Deep Space Nine 1x01 -- Emissary
Aug. 30th, 2004 03:18 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
butterflyRandom thoughts:
The Prophets: "What comes before now is no different than what is now or what is to come. It is one's existence."
So, Emissary is the Prophet's first meeting with Sisko and from that meeting, their knowledge is now just known, time not a factor. Before he came to them, they didn't understand linear time, but because they do not live in linear time, they can meet him and then arrange for his birth. It's already happened for him, but for them, it's always happening. I wonder if they had even created the orbs before he told them about them. Because the orbs act on linear beings, one of them is even focused on moving about inside linear time (the Orb of Time). It could be that it was their contact with Sisko that made them decide to make the orbs and put them out into the galaxy years/centuries(?) earlier. That makes them decide that linear, corporeal beings were worth spending existence on. Here is actually where Sisko teaches the Prophets how to make him the man they need him to be -- "This is the nature of linear existence."
Bashir: "Not natural? You mean it's constructed?"
Julian on stable wormholes, but with phrasing that resonants so much more after the revelation of his past. Television viewers are not always linear. Much like the wormhole, Julian is not entirely natural. Seriously, Julian's genetic engineering is the Best RetCon Ever. And I love how in charge he is when it comes to all that medical stuff. He's Damn Good at his job.
Odo: "The answers to a lot of my questions may be somewhere on the other side of that wormhole."
And Kira doesn't want him to go. Aw. It's so foreshadowriffic. It's really amazing how much of what they set up here got to be paid off, even things that they probably weren't thinking anything of at the time.
Most relationships of consequence to the finale are already present in the first episode. Sisko and Jake. Odo and Kira. Odo and Quark. Bashir's attraction to Dax. The antagonistic relationship of Sisko and Dukat. What I love about Bashir and O'Brien is that their closeness grows out of the characters and the story. We're there for every important step of that relationship. And even from the very first, their relationship is defined by war -- their first exchange is O'Brien asking Bashir if he knows his history of the Border Wars and of the massacre of Setlik III. After O'Brien has turned his attention to Dax, Bashir then turns to stare at him. As we learn at some point that O'Brien was the 'hero of Setlik III', I wonder if that moment was when Bashir connected that O'Brien to this one. It looked like an "Oh" moment.
In retrospect, I love this pilot so much. There's so much there to be seen.
The Prophets: "What comes before now is no different than what is now or what is to come. It is one's existence."
So, Emissary is the Prophet's first meeting with Sisko and from that meeting, their knowledge is now just known, time not a factor. Before he came to them, they didn't understand linear time, but because they do not live in linear time, they can meet him and then arrange for his birth. It's already happened for him, but for them, it's always happening. I wonder if they had even created the orbs before he told them about them. Because the orbs act on linear beings, one of them is even focused on moving about inside linear time (the Orb of Time). It could be that it was their contact with Sisko that made them decide to make the orbs and put them out into the galaxy years/centuries(?) earlier. That makes them decide that linear, corporeal beings were worth spending existence on. Here is actually where Sisko teaches the Prophets how to make him the man they need him to be -- "This is the nature of linear existence."
Bashir: "Not natural? You mean it's constructed?"
Julian on stable wormholes, but with phrasing that resonants so much more after the revelation of his past. Television viewers are not always linear. Much like the wormhole, Julian is not entirely natural. Seriously, Julian's genetic engineering is the Best RetCon Ever. And I love how in charge he is when it comes to all that medical stuff. He's Damn Good at his job.
Odo: "The answers to a lot of my questions may be somewhere on the other side of that wormhole."
And Kira doesn't want him to go. Aw. It's so foreshadowriffic. It's really amazing how much of what they set up here got to be paid off, even things that they probably weren't thinking anything of at the time.
Most relationships of consequence to the finale are already present in the first episode. Sisko and Jake. Odo and Kira. Odo and Quark. Bashir's attraction to Dax. The antagonistic relationship of Sisko and Dukat. What I love about Bashir and O'Brien is that their closeness grows out of the characters and the story. We're there for every important step of that relationship. And even from the very first, their relationship is defined by war -- their first exchange is O'Brien asking Bashir if he knows his history of the Border Wars and of the massacre of Setlik III. After O'Brien has turned his attention to Dax, Bashir then turns to stare at him. As we learn at some point that O'Brien was the 'hero of Setlik III', I wonder if that moment was when Bashir connected that O'Brien to this one. It looked like an "Oh" moment.
In retrospect, I love this pilot so much. There's so much there to be seen.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2004-08-30 10:21 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-08-30 10:41 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-08-31 09:04 am (UTC)And yeah, JM has the gist of it. Bashir's genetic enhancement was a brilliant example of retroactive continuity. It wasn't canon, then it was, and it applied perfectly to his character's past actions. Brilliant!
(no subject)
Date: 2004-08-30 10:22 pm (UTC)I like your theory about the Prophets having retroactively/simultaneously-in-their-eternal-'now' brought Bashir and the Orbs into being upon the strength of their meeting with him.
(no subject)
Date: 2004-08-31 09:06 am (UTC)And thanks. It makes a lot of sense to me, because they are clearly unfamiliar with the entire idea of a linear race until Ben explains it. That doesn't square with their past actions with Bajor and the Orbs.
(no subject)
Date: 2004-08-31 01:06 am (UTC)*misses DS9 fiercely*
(no subject)
Date: 2004-08-31 09:08 am (UTC)And yeah, it was the greatest of the Treks for me. The most realistic and the most human.