Apropos Romance
Feb. 8th, 2009 06:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakRecent events over at BSG having put me in an exceedingly cranky mode towards on screen romance, I thought that rather then get into a rant about how much I dislike certain 'ships and what they did/do, in several fandoms, to beloved (usually, but not always) female characters, I should have a reality check and remind myself there were and are pairings I enjoy, and sometimes these very pairings are the ones that make other viewers react exactly the same way I do to their OTPs.
So, if you, potential reader, have ever thought I'm being unfair to, say, Cordelia/Angel, Roslin/Adama, Lee/Kara, fourth season John/Aeryn - here is your ammunition. I confess. For looking at my fannish repertoire, I find that I have a soft spot for several girls of the week, and girls of the week tend to be among the most scorned of clichés. You know the complaint: they show up, we're supposed to believe our regular character falls for them with lightning speed, there is drama, at the end they're gone either because of a contrived reason or because they die, and the next week we get a reset button as if they never existed. And god knows, I've rolled my eyes at girls of the week in several fandoms, too, especially when Kirk or Kirkian types were doing the romancing. However, in some cases, I have become gushy, I wrote fanfic and/or devoured fanfic, and I remain incredibly defensive when I see them or their relationship with the regular or their episode critisized elsewhere. Here are some of the ladies and romances in question:
Babylon 5:
Here I have not one but two women and their relationships to regulars to adore and 'ship. And to the same regular, too. Whom I passionately ship with another male regular as well, but then, so does canon. Yes, naturally I'm talking about Londo. Londo and...
1) Adira Tyree: Adira shows up in the third episode of the first season (not counting the pilot, this makes her the first girl of the week on the show, and Londo the first regular to get laid, which I always find gratifying, considering he's a middle-aged plump alien who is nobody's idea of a handsome hero), leaves at the end of the episode, gets killed off screen in the fourth season and makes a short reappearance in the fifth, thanks to Neil Gaiman writing an episode called Day of the Dead. In her episode Born to the Purple, you'll recognize all the hallmarks of a girl of the week story - she's beautiful, she's in trouble, she's lying at the start, she gets our regular into trouble, there is a villain to blame for all of this, the grand climax involves her being rescued from said villain. So why is Born to the Purple one of my favourite B5 episodes, eliciting "awwwwws" every time I watch it, why have I written two Adira stories? Well, for starters, because there is no reset button. Adira gets referenced repeatedly in subsequent seasons, not just in the episode she gets killed off in or the one she makes her brief post-mortem reappearance in. The fact Londo fell in love with her has a lasting impact on him and one particular plot line. Secondly, the reason why Adira leaves at the end of Born to the Purple doesn't feel contrived but right for the characters. She was a slave, and Londo by the end of the episode has secured her freedom. But if she remained with him, it would feel as if she had simply changed owners, or as if her freedom was dependent on her being with him. So Adira's decision to leave plays as the right thing for her to do (as accepting it plays as the right thing for Londo). Thirdly, Born to the Purple cleverly skips over the whole "boy meets girl" part of the cliché, starts after Londo is already in love with Adira, and thus is able to focus on them as an existing relationship instead of one that has to be established first. And fourthly, it's a great character episode for Londo and his particular mixture of romanticism and cynicism, and a great cultural background establishing episode for the Centauri. (Blackmails, court intrigues, slavery, the importance of status, even such trivia as the drink Vir prepares for Londo's hangovers - jaala - all make their debut here.) Scenes like Adira teasing Londo by calling him by his title and his reaction to this both work as part of a love story and as a character revealing scene because it showcases a lot about Londo's past, present, attitude towards his world and society and the way he sees himself.
2) Timov (of Algul): in many ways the complete opposite of the Londo/Adira relationship. Timov, who shows up in only one episode - Soul Mates in season 2 - is one of Londo's three wives (the Centauri are a polygamous society), the one he argues with all the time and the only one he doesn't divorce. She and Londo appear to be roughly of the same age, the show makes a point of showcasing her, err, unique voice, she never stops pointing out Londo's flaws (of which he has plenty), and slaps him early on in the show. She also saves his life behind his back because, as she tells the station's doctor, she prefers to win her battles in different ways. Which is why Londo doesn't divorce her, though he's not told about the life saving; "with you, I always know where I stand" he says to her when they part at the end of the episode. The most attractive thing about Londo/Timov is of course the glorious verbal sparring, coupled with Timov's ruthless honesty (which by now we know is very atypical for their society) and the fact Londo respects her for it. And again, the fact that she leaves makes sense and doesn't feel contrived; they might feel more for each other than either is ever willing to admit, but they're also not kidding about the inability to actually live with each other. Depending on my mood, I can't decide whether Londo and Timov are a somewhat wiser George and Martha from "Who's afraid of Virginia Woolf", or Benedick and Beatrice from Much Ado About Nothing, thirty years hence. Be that as it may, Soul Mates is a favourite episode of mine, and I've written lengthy fanfiction.
