TenForward: Where Every Vulcan Knows Your Name

The other story element that struck me was the symbology of the Circle spray painting their logo onto Sisko's apartment doorway. It's striking when you compare the Bajoran Circle to the historical KKK and combine it with the fact that the DS9 storyline involves a black man and his son dealing with a far right extremist nationalist group.

It's like a 24th century cross burning on someone's doorstep on a distant space station. Cross burnings on someone's front lawn was a way to intimidate opponents and make them stop any counter protest or opposition movement. Spray painting your logo onto an opponents front door attempts to do the same thing.

I'm very certain that the symbolism in the production wasn't lost on Avery Brooks.

I just finished watching Season 2 Episode 3 ..... the three episodes together felt like an entire movie length feature, great writing and great story.

I like how honest and a lot of true to life scenarios they put into the production. There is no fluff, heroism and super hero antics ... a bit of fighting and laser shooting but nothing overly dramatic. The most important part of the three episodes to me was the parallel they made to our own history and the political extremist movements we dealt with a hundred years ago, 30 years ago and today - extremist elements that want to take over government in undemocratic ways to follow a flawed logic of racial purity, government control and authoritarian power.

It amazed me that the parallels of this episode trilogy are still relevant today ... especially right now with the movements of extremist forces in the US as well as extremists forces in many other countries around the world (including Canada where I'm from) that draw off of populist ideas of nationalism and purity of race, religion or identity. It was especially surprising to see that symbol that almost looked like an OK hand sign ... an eerie coincidence to the hand gesture that has become popular as a far right racist gesture in modern times.

I grew up watching TNG in the 90s because it was available on cable .. but never really had the chance to watch it all when I was teen. I finally watched all of it in the early 2000s when I bought myself the entire series. As soon as I finished it, I went over to Voyager and watched all that because I had also watched a handful of episodes when they came out but not really. I also saw DS9 but I always had a hard time watching any one episode .... there was so much backstory to everything that you had to follow a season or two to fully appreciate any one episode. The funny part is that DS9 is about the same number of seasons and episodes as TNG and VOY but for some reason DS9 feels more like a political / social drama than the other Trek shows ... not to mention DS9 is more linear and interconnected rather than episodic like TNG and VOY.

I've heard so much about the show and I've always wanted to see it, that about a month ago, I started watching it from the start. I just finished the first 3 episodes of season 2 and like you say ... the show is very grounded and relatable to the world that it eerily feels like it is still relevant to what is happening in the world now.

It's exciting to watch it now because I get the chance to share it with people like yourself who actually understand and appreciate what I am watching. I think it's the best way to watch any kind of Trek ... it neat to watch it by yourself ... it's very special and much more fulfilling to watch it and share it with other like minded people.