I was thinking about the whole “Space the final frontier” thing and I realized that frontier is a really fucking colonialist term - like it carries a lot of implications about uninhabited, unexplored, untamed territories. Frontiers before the final one have been sites to be conquered, at the expense of the obliteration of the forgotten people that were already there.
And I was thinking about whether that could be seen as true for Star Trek too, like maybe it is actually not the best to think of space as the final frontier.
And then I realized that Kira had said almost exactly that in the very first episode of DS9, and while I’d gotten (and strongly appreciated) her point before, I’d never made the connection between that bit of perfection and one of the most iconic phrases associated with the franchise - she throws the idea of the frontier right back in Julian’s face.
Like wow did DS9 seriously set out to dismantle the utopia of the previous shows right from the start.
