197: Life with the Safeties On

The Ready Room: A Star Trek Podcast

It’s Only a Paper Moon.

Events in Star Trek—even tragic ones—rarely have lasting consequences. Deep Space Nine changed that with arcs that took place during the Dominion War. In particular, in the final season, Nog’s injuries in battle led to a deep exploration of the lasting impact of a single moment in time—and they did it with the usual DS9 mix of serious commentary and humor.

In this episode of The Ready Room, we’re joined by Zachary Fruhling and Matthew Rushing to discuss Nog’s retreat to the holosuite, his struggle to come to terms with the physical and emotional damage of his experiences in “The Siege of AR-558,” and the counseling tag-team of Ezri Dax and Vic Fontaine who brought him back to reality.

In our news segment, we discuss additional shooting (reported as reshoots by most media) for Star Trek Beyond, a special agreement between CBS and Paramount that dictated a six-month post-film waiting period for Star Trek’s return to TV, and Rod Roddenberry joining the new series as Executive Producer.

News Star Trek Beyond Reshoots (00:04:19) CBS-Paramount Agreement (00:12:44) Rod Roddenberry EP (00:26:24)

Feature: It’s Only a Paper Moon Synopsis and Initial Thoughts (00:34:46) Nog’s PTSD (00:45:49) Counselor Ezri (00:56:25) Counselor Vic (01:09:15) The Original Concept (01:24:26) The Literary Universe Connection (01:36:21) Final Thoughts (01:37:27) Listener Feedback and Closing (01:44:54)

Hosts C Bryan Jones and Zachary Fruhling

Guest Matthew Rushing

Production C Bryan Jones (Editor and Producer) Matthew Rushing (Executive Producer) Norman C. Lao (Executive Producer) Charlynn Schmiedt (Executive Producer) Renee Roberts (Associate Producer) Zachary Fruhling (Associate Producer) Richard Marquez (Production Manager) Will Nguyen (Content Manager)