The Wounded

The Federation and the Cardassians enjoy a tenuous peace. But that peace is thrown into jeopardy when Captain Benjamin Maxwell takes his ship into Cardassian space and starts blowing things up. Things with Cardassians in them. Captain Picard is ordered to take the Enterprise into Cardassian space, stop Maxwell, and preserve the peace at any cost. Oh, and bring some Cardassians with you. All of that and – believe it or not – this is a Miles O’Brien episode. Find out why when we put The Wounded in the Mission Log. This episode is completely forgetable. Most episodes after hearing the synopsis I have a pretty clear memory of the episode. This one I don’t remember even seeing it though I know I have. These guys live in a world where as far as we can tell there is little or no loss in their society. They have near infinite energy, replicators, etc and for people who are rather detached from people like a society might get with stellar travel you could live yourself with no loss whatsoever. Think about it, you need a house you got it, you want the type of food you want you got it, you want entertainment, you got it. That guy that died hundreds of years ago didn’t write another book, tell the computer to make it. Someone takes your shirt, here’s a new one. etc etc etc. So when they experience a loss it must be a very foreign feeling…And going nuts from any loss, let alone family, really isn’t all that outrageous. Another interesting thing you guys brought up was the idea that people don’t eat other peoples’ food and people are all distinctly diverse and you commenting on how that is strange, but I gotta say, that struck me as another thing that can be said to be connected to a very “toxic” ideology’s idea, which is called “Cultural Appropriation”. Could it be that in Star Trek’s timeline people made these crazy arguments and people accepted them so that people have very distinct cultural lines that it is considered wrong/taboo to cross and thus people don’t partake in others’ culture? Weirdly, the end of this episode is the opposite of The Neutral Zone scene between Marc Alaimo and Patrick Stewart. Both are very much a case of “You think we’re not paying attention, here, but you are very much wrong about that.” Why are Cardassians so mean? 35 hours per day in the make-up chair! That’s why! btw, Congrat on getting through the entire podcast without a “Keeping up with the Cardassians” reference. Ted Knight as Carter Winston, the 23rd Century fashion pioneer who brought the ‘ascot ‘n 70’s pornstar mustache’ look to the galaxy. That said (in classic ABCDEDCBA fashion), I now feel, more than ever, compelled to see this show (Space:1999) first-hand. Because the more I see of ostentatious 70s fashion, the more I love it. EsPECially the idea of people going into space dressed for the discotheque. Trek used to be fun and innocent that way. The new Trek movies are too wedded with the idea of appropriating the shallowest look of the 60s with modern flash. Would it hurt them to throw one bushy mustache, frizzy/fluffy hair, or pair of bell-bottomed slacks into the mix? Trek existed in the 1970s too. Someone’s gotta represent. No joke – I’ve got a stack of ascots. For real. And do check out Space: 1999 – the first season being far better than the second. Remember, Ken had never seen it so we’re not automatically assuming everyone is familiar with it. For a good number of sci-fi fans though, it filled the gap between Star Trek and Star Wars. The ’70s were indeed very different… Really? I remember it differently: That you guys waxed rhapsodic about this sci-fi show I had barely heard of. Which made me feel left out. And thus, outraged. In the middle of my own podcast. I can’t speak for the kids of the 70s (since I was born in a later decade), but the more I look back on it, it seems like a more vibrant, chaotic (in a good way), and innocent time to be alive. Or, at least, to have been young. Today, Star Trek, and everything else, is conce