Garaky goodness
Apr. 10th, 2003 10:22 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
altarielI had such a cool weekend.
![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
msmanna has summed up the weekend pretty damn well but here are the impressions from the POV of someone trying to indoctrinate plain and simple souls to the Garak Way.
It's a bit nerve-wracking to invite people round in order to spend a weekend showing them something that you really, really love. They might well hate it. (I keep suggesting my favourite books to my reading group - they come round, eat my food, and then hate my books at me.) I should have had more faith in Garak.
First up was Past Prologue, in which Garak and Bashir meet, and some other stuff goes on concerning the future of Bajor but, frankly, who gives a stuff about that? From the moment Bashir first hyperventilated and then pushed a frond out of his face, and my good friends Ika, Tavia, andmsmanna began to shriek, I suspected I might be on a winner.
Something worth mentioning at this point is that I'm not, er, entirely attuned to subtext. I exist purely on a superficial level. Show me two men on-screen practically entangled, and I see a two-shot of two men being friends. Even when the two men concerned are practically entangled in front a backdrop covered in pink triangles.
I gather this blindness (more commonly called 'stupidity') is not entirely the case for other people. Anyway, the gang seemed happy enough.
Next up was Cardassians. Garak and Bashir go for a little day-trip to Bajor and, coincidentally, piss off Dukat big-time. It's a good episode - despite the crappy Sisko-driven conclusion - riffs on one of my favourite themes in the show: the social and cultural fallout from the occupation for both Bajorans and Cardassians.
Next, The Wire. Well, what more can I say? Garak and Bashir in a room together. They don't make television like that any more, and they should.
One very interesting thing about watching these episodes with people who didn't know much (or anything) of the show's story arc was to see the guesses that were made about characters like Tain. Both Ika and Tavia had him pegged as Garak's lover, suspicions reinforced when I put on Improbable Cause and The Die is Cast.
Second Skin up next - start of the mini Garak and Sisko arc, and a good episode with a good twist.
Then I put on Our Man Bashir. Remember what I said about me and stupidity? Well, I hadn't definitely decided to put on this episode untilmsmanna mentioned something in her LJ about liking DJs. So I thought, 'OK, they'll probably enjoy this one.'
Ahem.
I have never seen three people implode before. I gather that the opening sequence (the, er, 'teaser') might be considered slashy. In any event, we watched it two or three times before getting to the rest of the episode. Then we rewound the tape and watched the episode again. It is a very, very cool episode. And it's slashy too! Who woulda thunk?!?
I put on the other Garaky two-parter (In Purgatory's Shadow, By Inferno's Light). The second episode was a bit Worf-heavy for the tastes of the assembled group, but it was worth it all for the payoff with the Tain plotline: 'Now that,' said Ika, 'is really, really fucked up.'
We wound up the day with In the Pale Moonlight, which is Trek perfection. Or perfect Trek subversion, as you prefer. Garak saves civilization and completely subverts the whole Trek ethos. Heavenly. That's my boy.
In between all this, Mr Altariel served up the most extraordinary curry. I've had many of Mr Altariel's magnificent curries in the past, but this time he excelled himself. I did check as people left that they weren't smuggling him out. It has been tried in the past.
Sunday we got up relatively early and sat down for a bit of breakfast intending to watch some more episodes. Next thing we knew it was 6pm and people had to think about going.
msmanna and I never did manage to get to the shop and buy more Dairy Milk crunchie.
I had such a cool weekend!
Monday I had a peek at my Garak/Bashir novel, which has about 6,000 words. I must get back to it...
msmanna has summed up the weekend pretty damn well but here are the impressions from the POV of someone trying to indoctrinate plain and simple souls to the Garak Way.It's a bit nerve-wracking to invite people round in order to spend a weekend showing them something that you really, really love. They might well hate it. (I keep suggesting my favourite books to my reading group - they come round, eat my food, and then hate my books at me.) I should have had more faith in Garak.
