zani

stream of conciousness about entertainment media. story professional. don't talk to me about superman.

[dragon-in-a-fez]

personally I'm annoyed by the socioeconomic conditions that made words like "unalive" necessary but simultaneously impressed by the linguistic adaptations young people have made to continue talking about important things while subject to those conditions and I think if you can't hold both of those thoughts in your head you might just be old man yelling at cloud

[zani-is-a-stan]

Something something, the language of fans in an era when the adults didn’t think the kids should be allowed to talk to each other about sex.

[zani-is-a-stan]

DS9 Rewatch - S04 E08 - Little Green Men

IT’S NEEP GREN TIME

I love Quark & Odo relationship dynamic, but I never really saw the ship when I was younger. Odo being in love with Kira felt character natural to me.

The absolutely killer delivery Shimmerman does of the "My hero!" line is nudging me a little closer though.

Edit: apparently this episode was the happiest Shimmerman ever was when filming the show, which is think is lovely!

Also, this is another reason why DS9 is the best trek. It's funnier.

We can prove this with the solid data point that is Worf. He was not funny on Next Gen.

No, no he wasn’t.

He was not. He was melodramatic and uptight.

BUT! Drop him on the sci-fi wild west outpost, and he immediately buys a Ferengi Tooth sharpener in a shot that is objectively funnier than any old reference to prune juice.

[zani-is-a-stan]

DS9 Rewatch - S04 E14 - Return to Grace

I wish I didn’t actually know anything about the private lives of the actors on my favorite shows. Can you guess why I’m bringing this up?

This might be the best Marc Alaimo episode so far - a lot of nuance outside of his normal Dukat thanks to a script that gave him that opening.

This is the last time we see Cyia Batten as Ziyal, and I kind of loved both of her performances. With her we see a Ziyal in this who has some of the manipulative and shitty aspects of Dukat’s personality, which I find myself very interested in.

Look at this. This Ziyal has plans. This is a Ziyal that could reeeeaaally have fucked with Garak.

Alright, now that’s over.

Hey check out this totally plot-necessary scene where the actor playing Bashir gives the actor playing Kira a bunch of injections and ruh-roh, now she’s throwing up ...

Studios treat the personal lives of their actors like a purse. They turn them inside out and sort through the guts of what they find looking for money.

Some people will say “They’re actors, they knew what they signed up for.” Some people (meaning me) will say “They don’t have a choice if they want to have a career, or, I dunno, food for their kids.” Some actors will say, “I don’t care, actually.” or “What are you talking about, that’s hilarious!"

In Visitor’s book Star Trek: Open a Channel: A Woman’s Trek, she talks about how grateful she is to Laura Behr & Ira Behr for protecting her job & career, because she had fully expected to be fired for falling pregnant with Siddig’s baby. Clearly there were people on the creative & writing team who were in her corner. (We all know who wasn’t.)

It’s just … the scenes in the show - multiple episodes of the show - that are clearly nudge nudge wink wink about the whole thing makes things feel gross to me. She & the situation (and obviously Siddig as well, but Visitor was the pregnant one, she was the most at risk in the situation) become punchlines in at least 2 scripts that I can think of. They got turned inside out in a very public way.

I fast forward through parts of Fascination for that reason. Watching two actors who were involved IRL furiously make out feels like an invasion of privacy.

So anyway, I wish I didn’t know about the actors personal lives, because I wish that they weren’t monetized the way that they are.

BUT HEY, LOOK!

Damar!

[zani-is-a-stan]

I believe I need to add a post script to this.

I don't mean to say that we as fans are in the wrong for wanting to know things about the lives of actors whose work affects us - and in the Trek world specifically, you can see that the performers get a lot of joy out interacting with fans in a lot of different ways. I absolutely do it myself; I’m reading Irene Robinson's memoir right now. (It is absolutely heartbreaking and beautiful, I recommend it.)

What I had intended to say is that studios are in the wrong for monetizing changes in their actors personal lives ... and then turning around and using those changes as reasons to pay those actors less money. "Oh, you're a dual income family now, we can pay you half of what we used to." That's objectively shitty. My subjective reaction is that the more personal the changes, the more uncomfortable I am in knowing about it. But I am 100% you do you if that sort of thing brings you joy.

TLDR: Bad studio behavior is bad, fans enjoying fandom are good.

[zani-is-a-stan]

DS9 Rewatch - S03 E20 - Improbable Cause

Tain: [cruel] You look like shit. Get some taste.

Garak: [affectionate] So do you, you fat fuck -

Tain: [to the Tal Shiar] Flush him down the toilet.

Garak: I love you.

Who the hell is Odo’s own little spy contact from Central Command and why do we never see or hear from him again? He is SO COOL!

I honestly think this two episode arc, especially the second one, are my favorite Garak episodes. I really love the Garak & Odo intimate and platonic frenemy dynamic. So much about Odo’s character revolves around safety in moments of vulnerability, and with every reason not to, he offers that to Garak at the end of this arc, and it’s pursued with all evidence of sincerity on both parts. More about how much I like those two next time.

