Welcome to TNG week on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine! First up, Riker guest stars in the imaginatively titled “Defiant”. Then, in “Fascination”, Lwaxana Troi makes her second trip to space station Deep Space Nine.
Trekabout Episode 175: Defiant/Fascination
Pensky
-I like Defiant, but I think it has the usual problem of big repercussions not landing. In non-serialized TV, I always find that when characters make a big sacrifice it never resonates like it should because you just don’t have time to get to know the characters in order to appreciate what they do. Riker’s sacrifice at the end is an enormous decision (he’s going to be sent to be tortured and likely worked to death at a labor camp) but it just doesn’t land. It would be better if it was Will Riker, because we know the character, but even then it’s so abrupt that it takes the wind out of the sails. The resolutions that work better in Trek tend to be smaller and more reflective, and it’s too bad that the really huge sacrifices never seem to stick.
As for your point about men and women not being friends without trying to enter the Bone Zone, I respectfully disagree with the caveat that it only applies when the friendship doesn’t come from another source. It’s hard to explain but the idea generally only applies to friendships that are made independently of a situation where you are “forced” to become friends. For example, if a man and a woman take the same exercise class or something and become very friendly, I find it unlikely that one or both don’t have some kind of romantic interest.
Friendships made through a third party or something are a bit different.
Eric Brasure
-That’s so weird! Straight people, come on!
Mindy
-I sometimes forget that Thomas Riker is even in this episode. This always seems like an episode about Gul Dukat and the Cardassian political situation. But, that might be because I’ve seen the whole series, and Dukat/Cardassian politics are more important than Thomas Riker. In this sense I find
I have plenty of male friends I’ve made from college until now that I have zero romantic interest in. I’ve made them at work, in school, volunteering, performing in my choir, etc. Obviously, I can’t speak to whether they have (or had) romantic interest in me. But, none of them have ever said so.
Eric Brasure
-I feel that way too! Or I suppose more accurately I always think the Sisko on Cardassia stuff is from another episode.