Icon by @ThatSpookyAgent. Call me Tir or Julian. 37. He/They. Queer. Twitter: @tirlaeyn. ao3: tirlaeyn. 18+ Only. Star Trek. The X-Files. Sandman. IwtV. OMFD. Definitionless in this Strict Atmosphere.
You know what, honestly? I love that Sisko is consistently affectionate towards Jake, even as Jake grows into a young man. I am hard pressed to think of any other shows that let dads kiss their sons on the cheek, or even just hug their sons, with regularity. No one has to be dying for the Siskos to say they love each other or to physically express that love with out getting all weird about it because of some perceived notion of ‘manliness’.
It’s a small thing, but something I really love about Deep Space 9.
I know I ramble on about DS9 too much already but I still can’t get over Q only setting foot on the station once and Sisko punched him and he never came back. I’m sure the actual reason they never did another Q episode was for behind-the-scenes reasons but I like to think it’s because Sisko hit him.
“Picard never hit me!” And in that moment Benjamin Lafayette Sisko, who only a few weeks before this hated Picard’s guts for killing his wife, is now suddenly blessed with the knowledge that this is what Jean-Luc deals with on a regular basis, this all-powerful twink who has no understanding of personal space and pops in whenever to randomly make people disappear or put your doctor to sleep. He probably calls Picard the next day and says hey you really need to text your boyfriend, he showed up here with your ex yesterday and tried to cause trouble. And Picard is like oh mon dieu, what did he do? Did he give your first officer the powers of a god? Fling the station into Borg space? Zap your crew into his own personal reenactment of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales? And Sisko’s like no, he kind of tried to interfere in a gem auction but mostly he just mooned over your ex-girlfriend. And Picard goes really? He didn’t freeze anybody? Was he wearing the giant hat again? and Sisko says not really, he challenged me to a boxing match but I knocked him on his ass and then he stopped. Picard is silent for a long moment. And there were no cosmic moral quandaries? No mariachi band? Sisko just shrugs and says I thought I’d let you know, anyway I have to go, I gotta stop a coup on the planet that basically worships me as their messiah, and Picard is like yeah cool tell O’Brien I said hi, and then he goes and stares out the window for a really long time.
But really, what can Q offer them on Deep Space Nine? They don’t need a smug frenemy with homoerotic vibes, they have Garak for that. Whimsical bullshit? Quark exists. Cosplay episode? O’Brien can just transporter-dump everyone into the holosuite again. Sisko already has his own set of gods to deal with, and at least they have the sense to stay inside their wormhole.
Picard probably would have refused to fight, spluttered out a Shakespearean soliloquy about how humans have risen beyond such glorification of brutality or whatever and then tried to take the boxing gloves off, and then Q would’ve changed it into a switchblade fight in an alley or WW3 again and so on and so on. Sisko thought, well he gave me boxing gloves and this is a boxing match, sooooo…
And in all fairness, Q started it.
Unfortunately for him, he went in expecting a philosophical debate and got “talk shit get hit”
Odo sets the pad down on Garak’s bedside table and extends the tray. “It is our regular breakfast day. If you’re feeling well enough, I see no reason why we can’t dine here.”
“I would have thought you would be much too busy.”
“I can spare the time.”
“And won’t the Colonel mind?”
“The Colonel is on duty.”
Garak reaches for the tray. “Then who am I to refuse Tarkalean tea?” And once Odo is seated beside him, he continues: “What did the Trill tell you?”
After Garak falls victim to a series of claustrophobia attacks, Odo visits him in the Infirmary.
“I love seeing their relationship. Avery is so warm and connected with this kid. The Sisko character is not connected with many other people, in fact, maybe with nobody else. This man is out there alone with a lot of stuff going on inside of his head. The one person with whom he can reveal his emotional self on a continuing basis is his son. It makes for such a wonderful contrast with the rest of his character.”
