This is insane, truly what were they doing here in Armageddon Game? Let's frame Julian in sunlight in such a way that he looks like some sort of unspeakably beautiful deity... I mean like thank you but wut??
Just something that recently crossed my mind when thinking about Julian and his relationship with his parents.
Do you remember season 1 all-eager-to-please-puppy-Julian? Just imagine what an argument between Richard and season 1 Julian would have looked like. They did have a lot of differences in the past ever since Julian found out about his enhancements at the age of 15. But somehow I cant‘t really picture season 1 Julian opposing his father in more than a teenager kind of way. He might argue with his father over something but in the end he complies with whatever his parents tell him because he‘s so desperate to measure up to everyone’s expectations because he thinks that it’s the only way to earn their love.
Then take season 5 all-mature-and-grown-up Julian who knows exactly how to step up for himself and defend himself. He’s no longer willing to do as his father tells him. You can see in Sisko‘s office how much he‘s uncomfortable with his parents showing their affection for him. While season 1 Julian would have quietly endured the whole thing, probably feeling even guilty for not being the perfect son, season 5 Julian is ready to defend his newly made home against his parent’s intrusion.
And I just wonder when exactly that change in Julian’s attitude toward his parents might have happened. I mean, of course he grows up a lot during his time on DS9 but I can‘t help but wonder if there was something, a particular event that caused it.
If we take Julian’s statement in Dr. Bashir, I presume? where he says that he hasn‘t been home for three years that would mean that the last time he visited home must have been somewhere around season 2. It’s only my guess but Armageddon Game is set in season 2 where Julian is believed dead and Sisko passes on the news of Julian’s death to his parents. Most likely Julian visited his parents after the events. My guess is that that was the turning point in their relationship.
Like
Richard: We thought you were dead. I’m so glad you’re here. Just imagine, all that talent gone for good. All that knowledge and all those skills.
Julian: We’re talking about my life! I nearly DIED. And all you’re concerned about is that my talent could have been wasted?
Again, it’s only my guess but it would make sense…
You probably can't answer this one but over the course of TNG through Enterprise there are multiple allusions to a foot fetish. From Bashir in season 1 or 2 saying a former girlfriend had "exquisite feet" to the foot massage scene in TNG "The Price" and at least a dozen others. Are you aware of it or is it news to you? If you can say, which I don't think you can for reasons of professional courtesy, can you tell us about this? In my opinion the only suspect for it is Rick Berman since it can trace from TNG season 2 to Enterprise season 3 and no one else was around that long who wrote.
No clue.
Sec.
/quickly googles Bashir quote/
Oh, that scene. I have some vague memory doing a polish on "Armageddon Game" with Ira and getting to that bit. We're both married to ex-dancers, so we had a good laugh about people's perceptions of dancers' feet vs the reality.
Then we left it in because we thought it was funny.
I can't speak to any of the other scenes about feet, and I wasn't aware it's a "thing," but here at IPunchedQInTheFaceCoIncLtdGmbH, we do not kink shame. You be you!
Ring ring ring. Take your seats. The first period school bell just rang, and that means we’ve got to talk about Star Trek’s botanist-turned-school-marm: Keiko Ishikawa O’Brien. She’s another character that bridges both TNG and DS9, the former cementing her mostly in the role of Miles’s wife and the latter taking every opportunity to give her the week off. Keiko never really gets a fair shake on either show, which is a shame because she has so much potential. So A Star to Steer Her By is going to give her some time in the sun this week to see how she grows! Like a plant… because she’s a botanist… Moving on.
Amusingly, even though last week we joked that all of Garak’s moments should go on BOTH his Best and Worst Moments lists, it’s actually Keiko for whom we’re seeing the most simultaneously good and bad arguments! So grab your pruning shears and ring your school bell with us as you read on below and listen to us argue with Miles on the promenade on this week’s podcast episode (jump to 59:28), or else you’ll have to stay late for detention!
Try to touch the cup
Introduced halfway through The Next Generation, Keiko mostly seems to be around to support other characters. So in “Violations,” she’s there to help with the investigation into the mind-probing Ullians. She doesn’t do much, but she’s there. And we’ve got to admit that her scene remembering her childhood with her grandmother is rather sweet.
