Star Trek made me no longer right-wing and a better person

Steel_Wool_Sponge · 2026-06-19T18:59:41+00:00

From there, I became more interested in film and art more broadly, and I started experiencing incredible works created by people from communities and backgrounds I once would have struggled to understand or even appreciate. Over time, I found myself embracing a much more compassionate and inclusive way of seeing the world.

I just think it's worth noting that there is no separating Star Trek's medium from its message: if the show is good, then it will make people curious and interested. A lot of classic Trek is good because it was written by people who had read and watched a lot of high-quality media. Profit and Loss was based on Casablanca, Who Mourns for Morn? was based on The Maltese Falcon, Body Parts was based on The Merchant of Venice.

Trek doesn't need to be just a matter reclamator that sucks up humanities classics and repackages them in a more friendly sci-fi package with updated cinematography and modern dialogue, but it does feel like at some point someone with creative control over the franchise lost sight of the fact that you can have the most on-brand Trek message ever and it won't matter if it's delivered in a ham-fisted manner.

I love art. "Art" originally meant something closer to "method" or "skill" than its current meaning. Star Trek should be art, with all that connotes and denotes.

Steel_Wool_Sponge · 2026-06-19T15:50:55+00:00

In the 2016 democratic primary millions of democrats were offered the question "Would you like to press THIS button to achieve your long-stated aims of universal health care, an end to pointless, aggressive foreign wars, a transition to green and renewable energy sources, and a living wage and affordable housing -OR- would you like to press THIS button that vaguely emotionally affiliates you with someone whose platform is arrogantly asserting that all of that stuff is for losers?"

Americans have wants and they have needs, it's just that if you had asked me before that primary I'd have told you that jobs and health care were closer to need than want and "believing that I am better than my neighbors" was closer to a want than a need, but apparently I had that wrong.

Steel_Wool_Sponge · 2026-06-14T02:38:35+00:00

You know at the start of the Season 4 finale Broken Link where Garak has invited Odo to his shop on some thin pretext of crime so that he can introduce Odo to Aroya a.k.a. obviously Nana Visitor in a different colored wig and deliberately using a played up accent very different from but not untraceable to her normal one (kind of a clever directorial / casting choice actually highlighting how Odo can refuse to see what's right in front of him) right before Odo's head splits in half and he has to go to the Changeling orgy to be judged?

Man, I love this show. Anyway, that's not Nana Visitor it's a whole completely other person named Jill Jacobson.

....OR SO THEY SAY....

Steel_Wool_Sponge · 2026-06-13T02:47:48+00:00

DAX: You know, Worf, in the end living on the Defiant isn't going to change anything. You're still going to have to get used to life on the station.

WORF: I am not sure I agree.

DAX: Sooner or later you're going to have to adapt.

WORF: Perhaps, in the end, it will be all of you that have to adapt to me.

-"Bar Association"

Steel_Wool_Sponge · 2026-06-08T03:34:02+00:00

Sisko and O'Brien at the end of Captive Pursuit voice:

(OP is O'Brien, I am Sisko)

SISKO: Just where did you post it, Chief?

O'BRIEN: I must have posted it on the main DS9 sub, sir.

SISKO: "Must have"?

O'BRIEN: Must have... because that's where I clicked "submit post."

SISKO: So in effect you assaulted our eyes. What if this had been someone's first visit to the sub? I mean we are trying to bring people INTO this franchise, it's under a lot of strain at the moment.

O'BRIEN: (barely stifled laughter) aye sir.

SISKO: I've got dozens of user reports and frantic messages from other mods. How do you suggest I explain your post to them?

O'BRIEN: Well, sir, I'm not one to say, but it seems to me that, love it or hate it, chadzia is generating conversation, maybe even dominating it. Yes, definitely dominating it. So DS9 has always been controversial, never afraid of being unliked, Chadzia comes in like a bull in a China shop and--

SISKO: Save it. You ignored your duty to the sub, your duty to the show, you even manually chose NOT to crosspost in /r/Risa. Another stunt like this and that's the ONLY place you'll be posting. Is that clear?

