Loving the Alien: Star Trek, Babylon 5, and Farscape

[selenak]

Several things on my friends list recent months, from the serious to the not so serious, made me rethink what TV (and some movies) offer us on alien sex loving the alien.



Obviously, in the original Star Trek Kirk's urge to get laid by every attractive female in view (well, most of them anyway) was about ratings as much as anything else, but the relationship arguably at the core of TOS, the one with Spock, was about human/alien friendship which was strong enough to be called love (and K/S in the slashy sense is not my cup of Earl Grey). Spock himself, of course, was presented as the product of a human/alien union. butterfly in a recent entry says that John/Aeryn on Farscape never felt quite real to her because Aeryn was so completely human looking and thus the logical choice to hook up with the show's leading man; my own problems with J/A are all season-4 related, and this isn't one of them, but I do see her point, I think. Spock, too, pointy ears aside, is entirely human. One can blame limited TV make-up of the 60s, and at any rate the show does its bit to establish the Vulcans as having their own culture. Still, I could go Edward Said on TOS and complain that the silent assumption always is that human culture, with its "express your feelings" imperative, is the superior one and what character arc there is concerns alien Spock becoming more human, not human Kirk becoming more alien.

Moving on to TNG, Deanna Troi as one of the nominal resident aliens on board was of course as human-looking and behaving as they come. (In emotional terms, Data was the alien, but the fascination with androids is another essay.) And the Betazoids never really got developed as an "alien" culture. The other resident alien, Worf, was another matter; he started out as a bit player, evolving into a major character, and did with the Klingons what Spock had done for the Vulcans - allowed the writers to develop their culture. Considering he had been mostly raised by humans, his character arc wasn't to become more human, but to discover and balance his Klingon heritage, and the show allowed him to act according to his own ethics now and then, as when he killed Key'lahr's murderer. But with the exception of the not-too-convincing tentative romance with Troi in the last season 7 episodes (which thankfully never got resurrected again), the show didn't make any attempt to pair him up with one of the "human" regulars. The great human/alien relationship on TNG was arguably the one between Picard and Q, and Q showed up once or sometimes twice a season. Interestingly, though, there was give-and-take here; certainly Q was presented as having to learn something about human values, but the show equally made a point of occasionally showing him in the teacher position to Picard, and using him as sarcastic commentator. In the show's finale, it's Picard who has to think in a way not yet accessible to humans to find the required solution.

DS9, with its different setting, had a better possibility than both previous shows to really develop alien cultures, and took to it with a vengeance. Bajorans, Cardassians, Ferengi, Trill - they all had been introduced on TNG, certainly, but DS9 was where they really aquired depth. And the aliens DS9 came up with on its own, the Jem'Hadar, the Vorta, and the Founders got the same treatment. As a matter of fact, if you look at the regulars, the humans (Sisko, Bashir, O'Brien, and Jake) and the non-humans (Kira, Dax, Quark, Odo) were equally numbered. If we take the recurring guest stars like Nog, Rom, Garak, Dukat and Kai Winn into account, the humans become a distinct minority. Moreover, in a distinct break with the Kirk-and-Riker tradition, the aliens were getting nearly all of the romantic action. Sisko, the show's hero, had a single girl of the week, and otherwise a steady, ongoing relationship with another human starting in season 4. Bashir had (officially) about two girls of the week, I believe, Melora and Serena, and Leeta as a regular girlfriend for a brief while, but we certainly didn't see them as a couple very often on screen (I think the most Bashir/Leeta scenes were in the episode they broke up, Let He Who Is Without Sin, and that was a Worf/Dax episode anyway). Meanwhile, Dax and Kira had their share of men of the week, plus in Kira's case three long-term relationships, in Dax' case one (plus Dax of course also had a girl of the week!). The character, however, who I think gets the most girls of the week, and is most often seen in sexual situations is… Quark. (What with all the ear-stroking.) On the show, mind you. In fanfic it's probably Bashir who gets the most action.

