[fuckyeahtng]

Interviewer: And tell us, in the whole run of Next Generation that you were in, were there any particular favorite episodes or scenes that you shot.
Brent: You know what, I didn’t care for any of it to be honest with you. 

—-

Interviewer: You were with this cast for years and years and years, do you ever keep in touch with any of them?
Brent: You know what, they keep calling, and I keep trying to avoid them as much as possible.

 —-

Interviewer: What was it like working on Independence Day?
Brent: It was like sliding down a rainbow with thousands of beautiful babies.

 —-

Interviewer: You’re a really witty guy, it’s a lot of fun talking to you and you’re quick with these jokes here. Did you ever crack jokes during the filming of Star Trek and just completely catch people off guard?
Brent: No, I’m a very serious man when I’m working […] We never laughed once in seven years on that set.

 —-

Interviewer: That Patrick Stewart…how was he like to work with?
Brent: Very difficult.

 —-

Interviewer: There was a shoutout that you wanted to give, you told me, ‘Whatever you do, let me give the shout-out”
Brent: You know what, it was just a word I wanted to say. Thwack. 

[paramaline]

GOD, HE IS.

[chirrut-imwe]

_{The Admiral’s daughter appeared to have an interest in the torpedoes and she is a weapons specialist. Perhaps she could be of some use.}

[captioningcrusader]

[crisisoninfintefandoms]

In all the various wonderful and hilarious “Garak is shocked and horrified by humans” stuff out there, I feel like figure skating has REALLY been overlooked.

“Are you telling me your species has decided filling an arena with ice, strapping blades to your feet, and then spinning and leaping on the slippery surface is considered an acceptable form of recreation?!?!”

“You make sound so dangerous!”

“Isn’t it??”

“Well…yes, I suppose.  But most of the more dangerous moves are only attempted by those who have been training since childhood.”

“YOU LET CHILDREN DO THIS?????”

[thehalfbloodprincen]

When I read on the wiki that Andrew Robinson played Garak as attracted to Bashir but then toned it down after s2 because the writers weren’t on board I was pissed, but I’m over halfway through season 3 and this sure as HELL doesn’t seem toned down to me.

[socialistmodernism]

City Hall,
Ruse, Bulgaria,
built in 1985
Architect Alexander Georgiev Barov
© BACU #socialistmodernism #_ba_cu

[gplusbfics]

My headcanon is that this is what a lot of Cardassian architecture looks like, at least that of a certain era. I reblog things from time to time to spread this germ of thought.

A Memorial for a Civilization That Will Never Return

[gplusbfics]

Chapter 22 of A Stitch in Time – this is actually the entire chapter:

My shed has become somewhat more bearable, but the clutter and confinement of the interior space requires that I leave the door open. To keep myself busy when I’m not working with the med unit, Doctor, I am engaged in a project I must tell you about. It baffles me. Perhaps you can tell me if I’m losing my mind altogether.

Tain’s house, as I mentioned, is rubble. One day I began moving some of the debris and arranging it into a pile. Since there was too much debris for just one pile I arranged another. And then another. Until after hours of work I had carefully assembled several piles of debris in varying shapes and forms. I continued to create these piles and arrange them for two, maybe three weeks, not knowing what I was trying to accomplish. But the work was satisfying, Doctor—it felt good. And each day, when it became too dark to work, I would survey my creations, and I never felt prouder of anything I had ever done in my life. I don’t know where the shapes came from, and I certainly couldn’t explain their significance; but somehow they held me in their power.

After several weeks I asked Parmak what he thought this was all about. He’d stop by intermittently and check on my progress at various stages, but he always kept his own counsel. On this day, he moved through the piles (there were dozens by now) and studied them from all vantage points. A very careful man. Finally, after what seemed like an age, he stopped in front of the pile that was the largest and held the central, dominant position. He turned to me with the strangest expression on his face—and looked me directly in the eyes for the first time. “I think this is your own archeological dig, Elim. You are unearthing the artifacts of a previous civilization—a civilization that will never return—and arranging them into a memorial for that civilization and its dead. This is your own personal Tarlak Sector. You’re clearing the way for us to move on. Thank you, Elim. This is an honor for me.”

Parmak then chanted a section of the Cardassian burial ritual. He mentioned the names of several friends and relatives, and as he chanted, the cumulative emotional power of his voice was almost unbearable. I, too, had a list of the dead that long, and whispered their names as he chanted. Parmak then took his right hand, ripped open a finger on a sharp piece of metal, and allowed the blood to drip on this central “monument.”

“Thank you,” he repeated, and walked away, his finger still dripping blood.

But what baffles me, Doctor, is that I attach no meaning to what I’m doing here. I’m just doing it because I need to. And to be truthful, I don’t see this as a memorial at all. On the contrary—if I could, I’d singlehandedly rebuild this city myself, piece by piece. I stood here watching Parmak’s blood dry on this pile of rubble, engulfed by a feeling of loss and utter mystification as to what these piles mean. Just assure me that I’m not going mad, Doctor.

