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.

-----

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

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!

-----

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.

-----

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

Character Insight No. 248: Best of Ezri Dax

Welcome back to Character Insight! This week, we return to the Best Of series for Deep Space Nine with a look at Ezri Dax, the main character who joined the show for the final season when the Dax symbiont needed another host following Jadzia's death.

https://archive.org/details/CharacterInsightEp248

Ezri Dax serves as a Lieutenant counselor aboard the station, and she's got plenty of personal adjustment and baggage to work through as she mixes her young host with the decades of experience Dax has. Ezri was the only Trill available to join with the symbiont when an emergency happens while trying to return to the Trill homeworld, which leads to the adjustment issues as alluded to in the episode Shadows and Symbols.

QUOTE (from Shadows and Symbols, S7):
Ensign Ezri Dax: [nods] I lay down on that operating table one person and I woke up a completely different person - well, I should say eight different people. I was not prepared for this at all. I mean you're supposed to get years of training and preparation before you get joined and all I got was a 15-minute lecture from the ship's surgeon and he wasn't even a Trill...
Sisko: I'm starting to see the problem.

It takes a while for the crew to adjust to having a new version of Dax around, but at least this replacement is nicer than Dr. Pulaski.  She and Worf take the longest to finally get along, but Ezri is always a realist about how hard it is for Worf to overcome the loss of Jadzia, and they finally figure things out in the episode Strange Bedfellows.

QUOTE (from Strange Bedfellows, S7):
Lt. Commander Worf: I realize, Jadzia saw physical love differently than I do. To her it could mean many things, but to me it was a deeply spiritual act. When I made love to you... my motives were not spiritual. It was an unworthy impulse.
Lieutenant Ezri Dax: Worf, we're not gods or prophets. We're people. We make mistakes.

Although the show writers definitely took advantage of the new fertile storytelling ground they had with a new character in the final season, the dramatic push to the end of the Dominion War storyline kept this from being overdone.  However, the rapid development of Ezri's character included her own romance that had plenty of false starts, this time with Dr. Bashir.  They finally admit their feelings and become a couple right before the end, as shown in the episode What You Leave Behind.

QUOTE (from What You Leave Behind, S7):
Lieutenant Ezri Dax: We have to get up.
Doctor Bashir: Are you sure?
Lieutenant Ezri Dax: It's a big day.
Doctor Bashir: [sighs] It was a big night. Cleared up a lot of unanswered questions.
Lieutenant Ezri Dax: Such as?
Doctor Bashir: Such as, just how far these spots really go down.


As the DS9 crew never had a regular counselor, it was interesting to see one added to the mix in the final season.  Ezri was no Jadzia, but in some ways, that was yet another interesting twist in this most unique of the Star Trek series.

Ezri Dax was played by Nicole de Boer, who continues to act today after overcoming shyness as a child with stage acting in Toronto, Canada.  Some of her most notable work outside Trek includes as a regular on The Dead Zone and more recent bit roles on Reign and Private Eyes.
-----

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

Character Insight No. 247: Musical Instruments

Welcome back to Character Insight! This week, we congratulate Mike and Darrell on 300 episodes, and celebrate the centerpiece of The Inner Light with a review of musical instruments featured on Star Trek.

https://archive.org/details/CharacterInsightEp247


Star Trek has many core ideals, one of which is the exploration of other worlds and species, as well as celebrating the commonalities and differences found.  One commonality among many different cultures is music, and we see many different musical instruments and devices over the journeys of the crews of Star Trek.  According to Memory Alpha, we have already seen nearly 30 alien musical instruments over the history of Star Trek, to go along with a healthy dose of 25 or so familiar human musical instruments.

Sometimes these instruments serve as an important centerpiece or memorable contributor in episodes.  Certainly Picard's Ressikan Flute from his 40 years of experience in The Inner Light fits this bill, as does the Betazoid chime that Homn brings along in multiple Lwaxana episodes in TNG. 

Other times, they simply give more character to alien worlds or Federation crew members.  The Vulcan lute is seen played on multiple occasions by Spock and Tuvok, and the well-known trombone is played often by jazz fan William Riker.  It definitely appears that music has not lost any importance in the 23rd and 24th Century, but quite the opposite.

Although not typically thought of as a musical instrument, the voice of some characters is on full display with talent for singing.  Uhura was known to sing a tune at times on TOS, and the character development of the holographic Doctor on Voyager depended in large part on a passion for singing and music.  One of my favorite episodes is Virtuoso, in which the Doctor must decide whether to stay as a musical performer on a planet with a technically advanced civilization who adores him and had not heard music before Voyager arrived.

Although we see the usual gamut of string, wind, and percussion instruments on the show, Star Trek is always looking towards the future, and this came in so-called mental instruments that were played or controlled by thought and a touch of the hand.  Examples of this are the Enaren musical instrument from Voyager's Remember, and the Aldean musical instrument in TNG's When The Bough Breaks.  It will be interesting to see if musical tech follows some other tech shown on Trek to become a reality.

Congratulations again to Mike and Darrell, and here's to another 300 episodes with fun musical interludes.

