It's been a while, but I think it was this-
Bajor was going to join, but then Sisko had a vision that showed the Dominion invading and attacking the Federation. And, if Bajor was a member of the Federation, they would be a target. So by convincing them not to join, they kept Bajor neutral to spare them from the Dominion. But I always got the impression that, once the war was over, they would revisit the question and end up joining the Federation.
I'm now more than halfway finished the third season of the Original Series, watching in production order, and just don't understand why people need to dump on this season compared with the other two. I guess if I was given a Sophie's Choice, I'd choose the first or the second season before this one--but it's a close call. The one thing that makes the third season better is that all the actors are so comfortable with their characters at this point that they fit together so well as a unit.
I just finished "Let That Be Your Last Battlefield" which seems to be one of the most divisive stories. I remember watching it as a little kid and thinking it a bit heavy. However, a lot of the points that were made (as an allegory of U.S. civil rights) are points that many in America still don't accept. And maybe you really have to hit people over the head before they get it.
At one point Kirk observes that the planet Cheron, home of the black and white people, is in the southern part of the galaxy--which seems to be an allusion to the trouble in the south in the U.S, which was going on at the time of the episode. My one quibble with the story is that it at times makes it seem as if Bele and Lokai are each just as bad as the other--yet clearly Bele's people are the ones who created the injustice on their world.
I'm thinking that opinion on this episode will always be shifting with the times, because we look back on it in the context of what we're going through at the present moment.
Given that other animals have asymmetrical pigmentation, I don't see why Spock thought this was illogical. I could envision a planet where people may have evolved in this way through natural selection. Of course, there's also the possibility that the people were genetically modified. Maybe systemic racism was introduced to create a master/slave economy and the black and white pigmentation was imposed on the people so they could be easily segregated into master and slave castes.
Double post.
A bat! That's it! It's an omen.. I'll shall become a bat!
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Yep. On a personal note, I recall watching it as a little kid in the early '70s and thought it was TOS's best "food for thought" episode (though not it's best overall). Now I knew then that looking down at other races due to skin color was wrong, but this episode was where I also realized how ridiculously stupid it was.
A bat! That's it! It's an omen.. I'll shall become a bat!
Pre-CBR Reboot Join Date: 10-17-2010
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THE CBR COMMUNITY STANDARDS & RULES ~ So... what's your excuse now?
A bat! That's it! It's an omen.. I'll shall become a bat!
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THE CBR COMMUNITY STANDARDS & RULES ~ So... what's your excuse now?
So I re-watched DS9's "Waltz" fairly recently. Great episode, but something caught my attention that I never really thought of before.
So Dukat was taken into custody and going to be tried for war crimes. What war crimes exactly are they talking about? If it's his alliance with the Dominion then technically the Federation started the war with the Dominion by mining the wormhole. And nothing we witnessed Dukat carry out as the Dominion/Cardassian head warranted a trial for war crimes.
Now, certainly his acts as the head of the Cardassian occupation of Bajor would qualify as war crimes but then why, when the Federation and Bajor had ample opportunity to arrest him prior to the Dominion alliance, did they suddenly care about what he did to the Bajorans during the occupation?
The story that brought this home for me was THE SNEETCHES by Dr. Seuss, which I must've read when I was six. And later, after STAR TREK, there was the BEWITCHED episode "Sisters At Heart" where Tabitha casts a spell that gives her black spots and her black "sister" white spots--the episode was co-written by the student's in Marcella Saunders' tenth grade English class--this was greatly publicized at the time and given a special award at the Emmy's for that year.
So I just watched Star Trek: The Motion picture again for kicks, and something occurred to me:
Why was Decker demoted?
In TMP, Admiral Kirk manages to get command of the Enterprise back to intercept V'Ger, taking it away from Decker, who was a Captain. So he goes to the ship, takes Decker aside, tells him that he (Kirk) will be commanding the Enterprise and that Decker will stay on, with his rank temporarily reduced to Commander. And during the rest of the movie, the crew all call Kirk 'Captain Kirk'.
And yet in The Wrath of Khan, when Kirk assumed command of the Enterprise over Spock, not only was he still 'Admiral Kirk', but Spock also remained a Captain.
So why was Decker demoted? It feels like the movie went out of it's way to insult and degrade Decker at every turn, and it's just bizarre.