Star Trek Deep Space Nine Ruminations S2E06: Melora

[@jessemay1547]

These are pure gold. You’re helping me appreciate these shows on a whole new level.

[@mattthericker]

1. If the gravity on her home 'planet' was as low as what was shown in her quarters, where you could basically fly around, I have to wonder if her home planet is actually the size of an asteroid, how it holds an atmosphere, and how people don't accidentally go into orbit by jumping. The gravity is obviously orders of magnitude weaker than Earth's moon, which itself doesn't have enough mass to hold an atmosphere. 2. I liked the Klingon chef singing toward the end. It was a nice touch.

[@rmsgrey]

There are at least three ways for a low-surface-gravity world to have a breathable atmosphere: 1) Escape velocity is a function of both surface gravity, and surface radius - a bigger planet with the same surface gravity will have a deeper gravity well, so a higher escape velocity, and will be able to hold on to atmosphere better. I suspect that if I were to actually sit down and work things out, it would turn out that a world large enough with low enough surface gravity would have to have some unlikely/impossible composition, so it wouldn't ever actually happen in practice, but I could be wrong about that, so I'm listing the possibility. 2) With a smaller body in close orbit around a much more massive body, while it can't hold its atmosphere itself, the parent body's gravity can still trap the gases in the same orbit - some of Jupiter's moons have an associated gas torus as a result of this phenomenon. Larry Niven's novels "The Integral Trees" and "The Smoke Ring" are set in the habitable portion of the gas torus formed by a gas giant in close orbit around a neutron star, providing a free-fall environment with a stable breathable atmosphere. 3) The world could be artificial - if there's no reason to preserve the ability to operate at standard gravity, it's going to be easier and cheaper to operate at a lower gravity in the (very) long term.

[@WhiteScarsEmo]

Funny thing: they got breathers and environmental suits for species that breathe exotic atmospheres. That's been established since TOS/TNG. But I kept wondering why they never made linear frames ("Cyberpunk 2020" reference) or exo-suits for species from low-gravity planets. The bit about differing cuisine was nice. I think it says a lot about a people, even in real life. Vulcans are vegans and don’t handle food with their fingers. Klingons like their foods fresh, or freshly-killed. And before it is over-played in later seasons, I thought it was new to see Klingons that were doing things other than being warriors.

[@Spartanj42]

Very forgettable, but Bashir has a couple of nice parts. Also I agree it really stuck out to me that Melora was being exceedingly rude to fellow officers, a superior officer (I mean I'd have to imagine they all outrank her) and comes this close to being rude to her COMMANDING officer. Yeah that's not cool.

[@timf7413]

To be fair, this is far from the only time that's happened in Star Trek. At least here, the rudeness had an actual in character motivation that made a reasonable amount of sense.

[@matthatter56]

Please tell me I am not the only one that thought how perfect A Whole New World would fit into the scene when Dr.Bashir and Melora were floating around in her room.

[@SchneeflockeMonsoon]

Given she made a “Little Mermaid” reference towards the end…

[@WhiteScarsEmo]

“The most terrifyingly dangerous environment that we know exists…” Outside of New Jersey, of course. Lol

[@Edax_Royeaux]

The only thing I cared about this episode was the Klingon Restaurateur, he was awesome and they never bring him back. In DS9's Blood Oath, Kang lamented that in the 2370s, Klingon warriors were opening restaurants to serve racht to the grandchildren of men he slaughtered in battle.. I did think that was a bit odd since having Klingon restaurants can't exactly have been a new development in the Empire.

[@antourte1]

I thought he appeared at least a couple times, although never featured so much as here! I have no specifics to point to though. Anyway only reason I came to comments on this one is to agree with you haha.

[@JanetDax]

Well, the whole thing is Melora starts out being about handicaped issues and turns into The Little Mermaid. Melora chooses not to leave her magical world. Different from a straight handicap issue.

[@enlightedjedi]

From what I remember her trouble our our dear doctor's treatment is that then she needed accommodations for her home planet. It is something akin to a homo sapiens making modifications to breathe methane assuming that most of the galactic community breathes methane .

