From Memory Alpha, the free Star Trek reference

Name:	Paul Anderson
DOB:	21/5/1983
Origin:	Scotland
Current Location:	Glasgow, Scotland
Occupation:	Uber-barman and Geek-chic show off
Favorite Episode:	"Tears of the Prophets"
Favorite Movie:	Star Trek Nemesis

The user known as Breakinguptheguy has been a member of Memory Alpha since February of 2006. His real name is Paul Anderson (born May 21st, 1983). His username is a play on words of the song "Breaking up the girl" by his favourite rock band Garbage.

Born in Scotland, Paul has been a Star Trek fan since the early 1990s, beginning with Star Trek: The Next Generation, which he watched alongside his step-father intermittently on BBC2. He has since followed the franchise faithfully since 1996, when the Star Trek Fact Files began publishing, having seen every episode of the original series, The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager and most ofEnterprise, and all ten Star Trek films. I own all Deep Space Nine DVDs and plan to complete my collection of all other series by the end of this year, although I own various episodes on VHS from the nineties releases of each series.

I am currently a senior barman in Glasgow's Polo Lounge venue, and I'm learning French with ambitions to work and live in Neuchatel, Switzerland. I have beena member of Wikipedia's main encyclopedia site since 2005 and have contributed many articles to that site, including an in-depth look at each and every one of Garbage's hit singles from their debut "Vow" to most recent single "Run Baby Run". I am currently looking forward to their Greatest Hits collection due for release on May 29th, 2006 - tentatively titled "Absolute Garbage".

[edit] Currently on Memory Alpha

At the moment I am adding a few trivia things on various subjects on Memory Alpha, but plan to start writing more complete articles and adding to current stubs and unfinished pages.

[edit] Favourite Characters

• Valeris
• Jean-Luc Picard
• Deanna Troi
• Ro Laren
• Kira Nerys
• Jadzia Dax
• Quark
• Odo
• Weyoun
• Nog
• Rom
• Larell
• Elim Garak
• Kathryn Janeway
• B'Elanna Torres
• Seven of Nine
• Vorik
• Neelix
• The Doctor

[edit] Deep Space Nine appreciation

I absolutley adore Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. I admit, it's the hardest of any of the Star Trek's to get into, but once you're in there you are hooked. I love how in even the standard episodes the politics of the galaxy can turn for the worst in the space of just a few scenes. I love how every single character is flawed in some way - no one on the show is holier than thou. Every single character evolved throughout each and every episode. I love how even DS9's worst episodes are better than some of VOY's average episodes.

DS9 is the only modern Star Trek series that never jumped the shark. It stayed consistent and rivetting right up until the final episode. Voyager allegedly always struggled in DS9's shadow - but check out how good Voyager got while airing alongside it's 'big sister' show and then check how rotten it got as soon as it became the sole Trek on air. It was if their writers didn't feel the need to bother anymore. TNG jumped the shark about six months into Season 6... compare any episode from season 7 of TNG with any of its season 4 or 5 shows. No contest. And Enterprise, well.... let's just say they never got the chance to find the shark, never mind jump it.

Most Trek series struggle to maintain it's energy and freshness by the time they hit their sixth year. DS9 went all out - the station was taken from them, the Dominion War was unleashed, the Federation found itself ignoring it's very own internal corruption, the Bajoran religion got an attitude, contemporary issues got looks in and knowing nods from every corner, and they even killed off one of it's most popular characters - hell, it even had Iggy Pop just for fun.

I love how the serial theme of the show remained its defining core. People changed, choices and mistakes were made and were played out and reminded. All of our main stars had imperfections which were dealt with and touched upon over ever evolving storylines.

Captain Benjamin Sisko was far from the greatest Trek captain - although at times he obviously attended the William Shatner school of acting. He was a family man, a community man, a man who was not afraid to bend rules or to uphold them depending on the situation. He was consistent and strong, but also reticent and avoiding of the nature of the Bajoran views of him as the Emissary of the Prophets.

Look at Miles O'Brien, a man who hated Cardassians. A prejudiced man who had come to a Cardassian station, and was surrounded by the equally Cardassian hating, Bajorans although in both cases understandably so. He eventually had to look past his negativity towards the race over the course of the seven year DS9 run.

Major Kira also had to overcome her hatred of Cardassians, as a senior military officer and a well known public figure, in order to move her people on from the brutal occupation of their homeworld. She had started out with no want for the help from Starfleet or the Federation, she was very much in the agreement that a free Bajor was for Bajorans only. Over the seasons Kira began to warm to her Federation allies, fighting alongside them against the Dominion, the Klingons and even xenophobic Bajorans.

The girls in DS9 were the first Star Trek females who were given something to do other than repeat what the computer said or avoid Commander Riker's horny dog routines. Kira kicked ass - she wasn't a femme fatale, just a woman who had to rise up against circumstance and fight for her freedom. She'd endured years of it, and now that her freedom had been guaranteed, she wasn't about to play happy home - she still fought for Bajoran, even if it got her mixed up with higher powers.

Jadzia Dax was the friend you could always rely on, with a warm smile, good advice, great sarcasm and a huge big fuck off bat'leth. She was never about to stand beside Sisko on the bridge and agree with him - she knows she can whip his ass if he gets too big for his boots and he knows it too. She does what she feels, and associates with the most random of people and always has a cutting remark on supply - her death was the single most tragic death in all of Trek.

I adore Gul Dukat - a man who was convinced of his own perfection as a benevolent and caring leader, a man whose uncontrollable need to be adored by the very race he and his species pillaged from and brutally treated for over 50 years eventually led to his own tragic and majestic fall from grace.

Gul Dukat, himself could have been a stereotypical cartoon villain - if he'd been a VOY character then he probably would have been. Instead, the DS9 writers crafted a marvellously multi-faceted villain, a man who loved his military might, a man who loved his illigitemate daughter so much he lost that might for her, a man who sold his people to the devil, a man whose infatuation with the Bajorans and his own power influenced his decisions and side-switching, a man who was so consumed with his own public image he was destroyed by it.

A man like Quark could never have survived on another Trek series, but on DS9 he thrived, alongwith his extended family (and extended enemies). He always chose what was right over what was wished for. He was from a culture who beleive in the self worth (literally) of the individual over the well-being of any other person yet time and time again he sacrificed his own wants for the greater good - perhaps Quark is the one character who most singularly personifies Gene Roddenberry's vision of the man of the future - ironic isn't it?

Odo the outsider who fell in love from afar and was twisted and torn by his love for another being for years before he finally got his woman - only to lose her in the end. A cliched storyline but an enduring one throughout all drama series, and here it worked. Who didn't fall over with sheer joy when Odo got his girl in "His Way"?

The last great character of course is Elim Garak, but I cant think what to write lol.

Deep Space Nine was like any other series, flawed as well - how many times was the deus ex machina plot device used to end an episode or how annoying did the Klingon Ritual of Bad Exposition get? And the final episode was a grand let down - rehashing old battle scenes and copping out of a huge big scrap over Cardassian skies... but hey I never did find last episodes worthy epitaphs. Does anyone ever really quote the final hour of Sex And The City or The X-Files? No, it's more than the destination; it's the journey. The road to get there is paved with 168 mostly solid episodes which I can watch time and time and time again enjoyment of each never slipping.

I love the dark and gritty world of Deep Space Nine. I miss you dearly. It's just a pity that neither VOY or ENT could hold a candle to you. x