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Okay, Vic Fontaine question.....

Pretend I only saw most episodes of Deep Space once, when they originally aired years ago. I thought that Vic Fontaine was a lounge singer from like the 1960s or 1970s that they saw perform in the Holo-Suites. Yet, in the Mirror Universe, Vic Fontaine was a live person from the 24th Century? In the regular Universe, was he like a 24th Century lounge singer, who sang classic lounge songs or something?


Scott

"The truth is like a lion; you don't have to defend it. Let it loose; it will defend itself."
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  • eXo | SilverRose (retired)eXo | SilverRose (retired) ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited December 2017
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  • PallidynePallidyne ✭✭✭✭✭
    Pretend I only saw most episodes of Deep Space once, when they originally aired years ago. I thought that Vic Fontaine was a lounge singer from like the 1960s or 1970s that they saw perform in the Holo-Suites. Yet, in the Mirror Universe, Vic Fontaine was a live person from the 24th Century? In the regular Universe, was he like a 24th Century lounge singer, who sang classic lounge songs or something?


    Scott


    There's speculation that Bashirs friend who wrote the Vic program made Vic look like himself (Bashirs friend) or some other 'real' person and that is who the Mirror Vic is a counterpart to.

  • DScottHewittDScottHewitt ✭✭✭✭✭

    So, basically we are left wondering? In our universe, Hologram. In the Mirror, maybe a real person?


    :)


    Scott

    "The truth is like a lion; you don't have to defend it. Let it loose; it will defend itself."
  • DScottHewittDScottHewitt ✭✭✭✭✭
    Pallidyne wrote: »
    Pretend I only saw most episodes of Deep Space once, when they originally aired years ago. I thought that Vic Fontaine was a lounge singer from like the 1960s or 1970s that they saw perform in the Holo-Suites. Yet, in the Mirror Universe, Vic Fontaine was a live person from the 24th Century? In the regular Universe, was he like a 24th Century lounge singer, who sang classic lounge songs or something?


    Scott


    There's speculation that Bashirs friend who wrote the Vic program made Vic look like himself (Bashirs friend) or some other 'real' person and that is who the Mirror Vic is a counterpart to.

    Thanx!!!!!


    Scott

    "The truth is like a lion; you don't have to defend it. Let it loose; it will defend itself."
  • It was a bad plot hole that the writers got sloppy with. You can mark this thread as solved.
  • Captain_WhoCaptain_Who ✭✭✭✭✭
    Scientist wrote: »
    It was a bad plot hole that the writers got sloppy with. You can mark this thread as solved.

    Sounds like another day in the mirror universe. Or the Q episodes. Or anytime they mention time, or quantum. Meh, pretty much the entire ST world, with odd lack of constant discontinuity in the soap opera called DS9.
  • PallidynePallidyne ✭✭✭✭✭
    Scientist wrote: »
    It was a bad plot hole that the writers got sloppy with. You can mark this thread as solved.

    Sounds like another day in the mirror universe. Or the Q episodes. Or anytime they mention time, or quantum. Meh, pretty much the entire ST world, with odd lack of constant discontinuity in the soap opera called DS9.

    Wow, having watched DS9 more than 30 times through I have to strongly disagree with the 'constant discontinuity' comment.

    There were some, yes, but constant would put it in the realm of... Enterprise.
  • Capt. ChaosCapt. Chaos ✭✭✭✭✭
    I'd agree with the soap opera comment, but I'm still in season one.
  • DS9 was largely coherent with TNG and Voyager. The major discontinuities between the three were minor details like "Does replicated food/drink taste good or really bad?" many episodes contradict each other with things like this. The mirror Vic was a sloppy move by the writers in season 7 when they knew the show wasn't going to an 8th season and just got lazy or indifferent and said 'hey lets make Vic a real person even though that makes no sense'. Enterprise for all its flaws tried at times to keep continuity. For example the borg weren't encountered as "Borg" until TNG....well in that stupid "Regeneration" episode they never outright say "we are 'Borg'"...the Ferengi weren't encountered officially until TNG but...on the episode "Acquisition" the Ferengi again never outright call themselves Ferengi so it stands to reason that the Borg and Ferengi didn't appear on official Starfleet records so they were still largely unknown. I have in the past complained about Enterprise (before I saw STDumpsterfire) but for all its flaws it did *try* to keep continuity.
  • Captain_WhoCaptain_Who ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited December 2017
    Pallidyne wrote: »
    Scientist wrote: »
    It was a bad plot hole that the writers got sloppy with. You can mark this thread as solved.

