For those who watched DS9 during its first airings, did it seem odd to you that Vic Fontaine/James Darren sang entire songs in the later seasons of DS9?

I only finished watching DS9 recently and just found it really odd. It seems out of place in the regular TNG/DS9 format, didn’t drove the plotline forward, and sometimes felt just like a filler.

(I don’t mean to be disrespectful, I like the character and the actor can sing well, I am just curious why the producers made that decision).

  • mosiacmango@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    All his episodes felt like the showrunners were pulling a “Sandler” and just hooking up their out of work friend that used to have a hell of a lounge act.

    He is a good actor and singer, but using him so much was just freaking weird. 100% filler in my opinion, even though they did some charector development in his episodes.

    • the_sisko@startrek.website
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      1 year ago

      For some reason “filler” sounds negative to me, but I thought it was excellent filler. Stuffing is my favorite part of Thanksgiving dinner though 😁

      • NuPNuA@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        What we used to call a “bottle episode” younger people now call “filler” as they’ve grown up in a world where shows are designed to be binged as a whole in a few days, not slowly eased out over 24 weeks of the year.

        • MyopicTopic@lemmy.ml
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          1 year ago

          I don’t think anyone has a problem with bottle episodes. It’s the bottle episodes specifically starring Vic Fontaine which stretches the premise thin to incredulity that I think people–or at least I–have an issue with. Do another Ferengi or Klingon thing if need be. But attaching such sentiment to a character that the show really really wants you to like doesn’t work for me. Again, he’s a love him or hate him character. At least Ezri’s episodes, while shoehorned, made sense for why they needed to be there if they had to have her as a replacement at all. Vic was just an insert the writers specficially wanted for no good reason.