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).
Cool is an elastic thing. Sometimes it means popular. Sometimes it means wonderfully quirky. (I’m thinking of 11th Doctor’s descriptions of his unusual sartorial choices.)
Kids like to fit in with their peers, so cool to them probably means what everyone else is into. I didn’t like lounge music when I was a kid because it was of my parents’ generation. I didn’t like opera when I was a kid because I had little exposure to it, so it was weird. Happily, my tastes have broadened. I regret it didn’t happen sooner.
Star Trek has become classic (except, maybe, Enterprise) for good reason. That’s enough. They snagged James Darren at the end of DS9. Great. Some kids didn’t get Vic Fontaine at first blush? Too bad. Try again. The best art requires a little effort.
Also, when you love something, your enthusiasm pulls in others. If they reject it because it’s not popular, fuck 'em. Wonderfully quirky people are so much more interesting than people who fit in.