The Sassy Replicator

If you are one of the five readers of my blog, you may be wondering what ever happened to my watching of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.  Well, I finished the series and immediately began watching Star Trek: Voyager, the favorite Star Trek series of my friend Lindsay.  More on Voyager in a moment, but first, my final thoughts on DS9.

I sum up my feelings on the characters pretty well in this post, but as for the series itself, I must say I really enjoyed it.  I didn't like it as much as TNG, and I'm really loving Voyager, so I can't say DS9 was my favorite, but it has a special place in my heart.  I mentioned in my first post in this blog that a common complaint about DS9 is, "The ship doesn't move!"  While I agree that the series' setting on a space station limits the scope a bit, there's plenty going on and we get to enjoy storylines with the Bajorans, Cardassians, Klingons, Ferengi, even the Romulans in later episodes, and finally, the pretty terrifying Dominion, not to mention all the new species the series introduces via the wormhole to the Gamma Quadrant.  There's also plenty of history on the former Cardassian station that makes for good flashback fodder.  The religious infrastructure of Bajor offered lots of commentary on the separation of church and state and the evolution/intelligent design "debate."  I could have done without the mirror universe, though.

Having lived with Lindsay, I've seen snippets of Voyager here and there.  It was on so frequently in our apartment that our other roommate at the time, Courtney, dubbed the series "Not My Captain," noting that the show did not feature Jean-Luc Picard in the captain's chair.  The nickname caught on, even though Janeway is most definitely Lindsay's captain.

I rarely sat down and watched an entire episode, but two moments I vividly recall are these: (1) Neelix offering snacks to a Borg child and the child replying "Snacks are irrelevant," and (2) the food replicator malfunctioning when Janeway orders coffee and it replies, "Get it yourself!"  I just watched "The Haunting of Deck Twelve" in which the former occurs.  I must tell you, I've been waiting the entire series to hear the sassy replicator.  I'm up to the seventh and final season now, and I'm starting to worry that I may have imagined it.

Having watched six full seasons of Voyager since I last posted about Star Trek, naturally there's a lot to say.  Since this post has already gotten long.  I'll limit it to these observations:

• There are lots of mind melds on Voyager.
• Janeway lands the ship on planets a lot.  I didn't know you could do that.
• Hair grows back pretty quickly.
• For a Maquis captain, Chakotay (whom I used to call Commander Chipotle) is pretty amenable.
• I shed no tears when Kes left the series (although Jennifer Lien appears to have gotten a raw deal).  She returns in the sixth season for no apparent reason other than to be an asshole.

That list could go on forever.  More in another post, maybe.

The long, slow jog across 8th Avenue (for example)

Picture this:

You are in a car, waiting at a red light at a major intersection (the street is wide).  As the "Don't walk" sign begins to flash, some adventurous pedestrians break out in a run, launching into the crosswalk and across the street.  As they crest the half-way point, a calm overtakes them.  Perhaps they realize they are going to make it, so they don't have to try so hard.  On the other hand, perhaps they realize that life just isn't worth all this fuss, so they lay their fate down on 8th Avenue (for example), come what may.  In any case, they are still in the crosswalk when the light turns green, blocking your path.

Having watched this phenomenon time and again, I have come to the conclusion that it is all an act.  The run is not really a run, but rather a lethargic jog that that takes them across the street at roughly the speed a walk would.  The jog is not for their benefit, not a life-preserving measure.  Rather, it is a show put on for you, the motorist, who knows the pedestrian will not make it before the light turns green, forcing you to choose between vehicular manslaughter and delaying departure by a few very precious seconds.  Look, the jogging pedestrians say, we're trying!

The other day I found myself approaching an intersection on foot as the "Don't walk" sign began to flash.  I thrust myself into the street thinking, I can make it if I run!  As I neared the curb, the urgency lessened and my gait slowed, and I was a few steps away from the curb when the light changed.  I never felt as though I was in any danger of being run over.  In fact, I didn't regard the motorists at all.  Getting to the other side a few seconds late was good enough for me, and frankly, I was the only one involved.

Nothing ever happens in Blaine, WA

Last week, I traveled to Washington state with my family for a wedding.  I flew into the Seattle area and then journeyed across the Puget Sound to the small, seaside town of Port Townsend, where the wedding took place.  Have a map:

The pink square represents Port Townsend.
Had it been a gay wedding, I might have used a pink triangle.

On our first morning in Port Townsend, the day of the wedding, I was in a coffee shop with my dad and some of his friends.  On the wall above us was a framed map of the Pacific Northwest, stretching from Portland up past the top of Vancouver Island.  I stared at the map for a while, ignoring the conversation around me, and then at some point the conversation shifted to the map.  I pointed out Point Roberts, a tiny piece of the United States cut off from the rest of the country by the international border.  While the US made the concession that the boundary would curve around Vancouver Island leaving it to the British, no one knew at the time (1846) that the Tsawwassen Peninsula dipped below the 49th parallel, and by the time they realized it, it was too late (for bureaucracy, anyway).  I shared that there's no school in Point Roberts, so young residents of the forgotten piece of land commute 70 miles each way to attend classes in the United States.