The DS9 long-term (eventual) romantic relationship which gets the most narrative weight is Odo/Kira, a relationship where neither party is human, though both look humanoid. Klingon fondness for rough sex notwithstanding, Odo's relationships - both with Kira, with the female Founder and with the male Changeling in a season 7 episode - are the only ones where the writers make an effort to show that alien sexuality might function differently from human sexuality; I'm thinking specifically of the season 7 episode Chimera, in which it does get pointed out that the usual humanoid thing might be more satisfying for Kira than it is for Odo, and at the end Odo for the first time unites with Kira in a non-solid way. The image of him surrounding her in fluid form was quite arresting and imo the most successful visualisation of two different species mating that Sci-Fi came up with.

Given that DS9 is also the show where instead of the Bajorans joining the Federation, the Starfleet Captain basically becomes Bajoran, it's really not surprising that the romantic scenarios tend to be more on the alien side, and with a lack of missionary position, too.*g*

Babylon 5, my other favourite space station, has of course a Human/Minbari romance as one important storyline. Since originally the Minbari were supposed to be androgynous, with Delenn only becoming female once she transforms into a half-human (the pilot was still shot on that assumption, hence Delenn's slightly deeper voice and more "male" appearance), it would have even been transgressive. But apparently while it's okay for Commanders and Captains to fall for aliens, it's not okay with networks for the leading man to fall for aliens without a specific (female) gender. In any case, Minbari fondness for rituals notwithstanding, the Sheridan/Delenn romance does not play out any differently than it would were Delenn completely human. All the other characters, with one exception, remain within their own species when it comes to romantic and/or sexual relationships, and while JMS gets a lot of humour out of G'Kar's penchant for non-Narn women, those relationships aren't that important to G'Kar and his storyarc.
(Interruption: of course to me Londo/G'Kar is the true romance of B5, but hey. Trying to stay canonical here. You didn't see me rave about Bashir/Garak on DS9, either, did you?)

Farscape makes a point of John Crichton, the human, being the true alien in a universe that might be strange to him (and us) at first but is the status quo for itself. It's a modern, dark version of the human abducted by the fairies. He's Tom the Rhymer, he's Richard Mayhew in London Below. Consequently every relationship he enters is human/alien…or, from another perspective, alien/alien. Now as mentioned above, Butterfly pointed out the non-alienness of utterly human (and gorgeous) looking Aeryn to John (and us), her very different culture notwithstanding. I remember a review of Terra Firma wondering how Jack Crichton had reacted if it had been Chiana John had an obvious involvement with, considering that Chiana might be humanoid but does look, move and behave in a way which to a new aquaintance has the alieness Aeryn lacks. And then again, Farscape, which has considerable more sexual text and subtext than any of the other shows named above, does display Scorpius and Natira (of two different species), and in a not-so-serious way Rygel and fellow Hynerian in sexual "alien" situations. And that's not delving into the entire Scorpius/John or John/Harvey subtext, or the ongoing theme of mental and physical alien invasion which starts long before John meets Scorpius. Compared with the optimism even DS9 as the darkest of the Treks, let alone the others, displays, or Babylon 5 with both the Minbari/Human and Narn/Centauri relationships starting out from a background of bitter enmity and ending up as if not eros then agape, Farscape, it seems to me, takes a considerably more jaundiced view on the union of the species. By the time the fourth season ends, the ongoing angst fest with John and Aeryn and more importantly the unrealistic solution in that infamous tag scene appears to be an example of two people, no matter how good their intentions, bringing each other pain more than anything else. Chiana and D'Argo would be a more positive example of two different species uniting, and they're back together on her terms, but given their history, for how long? And then there are Scorpius and Sikozu, who only started to become lovers (and if you like your subtext, Braca and Scorpius, though Braca does not look too happy about Sikozu when last we see him); in comparison to J/A by season 4, they look downright relaxed and happy, but given that Sikozu hasn't had a real chance yet to see Scorpius in full obsessive mode, and given that his obsession with John is far from over, you've got to wonder how long that's going to last.

