Character Insight No. 222: Joseph Sisko

Welcome back to Character Insight! This week, we review Joseph Sisko, a recurring character from Deep Space Nine.

https://archive.org/details/CharacterInsightEp222

Joseph Sisko is the father of Commander Ben Sisko and the grandfather of Jake Sisko, two of our main characters in this series. Joseph was initially alluded to be dead in the premiere Emissary, but that turns out to not be the case when he shows up in 6 episodes of the series later. That makes him a unique character as the only living parent of a commanding officer seen interacting with that officer during command (all other captains had deceased or not shown parents in their shows).

Joseph is written as an interesting character thanks in large part to the mysterious background that leads to Benjamin being the Emissary of the Prophets. To this end, Joseph's first wife Sarah was occupied by a Prophet to cause the Emissary to be born, and then Sarah and the Prophet disappear shortly after Ben's birth. There's a notable allegory to religion for you, as is common with the Bajorans in this series. Joseph re-marries and has three more children, and Ben does not discover that he has a different mother until the episode Image in The Sand, an episode where Ben finds his way again following the death of his close friend Jadzia Dax.

Joseph remains passionate about his restaurant and cooking, earning a reputation as one of the finest Cajun chefs on Earth. He passes this desire for cooking on to his son Benjamin and his grandson Jake as well, sharing the family tradition in the form of jumbalaya. Indeed, Ben was raised to work in Joseph's vegetable gardens and as a taste-tester for all kinds of new recipes.

Once this background with Joseph is established, this character comes in to interact with Ben on a couple occasions as a moral compass and guide of sorts. In the episode A Time to Stand, Joseph resists new Federation orders to blood test all Starfleet officer family members to detect any Dominion and Founder incursions. His complaints about loss of freedom at the hands of the government is an interesting allegory for where we stand today as a nation.

QUOTE:
Joseph Sisko: You know, there's something I just don't understand. You're always telling me that space is big, that it's an endless frontier, filled with infinite wonders.
Captain Sisko: It's true.
Joseph Sisko: Well, if that's the case, you would think it would be more than enough room to allow people to leave each other alone.
Captain Sisko: It just doesn't work that way. It should; but it doesn't.

Also during the Dominion War, Jospeh leaves Earth for the first time to see his son and grandson on the space station in the episode Far Beyond the Stars. Anybody with parents or grandparents who don't travel much and then are curmudgeons can relate to this story.

Joseph might have some stereotypical parent features, but he is useful in explaining what makes Commander Sisko the man that he is. Overall, this is the type of recurring character that is mixed in just enough to be memorable, while not overdoing it on silly stories. His highlight was certainly as a refuge for Ben when Ben escapes to Earth for a while following the death of Jadzia, and that is another important turning point in the DS9 Dominion story.

Joseph Sisko is played by Brock Peters, who you would also recognize as Admiral Cartwright from the Star Trek 4 and 6 movies. He also appeared in famous movies To Kill A Mockingbird and Soylent Green.
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Character Insight No. 221: Best of Travis Mayweather

Welcome back to Character Insight! This week, we continue the "Best Of" series for Enterprise with a profile of Travis Mayweather, the ensign and primary helmsman aboard Archer's Enterprise.  He's a character that could steer the ship by [HEART].

https://archive.org/details/CharacterInsightEp221

In the season 1 episode Fortunate Son, Mayweather alludes to his background and family ties aboard spacefaring vessels when discussing a freighter that the Enterprise needs to help.  This helps explain why he is passionate about helming the new Warp-5 capable Enterprise:

Sub-Commander T'Pol: The Earth cargo ship: "Fortunate". Y-class freighter. Maximum speed warp 1.8. Crew complement 23.
Ensign Travis Mayweather: Not counting newborn babies.
Captain Jonathan Archer: Ensign?
Ensign Travis Mayweather: I grew up on a J-class. A little smaller, but the same basic design. And one thing I can tell you is that at warp 1.8, you got a lotta time on your hands between ports. That's how my parents wound up with me.

In the season 2 episode Horizon, we see Mayweather go back to visit that family, still running their freighter, during a slow time aboard Enterprise.  The death of Mayweather's father presents some of his best character bits of the series, but this dialogue before those events stands out as showing some of his views on the future of Starfleet space flight:

Ensign Travis Mayweather: Starfleet really ought to think about putting families on starships.
Lieutenant Malcolm Reed: You must be joking.
Ensign Travis Mayweather: No one would ever get homesick.
Lieutenant Malcolm Reed: Yes... Well, they'd better post a psychologist on board, because I'd need one if my parents were roaming the corridors.

There are parallels to character development of other helmsmen like Sulu, as shown when Mayweather is first confronted with taking command of the Enterprise in Season 1's Cold Front:

Ensign Hoshi Sato: Aren't you gonna take the chair?
Ensign Travis Mayweather: What?
Ensign Hoshi Sato: [winking to the Captain's chair] You're in command!
Ensign Travis Mayweather: [laughs sheepishly] I'm fine right here.
Ensign Hoshi Sato: Haven't you ever wondered what it's like?
Ensign Travis Mayweather: I can wait till I'm promoted.

Mayweather starts out with some strong episodes in the first two seasons of the show, but he becomes more of a face in the ensemble crowd in latter seasons, as others become the star characters. Unfortunately, that leaves a lot that could have been done much better in the development of this character.  He's kind of a one note character:

Closing quote
From Strange New World, season 1: Ensign Travis Mayweather: I couldn't call a place home unless it came with a pair of warp nacelles.