Is Bashir eating … [squints] mango? Like just mango for lunch?

Is hasperat mango?

I mean, I suppose it could be pineapple. My old guy acid reflux is kicking up just thinking about pounding a plate of pineapple, because it does not look like this is a spit bucket kind of shot.

I really like the shot where Sisko is checking out the damage from the bomb. Brooks directed this, I think, and you can really tell when he directs his own shots, because the man knows the things he can do with a camera that are outside of the standard talking head shit, and it’s pretty great looking. The little arts industry bitch in me got all wabbly about silhouette & shape design in that scene.

I love Catfish Murderer’s whole look. I would also like christmas tree ornaments in my updo, yes please. I’ve been listening to Delta Flyers (100% worth the patreon for the behind the scenes extra chat) and I think in one of first few episodes they mentioned that the look designer for the aliens had a lot of books about animals and would just ref it for cool alien looks, and this is definitely one of them.

God I love LA. I’m so glad it’s finally bouncing back, the last 6 years have been really rough for a lot of ground-level creative people.

For my money, DS9 had the best alien makeup & costume designs. Lots of consistency and lots of thought but into the implications of what you see on screen. I’ll link it if I ever see it again, but there’s a post out there talking about Natima & Ziyal’s dress designs and how they are pulled from a very specific window of time in Western clothing history and what that means. I don’t know as much about clothing history as I would like to, but I DO know about Western adaptation of eastern art influences, and that bring me to this: my favorite Garak outfit ever.

I LOVE this red, this cut & that seigaiha inspired pattern. Actually, if you square off the angles in the necklines and take a closer look at the sillhouettes ...

I think this is also a good place to say that I’ve been noticing that Garak’s sleeves are always always too long. They come down far enough to cover parts of his palm, which is a weird look for a tailor … if he wasn’t a tailor with SOMETHING UP HIS SLEEVE!

I love it when the creatives go hard & get extra.

So also, riiiiight here, riiiiiiight at the bottom of the post, I’m going to make a little confession.

THIS was the episode where I understood WTF was going on with the chocolates thing. THIS WHOLE TIME I was like “What do you mean they were meant for him? Why does everyone think it’s romantic (apart from the staging, the blocking and the actors) to return a gift? It’s kind of shitty to return a gift!"

THIS watch (which to be fair, is the first one since I was a little wet baby) I fucking caught that at some point off-camera, Garak gave Bashir those chocolates because he SAID HE WAS GOING TO IN THE COLD OPEN.

HOW CAN I CALL MYSELF A FAN NOW??

[zani-is-a-stan]

DS9 Rewatch: S03 E04 - Equilibrium

JFC WHEN WILL THIS IDEA OF BASHIR AND DAX GETTING TOGETHER EVER BE TAKEN OFF OF LIFE SUPPORT INSTEAD OF BEING WHEELED OUT TO WAVE AT THE PUBLIC LIKE THE HEAD OF A CULT WHO IS DAYS AWAY FROM DYING BECASUE THEY THOUGHT THAT DRINKING COLLOIDAL SILVER WOULD CURE THEIR CANCER AND HAVE NO IDEA WHAT THEIR OWN NAME IS ANYMORE BUT THEY DON’T HAVE A DNR AND THE SECOND IN COMMAND OF THE CULT IS. HARVESTING THEIR INFLUENCE? IS IT THE LAST STAND YET? IS THE HORSE GETTING ANY DEADER?*

God, someone somewhere really wanted Bashir to be attracted to his patients, and the patients to swoon into his arms when he fixes everything. It worked a total of one times, and after that it turns out he only thinks he’s attracted to are the ones that run away.

For my money, this is the first real Dax episode. That one where Dax is briefly stolen from Jadzia doesn’t feel like she’s quite the Dax character that she solidifies into later. Part of it is that for me, Terry Farrell plays that “I am a man and a woman” thing in this season just right, and for me, that really has her blooming as a character. And she is so, so, stunningly beautiful in this episode! And we get a lot of really cool Trill lore!

This might be one of the only episodes where we see full costume silhouettes that include the way the pants fall over the shoes. - from the first scene in the Trill cave system. As an occasional fan artist, I appreciate this. And also - purple is the color of the Trill energy!

* Let it die, Berman!

[zani-is-a-stan]

DS9 Rewatch - S04 E19 - Hard Time

Below the cut: honest discussion of IRL experiences with the event that is the climax of this episode. The intent is to be clinical and pragmatic, but it's a rough topic nonetheless. If you stop here, I’ll leave you with this take: Robert Hewitt Wolfe is one of the best tv writers there is.

I'm going to be honest, I almost skipped this one. I grew up in a home where the only form of discipline was solitary confinement (what happens to Miles in this episode) in conjuction with enforced prayer. What Miles tried to do to himself in this episode is something I tried to do to myself twice before I was 11 years old.

[Obligatory don't be concerned about me or feel like you need to say you're sorry it happened, I take mental health maintenance seriously.]