I would die to save the life of my child
Keiko shows some badassery in “Power Play” when Miles is possessed by a being who seems to relish the idea of tormenting its host’s significant other, really twisting the knife and making things personal. Keiko bravely demands that the being let baby Molly go and even expresses she would rather die than let this thing survive. This all to the face of the man she loves!
So easy a child could do it
I shit on “Rascals” a lot (and rightly so), but one thing it actually succeeds in is giving Keiko something to do. Even if it is the child form of Keiko, and not that great a child actor to boot. But she does get to help foil the Ferengi takeover of the ship, which somehow the adults on the ship are unable to do. So, uh, low bar but she and the other kid-crew leap over that sucker.
Children are the future
By the time Miles and Keiko have moved over to Deep Space Nine, the little missus is looking for some way to contribute now that her botanying is basically on pause, and she leaps feet first into taking on the education of all the children on the station in “A Man Alone.” It’s a commendable endeavor since, even in the future, teaching is drastically underappreciated.
Separation of religion and station
We also have to stand up and applaud Keiko for standing up to Vedek Winn in “In the Hands of the Prophets” when the Bajoran leader wants her to stop teaching the science of the wormhole and instead enforce their backwards religion. Keiko’s spot-on response “I don't teach Bajoran spiritual beliefs; that's your job” is the secular philosophy Star Trek is all about.
You know, that was a very ugly thing you just said
We give Miles shit for his anti-Cardassian racism, so it’s refreshing to see Keiko do the same and call him in on his dog whistling in “Cardassians.” Miles tries to insinuate that Cardassians had gentleness bred out of them, and Keiko won’t hear it. She lets Rugal stay with them, she encourages him to play with Molly, and she even tries (and fails) to feed him like she would any kid.
It keeps him up all night!
Keiko later foils the Kelleruns’ plan in “Armageddon Game” when she sees through their doctored recording of the harvester-deactivation team getting wiped out by some failsafe or other. The whole thing, of course, is a lie. Without Keiko insisting that the thing is a forgery because Miles wouldn’t be drinking coffee ends up saving the lives of Bashir and O’Brien.
We call it Voight-Kampff for short
Viewers at home don’t even realize it until the end, but Keiko does a great job not rumbling the game for Miles’s replicant in “Whispers.” The twist at the end reveals that she’s been hiding from him that everyone on the station knows he’s not the real Miles, but she manages to keep him from fulfilling whatever his directive and treats him like the actual deal as much as she can.
I have no intention of testifying against my husband
Even while cemented into the limiting role of “Miles’s wife,” Keiko gets some moments to shine. Ostensibly, she attends Miles’s trial in “Tribunal” just to be the face of the defendant’s family (and to give Miles the chance to blame domestic abuse if he wants), but Keiko never gives the corrupt judiciaries what they want, pushing back against their legal system the whole time.
Be the best damned botanist in the galaxy
When Keiko is forced to close down the school when the Bajoran kiddos leave the station in “The House of Quark,” she’s back to where she started in the premiere. So it’s great to have her go back to her roots and agree to join the agrobiology expedition on Bajor rather than wallow in despair. Was it just to write her out of episodes? A little, but at least it’s in character.
Cheer him up a little
This one probably belongs on Miles’s Worst Moments list, so let’s cover it now. Miles spends “Accession” moping that he can’t hang out with Bashir anymore now that Keiko’s back from her botany assignment, even though she never once gives him any indication he can’t still have fun. So she tricks him into going to play with his friend like setting up a toddler playdate.
You’re family now
More on this in the Worst Moments section, but first let’s praise Keiko for how she treats Kira, who is surrogating Yoshi after the events of “Body Parts.” The O’Briens have Kira move in with them during the pregnancy, and Keiko is super progressive during “Looking for par’Mach in All the Wrong Places” about how Miles takes care of the Major. It’s sweet, right? Right…?
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Worst moments
Runabout Bride
I griped about this in both Data’s and Miles’s spotlight posts as well, but really Keiko is the one who started it! In her series debut “Data’s Day,” she continuously tries to call off her own wedding on the day. And even worse than that: she makes poor Data (of all people!) do it for her! The franchise really starts off this character as demonstrably unlikeable. But don’t worry, there’s more!
