Whilst writing about other Sci-fi (as opposed to my own – I know – how generous am I?!) may not have been my original intent for this blog. The reception received has been so terrific (especially from the lords of Reddit), I figured I would write at least one more.

Having touched on the baddies of DS9 in the last post (albeit immediately regretting not including the treaturous Micheal Eddington – maybe I’ll return to this another time)

Instead I want to focus on the ‘female’ characters in DS9 and how they interplay to explore sexuality, identity and power relationships.

There are many obvious candidates that would fit the above criteria, however I shall focus on Dax, Kira and Moogie.

Kira is almost old fashioned when we first meet her, fiercely independent, brave and a warriors heart. Yet as her character develops we see a more vulnerable side, her strength is founded in her faith. This makes for some interesting challenges and when she and Odo begin their journey, it makes for a fascinating chemistry.

Of course it would be improper to mention Kira, without mentioning her Mirror universe counterpart. I really get a sense that Nana Visitor truly relished playing the Dark Kira. Her talent is to fully inhabit whatever character she is playing, whilst I was not initially a fan of her character, she won me over.

It would be very easy to characterise Dax as an early representation of gender identity and associated politics. There are certainly plenty of moments where Jadsirs ‘sexuality’ is not fixed to a specific gender. However the history of Dax shows that as an entity it is made up of multiple personalities, not too far removed from the multiple masks worn by everyone in modern society. Just as Kira’s strength is largely founded in her spiritual faith, Dax’s roots are several lifetimes of wisdom, spread across 300 years.

Last but not least the wonderful Moogy (is that how its spelt Redditors?) Not only a FEMALE who dares to wear clothes and earn profit, but becomes a defacto Grand Negus. This storyline is fantastic, taking the ‘least enlightened’ species in the Star Trek universe and telling a story of how the female Ferengi battling for a place in society. I remember seeing the Ferengi for the first time in TNG and they were comical one dimensional characters. Between, Quark, Nog, Rahm and Moogy DS9 flesh out these emaciated bones into a living believable culture.

No doubt I shall regret not including, Quarks ‘wife’, Rahms Wife, but definitely not Kako as she is a bitch. Maybe I’ll reserve another blog post, just for me bitching about her and poor old chief O’brien.

We shall see, but if there are any shows or episodes you’d like me to take a look at, hit me up on the Reddit machine.

Laterz