Slashdot Mirror
Barry Jenner, Who Played Admiral Ross On 'Star Trek: Deep Space Nine,' Dies At 75 (deadline.com)
New submitter bufo333 quotes a report from Deadline: Character actor Barry Jenner, best known for his pivotal role as Admiral William Ross on "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine" and with credits including recurring roles on "Dallas," "Knott's Landing," "Family Matters" and many others, died on August 9, his family has announced. He was 75.
While I consider TOS to be the best of any of the Star Trek series, DS9 is second on my list. It's not like any of the other series, but the acting was outstanding and the writing was great, especially after the first couple of seasons. The Dominion War was a great storyline. It was far better than what was going on at the same time on Voyager. They took an almost unstoppable enemy, weakened the hell out of them so they didn't adapt quickly and could be destroyed fat more easily, made assimilation cartoonishly ridiculous, and overused the hell out of them so they weren't scary any longer. Voyager was awful because of the writing, but DS9 was great. And I know this is blasphemy to many, but I actually like the first couple of seasons of TNG the best. It felt a lot more like TOS and was less of a drama than later seasons. Plus, there were plenty of excellent Ron Jones scores, which went away after season 4 because Rick Berman fired him. Episodes like The Neutral Zone, Q Who, and The Best of Both Worlds wouldn't have been the same without the music Jones composed.
And as for Admiral Ross, he was a solid recurring character, but I think the summary overstates his importance. I considered the most important recurring characters to be Dukat, Nog, the female changeling, and maybe Weyoun. Maybe I misremember, but the most notable thing I associate Admiral Ross with was Section 39.
I always liked him. He was one of the few Star Trek admirals who played it as a reasonable competent person, usually they were dicks...
Yeah, yeah. Bill Ross was a pretty boy with a reassuring voice, the kind of nice guy you'd invite to a party (Romulan ale or Klingon bloodwine?) not like the other top brass who would just warp in to bark orders at the subordinates.
Kirk sucked as an admiral on purpose because he didn't want to be one. He was promoted (probably one of those automatic done X years service type things) out of the job he loved into one where he pushed pens and sent others off have all the fun. That's why he did stupid crap like climbing El Capitan unaided so he could have fun again. It's also why he disobeyed orders: he knew he'd get demoted for it and get the Enterprise back.
"Wait. Something's happening. It's opening up! My God, it's full of apricots!"
You're only partially right.
Kirk didn't want to be pushing papers from behind a desk, and you're right about that.
However, Kirk didn't disobey orders to get demoted. He disobeyed direct orders out of his loyalty to Spock, McCoy, and Sarek. When Kirk stole the Enterprise, he really didn't know what would happen. The punishment was mitigated because he had just saved Earth from the probe and brought back a Bird of Prey, which would allow Starfleet to directly examine Klingon technology. The Enterprise was being decommissioned because of the extensive damage in the battle against Khan, so it wasn't a serious loss. But Kirk didn't know any of that when he stole the Enterprise, and makes a comment that he would give commendations to his crew, in whatever fleet they might serve.
Also, Kirk had already been demoted to a captain when he climbed El Capitan.
Finally, Kirk was portrayed as being completely out of touch in how he dealt with Captain Decker. Yes, it was obvious he didn't want to be an admiral. But he gave a number of bad orders that killed two crew members in a transporter accident, and later nearly destroyed the ship were it not for Decker countermanding his order to use phasers instead of torpedoes.
Just kidding RIP
Build a Man a Fire, and He'll Be Warm for a Day. Set a Man on Fire, and He'll Be Warm for the Rest of His Life.
It's hard to believe it was so long ago and that he was that old now.
When I grew up, you knew when a show was "old" because it was in black and white.
Now, you can watch DS9 (or anything else) on Netflix or similar and it looks and feels like it was just filmed.
For instance...I still think Marina Sirtis is a hot young thing when I watch the show, but she's in AARP now (61)
When Fascism comes to America, it will call itself Anti-Fascism, and tell you to give up your guns.
Have gnu, will travel.
Carl: If we're gonna die together, Lou, I'd at least like to know your first name.
Murtagh: Lieutenant.
Carl: I know you're my boss and I'm supposed to call you lieutenant--
Murtagh: I had it legally changed when I was promoted.
Carl: Okay. But what was your name before you got promoted?
Murtagh: Sergeant.
One might ask the same about birds. What ARE birds? We just don't know.
Heathen. They are but insects compared to our true Lord and Savior Q. He who weaved His name into the fabric of our very speech.