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Trauma and Masculinity in Star Trek, Part Three: Sisko

Enjoyed the article!

Not to get caught up in a technicality, but I thought Far Beyond the Stars was in New York, not Detroit. Did they say it was Detroit somewhere that I missed?
 
Enjoyed the article!

Not to get caught up in a technicality, but I thought Far Beyond the Stars was in New York, not Detroit. Did they say it was Detroit somewhere that I missed?
Ooooh, you’re absolutely right! Thank you for catching that! I think I had Detroit on the brain because of some of the other research I had done!
 
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Of the three Trek shows that went seven seasons, I think that DS9 was the only one that maybe should have done an eighth.
* Move some of the S7 Ezri shows to later. More shows about her adjusting to a haphazard joining.
* The Ezri/Bashir romance develops more slowly, and maybe the viewers actually give a rat's a** about it.
* Worf stays on DS9. He is promoted to commander and made Kira's first officer. He and Kira periodically squabble over how things should be run.
* Have Sisko return to his family in time to greet his and Kassidy's child, ultimately retiring to Bajor, his work finished.
* Bajor gets a Kai who isn't Nurse Ratched, and finally joins the Federation.
* We see changes in the Dominion, courtesy of Odo. Exploration of the Gamma Quadrant resumes... but they keep the Defiant handy!
* The Federation aids Cardassia in the largest relief effort in galactic history.
* The Romulans find out about the whole "In the Pale Moonlight" thing. And they're pissed.
* Ferengi hardliners try to undo all of Zek's reforms.
* Certain crew return to the Mirror Universe one last time, and take steps to prevent the Evil Terran Empire 2.0 from arising from the Terran rebellion.
 
The Romulans would certainly be pissed. But what remedy could they ask for that might reasonably be granted? Starfleet can't courtmartial Sisko, because 1) He asked Starfleet Command about the plan and they approved it, and 2) He's with the prophets now and beyond the reach of Starfleet.

Of course the Ferengi will be trying to undo Zek's reforms. I think they were giving 3:1 on Rom not lasting a month...

Oh, no, not the Mirror Universe again.
 
It's a good question how the Ferengi world responds to Zek's reforms and Rom's. It really depends, did the majority of the Ferengi people actually want the laissez faire free market, or was this something the rich and powerful imposed on everyone else?

I suspect even if Ferengi society moves back a bit, the rich will still want to keep a lot of the women's rights reforms because "Woohoo, twice the profit!" And because they can probably get their previous alien victims to give them a second chance just by parading a woman in front of them and saying "Look how much we've changed! You can trust us now!"

It's the same thing Zek said in The Nagus about using their lack of reputation in the gamma quadrant to build trust over there and wait until the most profitable moment to deceive them. I think smart Ferengi businessmen will try to use women's rights as a way to do the same in the alpha quadrant. "Use women to show them we've changed. And then our word can be our bond again, until WE decide to break it!"
 
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Nice article and some great points and conclusions, really appreciated the context around the narrative shift in the 1990s to what you referred to as "The New Man". It was really a spectrum wide shifting of characters that was felt throughout entertainment. A lot of it was forced terribly onto audiences but when it was done honestly and organically, as with Sisko, made for great relatable characters.

Sisko is one of my favorite Scifi characters, as is Kirk, and I always saw Sisko as the most direct successor to Kirk in the way he embodied boldness, decisiveness and positivity within Star Trek. Really enjoyed your analysis and appreciated the comparison to Kirk.
 
It still astounds me at how Sisko is routinely ignored by a good number of Trek fans, even to this day; considering he is not a dull character. When it comes to DS9, fans tend to revolve their interest in Kira Nerys, Odo or Juilan Bashir.


Sisko is one of my favorite Scifi characters, as is Kirk, and I always saw Sisko as the most direct successor to Kirk in the way he embodied boldness, decisiveness and positivity within Star Trek.

Really? I never did. I've always regarded Sisko as his own interesting character.
 
I haven't really observed that. Not here, anyway. I still maintain that Sisko was the character who saw the most development in any Trek series.
 
I haven't really observed that. Not here, anyway. I still maintain that Sisko was the character who saw the most development in any Trek series.

Not Rom - from unsuccessful petty thief to Starfleet captain?
 
Not Rom - from unsuccessful petty thief to Starfleet captain?

I think you meant Nog. First, he only made lieutenant. Second, he's the silver medalist. Sisko beats him because his life transformed on so many axes: vocational, political, and spiritual alike.
 
I think you meant Nog. First, he only made lieutenant. Second, he's the silver medalist. Sisko beats him because his life transformed on so many axes: vocational, political, and spiritual alike.

Yes, Nog. Didn't he make captain in The Visitor timeline?
 
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