FIXING DS9 AND VOYAGER

We all know TNG was pretty terrible in its first season, and a little less terrible in its second season. It really only took off in the third season when Michael Piller took over as head writer for the show; it's at that point that the stories got consistently good.

Michael Piller was also one of the creative forces behind DS9 and Voyager, both of which were better out of the gate than TNG was for two seasons.

Michael Piller knew what he was doing, but I feel he made one well-intended mistake: he felt that you should have a character that people dislike at first, so that character can have an arc and people will eventually get to like them. I get the concept behind that, but as a rule, you don't want people to dislike your characters. How about: you create a few characters with positive traits but also give them negative attributes to work on. That way they start off as basically likeable but you still get your arc.

Dr Bashir was the designated unlikeable character on DS9; they made him naive, cocky, and kind of bad at reading other people. I think a small tweak would have improved him. There's a point in the pilot episode where he comments to Major Kira that he chose to be assigned to DS9 because he wanted to practice "real frontier medicine", and she berates him for implying that Bajorans are savages. The pilot episode should have circled back around to this. Maybe have Dr Bashir setting up his infirmary, and a Bajoran couple bring in their little girl, who is limping and coughing. They want him to do something about the cough, he gives her an injection and she's fine immediately. A little bit too confidently he says he'd like to look at her leg and see if he can do anything to help; we get a slow zoom on his face as he sees her leg. Cut away to some other scene, then later, Bashir is sitting in his office with a far away look. Major Kira comes in and says the family wanted to thank Bashir for treating their daughter; Bashir says distantly that she'll be walking today, and playing like normal in a week. Then after a pause he says: "They crippled her. The Cardassians crippled her just because ... because they enjoyed it, or they just didn't care." And that's the scene where Bashir's cockiness starts fading. We won't have to wait until season 4; show the transformation starting right away.

(I'd also like a scene at some point where he's shown reciting a Bajoran healing prayer, in Bajoran, for an elderly Bajoran patient. He explains to Kira that he finds it comforts them. Kira gently explains to him that he got a couple words wrong; instead of saying "may the Prophets guide these hands to heal", he actually said "to make soup".)

Over on Voyager, Neelix was the designated dislikeable character, what with his jealousy over Kes and his annoying personality. Easy fix: make him more of a father character to Kes, who found her when she was very young and has tried to take care of her. You get to keep all the same jealousy story beats but they're about him not trusting that smooth-talking Nick Locarno wannabe.

Also: instead of making Neelix irritatingly upbeat, how about his deal is, he pays attention to people's moods and changes his manner to best approach them. That'd be handy for a diplomat, and maybe he could even get along with Tuvok better. I would have liked a Neelix who knew not to pester Tuvok with small talk, and simply had a gift at knowing when Tuvok was ready for more tea. Hell, make it so that Tuvok sometimes likes to hang out in the mess hall at night, when it's just him and Neelix, doing their respective jobs.

#StarTrek #DS9 #Voyager #TNG #michaelpìller

#StarTrekTheNextGeneration s3e26 & s4e1 (1990) - 10/10
The Best of Both Worlds, written by #MichaelPiller.

1️⃣ Riker's character arc in this story is a lot to do with why he's my favourite character. (In combination with 11001001 and Future Imperfect.) I love the fact that he knows where he should be.