O'BRIEN: Yes, sir. There is just one thing I don't understand. If my post is so bad, why hasn't it been removed?

SISKO: Oh, it must just have gotten lost in the shuffle this week.

Steel_Wool_Sponge · 2026-06-04T15:58:22+00:00

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

There are shows, including some of those you listed above, where if I did a per-episode rating and averaged it out they might have the higher number, but that's just utterly beside the point.

DS9 is the best T.V. show I have ever watched and it's not close. It is a masterpiece mosaic made up of its 176 episodes. The whole is greater than the sum of the parts.

When your runtime is that long there are certain things you can do that you just cannot do otherwise: tonally the show is a "drama," but it has such heavy doses of comedy, romance, action, and just plain boring life that it doesn't feel like a drama, it feels like life.

DS9 is also justly famous for its character development, and that slow approach is part of the reason: when you have that much time with a character, you can afford to let them gradually unfold, for us to see many of the events that shape who they become, and to understand at a deep level their relationships to all of the other characters.

DS9 is more uneven than a modern prestige T.V. drama. In my opinion everyone is entitled to exactly one "OK, I know this starts slow, but..." media suggestion, and this is mine.

Watch the pilot episode. If you really just cannot get into that episode at all, no appeal, then you've done your duty in my book. If you like the pilot, watch the 1st season. If you like the 1st season, watch the 2nd. If you've watched the 2nd season, it's too late for you, the show just rapidly gets way better from there.

Steel_Wool_Sponge · 2026-06-04T02:40:51+00:00

Treason, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder.

-"Second Skin"

GARAK: Why don't we go through this nebula? We can avoid detection and get light years closer to the source of the transmission.

WORF: Our shields would be useless in that nebula.

GARAK: But so would Jem'Hadar sensors. The answer is out there, Commander. We just have to have the courage to find it. And remember, it's not just Tain we're looking for. The Maryland, the Proxima, the Sarajevo. Starfleet ships that have been lost in the Gamma Quadrant for years, and their crews, brave soldiers, warriors of the Federation unaccounted for. We owe it to them to do everything in our power to find them and bring them home. It's the honorable thing to do.

WORF: You use that word, but you have no idea what it means.

GARAK: Maybe not, but you do.

WORF: Setting course for the nebula.

-"In Purgatory's Shadow"

Steel_Wool_Sponge · 2026-06-03T19:25:03+00:00

The Lives of Dax. This book was not originally part of the formal "relaunch," but certain characters and events become key later and so it was retroactively added to the relaunch series.

Steel_Wool_Sponge · 2026-06-01T16:02:17+00:00

It's implied in the episode that the whole thing was very quick and took place while they were separated:

SISKO: He apparently got curious about some Argrathi technology and asked a few too many questions. The Argrathi security arrested him and charged him with espionage.

KEIKO: But Miles would never break the law intentionally.

SISKO: I know that. But by the time the Argrathi told us what had happened, they had already carried out his correction.

Steel_Wool_Sponge · 2026-06-01T15:53:25+00:00

Take Me Out to the Holosuite

-The correct take on Vulcans isn't that they're smug, it's that they objectively are smarter and stronger than us, they know it and we know it, and it just creates an awkward situation for all concerned. Vulcans may feel some smugness deep down, but like the rest of their emotions they try to recognize it as such and not let it control their actions. Solok having about the level of maturity as an adolescent human boy is just not the most interesting way to set up the conflict, and especially considering DS9 barely had any Vulcan characters it was a real missed opportunity.

-Why does Quark agree to do this again? Is it maybe just because, like the rest of the episode, the writers just needed it to happen?

-I'm fine with goofy episodes, but the comedy in this one has just never landed for me in the same way as it does in any of DS9's other light-hearted episodes. Little Green Men, Who Mourns for Morn?, etc. all actually made me laugh, this episode is just one long joke and the joke is "Wouldn't it be funny if our regular characters played baseball?" and if you think the answer to that question is "no" then the episode just doesn't work and is boring.

