BishopMontanha - Loving the dirty UK street names! Bwahahaha!!
Thanks all for your comments - you’re cheering me up. 
I see Hansioux beat me to the Kazon explanation. But just to expand on it a bit more, the Kazon were a bit of a Straw Man. Because their tech was all captured from the Trabe when they rebelled it was almost too valuable to them to risk using in an attack against an equally armed enemy.
They were just a warrior caste who had inherited ships they barely knew how to maintain, and the feudal system which the warlords had adapted kept them from pooling their knowledge and resources. Most of what they had in the way of assets were captured in raids and pirating, they had no real industry to speak of. And because they were poorly educated escaped slaves and not what you would call ‘creative’, the chances of them designing new tech, or improving the tech they had was all but nil. So you could imagine their excitement when Seska arrived with promises a plenty.
I really liked how Seska even tormented the Voyager crew even after she was dead, with that nasty little program she had hidden in the Holodeck. That was a clever story treatment…
Nice Cardassians: The Father from ‘Second Skin’, and the resistance cell he was involved with. The Administrative assistant who had surgically altered himself to look like the Commander of the prison camp he had worked at. He felt that by dying at the hands of the Bajorians he could help atone for the sins his people had committed, and that it would offer the Bajorians closure. The two Cardassian scientists who came to study the wormhole and then asked for asylum. The Cardassian orphans being raised by Bajorian priests, Garak’s Mother and of course Dukat’s daughter Tora Ziyal.
Little was ever shone of life on Cardassia, and we never got to see any of the Cardassian settlements either, so that is why we rarely got to see a Cardassian without an agenda or an ulterior motive.
It has nothing to do with racisism…
Sisko started out very morally erect in the first few seasons, but strict and aggressive in his commanding style. His morals began to slide once the war came, they bottomed out with ‘Pale Moonlight’. But once the war ended he began to find himself once again and was just starting to put his life together when the Prophets called their marker, and Sisko died… so to speak.
Janeway was Katherine Hepburn in space, especially when she was sporting that God awful ‘Bun of Steel’. And speaking of Voyager… I think Captain Rudolph Ransom qualifies as a douche-bag.
And if Sean is going to be judging the SF Fantasy thingy then I guess I need to write shorter solutions…
Edit: BTW, since Chuck is doing so well with his weightloss. Mayhaps you could be so kind as to reward him with a … thinner Avatar?
I really liked how Seska even tormented the Voyager crew even after she was dead, with that nasty little program she had hidden in the Holodeck. That was a clever story treatment…
I wish the crew had used Worst Case Scenario instead. I thought she was a much bigger d-bag in that episode.
Glad to see somebody beat me to mentioning other other not-douchy Cardassians. And if you want to wave away most of the ones we see as the oddballs, look at the children abandoned on Bajor (I think Rudil or something was the main one for an episode). They were raised up okay, although they were still a little agressive (but then again, so is your average Klingon). It’s just the nature of the government and system they have. It’s a melting pot, and all the sludge rises to the top.
Also, Sean, you should have remembered Tifa from Final Fantasy VII. There’s a woman who (aside from the humongongous boobs) fights with her fists in a straight up fashion and doesn’t kill with her thighs.
Now to go off and engross myself in the Fantasy Sci-Fi threads. I plan to compete at some level this time round.
Sean, baby, Sean, homie. I am once again blown away how some of the movies you express love for are also my favs.
Case in point: Love your shout out to the Gregory Peck’s 1951 movie “Captain Horatio Hornblower R.N.” (As has been discuss in detail on another thread, I loved the book series too.)
Interestingly enough, it looks like the movie is available on YouTube (in several parts).
Here’s Part 1.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7f2jtH1lCkU&feature=related
When watching the movie, it’s so easy to picture Captain Hornblower as Kirk or Pike or other Star Trek captain) cuz the kind of adventures and situations he gets into is so very Star Trek.
I’m behind as ever (hey, World Cup! Big shiny distraction from EVERYTHING!) but as I’m listening to the podcast… Audra, gotta love the Shakira singing (plus Suerte’s much better in Spanish than the English version, creo yo)
suerte que es tener labios sinceros
para besarte con más ganas
suerte que mis pechos sean pequeños
y no los confundas con montañas
suerte que heredé las piernas firmes
para correr si un día hace falta
y estos tus ojos que me dicen
que han de llorar cuando te vayas
I’d also like to echo that VOYAGER DOESN’T SUCK! I watched it through for the first time last year and had a great time (See thread). Seven of Nine is nice to look at, but her character, again as you guys mentioned, is really interesting and provokes a lot of questions that lead to good story lines. I love her development of an individual personality it makes me happy.
I also just got disc 1 of season 1 of Enterprise… looking forward to it
Can I say, apropos of virtually nothing, that I thought the A-Team movie was awesome?! Everything-you-ever-wanted-out-of-an-A-Team kind of awesome? It was mentioned in #222, I think, but there wasn’t any discussion afterwards. Great fun and recommended.
And FireBreathingChicken: The MOBA is something I’ve never seen before, something… uh… beautiful.
There’s a picture book in the store, and I am so tempted…
It is awesome, yet horrifying.
The horror. The horror…
In honor of the Thomas Crown watch this week:
PS: You might recognize the guy in the self-portrait in front of us, too.
PPS: I understand that The Met didn’t approve of the movie, so the interior Met scenes were all stages. Still, the real deal feels remarkably similar.
Nice! No idea who the portrait is though. 
PS: Audra is looking the thinner version now too! Audra 2.0. You go girl!
Rembrandt, von… Dutch 
LOL…well he’s never been on a Sci-Fi book cover/jacket or movie…so I wouldn’t have seen it before. I’m not much of an art person.
Awesome, great picture!
Apropos of… um… well it’s a painting, which made me think of the ginormous novel The Golden Key, a historical fantasy that vaguely follows the history of the Iberian peninsula, but with some cool abilities that come from being able to paint in a certain way… I’ll say no more, to give no more away… but I quite enjoyed it.
“Pierce Brosnan’s butt was here!!!” (:
You know, I looked at it, but it started to make me sad that people who made sincere efforts at art are getting bashed. 
Some of it is bad, but a lot of it shows heart. I also like “Peter the Kitty.”
Agreed! (Though I give Shakira props for doing pretty darn good English translations of her own songs.) But yes, I love these lyrics. I always joke with Chuck that when I sing the song it’s “Suerte que mis pechos sean muy grandes y no las confundas con manzanas.” Lol!
Thanks, Gryper! Working on it.
You two look great scoping the Met for your next crime wave lol!
My brother is mildly surprised the artist lived through painting Peter the Kitty. Pete looks a little grumpy.
http://www.museumofbadart.org/collection/portraiture-10.html
I can’t decide what about that portrait grabs me more: The asymmetrical eyes, or the cat’s legs: The front being 2/3rds too small, or the rear sprouting out at the same angle as the front (like there were many more legs hidden by fur).
I think the curators made the right choice.