Offering a Place to Mourn

[gplusbfics]

Another section from A Stitch in Time, related to Garak’s monuments, just like the bit I posted earlier. 

As I moved building debris and arranged them into piles of different shapes and sizes, I came to realize that the ground floor of Tain’s house had been constructed strongly enough to withstand the destructive blast and hold the weight of the collapsed material. This left the basement undamaged. It was now just a question of clearing a way to the opening that led to the basement. But I hesitated: I knew what I would find down there, Doctor. 

 Most people, when I began this work, assumed that I was going to rebuild the house. After all, that was going on all around me. Cardassians are nothing if not industrious, and from the dust and rubble another, though more primitive, city was emerging. Each time the rudimentary shape of a house began to take shape, the morale of the sector was raised as well. At first people were confused by my efforts. Many assumed that I was unhinged and needed to do something, anything, to stay busy. Some even offered helpful advice about rebuilding, but when they realized that I wasn’t receptive they left me alone. After a while, as the shapes formed, they became curious, and their attitude changed. Many, like Doctor Parmak, were respectful, even reverent. 

One evening I came back from work and encountered a small group that had surrounded one of the constructed piles close to the walkway. As Parmak had done, they were calling out names in the traditional chant for the dead. It was at that moment that I decided that not only was I not going to open up the basement, I was not going to rebuild the house of Enabran Tain. Instead I constructed the largest and most ambitious formation of material where the center of the house—Tain’s study—had formerly been located. This was my memorial to Mila, who remained entombed in the basement. If the people need a place to mourn their dead, to mourn a way of life that will never return, then I offer the home of Enabran Tain, the man most responsible for provoking this destruction. Parmak is right: otherwise, how can we ever move ahead?

goodreads.com

Star Trek DS9: The Never-Ending Sacrifice

Continuing the post-television Deep Space Nine saga, this original novel shows the fall of the Cardassian empire as seen through the eye...

[gplusbfics]

Finished this today. Enjoyed it and gave it 4 of 5 stars, meaning above average, and Star Trek books are generally average. 

A few notes on it, deliberately written to leave out specific spoilers.

Things I liked:

• Hearing the full story of what happened to Rugal after he was ripped away from his adoptive Bajoran family (“Cardassians”)
  
• Getting a glimpse of the dissident movement that existed in connection with Tekeny Ghemor and Natima Lang
  
• Seeing Rugal adapt to all the various situations he’s thrust into as well as they people he meets. You see him learn that there’s more to some people than there may seem and that people can change, especially after grief or hardship.
  
• Learning about Cardassian cultural concepts through Rugal’s eyes – for example the extreme gratitude of an orphan towards an uncle who adopted them, even though they’re being badly treated. To Rugal this makes no sense, to feel such obligation, but it makes absolute sense to a Cardassian. There are many other examples involving family loyalty, treatment of the environment, conquering people, the keeping of secrets, etc. It’s not that he ever learns to accept it, but he understands it; I think by the end he feels sorry for them and above all wants to see them learn to change. 
  
• Description of the disintegration and chaos in various outer colony plants following the end of the war, the various events that unfolded, how various races slaughtered one another or managed to get along.
  
• Rugal’s complicated relationship with his (Cardassian) father and grandmother.
  
• The couple of scenes with Rugal and Ziyal.
  

Things I didn’t like:

• Ambassador Garak, who shows up toward the end, is way too glib and cheerful, like, I don’t know, a queeny uncle, with nary a care in the world, and it doesn’t suit him. I can see him being an ambassador but with a different demeanor, after the war, at least some of the time. Yes, he’d have a “front,” he’s Garak, but still, it was just off. Other people have remarked on McCormack’s Garak, so I’m not the only one. (I did like him in The Crimson Shadow.)
  
• Never, at any point, is it explained how anyone is speaking to anyone. Universal translators? Everywhere? Implanted? After the war? Asking because I kept wondering if Rugal knew Cardassian, or later when he meets Bajorans, why he didn’t speak it to show he could. Later I wondered if he was speaking Standard with Federation people and human colonists. There’s a Romulan in the story too – what do they speak? Not that I buy the translator concept (it’s always had logical flaws), but usually authors at least make a cursory reference and also have scenes where people aren’t using a translator, so it struck me as odd.
  
• Some of the ending plot on Ithic seemed kind of rushed. Like things started to build, characters were built, but then it was abandoned, I guess because of length.
  
• The final scene. Come ON. (People who’ve read it know what I mean. Just: Jeez.)
  

