Comments on: Retro Review: Second Skin

By: Mike

Mike — Sun, 16 Sep 2012 15:15:00 +0000

Actually, each of those analogies is off for one reason, and it’s the same reason… Bajor was a civilization that was even older than Earth’s… They were traveling the stars when we hadn’t even invented agriculture… It’s not like the Afghans have lost some great and wonderful civilization at the hands of anyone. No, the analogy for the US or USSR vs. Afghanistan is the Empire vs. the Ewoks… But the Empire is the USSR, and the US are the Rebels… but in the wake of the Battle of Endor, the Rebels leave… The Ewoks take offense to this and Chief Chirpa is overthrown by the militant religious wing, aka Logray, the Ewok’s Medicine Man. He, then, turns the public opinion against the Rebels for their neglect, and they begin raids into the New Republic several years later. Once that happens, the New Republic occupies Endor, removes Logray in a matter of hours… though the tricky Ewok runs off into the woods and it would be another decade before Logray was brought to justice. In the meantime, the Rebels already had someone they wanted in place. He had no experience, but he was their closest ally, so they figured, “How bad could he be?” So, Wicket Warrick was installed. Unfortunately, he didn’t know what he was doing and Ewok culture has always been corrupt… And so, for the next decade, the fighting between the ineffective forces of Wicket and the dissidents of Logray continued to fight. Then, having intel on which tree Logray was in, but with no confirmation, Head of State Leia Organa ordered Jedi Team 6 to hunt down the wayward Ewok and kill or capture him… blah blah blah…. If we’re going to make up connections, we should at least have fun with them…. But Bajor was a civilization. Afghanistan was a group of mud huts. 50 years from now, Afghanistan will be mud huts. That’s the difference, and that’s why they’re more aptly compared to the Ewoks than the Bajorans… You cannot rebuild what was never built. Further, it’s somewhat distressing that anyone would suggest that Cardassia was the US. The Bajorans were conducting terrorist raids because they had been occupied for half a century. Afghanistan was the central base for an attack against the United States. I don’t recall the US occupying Afghanistan for the last half of the 20th century…….. Because terrorism is there, it doesn’t mean there’s always a correlation.

By: Guest

Guest — Sun, 16 Sep 2012 11:26:00 +0000

Cardassia enslaved the Bajoran citizens and forced them to mine and process Bajor’s valuable natural resources. You’d really be stretching to find connections between this and the actions of the USA regarding Afghanistan. If anything, the Afghani conflicts with the Soviets come closer.

By: Robert Clements

Robert Clements — Sun, 16 Sep 2012 00:35:00 +0000

DS9 borrowed from a troubled century for its stories. Mostly it was a restaging of Western Europe after WWII, although there are claims that the Israel/Palestinian conflict was integrated into the relationship. Since politics & stupidity never changes, its hardly surprising that the show preempts situations which hadn’t happened when it was running (ie, the US vs the Arab world)

By: Paul

Paul — Sat, 15 Sep 2012 21:27:00 +0000

“the lengths to which young Cardassians like his daughter would go to put a stop to what they describe as terrorism. ”

Interesting, I’ve never thought of the Cardassia=USA, Bajor=Afghanistan connection before, but it does make sense.

By: Robert Clements

Robert Clements — Sat, 15 Sep 2012 08:28:00 +0000

A powerful episode, which uses ambiguity of role in a very DS9 manner. I love it, naturally

One important detail, though. I suspect the main reason Kira doubts herself in this story is that the writers chickened out – the originally scripted ending would have had Bashir unable to tell her for certain that she’s the woman she thinks she is (i believe the reading was that she probably wasn’t Iliana but there’s a final irreconcilable doubt). This would have been a better ending in every respect – Iliana/Nerys is free to be whichever woman she ultimately chooses to be – but apparently it was an honesty too far for the studio brass. It was canned

Now i don’t know if this original ending was shot but its implications clearly shadowed Ms V’s performance – she doubts her reality because she knows that doubt exists. Wonderful