Speaking of Scorpius, alara_r once paralleled him, quite effectively, with Spock. If, you know, Spock were the product of a rape instead of a marriage, and Vulcans and Terrans were intending to wipe each other out. Which brings us full circle, because Scorpius would be the most drastic, physical example of the, to use a euphemism, union of the species Farscape has to offer, as Spock was TOS, at the start of all Trek. And while John does affect him (compare and contrast Scorpius in Nerve to Scorpius in Into the Lion's Den: Wolf in Sheep's Clothing), John is not Kirk (as he himself puts it, and Farscape does not nearly play by TOS rules (except with the girl of the week thing) - it's John who goes through the most radical changes, brought about by, among other elements, metaphorical and not so metaphorical rape. We've definitely arrived at the darkest spectrum of the union with aliens.

Last but not least, let's take a look at the movies and the obvious couple: Ellen Ripley and, well, the Alien. (With the ever so discreet phallic look - thanks, Giger.) ('Twas artfully done, though.) Within four movies, we got from sexual subtext to main text complete with pregnancy, suicide, and rebirth as part-Alien. It occurs to me that Ripley and John Crichton are soulmates, sort of, since the Alien universe definitely has a Farscapian slant. (It also occurs to me that Ripley's horror at being cloned and resurrected, not quite human anymore, was written by a certain Joss Whedon.) There is one obvious difference to most but not all of the TV shows (DS9 would be the exception) where we usually have a male human and a female alien. Does a female human protagonist have a different resonance with the audience? And in any case, voluntary union with the Alien - that brief moment between Ripley and her "son" notwithstanding - is out of the question. It's so completely other, so completely deadly to all other life, that any utopian ideal must break down. And yet the four films insist on reuniting the two - human and alien. It's as if they can't do without each other…

Comments

[kernezelda]

Your posts almost always leave me in awe. While "wow, wow, wow," doesn't add anything to the conversation, it pretty much expresses my impression.

[cavendish.livejournal.com]

same with me ;-)

Thanks, oh Gangsta!

[selenak.livejournal.com]

And I'll promise I read the poem, but for poetry I need more leisure, which is why I didn't comment before.

[thesecondevil]

I also agree.

*blush*

[selenak.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

[lakrids404.livejournal.com]

most but not all of the TV shows (DS9 would be the exception) where we usually have a male human and a female alien.

I would think that perhaps, it has something to do with, that most of the writers and directors are males. And the female gender is generally speaking the only intelligent creature, that we males share the world with. If one should belive books like “Womens are from Mars, Men are from Venus”, not that one really belive in these kind of books.

I have not seen anything of B5 and very little of DS9. But generally speaking do I not think that sf. in film or series, handles otherness well. Most of time do the aliens more like shadows self of humanity. The culture of the aliens seems often to be a distorted carbon copied from human history. I think that the Klingeons, was build over the Russians under the cold war. The Romulans, is it kind of obvious, from where the inspirations came from. The Borgs is perhaps the most alien race in star trek universe, but they so mono focused and whiteout any kind of culture, that feel more like an impersonal machine. And also did the Borg queen humanize, the Borg race unnecessarily. Farscape have I only seen to 2x20, and I like it (Rygel in a bondage equipment, is not something you just forget, even if you really want to). But the culture of the characters and reasoning’s they make, do I not find particularly alien.
I am one the few people, who did like Alien 4. Because of that the film, was trying to make Ripley a mixture of otherness and humanity. And I think I would have liked, if Joss, would had tried to go that direction with Buffy in season six.
If I want believable otherness, I think I would have to go to books written by for example. C. J. Cherry, Larry Niven or Ursula K. LeGuin to mention a few. Even most of their aliens, are humanized in some way. So the reader can have something to relate to the alien characters.

