Star Trek: Accession

Episode: "Accession"

Series: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

Season 4, Episode 17

Original Air Date: February 24, 1996

via Memory Alpha

A traveler appears at the opening of the wormhole, 200 years after he first entered it.  That's just the beginning of the surprises.  The man, Akorem Laem, experienced the passage of centuries in minutes.  What's more, he claims to be the Emissary!  Funny, Sisko had just been complaining about the burdens of his own sacred role within the Bajoran religion.  Here's his chance to pass it on to someone else.  

Apparently, neither the viewers nor the studio execs were fans of the religion-themed episodes.  I say the topic is fair game and inherently interesting, even essential if you're going to spend meaningful time exploring a culture.  For Bajor, religion and politics are deeply intertwined.  I'd say we have some experience with that here on Earth, too.  If anything, the lines have become even further blurred in the 29 years since "Accession."

This week's story is one of several in a series-spanning arc about Benjamin coming to terms with his role as Emissary.  The resolution of this particular installment is interesting - and somewhat surprising.  In his brief term as Emissary, Akorem promotes a more traditional position, particularly in regards to the Bajoran caste system, an structure abandoned during the Cardassian occupation.  While the Bajorans seem (mostly) ready to fall in line, Captain Sisko takes great exception as reverting would compromise Bajor's chances for joining the Federation.

What sets up as a political conflict is ultimately resolved by spiritual means.  Sisko challenges Akorem's claim as the Emissary and the two return together to the wormhole to confront the Prophets regarding their intentions.

We still have over three seasons to go in the series so it should be easy enough to guess what the Prophets tell them.

In the long run, Sisko fighting for a title he'd previously made clear he didn't want is a big deal.

Acting Notes

via Mork and Mindy Wiki

Richard Libertini (Akorem Laem) was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, January 7, 2016.  He graduated from Emerson College.  Films included All of Me, Fletch and Fletch Lives.  TV credits include a regular cast role on Soap, multiple guest appearances on Barney Miller and voice work on Animaniacs.

Libertini passed away in 2016 from cancer.

Squid Flicks: The Hunt for Red October

Title: The Hunt for Red October

Director: John McTiernan

Original Release Date: March 2, 1990

My Overall Rating: 5 stars out of 5

via Amazon

A nuclear submarine has been stolen.  Soviet navy legend Marko Ramius (Sean Connery), in defiance of orders, is heading towards North America with his nation's latest technological marvel: a submarine which evades radar detection.  Moscow calls Washington for help in capturing and perhaps even destroying the renegade captain and his vessel.  The CIA brings in analyst Jack Ryan (Alec Baldwin in the role that catapulted him to superstardom) to find their man.  Everyone thinks Ramius is a madman - everyone but Ryan, that is.  Ryan believes Ramius is trying to defect.

My wife suggested The Hunt for Red October (based on the Tom Clancy novel of the same name) as a good Father's Day movie this year - a solid choice.  It's an excellent example of the cerebral action movies that Hollywood used to make a lot but not so much in the age of the MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe).  The narrative appears at first to be a straight-forward cat-and-mouse chase but the cleverness lies in sorting out who, exactly, is chasing whom at a given moment.  Writing, visuals and sound are all outstanding.  The acting especially is exceptional and it all began with perfect casting.  Ramius is the third best role of Connery's career (after Bond and Jimmy Malone in The Untouchables).  Baldwin is leading man handsome, yet geeky enough to be believable. I don't think Kevin Costner, the original choice for the part, could have found that sweet spot.  Scott Glenn is in the Scott Glenn part.  James Earl Jones brings just the right blend of wit and gravitas.  Tim Curry is somehow always the perfect choice, no matter the character.  Then Sam Neill breaks your heart with the "I would have liked to see Montana" line.

My two favorite moments are relatively subtle ones.  I love when the camera zooms in on Lieutenant Putin (Peter Firth) and the dialogue on board the Red October switches permanently from Russian to English, then zooms out again. 

That scene is famous.  I'm guessing most people wouldn't notice my second one.  Well, everyone remembers the Red October crew singing the Soviet national anthem.  It's an important plot point.  But did you ever notice there's a moment when the singing suddenly gets a lot better?  It's at about 4:24 in this video:

It's obvious - to me, anyway - that a professional chorus was dubbed in for that bit in post-production.  

In March 1990, the fall of the Soviet Union was just a year away.  The Cold War was nearing its end and the geopolitical landscape was on the brink of dramatic changes.  As such, the movie is a bit of a political relic.  But a world on the brink of catastrophic war doesn't seem so far distant these days.  Even out of context, The Hunt for Red October tells a profoundly compelling story.  It still holds up 35 years later.  The best movies do.

One ping only...

