DS9 Stories/News: Men I’ve Loved: Benjamin Sisko

Source: http://www.amaya-radjani.com/2011/09/men-ive-loved-benjamin-sisko.html

Command never looked so good

My friend Ankhesen, a devout Trekkie, introduced me to Star Trek: Deep Space Nine earlier this year.  Over the summer, I Netflix’d the entire series; seven years’ worth of episodes and had a mammoth sci-fi/fantasy marathon.  This marathon included the Twilight Zone, the Outer Limits, Thriller & Night Gallery, but more on those shows later.  Anyhoo, I’m a fan of TOS & TNG, but never gave DS9 any thought until Ankh showed me a few episodes.  And I fell madly in love with Captain Benjamin Sisko and bought the entire 7-season series for a great price at Cheqoot.com.

Before I express my admiration and lust love for the sexy Captain Sisko, I should provide you some context. Deep Space Nine is the best of the Trek shows I’ve seen, and Ankh assures me that it’s the best of the entire lot.  The writing is top notch, as is the acting, directing, editing and set designs.  There are also strong female characters; these women fight, command starships & freighters, govern planets, and act as spies.  One is a former terrorist and another is an intergalactic warlord. The show tackled issues of racism, sexism, faith, religion, slavery and corruption, as well as other hot-button topics.  It’s a very dark show; the series spends nearly five years on an epic war with the Federation and its allies battling a hardcore violent faction known as the Dominion (which is run by a badass changeling chick I call Gertrude).  You see the Federation get their asses kicked on a regular basis; Starfleet vessels are routinely destroyed and people murdered.  The series finale contains a grisly scene in which three men are standing amid a pile of rubble and dead bodies.  DS9 is not idealistic like TOS & TNG; you see real shit happening in this show and there are parallels as well as portents to our own society.

Sisko; seasons 1-3

The only real drawback is the costume/wardrobe department, who should have had their asses kicked from here to Jupiter for the hot fire mess that was DS9’s apparel.  They had a real opportunity to do some really fantastic things with character attire, but failed miserably.  I can only assume that the producers chose to put the money into the writing & directing and left a bare minimum for wardrobe.  There is absolutely no reason for anyone in the 24^th century to look this damn hideous:

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Jake typically looked like a pack of crayons

I mean, for real.  But I should point out that it was usually the human outfits that were ugly.  They got things right with most of the other races (especially the Klingons).  There was also the ridiculousness of Starfleet officers clearly being off duty and still attired in those hot-ass uniforms. As if!  You see Captain Sisko (who is also an architect and chef) cooking elaborate meals while still wearing his Starfleet uni.  *snorts* I call bullshit.

…

DS9 introduces us to a wonderful cast of characters that include Ferengi, Klingons, Trills, Breen, Romulans, Bajorans, Cardassians, and changelings.   The star of the show, however, is a man named Benjamin Sisko, captain of the space station.  Captain Sisko is portrayed by the excellent actor Avery Brooks.  The show starts with Sisko as a grieving husband and loving father who is duty-bound to take over a raggedy Bajoran space station.  He has a wonderful relationship with his son Jake; there are plenty of hugs, kisses and adventures between them.  It’s rare to see a black man in such a positive role, and I relished every second of it.

Sisko is an honorable, ethical guy who is devoted to his son, dedicated to his career as a Starfleet officer, and is the voice of the Prophets, the Bajoran gods.  He has a commanding presence and is highly respected by everyone he encounters, especially his enemies.  I liked him a lot in Seasons 1-3, but fell in love with him at the start of Season 4.  This is when the war between the Federation & the Dominion heated up and the show’s writers kicked the storytelling into high gear.  It is also when Avery Brooks, who spent the first three seasons with hair on his head and not on his face, decided to go bald and goateed; a look I find intensely attractive.  It gave his character a powerful edge; an extra marvelous oomph! that made me pay close attention every time Sisko was on the screen. Which, for the most part, was nearly all the time.

Sisko; seasons 4-7.

But the captain isn’t perfect; he sacrifices much for peace, including his own happiness and self-respect.  He violates orders, lies, cheats, bribes others, and is an accessory to murder, among other things.  He even becomes a Klingon to accomplish a mission (but this is NOT a bad thing; Klingons are fucking awesome).  But this made Sisko more appealing to me because he’s flawed just like any other person.  It gave him a depth that I haven’t seen in any other Starfleet captain and made DS9 that much better.

Sisko also has some of the best lines in the show.  Here are a few of my favorites:

“So, I lied. I cheated. I bribed men to cover the crimes of other men. I am an accessory to murder. But the most damning thing of all…I think I can live with it. And if I had to do it all over again, I would. Garak was right about one thing: A guilty conscience is a small price to pay for the safety of the Alpha Quadrant. So I will learn to live with it.”  –In the Pale Moonlight, Season 6

“Brag all you want, but don’t get between me and the bloodwine!”  –Apocalypse Rising, Season 3  (He’s a Klingon in this episode)   

“Haven’t you seen a Klingon before?”