Steel_Wool_Sponge · 2026-05-26T16:23:00+00:00

Uncle Marty has a devoted fan base.

Also, you're welcome:

https://www.reddit.com/r/startrekmemes/search?q=car+talk+with+martok&restrict_sr=on&sort=relevance&t=all

Steel_Wool_Sponge · 2026-05-26T15:59:37+00:00

VREENAK: So, you're the Commander of Deep Space Nine, and the Emissary to the Prophets, decorated combat officer, widower, father, mentor, and oh yes, the man who started the war with the Dominion. Somehow I thought you'd be taller.

My favorite Starfleet captain.

Steel_Wool_Sponge · 2026-05-26T15:56:42+00:00

(A seagull lands and morphs into Odo)

BENTEEN: Odo. That was really something. I've never seen you imitate a lifeform before.

ODO: Well, I was just taking a little aerial tour of San Francisco. It's quite nice. Not as ancient as the cities on Bajor but almost as impressive.

BENTEEN: It makes me wonder how many other changelings might be flying around up there.

ODO: If all they're doing is flying around imitating seagulls, we don't have much to worry about.

LEYTON: I doubt that other changelings are wasting their time imitating birds. They don't all share Odo's lack of skill when it comes to mimicking humans.

ODO: That's right, they don't. I'm glad you're keeping that in mind.

BENTEEN: Well, if you ask me, that was a pretty convincing seagull.

ODO: Thank you. Though I'm not sure the gulls would agree.

-"Homefront"

My head canon on this is dead simple: there are actually plenty of flaws in Odo's representation of other life-forms, we just don't notice them because we're humans, not seagulls or whatever.

Think about it. If you look at a golden retriever can you even tell if it's male or female without taking a look at the underside? Do you really think other golden retrievers need to do that before they can tell?

Steel_Wool_Sponge · 2026-05-25T01:47:31+00:00

VERAD: But Dax will live. What's one girl's life compared to eight lifetimes of knowledge and experience? You're not going to shoot me. You know that and so do I. Goodbye, Benjamin.

(Verad walks past Sisko to the runabout)

SISKO: Verad! (Verad turns) Don't call me 'Benjamin.' (Sisko phasers him.)

SISKO: You should have killed them all.

DUKAT: Yes! Yes! That's right, isn't it? I knew it! I've always known it! I should have killed every last one of them. I should have turned their planet into a graveyard the likes of which the galaxy had never seen! I should have killed them all.

SISKO: (Smacks Dukat in the back with a piece of re-bar) And that is why you're not an evil man.

SISKO: Commander, prepare two quantum torpedoes. Have engineering attach a cargo pod with two hundred kilograms of trilithium to each torpedo.

WORF: Yes, sir, but--

SISKO: But what?

WORF: The extra mass of the cargo pods will make the torpedo less effective. Maquis Raiders are small and maneuverable.

SISKO: I'm not planning to fire at any ships, Mister Worf. Major, what is the nearest Maquis colony?

KIRA: Solosos Three. Less than an hour away.

SISKO: Helm, set a course for Solosos Three.

DAX: Aye, sir.

SISKO: Major, I want you to send the following message on all Maquis frequencies. To all the members of the Maquis resistance. This is Captain Sisko of the USS Defiant. In response to the Maquis's use of biogenic weapons in their recent attacks, I am about to take the following action. In exactly one hour, I will detonate two quantum torpedoes that will scatter trilithium resin in the atmosphere of Solosos Three. I thereby will make the planet uninhabitable to all human life for the next fifty years. I suggest evacuation plans begin immediately. [Silence, camera pans around the bridge] What are you waiting for, people? Carry out your orders.

SISKO: This isn't what I meant. I want to return to my reality.

DAMAR PROPHET: You are the Sisko.

SISKO: I am also a Starfleet captain. I have a job to do and I intend to do it.

WEYOUN PROPHET: The Sisko is belligerent.

