This week, we’re exploring the difference between Creole and Cajun as well as prudence and paranoia as we examine “Homefront” and “Paradise Lost”!
Writer Eleanor Tremeer comes back to Enterprising Individuals to talk about a Star Trek: Deep Space Nine two-parter that explores the question, “What is it worth giving up in order to feel safe?” A Dominion act of terror on Earth shakes the security of the Federation government, and Starfleet Security responds by increasing their readiness and curtailing the freedoms of the populace. Can Sisko uncover the dark conspiracy at the highest levels of command before he loses his ship, his family, and the Federation’s soul?
Utopia is put on trial in this pair of episodes, as the writers of DS9 push the show out of the “Roddenberry Box” and critique the socialist paradise that Trek fans (and Trek characters) take for granted. Over the course of this episode, we discuss the show’s prescient parallels to political debates in our own world, we examine the inherent paradox in utopian military sci-fi, we question if enlightened characters can really probe dystopia, we compare Deep Space Nine to post-war Berlin, and Eleanor shares the insights she learned from interviewing Ira Steven Behr and Ronald D. Moore!
It’s not all political pessimism, however, as we also discuss military code-switching-as-subtle-interrogation, pissing off Michael Bay, “Scooby Doo” bad guys in Trek, whether Sisko is the Colin Powell or the Jar-Jar, the laziness of Changeling strategy, we ask if there are vampires in the 24th century, who’s the Angela Merkel of the Federation, Aaron resigns himself to being the “Tom Paris” of the show, and Eleanor pegs “The Last Jedi” as the Marmite of Star Wars films!
All that and a head full of meat spiders, too!
Follow Eleanor on Twitter!
https://www.twitter.com/extratremeerial
Check out Eleanor’s article on DS9’s exploration of the dark side of Utopia!
https://io9.gizmodo.com/to-boldly-stay-how-deep-space-nine-upended-star-trek-b-1823186821
Hear our live episode with Melinda Snodgrass from CONvergence 2018!
https://www.patreon.com/posts/20122260
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