Did you find the Bajorans boring?

[Plomeek Broth]

Let me preface by saying DS9 is my favorite Trek series so not trolling.

Just started my second run through the entire series.

Of all the races or factions involved (Federation, Klingons, Cardassians, Dominion, Romulans, etc.) I found them by far the most dull. They brought a spiritual side to the series which was never present in other Trek but I thought it could have been done in a more colorful way. The look of them with the bridge of the nose and a Bluetooth earring didn't provide interest from a physical perspective and their cause and religion seemed dry and cliche.

Does anyone else agree about them being boring? If not, convince me of how wonderful they are and maybe I can look at them from a different perspective and enjoy them adding more dimension and enjoyment to future viewings.

 

[LMFAOschwarz]

No help here: I found them dull ever since they first appeared on The Next Generation.

I just assumed, I think, that the nearby wormhole would turn out to be visible in Bajor's sky, and had long in the past became something of a "religious symbol" of sorts, something like how ancient humans would react to a periodic comet or eclipse. I don't believe this ever happened. Oh, well...

 

[BruntFCA]

As a species I found them rather boring but the episodes that dealt with Bajoran politics(Progress, ITHOTP, the Circle Trilogy, etc) were highlights of the first few seasons IMO and I missed that aspect in the later years.

I would also of liked to have seen some non religious Bajorans, it seemed every Bajoran we saw believed in the same thing without reservation.

 

[RCAM]

As a species I found them rather boring but the episodes that dealt with Bajoran politics(Progress, ITHOTP, the Circle Trilogy, etc) were highlights of the first few seasons IMO and I missed that aspect in the later years.

I would also of liked to have seen some non religious Bajorans, it seemed every Bajoran we saw believed in the same thing without reservation.

I think it makes sense that there's more uniformity in their religious beliefs than those here on Earth, because the Bajorans have proof beyond a shadow of a doubt that the Prophets exist and there is scientific evidence that their "powers" are real.

Obviously, for a non-Bajoran, it's easy to call them "wormhole aliens," but there's no denying they exist.

 

[dub]

^Kai Winn was non-religious posing as religious because of her desire for power.

I loved the Bajorans, and I also missed the focus on them later in the series. I realize I'm in the minority.

 

[BruntFCA]

As a species I found them rather boring but the episodes that dealt with Bajoran politics(Progress, ITHOTP, the Circle Trilogy, etc) were highlights of the first few seasons IMO and I missed that aspect in the later years.

I would also of liked to have seen some non religious Bajorans, it seemed every Bajoran we saw believed in the same thing without reservation.

I think it makes sense that there's more uniformity in their religious beliefs than those here on Earth, because the Bajorans have proof beyond a shadow of a doubt that the Prophets exist and there is scientific evidence that their "powers" are real.

Obviously, for a non-Bajoran, it's easy to call them "wormhole aliens," but there's no denying they exist.

There would still be people who choose not to believe in the prophets as gods, or more likely became disillusioned with the prophets for doing nothing during the occupation. I just think it would have been cool to see a Bajoran that was really different from the base attribute of the species like that episode of ENT when we saw a Kligon lawyer.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

^ You mean like the Pah-Wraith cult?

As for Winn: I thought it was hilarious every time she called Kira "child", because it sounded like the worst insult imaginable coming from Winn...I'm sure it was intentional.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

The Bajorans struck me as a more diverse race than most of the Star Trek main races, because they didn't have a central gimmick like Vulcan logic or Klingon honor. The problem isn't that Bajor is boring, the problem is that Bajorans other than Kira were always used boringly. We only saw non-recurring character Bajorans when they were sucking up to the Sisko or insisting on strict interpretation of prophecy.

 

[The Overlord]

As a species I found them rather boring but the episodes that dealt with Bajoran politics(Progress, ITHOTP, the Circle Trilogy, etc) were highlights of the first few seasons IMO and I missed that aspect in the later years.

I would also of liked to have seen some non religious Bajorans, it seemed every Bajoran we saw believed in the same thing without reservation.

I think it makes sense that there's more uniformity in their religious beliefs than those here on Earth, because the Bajorans have proof beyond a shadow of a doubt that the Prophets exist and there is scientific evidence that their "powers" are real.

Obviously, for a non-Bajoran, it's easy to call them "wormhole aliens," but there's no denying they exist.

Ensign Ro didn't seem very religious, she seemed to disbelieve in the idea of spirits in the afterlife and didn't want the really long Bajoran Death Chant to be performed at her funeral.

 

[F. King Daniel]

Absolutely tedious as a species.

 

[Michael]

Wow, I'm surprised they caused this much rejection. I loved the Bajorans and the stories about them. The first two seasons of the show (and especially the second) are my favorites precisely because of the Bajorans. Kira, one of my favorite television characters ever, is a Bajoran. So yeah, I'm surprised.

I can't, however, exactly pinpoint why I like them so much. They are very believable as a race and culture. Over the course of the series they were provided with a very diverse, colourful and coherent background, which made them more like real people instead of mere plot pawns.

I don't think I liked them as much when I was a kid, though. Being raised rather agnostically, I was somewhat weirded out by their religious aspects. But as an adult I actually think this is one of the most interesting things about them. They let you think about how we as a society use religion and what religion can do for the individual.