[@athrunzala6919]

I never read the Titan novels but Melora is in charge of the astrometric lab, she floats around there with holographic displays of the stars all day. One of the key features of the Titan was its environmental system. So much control that every square meter of the ship could have a different environmental and gravitational setting. I suppose that she could walk down the corridor with the environmental system following her with the required specifications as she chats with a Human or Xindi Aquatic next to her. The Titan novels being about 12-15 years in the future from this episode.

[@rebeccatomlin3121]

Props about the food idea for fleshing out setting- got to try that!

[@glynncordry5965]

Before DS9 premiered, or was even fully cast, I saw George Tikai (sp, Sulu) at a small one day convention in Macon, Georgia. He talked about the upcoming series. His understanding was that the character from a low gravity planet who was at home in her own lab and flew about...was one of the main cast....like the science officer. When I saw the episode I thought she was finally being added to the crew.

[@tnorthrup1986]

so, I've been watching these from when you started tackling these two Star Trek series, and I'm very happy with your approach and like your analysis even if I haven't agreed or disagreed enough to make a comment on it. oddly enough I found something you did about Dragon Age a long time ago and was looking for that again when I stumbled upon that series. anyway, this episode of DS9 really spoke to me the first time I watched it. part of it was because it was a Bashir episode, and love him or hate him as one might for justifiable reasons, I was the kindergarten kid who didn't feel of a piece with the other young kids on the playground and wanted to go talk and play with the 6th graders during recess. I've always been that uncomfortablely smart kid/adult with the sky hi IQ relative to my peers who struggles a bit to figure out how to navigate socially and a lot of early Bashir reads very much that to me. Genetic modifications or not, he is now exceedingly gifted, which is a blessing and a curse. Of course he sabotages his romantic relationship with Jadzia at the beginning, because it is too big of a risk not to. and when I hit my teens I suddenly became weirdly different in a starkly different way. I know mental health and physical health problems/disabilities/differences are very hard to compare, but my bipolar disorder meant there was now something other people had to be wary of, had to deal with in regards to me, and it never sat well with me. it still really doesn't. I still am pissed that I sometimes show up at work a couple hours after i get up (i live a 15 minute walk from work) and get a few hours into my shift and realize "oh, shit, I'm going to have to ask my boss for the rest of the day off or I'm going to bite this customer's head off" or "oh boy, I'm going to have to keep my eyes completely glued to my screen today because my thoughts of how attractive that other coworker guy over there is are both going to distract me and really not work, as he is straight and I'm gay." and so on and so forth. it doesn't much matter that they usually don't come up even, because there is always the threat that this will be one of the days that my medication and my coping mechanisms and all won't quite add up to be enough to overcome my biochemistry. in some ways I almost think that is worse than the daily requirement to be in a wheelchair. at least that is a given you can factor in on a consistent basis. so I get why Melora is so biting. I get why she would insist upon doing this alone. other people, especially those I'm not going to be around for a long time and develop a semi-permeanent working relationship with are often more of an obstacle than an aid, and oh, by the way, I don't want to be reminded that I may need help. Maybe she did take it too far, but I understand the impulse very keenly. and so yes, the romance was maybe a bit too much fling of the week, but I get the intense vulnerability that comes with dropping the mask and pretense that comes with being developing a friendship and establishing trust with another. if any of my other really good friends were gay men I bet I would have been tempted to romanticize that. if I were Melora, I'd be sorely tempted to fall for Bashir because he is the first guy to get my guard down and decent and . . . i hope you get my point. yes the romance was formulaic but it was believable, from both ends. Bashir is meeting someone with just as much of a guard as him and they are both dropping the guard. and Melora is meeting someone for evidently the first time who actually cares about her as a person regardless of her problems and challenges, or maybe even because of them. Those are both powerful emotional triggers that I could see feeling a lot like love.

[@nickokona6849]

This episode reminded me of a DS9 “Loud as a whisper”. As someone with a unique visual disability, I appreciate the comment on ableism and living with disabilities. Loud as a whisper was far superior for my money. The Geordi element obviously spoke more directly to me. I think the romance of the week element spoils what could have been. The reason some reasons with disabilities wouldn’t accept a treatment or cure because it inherently acknowledges that there’s something wrong with you. That you as you are would be ok only for said treatment. It flies in the face of people being ok and happy with who and what they are. Think of when Riva asks Geordi resented his VISOR. Geordi says no. Because it’s part of who and what he is, and he Likes who he is, so there’s no reason to resent it. He also rejects various treatments throughout the series for similar reasons.