    Sounds like another day in the mirror universe. Or the Q episodes. Or anytime they mention time, or quantum. Meh, pretty much the entire ST world, with odd lack of constant discontinuity in the soap opera called DS9.

    Wow, having watched DS9 more than 30 times through I have to strongly disagree with the 'constant discontinuity' comment.

    There were some, yes, but constant would put it in the realm of... Enterprise.

    You missed the double negative, "odd lack of constant discontinuity". It was a back handed way of saying DS9 did much better than most ST, though it still had some flaws at times.
  • DScottHewittDScottHewitt ✭✭✭✭✭
    I disagree that it's a plot hole or that it was sloppy. It was a delightful WTF moment, lasting barely 30 seconds, and left Rom and Quark just as confused as the rest of us. It was meant to be funny, and fans have been speculating about it ever since.

    It definitely did that job, from the sounds of it.

    I consider it maybe one of those Easter Eggs we never really know why it was there things.....


    Scott

    "The truth is like a lion; you don't have to defend it. Let it loose; it will defend itself."
  • Yeah, it's definitely just an Easter Egg, no real plot significance. The whole scene is played for laughs.
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  • If it wasn't sloppy then it was a blatant inconsistency by the writers. I don't know which is worse. At the very least it was something that didn't make sense considering Vic was a fictional character made up by Bashir's friend. Why in the mirror universe would something out of Bashir's friend's imagination be a real person?
  • DralixDralix ✭✭✭✭✭
    Juliana Tainer was a human, then an Android.
    Rishon Uxbridge was a human, then ... some sort of recreation of a human.

    Why couldn't prime Vic Fontaine have been a human, then a hologram?
  • [7TW] UnkieB[7TW] UnkieB ✭✭✭✭✭
    Scientist wrote: »
    Why in the mirror universe would something out of Bashir's friend's imagination be a real person?

    Why would the EMH look like a real person? Same answer? Because it was modeled after one?
  • UnkieB wrote: »
    Scientist wrote: »
    Why in the mirror universe would something out of Bashir's friend's imagination be a real person?

    Why would the EMH look like a real person? Same answer? Because it was modeled after one?

    Except we *know* Vic wasn't, it was an invention of Bashir's friend.
  • Dralix wrote: »
    Juliana Tainer was a human, then an Android.
    Rishon Uxbridge was a human, then ... some sort of recreation of a human.

    Why couldn't prime Vic Fontaine have been a human, then a hologram?

    I don't understand your train of thought. Juliana Tainer was a human and an android was then made to approximate her. That is not the same thing as saying 'in one universe this person is a real person and in another it's a holodeck character'. With this logic anything mirror would be acceptable to you. We could have mirror Quark where he isn't a Ferengi he's a Vulcan, after all Juliana Tainer...
  • AviTrekAviTrek ✭✭✭✭✭
    Why would the crew of DS9 all be working together in a new universe that diverged hundreds of years earlier? Why would Ezri suddenly appear in the mirror universe after jadzia is killed in the prime universe? Why would jadzia even have the dax symbiot?

    Because the mirror universe isn't logically consistent. It's an excuse to let the actors play the characters differently.
  • AviTrek wrote: »
    Why would the crew of DS9 all be working together in a new universe that diverged hundreds of years earlier? Why would Ezri suddenly appear in the mirror universe after jadzia is killed in the prime universe? Why would jadzia even have the dax symbiot?

    Because the mirror universe isn't logically consistent. It's an excuse to let the actors play the characters differently.

    Yes I agree.
  • DralixDralix ✭✭✭✭✭
    Scientist wrote: »
    I don't understand your train of thought.

    Clearly.
    Scientist wrote: »
    Juliana Tainer was a human and an android was then made to approximate her. That is not the same thing as saying 'in one universe this person is a real person and in another it's a holodeck character'.

    No. It's the same as saying "Vic Fontaine was a human and a hologram was then made to approximate him."

  • ScientistScientist ✭✭
    edited December 2017
    Dralix wrote: »
    Scientist wrote: »
    I don't understand your train of thought.