Doctor Who:
Priceless moment from the audio commentary of The Aztecs: William Russell, who plays Ian Chesterton, member of the original Team TARDIS and together with Barbara Wright the first companion, watches the scenes between the Doctor and the Atztec Cameca and observes that putting the Doctor in a romance is awfully sweet, and "it's a pity the show never did that again, they should have done it more often".
...
Anyway. The Aztecs are my favourite First Doctor serial for many reasons, most of which have to do with how much Barbara rocks in that story, but one reason is the One/Cameca subplot. Bear in mind here this was shot long before the phase where the word "asexual" in connection with the Doctor was bandied about. Cameca, the actress of whom only died last year, comes across as somewhere between 40 and 50 in this story, and the Doctor is interested from the moment he spots her (and asks the dignified One version of "who's the hottie?"). Partly because our heroes need allies, but mainly because Cameca is both attractive and clever, and Ian later teases him not a little about his crush. The fact the Doctor gets engaged to her is an accident but the flirting is anything but, and the scene where they part is very touching, and has an aftermath which Stephen Moffat later echoes in The Girl in the Fireplace. (The Doctor, having originally intended to leave the keepsake she gave him to remember her by, returns for it and takes it with him, and then at the TARDIS console regards it sadly the way Ten will with Reinette's letter.) I have a soft spot for any story that defies ageism by showcasing people over 40 in romantic situations anyway, but the Cameca subplot was gracefully done, and one never doubts the Doctor does indeed care for her. In conclusion: One/Cameca for the win!
Speaking of Reinette, she, of course, is my other DW girl of the week. The Girl of the Fireplace is my favourite Moffat episode so far, the superior brilliance of Blink notwithstanding (the Library episodes I can take or leave, and I was very impressed by "The Empty Child"/"The Doctor Dances" but haven't rewatched in years, which tells you something, I suppose); I like the meta-ness of it - the Doctor experiencing Reinettes life the way viewers (and readers) experience his, by being presented with selected emotionally charged episodes -, the beautiful monsters, so right for the period (automatons were an obsession of the age), and the way the audience, but not the characters, at last find out the why and wherefore by that final shot - the spaceship there were on was called Madame de Pompadour -, I like the surreality of a horse wandering through a spaceship (and the Doctor naming it Arthur): but all of this would not be enough if I didn't believe in the central relationship and the woman in it, and I do. Yes, this wasn't an in-depth and completely accurate portrait of Jeanne Poisson, Marquise de Pompadour. But it got a lot of the spirit right. One of the minor details that sold me: Reinette talking in a matter of fact way with her friend about her ambition to replace the most recent maitresse en titre. In most popular media, women who want to become a king's mistress are either zomg evil and the villainess or, if they are the heroine, they are blackmailed into it, or they are motivated by pure romantic love and not interested in the high position their relationship will offer at all. Not here. And while she builds up the Doctor from childhood hero to adult crush in her emotions, this does not influence the way she lives her life or deterr her from her ambitions. I think this is what I found most appealing - Reinette falls in love with the Doctor, but she remains queen of her realm, as it were. Character traits like her cleverness are not only told but shown - the way she comes up with the book and pages metaphor for how the Doctor visited her life, for example, the way she figures out that if he can look into her mind, she can look back. Her bravery vis a vis the automatons, both as a child and as an adult. I've seen criticism that she is presented as pining away for the Doctor for the rest of her life, but that wasn't the impression the episode gave me. Yes, she waited for him to return, as her letter said, but she did that since meeting him for the second time, and that had never stopped her from enjoying her life and doing what she wanted in all the other periods of her life that we saw, so why should that have been different in the last decade of her life? (The other thing that regularly drives me crazy about Girl in the Fireplace attacks is when it's claimed the Doctor is presented as "deserting Rose and Mickey in order to chase Reinette". He jumps through that mirror (via horse) in order to save her life which is in immediate danger of being ahistorically ended in the next minute. Yes, at this point he's also attracted and attached to her, but being the Doctor, I have no doubt he'd have done it for Louis XV. as well had it been Louis' head the automatons were after.) I've never written Reinette, but I love GiFP stories and AUs in which the Doctor is indeed forced to take the long path. In conclusion: hooray for Ten/Reinette!
