Ricky B. Probably thought it was a Sappho situation. To be honest, Berman did the most damage to Star Trek while TNG was still on the air.
After that, he became the Kathleen Kennedy of Star Trek - still in power on paper, but amounting to much less as time went on.
DS9 was essentially run by Ira Steven Behr and Voyager by Jeri Taylor. Which is why they were so unusually sexually liberal and feminist, respectively, for something on network prime time in the 1990s.
Edit: Feminist, not feminine. Not really wrong, but a weird way to say it. :P
Yes, but even there, Berman prevented characters from being gay and out, which is why he quashed what was very obviously intended to be a romantic relationship between Garak and Bashir. Both of them play their characters like there is a mutual attraction in the episode where Garak premieres.
This take has been throwing me off lately. I can definitely see how what a lot of is said can certainly be an innuendo, but personally I just thought thats how Garak is. Always mysterious, giving double entendres, etc. I think it would definitely have been interesting to explore that scenario, but personally I think it already fits very well as “Thats how Garak is with anyone”.
Also, Garak seems like a character that’s down to honeypot anybody if the mission requires it.
Andrew Robinson said he played Garak as omnisexual and attracted to Bashir. Alexander Siddig has described himself as “not quite straight” and both have played the roles unofficially as there being a relationship.
We see a tiny fraction of the characters’ lives. A portion of a 45-minute episode. For all we know, they walked hand-in-hand down the promenade every day for months as everyone commented on what a cute couple they made. We just never saw it on screen.
And I think the choices of the actors matter.
This is where Garak and Bashir first meet. You watch this and tell me it isn’t a meet cute: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eTeJKg8Yf4A
Berman had reduced roles as each of the seasons went on but he still did the damage. Behind the scenes he’s the primary reason Terry Farrel left the series, harassing her for literal years at that point and finally using his influence to try and financially dominate her, which she basically said fuck that and refused the contract.
While Nicole de Boer did an amazing job picking up the role with basically no build up or introduction that the character was due, the shoes she had to fill were just too big and the character suffered as even the writers were trying to figure out what to even do with the character. Various other rumors and things cast members have said have pretty much all pointed back to Berman about tensions on sets writers not being able to use the plots they wanted to run in the show because they didn’t align with his bigoted views.
Hmm… I think the Ezri character arc is actually pretty strong for being in the show for only one season of a show in the nineties. I mean, they had the whole conflict with Worf up to a new friendship and her dissing the Klingon empire, the episode where she helps Garak, the episode where she finds the killer, the episode where she helps Lennier detect the Houdinis, the episode where O’Brian goes missing and we see her family… The only thing I really didn’t like was how she was basically shown as incompetent in the Nog PTSD episode. That was a wasted opportunity showing her as a great counselor. But Troi was also always incompetent at her job, so I guess that’s tradition in Star Trek. But all of these episodes are unique to Ezri, except for AR-558, none of these story lines would have worked with Jadzia.
