Thank gd for Avery Brooks man. Ds9 wouldn't be half the show it is without him. Yes because of his magnetic and dynamic performance as Sisko but arguably more than that his role in creative direction and shaping the story and Sisko's arc. The finale, for instance, would've been so much worse if not for Brooks's insistence that Sisko promise to return to the station one day. And there's a thousand instances like that. We owe him EVERYTHING!!!
I am now a therapist on deep space nine and my job is to sort out the main cast. This is what would happen and how effective I have the potential to be based on their outlooks:
Sisko. Is annoyed about having to go. After session three he is name-dropping me in casual conversations with friends and thinks I am really clever but it's unclear how much of that is really just that I agree with his opinions. 9/10 point deducted because he treats me too much like a friend and too little like a therapist with a job.
Kira. Insists she does not need to go. Twenty minutes into session one she is describing the death of her father in intricate and pissed-off detail. 8/10 because any therapy at all is bound to be better than the status quo.
Dax. 10/10 but she does all the work herself and I begin to doubt why I am even in the room. Really just needs someone to talk at.
Julian. Lies to me the entire time. Asks me out at the end of session one and in a cruel twist of fate I am forced to turn him down in order to keep my job. Does not come back. 3/10
Jake. Talks to me about his dad and then talks to his dad about me and it kind of feels like I'm having a game of chess over the phone with the station captain. He doesn't really need therapy long-term but Sisko keeps making him go. I suggest switching to a by-demand schedule and tell them I am available whenever if something actually traumatic were to happen and Sisko pretends not to hear me. 6/10
O'Brien. Insists he does not need to go. Once he does he spends 40 minutes complaining about absolutely nothing and when I ask him to actually do something difficult he gets annoyed and walks out. Has to be reverse-psychplogied into coming back. 5/10 but only because he has not done a single moment of introspection in his life and if I can't make him at least reflect on his own behaviour sometimes then I am a really shitty therapist. Points deducted because I hate him.
Worf. Insists he does not need to go but folds weirdly quickly when pressured. Insists it isn't working. He's lying. 8/10 I can work with that
Quark. Insists he does not need to go. Changes his mind to get out of some kind of scheme. Is crying 15 minutes into session one and gets so confused that someone seems to care about his feelings to such an extent that he forgets that it's like, my job, and not a personal favour I'm doing because I think he's cool or something. Asks me out at the end of session one. Comes back. 7/10 there's kind of a lot to break down here but I think I can do something about him
Nog. 10/10 and sometimes he brings me chocolates or an apple as gifts before the sessions. He argues that since the replicator is free to use this doesn't count as a gift and the only arguement we ever have is when I try to challenge him on that.
Odo. Promises to try things out of session and never does. Keeps asking me questions about the psyche of my other clients and whether or not they committed murder — notably Quark — and I refuse to answer. He thinks I'm evil because I keep client confidentiality and I think he's evil because he is a cop. Sisko has to ban him from my office. 2/10 and I don't know if it's his fault or mine.
Garak. whenever I try to email him to book a time there is mysteriously nobody by that name living on ds9 according to computer records. 0/10
Rom. forgets what I say two seconds after I say it. Hears what he wants to hear. 3/10 actual cartoon character
Dukat. he talks for an hour without letting me get a word in edgewise but little does he know I've bugged my office desk and this is all an elaborate ploy to get him to admit to seventeen separate war crimes. 10/10 sisko busts into the office and arrests him. Another great day's work.
Man, this was a blast to draw. With all the negativity in the world right now, just needed something fun to cheer me up.
Based off @captaincrusher‘s post.
To sum up, it’s never really touched on that Sisko has Dukat’s old office, and the implications of this. One of the theories thrown in was that a week after settling in, a life-sized bronze statue of Dukat shows up (after being held up in Bolian customs for three weeks), and Sisko has to sign for it. They don’t know what to do with it, so it just does the rounds of the station:
It ends up in the rec room for Julian and Miles to throw things at.
Kira gets back from a week-long mission to Bajor, finds it just inside her bedroom door. Barely misses it with her phaser.
She places it just so inside the infirmary doors, so it’ll topple onto Julian when he walks in the following morning.
Nog looses a bet with Jadzia, has to sneak it into Sisko’s office wearing the ‘Everybody loves me’ shirt.
Revenge is enacted.
Quark thinks it’d be a great way to fool Odo. Turns out paper plates sticky-taped on aren’t the answer.
It ends up at Garak’s. No one’s sure exactly how or why, but the results are beautiful.
Ziyal, my poor baby. Sisko’s given her a cargo bay to decorate.
At one point, O’Brien has to go on an urgent mission. For some godforsaken reason, the statue has ended up in the runabout and there’s no time to unload it. So he pilots for 54 hours straight while feeling the itch of Dukat’s soulless glare on the back of his head.
Oh, and they might have won the war by posting all these to the… whatever the Trek equivalent of the net is.
just watched season 5 episode 16 for the first time and got so pissed the fuck off i had to immediately draw a julian with joy in his life. world so cruel. i'll save you
Whatever the ups and downs of Starfleet Academy, I will die on the hill that actually some people needed to see a leader sitting weird in a chair. Our concept of who makes a "good leader" is actually way too skewed towards body language, how people dress, their vocabulary and other things that don't actually affect the quality of their decision-making. In 2026, we put too much emphasis on whether someone "looks like a leader" - polling companies regularly ask this about politicians - and not enough emphasis on what decisions people are making and why. And of course this bias ends up working against marginalised groups, like all biases eventually do. ("Why is she sitting like a little girl?" is something I've heard more than once)
Having a leader who rejects staunch formality is weirdly one of the most progressive things Trek has done in years. Think about how life changing it would be if you didn't have to worry about what impression your stance, your clothes and your appearance were giving off. Imagine people reacting purely to the value of what you are saying and doing, and absolutely nothing else.
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