io9 
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San Francisco, 2:03 AM
Sat Dec 12
27 posts in the last 24 hours
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12:17 AM
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And wow whatever arguments I had against my nerd status just went poof.
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Defiant had the prototype ablative shielding that was later deployed in a more perfected form on Voyager.
12/11/09
But the best part was that despite all this awesome, the resolution came down to philosophy and psychoanalysis. Hell, the whole battle can be said to be a cosmic-scale intervention. "You guys are being total dicks and hurting the ones you profess to love. Quit it."
Although, the scenes of the Battle of the Line in the B5 prequel movie were wondrous just for the sheer NUMBER of ships on screen.
12/11/09
Mostly really good characters who evolved nicely over time. Garrick, Worf and Dax especially.
They took weaknesses like the Ferengi and the fact that they never went anywhere and turned them into strengths.
Some really good early Ron Moore exploring the importance of religion.
Great huge fleet actions like you showed above.
Sure, it wasn't perfect but it was really darn good.
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I've always thought that it was the Trek that "got it". The right mix of drama, action, humour and darkness, plus good characters, writing and storylines.
Plus I had (have) a huge crush on Dr. Julian Bashir.
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@Xicer: I dunno. It seems that whenever I claim that DS9 was the best of Trek, I get a lot of backlash. Don't know why.
@Ghost_in_the_Machine: That was one of the things I liked about it most. They used money. They got involved in local politics. they made deals with the devil because they had no other choice and the might of the federation was too far away to give them choices. All sorts of things that Kirk and Picard would never think of.
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I always liked the fact that they weren't afraid to show the Federation getting their butts kicked every now and then.
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That said. I am a staunch detractor of DS9. I could explain why but it all boils down to: I never gave it a chance (on principle alone) and so the window of opportunity is pressure welded shut with rust and failure.
Plus Odo. *shivers*
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@Howard Blair: It's so nice to be on a site where we can talk about this stuff without invoking godwin's rule or calling each other gay. I agree Sisko was weak, but it was such an ensemble show that the other characters picked up the slack - again turning weakness into strength. Not only do I disagree that this was the worst, I don't even agree that "Enterprise" was the worst. I enjoyed it. By far and away the worst Trek was "Voyager." After the finale I turned to my wife and said "Thank god that's over."
The official Dr Eilio Lizardo ranking of trek (tm) goes:
DS9
TOS
TNG
Enterprise
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Voyagerr
12/11/09
I loved the relationships that developed over the course of the series. It wasn't a 'we're the main characters so we all know each other.' Bashir and Garrick, Bashir and O'brian, the intense and fairly complicated relationship between Sisko and Dukat...
To say nothing of the character arcs. I'm thinking specifically of Dumar here. What a complete and total tool that guy was... and look where he ended up.
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Ugh, so many typos. Time to go read "Santa Olivia" for #io9Bookclub, then to bed.
This has been a lot of fun.
12/11/09
It started by arriving at just the right time. When TNG premiered, I was old enough to watch it but not enough to really appreciate it. But with DS9, I was hooked from the very first episode.
Then there was the complexity of the subject matter... No zooming in, solving the aliens' problem and zooming out again... Instead, the crew of DS9 had to deal with the politics of a single planet and the ramifications of it. They had to deal with fascinating issues of science, religion and post-colonialism. They had to consistently deal with the influence of a single alien enemy. There was no zooming around anyways, safe and secure on a utopian spaceship. They had to find ways of making the diverse community of the space station work. And they still got a little first contact in there from the wormhole.
And then the series kept evolving. Though the whole Klingon war season was a bit of a waste, it did provide one of the best individual scenes in the whole series. Compare how DS9 fares against a whole fleet of Klingon warships vs. the first episode when it almost got blowed up by three Cardassian vessels. It went from being a backwards nowhere station to the most important installation after Earth itself. The Federation's relationship with Bajor kept evolving, and we saw the full breadth of war, from foreshadowing to aftermath. And the characters... The sheer scope of DS9 has actually prevented me from going back to watch it again, since I know what a huge investment of time it would be. I always thought that it should have been followed by a series that took a long, expansive view of Federation politics with a sizeable cast of characters, picking up where DS9 left off. Too bad it was followed by Voyager and it's prequel, Enterprise.
But I generally find that, despite what was said above about Voyager, it's actually DS9 that's the red-headed stepchild. My experience is that it is a fairly divisive show with a tendency towards love-it or hate-it dialectics. It does stand out from the norm of Star Trek shows, still, and that provokes extreme reactions.
12/11/09
Some of those battles would have been the best *film* battles had they been on the big screen.
12/11/09
Anyway, I never got to see the rest of the show. So that clip of that battle was awesome!! LOL
...and wasn't that, ummmmm, Nog's son? Not sure if I got the name right. Quark's brother's kid? Wearing a Starfleet uniform? Damn, I always heard Deep Space 9 got really, really good - someday I hope to watch all those other seasons I missed. :)
12/11/09
As cheap as B5's SFX were (especially S1), they showed actual damage to the ships instead of shield flare and the actors diving in one direction.
As for Space 1999's "dogfights", they were pretty mundane. Turn left. Turn Right. Eagle and/or alien Explodes.
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Good point. I remember they were very fond of Conservation of Momentum.
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Star Wars Episode II.
Decades of waiting to see the Clone Wars, and we have to wait 2 3/4s of a movie to get to the end of Attack of the Clones to see the start of the war.
Guess what?
Episode III, war's over, folks. Moose out front shoulda told ya.
Oh, I suppose it's okay though-- we've got a *cartoon*. Ooooh, joy.
I like my sci-fi thoughtful. I like interesting moral dilemmas, challenging technological problems, and watching humanity react to the fantastic.
But dammit, I also want to see shit blow up REAL COOL.
I got that with BSG. We won't get that with Caprica. Instead, we'll be teased with, "Well, the Cylon Wars are coming..."
Of course, that's when Caprica ENDS, so it's not like we'll get to see cool stuff. Because cool stuff costs money.
Like I said a while back here, not a week goes by where I don't miss BSG more than I did before.
12/10/09
I don't think this show will be on for very long...
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Though we will get a peek of Ronald Moore's luscious locks.
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I suppose its not really the ending. When they picked the final 5 and killed Starbuck only to bring her back there really wasn't much more it could do. I suppose they did all that they could in the last episode, but they shouldn't have painted themselves into a corner.
12/10/09
This would be fine if it weren't for the fact that this is a show that tackled issues and challenged the audience to think so it's not so easy to just turn that off grab the popcorn and enjoy the ride without examining it closely.
12/11/09
I also was not happy with the ending, but I've also made my peace with it. I don't think any piece of art fully succeeds or fails; just cause the ending sucked doesn't mean the rest did. BSG was much better than it was worse.
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Not to go all Star Wars on you, but I always thought Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru looked extremely haggard and weathered for 40 year old tatooine farmers in their 1977 incarnations.
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[images2.wikia.nocookie.net]
18 years later:
[www.filmdope.com]
[images4.wikia.nocookie.net]
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Everyone on there is going to come out looking like wrinkled shoe leather.
I was going to put a joke about any number of celebrities on our planet here but couldn't come up with a good one.
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What a way to waste a life.... out of all the places you could live.
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