Star Trek: Bar Association

Episode: "Bar Association"

Series: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

Season 4, Episode 16

Original Air Date: February 19, 1996

via Memory Alpha

Quark's bar is suffering through the month-long Bajoran Time of Cleansing.  With profits down, the proprietor cuts wages by a third.  Rom and his colleagues have finally had enough and they go on strike, an egregious violation of Ferengi law.  Brunt returns as an agent of the Ferengi Commerce Authority (FCA) with orders to quash the labor action by any means necessary.  In the B plot, Worf's struggles in adjusting to life on the station continue.

Full disclosure, I'm a labor man - deeply involved with my local union.  As such, much of the material in this episode speaks to me on a personal level.  Labor relations are also a major driver in the entertainment industry.  The Screen Actors Guild (SAG) and Writers Guild of America (WGA) are still among the most powerful unions in the country.  Armin Shimerman (Quark) himself has served on SAG's executive board.  It's surprising stories like these don't pop up so much on screen.  There aren't many TV shows in which the good guys quote The Communist Manifesto.

The two plots intersect when Worf crosses the picket line and the pro-labor O'Brien takes offense.  The two engage in an off-camera bar brawl with Bashir caught in the middle.  That storyline ends with Sisko berating the trio in the bridge, the scene an homage to the John Ford 1948 film, Fort Apache.  I'm not a huge fan of this side-narrative - it feels like they did it for the sake of the homage rather than adding anything meaningful to the story.  Filler.

For the long-term, "Bar Association" offers the first suggestion that there might be romance potential for Rom and dabo girl, Leeta.

Acting Notes

via Transformers: Robots in Disguise Wiki

It's time to give Jeffrey Combs (Brunt) his proper due.  In 2025, Combs is a social media favorite for playing several different recurring Star Trek characters across multiple series - over 20 appearances in all.  As Brunt alone, "Bar Association" is his second of seven appearances.

Jeffrey Combs was born in Oxnard, California, September 9, 1954.  He trained at the Pacific Conservatory of the Performing Arts and the University of Washington.  On the big screen, horror films have been his wheelhouse, especially the work of director Stuart Gordon.  He has appeared in the Re-Animator trilogy, From Beyond and The Pit and the Pendulum.  Beyond Trek, his TV credits include Babylon 5, The 4400 and Masters of Horror.

On the Coffee Table: Herman Melville

Title: Moby Dick

Author: Herman Melville

via Amazon

Pull up a chair.  We have a lot to talk about...

Captain Ahab leads the crew of the Pequod, a 19th-century whaling ship.  Most are just trying to make a living but Ahab is out for revenge.  A white whale - THE white whale - chomped off one of his legs.  Ahab means to make him pay.  If ever there were a story to convince you that genius is often wasted on the maniacal, this is it.

Moby Dick is, of course, on a short list of Greatest American Novels - indeed the finest works in world literature.  Melville's masterpiece is a profound reading experience: global in scope, richly detailed, lingually dazzling, expertly cast and ultimately unforgettable.  There are brief-candle caliber passages: Ahab throwing his lit pipe into the sea, for instance.  You read them once and you know they'll be with you for the rest of your life.

I finally made it all the way through for the first time.  It took me six months.  I didn't skip any of the chapters about whales - so many chapters about whales!  There are individual chapters about their classification, their spouts, their bones, their heads (two: one for the right whale, one for the sperm whale), their tails, etc.  There are three separate chapters about whales depicted in art. 

So many damn whales...

And I didn't skim over a single one.

The biological details aren't 100% accurate by 2025 standards.  Little was known in the mid-19th century, for example, about the blue whale - identified by Melville as the sulphur-bottom whale - as it was too fast to be hunted.  Furthermore, the author frequently refers to whales as fish.  That said, there's no denying the whaler of his day had far more intimate knowledge of the animal than most 21st century biologists ever get.  

And boy, was Melville eager to share everything he had learned.  Expertly written though it undeniably is, there is a notebook-dump feel to the prose for hundreds of pages at a time.  I get it.  Like all of his serialized contemporaries, Melville was paid by the word.  If the reader of 1851 was willing to stick with you through all of the minutia, more power to you, Herman.  The action of the story could probably have been told in 150 pages.  Maybe even fewer.  But then it wouldn't be Moby Dick.  This is a book the reader has to earn.  At last, I have.

On one of my childhood visits to The Philosopher's Island (read here), The Philosopher's dad brought a copy of  Moby Dick along to read on the trip.  I have fond memories of this kind, quiet man reading by lamplight with a delighted smile on his face.  The story begins in that part of the world, you see: specifically New Bedford, Massachusetts, then the ship launches from nearby Nantucket.  As a family, we've been to NB - even visited the whaling museum and the famous chapel described by Melville.  Having read the book, I'd love to go back.  The novel makes me curious about Nantucket, too.

The monomaniacal Ahab has become a character template all his own.  After reading, I'm also curious about the legacy of his first mate, Starbuck.  The world's largest coffeehouse chain is named for him, of course, but I wonder more at the literary legacy.  Every stubborn leader needs someone to talk them out of the crazy shit they want to do.  Every Ahab needs a Starbuck, even if he ultimately ignores him.  