[@fredrikcarlstedt393]

When one watches this episode with all of the later hindsight about Bashir it is easy to see his behaviour as just pure dissembling and warping of the real truth about himself .

[@tbk2010]

I remember this episode mainly for the fact that it finally deals with what should be a regular issue: Different species coming from planets with different gravity living on the same ship/station. And what about different atmospheres? What if air is toxic to some? Etc, etc... Mass Effect and B5 did this a bit better, but you still have that overly convinient fact that most species that are relevant on a galactic scale happen to be similar enough to hang out in the same room. On the other hand, it's space opera - you have to accept certain unrealistic premises for the genre to work, like faster-than-light travel. Still wish they would address these issues more though.

[@tee_es_bee]

Greatly enjoyed this episode. Although, I must agree that Odo performed considerably below his standard in this episode as a security officer. Suspected that he'll shape-shift his way to the meeting to catch the guy red handed. Well, it was at least good to see Sisko was handling the situation in a very capable manner.

[@jackboren431]

I think there's the possibility that if she had become the science officer then this wouldn't have been the fling of the week, but instead an on-going relationship. But once they realized she couldn't become a recurring character because of budget constraints it was too late to write out the romance which had already been filmed.

[@Tuvok_Shakur]

I actually forgot this episode as well, but I still enjoyed it also for what it is. Btw, I've fairly recently discovered your channel, and your discussions made it to where I could re watch the series and get something totally new out of it with TNG and DS9. I wasn't able to watch voyager because the flaws bothered me too much, but you're able to extract the good bits which I couldn't do on my own helping me to enjoy it to the point where I can actually watch it.

[@kaitlyn__L]

I think her treatment is probably less like Lasik, and more like... if Lasik made you see worse in the dark, or become extremely photosensitive, or something - in addition to the desired effect. Some people just disagree about something being an objective improvement or not, like the KZbinr Molly Burke is so accustomed to doing things by ear or by touch that she's said simply having to re-adapt to seeing again would be more work for her than going on with her learned mitigation strategies. She's also said that the passive/active echolocation thing is a different avenue of "seeing" that most sighted people are "blind" to (or at least very "visually impaired" to - we might hear a car approaching, but we can't hear walking past a tree). I'm autistic, and I'm not interested in a cure at all. It might be useful to pick up on body language cues subconsciously and stuff, but I'd also lose the heightened senses I have (I believe it even shows on MRIs and CAT scans that our brains "light up" stronger to stimulus). I'd lose the ability to enjoy my special interests, or infosponge and never forget any of it. I won't list every pro and con, but for me, it would be a net negative to lose these parts of myself even if certain things did become easier. Some of these aspects are so core to how I interpret and interact with the world, that I really feel like any theoretical cure would actually be creating a different person, in much the same way as my self before starting HRT feels like a different person now. But I also have chronic pain. That doesn't really open up any new avenues of experience for me, it's only limiting, so if I could take some gene therapy pill in the future I would. It's very personal, and depends highly on how the person feels about a condition, about whether they'd go for a cure or not. Often it seems that if something is easily mitigated (like needing glasses), the desire for a cure is quite low. If a disability stops someone from doing something they used to love and do a lot, they'll usually want a cure. But when it lies in the middle - can be mitigated with medium effort, has its pros and cons, then it's almost impossible to predict if someone would want to "fix" it, or if they'd rather just keep on as they are because they've already invested their time and effort into mitigating. Like, if you suddenly became allergic to a food you never ate.. it probably won't matter. But if you suddenly couldn't eat any of your favourite foods, you might want a cure. But conversely, I know a few people with feeding tubes. At first, they missed being able to eat food normally. But now, food has lost all appeal to them. They wouldn't be interested in a cure if it meant taking away the tube. Most people would be like, but the joy of sharing a meal with friends, your favourite thing well prepared... but that's an alien concept to them now. Because the brain is so plastic. I know people who use wheelchairs who'd do anything to walk and run again. I also know people who use wheelchairs, who can now move faster and more competentlythan they ever could on legs, and would want to keep using it even if they were cured. Some in the latter group were even in the former group, until they got an appropriate tailor made chair, designed for self propulsion instead of for a nurse to push. I think you did a pretty good job of being sensitive and stuff, despite the self professed lack of lived experience. Especially in recognising that a temporary disability is different to live through than a lifelong/chronic one. Most people I know prefer the term wheelchair user over wheelchair bound, but I'm sure that could also be a generational thing - I've met people the same age as our parents who do call themselves wheelchair bound. It also probably correlates with how much mobility you have left - some can get in and out of bed unassisted, some just need a cane, and some need hoists and a nurse. Being able to be independent with just a couple of aids, vs always being dependent even with aids, probably gives one a different idea of how freeing a piece of technology is.

