gdp's Comments

Mark Watches : Mark Watches 'Deep Space Nine': S06E21 - The Reckoning

Thu, 29 Dec 2016 19:03:29 +0000

Fully agreed, thanks for the addendum.

Mark Watches : Mark Watches 'Deep Space Nine': S06E21 - The Reckoning

Thu, 29 Dec 2016 02:25:26 +0000

Full series spoilers: V'z abg fher jurer gur Erpxbavat svgf va jvgu gur cevpr Fvfxb unf gb cnl, hayrff vg'f rkcyvpvgyl guvf Cnu Jenvgu gung tbrf ba gb pnhfr nyy gur zvfpuvrs jvgu Qhxng. Guvatf jbhyq or irel qvssrerag obgu ba gur fgngvba naq ba Onwbe vs gur Cebcurgf unqa'g vagresrerq ol znxvat gur Qbzvavba syrrg inavfu; gur Qbzvavba jbhyq fgvyy or va punetr bs QF9, Onwbe jbhyq cebonoyl fgvyy or haqre n aba-ntterffvba cnpg, jbhyq gur Erpxbavat rira unir unccrarq? Ohg bar guvat irel fcrpvsvp bpphef orpnhfr Fvfxb qrznaqrq gur Cebcurgf gnxr npgvba: Qhxng ybfrf rirelguvat, rfcrpvnyyl uvf qnhtugre, naq gur ybff bs Mvlny, va gung jnl, ng gung cbvag, oebxr uvz fbzrguvat svrepr. Nyy bs uvf npgvbaf sebz gung cbvag bajneq ner n dhvpx qrfprag gbjneq jung raqf hc unccravat ng gur raq bs gur fubj, n ebnq gung rafherf Fvfxb jvyy svaq ab erfg ba Onwbe (naq arvgure, sbe gung znggre, jvyy Qhxng).

Mark Watches : Mark Watches 'Deep Space Nine': S06E21 - The Reckoning

Thu, 29 Dec 2016 02:13:36 +0000

Man, I completely forgot the Reckoning was right after His Way. I thought I had a few more days. WELP. Okay, so I really do love this episode, hokey special effects and all. And I think this episode highlights a major reason why I'm a huge Odo/Kira fan (I can actually say that without ROT13, it exists, yesss). In short, it's one of the healthiest and most respectful relationships I saw growing up. Of course there are issues, both in presentation and between the two, but for the most part I really do like what the writers try to do with them. In a way, this episode is a refutation of old!Odo from Children of Time. Sure, the stakes aren't nearly so high on either side (Kira's in danger, but not guaranteed to die, Bajor's future might be in danger, but it's not a sure thing that the whole planet will be wiped out), but it's a similar enough situation as far as Odo and Kira are concerned that I still find myself comparing the two. old!Odo couldn't accept Kira dying, even when that was her express desire. He instead made a horrifying decision out of selfishness (however understandable that selfishness might have been, given his situation, dude did one of the worst things we've seen onscreen in this show). He knew she did not want to live if it meant wiping out the existence of a whole planetful of people, and he made that decision for her. In the Reckoning, our Odo still knows Kira well enough to know exactly what she prefers in this situation; her religion is extraordinarily important to her, she volunteered to be the Prophet's 'vessel', she's willing to take a huge personal risk in the service of this, and she would not want it to be interfered with for the sake of her safety. Notably, Odo is decidedly non-religious, despite growing up on Bajor. He understands the role it plays in the culture he grew up in, but he's not invested in it, he doesn't participate in it, and he's never pretended that it really means anything to him personally. He doesn't have Kira's faith, and he recognizes this. But he doesn't think less of her because of it, and when it comes to what she wants in a decidedly religious context, he supports her. And when it directly threatens her life and the relationship with her that they've only just formed, Odo not only doesn't interfere, he argues on Kira's behalf. It's not like it's easy for him. Just look at those last few seconds he lingers on the Promenade. But I've seen so many shows where the opposite would happen, with far less at stake, and it's portrayed as romantic. I like this development because it suggests that whatever potential there was for Odo to become the man we saw in Children of Time, he seems to have learned from it, hopefully grown past it. Real love is respect for the desires of the person you love, even if that comes at the expense of what you personally want.

