Character Insight No. 251: Eclipses and Stargazing

Welcome back to Character Insight!  This week, I was one of many who traveled to watch the solar eclipse in its totality, so let's take a look at eclipses in Star Trek.

https://archive.org/details/CharacterInsightEp251

As primarily a visual phenomenon based on planets, eclipses are not seen much in the space faring stories of Star Trek.  However, one eclipse does serve an important story role in the Voyager episode Ex Post Facto, where Professor Tolen Ren's wife expresses the importance of witnessing such an event a few years prior on their planet Banea.

QUOTE:
I haven't been married for years Tom...he treats me as a friend, a companion...he hasn't treated me as a woman since the day of the eclipse four years ago.  He was very excited about the eclipse, don't ask me why.

It later became important for Tom Paris to recall this and other information when he is accused of the Professor's murder and is implanted with false memories of the alleged murder to punish him for these alleged crimes.  The eclipse was a turning point in the marriage, and that helped Tuvok discover the motive and proof to exonerate Tom Paris of the charge.

Other than visuals referring to eclipses in the Enterprise theme credits or the visuals of other credits, there are no other references that can be found to such phenomenon.  It's just one part of stargazing that has not received a ton of play on Star Trek, as there are many more phenomenon to experience when out there amongst the stars.

Stargazing more generally has certainly been shown in many contexts in Star Trek.  We see Captain Archer stargazing on a Risa shore leave, and also Trip investigating a stellar nursery from a telescope on Earth in various Enterprise episodes.  Kamin from The Inner Light also builds a telescope, as noted on the episode insight a couple weeks ago.  Voyager also showed both humans and aliens stargazing as well, perhaps most notably in the episode Blink of an Eye, where Voyager is spotted by an observatory on an alien world when the ship is stuck in orbit of the planet.

Stargazing and enjoying event like eclipses are all about exploration and discovery of the universe around us, so it makes sense that we see references to the same in Star Trek thanks to the central theme of the show.  We might have to wait 7 years in America to see another eclipse, but we have far less time to wait to enjoy new Star Trek, and so we go on discovering and exploring.

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Character Insight No. 250: The Best of Ben Sisko

Welcome back to Character Insight! This week, we celebrate the 250th installment of this segment by closing out the Best Of series for Deep Space Nine with the station commander, Benjamin Sisko.

https://archive.org/details/CharacterInsightEp250

For no reason in particular, when I started this segment over five years ago, I decided to start with one of the commanding officers, and so Ben Sisko was originally covered in segment number 1.  It's been a long road getting from there to here, but I'm happy to bring us back to Sisko and cover his best moments to finish up this series on DS9 main characters.

As with most commanding officers and leads, there are so many high points in the character development of Ben Sisko.  One of the best episodes in Deep Space Nine is The Visitor, which focuses on the special bond Jake and Ben Sisko share as son and father.  Ben is always providing life advice and guidance to Jake, who we see as an adult and a young man in this alternate timeline episode.

QUOTE (from The Visitor, S4):
Captain Sisko: I'm no writer; but if I were, it seems to me I'd wanna poke my head up every once in a while and take a look around, see what's going on. It's life, Jake. You can miss it if you don't open your eyes.

In the episode In The Pale Moonlight, Sisko hits a personal low point as he goes to any means necessary to bring the Romulans into the Dominion War to help the Federation.  His personal logs recounting this turn of events is some of the darkest and most interesting moments we see from a captain or commanding officer in all of Star Trek.

QUOTE (from In The Pale Moonlight, S6):
Captain Sisko: So... I lied. I cheated. I bribed men to cover the crimes of other men. I am an accessory to murder. But the most damning thing of all... I think I can live with it. And if I had to do it all over again - I would. Garak was right about one thing: a guilty conscience is a small price to pay for the safety of the Alpha Quadrant. So I will learn to live with it... Because I can live with it...
In a unique episode called Far Beyond the Stars, Sisko deals with visions in which he is Benny Russell, an African-American science fiction writer in the 1950s dreaming up and writing the Deep Space Nine story as science fiction.  The other main actors on the show also take roles in these visions as other human characters, which allowed for us to see more of their depth outside alien contexts.  This take on metafiction allows for a commentary on the importance of science fiction in our current era.