[@mb2000]

I liked the Klingon restaurant too, although I do wonder how the Klingon owner justified doing that over going the obvious route of being in the military and a warrior; “They will sing many great songs of my victories in battle AGAINST HUNGER!!”

[@stargate1990]

Thanks for these 🙂 I watch a few episodes of ds9 then watch these ruminations. I've listened to your ruminations since the original ME3 Ending Boom always worth it I don't always agree (obviously) but I genuinely enjoy hearing other pov and the background info. Thank you

[@DrZaius3141]

The thing to note about people with disabilities, or even more specific, people in wheelchairs is that they are as diverse in their mind sets as people without. I've worked for about a year with dozens of wheelchair-bound people, and there were those that constantly made fun of their situation ("Sorry I don't get up." and stuff like that), and there were those that were extremely bitter and highly suspicious. In other words, her portrayal hits the nail on the head - for some. That includes her persecution complex. When all your life you are forbidden to do certain things because of that wheelchair, you just logically start to assume that when you're forbidden from doing something the next time, it's because of the wheelchair. As to her rudeness: people allowed her to be rude all the time, because they don't want to be rude back at her. It's basically a test - she wants to be treated as an equal, and you treat an equal by not taking their shit and calling them out. Bashir treated her as an equal throughout the whole episode.

[@WheelieGoodGames]

It's a learned trait regardless of which end of the stick we grab.

[@mr51406]

This episode is worth watching only for the awesome Klingon restaurant scene. Totally agree with Lore’s idea about food. It is indeed the most basic thing about any culture, any living thing really. The chef should have been a regular! ⭐️ Memory Alpha has the translation of the dialogue. There is indeed nothing worse than half-dead Gagh. 😜 I usually avoid the “wuv” episodes. I endured it better this time. Yes Melora has a chip on her shoulder and this should have been dealt with at the Academy. Oh well… For a “fling o’the week” I found it relatively realistic and, especially, respectful. Some real romances and a few friendships have begun with flings. And sometimes a chocolate sundae is all you want or need, no shame. Not the last time Bashir will fall for a patient though…

[@permeus2nd]

maybe its a mindset thing, i am disabled now and im getting worse, if someone does something to help me (like holding a door) i am grateful for it and depending on what it is like my cousin cleaning up the front garden for me and my mum (who is extremely disabled to the point that if she stopped taking some of her 14 different types of medication a day she would die) i feel guilty that i can't do the job or at least help with it. but in my past i would hold the door (dam you game of thrones) for lots of different people man, woman, young or old, disabled and able bodied i was just been polite, so like i said its just a mindset thing in the same vein that i don't really see someone's skin colour unless its really extreme like David dickinson's heavy fake tan or it is pointed out to me. 15:24 i can't think of a time in all of DS9 where its less that two people using a runabout?

[@gingeroverseer9302]

I am intrigued by your interest in multi cultural food in star trek and have been following your ruminations on TNG. The Borg have come up recently and Im excited to hear you talk about them moving forward. Im now curious what do Borg eat? Or what nutritional intake do they require if any? Also side note forgive me. I would love for comedic enjoyment if you did an Archengeia soundboard for all your funny and cool emotes and common lines. Id really like that. Perhaps something to ask your patrons. If I could get my Patreon working Id certainly pass a few dollars your way now that I'm reasonably financially stable. Thank you as always for a great rumination.