-----

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

Character Insight No. 246: Jim Shimoda and Sarah MacDougal

Welcome back to Character Insight! This week, we take a request from "K
enP" and review Jim Shimoda and the moving parts of engineering in early TNG episodes.

https://archive.org/details/CharacterInsightEp246


In the first season of TNG, the chief engineer and their leadership personnel would change almost as quickly as someone's underwear.  Until Geordi gets his hands on the job, nobody could seem to keep that department running smoothly.  That made for a nice corollary to the show writers getting their sea legs using many rehashed or callback scripts in the first season.

One such example is the episode The Naked Now, which of course is a similar story to what Kirk's crew faced with polywater intoxication in the episode The Naked Time.  In this episode, Sarah MacDougal takes her short stint as chief engineer, and she has to deal with a crazed Wesley Crusher locking her out of engineering, as kids do.  However, her most notable scene comes later in the episode thanks to a much more entertaining character, her assistant chief engineer Jim Shimoda.

You see, Shimoda was one of the crew members quickly affected by the polywater intoxication, and his way of acting out was to pull all the isolinear chips from the ship's computer and stack them in a game of tower building and Jenga.  Obviously you cant run a starship without some tabletop gaming enthusiasts, and Shimoda is clearly living out a great fantasy we can all relate to.  MacDougal has to try and put the chips back, but it turns out Data can do it better to restore control to the ship...which may help explain why we didn't need MacDougal much longer in charge.

QUOTE
Jim Shimoda: Never got as far as sickbay, Wes. I feel too good for that.

So here's to you, assistant chief engineer Jim Shimoda.  Hopefully you were able to retire after the polywater intoxication and live out your dreams of tabletop gaming for a living...you know, just like Wil Wheaton ended up doing!  It will be interesting to see if there's any department like TNG engineering that sees personnel turnover in the new Discovery show, given the similar long gap since writers had their hands on making Star Trek work.

Sarah MacDougal was played by Brooke Bundy, who had plenty of small TV roles over a 30 year career in shows like Lassie, Bonanza, and The Brady Bunch.  She has been retired for 25 years, but she did appear in the Elm Street Legacy documentary a few years ago thanks to her notable roles in the 3rd and 4th films of that horror franchise.

Jim Shimoda was played by Benjamin Lum, who had many small acting roles throughout his career before death in 2002 at age 48.  Shimoda did have a long recurrence on the show Guns of Paradise.  We will always have isolinear chip jenga to remember him by!

-----

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

Character Insight No. 245: Best of Elim Garak

Welcome back to Character Insight! This week, we continue the Best Of series for Deep Space Nine with a look at Elim Garak, a Cardassian tailor aboard the station who has one of the most interesting and mysterious back stories as an Obsidian Order agent, making this often recurring character worthy of a Best Of segment.

https://archive.org/details/CharacterInsightEp245


Garak is most often seen interacting with Doctor Bashir, and this includes in one of his first notable episodes in Season 2's Cardassians. Garak proves some of his many skills from a former life in repairing a resettlement center's computers with tailor tools while investigating some work by Gul Dukat.

QUOTE (from Cardassians, S2):
Doctor Bashir: I continue to underestimate you, Garak.
Elim Garak: Oh, it's no more difficult than sewing on a button actually. Excuse me.
[He takes an electronic loupe out of his eye]
Doctor Bashir: You carry this everywhere with you, do you?
Elim Garak: A simple tailoring tool. You'd be surprised how often someone needs their pants let out.

We find out much more about Garak when a device implanted in his brain begins to malfunction and is slowly killing him, in the episode The Wire. Bashir saves his life, but not without a lot of interesting dialogue between these two once again.

QUOTE (from The Wire, S2):

Elim Garak: I do hope you appreciate the irony, Doctor. The whole purpose of the implant was to make me immune to pain.
Dr. Julian Bashir: What caused it to malfunction?
Elim Garak: It was never meant for continuous use.
Dr. Julian Bashir: Continuous use? What do you mean?
Elim Garak: Living on this station is torture for me, Doctor. The temperature is always too cold, the lights always too bright, every Bajoran on the station looks at me with loathing and contempt. So one day, I decided I couldn't live with it anymore. And I took the pain away.

There's no episode that holds a candle to In The Pale Moonlight for Garak, as far as character pieces go. Commander Sisko hits his darkest moment in the Dominion War as he employs the underhanded plots of Garak himself to plant evidence to force the Romulans into the war, to save the Alpha Quadrant.

QUOTE (from In The Pale Moonlight, S6):

Elim Garak: That's why you came to me, isn't it, Captain? Because you knew I could do those things that you weren't capable of doing? Well, it worked. And you'll get what you want: a war between the Romulans and the Dominion. And if your conscience is bothering you, you should soothe it with the knowledge that you may have just saved the entire Alpha Quadrant. And all it cost was the life of one Romulan senator, one criminal, and the self-respect of one Starfleet officer. I don't know about you, but I'd call that a bargain.

Elim Garak was played by Andrew Robinson, who currently serves as the director of fine arts acting program at the University of Southern California. Outside Star Trek, he is likely best known as the serial killer Scorpio in the classic film Dirty Harry.
-----

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