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trillmilk
necromancernextdoor
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cipheramnesia

The funniest thing you could do in any new outer space adventure / exploration media is have someone invite the ship's medic to the bridge and they'd be like "fuck no, I'm the main doctor for a whole crew, come see me if you break an arm or something, good luck exploring the surface of the Planet Made of Angry Poison Gas Clouds, With Teeth, Who Love the Flavor of Human Flesh or whatever the fuck it is, adios, see you in the canteen maybe, maybe not I'm fuckin busy." And you just barely ever see that character again.

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cipheramnesia

Or the doctor is a recurring character and every time anyone needs them it's like, "Computer, locate the doctor," and the doctor is always in sick bay. Every time.

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cipheramnesia

"Doctor, could you come to the bridge please? I'd like your opinion."

"Is it a medical opinion this time?"

"Yes."

"Then no, bring your medical question down here, to the medical room, the place specifically set aside for medical questions, filled with medical equipment which... get this... I use to answer medical questions."

trillmilk
necromancernextdoor
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geekysteven

A Betazoid character who isn't in a nurturing profession, but is a tactical officer.

"Captain, I sense they know they're about to get their asses handed to them"

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macko-99

Also, a Klingon character who is in a nuturing profession instead of tactical.

"You are a true child of Kahless for confronting your fears and I am honoured to have helped you."

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asimovsideburns

Klingon therapist: the battle against mental illness cannot be won decisively. It is a long campaign against an enemy who never tires, whose forces swell to twice their size whenever you look away. Battle against a foe of such magnitude, who occupies your very mind… every moment you survive is a triumph against all odds. There is no more honorable combat.

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threezoz

the warrior's anthem as an anxiety focus

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ospreyonthemoon

Betazoid tactical officer: I can feel your fear as you face me. And it's not nearly enough. Let me correct that for you. *starts swinging*

We could all use a klingon therapist occasionally.

trillmilk
gulducock
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gulducock

quark is so hot i dont even have any explanation or anything right now like armin shimerman just brought an utterly sexual vibe to that performance that is hypnotizing. like thats it thats all i have.

trillmilk
maliwart
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maliwart

A little Delenn painting

[Image ID: a digital painting of Ambassador Delenn from Babylon 5. She’s shown from the hips up. She is gazing up above the viewer and there is a golden light shining in her eyes. She is wearing a purple and gold robe with large shoulders. The background is soft greys and greens with a large golden ring behind her head. There’s a much thinner second golden ring inside the first. She looks pensive and in awe, her hair flowing over her shoulders. End ID]

#b5#delenn
trillmilk
writergeekrhw
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writergeekrhw
Anonymous asked:

There's been a lot of talk over the years about whether Ferengi are a antisemitic stereotyoe. Given that DS9 had more Jewish actors and creative staff, what do you think of that discourse?

Was this something that was kept in mind when reinventing the Ferengi from how they were in TNG?

writergeekrhw answered:

I can tell you the INTENTION of the Ferengi was to satirize capitalism and the West. Ferengi derives from the Persian "Farangi," i.e. Franks, people from France. More broadly, it came to mean "Western European." Hence "Farangistan" = Europe. Farang/i spread to other languages, notably Thai where it now means "foreigner."

Farang - Wikipedia

So, the Ferengi are intended to be us. Westerners, even more specifically Americans. The original TNG bible compares them to 18th and 19th century Yankee traders. Sexist and greedy, patriarchal and dishonest.

I'm pretty sure this was the intention of their look too, especially the noses. Big noses are common in Asian caricatures of Westerners. Check out the Thai sculpture in the link above. According to my father, for example, the Rhade tribe from the Vietnamese Highlands called Americans "big noses" and when he was their military advisor, he was Captain Big Nose.

And then TNG cast a ton of Jewish actors as early Ferengi, and a lot of people saw them completely differently. (Aside, I've heard from some Asian fans that they perceive Ferengi as caricatures of the Cantonese, which speaks to how different cultures see them.)

