Also, I always mix it up with the spectacularly cheesy Chevalier Ardent which, as the name suggests, is totally absolutely completely not a rip-off at all.

thats the first link i've followed here that wasn't in english. but the picture on the cover reminded me of iron man for some reason...

also, let me add that i've seen Enterprise, TNG, and the original. Enterprise really sucked, i thought quantom leap was probably better, even though i've only seen it years ago. macguyver is where its at btw.

I'll echo that DS9 (like every Trek show) starts slowly (and weakly). There are several good early episodes, but they are few and far between. If you start with the season finale of Season 2, which introduces the Dominion with the Jemhedar and Vorta, you'll do pretty good from there forward. Myself, I think the best place to start is at least with ep 23 of season 2, The Wire, which is a tour de force for the former Scorpio killer, Andrew J Robinson. That way you'll also see the reintroduction of the Mirror Universe (which will appear a few more times later in the series) and you'll also catch one of the early "let's torture O'Brien" episodes, which are generally very good.

The war arcs don't really start until Season 4 with the reintroduction of Worf from the TNG. Season 3, with a few exceptions (Meridian, ugh; Fascination, double ugh), is still very good though.

If you want to watch any episodes in Season 1 or 2, the ones to see are:

Season 1
11: The Nagus (though not as much if you don't like the Ferengi)
19: Duet: Very well acted.
20: In The Hands of the Prophets: For the introduction of Vedek/Kai Winn.

Season 2
1 2 and 3: the opening 3 part-er about the Circle is quite good with a great performance from an uncredited Frank Langella
7: Rules of Acquisition: This plot point will be referenced in the future. Not the greatest episode though. Again, if you hate the Ferengi, skip it.
8: Necessary Evil: DS9 does a murder mystery. Okay, but not great.
13: Armageddon Game: The beginning of the O'Brien/Bashir friendship
14: Whispers: More, torture O'Brien. Nice episode that has you guessing throughout.
20-21: The Marquis: Not a great episode, but introduced the idea of a plot point that would reappear multiple times and even be the basis of the next Trek series, Voyager.


Oh, and something that will *really* enhance your enjoyment of Deep Space Nine, would be getting a hold of one of the best Companion books in the history of the genre, Deep Space Nine Companion.

I agree entirely with your grievance with "Nerd Culture," as you put it, and particularly this paragraph. That's one of the reasons I work for a non-profit devoted to independent film, to find like-minded individuals who wouldn't immediately be turned off by the latest Alexander Sokurov, Bela Tarr, Mike Leigh or Lars Von Trier film.

Though I have plenty of guilty pleasures still, much of the genre juvenilia that I adored as a teen has lost its luster in varying degrees. I was never a comic book/superhero fan, but I read plenty of pulp fantasy & sci-fi I definitely couldn't stomach today for a variety of reasons.

In the TV medium it's especially true: Old episodes of Red Dwarf are not as side-splittingly funny, old eps of Blackadder not as brilliantly satirical, old eps of Doctor Who not as mind-blowingly magical or old eps of Star Trek no longer as ethically provocative. Though I can still find a different sort of enjoyment in revisiting those things, mostly small moments in a particular performance of an actor or some witty esoteric reference in the script that I overlooked as a kid.

A recent example was my attempt to watch the serialized MTV cartoon show "Daria" again, a sardonic lampooning of high school life that aired in the late 90s. I adored it then and felt it "spoke" to me as a misfit intellectual, etc. But the only thing I really took from it now was the realization of how long ago High School was. I probably couldn't get into Buffy the Vampire Slayer today either.

I find I can still enjoy plenty of of Good Old Games, ones not merely good because one played them when callow, young, and naive, but good *period*. Hence why I'm here.

To be fair, most people never even get the chance to decide whether they like the directors you mentioned. I'm not sure about how the situation is in America (although according to noted critic Jonathan Rosenbaum it's really bad), but more often than not you have to go out of your way to specifically search for infos about their movies. And of course, if you haven't heard of them in the first place, you won't do that. It's a vicious cycle the art form seems to be trapped in. (Von Trier is an exception, at least in Europe, but that's partly because he's so good at publicity. Ideally, you wouldn't have to tell people that you're a Nazi to get a genuinely great movie in the headlines).
Sometimes it's hard to get a hold of famous movies even if you know exactly what you're looking for and are prepared to jump through hoops to get there. Hou Hsiao-hsien is one of the most acclaimed directors working today, but getting hold of subtitled versions of some of his highest rated features is an incredible pain. Don't even wanna know how many great movies go completely unnoticed.

Which is why the disdain for arthouse movies is so annoying. If they were as easy to come by and get information about as the big mainstream productions, at least everybody were free to form their own opinion. As it is, such bigoted views hurt them even more. Hollywood films are fun, while arthouse ones are boring, difficult and pretentious... I've heard such opinions expressed so often that I begin to understand how people become swayed by them.

Hell, we bitch about how many classic games are treated, and for good reason, but for a movie lover the situation is much worse. I'm hoping for digital distribution of movies to become similarly widespread as it has in the case of games. A movie GOG could be fantastic.

Anyway, it's great that you seem to be doing something to promote arthouse movies. All I ever find the energy to do is gift those I think are worthy of more exposure to friends. If I can get my hands on a copy, that is.

I think that's as it should be. Some things one will find are as great as they used to be (maybe even more so? Unlikely, but certainly possible), some will still have some relevance, and many one will have outgrown completely. It's just a matter of maturing, of developing a more sophisticated taste and raising ones standard, of getting to know more of the world, of growing up.

Excellent episode. One of my favorite episodes along with Improbable Cause and The Die is Cast. You can't go wrong with any Garak (Obama) episode anyway.

And Odo is awesome.

The TMNT cartoon from the 80s feels extremely dated now. Shame, I followed that shit religiously as a kid:(
But the majority of my fav childhood saturday cartoons have aged really well or even better!

Goof Troop
Timon & Pumbaa
Quack Pack
Aladdin
Hell, even 'The Little Mermaid' series

Still watching Deep Space Nine episodes, chanting "It is bound to get better, it is bound to get better...". The latest episode I saw was that one chick becoming pregnant and getting a child which ages very fast. Uh, okay.

It cracked me up when the local TV channel was advertising these DS9 reruns:

"Now is your chance to go back to where no man has gone before!" :D

Uh oh... Disregard everything I've said before about Deep Space Nine. It appears I've been watching Star Trek: The Next Generation reruns now, not DS9! :D It's the series with the bald guy, right? Look, I always watched it from my TV recorder box, skipping the intro, that's why I watched it this long not catching the apparent thing from the title... Shit, feeling stupid now. :D

Any reason to continue watching ST: NG? Doesn't seem that interesting so far.