[neuralclone.livejournal.com]

I would think that perhaps, it has something to do with, that most of the writers and directors are males. And the female gender is generally speaking the only intelligent creature, that we males share the world with. If one should belive books like "Womens are from Mars, Men are from Venus", not that one really belive in these kind of books.

I wonder if there is not a more ... well sinister isn't quite the right word ... "subconscious" reason for it as well? Traditionally culturally dominant males have seen it as their right to "play with" the women of other races and cultures, but "their" own women are reserved strictly for themselves. You don't have look very far back in history to find a world where it was OK for white men to have sex with black women - provided they didn't marry them! - or amuse themselves with "exotic" Asian "geishas" or prostitutes, but where white women weren't supposed to cross the colour line. And "coloured" men who did were depicted as either bestial black rapists or sinister oriental white slavers and opium lords. %-} It probably isn't too far a stretch to suggest that some remnants of these attitudes persist when it comes to depicting human-alien relationships in media science fiction.

And then there is the whole "hero gets the girl" as part of his reward, thing, operating as well.

Of course Spock's parents, Sarek and Amanda, were definitely the exception to this rule.

[ide-cyan.livejournal.com]

Amanda moved to Vulcan, didn't she? "Qui prend mari prend pays", ou planète, selon le cas... Women who marry are still often expected to be subsumed in their husband's identity. Women who subsume their husbands are seen as monstruous. Disruptive of the "natural" order.

Nicola Griffith has an interesting essay about aliens (http://www.nicolagriffith.com/aliens.html), and another on women and otherness in the English language (http://www.nicolagriffith.com/tongue.html), which touches on science-fiction too.

Joanna Russ is another obvious name to cite, but her works are not online.

[lakrids404.livejournal.com]

Interesting essays. In Danish the word for mankind is menneskehed meaning literally humankind. I am far from an expert in any language, but when I compare with other languages I know (English and German), does it feel to me more gender neutral. A man would only include a male gender person, and the language in Danish does not have to like the germane language declare what gender a noun is.

In Denmark, is the best know alien prince Henrik a former Frenchman. Whom a couple of years ago in interview said more or less, that he was rather feed up, with that he following the royal etiquette, should he. for example walk two step behind the queen. The interview came out for the public like man could not really accept, that his wife, was more important than himself. Something that every stand up comedian used as a subject for over a year. You could perhaps say, that prince Henrik ,, has not subsumed his identity (French), into his wife identity. And he is not liked for it, equality?.

[selenak.livejournal.com]

I think that the Klingeons, was build over the Russians under the cold war.

On TOS, certainly. With TNG, that changed and the Klingons basically became Vikings, which they remained in subsequent Treks.

The Borgs is perhaps the most alien race in star trek universe

Have to make a plea for the Founders here, but since you didn't watch DS9 much, referencing episodes would make no sense. How about the Q, though?

I liked Alien 4 as well for the same reason.
And I think I would have liked, if Joss, would had tried to go that direction with Buffy in season six.

It would have been interesting but wouldn't have worked as well psychologically, because it would have given her an "out". A very important step for her to take in late season 6 was to realize that she didn't do what she did because she came back "different", because of some new demonical component, but because of what she already was. Within the Buffyverse, actions done because of inherent nature usually make for a more powerful storyline than metamorphosis.

In Alien 4, though? It worked perfectly with Ripley.

[lakrids404.livejournal.com]

How about the Q, though?

Q’s are in special category of otherness, they are transcended / godlike creatures. Therefore can we not assume, that when they do something completely alien, to humans for example. That they do not understand, that their actions are alien for the humans. So we have to take in account, that the Q is behaving in alien way, to get a particularly result. Because I would think, that a transcended creature, would have little or no problem at creating a simulation, of how a particularly alien would react. If you were a little paranoid, you would have to wonder about, how much free will, there around entities like Q, and how much Picard really did influence Q, and how much of the time he got played by Q.

No, actually, I think we can take it as a given that they really don't get it.

