Jake's Cougar Hunt

[dub]

Did anyone else feel uncomfortable with Jake's relationship with the Dabo girl? I was a little uncomfortable, but my wife was appalled when she watched that episode with me. There were also other moments when the writers hinted at Jake with older women (that woman who forced him to write to drain his energy had sexual imagery). And this was in the early seasons. He was still a minor IIRC?

 

[Third Nacelle]

Well we don't know the Federation definition of "minor."

He was 20 by the time of WYLB.

I think it was creepy because we still thought of little kid Jake from earlier in the series, but I don't think at the time he met that dabo girl, she was THAT much older.

 

[R. Star]

Did anyone else feel uncomfortable with Jake's relationship with the Dabo girl? I was a little uncomfortable, but my wife was appalled when she watched that episode with me. There were also other moments when the writers hinted at Jake with older women (that woman who forced him to write to drain his energy had sexual imagery). And this was in the early seasons. He was still a minor IIRC?

Mardah? Yeah she's a subplot for Jake early on. Not sure how far you got, but Sisko isn't happy with it at all when he finds out. Mardah was only four years older than Jake though. Though that number's a lot bigger when you're under eighteen yeah, but it wasn't quite the cradle robbing it seemed at first.

Nice snippet from The Abandoned.

SISKO Quark may call her a dabo girl... but she's twenty years old. She's a woman... and Jake's a sixteen-year- old boy. It has to stop.
O'BRIEN So why'd you invite her over? If you don't mind my asking.

SISKO Curiosity, mostly. I want to see what I'm up against.

O'BRIEN But what if it turns out that you... like her?

SISKO She's a dabo girl and she's dating my son. I don't want to like her. Sisko gives him a look and then EXITS. O'Brien watches him for a moment and tries to put himself in Jake's shoes.

O'BRIEN (to himself) Sixteen years old and dating a dabo girl... (sounds pretty good) ... Godspeed, Jake.


Though this isn't Jake's only pass at an older woman.

 

[sonak]

er, sixteen years old is the age of consent in many places, I don't think there's anything "creepy" about a relationship between a 16-year-old and a twenty-year-old, no matter the genders of either of the ages.

 

[C.E. Evans]

It might have been a case that there weren't that many girls his own age on the station, while there were plenty of girls a few years older as members of the crew or civilian population there.

Personally, I found Jake and Mardah a cute couple and wished they could have continued throughout the series. Jake definitely could have learned some things from her about life...

 

[Cyke101]

er, sixteen years old is the age of consent in many places, I don't think there's anything "creepy" about a relationship between a 16-year-old and a twenty-year-old, no matter the genders of either of the ages.

Right, we don't know exactly what the laws are regarding this matter.

On an amusing note, it could have been "worse." According to Avery Brooks, Mardah was originally supposed to be played by the even-older Chase Masterson. Chase was vetoed strictly because of the combination of the age gap and her attractiveness.

Which would have meant, of course, that Jake would be living the dream of any teenage boy (certainly my dream at the time).

 

[R. Star]

I remember reading some place that Avery Brooks, who directed the Mardah episode, thought Masterson was too sexy to hook up with the kid, but helped arrange her role as Leeta hoping their chars would get together.

 

[Melakon]

. . .I think it was creepy because we still thought of little kid Jake from earlier in the series. . .

This is part of the problem I had a few months back, when someone called Naomi Wildman the hottest woman on Voyager and posted pictures of now 24-year-old Scarlett Pomers. Naomi is a litte girl to me.

 

[R. Star]

Sorry, unless you're talking about the actress who played future Naomi in that one episode... anyone talking about how hot Naomi is sick.

 

[t_smitts]

You know, I thought at one time Ziyal might be a good love interest for Jake (I think she was a bit older than him). Frankly, in later seasons, he needed something to do more often than Garak did.

 

[Melakon]

Sorry, unless you're talking about the actress who played future Naomi in that one episode... anyone talking about how hot Naomi is sick.

Yeah, that was the exception I allowed, when she was played by Vanessa Branch (?). But even now, Vanessa is old enough to be my daughter, and Scarlett my grand-daughter, so I can't let myself think of them that way.

. . .he needed something to do more often than Garak did.

Damn my eyes! I first misread that as "someone to do".

 

[BennyRussel]

Jake/Ziyal would have been GREAT. Also I would have liked Jake/Ezri.

 

[R. Star]

I'm really surprised Jake and Ziyal never interacted at all. Regardless if they got together or not. Just the relationship between their fathers alone would be enough to get them to strike up an interesting conversation.

Jake and Ezri? There was a scene between the two of them in her first full episode in the runabout where they looked like there could be some sparks there. But Jake was widely absent from season 7 so nothing came from that.

 

[TEACAKE'S PLEATHER DOME]

At first I thought this thread was titled "Janeway's Cougar Hunt" and I got super excited.

Anyway.. the only appeal of Jake for the dabo woman is that he is the station commander's son. There is no way she would be looking at him if he was just some teenager whose dad was cleaning conduits or something. This is what makes it a bit unbalanced and I'm pretty sure Sisko knew that. Sure he's a nice kid and she enjoyed talking to him but it's not like there weren't other adult men around.

 

[C.E. Evans]

I remember reading some place that Avery Brooks, who directed the Mardah episode, thought Masterson was too sexy to hook up with the kid, but helped arrange her role as Leeta hoping their chars would get together.

I think that would have worked with them being an odd couple (although perhaps not as odd as Leeta and Rom though). I could see it being a situation in which Leeta pursues Sisko but he's not interested in her at all initially because he's a Starfleet command-rank officer and she's a Dabo girl. She'd have to wear him down and win him over perhaps.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

20 / 2 + 7 = 17

Ok, borderline case, but only by one year. The only culture 20 - 16 would ever be considered creepy in is our modern crypto-conservative one. You feel it's wrong because your culture tells you it's wrong, not because you really feel that it is.

 

[Bry_Sinclair]

You know, I thought at one time Ziyal might be a good love interest for Jake (I think she was a bit older than him). Frankly, in later seasons, he needed something to do more often than Garak did.

Jake and Ziyal would have been a great couple. You can just imagine how insufferable Dukat would be, thinking he and Sisko having a family bond.

You can count the episodes in S7 Jake appears on one hand pretty much, not exactly what you'd expect from a news service correspondent.

As for him and Mardah, I never saw anything off-putting or weird about that. How many times has an older man in Trek hooked up with a younger woman?

 

[R. Star]

I dunno, Dukat was always wanting Sisko's approval and I could see him using a relationship between Jake and Ziyal for that.

 

[Melakon]

20 / 2 + 7 = 17

Okay, I know this equation is supposed to somehow bolster your explanation that followed, but I don't understand how you came up with these numbers. The only ones I understand are Mardah being 20, and she and Jake are 2 people. Where's the 7 from? And what does the 17 represent? The two were separated by 4 years.

 

[trekkiebaggio]

^It's basically a rule that the youngest you're supposed to date is your age divided by two plus seven.

Personally it didn't make me uncomfortable, it made me jealous.