“Kasidy Yates, where are you going?”  –For the Cause, Season 4  (Kasidy is Sisko’s boo)

“It’s not every day that you meet the girl you’re going to marry.” –Emissary, Season 1

“You betrayed your uniform!”  –For the Uniform, Season 5

“He played me all right. And what is my excuse? Is he a Changeling? No! Is he a being with seven lifetimes of experience? No! Is he a wormhole alien? No! He’s just a man, like me – arrgh! And he beat me!” –For the Uniform, Season 5

“Go on! Shoot me!”

“Do you know what the trouble is? The trouble is Earth. On Earth, there is no poverty, no crime, no war. You look out the window of Starfleet Headquarters and you see Paradise. Well, it’s easy to be a saint in Paradise.”  –The Maquis, part 2, Season 3

I could go on, but you get the idea.  Captain Benjamin Sisko is The Man.  More television shows should be bold enough to have characters like him, and write shows with as much depth and realism as Deep Space Nine.  It would certainly be a massive improvement to the dreck that inundates current TV.  Heaven knows I’d start watching it again.

DS9 Stories/News: Garak Favorite Quotes

Source: http://whysnape.tripod.com/garakquotes.htm

Garak Quotes

I am sure most of those will remind you of Snape!

 

Garak:That’s the eleventh ship to fall out of formation.
Dax: Nice of you to keep track, Garak(!)
Bashir: He can’t help being negative, it’s in his nature.
Garak:On the contrary. I always hope for the best.
Experience, unfortunately, has taught me to expect the worst.

Garak: I believe in coincidences. Coincidences happen every day. But I don’t trust coincidences.

  Bashir (A doctor, and Garak’s only friend): Assuming you’re not a spy…
Garak: Assuming…
Bashir: …then maybe you’re an outcast.
Garak: Or maybe I’m an outcast spy.
Bashir: How could you be both?
Garak: I never said I was either.

Toran(old political enemy): How the mighty have fallen. (referring to Garak being a tailor now)
Garak: Toran?
Toran: It’s Gul Toran now. (Gul: army higher grade)
Garak: They made you a Gul? I didn’t realize the situation on Cardassia had gotten so desperate.(Cardassia is Garak’s home land)

[Later]

Toran : Go back to your sewing kit, tailor!
(Garak zaps/shoots Toran)
Garak: Well, some people should never be promoted.

Garak: Living on this station is torture for me, doctor. The temperature is always too cold, the light’s always to bright, every Bajoran on the station looks at me with loathing and contempt. (Bajorans come from Bajor, the planet occupied by Cardassians like Garak for 40years of war. So they don’t like his race at all!)

Garak: Doctor, did anyone ever tell you that you are an infuriating pest?
Bashir: Chief O’Brien, all the time, and I don’t pay any attention to him either.

Garak: There was a time, doctor, oh there was a time when I was a power; the protegee of Enabran Tain himself (his father). Do you have any idea what that means?
Bashir: I’m afraid I don’t.
Garak: No, you don’t, do you? You don’t know much of anything.

Bashir: And so they exiled you.
Garak: That’s right! And left me to live out my days with nothing to look forward to but having lunch with you.
Bashir: I’m sorry you feel that way. I thought you enjoyed my company.
Garak: Oh, I did! And that’s the worst part. I can’t believe that I actually enjoyed eating mediocre food and staring into your smug sanctimonious face.

Bashir: Why are you telling me this, Garak?
Garak: So that you can forgive me, why else? I need to know that someone forgives me.

Bashir: What I want to know is, out of all the stories you told me which ones were true and which ones weren’t?
Garak: My dear doctor…they’re all true.
Bashir: Even the lies?
Garak: Especially the lies.

Garak: And you think that because we have lunch together once a week you know me? You couldn’t even begin to fathom what I’m capable of.

Ziyal(Garak’s number one enemy’s daughter! She’s in love with him, and he cared for her, too): Kira and my father both told me that you used to be an agent of the Obsidian Order. That you had my grandfather tortured and killed and that you could easily kill me without a second thought.
Garak: Although I seldom credit the Major or your father with being entirely trustworthy in this case…they’re both telling the truth.

Ziyal: You’re intelligent and cultured…and kind.
Garak: My dear, you’re young, so I realize that you’re a poor judge of character.

Garak: (to Dukat, Ziyal’s father) You do have a lovely daughter. She must take after her mother.

