198. Plus A Change

Liz takes a deep dive into Usenet archives and tells Anika about fandom's earliest discussions of Star Trek: Deep Space 9! (Please note, we are still having audio problems -- despite literally nothing changing in our set ups, Liz's feed is echoing on Anika's channel. This means Anika had to be muted for a lot of the time. At this point we may have to get two tin cans and a really big ball of string to record…) 

• What was Usenet? (Please do not fact check Liz on the technical details.)
• And who was using it?
• The initial response to DS9 before "Emissary" aired…
• …and after. Here's Roger Tang's 5 January 1993 post with his impressions: "EMISSARY betrayed far too many of the storytelling flaws that have plague[d] TNG over the last two-three years."
• The very gendered language of the era: Picard and Bashir are "weenies", Dax and Kira are "chicks", but Dax is also a "bimbo" or "airhead" and Kira "has balls". And that's before we get to the slurs…
• Anika defends Terry Farrell from the Trekkies of 32 years ago.
• We may not be a Pittcast, but we ARE ride or die for Trinity Santos, thank you for asking.
• Michael Lee Jacobs' commentary on "Emissary": "It was almost painful to watch TNG right after the two wonderful hours of DS9 this evening." How much are these Usenet posters representative of the wider fandom? Where were other conversations taking place? 
• Babylon 5 was The Orville of the 1990s, in terms of its fans coming into Star Trek spaces to say, "Stop watching that new Trek with the Black lead, this show with the white dude is way better!"
• A really fascinating (and incomplete) debate about whether the Garak/Bashir interactions in "Past Prologue" were intended as a homophobic depiction of queerness. A bunch of straight men say no! 
• The one thing from this era (and the years following it) that we would like to bring back is people sharing their long-form thoughts on new episodes of TV. Like this post on "Duet" which Liz didn't get around to talking about!
• Finally, shout out to this prediction, a week after "Emissary" aired, which was completely wrong but also … kind of right?