DS9: Meridian

In the third season episode, "Meridian" Jadzia Dax falls in love with... well, actually it doesn't matter. The whole point is that she falls in love with some schmuck and is willing to give her whole way of life up for him. Basically, until Dax and Worf get together, she is DS9's Riker. She's bold, boisterous, up for anything and about once a season she gets all googly-eyed and mushy over some romance that's doomed to fail from the outset.

In "Meridian" she loses her biz over this guy:

"It's not the heat, it's the humanity."

His planet is in a constant state of flux. Every sixty years it disappears and becomes completely incorporeal. Each time the planet returns, it's there for an even shorter span. Dax and this chucklehead work on a way to fix it and eventually come up with a solution. But it won't be sorted before the planet goes into flux again. That means that to stay together these lovebirds will have to make a choice. One will have to leave behind their culture, their people, their whole life, to be with the other and there's no going back for sixty years. Of course Dax decides to stay with him but we all know it can't work out.

I think the problem with these one-episode romances is that we all know what's going to happen. We knew it on TOS and we knew it on Next Gen. Like Kirk and Riker, Dax is sincere in her outpouring of affection but the show is so episodic that no matter how deeply our regular crew member loves their day player, they usually seem like chumps. A few times it works. But then (City on the Edge of Forever, The Outcast) the story is more about the character than the romance. I care about Edith Keeler's crusade. I care about Soren's plight. I love Dax. Unfortunately, I just can't get into Dax's Brigadoon-esque boyfriend of the day.

The high point of this episode for me has always been Jeffrey Combs' first appearance in a Trek series. This dude went on to creep out members of Starfleet in various characters for several years but it all started here, with Combs' playing a pompous ginger sporting a super pervy crush on Kira:

Kira-"Money isn't everything."
Tiron- "No, but it can BUY everything."

The Quark, Kira, Tiron stuff in this one is awesome so even if you can't get into Dax's love story, "Meridian" is still totally worth watching.

Young Naturalist #6

In the last ten days I've been in Los Angeles, North Carolina, and Vancouver or, to put it in terms more familiar to me: Star Trek, American Gothic, and The X-Files. It was sunny, warm, and dry in LA when I left and storming when I got to my mom's house. Vancouver is misty, cool, and beautiful. We even got to take a walk through Vancouver's huge Stanley Park:

But the traveling seems to have caught up with me today. Not only do I have a mountain of work to catch up on, but I have a weird sore throat and a runny nose. All I really want to do right this moment is sit at the hotel desk, watch Star Trek, and eat soup. So that's what I'm doing.

While watching Season 3 of DS9, I FINALLY managed to got finished with another Young Naturalist post. This one features the Corvan Gilvo--a lizard species which, like phasmatodea, possess a naturally occurring camouflage which makes them indistinguishable from trees and foliage. The Corvan Gilvo can be first seen in the TNG episode, "New Ground." Remember? When Alexander gets himself stuck in the biolab and Worf saves him and then Riker saves the lizard because it's super endangered? Quark can also be seen stroking one in "The Nagus" because the best way to show your new status/wealth is to let everyone know about your new, super endangered pet.  Anyway, here's my vintage naturalist rendition of the Corvan Gilvo:

Away Mission: Part 2

I get pretty bad motion sickness. Yes, I've actually used those little white paper bags they keep in the seat pockets. To remedy this problem, I take dramamine but it makes me super drowsy/loopy. On the way to North Carolina from Los Angeles, on a 1AM flight, I was pretty out of it. Falling in and out of sleep, I saw something playing on the overhead screens. I saw Star Trek uniforms and the Vasquez Rocks but everything was a little weird. Finally I realized--it was The Big Bang Theory's Star Trek episode:

I made it to North Carolina, spent time with my family, and told them about the experience. It seemed really awesome that I'd seen almost Star Trek on my flight. Then, a few days later, it was time to go. I hugged and kissed my family goodbye. The second part of my away mission--joining my husband in Vancouver where he was spending the week working--was about to begin. But it would mean two flights and about twelve hours of travel and I was already exhausted by the time I got to my second flight. Then the TV came on and this is what I saw:

Yep. Not only was Star Trek: The Next Generation playing on my teensy airplane TV, but it was my favorite episode. It's a pretty great start to the second half of my away mission. 

Into Darkness: A Family Affair

Check out my new tattoo:

Just kidding--it'll wash off. Today I took my mom, sister and little brother to see Star Trek: Into Darkness and it was great! Not only were we the only people there (Thursday at noon in a small town) but the chain had a ton of giveaway stuff. We each got a poster, trading cards and temporary tattoos.

My family loved the movie. My sister was way into the baddie and my mom even started crying at some Spock stuff. The movie was just as amazing the second time around. I caught some stuff I didn't get the first time--like where they get the ship that they take to Qo'noS. It was a truly great experience. Of course here's the real reason I was so thrilled about it:

My brother loved it and when we got home he asked if we could watch an episode of TOS. So if you need me, that's where I'll be--watching a TV show from 1966 with my mom who watched the original run as a little girl, my eighteen-year-old sister, and my nine-year-old brother.

