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fandomsecrets2021-12-11 03:49 pm
case) wrote in fandomsecrets2021-12-11 03:49 pm
[ SECRET POST #5454 ]
⌈ Secret Post #5454 ⌋
Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.
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Notes:
Secrets Left to Post: 02 pages, 38 secrets from Secret Submission Post #781.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.
Re: Secrets you don't want to make...
(Anonymous) 2021-12-11 11:12 pm (UTC)(link)Re: Secrets you don't want to make...
(Anonymous) 2021-12-11 11:17 pm (UTC)(link)Re: Secrets you don't want to make...
(Anonymous) 2021-12-11 11:23 pm (UTC)(link)You are wrong
Re: Secrets you don't want to make...
(Anonymous) 2021-12-11 11:34 pm (UTC)(link)Re: Secrets you don't want to make...
(Anonymous) 2021-12-11 11:40 pm (UTC)(link)Re: Secrets you don't want to make...
(Anonymous) 2021-12-12 12:01 am (UTC)(link)However. There is a fundamental structure difference between DS9 and a lot of the other Trek shows: DS9 was a continuous story arc structure set in a fixed location, vs most of the ship-based shows running episodic exploration stories encountering different problems most episodes. While later ship-based shows like ENT and DISCO also did arcs, it doesn’t work quite the same way as DS9’s consistent factions and location allowed. So … I don’t know about better, but DS9 definitely did allow a different type of story and structure, and if you like that better it makes sense that DS9 would stand out to you.
I actually adore the episodic structure, possibly more than the story-arc one. The TOS crew bumbling around the universe finding every weird space disease and time-lost human colony with an archaic social structure going was fantastic for me. That on its own isn’t enough to push DS9 into clear winner territory.
There’s also the difference in tone. DS9 was explicitly more cynical than most of the Trek shows until DISCO and PICARD. I think that’s what you might mean by ‘deeper questions and better commentary’? And that’s … arguable. DS9 did a deeper dive into the potential consequences of the Federation and blithely ‘going where no man has gone before’, yes. DS9 also dug very deeply on the idea of an occupation, both the Cardassian occupation of Bajor, and the Federation occupation of the station and the sector. It explored the potential dark side of the Federation in a way that none of other shows have done until very recently.
Those aren’t necessarily deeper questions, though. They’re just more structural. A lot of the other shows have done deep dives on ethical and societal issues, though often more allegorically, and on a more episode-by-episode basis. Again, it’s kind of a story structure thing.
DS9 is just a very different story tone and structure. DS9 is a war story and an examination of the ethics and politics of occupation, done via story arc and set broadly in a single location. TOS was a utopian exploration of myriad different social issues of the time via episodic allegories, allowing the show to move from issue to issue as the ship moved from colony to colony. VOY was a ‘stranded behind enemy lines’ story where the initial focus was on how small isolated factions would react to their surroundings and each other when pushed to for survival, and later took the opportunity presented by a complete lack of Federation presence to see which Federation ideals stuck and which fell away in the wild wild west of the Delta Quadrant. TNG is probably the most representative of all of them, probably just as a raw fact of the length of time it was on, allowing it to flirt with the themes from DS9 and TOS and more, while also showing the raw established fact of the Federation that later shows like DS9 were taking apart and examining. ENT and DISCO both hopped back into prequel territory to examine how that structure came into being in the first place, with ENT borrowing a lot of themes from VOY in the process, while DISCO went a more DS9 route. I haven’t watched PICARD, but it looks like it’s going much more strongly into identity issues, PTSD, and the social reaction to same, as well as the fallout from earlier series.
I think, overall, I honestly don’t think DS9 is necessarily better. It’s just a unique story structure in Trek history that stands out. It had a different POV on a lot of the established Trek tropes, and moved completely away from others. It had a more cynical tone, and was willing to peel away at the foundations of the Trek universe, and was the first of the shows to do so as strongly and structurally as it did. But it also had weaknesses due to the same structure. It didn’t have the freedom of motion of the ship-based shows, didn’t have the ability to explore as widely as they did, both physically in space and socially. And Trek was always an exploration show. It was also always a hopeful show, which DS9 sometimes struggled with quite badly.
But it’s a perfect addition to the canon, because of the contrast it has with the rest. Because it shows the range of things possible within the universe of Star Trek. Because it took the time to do what the other shows weren’t doing at the time. And damn it, it’s one of my two favourites of the shows, and I promise that’s not all because of Garak.