...and then there is Ace. Who had both girls and boys of the week. My favourite girl for Ace was Karra in Survival (and if someone knows of a fanfic that makes a connection between the cheetas and the cat people of New Earth, and includes Ace and/or Karra in some way, I'd be eternally grateful), but I would be lying were I to claim this is my favourite thing about Survival. The one of her doomed boyfriends I have a seriously soft spot for is the Soviet captain in Curse of Fenric, Sorin, but due to the plot - i.e. he first gets possessed by EVIL FROM THE DAWN OF TIME and then dies - there is little to no room for fanfic. Pity.
Deep Space Nine
The girls and boys of the week the show came up with for our Starfleet crew tended to be bland, or, in one case, presenting unintended problematic subtext. On the other hand, my favourite among the regular characters who also happens to be the most unattractive in terms of looks, the Ferengi Quark, scored not one, not two, but three memorable girls of the week, and I loved each of the relationships and episodes. Despite the fact they shamelessly plundered some classic romances, or maybe because of it, since taking a short capitalist and sexist alien as hero instead of the dashing and heroic Starfleet guys made for a great inventive twist right from the get go.
1) Pel: aka, DS9 does Yentl. The Ferengi being the kind of society which at the start of the show still forbade their women to conduct business and indeed to wear clothes, the Yentl replay worked quite well with them. Pel disguised herself as a man, became one of Quark's waiters, befriended him, fell in love with him, was found out, along the way there were mutual savings involved, and at the end they parted for the same reason Yentl does with Avigdor - the man of the pairing is still too much a traditionalist. Viewers tend to hate or in a minority case love the Ferengi episodes. I, obviously, love them, and this one more than most, as in addition to presenting a believable bittersweet romance it introduced the Quark/Dax friendship that became one of my favourite elements in the show. Pel - the first female Ferengi we met on the Star Trek 'verse - was very likeable, and not because she was more "human" - she was presented as interested in profit as the male members of the species. While the story was presented as a comedy, it was a romantic comedy, not one that ridiculed the characters; the parting between her and Quark was poignant while absolutely the right thing to happen.
b) Grilka: aka, DS9 does Green Card (and later Cyrano de Bergerac): House of Quark, the first of the two Grilka episodes, is one of my favourite Trek eps, not least because of the inspired Klingon/Ferengi culture clash which doesn't present either people as superior. I love the way Quark faces down Klingon machismo in the climax episode and does so in a Ferengi way (by pointing out that a duel with him was always going to be just an execution, since there is no way he can fight the villain of the hour as an equal, so they might as well skip the formalities and the honour posturing and just kill him); I also love his relationship with Grilka, who goes through a fake marriage due to plot reasons and starts out despising him while he thinks she and her Klingon ways are crazy. Along the way, they teach each other a thing or two, and become very fond of each other indeed. In conclusion: Quark/Grilka: theirloveissomulticultural.
c) Natima: aka, DS9 does Casablanca: yes, Quark got to be Bogey as well. (The working title for the episode in question was "Everybody comes to Quark's"). His Ingrid Bergman was Natima Lang, a Cardassian dissident, and in a feminist twist on the original, she was the one to give him the "I have to get on thisair plane space shuttle" speech at the end instead of him giving it to her. (As opposed to Ilsa Lund, she actually shot as well in the scene where she shows up with a weapon to get the pass ports cloaking device from him, and then confessed her love.) As opposed to the other examples, this romance had Quark as already in love when the story started, and you never doubt his sincerity. One of these days I must get back to writing DS9 because I don't think anyone has ever written Quark/Natima backstory, and as that happened during the first occupation of Bajor, with the Cardassian attitude to mixed couples being what it was, it has incredible potential. Quark/Natima: they'll always have Terok Nor!