QUOTE (from Far Beyond the Stars, S6):
Captain Sisko: I have begun to wonder. What if it wasn't a dream? What if this life we're leading - all of this, you and me, everything - what if all of this... is the illusion?
Joseph Sisko: That's a scary thought.
Captain Sisko: I know, I know... But maybe, just maybe, Benny isn't the dream. We are. Maybe we're nothing more than figments of his imagination. For all we know, at this very moment, somewhere, far beyond all those distant stars, Benny Russell... is dreaming of us.
Sisko broke the mold of what we previously knew as Starfleet commanders, and that was a great thing for the future of this franchise.  He's certainly one of my favorites, so the Emissary of the Prophets is a fitting end to the Best Of series for DS9.

Ben Sisko is played by Avery Brooks, who has the most fantastic interview with Bill Shatner in the documentary The Captains. He has passion for music and theater, and he's been a professor in the theater department of Rutgers University for 40 years.  He even taught courses while he played Sisko, sometimes sending lessons by video to his students with him still in his uniform from filming!

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Contact me with segment suggestions @BuckeyeFitzy on Twitter! Thanks!

Character Insight No. 249: Best of Worf

Welcome back to Character Insight! This week, we return to the Best Of series for Deep Space Nine with a look at Worf, who joined the series as a strategic operations officer following his days on Picard's Enterprise in TNG.

https://archive.org/details/CharacterInsightEp249

Unlike almost every other character, Worf is a known quantity when he joins the DS9 crew in season 4.  Commander Sisko brings him in to serve as an expert and liaison on Klingons as the tensions between the Cardassians, the Federation, and the Klingons were maximized at this point.

In his initial episode, The Way of the Warrior, we see Worf struggle with his old ship's destruction and conflicts between his Klingon heritage and his Federation duties.  However, Jadzia Dax immediately takes a liking to him, and the beginnings of romance are already present in this first appearance during a holodeck scene.

QUOTE (from The Way of the Warrior, S4):
Lt. Commander Jadzia Dax: [ordering two holo-bat'leths for herself and Worf] I thought you might be tired of fighting holograms.
Lt. Commander Worf: It would not be a fair match.
Lt. Commander Jadzia Dax: I'll go easy on you.

The injection of a strong Klingon character led to a series of Klingon-themed episodes featuring Worf and Dax, who also was close with Klingons in a prior life as Curzon.  One example is in the episode The Sword of Kahless, where Worf interacts with the TOS character Kor and then must make tough decisions after finding a long-lost Klingon relic.

QUOTE (from The Sword of Kahless, S4):
Lt. Commander Worf: It is done.
Lt. Commander Jadzia Dax: Good. It's for the best.
Kor: I hope you're right. It could be lost for another thousand years.
Lt. Commander Worf: When it is destined to be found... it will be.

Worf plays a critical role in defusing some of the Klingon conflicts and then later counseling the Empire to be a useful ally in the Dominion War.  One climax of his involvement occurs in the episode Tacking Into the Wind, in which he tries to convince Gowron to avoid a costly attack based solely on anger and vengeance, and ends up having to duel him to remove him as Chancellor of the Empire.

QUOTE (from Tacking Into the Wind, S7):
Lt. Commander Worf: We cannot attack Sarpedion.
Gowron: I decide what can and cannot be done!
Lt. Commander Worf: You rule without wisdom and without honor. The warriors that are gathered here will not say this to you, but I will. You are squandering our ships and our lives on a petty act of vengeance!
Gowron: I should have known better than to trust you again. If you were a true Klingon, I would kill you where you stand!


Other big highlights include the unique wedding with Jadzia in the episode You Are Cordially Invited, and the time Worf snaps the neck of one of the Dominion's Weyouns in the episode Strange Bedfellows.  As interesting as Worf's character was in TNG, he elevates to be one of, if not the best, main character on DS9.

Worf was played by Michael Dorn, who continues to act today but has plenty of other interesting passions.  For example, he is a member of the Air Force Aviation Heritage Foundation, and he also owns and operates an old Air Force T-33 trainer jet, his own starship if you will.

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Contact me with segment suggestions @BuckeyeFitzy on Twitter! Thanks!