Mark Watches : Mark Watches 'Deep Space Nine': S05E26 - Call to Arms

Thu, 27 Oct 2016 20:51:07 +0000

I have so many feelings about this episode but I'm still behind in my rewatch and I think a lot of my words should wait until next season anyway, so for this comment, let's revisit a certain episode from about half a season back. Sisko starts having prophetic visions and basically finds Bajoran Atlantis (well, it's not actually under water, but shut up). He has a vision that he's standing in the city square with a bunch of Bajorans and they see the sky fill up with locusts. They're afraid, but then the locusts move on to Cardassia. Sisko isn't sure what this means, but he's absolutely certain it means something, and there's more to it. That episode's climax has a practically delirious Sisko run into and utterly disrupt the ceremony of Bajor joining the Federation by claiming that Bajor can't join, "it's too soon". He says that if they join, the locusts, instead of moving on to Cardassia, will instead destroy Bajor. As a result, Bajor decides not to join the Federation (at least not yet). They say a picture is worth a thousand words. <img src="http://vignette4.wikia.nocookie.net/startrek/images/8/8d/JemFighter.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20070821052414"> Last episode Kai Winn comes to Sisko with the information that the Dominion has offered a non-aggression pact to Bajor, and in this episode he tells her to sign it, so that Bajor can be kept out of the fighting. If Bajor was the newest member of the Federation, this would not be remotely possible. In fact, not only would Bajor be re-occupied in the worst possible way by the Cardassians AND the Dominion as of this episode, it's entirely possible they would be made an example of. We've seen what the Dominion does to those who defy them, and of course Bajor would fight (and the Dominion knows they would, they determined that all the way back in The Search with the fake simulation Sisko and the others were put through). None of this is to say things aren't going to get ugly anyway (Dukat back on the station? Agggh), but for the moment, at least, Bajor itself is far, far safer than it would have been if it weren't for Sisko basically tanking his original Starfleet assignment.

Mark Watches : Mark Watches 'Deep Space Nine': S05E22 - Children of Time

Mon, 17 Oct 2016 22:22:32 +0000

Season Six spoilers: Vg'f jul V pbafvqre Gur Erpxbavat gb or gur pbhagrecneg gb guvf rcvfbqr nf sne nf gurve eryngvbafuvc tbrf, fvapr va gung bar Bqb irel fcrpvsvpnyyl ubabef Xven'f jvfurf bire uvf bja, qrfcvgr gur snpg gung ab bar ryfr jbhyq unir oynzrq uvz sbe pubbfvat bgurejvfr.

Mark Watches : Mark Watches 'Deep Space Nine': S05E22 - Children of Time

Mon, 17 Oct 2016 22:19:35 +0000

I think it's because they're both big on the truth. old!Odo has not changed in great ways, but he's still Odo. He did an awful thing, and he wanted Kira to know he did it. Neither Odo would have thought she'd like that, or that it would somehow do anything but further torpedo any potential for a relationship (or for that matter, their friendship). Having Kira know that is really painful, but at the same time, given the choice, Kira would want to know. It's an interesting decision given old!Odo is ignoring the OTHER thing she wanted at the exact same time.

Mark Watches : Mark Watches 'Deep Space Nine': S05E22 - Children of Time

Mon, 17 Oct 2016 22:12:11 +0000

Alas, our!Odo didn't have the chance, from my understanding. I'm pretty sure old!Odo just went to the container he was in and stuck in his hand.

Mark Watches : Mark Watches 'Deep Space Nine': S05E22 - Children of Time

Mon, 17 Oct 2016 22:01:24 +0000

The episode doesn't beat around about this either. It doesn't try to soften it. Our Odo seems horrified, and why wouldn't he be? An older version of him did that. An older version of him did that because of his feelings for Kira. An older version of him linked with him, and knowing what we do about that process, it's likely our Odo has at least some idea of the kind of pain and isolation his older self spent two hundred years experiencing before ending it by wiping out everyone who had ever been on that planet. I love that Kira doesn't jump into his arms. I love that she's rightfully angry. I love that she's willing to die for a bunch of people she doesn't even know, and that she's the first one who argues for the sake of those people surviving. It's not like Kira doesn't want to live, or hasn't fought to live her whole life, but she considers this more important. So many other TV shows would have had them making out as soon as old!Odo said he loved her. And I love that old!Odo specifically says he's not expecting that or anything in return. I love that the end of this episode is such a heart-breaking mess.

