Episodes
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Is this unhinged tale of intrigue, betrayal and horology giving more Shakespeare or soap opera? We say both, and all the better for it. And though there's plenty of camp silliness on the surface, naturally Lily and Cole dive deep. Cole sees the 'play within the play' setup as a revealing metaphor for television acting, using it to interpret what each DS9 cast member brings to his or her respective character. Meanwhile, Lily teaches Cole that the sci-fi conceit driving the episode's plot actually isn’t so far-fetched, connecting it to the concept of social contagion and mass psychogenic illness, mass hysteria, and groupthink. Oh, and not to be outdone by the drama onscreen, Lily also gifts us with a Shakespeare reading. Fasten your seatbelts, once more unto the breach -- it's going to be a bumpy night.
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Get your Kleenex ready - it’s time for the episode that makes all of us melt into a puddle. And if you haven’t got your pail nearby, thank the drag gods that Lwaxana Troi is here to scoop you back up. Lily and Cole deep-dive into Lwaxana’s drag queen energy, what her fabulousness brings to the comparatively sterile world of Star Trek, and particularly what her arrival means for queer-coded self-acceptance on DS9. We also pay tribute to actress Majel Barrett, First Lady of Star Trek.
🪕 Intro music: Lily on ukulele and vocals, "I Am a Rock" by Simon & Garfunkel
🍷 Wine pairing: Beaujolais 'Les 3 Roches' from Pierre-Marie Chermette
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Episodes manquant?
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Thought this episode was nothing but Rumpelstiltskin and rabid emus? Think again! Lily plumbs the depths of the station residents’ imaginations to psychoanalyze their deepest desires and greatest fears, uncovering some surprising insights along the way. Meanwhile Cole revisits The Secret, the runaway 2006 self-help bestseller all about "turning thoughts into things," to evaluate just how powerful the human imagination really is.
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What’s one stubborn farmer standing in the way of progress for an entire planet? Everything or nothing, depending on how you measure value. Nog and Jake spend the episode measuring it in wrappages of yamok sauce, bars of latinum, and gross of self-sealing stem bolts. Meanwhile, Major Kira is forced to reassess her values in a postcolonial Bajor where the black and white of wartime have blurred into an uneasy gray. For our discussion, we draw from A Short History of Progress by Robert Wright, Catch-22 by Joseph Heller, and the history of the Three Gorges Dam project in China.
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In the second half of our conversation with Star Trek director and producer David Livingston, we turn a spotlight on his directorial credits 'The Nagus' and 'The Storyteller.' Along the way he shares behind-the-scenes casting insights, reveals his favorite character relationships, and argues what, in his opinion, makes Deep Space Nine the most enduring and addicting Star Trek show.
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If you watched any Star Trek in the 80s, 90s, or 2000s, you've seen David Livingston's name countless times on the bottom of your TV screen. Working behind the scenes from the very first episode of The Next Generation, he quickly graduated to the role of producer for all seven seasons of The Next Generation and began directing in that series' fourth season, starting with The Mind's Eye.
He would go on to become the most prolific director in Star Trek history, with 62 episodes to his name across The Next Generation, DS9, Voyager, and Enterprise. The list of episodes he has directed reads like a rundown of some of Star Trek's greatest moments: we're talking Voyager's Scorpion, Equinox, Future's End, and Deadlock; Deep Space Nine's The Visitor, The Die Is Cast, and You Are Cordially Invited; Enterprise's Regeneration...the list goes on.
We ostensibly invited David to the show to discuss two of the episodes he directed in Season 1 (The Nagus and The Storyteller), but it turned into a freewheeling conversation on everything from classic cinema (from westerns to film noir to dystopian sci-fi), to the all-time favorite scenes David directed, to the quiet rebellion he led as a producer on The Next Generation to try to make the show less perfect and more interesting.
We had the pleasure of speaking with him for two hours, and we can't bring ourselves to cut any of it. So we're posting the first half of our discussion now, and we'll be posting the second half next week. Enjoy!
🍷 Wine pairing: "NON5 Lemon Marmalade & Hibiscus" Non-alcoholic wine
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🧙♂️ A good story can be a powerful thing—it can rally us around a shared cause, give us hope, or even vanquish our fears. But of course, a story is nothing if it’s not told well. In this tale of monsters and myth-making, the medium is the message. “The Storyteller” serves up two charming stories, which both play like Bajoran folktales: while Bashir and O’Brien unwittingly reenact Rudyard Kipling’s “The Man Who Would Be King” in an isolated village, Jake and Nog go…beyond the pail to impress a visiting diplomat. We draw on “monster theory” to decode the metaphors at play, taking detours along the way to appreciate great robe game and, yes, ponder Lord of the Rings copyright infringement.