The pink square remains Port Townsend for reference.
Point Roberts can be seen at the top of this map just below Tsawwassen, Canada.

My dad liked this little piece of trivia and it stayed with him up to the wedding reception, where he found himself sitting next to the uncle of the groom.  I was on the opposite side of the table, so I don't know how it came up, but it turned out the groom's uncle had worked in Point Roberts.  He lived in Blaine, WA, just south of the Canadian border across the bay from the Point, and he'd make the aforementioned 70 mile commute in the opposite direction of the school children.  It was a delightful coincidence that we'd been talking about the place earlier that day, and the serendipity continued when it was revealed that he'd been a postal worker in Point Roberts, and the man sitting on the other side of him (the uncle of the bride) was the brother of the former Postmaster General of the United States.

Blaine being so close to the border (literally flush with it), I asked him if he goes up to Canada often.  He said he hasn't crossed the border since he retired 18 years ago.  I then asked if he makes it down to Seattle on occasion and he said he does so as infrequently as he can manage.  If this makes him sound contrary, I can assure you he was indeed charming.

A Case of Gowron Face

Ever have a case of Gowron face?

Play button cross-eyed

I just wanted to take a brief break half-way through the final arc to mention two fun casting things:

1. I've always loved watching the guest star credits roll over the beginning of the episode.  I loved it in Law & Order and I love it now.  When I was watching "Chimera,"in which Odo meets a long lost Changeling, I noticed that one of the guest stars had the last name Hertzler, which I recognized as the last name of the actor who plays the Klingon character Martok (J.G. Hertzler).  I surmised that Hertzler was playing the Changeling, whose make-up is completely different from a Klingon's, so you really couldn't see any facial resemblance, but you could hear a touch of Martok in the Changeling's voice.  I'd guessed that this Hertzler and J.G. were brothers, but when I read Memory Alpha after the episode, it turned out the same actor plays both characters.  I didn't realize it, but this is something that happens fairly frequently in the Star Trek TV shows, especially with two characters of different species with different face make-up.
2. I would never have picked this out on my own if I hadn't read it on Memory Alpha, but the same actor (Jeffrey Combs) plays two recurring characters on DS9: Brunt (Ferengi) and Weyoun (Vorta).  I'd gotten to know Jeffrey Combs as the actor who plays Weyoun, and when I one time saw him credited for Brunt I just figured I remembered the name wrong.  Once again the make-up distinguishes them completely, and I still can't detect any similarity in their voices or physical mannerisms.  Combs plays both characters equally well and without a trace of one in the other.  It baffles me further when you see that Brunt towers over the other Ferengi meanwhile Weyoun is usually shorter than the people he shares the screen with.  Combs stands at 5'7", a good height for feeling tall in some situations and short in others (I know it well), but it's still some amazing differentiation.

Embarking on an arc

I'm about to begin the much talked-about (on Memory Alpha) ten-hour, nine-episode arc that ends Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.  I already know some things about the way the series ends, since I've been reading the Memory Alpha article on each episode after I watch it, but there's still plenty to discover.

Odo, I think I'll miss you most of all.

Questions posed of kittens

Are you a kitten?
To what do I owe the pleasure?
Are you hungry?
Where's the other one?
Do I have kittens?
I have TWO kittens?
What's YOUR problem?
Do you mind?
What's that smell?
Kitty cats?

Their answers:

Yes
Meow
Yes
Who?
Yes
Yes
Meow
Meow
Meow
Yes

Dough Minnie In

If you showed me the word "DOMINION" on a piece of paper and asked me to pronounce it, I'd give you duh-MIN-yin.  Everyone on DS9 seems to really enunciate that first syllable, making it sound almost like its own word: DOUGH-MIN-yun.  You also get some people paying homage to that second "I," sounding like the title of this post: dough minnie in.

I never gave this conscious thought, but when yesterday I had the opportunity to say the word "Dominion" out loud several times (in reference to the game), I found myself pronouncing it like they do on the show (the first one I mentioned, without Minnie), so I guess it sunk in and stored itself somewhere, like an acid flashback.

Can I use treasure to buy ketracel-white?

Dominion's a great game, by the way.  I hadn't played it in years, and I think every time I played it before, it was with experienced gamers, so this was the first time I had to teach the game.  At first the rules seemed hopelessly complex, but once we got into the groove it was really awesome.  You get to say words like "duchy" and "smithy."

I've been very bad about posting, particularly about DS9.  My last DS9 post was in April at which point I was on season three, and now I'm well into the seventh and final season.  OOPS.  Maybe after I finish the series I'll do a huge post (that no one will read) summing up my feelings on the whole thing.  I will say this: I recently watched the baseball episode.  Odo as umpire was adorable, especially him rehearsing in his office.  The linked page has a lot of fun facts about the episode, too, like how Max Grodénchik is actually a talented ball player despite his performance as the non-athletic, clumsy Rom.