[alara-r.livejournal.com]

When Q became human, he literally, truly did not know very much about being human. This doesn't appear consistent with "playing" humanity all along (and the scene in the shuttlecraft, with no humans present, tells us that yes, we *are* supposed to believe Q's story at face value.) There's also no evidence that Q does anything to anyone's free will; Picard does, in fact, defeat him in Hide and Q, and Voyager's Death Wish would make no sense if the Q were manipulating free will.

But the Q are not nearly as alien as the Borg. Physically, yes, much *more* so. But emotionally, they appear to be very much like people. People with so much power they take it for granted and aren't particularly corrupted by it, people with a *very* different culture than any known human norms, but people nonetheless. And yes, it's true, Q rarely *behaves* like an alien-- he can create a very convincing simulation of being human, and does, most of the time. When he appears his most alien is when his species is having a problem (ie, being willing to execute a teenage girl he shows every sign of being fond of, because she may not be a genuine Q), which indicates to me that no, he doesn't turn alien to "play" humans; we see him as alien when he has a problem relating to his species and culture. When he's just messing with humans, he seems very human, though also very obnoxious. :-)

[neuralclone.livejournal.com]

I agree with Butterfly 100%! For the show that has tended towards the unexpected and the unconventional, J/A is far too ... normal. Easy. For all the angst, it's guy meets (human looking) gal, falls in love, makes babies. It is probably why I find the Scorpius/Harvey/John connection more interesting - it's not necessarily sexual but - and? - it's extremely hard to pin down and categorise.

But you've left out one of the pairings in Farscape - Stark and Zhaan. Semi-incorporeal being with sentient plant.

Scorpius, btw, was originally projected as "an evil Mr Spock". In other words, the parallels are quite deliberate - another twisting of the Star Trek universe by Farscape.

Stark/Zhaan, of course!

[selenak.livejournal.com]

astrogirl2 probably will never speak to me again for forgetting them. Yes. Definitely transgressing all sorts of species bounders.

What I did leave out deliberately, because I don't know how to define it, either: Pilot and Moya.

Re: Stark/Zhaan, of course!

[astrogirl2.livejournal.com]

Hee! That's OK. For writing such a well thought-out and thought-provoking post, I'll forgive you. :)

Actually, one of the (many) things about Stark and Zhaan that does interest me is the fact that they're so very alien, not just to us, but to each other. In fact, they're probably the most mutually alien couple we see on any show, except for Kira and Odo. (Well, OK, maybe Zefram Cochrane and that cloud creature in TOS, but that relationship wasn't going anywhere until she got a human body, so I don't think it counts. :)) And Odo was deliberately minimizing the physical differences between himself and Kira, at least for a big chunk of their relationship. Btw, I was highly shocked and utterly disappointed in Kira when I realized that she, uh, wasn't taking advantage of her unique opportunities. I remember yelling at the screen, "You mean, you haven't been...? Girl, are you crazy?!" :)

Anyway... There's a lot of other, rather tangential, thoughts you've stirred up in me, mostly about alien sexuality and interspecies relationships (which is a subject I think I may have ranted about in bits and pieces elsewhere). But getting into that in the detail it deserves is probably a task better suited to posting in my own LJ when I've actually got more time...

Re: Stark/Zhaan, of course!

[selenak.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the absolution.*g* And let's hope Kira took every advantage after Chimera. Incidentally, I think if it had been Dax (Jadzia), she'd probably have suggested it to Odo from the start. Always more open to other cultures, was our Jadzia. (Not to mention more adventerous in such matters.)

I'm looking forward to your follow-up post.

Re: Stark/Zhaan, of course!

[astrogirl2.livejournal.com]

I'm looking forward to your follow-up post.

Look forward no longer! I discovered that I simply couldn't resist taking the time to blather on. Even if I only covered about half the thoughts I had on the subject...