Character Insight No. 220: Best of Charles "Trip" Tucker

Welcome back to Character Insight! This week, we continue the "Best Of" series for Enterprise with a profile of Charles Tucker III, AKA "Trip", the chief engineer.  He's definitely someone who had[FAITH] in the Enterprise.

https://archive.org/details/CharacterInsightEp220

In the season 1 episode Shuttlepod One, Trip and Malcolm Reed are stranded together in a shuttlecraft adrift. Like Reed, this is a great character building episode for Trip thanks to dialogue like this:

Lt. Reed: We have less than nine days of oxygen left. It seems a waste to use it up sleeping.
Commander Tucker: If I don't waste some oxygen sleeping, I'm gonna start gettin' real cranky. And you don't wanna spend your last nine days cooped up with me when I'm cranky!

In the season 2 episode First Flight, we find out the origin of Trip's nickname while also establishing how Captain Archer and Tucker forged a working relationship long before Enterprise:

Commander Jonathan Archer: What's your name, Lieutenant?
Lieutenant Charles 'Trip' Tucker III: Charles Tucker, sir. But... everybody calls me Trip.
Commander Jonathan Archer: 'Trip'?
Lieutenant Charles 'Trip' Tucker III: My dad's Charles Tucker, and so is his dad; that makes me the third, so... triple - 'Trip'.

As covered in T'Pol's segment, the Vulcan subcommander and Trip become romantically involved in this show after a slow burn. In the season 4 episode Home, T'Pol's mother sees right through Trip in a humorous exchange:

T'Les: I know that you're romantically involved with my daughter. There's no logic in denying it. How long have you been attracted to her?
Cmdr. Charles 'Trip' Tucker III: [sighs] I knew we had... some kind of chemistry the first time we got into an argument. I never had fun arguing with anyone before. I got the impression T'Pol wasn't gonna say anything to you.
T'Les: She didn't. I'm her mother.

Like any good chief engineer, Trip has his moments of frustration with the command crew when forcing the ship to its limits, as shown in this clip from Season 2's Cease Fire:

Cmdr. Charles 'Trip' Tucker III: I don't like pushing the engines this hard. The injectors are running 110 percent.
Sub-Commander T'Pol: They're rated for 120.
Cmdr. Charles 'Trip' Tucker III: Yeah, and my underwear is flame-retardant. That doesn't mean I'm gonna light myself on fire to prove it.
Trip quickly becomes one of the more memorable characters on Enterprise, and the high amount of dialogue and dinners between him, T'Pol and Archer make him a great foil to the command officers. Definitely a strong point for this version of Trek.

Character Insight No. 219: Best of Hoshi Sato

Welcome back to Character Insight! This week, we continue the "Best Of" series for Enterprise with a profile of Hoshi Sato, the ensign and communications officer.  [FAITH OF THE HEART]

https://archive.org/details/CharacterInsightEp219

In the season 1 episode Fight or Flight, Sato encounters some horrors she didn't expect on an away mission. She proves the linguist has a long way to go to be used to deep space exploration and its unpredictability:

Ensign Hoshi Sato: I'm a translator; I didn't come out here to see corpses hanging on hooks.
Dr. Phlox: It goes without saying that you're going to encounter the unexpected.
Ensign Hoshi Sato: Not corpses on hooks!

By the time season 3's Exile rolls around, Hoshi has become far more self-confident and capable on away missions. She escapes a potential forced companionship with an alien entity for 60 or 70 years by her own guile and determination, and it's alluded to even before she goes on the mission in this sequence:

Captain Jonathan Archer: Do I have to tell you to stay on your toes?
Ensign Hoshi Sato: I think that falls under the goes-without-saying category, sir.
Captain Jonathan Archer: Did you bring a phase pistol?
Ensign Hoshi Sato: I'll keep it under my pillow.

Also in season 3, Sato shows off her incredible skills as a linguist in detecting someone's background based on dialect in the episode The Xindi:

Ensign Hoshi Sato: What do you think of our doctor, Sergeant? I imagine you don't run into many Denobulans in Duluth, Minnesota?
Sergeant Kemper: [... ] You must've gotten pretty deep into our records. I haven't lived in Duluth since junior high school.
Ensign Hoshi Sato: You may have left Duluth, but you've still got plenty of Duluth left in your inflections.
Sergeant Kemper: Excuse me?
Major Hayes: Ensign Sato's a linguist, Kemper. You give her enough time, she could probably tell you what street you grew up on.

Despite a relatively checkered background at the Academy, Sato proves to be one of the most loyal and reliable crew members of Archer's crew, as evidenced by this quote in Shockwave Part 1 from season 1:

Ensign Travis Mayweather: From what Commander Tucker tells me, people back home think that we're doing nothing out here but getting in trouble.
Ensign Hoshi Sato: Then it's our job to let the people back home know what really happened. Anyone tries to badmouth Captain Archer in front of me is gonna get an earful, in any language they want.

Although Sato does experience a character arc over the four seasons of this show, she feels like one of the least used and developed personalities in the ensemble main cast. Often she is just a face in the crowd, doing her communications bits and then moving on. Unfortunately, that makes her a relatively non-memorable character by Trek standards, which are admittedly high.