Get ready to confront your complicated romantic past as we become “Rejoined”!
Writer Eleanor Tremeer rejoins the show this week to discuss an episode of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine that explores Star Trek’s commitment to personal freedom. Dax is taken aback when she is reunited with her ex-wife, the brilliant scientist Lenara Kahn. Can she sort out her feelings for her former spouse before a dangerous wormhole experiment threatens to consume the ship, her erstwhile paramour, and their history?
Star Trek is a laboratory where sci-fi writers can turn our contemporary problems into compelling explorations of the human experience. ’90s Trek often tried and failed to represent the experience of LGBT+ individuals, but “Rejoined” represents a high-water mark for the franchise’s attempt to humanize gay characters. On this episode, we talk about making good on Roddenberry’s promise of equality, the inherent social consciousness of Trek, the gunshy network executives who held the franchise back, Trek’s clinging heteronormativity, the weird insistence by some fans that Trills aren’t gay, the inherently bi story of “Rejoined”, the way the Trill obliterate gender, how only DS9 could make this episode, and how love is the law in Trek.
We also discuss psychic Greek weeaboos, the studliness of Dax, the “’90s lesbian kiss episode”, getting your slap on, the mystery of polari, just what exactly is going on in Trill society, pro-LGBT+ revisionism, getting sick of badmirals, Trill family dynamics, the Ktarians as the new Orions, why the Mirror Universe is game on for gayness, Eleanor talks about David Gerrold’s efforts to bring gays to Trek, and Kal spots Megamind and Dames Jarren!
Follow Eleanor on Twitter and read her articles!
https://twitter.com/ExtraTremeerial
https://www.babbel.com/en/magazine/polaris-etymology
https://io9.gizmodo.com/how-queer-is-star-trek-1834241022
Please contribute to Aron Eisenberg’s memorial fund!
https://www.gofundme.com/f/aron-eisenberg-memorial
Reunite with us on Facebook and Twitter and our new Discord!
http://www.facebook.com/eistpod
http://www.twitter.com/eistpod
https://discord.gg/UeytGNP
Buy us dinner on Patreon!
http://www.patreon.com/eistpod
Subscribe to the show on iTunes!
https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/enterprising-individuals/id1113165661?mt=2
Listen to “Season 4, Episode 17 “Rejoined” (DS9) with Eleanor Tremeer” on Spreaker.