Troi, Scorpius, etc

[alara-r.livejournal.com]

To be fair, Troi was *half*-alien. And unlike *every* other hybrid on the series, not only is she fully comfortable with both sides of her heritage and well-acquainted with the traditions and customs of both, but she *also* doesn't seem to have major angst about her "disability" vis-a-vis one of her origin species (she's not a full telepath and she DOESN'T CARE.) Given this, it was of course hard to pull off making her convincingly alien, and there were major missteps made (the fact that Barclay's "Goddess of Empathy" thing pissed her off, for instance; a fully telepathic species would have had to learn to find things like that funny instead of offensive), but I think what she has to offer the viewer, in terms of the alien loving meme, is the most positive message Trek has. Most loving of aliens ends up producing children that don't know what the hell they are and are deeply conflicted over it. From the obvious ones like Spock and B'Elanna Torres to the less obvious ones like Amanda Rogers (who was born in human form because her Q parents fell in love with humanity, as a concept) or Worf (loved, presumably, by his human foster parents), we keep being told that being a hybrid really sucks. Unless you happen to be Deanna Troi. All of Troi's problems stem from who her mother *is*, not that her mother is Betazoid (unlike Spock, who gets along great with his mother but can't handle her heritage in himself.)

That being said, I have to say I prefer Scorpius as a view of hybridization. Trek hybrids have it *physically* very, very easy. They might as well be hybrids of different races of humans (and in fact strongly analogize to such). While the fact that Scorpius was born through rape and not extensive genetic engineering bugs me, his essence as a body at war with itself seems far more realistic for what would happen if you actually got alien species to hybridize. I mean, Spock has *copper-based blood* and yet survived being attached to an iron-based placenta. (I vastly preferred the fanon that Trek aliens needed genetic engineering to hybridize, but canon appears to have shot that down.)

Male human/female alien doesn't actually apply in Spock's case, and Beverly Crusher had more than her share of alien boyfriends, but I see your point. Most of the longer term things involved male humans and female aliens. Largely, I think, because there *were* damn few females, and they were either aliens or being reserved for the human males. (Or in the case of Ivanova, the human female :-)).

The interesting thing about the Q vis-a-vis messages about aliens is that their species seems *far* more fluid than anyone else's. Humans can become Q, Q can become humans (one wonders if this really does apply to *all* species or if Q was hyperbolizing when he said he could have chosen to be a flea), Q can take human form and then bear children who are indistinguishable from human until they near adulthood... We see no other shapeshifting species pull off stunts like this. (Although, the Thasians had the ability to give Charlie Evans their powers... but then not to take those powers away.)

Re: Troi, Scorpius, etc

[lakrids404.livejournal.com]

It’s kind strange how easy it is, for two species, in a sf. Tv show, to create hybrids. When the evolutionary process, is probably fundamentally different, for the two species. I can accept, for the sake of the story, that two aliens can love each other. But why could they not, just adopt a child?. A lot couples that loves each other, and cannot get a child on their own do that.
Larry Niven has written a rather funny easy, about one of the aliens that walk amongst us. Namely Clark Kent, and it’s about his libido and other problems. http://www.rawbw.com/~svw/superman.html

Re: Troi, Scorpius, etc

[selenak.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the link! I wonder whether any of the Smallville crowd has read this...?

Re: Troi, Scorpius, etc

[ide-cyan.livejournal.com]

I read it ages (http://www.livejournal.com/users/ide_cyan/28174.html) ago...

Re: Troi, Scorpius, etc

[selenak.livejournal.com]

Point taken about Troi. Whom, incidentally, I like. And it is sort of refreshing to meet a hybrid who's okay with both sides of her heritage. However, I do maintain that the Betazoids weren't thought through - I mean, a telepathic culture in theory sounds fascinating, but apart from great wardrobe for Lwaxwana, we don't see much that distinguishes them from the humans.

Re: The Q and their ability to change species - well, the Founders as a collective were able to make Odo human, completely human (Bashir couldn't discover a difference, and btw one wonders why human and not Bajoran?), and a single Changeling, by dying and melting with him, was able to change him back into a Shapeshifter.