[@maflipse]

The episode "I, Borg" suggests that the Borg do not need nutrition as we know it, as their implants provide all the nourishment, they simple need energy to ensure their implants keep working and can continue to supply the nourishment needed.

[@sirjaunty1]

The Borg eat Swedish tennis balls.

[@Dameduse823]

Before watching your video on this I did remember there was an episode with a woman in a 'wheelchair' who worked in zero gravity, I think mostly because I would love to get to experience zero gravity, but honestly I thought it was a tng episode and even now having rewatched it and watched your video I still feel like this was a cast off tng script.

[@mikaelm5367]

@Lorerunner For the record, I am physically disabled. Not severely, but it does have a minor impact on my day to day. And I have never understood the "we don't need a cure" thing. Ever. I understand, of course, the natural distate towards a "mad science" solution, if you will forgive the term, that might have further deletrious effects, but if there was randomly an injection I could take, once only, that would give me the human baseline in physical characteristics, allow me to run and keep my balance as effectively as anyone else, with no side effects, I would take it in a heartbeat. And yet there are people I have talked to who are completely blind, but object to the idea of being able to see again. They see it as part of their identity, and I don't understand it at all. By my perspective, it is absurd to treat any part of one's identity as immutable. Part of living and experiencing is to change, hopefully for the better, and I cannot comprehend anybody who would refuse an unequivicably positive change out of misguided principle/pride. This is purely anectdotal, but I wonder if part of it is a lack of perspective. I've never met or heard of anyone with partial or later in life blindness who would not leap at the chance to see again, just as you, I and many others who have had their mobility reduced rejoice in returning to a full range of motion. As condescending as it may seem, I wonder if they don't quite realise what they're missing.

[@kaitlyn__L]

It's less about refusing an obvious improvement, and more about debating whether it would be an improvement. Often it seems to depend on how much work mitigations are, and what might be lost in the experience. I brought up Molly Burke in my own comment, but she's said multiple times that she's glad she doesn't have to see gross things, like bad injuries or what people do in their cars. She doesn't feel affected by it in her day to day life, she can use her computer and phone and all of that. I think she's even said she feels sorry for sighted people because they're "blind" to many things she experiences and appreciates. She wasn't born blind, so she does know what she's missing - she just doesn't value it high enough to want it back. I'm a very visual person, so I can't directly relate, but I respect it. It's obviously something she'd thought about a lot and came to the conclusion, rather than coming from ignorance. Now I would love my chronic pain to be cured. But I wouldn't want my autism to be cured. (As I also said in my own comment). I feel like my chronic pain is all cons, where my autism has pros AND cons. And my autism feels very tied up in my identity. Not in a "well I'm used to it so it's part of me" way, but in that it fundamentally changes the way I perceive and interact with the world. So I feel like I would be a fundamentally different person if I was suddenly made non-autistic. But I don't think I'd be a fundamentally different person if I was pain free, could sleep uninterrupted, etc. When you add in the kinds of communities that can rise up around disabilities, like with Deaf people and learning sign language and being around people who don't just talk louder or refuse to write stuff down... I can understand why one might be reticent to get hearing aids or cochlear implants. Even ignoring the potential side effects of the implants, it would remove them partially from the community experience. And such things say it's Something Wrong, instead of merely a different way of being. Rikki Poynter talked a bit about that and why she doesn't want treatments to hear again. Usually it's about far more than "I see this as part of my identity just because I'm accustomed to it", as you kind of sort of put it. Like, you feel only limited by your disability, so it's natural to want it fixed. But plenty of people aren't negatively affected by theirs day to day, only when a situation or person comes up and makes it an issue. So then it feels akin to a society saying "we have to fix tall people for being too tall. They have to bend over to get through some doors and that's just not right". The tall person would probably say, can't we just try to make taller doors going forward? They might even be attached to being tall, since the world literally looks different from lower down. Similarly, people I know in wheelchairs get so used to being functionally shorter, that when they can stand for a little while, it just feels wrong to be seeing stuff from so tall a perspective. I don't really have a point here, except maybe that wanting a cure instead of just treatment is a very personal thing and there's no easy way to guess what is considered a problem rather than just another option. Most of the time I see the topic discussed, the conclusion is never "so don't try to make a cure", but rather, "don't try to force anybody to take the cure, either directly or by removing accommodations".