    Clearly.
    Scientist wrote: »
    Juliana Tainer was a human and an android was then made to approximate her. That is not the same thing as saying 'in one universe this person is a real person and in another it's a holodeck character'.

    No. It's the same as saying "Vic Fontaine was a human and a hologram was then made to approximate him."

    Im done. Your sarcasm shows you can't have an adult conversation.
  • DralixDralix ✭✭✭✭✭
    My sarcasm? As opposed to your strawman?
    Scientist wrote: »
    With this logic anything mirror would be acceptable to you. We could have mirror Quark where he isn't a Ferengi he's a Vulcan, after all Juliana Tainer...

  • [7TW] UnkieB[7TW] UnkieB ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited December 2017
    Scientist wrote: »
    UnkieB wrote: »
    Scientist wrote: »
    Why in the mirror universe would something out of Bashir's friend's imagination be a real person?

    Why would the EMH look like a real person? Same answer? Because it was modeled after one?

    Except we *know* Vic wasn't, it was an invention of Bashir's friend.

    We don't know that he wasn't based on a "real" person just like the EMH was. The EMH was an invention as well (of Dr. Zimmerman who used his own likeness). Perhaps they should have called him Mirror Felix (assuming Bashir's friend Felix used his own likeness for a model).
  • Knight RangerKnight Ranger ✭✭✭✭
    edited December 2017
    Scientist wrote: »
    UnkieB wrote: »
    Scientist wrote: »
    Why in the mirror universe would something out of Bashir's friend's imagination be a real person?

    Why would the EMH look like a real person? Same answer? Because it was modeled after one?

    Except we *know* Vic wasn't, it was an invention of Bashir's friend.

    Do we know Vic wasn't? I'm not so sure. We never saw Felix in-universe to know what his appearance is. There's certainly precedent for holographic programmers using their own likeness for their creations (inventor's conceit). As far as I'm aware it's not stated by Julian either way. Quark and Rom have probably never met Felix and would only associate that face with the hologram, hence their confusion on meeting him in the mirror universe. We see him responding to the name Fontaine (Mirror Julian calls him it I think) but again inventor conceit could be in play. We don't know Felix's surname. He could be Felix Fontaine. Who knows, perhaps he modelled Vic on an ancestor he researched heavily and that's why the holoprogram is so good?

    A lot of ifs and maybes, but the point is that I don't think there's enough evidence to make a categorical statement for either side of the argument. All we can do is hypothesise based on the available evidence. We know Felix (no stated surname) created the program for Julian, we don't have details on how he went about it though and what he took as inspiration. And we have a mirror universe rebel who answers to the name Fontaine and looks a lot like the hologram. Doesn't mean it is the hologram, that's just an assumption by Quark and Rom.
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  • It stands to reason in someways the normal universe is more advanced in some technological ways while powers in the mirror universe are more advanced in others.. right ?

    So.. maybe mirror Vic is using a Mobile Emitter.
  • AviTrek wrote: »
    Why would the crew of DS9 all be working together in a new universe that diverged hundreds of years earlier? Why would Ezri suddenly appear in the mirror universe after jadzia is killed in the prime universe? Why would jadzia even have the dax symbiot?

    Because the mirror universe isn't logically consistent. It's an excuse to let the actors play the characters differently.

    Exactly. If you want to go deeper, how do these alternate versions of primary universe crew even exist? Somehow, over hundreds of years and many generations, the precise genetic pairings needed to result in their birth were identical despite wildly varying conditions between the prime and mirror universes. Somehow, nobody's ancestor died early from warfare, famine, disease or accident; no ancestor failed to meet their spouse due to different circumstances; and the right sperm fertilized the right egg every time. The further away you go from the point of divergence, the more unlikely any of that is to happen.

    The entire concept of a mirror universe with highly divergent societies and history but genetically identical people is not really credible, but we're willing to accept it for the sake of story. Compared to that absurdity, is the idea that in the mirror universe the fates aligned to create a flesh-and-blood human with an appearance identical to a holographic person in the prime universe really that far-fetched?
  • It was a bit, hanging a lantern on the ridiculousness of the mirror universe to begin with. It's meant to be fun, not over-analyzed by people who take it too seriously. DS9's writers were intentionally trolling such people.
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