Star Trek and I go back a long way. I originally was a stoic The Original Series (TOS) fan, which everyone, my mother included, found unbelievable. "You weren't even close to being alive at the time," they tell me. As if I didn't know. Even when the sets and scenery made me raise an eyebrow occasionally, and I knew full well the dated look of everything, I found myself attached to the crew, the adventures of the Enterprise, and the whole idea behind Star Trek. The days of space travel are still beyond us, and First Contact yet to be made, but the mere thought of a future such as Star Trek presented even amid the fisticuff and the cowboy diplomacy back in the days of Kirk was worth dreaming about.
The Next Generation featured an Enterprise captained by a man moderate, decent, and politically correct in every respect. He reflected the whole modernization of Star Trek to accommodate 90s values and expectations. I remember full well how a sardonic smile crept across my face when I heard Picard say, "To boldly go where no one has gone before..." Space Exploration wasn't just for the men anymore. The Next Generation was bright, cheery, and full of fun. I never took any threat to the Enterprise or its crew seriously (except in The Best of Both Worlds) because I knew no alien could ever really end the lives of the gallant crew.
Though I enjoyed, and still do enjoy, TOS and TNG, I was swept away by Deep Space Nine. The opening credits capture the mood of Deep Space Nine well. It is darker, more moody, more serious than any of the other Star Trek series, and that darker temperament manifests itself the intelligent story-lines and arcs that last far longer and give viewers more to think about than what can be done with a starship that enters a system and leaves the next day. This is not to say DS9 is without humor. The humor is there in slapstick (not my personal favorite, but it exists), irony, and brilliant exchanges between characters.
As a fan of Deep Space Nine, I took great pleasure in seeing the building of Bajoran and Cardassian cultures. The development of the Klingon and Romulan Empires as well as the exploration of the Federation also helped to add depth to familiar Star Trek fare.
From the lush gardens of Bajor to the militaristic rooms on Cardassia Prime to the bloody festivals on Qo'noS, Deep Space Nine has done a great deal to fill in details about the cultures outside of the Federation itself. Instead of being bound to a ship and her crew, the star of Deep Space Nine is the whole spectrum of characters and interactions between them.
Until the July of last summer, I had been content to watch passively and enjoy the shows. When I looked on the internet for information pertaining to Julian Bashir, the infatuation of the moment after "Statistical Probabilities", I was disappointed at the dearth of good sites about him. The result was Medical Log: Supplemental, the single largest site about the character Julian Bashir.
I intended to put up a tribute to Legate Damar's historic rebellion against the Dominion as a minor page inside the Medical Logs, but as I grew sympathetic to the Legate's cause, the page grew in size until it needed a whole site to fit the contents in. Today, this site and its pages are what you see. Damar had been hidden in the shadows of Dukat for so long, it is a vindication to see him emerge as a Cardassian who is passionate about a worthy cause, willing to pay the ultimate price to achieve it. Just two years ago, Damar would not have been able to rise above petty self-interest, but today he is summoning his people to rise up and resist Dominion occupation. Man enough to let go of his former hatred for Kira and to assist the Federation for the larger cause, Damar's character has blossomed in the Final Chapter.
In admiration of that character and the courage that he stands for, this site pays tribute to a Cardassian legend who is responsible for the freedom of Cardassia -- from the Dominion, and from its old Empirical past.
My real name in life is Xiaoyu. I go by Judy when I am in America, a plain bread-and-butter name I wish I was wise enough to reject when my parents picked it for me way back when. Today, I am a college sophomore student majoring in computer engineering and mathematics at the University of Kansas.
Most people, even those in the United States, know Kansas only for the Wizard of Oz and its tornadoes. And in truth, there really isn't very much here. Going anywhere takes a car and a full tank of gas, there is no public transportation because the cities are spread so far apart and everyone drives, my backyard can be used as a golfing range, and the conservative political scene has never seen a Democratic governor in all its one hundred and some years. Having traveled and stayed at length far more exciting and cosmopolitan areas, it was difficult settling down in Kansas, but in time the simple pleasures Kansas offers won me over.
I've been around computers since the fourth grade, when I was introduced to the original Macintosh and Apple II. I subsequently went through the succeeding generation of PCs from the 286s to the Pentium II I have today. My involvement with computers is responsible for first introducing me to Star Trek and making me the Trekker I am today.
I had borrowed the game, Star Trek: Judgment Rites, from a friend. While playing the adventure game, I discovered that I was laughing along with the humorous dialogue of with Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Scotty, Uhura, Chekov, and Sulu. The relationship of Kirk, Spock, and McCoy particularly resonated within me. I began looking through TV listings and sat down to watch TOS regularly. I loved the show instantly, and faithfully followed it up with TNG, DS9, and Voyager. Star Trek was the show I had been waiting for. The future and its promise of space travel, technology, and exploration of extra-solar systems appealed to me since childhood. To be able to have all that and a crew that became family was all I could hope for.
Though I started watching Star Trek with an unorthodox reason, I soon caught up with other more seasoned Trekkers and the internet proved to be a boon to myself and all fans alike. When the internet asserted itself onto the scene back in '95, I remember being intrigued by the way my computer can be used to access information. In those days, there wasn't much to see, and I used email only occasionally. Gradually, I began to spend more time on the net and to make friends through the internet until being on-line became as automatic as breakfast. Of course, one of the main reasons I went on-line was to search for information about Star Trek, and I built a massive list of sites within my bookmarks.
Until the summer of '98, I'd been a passive participant on the internet. I looked and I clicked, but I had no desire to actually become a webmaster myself. After watching "Statistical Probabilities", I couldn't find a satisfactory site about the character of Julian Bashir and decided I want to build a Star Trek site centering around Deep Space Nine Chief Medical Officer. I started by learning basic HTML, and that came quickly, but graphic design took far longer. It is an on-going process and I'm still learning today.
When on-line, I often use the screen name "Verania". The story behind it is worth a sentence or two. I was registering a profile in Yahoo and every name I could think of was already used. So I looked around me and picked up a Greek and Roman civilization book. Flipping to the first page, I saw the name "Verania", wife to one of Caesar's relatives. Not too illustrious, but it sounded different. To my lasting joy, it wasn't taken, and this trend of using an obscure name became habit-forming.
I am presently a community leader at Geocities/Area51, a job that has given me the opportunity to make many good friends and to help others through the long and time-consuming process of learning web design. I am also actively involved in the local university sponsored astronomy club and a TA for math and astronomy courses at KU.
I see myself as an optimist, a person who believes in a fair outlook for the future and that humans will outgrow the senseless racial antagonism, bigotry, and sexism (overt or covert) that runs through the veins of so many people. Star Trek echoes that belief strongly, and that is one of the reasons I will always be a Trekker at heart. I enjoy talking to others who share my love for Star Trek, and I am thankful for living in a time where that is possible.