Watching DS9 With My Sister

I'm still in the middle of my away mission. Does it still count as an away mission when it's a trip to your home planet? My legs are covered in mosquito bites and we had ham, collard greens, sweet potatoes and biscuits for dinner last night--all signs I've returned to the mountain South. Actually, it's pretty nice.

Last night I even introduced my sister to DS9. Not with the pilot or anything--I don't have time for that; I have a schedule to keep. Anyway "Tribunal" was next up in my queue so that's what we watched.

Some key quotes from the viewing:
Ayla- Who's that?
Me- Chief Obrien. He's the chief engineer.
Ayla-Cool. He reminds me of Mrs. Patmore...who are those ladies?
Me-(long explanation of Kira and Dax)
Ayla- Ok. So they're engineers too.
Me- Ummm...
Ayla-That's cool. I like that.

After a while she settled down. I couldn't tell if she was into it or just falling asleep but this morning she came in and asked me of we could watch another one. So I think that's a pretty good sign.

Anyway, my away mission continues. I'll let you know how it goes.

Away Mission: Part 1

Like Picard and the rest of the Star Trek captains/commanders, I have a hard time taking a vacation.  I don't like leaving home. I don't like being around people. I don't like the process of traveling. If I could just beam somewhere then maybe--maybe--I'd be better about it. But not if it involves being away from my husband. In these cases, I resist. I book as late as I possibly can. I sit around hoping things will get cancelled. Then, reluctantly, I resign myself to my fate and just decide to accept the away mission.

Since Scott and I started dating we've been virtually inseparable. We're lucky enough that we have almost everything in common and we've spent months at a time together, seeing each other pretty much 24-7 without ever growing tired of one another. We're two introverts who just happened to find each other and were smart enough to never let go. That's great.

It's not so great, though, when we have to be apart. Scott's working out of town this week so I thought I'd take the opportunity to visit some family and get back to the mountains for a few days. It's not a long trip but it sucks to be apart. I booked my flight so I could go to the airport and gate with him--even though I would have to wait over three hours before my own flight in another terminal after he left .I blew him a kiss. I watched him board the plane and then I even watched it take off. It was the kind of thing that just never happens anymore.

Walking to my own gate, I pretended I was in an old movie and the muzak piping in was some legit Henry Mancini and everything was in black and white. Then I saw this:

Yes, even pictures of this movie's poster have lens flairs.

And I felt a little better. I know I'll see Scott again in a few days. Till then, I'm just going to try and enjoy my away mission. I'll let you know how it goes. 

Expectation/Reality

My little sister is a special kid. She's super smart and she just graduated from her high school with honors and basically a huge sack of money for college. She's interested in journalism and humanitarian work. I always figured she would end up working for a non-profit somewhere or making a career out of writing news stories about far away places and people. I guess I'd had it all figured out. We both come from an artistic family, I figured she'd follow a path not unlike the one I'd chosen.

In a lot of ways, she's been reminding me of Jake Sisko lately. And I've realized that I'm more like Benjamin than I want to realize. Ben had similar expectations about his son. He subtly pushes Jake toward the sciences while Jake's off secretly writing poetry. Ben sets Jake up with a mentorship with Obrien so he can have an early start on the Starfleet entrance exams. Then, all the sudden, Jake says he's actually not going into Starfleet. He's going to be a writer. Benjamin's reaction is pretty much, "Ummm. No."

So when my sister let me know that she had been offered two options: a full scholarship to a prestigious liberal arts college or a full scholarship through the Navy's ROTC program and that she was leaning toward the latter, I pretty much had the exact same reaction as Jake's dad, "Ummm. No."

To be clear, I have absolutely nothing against the military or our service members. I do, however, think that committing oneself to years of military service takes a certain personality which I didn't (and still don't) believe my sister has. I think the military can be an amazing way to put oneself on a specific career trajectory but I couldn't see the link between my sister's ambition and that of the Navy. I spent weeks trying to understand her motivation. I worried. I cried. I worried some more. I saw a Navy ROTC girl working out at the local college gym and cried again. I pictured my sister on the other side of the world, unable to come home when she needed to. I pictured her dead.

Of course I realize that she could die commuting to college, she could get stuck on a study abroad semester and be unable to come home, she could hate every minute of a private liberal arts education. The point is, I'd spent years preparing for those worst case scenarios but I never spent time considering that she might go into the Navy. Suddenly I was bombarded by new and terrible scenarios, by things I remembered from my childhood, by things that made me sad and angry and scared. In the end, though, I had to let her go. I had to let her make her own choices. Like Jake, she's got to figure out her own path and all I can do, like Benjamin, is try to be there for her.