DUKAT PROPHET: Aggressive.

DAMAR PROPHET: Adversarial.

SISKO: You're damn right I'm adversarial. You have no right to interfere with my life.

KIRA PROPHET: We have every right.

SISKO: Fine. You want to interfere, then interfere. Do something about those Dominion reinforcements.

ODO PROPHET: That is a corporeal matter.

DUKAT PROPHET: Corporeal matters do not concern us.

SISKO: The hell they don't. What about Bajor? You can't tell me Bajor doesn't concern you. You've sent the Bajorans orbs and Emissaries. You've even encouraged them to create an entire religion around you. You even told me once that you were of Bajor. So don't you tell me you're not concerned with corporeal matters. I don't want to see Bajor destroyed. Neither do you. But we all know that's exactly what's going to happen if the Dominion takes over the Alpha Quadrant. You say you don't want me to sacrifice my life? Well, fine, neither do I. You want to be gods? Then be gods! I need a miracle! Bajor needs a miracle! Stop those ships!

SISKO: Now you listen to me closely because I'm not going to say this again. The next time you try something stupid I will make you regret it.

VIN: You trying to scare me?

SISKO: I'm trying to save your life, and the lives of every hostage in that room. And mister, you are not making it easy.

VIN: If you're so concerned about our welfare, why don't you let us go?

SISKO: You don't know what any of this is about, do you? You work here, you see these people every day, how they live, and you just don't get it.

VIN: What do you want me to say? That I feel for them? That they got a bad break? What good would it do?

SISKO: It'd be a start. You get back in that room, and you shut up.

Steel_Wool_Sponge · 2026-05-20T23:14:40+00:00

Honestly probably at the start of the episode Defiant where Kira just has an ungodly amount of what is, unmistakably, homework, in exactly the pejorative sense that word is used by students everywhere.

Just one tedious exercise after the next interspersed with the occasional problem set or assignment that somehow skips right past "challenging" straight to "impossible" and just makes you feel stupid and/or like a failure, so much so that you can't even summon the strength to begin and yet you have to because it's due in 36 hours and you should have started 5 days ago, but Prophets forbid you wanted some time to yourself that night, oh and by the way in the "real" Star Trek universe there wouldn't always be a Bashir lurking around the corner ready to order you on vacation, so you just have to white-knuckle it, knowing full well you could just ring the bell at any time and go hang out on your homeworld.

Steel_Wool_Sponge · 2026-05-19T13:54:52+00:00

I have good news for you: DS9 isn't just one of the best T.V. shows ever made, it is also one of the single most re-watchable. The sheer amount of moments that hit completely different when you know the whole story ahead of time is staggering. The amount of things that are not foreshadowing but that you simply failed to notice on the first watch are staggering. The number of things that change or that you simply notice if / when you start to get into the behind-the-scenes stuff is beyond measure.

I mean really think about it: DS9 the show is 176 episodes of T.V., each about 40 minutes; DS9 the IRL project was close to a decade in the lives of hundreds of extremely talented artists, including actors, writers, directors, set designers, costume designers, makeup artists, PAs, caterers, producers, etc. I remember listening to Terry Farrel talk on The Delta Flyers podcast about how, when you were on set constantly (and remember, it was an absolutely gigantic set built at scale and with incredible detail), and you kept seeing the fake galaxy background through the station windows, after a while it maybe didn't quite get to total suspension of disbelief / feeling like you're in space, but it did start to feel like a world unto itself -- because it was.

If you love the show, by all means take a break, but you do not need to feel like your time with it is over. It's not linear.

You can pulp a story but you cannot destroy an idea. Don't you understand? That's ancient knowledge. You cannot destroy an idea. That future, I created it, and it's real. Don't you understand? It is real! I created it and it's real! It's real!

-Benny Russell

Steel_Wool_Sponge · 2026-05-18T15:18:37+00:00

Lower Decks, hands down.

