Spoilers Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

[Paul Farquhar]

I think the big idea was this kind of relationship between Keiko and Miles must be enacted out all over the federation. You often dont see it as its all under the hood in TNG, but must be very common

That seems unlikely to me. In a truly equal and multicultural society it seems to me that kind of relationship would be a quirky anomaly, especially amongst people who have chosen to spend their lives travelling.

 

[payn]

That seems unlikely to me. In a truly equal and multicultural society it seems to me that kind of relationship would be a quirky anomaly, especially amongst people who have chosen to spend their lives travelling.

So almost nobody is like the O'Briens? That is what seems unlikely.

 

[Gradine]

Keiko is great and deserves better. Not that Miles isn't great, but he isn't great to Keiko.

The list of people Miles is a great husband to, from best husband to worst husband:
1: Bashir
2: Kira
3: Large gap
4: That one Cardassian engineer lady who flirt-fought with him that one time
5: That Bajoran engineer lady from Season 1 who was supposed to be a bigger character but got cut from all but two episodes who Kai Winn convinced to try to do an assassination
6: Keiko

 

[bloodtide]

I'm pretty sure Enterprise-D crew were allowed to bring families along for the ride (they even had kindergarten there), but I think TNG were pretty silent on whether or not they were just passengers or if they actually did work there as well.

We see Kekio run the arboretum. Mot is a barber. Guinin is a bar tender. And Ten Forward has waiters and waitresses. And we see a teacher or two. But I guess some people would just do nothing?

The couple of times the Enterprise is evacuated we sure see a TON of civilians(or maybe they are just off duty Starfleet.....except most of the main cast wears their uniforms 24/7, even to sleep.)

 

[MarkB]

Keiko is great and deserves better. Not that Miles isn't great, but he isn't great to Keiko.

The list of people Miles is a great husband to, from best husband to worst husband:
1: Bashir
2: Kira
3: Large gap
4: That one Cardassian engineer lady who flirt-fought with him that one time
5: That Bajoran engineer lady from Season 1 who was supposed to be a bigger character but got cut from all but two episodes who Kai Winn convinced to try to do an assassination
6: Keiko

Add engineer Enrique Muniz somewhere in that large gap. Sadly RIP as a designated redshirt, but they really built up his rapport with O'Brien in that one episode.

 

[Gradine]

Add engineer Enrique Muniz somewhere in that large gap. Sadly RIP as a designated redshirt, but they really built up his rapport with O'Brien in that one episode.

Oh man I totes forgot Muniz, that boy goes above the gap for sure

 

[overgeeked]

I think my main problem with Keiko is she's filling the role of "TV wife." This was a common trope in old shows, in particular: The wife has me on a diet. The wife's out of town, so let's have a Poker Night. Wife's upset that I was out too late with the boys. Wife has me sleeping on the couch again.

Now Keiko does have a little more going on. She's unhappy because she doesn't have a fulfilling job since they left the Enterprise. Miles wants to help, albeit a bit clumsily. This all makes sense. Keiko ends up opening a school. But of course she does. All women love children, right? She can be the school marm, out on the frontier! Keiko is a trained scientist. No science needed on DS9? No knock on teaching. I'm a teacher, but that's not Keiko's speciality.

When the school fizzles, Keiko finally gets her shot as a botanist. Yay! Good for her. When she does come home for visits, however, it's more like she's in the way.

In a show with strong female characters like Kira and Dax, Keiko feels like she falls into a lazy the wife trope because nobody knew quite what to do with her. I think they genuinely tried and she does have moments, but to me she never really felt like a believable fleshed out character.

Considering all that, it always felt like maybe Rosalind Chao, the actress playing Keiko, wasn’t interested in much more of a role. The writers could clearly do a lot better. They made characters with even less screen time far more interesting.

 

[Ryujin]

A starship as big as TNG Enterprise is like a mobile navy base. I guess that just like you would have civilians working at places like the Officers' Club or the Navy Exchange, you would have them shipboard doing non-military tasks as well.

 

[Willie the Duck]

Considering all that, it always felt like maybe Rosalind Chao, the actress playing Keiko, wasn’t interested in much more of a role. The writers could clearly do a lot better. They made characters with even less screen time far more interesting.

Apparently that is the case. She turned down a full time role and instead Keiko became a recurring character. I get it -- regardless of how much you like the biz, full time scripted tv shows of that era were 100+ hr/week jobs, and I believe she had young children at the time. Chao certainly did more with a minor role in the final of M*A*S*H (and AfterMash) than she did with Keiko in two series. The Keiko role did get a pretty impressive adventure in the ST: tNG episode "Rascals", where Caroline Junko King takes over as a de-aged-back-to-childhood Keiko. If the showrunners are willing to handle the logistic/legal difficulties of working with minors, they must think the character has value. So if we know the actor could have done more, and the writers seemed to be willing to do more, the actor not wanting to do more is a pretty reasonable explanation.

Still, it would be nice if the did a little more to show that they had a great relationship that we just didn't get to see (if they can make Morn the most eloquent and exciting guy we just weren't focusing on...). Or just not go to the 'the wife has me...' well quite so often.

 

[pukunui]

I didn’t want to watch “Rules of Engagement” (more Klingon stuff, courtroom drama), but I’m determined not to skip any episodes. I watched it sped up. It turned out to be OK.

“Hard Times” was a hard watch. Talk about Miles suffering. Whew!