Madame Arbiter Els Renora
Tag: ds9
The origin of this episode is to be found in Ira Steven Behr’s love for the 1949 Samuel Beckett play Waiting for Godot; Behr had always wanted to do an episode with Odo in the role of Vladimir and Quark in the role of Estragon. The problem Behr had was with the story. The play has no discernible plot at all; it is simply about two characters sitting around waiting for something undefined and something which never arrives, and they spend most of the play insulting one another. According to Behr, the only plot he could come up with for a Deep Space Nine episode was having Odo and Quark waiting somewhere for Sisko to bring them a runabout, but they’ve no idea why or how long they’ve been there.
In fact Shimerman is credited as being one of the creative forces behind the series’ finest moment. It’s a multi-layered scene from the Season 4 opener The Way of the Warrior in which the space station’s bar keeper and exiled Cardassian spy Elim Garak (Andrew Robinson) have a conversation that starts off about the human drink root beer and ends up to be about galaxy spanning politics.
“While rehearsing it we came to find out that there was more to it than what was written on the page,” Shimerman said.
“We saw that there was more being said than what was on the page. We started to modify it from a comic scene to a very insidious sort of scene with some comic overtones as well and we rehearsed it that way at my house.
“When we took it in on Monday and the director (James L Conway) said let’s read this we presented it the way we had rehearsed it. He said, ‘We can’t shoot that, that’s not what the producers have asked me to shoot. This has to be a much more funny scene.
"I was rather adamant and happy with the choices I had made and the director, doing what his bosses had asked him to, said, ‘I can’t shoot it like that’.
"It’s the only time ever in my carer, ever, where I simply said, ‘Well I can’t shoot it the way you want to do it’ and put my foot down. "So the producers were bought down to the set and the director explained what the problem was.
"The producers took about 30 seconds, consulted amongst themselves, and then turned to the director and said, ‘Shoot it the way Armin wants to do it’. And it’s of great satisfaction to me that it’s one of the most popular scene from Deep Space Nine because it would have been a totally different scene had we done it the way it was written.”
i love the fact that everyone on deep space nine drinks raktajino. for me it’s a nice nod to that specific feel of growing up in a really multicultural city and eating food from everyone else’s culture and sharing your own food culture with your friends who have different ones until it all just becomes What You Do, so when you go someplace less diverse you miss it. in all the other treks you only hear about either starfleet officers’ generic american/western european food choices or [insert alien species name here] versions of american/western european food items. it’s cool that on ds9 the writers went to the effort of having characters casually name-check foods from the various cultures on the station; it adds to the sense of cultural exchange that the show’s premise sets up.
ds9 bowling teams, in order of worst to best
-quark & odo: the trash squad. clumsy. only working together because no one else would take them. bowl with the bumpers up and still can’t knock over a pin. lots of shouting, screeching, and slipping over the foul line. after a while their arguments turn into good-natured self-deprecation and they end up having fun, though they’d never admit it
-miles & keiko: the chief injures his shoulder right away, so keiko has to carry the team. she’s never bowled before so it’s a learning process, but she’s just out there having a great time and being thankful she’s not in last place. she brought snacks for everyone
-sisko & jake: not too shabby, but they’re far more concerned with goofing off than actual bowling. the captain tries to be cool but the ball flies backward from his hand and takes out miles’ other shoulder. their uniforms might be furniture upholstery; no one is certain
-garak & bashir: the dream team. masters of skill and coordination. exemplars of elegant athleticism. definitely could do better if they didn’t spend the evening adorably flirting and trying to show off for each other. garak made their uniforms. julian’s is a smidge on the tight side
-dax & kira: listen, they didn’t come here to tarry. turns out curzon had a shrine of championship trophies and jadzia isn’t about to give up that title. nerys has no idea how the game works but enjoys lifting the ball over her head and hurling it at the pins. worf bellows from the sidelines every time they get a strike, which is often. unfortunately, they fall just below the winner…
-weyoun: the room goes hush each time he makes the approach. everyone’s sure he couldn’t have bowled before, yet he makes no errors. no one remembers inviting him. everyone is confused and vaguely disturbed, but too impressed to make him leave. he bowls a 300. seriously, what is he doing there
julian-bashir-protection-squad:
a bit of a stray thought but: it seems to me like the bajorans have implant-type UTs (since not only local militia members, who may have translators installed in their comm-badges, like starfleet personnel does, but also the civilians can understand fed. standart/other languages pretty well, even aside from the forced-bilingual thingie), so. LOGICALLY. it may mean odo (who probs can’t shapeshift a part of himself into a complicated machinery (his communicator ie and such)) actually needs to learn languages. speaks good (obvs) bajoran, cardassian and ferengi, knows dominionese instantly through linking, doesn’t understand half of what federation people are saying till like mid-season 2, understands two out of ten words in klingon and, by the end of show, speaks little belarusian (where’s no way worf ever said a word in standart english in his life, what’s the point). in every alien-of-the-week ep he’s just. dissociating in the background waiting for kira to explain to him what’s going on
Ok another thing: if most Klingon registers on the translators, and all of it has a direct translation, how come some of it doesn’t get translated? Worf and Jadzia spend most of 4×01/2 translating simple sentences. Is there a second dialect or deliberate mispronunciation that the translator can’t pick up on?
^^^ yea this (also goes for bajoran and trill prayers, for example – though, just as klingon proverbs these might be a case of an Ye Olde language bits UTs doesn’t recognize/disregards as irrelevant) & though i love the idea of dialects!! like ‘alright this is what most klingons speak, BUT in certain colonies some phrases are pronounced in a completely different way and don’t get me started on accents’ (also i hc what worf’s klingon is.. a bit meh, speaking-wise. he talks like a person who only seen words in a book. jadzia, on the other hand, has near perfect speaking klingon skills (mixes trill & klingon words in casual speech), but can’t read it for shit). ALSO. would a text version of UT able to translate, let’s say, klingon version of ‘lik the cow’ meme or is the mispronounciation/writing is an issue??
A headcanon about Klingon language:
The Klingons have an arrangement with the Federation whereby Fed universal translators are actually programmed to not translate Klingon.
(This works fairly well as an explanation for what’s going on in TNG-DS9, when the Federation and the Klingon Empire are usually allies.)
The Klingons don’t like the ‘dishonesty’ of translation: they want people to hear their words exactly as they’re spoken, not twisted.
When you hear a Klingon speaking ‘English’, he’s speaking whatever is Federation Standard. When you hear him speaking Klingon, he’s speaking his own language.
ohhh i really do love this hc, 100000/10 !!!
Miles/Keiko/kira fluff for @dsnoiyne ! Part of the @startreksecretsanta . I’m so sorry for being so late!
blackash26 