In the second episode of the fifth season of\u00c2\u00a0Deep Space Nine<\/i>, I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to watch\u00c2\u00a0Star Trek<\/i>.<\/p>\n
Jesus christ,\u00c2\u00a0Deep Space Nine<\/i>.<\/p>\n
There is indeed a great deal in \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Ship\u00e2\u20ac\u009d that I love, and I imagine y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all knew that. Mysteries! Tense stand-offs! Closed-room thrillers! Existential dread! I most definitely loved this episode, but I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m going to open this review a bit differently.<\/p>\n
Mu\u00c3\u00b1iz should be alive.<\/p>\n
I get that this is the whole point of this episode, that sometimes tragedy befalls Starfleet members on missions that do not justify their deaths. Indeed, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Ship\u00e2\u20ac\u009d is the most explicit condemnation of these kind of pointless deaths in the entirety of\u00c2\u00a0Star Trek,<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s one of the main reasons I think the writing for this episode is so strong. Without Sisko\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s monologue at the end of this, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not the same story. Without the lack of trust, without a senseless bit of death, this is an entirely different tale.<\/p>\n
And yet, Enrique \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Quique\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Mu\u00c3\u00b1iz is now the most visibly brown, most visibly Latinx character that\u00c2\u00a0Star Trek\u00c2\u00a0<\/i>has ever given us. He uses Spanglish. His Spanish is beautiful and poetic and sometimes, UNTRANSLATED. He is the closest I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve seen (aside from maybe Chakotay, though there are obvious complications there) to someone who looks like me. Even worse, he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s immensely and immediately likable as a character. Why? All so the tragedy of his death can hit us harder. All so that his death can motivate other people. Now, this is a common aspect of commentary on character deaths. You\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll see it when people discuss fridging or when characters of marginalized identities are killed to further the storylines of all white characters.<\/p>\n
So, things are complicated here. Worf and Sisko aren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t white. Does the same criticism hold? The problem I see is that there are\u00c2\u00a0no<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0other Latinx characters anywhere on this show, and just from an audience perspective, it pinned Mu\u00c3\u00b1iz for death as soon as he interacted with O\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Brien. Here\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a character that never existed prior to this episode\u00c2\u00a0and<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s got speaking lines\u00c2\u00a0and<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0we like him\u00c2\u00a0and<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0he is visibly different in every possible way from every other character, and perhaps now, you get the point. So: the writers make Mu\u00c3\u00b1iz\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s death obvious and expected, which sucks some of the tension out of an otherwise brilliantly plotted episode. And then, it shows us that the writers were finally willing to tackle the characterization of a culture or a people that had been absent from this show, but only gave it to a character who was never meant to survive beyond the closing credits.<\/p>\n
It irks me. A lot.<\/p>\n
Which is unfortunate because, as I said, this is otherwise one of the most vicious episodes of the show. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s biting and scary and relentlessly creepy, especially since the writers were willing to take all of these characters to such an uncomfortable place while still committing to the story they set-up. It would have been so much easier for everyone involved if Sisko and company had figured out what was hiding on the Jem\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Hadar ship, but that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the point. The unknown is what tears down the trust these two parties have for one another. Of course, there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a long history invoked by this conflict; it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not as if Kilana or Sisko had a reason to trust one another before they ever spoke a word. Sisko tried to take possession of a crashed Jem\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Hadar ship, and Kilana wanted it back. They were going to mistrust one another\u00c2\u00a0anyway<\/i>.<\/p>\n
But it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the escalating mistrust that leads to the hopeless, senseless tragedy here. Even if Kilana was genuine was returning the Starfleet personnel to DS9, she still lied. Even if Sisko would have given over the Founder if he knew what it was Kilana wanted, he still refused to budge from his position.<\/p>\n
So was it all worth it?\u00c2\u00a0Every<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0Jem\u00e2\u20ac\u2122hadar character dies by their own hand after they fail to protect the dying Founder on the ship. Five Starfleet officers, including Mu\u00c3\u00b1iz, die. And for what? So that the Jem\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Hadar don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t get their god back? So that the Federation can\u00c2\u00a0possibly<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0gain an edge on the Dominion? At the end of this episode, Dax tries to make the point that the five deaths that occurred during this mission might later save other lives. In the long run, there might be justification. But death rarely has that affect in the immediacy of the event. Instead, all you feel is loss and nothing else. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Ship\u00e2\u20ac\u009d refuses to turn away from this uncomfortable realization. Even though I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m not pleased with Mu\u00c3\u00b1iz\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s death, I can also recognize how this episode is otherwise quite powerful.<\/p>\n
The video for \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Ship\u00e2\u20ac\u009d can be downloaded\u00c2\u00a0here for $0.99<\/a>.<\/p>\n Mark Links Stuff<\/b><\/p>\n – I am now on Patreon<\/a>! There are various levels of support, from $1 up to whatever you want! You’ll get to read a private blog, extra reviews, and other such rewards.<\/b> In the second episode of the fifth season of\u00c2\u00a0Deep Space Nine, I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to watch\u00c2\u00a0Star Trek.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[640,614],"tags":[615],"class_list":["post-5778","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-deep-space-nine","category-star-trek","tag-mark-watches-star-trek"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5778","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5778"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5778\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5778"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5778"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5778"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n– I\u00c2\u00a0will be at numerous conventions in 2016! Check the full list of events on my Tour Dates \/ Appearances page.<\/a>
\n– My Master Schedule<\/a> is updated for the near and distant future for most projects, so please check it often.\u00c2\u00a0My next Double Features for Mark Watches have been announced here.<\/a>
\n<\/b>-\u00c2\u00a0Mark Does Stuff is on Facebook!<\/a>\u00c2\u00a0I’ve got a community page up that I’m running. Guaranteed shenanigans!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"