Things have been a little too serious around here lately, so let's talk about Star Trek.

I mentioned earlier the DS9 marathon on TV. This has become my favorite incarnation of Trek. Individual episodes tended to be less exciting than the other shows (at least in the early seasons). But as DS9 involved a space station instead of a ship, and therefore required stories to come to it rather than the other way around, it got much more deeply into the cultures and politics of the surrounding planets. First the Bajorans and Cardassians, later Klingons and the various races of the Dominion. It started out rocky, and the story arc of the finale was very disappointing, but in the middle it became some of the best science fiction on TV.

I had a thought while watching that never occurred to me before (maybe it's occurred to some of you). The reason Star Trek was so popular for the 'nerd' set wasn't just the science fiction. It was the fact that, most of the time, it was the engineers or science officers who saved the day. Just in the few episodes I saw over the last couple days, Chief O'Brien was always the guy on the spot and the guy who solved all the problems.

Just tired of doing politics and religion all the time. However Condi Rice just started her statement to the commission. Stay tuned.
- posted by Dactyl @ 8:13 AM