InBox Mondays: Favorite Sci-Fi Series

On Mondays, I've decided, I will choose an email that seems particularly useful for the class and answer it on the website so you can all bask in the glory of learning. Today's email comes from Shantanu in Chicago, IL.

Dear Prof. Sci-Fi,

What is your favorite Sci-Fi series? 

Shantanu
Chicago, IL

That's an easy one, Shantanu. The finest piece of science fiction I've come across is Deep Space Nine, which is the third series by the Star Trek franchise. They say the third time's the charm, and this one certainly was something for the franchise to be proud of. There are several reasons why DS9 is hands down my favorite sci-fi series:

1. It carried the premise of Star Trek to it's next logical step. You can only explore the potential for humanity's future in a positive light for so long. Eventually, things are going to get complicated. TNG's 4th season started to develop the Trek universe along these lines with Worf/Klingon storylines. But there were hints to the moral ambiguity of Trek's evolved humans even in the old movies with Kirk and Spock. It was time for a series to specifically explore the darker sides of the Trek universe--which is what happened in DS9. The show focused on war, political oppression, greed, and racial conflict. Yet despite these being its major themes, the vast majority of the DS9 senior staff worked together just like the Enterprise did. Most of the conflict came from non-Starfleet characters. In this since, Gene's vision was upheld and yet carried to the next step.

2. The writing focused on character more than plot. This was a critical shift in the Trek style of telling stories. And it worked--once the show started to become more serialized. I began to care about the characters once I could follow how their lives were developing from episode to episode. I can identify with some of their issues. What saved the show from becoming a mere soap opera was the setting. The characters took on a larger-than-life status, becoming symbols that carried over into the real world. This is especially true with the Bajoran/Cardassian storyline. So added onto the fact that the characters were worth getting to know was this almost mythic aspect surrounding the characters. These characters stood for something. This is when the show became more than entertainment: it became art.

3. The baseball metaphor. The whole series, like TNG's Q frame, can be seen in terms of the baseball metaphor Sisko explains to the Prophets in the pilot "Emissary." But that will be a topic for another post.

I hope that answered your question. I highly recommend the series, and despite its serial nature, you can figure out the relationships of the characters fairly well wherever you jump in. My first experience was the 5th season, and I caught on pretty well. Or you could always head over to Wikipedia and get your basic primer here: Deep Space Nine.

Conquering Fear

“The ability to recognize danger, to fight it or run away from it, that’s what fear gives us. But when fear holds you hostage, how do you make it let go?”
-Captain Katherine Janeway

All fear can and shall be conquered. I learned that from Star Trek.

During the Dominion War, Nog was shot and his leg had to be amputated. As he lay in the make-shift infirmary realizing that his life was never going to be same, the one thing that comforted him was a song playing over the speakers: an old Sinatra cover of “I’ll Be Seeing You” by a guy Dr. Bashir knew named Vic Fontaine. When Nog returned from physical therapy to his home on Deep Space Nine, he was put on indefinite medical leave and so didn’t have to return to his duties as an engineer for some time. He visited Vic’s lounge often just to hear the song. Outside of the lounge, he basically sat in his room and did nothing. Just played the song over and over.

Nog decided to move in with Vic in his apartment above the lounge. They made a business deal together, and the lounge and casino started to rake in the big bucks. Finally Vic realized what was happening: Nog was escaping his real life—his friends, family, and commission—in the lounge. So he did what was best for Nog: he kicked him out. Nog broke down.

“I’m scared,” he said, “If I can get shot… if I can lose a leg… anything could happen to me, Vic. I could die tomorrow. I don’t know if I can face that.”

Vic replied, “Kid, I don’t know what’s going to happen to you out there. All I can tell you is that you’ve got to play the cards life deals you. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose… but at least you’re in the game.”

Sometimes I believe that fear is unconquerable. And maybe some fear is. But the fear of living, I am certain, can be conquered.

Just kiss a random stranger.

Love and Letting Go

“Love is as strong as death.”
-Rich Mullins

We do not get to choose who we fall in love with. I learned that from Star Trek.

On the day before the wedding, the headstrong Worf and his headstrong bride-to-be Jadzia decided to call it off. As a propos to the situation, the best friends went to their respective pre-marital combatants and talked some sense into them. While Jadzia’s old friend Sisko talked some tough love to her, Worf’s brother-in-arms, General Martok, joined the groom in his quarters on the warship Defiant. Worf’s problem was his belief in the impossibility of the marriage working. “When she is laughing, I am somber… She makes fun of everything. I take everything seriously,” he laments. And Martok, in his old Klingon wisdom, responds that it doesn’t matter. He loves her.

“Love is as strong as death, my friend. Relentless as the grave.”
-Rich Mullins

It is perhaps one of the toughest conundrums of maturity that we both learn to love and learn to let go as we grow older. The problem is that love doesn’t let go of the people it truly inhabits. It is as strong as death’s hold. The similarities between death and love are abundant, but for the growth of the individual, the fact that love doesn’t let go is, quite simply, a bitch.

There must be something more to learn about love or about letting go. But I haven’t yet discovered how to let go of love.

Except for the too long process of time working on the memory. And maybe then we learn what was love, what was not, and what is worth letting go. And how much letting go is worth.

And at the moment, I’m going to guess it’s worth at least a buck o' five, plus tax.