain of Garak/Bashir and a respectable quantity of me personal 'ship of choice, Bashir/O'Brien.
Fandom cliches include awful epic Bashir Torture in which the good doctor is beaten raped by wolves, and the idea that the Dax symbiont is unnaturally horny at all times (though this last one at least has some canon basis...). Benji fic is notably lacking, with Bashir easily being the most-written character by far.
Where do we go from here?
As far as I know the only multi-ship DS9 fic archive is Bajorarama, and that's the archive for the sole multi-ship egroup of the same name.
Otherwise you're stuck with single-pairing archives like Cardassia Sutra (Garak/Bashir), or individual author sites like Mark Stanley's, Kathryn Ramage's or Mosca's, all of which are well worth a look-see. If you want to hang with the other Treks as well EnterpriseAndBeyond is a good place to start.
For more fandom fun check out![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
ds9agogo for meta and a bit of fic, and the DS9 TrekBBS board for eternal flamewars about nothing much in particular.
The Main Players
Benjamin Sisko, Captain
Benji ends up on DS9 despite himself, and stays when he realises that
Kira Nerys, first officer and former terrorist
After spending most of her life fighting the Cardassian occupation of Bajor, Nerys finds herself working with the Emissary of her gods on an old space station admninistered by the Federation. Never entirely happy with anything, she spent an inordinate amount of time bitching and yelling. Bless 'er little 'eart. A series of dull boyfriends ended when she got together with Odo in Season 6. Irony levels hit overload when she ended up fighing in the Cardassian resistance to free her former enemies from the Dominion.
ETA: And, yes, I forgot the most disturbing Kira moment - when the O'Brien's baby was transplanted into Kira to cover the fact that Nerys had been knocked up by Dr Bashir. Err, that her actress and his actor had... errr... just EWW, OK?
Odo
Chief of security with the handy ability to change shape into, err, other shapes. Angsty because of a) Kira and b) the fact that his people are the leaders of the Dominion. Ouch. Enjoys solving crimes and reading about fictional people solving fictional crimes. Controversially avoided controversy over his role in the Cardassian Occupation when the station was known as Terok Nor.
Worf, err... he's Worf, dammit!
Helpfully brought over from TNG at the start of Season 4, DS9 broke the Trek tradition by actually giving him something to do and making him Any Good. Also provided an excuse to watch TNG on the basis that "It's DS9 back-story! Honest!" Commanded the Defiant and deadpanned a lot. Oh, the deadpan! Married Jadzia Dax in S6 and shagged Ezri Dax in S7. The randy sod...
Jadzia Dax, science officer
Part woman, part slug. Has a Trill symbiote in her gut that gives her the memories of various people including sleazy old man Curzon Dax, Ben's sleazy friend and mentor. Jadzia was the only DS9 regular to actually die and stay dead, the symbiont being passed on to Ezri Dax. Became the first Trek character to have a same-sex kiss when she got it on with a former spouse (of sorts). The spots, FYI, go all the way down to her ankles.
Ezri Dax, awful therapist
While most Trill hosts get years of training, Ezri found herself Dax'd when the symbiont got sick and needed an urgent transplant into her. As a result she's vastly confused by all the memories and the whole split-personality thing. Managed to shag two regulars in the space of about six episodes, and kissed the Mirrorverse Kira. Sadly she's a bloody awful counsellor, being particularly adept at causing heartbreak and saying the wrong thing.
Miles O'Brien, engineer bloke
My personal favourite character, he's the Everyman of Trek. Married to Keiko and father of Molly and Yoshi, he's a refreshingly sane part of the Trekverse. Sadly he gets a bit overlooked, save for the traditional annual "Let's Torture O'Brien" episode. Likes darts, whiskey and re-enacting dead wars on the holodeck. Appears to spend most of his free time with...
Julian Bashir, poncey doctor
Genetically enhanced chief medical officer, and commonly held to be Trek's only bisexual character. Worked with the 'Jack Pack', a group of genetically enhanced misfits he was supposed to make normal. Failed at that. Quite badly. Also got roped in to Section 31, the Federation's shadowy CIA-type espionage organisation. Likes playing spy and gets self-righteous when he has to actually be one. Pined after Jadzia for six years and shagged Ezri in the final episode. But his big relationships were the flirty one with Garak and the bizarre are they/aren't they "friendship" with Miles. Sleeps with a teddy-bear called Kukalaka. (No, really.)
Quark, capitalist
Owner of the station's pub and an incorrigable chancer. Tended to be used as the voice that says things the other characters couldn't, and provided a fun outsiders view of the Federation "utopia". As a child he replaced his brother's toys with old vegetables and sold them for more than their father paid for them. Which is all you need to know, really.
Jake Sisko
AKA The Forgotten regular. Son of Ben Sisko he hung around in the background and earned our love as practically the only 'Fleet Brat to take up a civilian career - journalism. Once sacrificed the entire universe to save his dad. Aww, bless.
Yer Concepts
The Mirrorverse
Based on an old TOS episode no one remembers, it's an alternate universe "where everything's... alternate." Best remembered as the universe where all the women are gay, it features the traditional leather outfits and rugged dystopianism.
The Dominion
Essentially an evil Federation from the Gamma Quadrant, they turn up early on and end up at war with the Feds by the end of Season 5. Led by Odo's people - the Founders - and with an army of clone soldiers that look suspiciously like Buffy demons, the Dominion wants to bring order to the galaxy, which is really a big euphemism for taking over and being mean.
The Prophets
Aliens living in the wormhole to the Gamma Quadrant who exist outside time and thus on a technicality can see the future. Messed about with time to bring Sisko to them and then stole him at the end of the series. Worshipped as gods by the
Bajor and Cardassia
Long story short - the Cardassians invaded Bajor and occupied it for 50 years. Then they went away. Unsurprisingly, neither people is really over this yet.
Fandom
Such as it is, the fandom likes to gush about the intense brilliance of the show and tries to convince other Trekkies that their vision is as valid as
The het pairing of choice is either Odo/Kira (bleh, canon!) or Julian/Jadzia
Fandom cliches include awful epic Bashir Torture in which the good doctor is beaten raped by wolves, and the idea that the Dax symbiont is unnaturally horny at all times (though this last one at least has some canon basis...). Benji fic is notably lacking, with Bashir easily being the most-written character by far.
Where do we go from here?
As far as I know the only multi-ship DS9 fic archive is Bajorarama, and that's the archive for the sole multi-ship egroup of the same name.
Otherwise you're stuck with single-pairing archives like Cardassia Sutra (Garak/Bashir), or individual author sites like Mark Stanley's, Kathryn Ramage's or Mosca's, all of which are well worth a look-see. If you want to hang with the other Treks as well EnterpriseAndBeyond is a good place to start.
For more fandom fun check out
ds9agogo for meta and a bit of fic, and the DS9 TrekBBS board for eternal flamewars about nothing much in particular.
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