The Least Realistic Thing About Star Trek Is That Starfleet Uniforms Don’t Have Pockets And Nobody

Thinking of Deep Space Nine as "the Dark Star Trek" without digging into what made Deep Space Nine work is so reductive. Like when people discuss Star Trek being "dark" now people bring up "DS9 was Dark and you loved that! Trekkies would hate it now!"

Deep Space Nine didn't work bc it was Dark and it wasn't Dark out of nowhere. Deep Space Nine is intimately tied to TNG in a way no other series is with another (Voyager could've been just as rooted in DS9, but. Y'know. Wasn't). Not only in characters, but that the show is so devoted to exploring deep cuts from TNG: the Bajorans, but also the Ferengi, long dismissed as failed villains, and the Trill, one-off aliens-of-the-week who DS9's writers turned into one of Trek's major species. The central thesis of DS9 isn't that the Trek Universe Is Fucked Up Actually. It's that things get more messy and complicated when Starfleet has to stick around and not dash off to another planet at the end of the episode

DS9 is darker than other Treks, yes, but DS9 is also the warmest, with the most grounded, human characters, not in spite of the fact that two-thirds of the cast are aliens but because of it. The writers treat alien characters as not representatives, but individuals. They treat everyone as individuals, with foibles and flaws, not as perfect, straitlaced future people. DS9's dark episodes are darker than other Treks, but also it's more willing to get silly and emotional. Only DS9 could do the "Sisko confesses to a conspiracy to get the Romulans in the war" episode, but also only DS9 could do the "a holographic lounge singer tries to get Odo and Kira together" episode right after it. Boiling the entire series down to "Deep Space Nine was the Dark Star Trek! Grimdark!" is...just not it

Poor red shirts

“I knew I should have stayed on the Enterprise.”

I really really want the new star treks like strange new worlds to include some just bat shit crazy episodes. Like I, Mudd from tos where they confuse androids into destruction by dancing around to no music. Or the tribble episode. Or the ds9 episode where they have a full on casino heist, or start a baseball team. Or the captain proton episode on voyager where Janeway has to pretend to be queen arachnia. Like. Give me some episodes like that

Starfleet Support Groups

The scary thing is that Starfleet probably needs a separate support group for “people who have accidentally lived decades/entire lifetimes in alternate realities until it turned out it was just an hour in the real world.”

What? Oh, no, you’re looking for the “I was caught in a timeloop and went insane” support group. That’s next door.

“Mirror Universe trauma”? Down the hall.

“Dealing With My Duplicate Self” meets on Thursdays.

(O’Brien just attends all of them. If it hasn’t happened, it’s probably going to.)

Lower Decks knows what’s up:

“I’m sorry, I’ve gotta be honest, I didn’t join Starfleet to get in phaser fights. I signed up to explore, to be out in space making new discoveries, and peaceful, diplomatic solutions. That’s boldly going. And you know what? I’d love to be in a string quartet. I loved that when Riker was on the Enterprise he was out there jamming on the trombone, and catching love disease, and acting in plays, and meeting his identical transporter clone Thomas. That stuff may not seem as cool as what you guys do, but it’s Starfleet. All the way.”

(Boimler in Kayshon, His Eyes Open)

That’s the real Star Trek, that’s the kind of Star Trek I love watching the most

Sometimes a family is a starship captain with a death wish, a dad-joke cracking commander with marvelous facial structure, a severely telepathic space pixie, a space troll who cooks, a Serious grandpa who pretends like he doesn’t tell bad puns on the sly because he’s Serious, an underappreciated Handsome Boy, a history nerd with a car fetish, an angry smart lady who would LIKE EVERYONE TO STOP TOUCHING HER STUFF THANK YOU VERY MUCH, an asshole opera singer, and a recovering former cult member that everyone has a crush on

how can you forget this beauty

Hello please reblog this if you’re okay with people sending you random asks to get to know you better

KIRK & SPOCK