"Do you know what the sad part is Odo? I really am a GOOD tailor." - Garak to Odo - DS9
With respect to all the love I have for the original 'Star Trek' series, I am a huge fan of 'Star Trek DS 9'. While 'Voyager' (with it's lost in space theme) is the perfect concept for the 'Star Trek' Universe (regardless of how you feel about that series), DS9 was great at exposing the POLITICAL side of the Federation. How DO you deal with other species when you are stuck on an alien space station on the frontiers of known space?
Captain Benjamin Sisko is my favorite Captain and those last couple of seasons where the Federation fought the Dominion are some of the best examples of sequential science fiction storytelling that there has ever been on TV. They certainly had the best villains and space battles.
Of all the other actors on that show I love Garak the most. Played by Andrew J. Robinson (who you might remember as a very creepily effective killer in 'Dirty Harry') his Garak is completely untrustworthy until you need his trust. His eyes flit about wildly and his speech cadence is so deliberate as to give all his words multiple meanings. He had depth and range and found the courage to go against his very nature when his friends were in danger.
I have been watching DS9 from the beginning on 'Space' since the series reset itself a couple of months ago. Today they showed my favorite Garack centered episode - the one where he blew up his own tailor shop to save himself from a past that was catching up on him and was reunited with his father/mentor Tain.
Of all the people to reach out to him at the end, it's Odo, the shape shifting constable and head of security on the station. In that last scene they show an understanding for each other that is quite moving and surprising.
Garak had 'tortured' Odo earlier for information to give to his Cardassian mentor and had seen what Odo allows no one to see - him becoming liquid and recharging in his 'bucket'. Odo had every reason to hate Garak but pays him a visit at Garak's destroyed tailor shop at the end of the episode. I love the writing and the way they filmed this scene.
It begins at 2:52. Then watch a classic conversation between Garak and Quark. Another example of great writing.
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3 comments:
Never got into DS9. But sometimes the best Star Trek moments are the ones that aren't scifi at all. They are the small, 'human', personal moments.
One of the episodes I like is the ST:TNG one where Picard and Crusher are 'handcuffed' together mentally, and can 'read' each others' thoughts. Good stuff there, about their complicated relationship.
Of all the Trek sereis (aside from the original) DS9 is my favourite precisely because it was so well written. It didn't get preachy or moralistic like Next Gen or Voyager could. Ben Sisko is also my favourite captain (aside from Kirk, of course). He is a real guy who is dealing with a lot of pain.
One of the show's writers, Ronald D. Moore, might have something to do with it. DS9 is where he really developed his writing chops before going off and rebooting Battlestar Galactica.
God, I've been championing DS9 for years and I still forget just how good it was at its best. So, so well made. (And now I really want that bottle from the second clip!)
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