We were definitely aware of this issue when DS9 came along, and I largely followed the lead of our Jewish-American showrunners on how to handle it. Generally, by digging deep into three different main Ferengi characters and several recurring, I hope we transcended the stereotypes.

We showed Ferengi not as whip-wielding pirate/raiders (not a Jewish trope btw, see Yankee traders), but as a small business owner, a handyman/engineer, and an aspiring Starfleet officer, all struggling with issues of cultural assimilation and grappling with their own culture's shortcomings when it comes to women and greed.

When writing the Ferengi, I drew from my own (white bread, Catholic, Army brat) background, so for example, I saw the Rules of Acquisition not as some kind of take on the Talmud, but as a satire of Western self-help business books, a kind of "How to Win Friends and Influence People," meets "The Devil's Dictionary." The Ferengi afterlife is based on my vague understanding of Chinese traditions I grew up around in San Francisco, etc.

I'm not sure we fully separated the Ferengi from the baggage they came to us with, but we definitely tried.

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#ferengi
trillmilk
squidsploitation
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quasi-normalcy

I honestly think that "Columbo" would be a runaway hit on Cardassia. Like, it's not even a mystery in the proper sense; every episode begins by showing the audience exactly who the murderer was and exactly how and why the murder took place; and the rest of the episode is about an agent of the State relentlessly hounding them until they are inevitably brought to justice. It's just the sort of story Cardassian audiences would adore.

#ds9#columbo#op... your mind
trillmilk
trillscienceofficer
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irresistible-revolution
That’s what Avery looks like, so why shouldn’t you let the guy look like himself? You have a guy who looks in the mirror and doesn’t see himself, because that was so much a part of who Avery was. That look, that persona. As a man, as who he was: this sort of unapologetic, strong figure. You put him in the uniform and you take away that look.… I don’t know if he was struggling, but I would say that it was when we started writing to Avery and let Avery look like Avery, the character became a much better character. It let him identify a little more with the character, and the key to a good performance, especially in television where you do it every day, is to be able to really find where you and the character intersect. When you make someone radically alter their appearance in a way they don’t identify with, that can be restrictive. It’s a subtle psychological thing. If an actor brings a tremendous amount of humor to the part, you don’t want to write them nothing but straight lines. You’re wasting a resource. So Avery’s strength and dignity, but also his jazz brain way of looking at the world, his unpredictability—writing to that really helped make the character more than what he would have been if we would have tried to straitjacket him into what was on the page in the initial form.

Robert Hewitt Wolfe, Excerpt From The Fifty-Year Mission - The Next 25 Years, Volume 2, Edward Gross, Mark A. Altman

Avery wanted that look from day one. For us, the notion of the white man “holding us down” is not a thing, but for Avery it was. I can’t even imagine what the poor man went through with those guys. With Rick Berman. It’s like they stripped him of his power. But then as soon as he got to be his physical image and he stopped looking like a black Ken doll—I’m sorry, it’s true!—and got to look like his vision of Sisko, it was like night and day. He was suddenly a powerful cat and it was, like, “Whoa, I wouldn’t fuck with him!” Before, it was like he was being held back, with them saying, “You can’t do this, you can’t do that."

Terry Farrell, Excerpt From The Fifty-Year Mission - The Next 25 Years, Volume 2, Edward Gross, Mark A. Altman

#avery brooks#terry farrell#the fifty year mission#the difference is night and day like siskopre- and post- goatee are two different people
trillmilk
trillscienceofficer
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hatingongodot

Classically trained actor on a Star Trek show on their knees begging the writing team for a Shakespeare-themed episode

"It can be in the holodeck!! Or time travel!! I STILL REMEMBER MY LINES AS KING RICHARD"

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hatingongodot

Classically trained actor on star Trek speaking with their whole chest, their voice heavy with gravitas: The Smellulons may be limited to what they can scent out with their tentawhiskers, but as STARFLEET OFFICERS we must rely on our REASON"