Ziyal  : Well, what’s going to happen to you?
Garak: Ooh well, let me tell you a story. I once knew a Cardassian, a dashing, handsome young man with a promising career, but one day, through no fault of his own, he found himself exiled and alone with nowhere to turn. But did he give up? No. He struck upon a brilliant plan: instead of fleeing for the rest of his life he sought shelter in the one place no one expected him to go: in a stronghold of his people’s most hated enemies. There, surrounded by hostile strangers, he built a life and there, against all odds, against the merciless logic of the universe itself, he thrived.
Ziyal: By becoming the greatest tailor in the galaxy.
Garak: And the moral of the story, my dear, is to never underestimate my gift for survival.

Unfortunately, Garak did come back but Ziyal had just been killed!! What a tragedy!! He had just warmed up to her!  Guess tragic characters do remain as such in the head of writers!

Kira: She loved you.(talking about dead Ziyal who fell in love with him)
Garak: I could never figure out why…..I guess I never will.

Garak: Look at this place; it’s pathetic! To think that this is what my life has been reduced to; this sterile shell, this prison.

Jem’Hadar (enemy): Put down your weapons!
Garak: I have them! I have them. By all means, commander, do as they say. (he takes his friends as prisoners…)
Bashir: Garak… (incredulous that his friend turns on them)
Garak: You heard me, doctor. I’m glad to see the plan is going as scheduled.
Jem’Hadar: What plan is that?
Garak: You mean no-one told you? You see, I pretend to be their friend and then I shoot you.
(Garak zaps two Jem’Hadar)
Sisko (DS9′s captain): Well done, Garak.
Garak: Well, it’s just something I read once in a book.(He wants them to believe that he only came up with the idea by reading books, but the truth is he is an efficient spy and used such techniques often)

Bashir: The trouble with Cardassian enigma tales is that they all end the same way: all the suspects are always guilty.
Garak: Yes! But the challenge is determining exactly who is guilty of what.

Garak: To think, after all this time, all our lunches together you still don’t trust me. There’s hope for you yet, doctor.

Bashir: I can’t believe you’re not pressing charges.
Garak: Constable Odo and Captain Sisko expressed a similar concern, but really doctor, there was no harm done.
Bashir: They broke seven of your transverse ribs and fractured your clavicle.
Garak: Ah, but I got off several cutting remarks which no doubt did serious damage to their egos.
Bashir: Garak, this isn’t funny.
Garak: I’m serious, doctor! Thanks to your administrations I’m almost completely healed but the damage I did to them will last a lifetime.

Regent Worf: Then you can spend the rest of your life contemplating your failure as you labour alongside the other slaves in the ore processing center.
Mirror Garak (alternate universe): It’s nice to have something to look forward to.

Founder Leader (Head enemy): There were NO Cardassian survivors.
Garak: You mean…they’re all dead?
Founder Leader: They’re dead. You’re dead. Cardassia is dead! Your people were doomed the moment they attacked us. I believe that answers your question.
Garak: It was a pleasure meeting you.

Odo (DS9 constable) : Interesting that a simple tailor should just happen to have a high-level security code.
Garak: Yes, isn’t it? And if my nose didn’t hurt so much I’d tell you a fascinating story about how I came to possess it.

Garak: Very good, doctor. You’ve come a long way from the naive young man I met five years ago. You’ve become distrustful and suspicious. It suits you.
Bashir: I had a good teacher.

Garak: I’ve been a fool. Let this be a lesson to you, doctor, perhaps the most valuable one I can ever teach you: Sentiment is the greatest weakness of all.
Bashir: If that’s true it’s a lesson I’d rather not learn.

(General Martok, a Klingon, was composing an epic war song about their situation while in prison. Garak is the only one who can save them by working in a tight space, but he has claustrophobia)
Garak: I just have to finish what I started. After all, a verse about the Cardassian who panicked in the face of danger would ruin General Martok’s song.
Martok: That would be unfortunate.
Garak: Now, if you’ll excuse me…my dungeon awaits.

O’Brien: What’s the matter?
Garak: Well, it’s just that lately I’ve noticed that everyone seems to trust me. It’s quite unnerving, I’m still trying to get used to it. Next thing I know people are going to be inviting me to their homes for dinner.
O’Brien: Well, if it makes you feel any better, I promise I will never have you over.
Garak: I appreciate that, chief.

O’Brien: You look different.
Garak: How so?
O’Brien: That’s not the face of a tailor.
Garak: I’m not a tailor. Not for the moment, anyway.

Garak: I don’t need someone to walk in here and hold my hand. I want someone to help me get back to work and you, my dear, are not up to this task. Well, look at you; you’re pathetic. A confused child trying to live up to a legacy left by her predecessors. You’re not worthy of the name Dax. I knew Jadzia. She was vital, alive. She owned herself, and you, you don’t even know who you are. How dare you presume to help me? You can’t even help yourself. Now get out of here, before I say something unkind.