Mark Watches : Mark Watches 'Deep Space Nine': S05E22 - Children of Time

Mon, 17 Oct 2016 22:01:01 +0000

I'm talking about old!Odo today, so strap in! Something the creators bring up in extras is that they weren't really able to fit in just how Odo's been living these past hundreds of years; but knowing that goes a pretty long way to explaining old!Odo's behavior. He's basically been hermiting on his own. He doesn't live in the village, he obviously isn't hanging out with the Klingons. He's alone in a very particular way; not only the only one of his species, not only the only surviving member of the original crew (Dax is, after all, a legacy character...two hundred years later, that's not the same Dax, even though he has all the memories), but also completely apart, almost certainly due to his own choices, from every other person on that planet. The only person we even see him interact with from the DS9 crew is Kira..and the reason for that becomes pretty clear. He loves her, still, and he's spent the past two hundred years mourning her death and knowing that eventually she's going to show up again. He's become obsessive; not in a pushy, stalkery sort of way, but in a way that makes it impossible for him to live with the idea of her dying again, even if the cost is astronomical. There's more that we can surmise. Throughout their time on the planet, our Odo is trapped in his liquid form, unable to interact with anyone (except, of course, with himself...that's got to have been strange and distressing). We have no idea how long old!Odo was stuck like that, as all he says is he figured out how to get around that problem 'a long time ago'. Kira dies within a matter of...weeks, I believe? I haven't been able to rewatch this yet. It's very possible, in fact almost certain, that old!Odo wasn't able to take physical form again until after she'd died, probably long after. He had no closure, and no ability to tell her his big secret, for two hundred years, so the very first thing he does is drop that revelation bomb. Not exactly the best or most considerate way to reunite, but if you've been waiting two hundred years to say something, you're probably going to say it as soon as you can. This all ends in him doing something horrible. Practically unthinkable given what we know of Odo. He erases not only himself, not only thousands of people, but every single person who has lived and died in that intervening 200 years. This is a guy who has tried his hardest not to kill anyone or anything. He was so upset when it happened by accident (and that it happened to one of his own people) that he didn't speak the entire trip back, which was at least a few days. old!Odo commits an atrocity because he can't stand the thought of Kira dying again, because his love has become obsessive and because he's, whatever mitigating circumstances have led to this, putting his own wants ahead of hers--not necessarily the want of a relationship (really, I'm fairly sure he figured it was never going to happen since he made sure she would know he was responsible) but the want of her surviving, even if it's at the expense of so many people. The want to avoid that kind of pain.

Mark Watches : Mark Watches 'Deep Space Nine': S05E16 - Doctor Bashir, I Presume?

Sun, 2 Oct 2016 09:24:30 +0000

This was amazing, thank you for writing all this.

Mark Watches : Mark Watches 'Deep Space Nine': S05E16 - Doctor Bashir, I Presume?

Sun, 2 Oct 2016 09:08:33 +0000

In response to that tumblr person, I strongly disagree for a lot of reasons, but my father was a doctor and I was a kid when he was still in medical school. Being smart is helpful, certainly, but there's a whole lot more to being a doctor than being smart, and a whole lot more to becoming one than just retaining information. For a probably terrible analogy, if you're a digital artist with a program that's clunky and inefficient and hardware that can barely run it, and you upgrade to a program that's far better and hardware that can run anything you can dream of...that doesn't mean that the art you create isn't your own just because you have better tools to create it. Julian being enhanced doesn't unsave all the people we've seen him save over the course of the series, it doesn't do much for...pretty much everything we saw him do in Nor the Battle to the Strong (although maybe it explains a little bit how he got a piece of equipment that needed two people to carry it back by himself while injured in the middle of a warzone), and it isn't responsible for him staying behind on a world full of dying people who hate him in order to keep trying to come up with a cure to what's killing them, among many examples. Basically I'm with O'Brien on this. Khan took his enhancements and got into horrific wars trying to take over the world. Julian took his and devoted his life to helping people. They might have had a leg up in doing those things, but they both own their actions and their accomplishments, good and terrible.

Mark Watches : Mark Watches 'Deep Space Nine': S05E16 - Doctor Bashir, I Presume?

