A couple of random thoughts on DS9 episodes - crossposted to Wordpress

[mary_j_59]

So - having watched the show in its entirety, my sister (the lovely Deirdrea - deirdrej on livejournal) and I are watching episodes here and there, mostly from the fifth season. Among those we saw recently were "Dr. Bashir, I presume" and "The Begotten". And-


I really love Kukalaka! And here is why. It isn't childishness that makes Dr. Bashir hang on to him; at least, not entirely. Little Jules stitched that bear together at the age of 6, as a small, slow, differently abled child. Kukalaka is concrete proof to the good doctor that the child he was is the person he is today. He's still stubborn, determined, capable, and a healer, just as he was as a little boy. The best parts of him were things he already had long before anyone "fixed" him.



And then there's the lovely grandfather/father/child dynamic in "The Begotten". Warning - some spoilers ahead!





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When the dying changeling child gives what it has and "heals" Odo, its foster-father, that act has major consequences. I mentioned, "It's because of his compassion for the child that Odo gets his abilities back, and this in turn allows him to heal his people and stop a war."


Deirdrea commented, "The pity of Bilbo will rule the fate of many! It's really quite Christian, isnt' it?"


"Yes, it is", I said. "But Bilbo is more so. The child is an innocent little child. Gollum is - well, Gollum!"


Still, the resonances with Tolkien are really neat! At least, I think so.

Comments

[vermouth1991.livejournal.com]

Just want to comment on the Tolkien bit: Peter Jackson's six-film adaptation of The Hobbit and LotR is, of course, far from perfect, but the story and scripts is pretty coherent, which is more than can be said of the Harry Potter films (especially PoA, GoF and OotP). You can make DVD documentaries of the Middle-earth saga with clips of the films put in, and you'll have pretty much everything you need (e.g. "If Bilbo hadn't spared Gollum that day" *clip of Martin Freeman lowering the blade* "No one would be there to fall into the lava with The One Ring" *clip of Gollum cradling Da Precious and falling*) at your disposal, but can you do the same with, say, the very important backstory of the Marauders bullying Snape, Snape turning evil but repented, while Wormtail was the real traitor and actually gave away the Potters' house? Post-CoS the films stubbornly stuck to linear-narratives (except for a few pensive scenes) while also SHORTENING the lengths. And it shows.

I envy the fans of shows and movies that can do that.

[mary-j-59.livejournal.com]

Good point. You can certainly do that with DS9. Like all the "Treks", it is episodic at times, and it has its share of clunkers, but on the whole it's a very thoughtful, humane, character-driven show. It never got the respect it deserved in its first run. I firmly assert that it's the best of the "Treks", closely followed by the original. Of course, without the original show, there would have been no cartoon, no movies, no Next Generation, no DS9, and none of the shows that came after these!