 

[Bry_Sinclair]

I wish they'd done more with the species, given their significance on the station and with the wormhole. The politics of the early seasons was really interesting, as they really got into it--which could be done with DS9.

I prefer them above the Klingons, who have become tired and more of a caricature of themselves than a believable species, especially a major interstellar power.

I do have to say that when it came to Bajoran characters they wrote female ones far more interesting than male--thankfully as it gave us Kira, Ro, Winn and Opaka.

 

[USS Triumphant]

Their colors were muted, their fashion was boring, and it seemed like all of the actors selected to play Bajorans aside from Kira, Ro, Winn, and Opaka were always phoning in their performances. And if we ever saw anything distinctive and cool about them - ship designs, planetary landmarks, anything - then I can't recall it. The best we got were the Orbs of the Prophets, and 1. they weren't Bajoran, really, they were Wormhole-Alien-ian, and 2. they seemed more like plot devices than actual things.

 

[dub]

I don't have any sources for this, so perhaps someone can help me out or correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe somewhere I read or saw a DVD extra or something with the writers talking about how they had to pull back on the Bajoran focus because fans didn't enjoy the political stuff and they HATED the religion?

 

[Trevacious]

Kira, Ro, Sito, Opaka, Winn - all interesting.

But, past Frank Langella (simply because he IS Langella) as Minister Jaro, I found every other Bajoran male to be a Deadly bore. Especially those romantically linked to Kira. Maybe that was intentional.

 

[Dale Sams]

Their colors were muted, their fashion was boring, and it seemed like all of the actors selected to play Bajorans aside from Kira, Ro, Winn, and Opaka were always phoning in their performances. And if we ever saw anything distinctive and cool about them - ship designs, planetary landmarks, anything - then I can't recall it. The best we got were the Orbs of the Prophets, and 1. they weren't Bajoran, really, they were Wormhole-Alien-ian, and 2. they seemed more like plot devices than actual things.

Pretty much this. The uniforms....ugh...and the Bajoran politics initially turned me off, but now that I'm older, I would enjoy that aspect more.

 

[Bad Thoughts]

I've already stated that I find Bajoran men after Li, Krim and Jaro to be "creepy." That's part casting, part laziness.

Generally, there were plenty of opportunities to insert more Bajoran perspectives without writing Bajoran plotlines. The First Minister could have been a more prominent role. There could have been actual Bajoran shopkeepers (not just casual references to their existence). Why couldn't one or two of Odo's security officers get a name? Why was Rom the only Bajoran engineer with a name, even though he was Ferengi by birth? Why didn't we see more roles like Vedek Yassim, not only confronting the Dominion occupation but also Kai Winn? A dozen lines here or there could have done wonders to bring Bajor more clearly into the Dominion war narrative without focusing exclusively on Bajor.

More importantly, I don't think that Bajorans were inherently boring. At least I felt it was thrilling to see them coming to the rescue of Rom and Kira in Sacrifice of Angels.

ETA: I also think not having a Bajoran wedding for Sisko was a missed opportunity. (Just drop Ezri as a character (no offense to NdB), put Yates, an employee of the Bajoran government, into the main cast, and there would be plenty of time.)

 

[JirinPanthosa]

The Bajorans were a very well designed race, with a much richer history than most of the Trek races. They don't have a central gimmick, they were just a peaceful people subjected to horrible exploitation and violence for fifty years and are just now healing and rebuilding their culture. They have an internal conflict between the religious and the secular and DS9 missed opportunities to parallel the same conflict on Earth more. I think they did a great job of it in the last episode of season 1, with Kai Winn trying to force Keiko not to teach science for personal political gain. That's an exact parallel with what's going on in US politics right now. I also think they did the 'Growing pains' aspect will in the Circle trilogy.

DS9 should have shown the Bajorans more often without just focusing on their religion. Like, shown the growing pains of moving from being slaves to being a galactic power without just having some religious icon acting outraged about something.

So in some ways DS9 dropped the ball in showing the Bajorans as being a diverse a race as they clearly were. But if I had to choose a planet to live on that was the home planet of a major Trek race other than Earth, Bajor would be the easy choice for me. I suppose Betazed would be an option if I had a way to block their ability to read my mind.

 

[toughlittleship]

DS9 had little studio interference, but I have read Paramount didn't like the Bajoran political episodes, hence the focus on the Bajoran religion later in the series.

 

[Timewalker]

As for Winn: I thought it was hilarious every time she called Kira "child", because it sounded like the worst insult imaginable coming from Winn...I'm sure it was intentional.

Every time Winn got that supercilious expression on her face, with the false smiles and the "child" remarks - as though Kira were 2 years old instead of an independent adult woman, I wished I could reach through the TV screen and slap her.

...their fashion was boring, ...

They did enable one of the dealers' room merchants at one of the conventions I went to, to turn a nice profit with "Bajoran earrings." It seemed like half the membership was wearing those things (not me - I don't do earrings).

I've already stated that I find Bajoran men after Li, Krim and Jaro to be "creepy." That's part casting, part laziness.

I didn't mind Shakaar too much, but then I like Duncan Regehr.

More importantly, I don't think that Bajorans were inherently boring.

For the most part, I thought they were profoundly boring. The only interesting Bajoran characters were Ro Laren and Leeta.