So, if you, potential reader, have ever thought I'm being unfair to, say, Cordelia/Angel, Roslin/Adama, Lee/Kara, fourth season John/Aeryn - here is your ammunition. I confess. For looking at my fannish repertoire, I find that I have a soft spot for several girls of the week, and girls of the week tend to be among the most scorned of clichés. You know the complaint: they show up, we're supposed to believe our regular character falls for them with lightning speed, there is drama, at the end they're gone either because of a contrived reason or because they die, and the next week we get a reset button as if they never existed. And god knows, I've rolled my eyes at girls of the week in several fandoms, too, especially when Kirk or Kirkian types were doing the romancing. However, in some cases, I have become gushy, I wrote fanfic and/or devoured fanfic, and I remain incredibly defensive when I see them or their relationship with the regular or their episode critisized elsewhere. Here are some of the ladies and romances in question:
Babylon 5:
Here I have not one but two women and their relationships to regulars to adore and 'ship. And to the same regular, too. Whom I passionately ship with another male regular as well, but then, so does canon. Yes, naturally I'm talking about Londo. Londo and...
1) Adira Tyree: Adira shows up in the third episode of the first season (not counting the pilot, this makes her the first girl of the week on the show, and Londo the first regular to get laid, which I always find gratifying, considering he's a middle-aged plump alien who is nobody's idea of a handsome hero), leaves at the end of the episode, gets killed off screen in the fourth season and makes a short reappearance in the fifth, thanks to Neil Gaiman writing an episode called Day of the Dead. In her episode Born to the Purple, you'll recognize all the hallmarks of a girl of the week story - she's beautiful, she's in trouble, she's lying at the start, she gets our regular into trouble, there is a villain to blame for all of this, the grand climax involves her being rescued from said villain. So why is Born to the Purple one of my favourite B5 episodes, eliciting "awwwwws" every time I watch it, why have I written two Adira stories? Well, for starters, because there is no reset button. Adira gets referenced repeatedly in subsequent seasons, not just in the episode she gets killed off in or the one she makes her brief post-mortem reappearance in. The fact Londo fell in love with her has a lasting impact on him and one particular plot line. Secondly, the reason why Adira leaves at the end of Born to the Purple doesn't feel contrived but right for the characters. She was a slave, and Londo by the end of the episode has secured her freedom. But if she remained with him, it would feel as if she had simply changed owners, or as if her freedom was dependent on her being with him. So Adira's decision to leave plays as the right thing for her to do (as accepting it plays as the right thing for Londo). Thirdly, Born to the Purple cleverly skips over the whole "boy meets girl" part of the cliché, starts after Londo is already in love with Adira, and thus is able to focus on them as an existing relationship instead of one that has to be established first. And fourthly, it's a great character episode for Londo and his particular mixture of romanticism and cynicism, and a great cultural background establishing episode for the Centauri. (Blackmails, court intrigues, slavery, the importance of status, even such trivia as the drink Vir prepares for Londo's hangovers - jaala - all make their debut here.) Scenes like Adira teasing Londo by calling him by his title and his reaction to this both work as part of a love story and as a character revealing scene because it showcases a lot about Londo's past, present, attitude towards his world and society and the way he sees himself.
2) Timov (of Algul): in many ways the complete opposite of the Londo/Adira relationship. Timov, who shows up in only one episode - Soul Mates in season 2 - is one of Londo's three wives (the Centauri are a polygamous society), the one he argues with all the time and the only one he doesn't divorce. She and Londo appear to be roughly of the same age, the show makes a point of showcasing her, err, unique voice, she never stops pointing out Londo's flaws (of which he has plenty), and slaps him early on in the show. She also saves his life behind his back because, as she tells the station's doctor, she prefers to win her battles in different ways. Which is why Londo doesn't divorce her, though he's not told about the life saving; "with you, I always know where I stand" he says to her when they part at the end of the episode. The most attractive thing about Londo/Timov is of course the glorious verbal sparring, coupled with Timov's ruthless honesty (which by now we know is very atypical for their society) and the fact Londo respects her for it. And again, the fact that she leaves makes sense and doesn't feel contrived; they might feel more for each other than either is ever willing to admit, but they're also not kidding about the inability to actually live with each other. Depending on my mood, I can't decide whether Londo and Timov are a somewhat wiser George and Martha from "Who's afraid of Virginia Woolf", or Benedick and Beatrice from Much Ado About Nothing, thirty years hence. Be that as it may, Soul Mates is a favourite episode of mine, and I've written lengthy fanfiction.
Doctor Who:
Priceless moment from the audio commentary of The Aztecs: William Russell, who plays Ian Chesterton, member of the original Team TARDIS and together with Barbara Wright the first companion, watches the scenes between the Doctor and the Atztec Cameca and observes that putting the Doctor in a romance is awfully sweet, and "it's a pity the show never did that again, they should have done it more often".
