Maya Angelou was my commencement speaker at Illinois back in '02. I remember it being fantastically warm and charming in a grandmotherly way — and vaguely inspirational, but of the kind where her words just sort of dissolved into a vaguely Oprah-scented mist the minute I stepped outside the auditorium.

She was definitely three dimensional in that I wanted to hit her with a sock full of batteries from every possible angle.

With regard to the Prime Directive, "truth" means the natural evolution of a civilization with outside interference; it's true, pure path as it were. Thus, aiding such civilization discovering this truth requires that more advanced civilizations withhold contact.

I wouldn't say the DS9 ep overplayed the lesbianism, but they definitely played it in the first place. You can make the argument that the fact that no one makes an issue of them being same-sex shows how progressive it is, but I doubt the creators would have been so casual about it if it had been men instead of women.

Simplest explanation: It all happened because Riker was shit-hammered.

Everybody's aware of what they have to do if they should have the opportunity to make the first post, right? I just want to get all our ducks in a row here.

*nice lady

For sure, Scruggs — the Ferengi episodes tended to be pretty dire. At the bottom of the DS9 episode ratings, you'll find Lwaxana and Quark's mom battling it out for the title of Most Irritating Brassy Old Broad.

Agreed. I had the same feeling about Odo and Kira — putting aside the weirdness of a non-sexed (though gendered) shapeshifter having a sexual attraction to a humanoid, Rene AuboGuy just seemed way too old for Nana Visitor.

Man, Cost of Living. What a turdball. Why the hell did they persist in writing Lwaxana Troi episodes? They had to know by this point in the show that a) they were always terrible (except for that one that was merely mediocre) and b) the fans hated them. Or rather, I imagine they hated them. Was there really that much…

@Bad Horse

If you think about it, it is pretty funny.

"Is anyone here an exobiologist?"

"Michelle and I both had some reservations about the Riker/Ro liaison that we talked about at length with the writers and the director. You might almost call it an interesting 'conundrum'! It does raise some interesting questions about consent vis-a-vis self-knowledge — to what extent is consent contingent on memory?…

I just assumed the founders of the colony were all shreddin' mountain bikers.

General Gordon, I see what you're saying, but for me, the appeal of Worf on DS9 wasn't watching him develop as a character; it was just having the opportunity to watch more of a character I already enjoyed. Pretty much as simple as that. His presence, and all the Klingon business that came with it, gave DS9 a big shot…

Not to mention the terror of the ship being fired upon and not having any idea what's happening. Really, they should have just done a saucer separation immediately upon leaving space dock and driven around the galaxy in the weird ship-stump.

"Honestly, I was a bit troubled by Violations. While I understand what the writers were going for, I think the execution was pretty lacking. And poor Mirina — how many times does she have to be on the receiving end of a metaphorical assault like that? She's a beautiful woman, to be sure, so on the surface it makes…

Side note: The name "Cirroc Lofton" always struck me as more alien than most of the actual aliens you'd see on the show. When I caught DS9 for the first time as a kid, I thought they'd accidentally transposed the "[actor] as [character]" convention for him during the opening credits.

Men-O-Night
The Hook and Eye
Plain Players
Jacob Miller's Old-Timey Boner Silo