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Jun. 14th, 2015
Star Trek Meme: Day 10
Jun. 14th, 2015 04:02 pmDay 10 - What's your favorite species? (Humans are a species as well.)
Cardassians. They benefit of having a lot of interesting representatives. The only Cardassian I felt was a dissapointment, writing wise, was Seska on Voyager. She started out well, with her initial episode making her a real version of Iliana. (DS9 watchers know whom I mean.) The show could have done such a lot with her years undercover, loyalty and identity conflicts galore, but no, after the episode that established her as a character she was written as a one dimensional evil overlady, additionally burdened with the Kazon as allies, who, as villains go... well.
All other Cardassians, though, be they one shot (Gul Madred in TNG's Chain of Command), Marritza (in DS9's Duet), Rugal (in DS9's Cardassians), showing up in only a few episodes (Enabran Tain!), or recurring throughout many a season (Garak, Dukat, Damar, also Ziyal) - most episodes with them were excellent, and the characters really got my attention every time. Cardassia as a fascist/totalitarian society with various elements struggling against each other (not necessarily because one of them was better than the other - the conflict between the Cardassian military and the Obsidian Order comes to mind) was for once convincing, as opposed to many a space Nazi in many a show, Trek or not, elsewhere. The aftermath of a brutal occupation both on the occupied and the occupiers was one of DS9's most fascinating storylines, and if the Cardassians had solely been presented as evil caricatures, it would not have worked as well as it did. Oh, and I really liked that scaly reptialian look.
I'm never quite sure whether I want the reboot movies to tackle Cardassians. On the one hand: they haven't been done in the movies before, and they offer such a rich storytelling mine. On the other: I doubt the movie scriptwriters could do justice to them. We'd probably end up with Waltz rather than Duet, is what I mean. And there's no Kira in the movies, not just in the sense of Kira Nerys, but in the sense of "character to whom Cardassians have a visceral, deeply personal meaning". So all in all, it's probably best they remain in the tv verse.
( The other days )
Cardassians. They benefit of having a lot of interesting representatives. The only Cardassian I felt was a dissapointment, writing wise, was Seska on Voyager. She started out well, with her initial episode making her a real version of Iliana. (DS9 watchers know whom I mean.) The show could have done such a lot with her years undercover, loyalty and identity conflicts galore, but no, after the episode that established her as a character she was written as a one dimensional evil overlady, additionally burdened with the Kazon as allies, who, as villains go... well.
All other Cardassians, though, be they one shot (Gul Madred in TNG's Chain of Command), Marritza (in DS9's Duet), Rugal (in DS9's Cardassians), showing up in only a few episodes (Enabran Tain!), or recurring throughout many a season (Garak, Dukat, Damar, also Ziyal) - most episodes with them were excellent, and the characters really got my attention every time. Cardassia as a fascist/totalitarian society with various elements struggling against each other (not necessarily because one of them was better than the other - the conflict between the Cardassian military and the Obsidian Order comes to mind) was for once convincing, as opposed to many a space Nazi in many a show, Trek or not, elsewhere. The aftermath of a brutal occupation both on the occupied and the occupiers was one of DS9's most fascinating storylines, and if the Cardassians had solely been presented as evil caricatures, it would not have worked as well as it did. Oh, and I really liked that scaly reptialian look.
I'm never quite sure whether I want the reboot movies to tackle Cardassians. On the one hand: they haven't been done in the movies before, and they offer such a rich storytelling mine. On the other: I doubt the movie scriptwriters could do justice to them. We'd probably end up with Waltz rather than Duet, is what I mean. And there's no Kira in the movies, not just in the sense of Kira Nerys, but in the sense of "character to whom Cardassians have a visceral, deeply personal meaning". So all in all, it's probably best they remain in the tv verse.
( The other days )