...
Anyway. The Aztecs are my favourite First Doctor serial for many reasons, most of which have to do with how much Barbara rocks in that story, but one reason is the One/Cameca subplot. Bear in mind here this was shot long before the phase where the word "asexual" in connection with the Doctor was bandied about. Cameca, the actress of whom only died last year, comes across as somewhere between 40 and 50 in this story, and the Doctor is interested from the moment he spots her (and asks the dignified One version of "who's the hottie?"). Partly because our heroes need allies, but mainly because Cameca is both attractive and clever, and Ian later teases him not a little about his crush. The fact the Doctor gets engaged to her is an accident but the flirting is anything but, and the scene where they part is very touching, and has an aftermath which Stephen Moffat later echoes in The Girl in the Fireplace. (The Doctor, having originally intended to leave the keepsake she gave him to remember her by, returns for it and takes it with him, and then at the TARDIS console regards it sadly the way Ten will with Reinette's letter.) I have a soft spot for any story that defies ageism by showcasing people over 40 in romantic situations anyway, but the Cameca subplot was gracefully done, and one never doubts the Doctor does indeed care for her. In conclusion: One/Cameca for the win!
Speaking of Reinette, she, of course, is my other DW girl of the week. The Girl of the Fireplace is my favourite Moffat episode so far, the superior brilliance of Blink notwithstanding (the Library episodes I can take or leave, and I was very impressed by "The Empty Child"/"The Doctor Dances" but haven't rewatched in years, which tells you something, I suppose); I like the meta-ness of it - the Doctor experiencing Reinettes life the way viewers (and readers) experience his, by being presented with selected emotionally charged episodes -, the beautiful monsters, so right for the period (automatons were an obsession of the age), and the way the audience, but not the characters, at last find out the why and wherefore by that final shot - the spaceship there were on was called Madame de Pompadour -, I like the surreality of a horse wandering through a spaceship (and the Doctor naming it Arthur): but all of this would not be enough if I didn't believe in the central relationship and the woman in it, and I do. Yes, this wasn't an in-depth and completely accurate portrait of Jeanne Poisson, Marquise de Pompadour. But it got a lot of the spirit right. One of the minor details that sold me: Reinette talking in a matter of fact way with her friend about her ambition to replace the most recent maitresse en titre. In most popular media, women who want to become a king's mistress are either zomg evil and the villainess or, if they are the heroine, they are blackmailed into it, or they are motivated by pure romantic love and not interested in the high position their relationship will offer at all. Not here. And while she builds up the Doctor from childhood hero to adult crush in her emotions, this does not influence the way she lives her life or deterr her from her ambitions. I think this is what I found most appealing - Reinette falls in love with the Doctor, but she remains queen of her realm, as it were. Character traits like her cleverness are not only told but shown - the way she comes up with the book and pages metaphor for how the Doctor visited her life, for example, the way she figures out that if he can look into her mind, she can look back. Her bravery vis a vis the automatons, both as a child and as an adult. I've seen criticism that she is presented as pining away for the Doctor for the rest of her life, but that wasn't the impression the episode gave me. Yes, she waited for him to return, as her letter said, but she did that since meeting him for the second time, and that had never stopped her from enjoying her life and doing what she wanted in all the other periods of her life that we saw, so why should that have been different in the last decade of her life? (The other thing that regularly drives me crazy about Girl in the Fireplace attacks is when it's claimed the Doctor is presented as "deserting Rose and Mickey in order to chase Reinette". He jumps through that mirror (via horse) in order to save her life which is in immediate danger of being ahistorically ended in the next minute. Yes, at this point he's also attracted and attached to her, but being the Doctor, I have no doubt he'd have done it for Louis XV. as well had it been Louis' head the automatons were after.) I've never written Reinette, but I love GiFP stories and AUs in which the Doctor is indeed forced to take the long path. In conclusion: hooray for Ten/Reinette!
...and then there is Ace. Who had both girls and boys of the week. My favourite girl for Ace was Karra in Survival (and if someone knows of a fanfic that makes a connection between the cheetas and the cat people of New Earth, and includes Ace and/or Karra in some way, I'd be eternally grateful), but I would be lying were I to claim this is my favourite thing about Survival. The one of her doomed boyfriends I have a seriously soft spot for is the Soviet captain in Curse of Fenric, Sorin, but due to the plot - i.e. he first gets possessed by EVIL FROM THE DAWN OF TIME and then dies - there is little to no room for fanfic. Pity.