[noxfoxarts]

I agree with the above and I would add:

Things I liked:

• While we followed Rugal’s life, not all the scenes were about him, which was nice (I especially liked when it was about Kotan Pa’Dar)
  
• I really like Geleth and Alon Ghemor’s characters
• Ziyal’s portrayal was rather nice and Dukat was overall very credible
• The book was overall quite entertaining and made me laugh at several occasions amidst the more tragic events

Things I neither liked nor disliked:

I felt like McCormack’s vision of Cardassia, while interesting, could have been more thought-through and insightful, and that she missed certain subtleties present in the show. I chose to appreciate the vision for what it had to offer, but it didn’t convince me.

• In several aspects, her Cardassia felt very European, starting with the weather and seasons: I personally have a hard time believing there would be European-feeling seasons in Cardassia City when it’s so close to the equator, and on a planet so polluted we can imagine the climatic disaster.
• The social portrayal could have benefited from more research on communist totalitarian regimes such as the Soviet Union and North Korea. I didn’t really get to feel the extent of totalitarianism reflected in the way of life (ie: I have a hard time believing private transports would be allowed when everything in Cardassia is geared toward the community and glory of the State).
  

Things I didn’t like:

• A lot of different foods are mentioned in the book, but they are never described in a way that allows you to imagine what it looks like, smells like, tastes like, feels like, etc. I’m the sort of writer/reader who goes by the idea that if it’s not going to be described to further immersion, it shouldn’t be included, at least not with alien names that refer to nothing. Writing “some kind of bird meat” or “an infused beverage” does a finer job.
  
• The language/translator problem was already mentioned but it bugged me so much I need to mention it again. It really threw me off.
• I had issues figuring out how much time had passed or not. I read with the list of DS9 episodes to see which were being referenced, and sometimes it felt odd how little or how much time had passed between one or the other. The book sometimes went back and forth between past and present moments, in a way that didn’t feel very fluid. Not dramatic, but could have been better.
• Cardassians palm-kissing each other all the time. Palm-kiss isn’t a handshake, it’s something more alike to a French kiss, because you don’t go French-kissing your mate in public in such a society: as such, a palm-kiss is a more proper gesture to signify your feelings in public without being indecent. The way palm-kiss was used in the book felt out of place and obscene, and gave me a feeling that McCormack misread Garak indulging Ziyal (Garak lets her have fun because he feels bad for her, and then strongly provoked Dukat when they palm-kissed in front of him). I felt like McCormack read it as a commonplace “Cardassian only” behavior although Garak had already proven his inclusiveness of aliens by Cardassian-flirting with Julian and allowing the same to be present during Enabran’s shri-tal (meaning Garak considered Julian as close family/spouse)

[gplusbfics]

Additional comments on The Never-Ending Sacrifice from another reader. Thanks @noxfoxarts – some very good points.

When you bring up depiction of totalitarian regimes, it leads me to wonder what a Cardassia novel by Ursula Le Guin would look like, as she did a couple of novels like that, notably The Dispossessed. And her sci-fi writings have so much to do with sociology and anthropology. One of my favorite writers. She certainly doesn’t do Star Trek novels but oh, if she did!

[gplusbfics]

Done with Disconnect! 

Just posted the final two chapters of the podfic I’ve been recording of @tinsnip‘s Deep Dish Nine story “Disconnect.” Woohoo!

Let me tell you, it is epic. Not just an epic as a finale – totally killer writing – but epic as a task of recording and voice acting. I sat down tonight knowing the last chapter was long, but not quite HOW long. Chapter 7 was a mere 12 minutes, no sweat. But Chapter 8 is over an hour. And ¾ of it is super angsty monologs, while the rest is a super, super heart-rending conversation between lovers. Oh, and there’s an email that is like a stake through the heart. So basically recording it was like doing one very long cold read, by myself, in actor’s terms. I did it pretty much all in one take, too, just repeating over some flubs knowing I’d edit them out after. Then I had to edit the file (I use Audacity), which took even longer than recording it. But now it’s uploaded and between the two chapters the last chunk is 124 minutes long, And the whole podfic is 4 HOURS long. But I enjoyed doing it and, I think, it came out well.

Here are the relevant links!

• Podfic - “Disconnect” read by wcdarling on AO3
     Chapter 1, 2, 3 – 44 MB – 46 min.
     Chapter 4 – 32 MB – 33 min.
     Chapter 5 & 6 - 47 MB - 49 min.
     Chapters 7 & 8 – 81 MB – 124 min.
• Fanfic – “Disconnect” by tinsnip on AO3

Finally, thank you SO much to tinsnip not just for writing this, but writing so much other things that have provided me with such much enjoyment, pathos, things to think about and so much more. 

Wendy

[tinsnip]

Oh my goodness gracious, this is the best day.

Please listen. Wendy does a marvelous job at capturing the different tones, the reactions, the general feel of the whole thing. Oh, what a privilege to have this podfic’d by Wendy!