[@nt78stonewobble]

@@kaitlyn__L It's certainly an interesting topic. Whether a cure is truly free of side effects or it's pro's vs. cons. I could also see there being a big difference in whether it's mental or physical. And finally whether the person in question sees their handicap/illness/problem/whatever as part of their identity or as something that might have shaped their identity. Personally I've had, at times, rather crippling social anxiety and it has probably made me into a person that doesn't aspire as much for social contact as others, however, if given the option to get completely rid of it (with no side effects), I would probably take it. I might still not choose to go out as often as others, but for the times I would like to, it would be an incredible help and thus the fix might also change me in the other direction. Or possibly change me back to what I was before. :)

[@quelsen]

@lorerunner You do qualify. the only difference is that you were able to recover. you cant know the depth of despair possible to those who cannot but you can certainly empathize with the issue. despair is a separate issue that has to be managed separately. that is why you find some people who don't seem to have any F to give and some who cry in the beer. Melora was angry that she drew the short straw and wanted to live in that misery. I can understand that in my own issue, should the Dungeon Master suddenly decide to roll a natural 20 on CureAll on my character I would struggle to accept it and not be angrier knowing that the Dm had that ability all my life

[@WheelieGoodGames]

There is so much wrong with this statement I don't even know where to begin poking the stick.

[@devonanderson2902]

You know, Lore, I think you and I would get along "famously". As long as you can keep your "big ego" in check. Ha ha.

[@kardy12]

I don’t think Melora’s reaction is in any way over the top. It’s harsh, yes, but not unreasonable. Particularly if she has had bad experience in the past - and sorry, but Starfleet doesn’t have to be incompetent for not all trainees to get exactly the support they need (unless of course you think every organisation is incompetent). And I detect a bit of a lack of empathy here. Having to use glasses to see is a bit different from having to rely on far more visible and intrusive tools to operate normally. I also use glasses, but I wouldn’t for a moment think that use of technology is even remotely equivalent to someone having to use a wheelchair to get by every day. But yes, the whole Bashir love story part of it was just pointless, and actually detracts from the rest of the episode. And as you point out, the concept of differential gravities from other worlds is something rarely even touched on in Star Trek - concentrating on that would have made the story more compelling, and allowed more character development with Melora.

[@kaitlyn__L]

For whatever it's worth, my friends who use wheelchairs regularly make that comparison. One even desperately wants laser eye surgery despite vehemently not wanting to walk again. Of course it's all very personal, but I do think it's valid to say "my ability to live would be severely affected by only being able to see 5 inches, but the modern fix (glasses) makes it a non-issue". That's basically the definition of the "social model of disability" (which says that society and your environment plays a much bigger part in dictating what you can and can't do than anything inherent - if every building had ramps and elevators instead of stairs, there would be no detriment to using a chair, etc.).

[@johnashley327]

That klingon restaurant was gross.

[@john9550]

great intro

[@williamcody1849]

I love this opening; its so true, lets say I want to have a nice civil not confrontational at all and pleasant conversation about Columbus.... good luck with that lol

[@TheRoyalFamilyII]

This episode is so forgettable, that even when I remembered what the episode was about ("oh yah, it's a Bashir gets a gf episode...which one was that...?"), I didn't remember any particular thing about it until you started to mention it. As for the not-getting-past-the-mask thing, it seems to me that Starfleet in general, at least in this period, has a culture very much against personal confrontation. I think OOC it's a result of the "no interpersonal conflicts between the main characters because EVOLVED HUMANITY" thing that was stressed in early TNG. But a person like Melora could totally abuse that, and no one would call her on it...or really deal with it. She probably would have become admiral in record time - that's how admirals get to be so nasty.

[@user-yv4mm6bx3c]

This is a very forgettable episode. For me, one reason is that during DS9's original airing, it's one of a few that I can count on one hand that I missed. Additionally, as DS9 becomes more serialized, this episode has no bearing on the rest of the show.

[@Kinepho]

Frankly this episode was boring as hell.