That's true about Odo.

[alara-r.livejournal.com]

I've actually always thought the Founders were more like pre-Q than any mortal humanoids are-- all they have to do is get past liquid matter and into energy. :-)

That being said that story never made sense to me. How the Q could do it made sense-- they appear to be drawing their power from a linkage to the Continuum, so break that and they lose their power. Odo has not been drawing power from the Great Link all his life; the Great Link is a *physical* entity. So how could they block his ability to shapeshift? (Unless it was a mental manipulation-- ie, he always had it, they just convinced him he didn't). And yes, why human and not Bajoran? I usually bring this up as evidence that DS9 began, in places, actively forgetting that Bajorans aren't human.

If it had been mental manipulation...

[selenak.livejournal.com]

...then Bashir's instruments wouldn't have read him as human. And he was rechecked several times on DS9. Plus in Ascent, he was able to freeze, break bones, and nearly starve, so I think we're really to take it as we're told: they didn't just block his ability to shapeshift, they completely physically changed him. Albeit they must have left some genetics there for the dying Changeling to link to. Presumably they were intending, after a period of punishment through life as a solid, to take him back eventually.

One has to remember as well the Founders were excellent at genetic engineering - as the Vorta and the Jem'hadar prove. If they can create a species like the Jem'hadar which is unisex, grows up in a matter of days, and has a metabolism which not only makes them addicted but has them responding to the Founders with unquestioning obedience...

As usual, LJ frickin' ate my post...

[alara-r.livejournal.com]

I'm getting deeply annoyed with this computer. It doesn't retain my LJ posts in the buffer so when I hit "submit", if everything isn't just right, I can't hit "back" to get back to my post.

Anyway, I was going to say that the fact that Bashir's scans can't tell that Odo is not human doesn't prove anything. Bashir's scans can't tell that *any* Changeling impersonating a human is not human. The only way to tell is to remove some of their physical substance from their body. Was that test done on human-Odo? Because if it wasn't, then it could very well be mental manipulation to make Odo lose the ability to voluntarily control his own Changes. (I don't remember if the test was done or not.) Changelings do seem to have the ability to *exactly* replicate their target, such that Trekkian lifeform scanners can't tell the difference (one wonders, though, why Betazoids can't tell. Wouldn't it help to post a lot of telepaths around and have them routinely scan people for are you who you say you are?)

Since Odo doesn't draw his power from some external source-- the Great Link is a physical entity, not a psychic/extradimensional entity that all Founders are linked to even when they're not physically in contact with it-- it's implausible to me that they really did have the ability to *actually* turn him into a human and yet leave enough of what he truly is intact that another Founder melding with him would restore his abilities. If they messed with his DNA (and really, would liquid creatures *have* DNA?) to the point where he was permanently changed into a human, then how could something as simple as just one Founder melding with him restore him?

The Q make sense to me because they appear to be binding whatever they really are into a matter-based pattern that is identical to the target species, and then all they have to do to cut off an individual Q's powers is break the link to the Continuum, where they seem to draw the energy for their power. The Founders, judging from the fact that their flesh reverts if you remove it from their bodies, aren't doing that; they're using some sort of psionic control over their liquid substance to make it molecularly mimic the physical form of whatever they're mimicking. If what they did to Odo was force him into a human physical form and then remove his ability to change it, he *should* be vulnerable to anything a human is, *but* if you take flesh away from him it would revert. Do you remember if that test was done?

I'm deeply intrigued...

[selenak.livejournal.com]

...by your theory that it was mental manipulation, because it would make so much sense. Will have to rewatch Broken Link, or rather, the end, to be sure.

