Once upon a time (Dec 1, 2020), a group of Star Trek fans on Twitter led by the intrepid author @unamccormack were imaging what it would be like if people in TNG and DS9 actually watched non-20th century Earth media. I, having recently read "The Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation," suggested the following:
There must be a years-long-running Cardassian historical soap/drama with multiple generations of warring families, sneaky politics, star-crossed romance, duty to the state…every so often Garak gets a big batch of eps from the black market, closes his shop, and binge-watches.
@unamccormack happily picked up this thread and ran with it, naming the show "Clouds Over Culat." Eventually twitter imploded and our thread was lost, but here we are nearly six years later on Tumblr keeping "Clouds Over Culat" alive. I wanted to make a post where we can put everything we remember about the show and can add all our new headcanons. This starting post is what I can reconstruct from my downloaded twitter archive before I shut down my account. We've got more material in the replies to various posts on Una's Tumblr, hopefully one of us will dig it up and add it here :)
Clouds Over Culat has been running for a very long time with many changes of cast members, much like The Archers or Coronation Street or General Hospital.
During the height of the Cardassian Union, a low-ranked member of the Obsidian Order had to monitor the fan forums for political dissent.
Tain hated that Garak watched the show, but Mila and Garak watched it together religiously when he was young.
Garak not only binge-watches episodes purchased on the black market while he's on DS9, but Ziyal and Bashir have to listen to him nitpick the costuming details and the attempted assassination techniques at lunch the next day.
Jadzia Dax gets curious about Garak's behavior, finds his Clouds Over Culat recordings, and becomes obsessed with the show. She tries to get Kira to watch it with her; Kira refuses.
While they are hiding in Mila's basement, Garak and Damar catch up on the latest eps and passionately argue over plot points. Kira stomps around in the background and tries not to strangle them. Damar hasn't had anyone to talk to in person about Clouds over Culat for so long, Dukat thought it was ridiculous nonsense to keep the proles happy. Damar had to pretend to agree while posting anonymously on the fan forums when he was off-duty.
The revival of Clouds Over Culat many years after the end of the Dominion War is a major cultural event; some people embrace it as a sign of stability and others consider it embarrassingly retrograde, but everyone tunes in. No one involved in writing the show is sure just how far the state will let them go in terms of plot lines. There's a lot of amazing fan discussion over a plotline where a young person chooses a future career or spouse that was NOT what their family had planned.
