I have a confession.
While this blog is vaguely Star Wars-themed, the truth is . . . I'm a Trekkie.
Luke raised me on The Next Generation, and watching the Picard, Season 3, reboot, I nearly cried seeing the beloved characters of my childhood. Especially Worf. He's my favorite.
Yet Luke was not so passionate about the other iterations, Deep Space Nine and Voyager, so I never watched those through properly. I've been rectifying that error now, finally getting through the last few episodes of Season 7 of DS9.
I've been pleasantly surprised at how excellent this series is. The first few seasons could be eye-rollingly cheesy, but then it morphed into an absolutely brilliant show, complete with episodes that had me sniffling. They pushed the TNG envelope, and pulled it off.
There was a line from one episode that I thought about.
A character in the show is injured in combat. He's young, an ensign, and this experience rattles him. There is a program in the holosuite which has a self-aware holographic character, Vic Fontaine, and he ends up becoming a central player in a number of episodes. Vic owns a casino in Vegas in 1962.
So the ensign loses himself in this program, refusing to leave, enjoying the safety of the fantasy. Vic even enjoys the company, but at some point realizes that this isn't healthy, and tells the ensign he has to leave.
The ensign explains that he's not ready to face reality again. Vic tells him:
Look, kid, I don't know what's going to happen to you out there. All I can tell you is that... you've got to play the cards life deals you. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. But at least you're in the game.It made me think of how our religion says that being living is the ideal, that we can do, that life is always the best option. Life may be disappointing at times, or worse, but at least we're in the game.
I used to be really into Star Trek. Got the DVDs of all the Original Series, Next Generation, DS9 and even Voyager. I've lost track of the most recent series though. I don't stream (Neanderthal of me, I know, although it's partly a budget issue) and I have a huge aversion to Michael Chadbon (chief writer and showrunner of Picard). I don't like calling someone a "self-hating Jew" (really a terrible sinat chinam insult), but... well, I don't know what else to call someone who convinces non-Jews that Israel is a major human rights abuser, who writes novels spreading conspiracy theories about covert Jewish power and says that all Jews should marry out and it wouldn't be a problem if the Jewish people ceased to exist. Yuk. That said, I am getting FOMO about Picard, so maybe I'll bite the bullet one day (probably in twenty years' time. I'm only just reading Harry Potter now).
ReplyDeleteAnyway, I never much liked Vic Fontaine. I always went for the "outsider, trying to be human" characters: Spock (OK, he was trying NOT to be human), Data, Odo... Data in particular comes across as very autistic, really how it feels trying to be neurodivergent in a neurotypical world. Though I did really like Garak too. You never knew whose side he was really on, but he was charming all the same.
Michael Chabon only wrote Season 1 of Picard. Akiva Goldsman wrote Season 2, and Season 3 was by Terry Malick. Season 1 was riddled with plot holes and gratuitous violence, Season 2 was WOKE to barfing extent, but then, Season 3 . . . POETRY. It was magnificent. If you ever get a chance to watch it, do without the first two seasons.
ReplyDeleteI'm no fan of Michael Chabon. He said Jews should marry out? Funny, his wife is Jewish.
Vic is not my favorite character. It's a tie between Data and Worf. Although Data stopped being fun for me once he got his emotion chip.
Kira is also up there. Although Garak makes me nervous. But Gul Dukat was amazingly portrayed. I'm definitely a fan of the actor.
I'll see if I can watch season 3 at some point.
ReplyDeleteChabon says it was a mistake on some level for him to marry a Jewish wife.🙄
Wow. Considering how her work has consisted of saying "I love my husband more than my children," that's a blow.
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