First up was Past Prologue, in which Garak and Bashir meet, and some other stuff goes on concerning the future of Bajor but, frankly, who gives a stuff about that? From the moment Bashir first hyperventilated and then pushed a frond out of his face, and my good friends Ika, Tavia, and
msmanna began to shriek, I suspected I might be on a winner. Something worth mentioning at this point is that I'm not, er, entirely attuned to subtext. I exist purely on a superficial level. Show me two men on-screen practically entangled, and I see a two-shot of two men being friends. Even when the two men concerned are practically entangled in front a backdrop covered in pink triangles.
I gather this blindness (more commonly called 'stupidity') is not entirely the case for other people. Anyway, the gang seemed happy enough.
Next up was Cardassians. Garak and Bashir go for a little day-trip to Bajor and, coincidentally, piss off Dukat big-time. It's a good episode - despite the crappy Sisko-driven conclusion - riffs on one of my favourite themes in the show: the social and cultural fallout from the occupation for both Bajorans and Cardassians.
Next, The Wire. Well, what more can I say? Garak and Bashir in a room together. They don't make television like that any more, and they should.
One very interesting thing about watching these episodes with people who didn't know much (or anything) of the show's story arc was to see the guesses that were made about characters like Tain. Both Ika and Tavia had him pegged as Garak's lover, suspicions reinforced when I put on Improbable Cause and The Die is Cast.
Second Skin up next - start of the mini Garak and Sisko arc, and a good episode with a good twist.
Then I put on Our Man Bashir. Remember what I said about me and stupidity? Well, I hadn't definitely decided to put on this episode until
msmanna mentioned something in her LJ about liking DJs. So I thought, 'OK, they'll probably enjoy this one.'Ahem.
I have never seen three people implode before. I gather that the opening sequence (the, er, 'teaser') might be considered slashy. In any event, we watched it two or three times before getting to the rest of the episode. Then we rewound the tape and watched the episode again. It is a very, very cool episode. And it's slashy too! Who woulda thunk?!?
I put on the other Garaky two-parter (In Purgatory's Shadow, By Inferno's Light). The second episode was a bit Worf-heavy for the tastes of the assembled group, but it was worth it all for the payoff with the Tain plotline: 'Now that,' said Ika, 'is really, really fucked up.'
We wound up the day with In the Pale Moonlight, which is Trek perfection. Or perfect Trek subversion, as you prefer. Garak saves civilization and completely subverts the whole Trek ethos. Heavenly. That's my boy.
In between all this, Mr Altariel served up the most extraordinary curry. I've had many of Mr Altariel's magnificent curries in the past, but this time he excelled himself. I did check as people left that they weren't smuggling him out. It has been tried in the past.
Sunday we got up relatively early and sat down for a bit of breakfast intending to watch some more episodes. Next thing we knew it was 6pm and people had to think about going.
msmanna and I never did manage to get to the shop and buy more Dairy Milk crunchie. I had such a cool weekend!
Monday I had a peek at my Garak/Bashir novel, which has about 6,000 words. I must get back to it...
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2003-04-10 04:33 am (UTC)And what's this Garak stuff, anywho? I'm intrigued. :)
Re:
Date: 2003-04-10 05:11 am (UTC)As for Garak... Have you ever watched 'Star Trek: Deep Space Nine'? Garak is a recurring character who steals the show... tailor, soldier and spy.
no subject
Date: 2003-04-10 09:12 am (UTC)tailor, soldier and spy
And, presumably, tinkering with the plot.
Curry is what passes for a national dish in Britain.
Just look at dishes like spaghetti and meat balls and the stuff sold as pizza in the United States...and a popular midwestern dish is the "St.Paul" (an egg fu yung sandwich on white bread). Dishes mutate into strange and sometimes wonderful forms when they immigrate.
no subject
Date: 2003-04-10 09:22 am (UTC)He's certainly a right little tinker.