Sun, 2 Oct 2016 08:53:07 +0000

He talks about not being able to tell a cat from a dog, and I'm not sure whether he means reading-wise, but it doesn't seem like it. For first grade that seems, in my incredibly inexpert opinion, to be well beyond just not having caught up to other kids his age yet. Considering how his mother talks about how she felt, this seems to mesh. Which is to say, I always took it as him being disabled.

Mark Watches : Mark Watches 'Deep Space Nine': S05E14 - In Purgatory's Shadow

Mon, 26 Sep 2016 20:48:39 +0000

I have so many things to say about this two parter, but most of them should wait until the next half. That said, the final scene between Garak and Tain is one of my favorites in this show, which is really really saying something. And I love how much it says about Garak and Julian that Garak, someone who lies just to practice lying, someone who continued denying his past even after it was practically confirmed in the Wire that he was an Obsidian Order agent, someone who is so private and troll-y about who he is that we still don't know what he did to get exiled five seasons into the show...just lets Julian sit in on that deeply personal, painful conversation with his father (confirming Tain IS his father in the process) with nothing more than a look between them and a lie about being alone. Also that scene just devastates me every time, without fail.

Mark Watches : Mark Watches 'Deep Space Nine': S05E12 - The Begotten

Wed, 21 Sep 2016 05:22:19 +0000

Given the circumstances of Mora's custody of baby!Odo, it all gets muddy. That said, I'd qualify (well, I already have) his behavior in several scenes between the two episodes as at least borderline emotionally abusive, and one definitely so. The argument in The Alternate, in which he seems to very deliberately play on Odo's fears--although I'm sure that was partly his own fears as well--is really really ugly. That he immediately goes to the very people he claimed were going to lock Odo up in a zoo for help, and is relatively calm, suggests to me that he didn't fully believe what he was saying. That's a really terrible thing to do, especially when you're well aware of what Odo's likely afraid of and just how hard it is for him to socially integrate. Although now I do wonder if that wasn't a very real fear for the both of them under the Cardassians that he dusted off and trotted out.

Mark Watches : Mark Watches 'Deep Space Nine': S05E12 - The Begotten

Wed, 21 Sep 2016 02:13:44 +0000

An interesting thing that I noticed but didn't put into my main comment is that Odo and Mora are a lot nastier to each other in this episode than they were in The Alternate (which is darkly funny to say considering Odo was unconsciously trying to kill Mora in that one), but that actually seems like progress. Why? Because in the Alternate Mora was swinging constantly between behaving like Odo was a young child and behaving like Odo was still his science experiment. Even in the penultimate argument, he's acting like Odo's a child who just doesn't know what's best for him. Here, while he's constantly needling and being an ass, he's also treating Odo like an adult (albeit, one he's openly trying to barb), and most importantly, like a person. Sure, Mora still thinks he knows best, but the entire tone of the way they talk to each other seems to have shifted.

Mark Watches : Mark Watches 'Deep Space Nine': S05E12 - The Begotten

Tue, 20 Sep 2016 22:19:53 +0000

Apparently the radiation poisoning from the beginning damaged it more than anyone realized. That's at least the explanation given in the episode anyhow.

Mark Watches : Mark Watches 'Deep Space Nine': S05E12 - The Begotten

Tue, 20 Sep 2016 22:13:13 +0000

You summed up my feelings about Mora better than I did, really. I fault him for how he's responded since the Occupation, mostly (though again, the fucking name thing). But I also wonder if that may very well be his way of coping with his own guilt, because as much as he sucks as a parent, he clearly feels like one and he absolutely knows, whether he admits it was his fault or not, that Odo resents him now and may have well hated him then.

Mark Watches : Mark Watches 'Deep Space Nine': S05E12 - The Begotten

Tue, 20 Sep 2016 22:05:41 +0000

Which again, isn't me saying that what Mora did was okay or even justified, and certainly doesn't make anything he's done since the Occupation ended in any way acceptable. He's an emotionally abusive asshole who's trying to be a parent but can't view his adopted kid through anything but cold science lenses and who only in this episode admits that he failed in what's the most important part of parenting; that is, the emotional connection with the child. Odo never trusted him and had no reason to, because he was a source of pain, frustration, and humiliation, and while some, maybe even a lot of that is due to their situation at the time, not all of it is, and Odo's under no obligation to forgive any of it. Which, I think, is why the hug at the end is kind've amazing. Also Odo gets two hugs (watch Kira's arm right before the fade out) because Odo really needs every hug in the world, damn.