1 - This episode gets a lot of things very right. Extended solitary confinement can induce hallucinations, psychosis and other 'lesser' breaks with reality. It is not a choice, it is not a weakness, it is not a failure of those who experience it.

2 - The way this is portrayed - Miles masking to those around him, being caught up and angry about not being able to move on, believing there will never be a good feeling again, the reflex to hurt people who get close and the following despair when that hurts a loved or vulnerable person, the complete dissociation into activities like making art ... It's all bang on the nose. This is Duet level realness.

3 - I thought I would hate watching this, and it was not easy, but it was also validating. We all love DS9 because we saw ourselves in it. This was a story that needed to be told.

4 - That being said, that was enough and I’m never watching this one again.

[homunculus-argument]

Hey what if dragons are a "no such thing as a fish" kind of situation?

The reason why they're so varied in appearance, but roughly similar in a handful of some very specific traits is a matter of covergent evolution, they're just creatures that all happened to end up as the ones to fill out the same ecological niche.

[zani-is-a-stan]

For a second I was like ... "The podcast?" Imagining three dragons with personalities ranging from playful to snotty lecturing their listeners about commonly misunderstood principles of the natural world.

[zani-is-a-stan]

DS9 Rewatch - S02 S23 - Crossover

Bashir: Hey! Hey FUCK YOU! I'm a DOCTOR!

Mirror Odo: I see you're new to slavery. Allow me to punch you an orientation packet.

[lasagnaenemy]

Current mood

[zani-is-a-stan]

DS9 Rewatch: S03 E11 & E12 - Past Tense Part 1 & 2

Where they got it wrong: Explaining to everyone that homeless people didn’t become homeless on purpose cures capitalism.

Where they got it right: The beautiful white woman gets it better than beautiful black men.

[suzanimated]

Take a break, wet your pants.

[stonedtrek]

you kidnap your son after putting a failed hit on him. it’s the first time you’ve seen him in years. he immediately says your outfit is ugly and calls you fat.

[stonedtrek]

you are taken as a prisoner of war. you send a coded message to your son and beg him to come rescue you. you wait, deathly ill, telling everybody that you know he will come for you. he shows up, and you immediately call him stupid.

[zani-is-a-stan]

So this is nothing to do with Star Trek, but I produced this collected edition book, and it won an Eisner this weekend.

It's a fucking amazing book.

[zani-is-a-stan]

I'm not done bragging about this Eisner-winning book I produced (and I don’t look this cute all the time), so here's me in the studio holding the Eisner-winning book I produced.

[vafrosaon]

[startrekladies]

EZRI DAX in 7.11 "Prodigal Daughter" Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1993–1999)

[zani-is-a-stan]

I've watched very very little of S7, but I have a feeling that I'm gonna get a new fave.

[zani-is-a-stan]

DS9 Rewatch - S04 E14 - Return to Grace

I wish I didn’t actually know anything about the private lives of the actors on my favorite shows. Can you guess why I’m bringing this up?

This might be the best Marc Alaimo episode so far - a lot of nuance outside of his normal Dukat thanks to a script that gave him that opening.

This is the last time we see Cyia Batten as Ziyal, and I kind of loved both of her performances. With her we see a Ziyal in this who has some of the manipulative and shitty aspects of Dukat’s personality, which I find myself very interested in.

Look at this. This Ziyal has plans. This is a Ziyal that could reeeeaaally have fucked with Garak.

Alright, now that’s over.

Hey check out this totally plot-necessary scene where the actor playing Bashir gives the actor playing Kira a bunch of injections and ruh-roh, now she’s throwing up ...

Studios treat the personal lives of their actors like a purse. They turn them inside out and sort through the guts of what they find looking for money.

Some people will say “They’re actors, they knew what they signed up for.” Some people (meaning me) will say “They don’t have a choice if they want to have a career, or, I dunno, food for their kids.” Some actors will say, “I don’t care, actually.” or “What are you talking about, that’s hilarious!"

In Visitor’s book Star Trek: Open a Channel: A Woman’s Trek, she talks about how grateful she is to Laura Behr & Ira Behr for protecting her job & career, because she had fully expected to be fired for falling pregnant with Siddig’s baby. Clearly there were people on the creative & writing team who were in her corner. (We all know who wasn’t.)

It’s just … the scenes in the show - multiple episodes of the show - that are clearly nudge nudge wink wink about the whole thing makes things feel gross to me. She & the situation (and obviously Siddig as well, but Visitor was the pregnant one, she was the most at risk in the situation) become punchlines in at least 2 scripts that I can think of. They got turned inside out in a very public way.

I fast forward through parts of Fascination for that reason. Watching two actors who were involved IRL furiously make out feels like an invasion of privacy.

So anyway, I wish I didn’t know about the actors personal lives, because I wish that they weren’t monetized the way that they are.

BUT HEY, LOOK!

Damar!

[zani-is-a-stan]

So this is nothing to do with Star Trek, but I produced this collected edition book, and it won an Eisner this weekend.

It's a fucking amazing book.