Hello, my name is Luke Altman. I am an aspiring writer, but for now, I'm still a high-school senior awaiting what'll happen on my dream college front. But that's all irrelevant at the mo’. For now, I'll just say that I am a humongous nerd... for anything that's good, that is. Books, television, film, music... anything considered good by the general public, I'll want to see, read, play or listen to. I have attempted a few blogs in the past, but I have never been able to stick with them. However, I have a totally new setup now. This blog will be devoted to my viewing of the classic sci-fi TV series, “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine,” which, while not as popular as its parent series, “Star Trek: The Next Generation,” hardly floundered in the ratings during its six-and-a-half years and seven seasons on the air. You may be asking, “Why ‘Deep Space Nine?’ Why not another ‘Star Trek’ related show?” Well, the big thing about this particular show is that, instead of restoring the status quo ante (that's “the way things were before,” for those of you not versed in Latin) or better at the end of each episode, “Deep Space Nine” told one cohesive story throughout its run, often with its episodes ending with cliffhangers, especially near the end, where it was told like a science fiction serial. For this reason, the show gives me much more to work with in recaps than any of the other shows in the “Star Trek” oeuvre. To give you the chance to follow what I'm talking about when I do the recaps, I invite you to watch the show with me as I write. I will give you the title of the next episode so you will know which one to select on the DVD or the Internet, whichever platform you may choose.
Now, a little schooling in the rules of this universe: The show is set in the 24th century (and, for those without much knowledge of the mythology, by all means, skip this paragraph), where our world is no longer a bunch of separate governments but one really big one. Our world founded a branch of government called the United Federation of Planets, as a way of telling which alien species’ were our allies, which were enemies and which were neutral. The defense branch of our government, Starfleet, was founded to explore new life forms on new planets, “to boldly go were no man has gone before,” quoth the old intro to the 1966-1969 series.
Since each episode of that show, as well as the succeeding films and its follow-up, “The Next Generation,” introduces a new race, species or even entity, many viewers may need a guidebook to keep track of which ones are allies and which are enemies. However, wherever people who haven't seen “The Next Generation” will get confused, I will provide a summary of who the person or persons featured in the episode in question in the preceding week of said episode's viewing. First, let me tell you about the Borg, whose existence will figure prominently in “Deep Space Nine's” set-up. The Borg are a cyberkinetic race whose whole existence is bent around the “assimilation,” or conversion from human to Borg. In a famous two-part episode of “The Next Generation” (the season three closer and season four opener), the Borg transported Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart, who would later play Professor Xavier in the “X-Men” films, as well as several Shakespearean roles) of the Federation starship Enterprise aboard their cube-shaped ship to assimilate him, which they do successfully, causing the Borg to attempt an assault on Earth, which is temporarily blocked by a whole armada of other starships (at a place apparently called Wolf 359), but the Borg destroy all ships concerned in said armada without even straining themselves. Later, the rest of the crew of the Enterprise get Picard back on the ship, and, after a great effort, Picard is unassimilated, and then tells them how to defeat the Borg (through one word, “sleep”), which the crew uses to put the Borg Collective (each Borg ship operates like a single unit, hence the “Collective” part) to sleep. This also causes a self-destruct sequence for the Borg ship, effectively saving Earth. Picard subsequently has all implants from the Borg removed, though he is still severely shaken from the encounter, which is fixed in the next episode, but, as characters in “Airplane!” frequently say, “that's not important right now.”
Now, to Bajor: Many years before the events of the pilot of “Deep Space Nine,” a race called the Cardassians came to a planet called Bajor and took over it in a Nazi-like way. Several Bajorans joined refugee camps where they formed terrorist attacks against the Cardassian Occupation. Eventually, the Cardassians withdrew from Bajor. Once you've seen the show, you'll see what happens next.
I will attempt to tell you which episode to view next week. I will attempt an uninterrupted weekly schedule each Tuesday. The first episode (also the first episode listed in the DVD set and on Amazon Instant Video) we will see is “Emissary.” I will allow a week to have my audience view the episode. Meanwhile, I will also watch the “Next Generation” season five episode “I, Borg,” as that will introduce a portion of its plot as a later part of a major two-part episode in “Next Generation” history that can be viewed by itself in between the first and second seasons called “Descent.” For now, this is Luke Altman signing off, hoping that people will read this blog.
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