Plankton loaf du jour
Chris put this on our Miles list as well, but it bears repeating. In “The Wounded,” immediately after their marriage, Keiko makes them breakfast of kelp buds, plankton loaf, and sea berries, which to my Western palette sounds awful. And then turns up her nose at Miles’s food culture. Did you two never eat together before this or did you go straight to the “I do”s with a stranger?
Is our marriage over?
So Keiko and the kids outsmarting the Ferengi in “Rascals” made the good list, but the rest of her behavior while a child is just WEIRD. As a twelve-year-old, she tries to act like her relationship with Miles should remain the same. Excuse me? It’s one thing for him to be supportive of you in a crisis, but your life is entirely upended. Do not put this man in this position.
This garden transplant didn’t take
Another element of the Keiko character that we brought up before in the Miles post comes when they transfer together to DS9 and Keiko effectively loses her job as botanist. How this wasn’t a conversation between the two of them is beyond me, as they spend all of “A Man Alone” publicly fighting at Quark’s and on the promenade about their terrible life choices.
School is now in session
The writers strangely decide to make Keiko a school teacher in “A Man Alone” just to keep her character relevant to the new show. It’s a good thing for someone to do, as we mentioned in our Best Moments list, but frankly it feels like a disservice to her character, who already had a life before this. It just didn’t fit the Frontier Station™ setting, so Keiko gets a personality overwrite.
No more pencils, no more books
Standing up to Vedek Winn in “In the Hands of the Prophets,” it turns out, is a terrible idea, as Keiko essentially stirs up racial tensions all across the station, resulting in most of the students pulling out of school, which ends up getting blown up. Coincidence? Oh definitely not. And shame on the writers for not giving Keiko another line after the destruction. Boo.
The best part of waking up…
We’re still not sure what we think of the reveal that Miles does indeed drink coffee whenever the hell he pleases in “Armageddon Game,” as it negates the insight that Keiko had earlier brought to the episode (and to this blogpost!) when she saves the day. It feels like the writers are saying “nyah nyah!” because it turns out Keiko doesn’t know her husband as well as she thinks.
I don’t even want to sit at the same table with you
More fighting in public with Miles. We loved Keiko getting back to her botany roots, but springing on her husband in “Fascination” that her survey expedition was going to take seven months longer than planned is an argument that should not have been happening at Quark’s in the Gratitude Festival. The writers made any excuse they could to not have her on the show!
So you wish Keiko was a man?
Keiko is upset at Miles at the top of “Hippocratic Oath” for putting a workshop in the bedroom during one of the myriad times she’s away, and clearly there was another argument about it in which Keiko accuses him of living like a bachelor again. Bitch, you’re not even there 90% of the time. No wonder Miles admits to Julian he wishes she were more like a man.
I think she’s actually enjoying it, Miles
We talked in both Kira’s and Miles’s posts about how ridiculous their B-plot was in “Looking for par’Mach in All the Wrong Places,” but Keiko is so naive that she keeps forcing them together by accident. What’s even worse: this whole surrogacy plot was a fabulous opportunity to have Keiko and Kira bond instead, as two women who rarely have scenes together. What a ripoff.
Where’re Baloo and Bagheera when you need them?
I will never stop giving Miles and Keiko (and to some extent Odo!) grief about how they send feral Molly back into her cave in “Time’s Orphan.” How anyone can neglect their child this blatantly and then be rewarded for it by the episode’s intent is just terrible. Keiko doesn’t even resist the idea when Miles shares it, but is onboard immediately to give up on their child rather than get her actual help.
But the cat came back the very next day
A smaller detail in “Time’s Orphan” hints at how Keiko doesn’t like Chester, the cat that O’Brien takes in after he absolutely gets Bilby killed in “Honor Among Thieves.” Keiko strongly insinuates that she’d be happy if Chester ran away, never to return, if they brought him on their picnic. How this woman cannot love this poor orphaned cat is beyond me and deserves some hate.
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Aaaaand we’re all suspended for setting off stink bombs on the promenade. We’ll be back next week though to highlight Keiko’s arch nemesis. No, not Miles. Kai Winn Adami! Look forward to that, keep up with our trip through the Delphic Expance with us on our Enterprise watchalong on SoundCloud (and the other podcast places), pass notes in class to us on Facebook and Twitter, and no fighting on the promenade!