Deep Space Nine
The girls and boys of the week the show came up with for our Starfleet crew tended to be bland, or, in one case, presenting unintended problematic subtext. On the other hand, my favourite among the regular characters who also happens to be the most unattractive in terms of looks, the Ferengi Quark, scored not one, not two, but three memorable girls of the week, and I loved each of the relationships and episodes. Despite the fact they shamelessly plundered some classic romances, or maybe because of it, since taking a short capitalist and sexist alien as hero instead of the dashing and heroic Starfleet guys made for a great inventive twist right from the get go.
1) Pel: aka, DS9 does Yentl. The Ferengi being the kind of society which at the start of the show still forbade their women to conduct business and indeed to wear clothes, the Yentl replay worked quite well with them. Pel disguised herself as a man, became one of Quark's waiters, befriended him, fell in love with him, was found out, along the way there were mutual savings involved, and at the end they parted for the same reason Yentl does with Avigdor - the man of the pairing is still too much a traditionalist. Viewers tend to hate or in a minority case love the Ferengi episodes. I, obviously, love them, and this one more than most, as in addition to presenting a believable bittersweet romance it introduced the Quark/Dax friendship that became one of my favourite elements in the show. Pel - the first female Ferengi we met on the Star Trek 'verse - was very likeable, and not because she was more "human" - she was presented as interested in profit as the male members of the species. While the story was presented as a comedy, it was a romantic comedy, not one that ridiculed the characters; the parting between her and Quark was poignant while absolutely the right thing to happen.
b) Grilka: aka, DS9 does Green Card (and later Cyrano de Bergerac): House of Quark, the first of the two Grilka episodes, is one of my favourite Trek eps, not least because of the inspired Klingon/Ferengi culture clash which doesn't present either people as superior. I love the way Quark faces down Klingon machismo in the climax episode and does so in a Ferengi way (by pointing out that a duel with him was always going to be just an execution, since there is no way he can fight the villain of the hour as an equal, so they might as well skip the formalities and the honour posturing and just kill him); I also love his relationship with Grilka, who goes through a fake marriage due to plot reasons and starts out despising him while he thinks she and her Klingon ways are crazy. Along the way, they teach each other a thing or two, and become very fond of each other indeed. In conclusion: Quark/Grilka: theirloveissomulticultural.
c) Natima: aka, DS9 does Casablanca: yes, Quark got to be Bogey as well. (The working title for the episode in question was "Everybody comes to Quark's"). His Ingrid Bergman was Natima Lang, a Cardassian dissident, and in a feminist twist on the original, she was the one to give him the "I have to get on this
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Date: 2009-02-09 05:02 pm (UTC)I think you mean *struck* out? "Luck out" would imply that she got lucky, which would contradict the statement that O'Brien didn't cheat on Keiko. :-) And yes, I loved her too, not least of which was because the writers actually thought out a gender role distinction that was more complex and different than "this is exactly like Earth sexism" or "this is exactly like Earth sexism but backward." The notion that Cardassians think that engineering is for women, and the women's perception of this notion is that men just aren't smart enough to be engineers (whereas the men probably think that engineering is icky and girly and who would want to be an engineer when you can be a SOLDIER!), was utterly fantastic. And I also loved that Cardassians have actually *codified* the movie trope of "we're hostile and sarcastic to each other, that must mean secret lust!" into how they really think about relationships.
My second introduction to Q was with the Vash episode on DS9. I hated him in Farpoint so badly I refused to watch TNG -- I thought he was a ripoff of several Classic Trek concepts that weren't great to begin with, and that he made no goddamn sense. Then I saw him interact with Vash and realized that we aren't *supposed* to take this character seriously as an "advanced" being. As a trickster god with all-too-human emotions, he worked for me *much* better than the whole "I am omnipotent, ph33r me!" crap he pulled at Farpoint. So I will always have a soft spot for that episode, and for Vash, even though in retrospect it was kind of a crap episode, because that's where I fell in love with Q.
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Date: 2009-02-09 11:34 pm (UTC)Ah, my lack of knowledge on Americanisms strikes again. Yes, I did indeed mean 'struck out'!
And I also loved that Cardassians have actually *codified* the movie trope of "we're hostile and sarcastic to each other, that must mean secret lust!" into how they really think about relationships.
Yes! One of these days, someone is going to a Cardassian The Rules book, and I'm going to love them for it.