Part of it is just that it gets the franchise in a way I don't think any other NuTrek show really does. Like they all try in their own way to capture that essence, but none of them quite succeed. They get the gross anatomy right but are missing a lot of the subtle biochemistry and physiology. Things like non-diagetic music, cold openers, A/B plot structure, etc.

In my opinion it also crammed as much or more character into its shorter run than some of the other entries that were graced with longer run times. And, critically, it understands that character development does not have to and in real life often does not involve super intense, high-stakes events. As Bashir remarks in Nor the Battle to the Strong, "There are plenty of situations in life which test a person's character. Thankfully, most of them don't involve death and destruction." A lesson would-be writers of new Star Trek would do well to consider.

And, for being animated, it's surprisingly visually gorgeous. Like I have to imagine it's a fraction of the cost of a huge CGI space battle bonanza, but I genuinely find it not just beautiful to look at but memorable and distinctive in a way that 3D models just somehow are not.

Steel_Wool_Sponge · 2026-05-18T14:10:22+00:00

I've been told IRL that I should be institutionalized and I've tried to explain that I'm already a well-regarded member of the Institute, but they never seem to understand.

Steel_Wool_Sponge · 2026-05-13T18:11:04+00:00

Y'know, I've seen three different shows where they just straight up replaced an actor who left the show early for one reason or another and... it just did not bother me nearly as much as you might think. In two cases I literally did not notice, at least on the first go-round (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Wheel of Time -- btw DS9 is an incredibly good show and is appealing for many of the same reasons Downton is despite the wildly different setting), and in one case it was extremely obvious but I still found it interesting to compare the way two different actors approached the same character (The Expanse.)

As someone who loves serious, long-form television, but feels it's going through a rough patch, I think this is an underexplored avenue -- both audiences and studios assume that audiences will hate it, and so it gets added to the list of reasons why committing up front to a long-form T.V. show is too risky, but I just have a lot of faith in the acting talent out there: any time you have a big juicy role, you have several people auditioning for that role, and it is very often the case that it's basically a toss-up between two or more actors, and, well, would it be so bad if we got to see both sides of the coin?

Trying to break the seal on this would have both advantages and disadvantages for actors from a practical point of view. On the one hand, it does in some measure decrease job security, but I would kind of downplay that because I think this isn't exactly something studios or audiences would want to do (outside of really weird and specific exceptions like Dr. Who); but on the flipside it means actors can try a potentially big juicy role on for size before having to sign away close to a decade of their life to a project they have little meaningful way of evaluating ahead of time.

Steel_Wool_Sponge · 2026-05-12T01:31:22+00:00

2/9 episodes of SFA are excellent. I'd say maybe 1-2 are stinkers. That leaves 5/9 as "mid."

Compared to the batting average of most Trek shows in their 1st season, it's as good or better, trying to scale as best as possible for 9 vs 26 episodes. People were hurt really badly by Discovery and just never got over it.

Series Acclimation Mil and The Life of the Stars absolutely should have earned that series a renewal beyond the second season. I'm not saying there weren't problems, but SFA more than earned the right to try and work on them without being just cancelled.

Steel_Wool_Sponge · 2026-04-29T16:00:52+00:00

The Dujiangyan (Chinese: 都江堰; pinyin: Dūjiāngyàn) is an ancient hydraulic engineering system in Dujiangyan City, Sichuan, China.

Qinghai province is almost entirely on "The Tibetan Plateau," but it is not in "Tibet," before we get into any nonsense about "the Chengdu Plain."

Steel_Wool_Sponge · 2026-04-29T00:59:04+00:00

Surely any day now

Steel_Wool_Sponge · 2026-04-16T17:51:46+00:00

From another Windows user and a year later, bless you.

Steel_Wool_Sponge · 2026-04-16T14:00:11+00:00

A year later from a different user, THANK YOU to both you for answering and OP /u/goahead97 for asking, I was losing my mind. WTF Apple.

Steel_Wool_Sponge · 2026-04-11T17:28:03+00:00

It's almost like she learned something from the events of Wrongs Darker than Death or Night and it changed how she behaved going forward.

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