Of course, during his stint as a human Odo consumed and digested food, but presumably so did Changeling Bashir, Changeling Martok etc. If it was hypnosis, it also did improse Odo's skills because in Ascent his hair got blown by the wind, sweaty etc. (Mind you, I always thought that Odo's claim of being unable to imitate the human/Bajoran form better, considering he can imitate animals of all kind, was a bit flimsy; it was probably all due to his feelings about Dr. Mora. And the Female Founder just wanted to be polite and not embarrass the new kid. After all, she had no problem imitating Kira.)

Great, inspiring essay :-)

[bimo.livejournal.com]

Losts of thanks for writing this one. I especially enjoyed the comments about DS9.

"Given that DS9 is also the show where instead of the Bajorans joining the Federation, the Starfleet Captain basically becomes Bajoran [...]" is an interesting observation. As far as Farscape is concerned, I'm currently reading Kixxa's wonderful 'The Devil You Know', where I stumbled across the following passage. I fear, however, the quote is quite a bit out of its original context *g*

---------
Thanks for the compliment." Rygel settles himself more comfortably, his arm entwining around John's own."So?" he asks innocently. "What do you suggest we do next?"

"I don't know. We've got a frelled Scarran weapon, a coupla lenghts of bandage, some peacekeaper restraints, and some dubious creams and lotions. "What do you suggest we do?"

A huge grin breaks out on Rygel's face. "Something naughty?"
-------

Re: Great, inspiring essay :-)

[selenak.livejournal.com]

Thanks! And kixxa so fulfilled my OTP dreams with that story.*g*

And Sisko does, even excluding his final transformation. Rewatching the show made me aware of his journey from Starfleet officer to Emissary in a way I had not yet been because the first time around, I had my mind fixed on certain Cardassians, Ferengi and Doctors...

[c-elisa.livejournal.com]

He's Tom the Rhymer, he's Richard Mayhew in London Below.

Oh, I *love* this comparison. Yes, of course, John has gone under the hill; that's perfect. And makes me think of that scene in, what is it, Exodus from Genesis, with D'Argo forcing the dentik into John's mouth, like something out of The Goblin Market.

Odo's relationships - both with Kira, with the female Founder and with the male Changeling in a season 7 episode - are the only ones where the writers make an effort to show that alien sexuality might function differently from human sexuality; I'm thinking specifically of the season 7 episode Chimera, in which it does get pointed out that the usual humanoid thing might be more satisfying for Kira than it is for Odo, and at the end Odo for the first time unites with Kira in a non-solid way.

I remember Gigi Edgley talking about her sex scene with D'Argo in "Look at the Princess." Apparently before it was filmed, she went up to Anthony Simcoe and said "let's figure out how aliens have sex." They worked on that for half an hour or so, with the result that when Kemper walked in on them, he didn't know what they were doing. "We're having sex!" they said brightly. He patiently explained to them that, no, it has to *look* like sex. Which it does, in order for the joke of John walking in on them to work -- but it would have been a different and better joke if he hadn't understood what he was seeing. Farscape seems to have had a remarkably smart cast and I wish the PTB had listened to them in that case.

But what about Pilot/Moya? They're completely alien to each other and yet totally devoted... until Moya gets pregnant, and then Pilot is just a parasite. Their relationship is emotionally comprehensible -- mostly -- and yet not at all human. That's why they're my Farscape OTP.

[selenak.livejournal.com]

And makes me think of that scene in, what is it, Exodus from Genesis, with D'Argo forcing the dentik into John's mouth, like something out of The Goblin Market.

Now I also have this vision of D'Argo and the Marquis de Carabas bickering together on what it means to tag a clueless newcomer along...

But what about Pilot/Moya?

I left them out because I was really unsure what to call their relationship. But whatever else it is, it's certainly love and you're right.

Oh, and: nice icon.*g*

Fantastic essay

[londonkds.livejournal.com]

I've put a response to one point in my own LJ - didn't put it here as it only relates to a single episode and you touched on one particular DS9 episode that I had an incredibly hostile visceral reaction to. I thought most people wouldn't want to read my PC ranting ;-)

thank you!

[selenak.livejournal.com]

More in your lj.