Jake Sisko - Completely Unlikeable
- Thread starter spinagogue
- Start date
I...am not offended by your opinion, but I don't see what you're seeing. I never particularly loved Jake Sisko, but I was always impressed by what a relatively good character and actor he was, compared with Wesley. The only time I thought he was a little sh!t was that moronic filler episode with the baseball card.
There was nothing for him to do. He was just... around.
That's the problem with being a writer. So much in internal.
One of the best elements of Stephen King's "Misery" was the internal process in Paul Sheldon's mind. The movie was very good, but it couldn't recreate that. That was why a crucial element of the ending was changed. If you read the book and saw the movie, you might or might not know which... as a writer myself, I see it as crucial.
One of the best elements of Stephen King's "Misery" was the internal process in Paul Sheldon's mind. The movie was very good, but it couldn't recreate that. That was why a crucial element of the ending was changed. If you read the book and saw the movie, you might or might not know which... as a writer myself, I see it as crucial.
Not just teenager, but also pre-teen.
I really thought of Jake as Wesley done right.
When they casted WIl WHeaton , they were thinking of the 12 year old kid... but between the time he filmed Stand by me and by the time they filmed TNG, he had grown out of the kid stage, so stuff like "Justice" seemed silly and unnatural.
With Jake, he was cast at the right time. He started off as a kid, doing what normal kids do. The interplay with Nog really solidified that. Then , as he grew into a teenager, he was acting also age appropriate.
And hs interactions with his dad... that seemed so natural, as opposed to Beverly & Wesley, which felt so stiff.
And that last scene wth him and Kira on DS9.... wow.... just a perfect way to end the show.
I think they definitely struggled with him finding an appropriate role (kinda like how they rarely used Keiko), but definitely NOT completely unlikeable to me. At All.
You raised an interesting question for me - do we think Wesley might have worked better if we'd seen more of him interacting with people his own age versus typically just interacting with the senior staff?
To flip that around, would our opinions of Jake be as favorable if Nog hadn't also been part of the picture?
To flip that around, would our opinions of Jake be as favorable if Nog hadn't also been part of the picture?
It was a missed opportunity for not having Jake being the center of the narrative for "Far Beyond the Stars", it would have impact his character deeply and could some how connect the storyline with his father tale as the Emissary.
Nog certainly provided more contrast to Jake's story. Had Jake turned into another SF cadet/officer, he would have been unremarkable. Giving him a different occupation and life course helped to fill out the station, and by extension, the universe by establishing a little how others existed at the time. Nog helped to highlight what they were doing with Jake. Jake was as much listless as Nog was uncouth. On the other hand, Jake could be inquisative and Nog could be loyal. Had Jake not disappeared in the last season, I think he would have seemed as accomplished as Nog in the last episode.
Jake didn't have to be just another SF cadet/officer, he could've been a scientist, architect or something actually useful to the war story.
Amen. Jake is proof that Trek can learn from its mistakes. Jake is believable in a way Wesley seldom was.
He and Nog felt like actual teens.
Yeah, Jake was believable... by simply sweeping him to a corner and just be around and have zero impact to any of the storylines. Believable indeed. Feh!
I just started the Occupation Arc as part of my rewatch last night and I think the only time Jake became somewhat unlikeable was when he joined the Federation News Service. I really wish they had maybe wrote Jake out of the series at the mid-point of Season 5 and he finally did go to the Peddington School to focus on his novel writing. It just seemed like becoming a journalist was out of left field and wasn't really who Jake was, especially coming off of his experience in Nor the Battle to the Strong.
People complain about Wesley Crusher because he was central to the show. People complain about Jake because he was Sisko's son instead of a fellow officer or similar colleague. He was part of the story as the child of the CO, not the science officer, tactical officer, or chief of operations.
Clearly, no matter what a child character on Trek does, someone's going to be pissed off about it.
A hard reporter, perhaps not. But Nor THe Battle to the Strong showed his potential as an essayist.
With the limited amount of black characters on Television; it's nice to read someone who liked seeing a non-"useful" person on a Star Trek series for a change. Who happened to be black.
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