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Ok, the whole 'alternate evil characters' thing is interesting in and of itself. Classic Trek never explained why a character would be one way in the natural universe and another in this alternate 'mirror' universe. DS9 did, saying that, for whatever reason (probably locating the technobabbling rationale in some nebulous quantum theory, so far, so Trek) that the characters' motivations and basic psychology was in some way the opposite of how they's normally act. Thus Garak is no longer a scheming manipulator, and becomes a brutal, stupid semi-psychotic ; Odo's sense of natural justice is perverted to a sadistic love of pain ; and Kira's own sense of honour and loyalty, her straightforward attitude and black and white code also changes - she becomes a scheming, duplicitous backstabber with no ties, who, in contrast to her monogamous attitude towards relationships in the natural universe, is promiscuous and capable of being so with 'playing pieces' of either gender. It's nothing to do with political notions of sexuality, or indeed with sexuality at all - she's a user, out for herself. And since I can't think of another Trek character who exhibits 'bi' behaviour in the mirror universe, that pretty much answers that complaint, IMCensoriousO.
Buffy has the 'alternate' Willow exhibiting PVC/leather-clad bi tendencies - maybe that's where the generalisation comes from. Of course, Buffy has its own rationale for the alternate universe, completely separate from Trek's explanation - she has bi tendencies herself, and the evil vampire version of her is 'out' - just evil, as Buffy vampires are wont to be portrayed.
The whole 'passionless' Trek thing Ganesh dislikes so much is a completely valid point for the most part. Classic, TNG and Voyager rarely, if ever, show us a romantic relationship that goes beyond a cuddly moment or shared, secret grin, before cutting away to the 'A' plotline. DS9 isn't like that. The Dax 'lesbian' episode was unfairly publicised as such - it was not at all concerned with the gender of the protagonists, and more concerned with the social and cultural stigma of Jadzia Dax copping off with a previous host's lover, something Trill society held as virtual taboo - they were supposed to cut themselves off from romantic relationships enjoyed by former selves. She couldn't help herself, however, as the sexual attraction was still present in the Dax symbiont - the whole thing was a tale of lust.
Sisko's wife was killed by the Borg two years before DS9 started. He then spent two years obsessing over her and her death, to the point of doing nothing but designing a spacecraft whose specifications were solely geared towards killing Borg (the Defiant class ship). When he met the 'mirror' version of her, he fell head over heels again, to the point of almost making grave errors of judgement.
Ezri Dax also went overboard over a previous host's lover - in this case, Worf, who she fucked for several days before realising that the feeling was based in a confused lust rather than in something she actually wanted.
Bashir had the horn for Jadzia Dax for years. Jadzia was always portrayed as sexually voracious - her sex with Worf was shown to be extremely physical and highly charged on a number of occasions, resulting in hospitalisation for both. Odo's sexual experiences with Kira were portrayed - on screen - as being transcendently orgasmic for the lucky lass. O'Brien and his wife had a wholly normal relationship, with tenderness, passion and problems like anyone else.
The above makes me out to be a complete Trek geek - I'm not. I'm a DS9 geek, which is a completely different thing. DS9 had passion. It also had complexity, uniformly excellent performances, above average scripts and direction, a storyline that moved character and event forward, often not in the way that anyone expected. All of the continuing characters (and there were around twenty by the end) were different, and believably so, by the last episode. Some were wholly different - Dumar's transformation from Dukat's surly lackey, through alcoholic puppet governor for the Dominion, to revolutionary martyr and savious of the Cardassian people was beautifully and perfectly realised. And DS9 had spirituality, and moments of [/i]almost[/i] Lynchian madness - the moment in one of the last episodes where the frentic action suddenly cuts to a lunatic asylum in '50s America, and we see Sisko's fantasy self, Benny the writer, frantically writing the script to that episode on the cell wall, before it flashes back again to the war and people dying - now that's television.
So there. With knobs on. Told you I'd be back on this. |
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