series relevance

[Toban Kal]

I'm making my way through DS9, watching all the episodes from start to finish. And I'm shocked that as it progresses the series seems to grow more and more relevant.
It seems more relevant now, to our life and times in the wake of 9/11 and Iraq and so forth, than it did when it was first broadcast.

It's almost bizarrely accurate. traumatised soldiers, regrettable deaths, illegal and questionable moves, extreme measures. It is more relevant today than it was in the 90's

 

[adamczar]

I think each generation likely will draw it's own parallels to the show. But you are right, in today's society who is used to war it seems more relevant than it did.

 

[Marie1]

I've gotten that even more this time around too.

What is really treason, people forced to be soldiers and to kill, apathy, all those times the Federation was willing to allow genocidal plans to go forth and see if they worked, etc...
Its a great show.

 

[LLAP]

I think 'Paradise Lost' and 'Homefront' were great episodes that are relavant today with regard to the issue of security over liberty. Recently many have regarded security as more important but now with places like Guantanamo Bay closing that is changing. Now to get rid of all those CCTV cameras in the UK! Down with ID cards!

 

[tomalak301]

How did people look at DS9 in the 90s. It seems like the series was made more for the 00s, but I keep reminding myself that this series went from 1993 to 1999. Personally, I liked it because it was Star Trek, but for those older, did it have an impact on you the first time around when we were a country of peace and not necessarily used to war?

 

[EnsignRicky]

It's almost bizarrely accurate. traumatised soldiers, regrettable deaths, illegal and questionable moves, extreme measures. It is more relevant today than it was in the 90's

Some things are just timeless.

 

[nx1701g]

DS9 has changed in my eyes. When I started watching Trek TNG was my favorite and I could never get into DS9. Now, however, with my training and job it has become my favorite because it is more and more relevant.

 

[Toban Kal]

what is you job? army? police?

 

[psikeyhackr]

... I'm shocked that as it progresses the series seems to grow more and more relevant.

It seems more relevant now, to our life and times in the wake of 9/11 and Iraq and so forth, than it did when it was first broadcast.

I had that same reaction when I watched Homefront again a few years ago.

Nice to know it is not just me.

psik

 

[Navaros]

Yup, DS9 has always seemed as if the showrunners had a crystal ball to see what would happen in this decade, and then wrote the show about what they saw in their crystal ball. It's uncanny how very much DS9 resembles modern times.

 

[The Master of Tarquin Hill]

How did people look at DS9 in the 90s. It seems like the series was made more for the 00s, but I keep reminding myself that this series went from 1993 to 1999. Personally, I liked it because it was Star Trek, but for those older, did it have an impact on you the first time around when we were a country of peace and not necessarily used to war?

Hey, I watched DS9 during its first run. And yes, the terrorist themes resonated quite well back then. Anybody paying attention knew that international terrorism had become a plague upon Europe and would touch American shores in a significant way eventually. Before the Black/White bullshit of the past 8yrs is was acceptable to have an intelligent discussion about the fine line between a freedom fighter and a terrorist. I think that is the most valuable lesson that this series has to offer to us.

In fact, I believe that the excellent "tutorial" that this series gave me before 9/11 allowed me to approach the events that unfolded after that date with a wee bit more understanding/comprehension/skepticism, than if I had not watched DS9.

All of those involved on the writing side of DS9 deserve unending praise for their foresight. ST is well known as a medium that shows us our future potential, but DS9 went beyond that by showing us both near-term potentials, and pitfalls.

I LOVE THIS SHIT!

 

[psikeyhackr]

Here is another example of series relevance in a totally different area.

The House of Quark

Now this is a really funny episode and the idea of a Ferengi marrying a Klingon woman is absolutely hysterical and the ending in the Klingon council room was certainly surprising. But the bottom line is that Quark figured out what was going on because he knew ACCOUNTING.

http://www.bsu.edu/news/article/0,1370,-1019-11714,00.html

Double-entry accounting is 700 years old. How hard can it really be, especially with today's computers?

If accounting had been mandatory in high school for the last 40 or 50 years would the economy be in this state? But what good did the 4 years of English literature do most people?

How do you ever notice what economists don't tell us? How much do Americans lose on the depreciation of automobiles every year? There have been 200,000,000+ cars in the US since 1995. That is more cars than there were Americans in the 1930's. If each car lost $1,500 in depreciation per year that is $300,000,000,000 per year. How do economists manage to NOT MENTION that? That comes to more the FOUR TRILLION DOLLARS since 1995. But have you ever heard the term NET Domestic Product on television?

http://discussions.pbs.org/viewtopic.pbs?t=28529

There is another thing about science fiction in general. How many people like sci-fi but don't know that much about science ant technology? It's 40 years after the moon landing. How do people not figure out planned obsolescence is going on in cars?

The Babylon 5 episode By Any Means Necessary is about economics too.

http://www.truveo.com/By-Any-Means-Necessary/id/3258745457

psik

 

[Star Wolf]

I think each generation likely will draw it's own parallels to the show. But you are right, in today's society who is used to war it seems more relevant than it did.

I seem to recall that when the Bajoran's first appeared on TNG someone said that their story was the story of the Palestinians. Which of course pissed off folks who's political lean went the other way. More then each generation it is each individual viewer who will make any relevance linkage.

 

[DGCatAniSiri]

Yup, DS9 has always seemed as if the showrunners had a crystal ball to see what would happen in this decade, and then wrote the show about what they saw in their crystal ball. It's uncanny how very much DS9 resembles modern times.

That feeling of the crystal ball even struck during the show's run - during the writing or filming of Past Tense, the episode where Sisko and Bashir wind up in the 2020's and are in the internment-like 'camps' for the homeless, the mayor of Los Angeles suggested something very similar to 'clean up' the city.

But there are a lot of parallels that can be drawn from DS9 to things as they are now, ten years later. It can get a little eerie when you think about it.

 

[I am not Spock]

It's almost scary to think that 10 years before the fact, DS9 was predicting so much.

DS9 continued Trek's tradition of being ahead of the times. Remember that TOS came up with things like cell phones way before they existed.

Scary.

 

[JustKate]

I always thought, even back in the day, that it was the most realistic of the Trek shows. That is what I like about it...and yet what sometimes makes watching it an uncomfortable experience.

It didn't have to predict -- it just had to look back at history. All this has happened before. Hopefully it won't keep on happening.

You have to remember that many of us, even in the last 40 or 50 years, have had numerous chances to be "used to" war (sort of). I'm not happy about that, but there it is.

 

[RobertScorpio]

I always thought, even back in the day, that it was the most realistic of the Trek shows. That is what I like about it...and yet what sometimes makes watching it an uncomfortable experience.

It didn't have to predict -- it just had to look back at history. All this has happened before. Hopefully it won't keep on happening.

You have to remember that many of us, even in the last 40 or 50 years, have had numerous chances to be "used to" war (sort of). I'm not happy about that, but there it is.

DS9 gets better like fine wine IMO...

Rob