Thirty Days of Star Trek: Favorite DS9 Episode

Day 13 - Favorite DS9 Episode

This is haaaard. And again depends on my mood. „Best of“ declarations would be easier to give; I’d probably go with „In the Pale Moonlight“ then, but I really don’t love it best.

So: if I want comedy, it varies between „Our Man Bashir“ (best Bond that never was, best DS9 holo stsory, hilarious, and also last hooray for Garak/Bashir stories), „Trials and Tribble-ations“ (best Trek/Trek crossover and TOS homage, even the framing narration with Mulder and Scully, err, Dulmer and Lucsly is a riot, excellent ensemble use, and so many quotable lines!) or „House of Quark“ (best outing of my guy Quark, hilarious Klingon/Ferengi culture clash (that scene of Quark demonstrating to the Klingon High Council how D’Gor cheated the market is a classic!) with unexpectantly moving conclusion (Quark faces down Klingon machismo by calling out the „duel“ as what it would be in this case, murder), Grilka is a great guest star, and it’s the first time the Quark-Rom relationship is something other than over the top caricature.

If I want character drama: The Wire, which made me fall in love with with Garak, Bashir and Garak/Bashir (earlier outings had intrigued me, but not enough to fall in love), Blood Oath (Jadzia Dax and the three musketeers original Klingons on a quest, Indiscretion (Kira & Cardassian is always a great combination, no matter who the Cardassian is, but in this case, it’s Gul Dukat, looking for his daughter) , or The Visitor (aka DS9 does Arthur Miller about the Siskos, in a heartbreaking way).

And finally, there’s Civil Defense, which isn’t one of the all time greats but which I love a lot anyway. It’s ensemble-tastic, it has Garak and Dukat, the simple premise (accidentally, a programm from the Cardassian Occupation is triggered, our heroes are trapped in various parts of the station in various combinations (Odo and Quark inevitably end up together), and finally, Dukat himself, alerted by his old recording, comes to gloat but ends up trapped on the station as well along with everyone else) is gleefully executed, and as an episode, it’s just glorious fun.

( The Other Days )

Thirty Days of Medici: Most like me?

Day 19 ~ Character that’s the most like you.

Filippo Brunelleschi. Not that I’m a genius architect, but you know, the scene where Florence is hit by the plague, Albizzi has (for now) demagogued a lot of people into blaming Cosimo for it and basically all hell is breaking loose, and Bunelleschi storms into the Palazzo Medici basically shouting „but what about me and my dome? Focus, Cosimo!“ I totally identify.

(I also identify with Brunelleschi’s earlier unwillingness to tell people what his actual plan for his creation is. I hate talking about my work before it’s finished.)

( The other days )