🍷 Wine pairing: 2021 Syrah from Swinney
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Kai Opaka, the spiritual leader we all deserve, returns to DS9 to suffer a tragic crash and embrace a messianic destiny. We trace the episode’s influences from Greek mythology to the New Testament to Dante’s Inferno. Also covered: Sisko’s daddy energy, and Star Trek’s toxic relationship with cave sets.
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In "Vortex," Odo gets an unwitting lesson in manipulation and seduction from a wily stranger promising him answers about his origins. So today, Lily schools us in every pickup tactic the episode pulls straight out of the pickup artist playbook. Meanwhile, Cole points out all the western genre motifs drawn from the classic film that inspired "Vortex," 1953's The Naked Spur.
🍷 Wine pairing: Domaine Ott Clos Mireille Rosé
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It's the episode everyone loves to hate -- but would it be so Allama-wrong if we sort of loved it? Get out your klon peeg sticks and join us for a riveting game of chula — or what Sisko and company might call the world’s worst team-building exercise. (Just a fair warning: we pre-gamed with plenty of wine beforehand to psych ourselves up for this one...)
🍷 Wine pairing: Big Valley Bianco from Local Weirdos
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Yikes! What possessed a certain actor in "The Passenger" to give us this, uh, questionable performance that will live on forever in infamy? (Unlike the supervillain Vantika, as hard as he tries.) In their review, Lily and Cole decide that the episode may be a silly grab bag of horror tropes, but it still makes for a worthwhile ride.
🍷 Wine pairing: Muscadet Sèvre et Maine Amphibolite from Jo Landron
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Who are we with and without our memories? And are we always sentenced to inherit intergenerational trauma? It’s debate club hour on DS9, and Lily and Cole are going deep. We also propose an in-universe explanation for why Jadzia acts like such a wet sock in season one! (Warning: excessive references to 90s courtroom dramedy Ally McBeal.)
🍷 Wine pairing: Chablis "Terroir de Courgis" from Patrick Piuze
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Two familiar faces from the Enterprise arrive on DS9, and O'Brien is ready to spill all ☕️ the ☕️ tea!
🍷 Wine pairing: "Love Sick Puppy" Dolcetto from Vino Volta Wines
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*A note on the audio: We're sorry about this week's less than stellar quality, but we'll be back in fine form next week!* -
Recreational hunting is the target in this episode that, for exactly once in the whole show, lets Chief O’Brien have some fun. Meanwhile, Doctor Bashir is permitted half a line of dialogue, which is no more than Season 1 Bashir deserves. And Lily and Cole ask: what does it actually mean to be sentient?
🍷 Wine pairing: "Charlie-Foxtrot" Gamay Noir from Ravensworth
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Cole gets triggered by airborne viruses, quarantines and lockdowns, while Lily has apparently repressed the entire COVID pandemic. (Who else is jealous of her?) We also briefly dip into the Old Testament before tracing the evolution of the rom-com form, from Jane Austen to When Harry Met Sally to its pinnacle in modern storytelling (Odo and Quark).
🍷 Wine pairing: "Esoterico" orange wine from Unico Zelo
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Lily and Cole hail Star Trek as modern-day Shakespeare, only with more Klingon cleavage. Also featured: Moral Foundations Theory, seasonal color palettes, and everyone’s favorite plain, simple pansexual tailor, Garak.
🍷 Wine pairing: "Magical Animal" Chardonnay from Brave New Wine
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Lily invokes Atticus Finch and completely changes Cole’s mind about this multi-layered episode involving a very tennis-obsessed murderer. We also dare to ask the question: is it still champagne if it’s bottled on Koris I?
🍷 Wine pairing: Premier Brut Blanc de Blancs from Idée Fixe
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Cole contextualizes DS9’s 1993 pilot against the collapse of the Soviet Union; Lily mocks Jake’s onesies and Captain Sisko’s weird intonation choices. But we’re both thrilled to discover that “Emissary,” like a great wine, is bold, rich, and even better with age.
🍷 Wine pairing: Village Pinot Noir from Gentle Folk
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