Mark Watches : Mark Watches 'Deep Space Nine': S05E12 - The Begotten

Tue, 20 Sep 2016 22:05:14 +0000

This episode, this episode you guys. I mostly want to go on about Odo's deep love of flying around as a bird, but I think there's a third unexpected parenthood story semi-hidden in here that's easy to miss, so let's talk about Mora. After two episodes we know his personality pretty well (fucking stubborn, overbearing, emotionally abusive, poor empathy, and a terrible people person), but we only know a few things about his background. Apparently his parents are still alive (and he visits them at least occasionally). No spouse, no hint of any kind of romantic interests really, no talk of siblings, no talk of friends, and seemingly no social interaction beyond his work of SCIENCE. He doesn't talk about the Bajoran faith like...ever, to my recall. He seems like your stereotypical science dude; completely married to his work and seeing everything through the lense of scientific discovery, even, unfortunately, the pseudo-son he ended up somewhat raising. And this is where I want to look, because I think it's safe to say, with what we've been given, that Mora never intended to have a kid either. He's a really terrible dad, and for all his bluster he kind've knows it. I have no intention of white-washing what he did, because he did (and continues to do in this episode) pretty terrible shit (Odo's name, to name just one), but I do think context in this case is important, because while I don't think that Mora would have been a good father if the Occupation weren't going on at the time he was 'in charge' of Odo, I do think things wouldn't have been quite so bitter or painful for either of them. We don't know what the circumstances were when Mora first came into contact with Odo, other than no one knew what he was other than 'container full of weird organic matter' and he had a Cardassian overseer (because of course, the Cardassians wouldn't want Bajoran scientists working on things they didn't know every detail about). We do know, because Mora pretty plainly spells it out, that once Odo was known to be sentient the Cardassians wanted to know ALL THE THINGS and wouldn't have particularly given a shit about the means used to get such knowledge. Brand new shapeshifting sentient species? That's not something they'd want to let a Bajoran scientist keep working with. Which means that Mora was having to fight to keep Odo in circumstances decidedly more stressful than the ones presented in this episode (WTF Starfleet. Zl gurbel vf n pregnva fpnel ahzore betnavmngvba jnf chyyvat fbzr fgevatf), because while a Starfleet lab is no place for any kid, a Cardassian lab would be far, far worse. We've seen how they treat species they actually know and have power over, after all. Mora's choice seems to have been between letting the Cardassians take Odo or doing unpleasant unethical things to a sentient being himself in order to get enough results to not have Odo taken away. And that's an ugly, awful situation in and of itself, but Mora is a very shitty parent and doesn't really seem to emotionally connect with, ehm, anyone, let alone a science curiosity that turned out to be a person. (cont)

Mark Watches : Mark Watches 'Deep Space Nine': S05E09 - The Ascent

Sat, 10 Sep 2016 01:29:03 +0000

This is the make Odo suffer week, apparently. I forgot these two episodes were literally back to back (although I imagine he'd rank Things Past as worse, breaking your leg and nearly freezing to death/starving to death on a mountain with only Quark for company--and then not even him--is really bad okay.) I'm late and I haven't read comments yet, so I'm probably repeating things, but onward. So the thing I love most about this episode, apart from all of it (I'm easily pleased) is, to paraphrase what someone else once said in a review, that these are two guys whose personalities and histories and quirks combine to mean they can never, ever, eeeever (and Odo more than Quark really) admit that they're the weirdest of friends. Or frenemies, but I'm not sure that was a word back when it first aired. This isn't new, of course, it's been the nature of their relationship from the pilot, but getting an entire episode dedicated to it was great (even if Odo's hair distracts me throughout, it's like it's trying to shapeshift away on its own now that he doesn't have the energy/means to keep it tamed). My favorite scene is the last one, but my second favorite has to be a tie between the two set in the runabout. If there hadn't been a bomb, this episode would have just been the two of them arguing all the way to earth, and then all the way back (since Quark isn't actually being charged with something), and I would have been totally okay with that too, just saying. Since they're in sickbay together, I'm sure arguments will resume until they can leave. Also Odo reads romantic novels. For job research okay. Totally.