Frequent visitors might remember my challenges in pinning down the narrative purpose of Riker in Star Trek: The Next Generation.  I see now, he's Starbuck.  Of course, Picard is no Ahab.  In Star Trek, Khan is the best equivalent.  But Riker is clearly a Starbuck, perhaps best demonstrated in "The Pegasus."

Without a doubt, Moby-Dick is one of the most extraordinary books I've ever read.  However, I'm not eager to read more like it (not that there are many).  At six months per, who has the time?  Even so, I can see myself picking it off the shelf from time to time for a quick fix: "Oh, lonely death on lonely life!  Oh, now I feel my topmost greatness lies in my topmost grief."

So many damn whales...

Squid Eats: Halvorson's

Over two decades ago, now, my wife and I were at the hospital.  My wife had been hooked up to a pitocin drip all day, intending to induce labor for the birth of our first and only child.  The doctors told us we could keep going with the drip through the night or take a break and get a good night's sleep.  My wife chose sleep.  My job was to run out to get some real food for dinner so we wouldn't have to settle for hospital grub.  I went to Halvorson's, one of the few places on Burlington's Church Street that was still open and taking orders.  I came back with cheeseburgers.

They were the best cheeseburgers we've ever eaten in our lives...

If hunger is the best sauce, exhaustion runs a close second.  That last night of our pre-parenting lives, we had plenty of both.  The story itself is one I still gleefully tell expecting parents, particularly those preparing for a planned inducement.  A return visit to Halvorson's seemed as good a way as anyway to celebrate Father's Day, our first without the kid - they have an internship in Massachusetts for the summer.

My cheeseburger was still damn good - a reasonable medium rare but with a respectable sear on the outside, as if fresh off the grill.  I'm not sure it was worth $17 but that seems to be the going rate at restaurants these days.  My wife was less impressed with her fish tacos, essentially deconstructed for her to put together at the table.  The mud pie for dessert was nice.

We haven't been to Halvorson's much in the intervening years.  That's mostly because of ample preferable alternatives on Church Street.  Apart from sentimental value, I don't know if I'd be inclined to go again.

But the classic cheeseburger really is pretty good.

Star Trek: Death Wish

Episode: "Death Wish"

Series: Star Trek: Voyager

Season 2, Episode 18

Original Air Date: February 19, 1996

via Memory Alpha

Our heroes encounter Quinn (Gerrit Graham), a member of the Q Continuum.  Quinn wishes to be allowed to die and suicide is illegal among his kind.  Our usual Q (John de Lancie) turns up to bring Quinn in for punishment.  Quinn requests asylum, giving Captain Janeway a decision to make.  Q agrees to abide by her choice, though he dangles a bribe: bringing Voyager home.  

The right to die on one's own terms is a relevant moral question for any society and not entirely new turf for Star Trek.  The philosophical debate aside, "Death Wish" earns praise from critics for the acting.  Graham, de Lancie and Kate Mulgrew are all wonderful.  Plus, we get a brief cameo from our old pal Will Riker.

The series's strong run continues.

Acting Notes

via Memory Alpha

Gerrit Graham was born in New York City, November 27, 1949.  He attended but did not graduate from Columbia, though he did meet Brian De Palma, a fortuitous encounter in the long run.  "Death Wish" was Graham's second of two Trek appearances.

Graham has been in several of Brian De Palma's films, including Greetings, Hi, Mom, Home Movies and Phantom of the Paradise.  Beyond Trek, he had a principal voice role in The Critic and a recurring role in Parker Lewis Can't Lose.  He was one of the finalists for DS9's Odo along with René Auberjonois and Andrew Robinson.  He also wrote the teleplays for two Twilight Zone (80s version) episodes.  

Squid Plays: Solo

Solo is a card game produced by AMIGO, a German company.  It's been described as "UNO on steroids."  It's basically the same concept: play a card, next player matches number or color, lots of other cards you can play to mess with your opponents.  Solo has some additional fun cards which involve swapping hands with another player, gifting two cards, everyone passing cards to the left (or right), etc.  The biggest change, and the most fun, is that you can play a matching card - color AND number - anytime, effectively stealing the turn.  So, you've gotta pay attention all the time.

Left to right: Protection, Gift, All Swap Cards, Swap Cards with Another Player

Our game group fell in love with Solo during COVID as it was one of several games we discovered on Board Game Arena during social distancing times.  We've since played a few times in person and it loses none of its appeal offline.  I might even go so far as to describe it as addictive.  Simple, well-designed games often are.

How does AMIGO produce what appears to be an UNO knock-off without getting sued?  Well, the more famous game itself is simply a marketed version of the much older, public domain game of Crazy Eights.  You can't really sue someone for stealing the same thing you did.  And it's not technically stealing if it's public domain.