DS9 MBTI: Villains Week

And now, the wicked week we’ve all been waiting for. Star Trek’s never been short on good villains, but DS9 truly presents an embarrassment of riches. What makes these villains great is how much time we get to spend with them as characters, learning their flaws and their strengths, and sometimes seeing shimmers of grace within their personalities that might have led to redemption if things had gone differently.

In the Original Series, Kirk’s nemesis was an Ni-user with an ego as big as his own. The Next Generation found the stern, commanding Picard squaring off against an unpredictable, trickster Perceiver type. On Deep Space Nine, our Fi-dom–led crew fights for their freedom against a series of Judgers who wield their power over others for nefarious means.

It’s a big, scary galaxy out there, especially with these guys in it.

DS9 MBTI: Family Week

Since the man in charge of Deep Space Nine was a father, the themes of family—both those we’re born into and the ones we choose—filtered through the whole saga. Set in one stationary place, the show had time to visit the same characters week after week, and as the years went by, the family grew larger. Many guest stars found themselves with whole arcs and even whole episodes to themselves.

This part of the series will take us through a mini-family reunion and see how the supporting characters filled out the personality of DS9.

(And a heads up—after examining Ben’s interactions with the two big Extraverted Judgers in his life, I found even more evidence of his inferior-Te at work, cementing his typing as an INFP. I’ve since updated his profile with a bit of this extra info.)

ENTP: Elim Garak, “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine”

ENTP – the Inventor, the Debater, the Improviser

The truth is presently a topic of some debate. The elusive Elim Garak has a line in the episode “Cardassians” in which he straight up announces he doesn’t believe there is such a thing. I don’t think he means this the same way that some certain talking heads do.

As an ENTP, Garak always seems to be trying to discern the reality between the lines of the facts, the secrets people keep behind the plain words they speak. Sometimes this makes him suspicious and paranoid (although, people are trying to kill him most of the time). Sometimes this means his stories get so tangled no one knows what part of him to trust.

Maybe you couldn’t write a character like Garak right now, but even so, Garak lies with zest and imagination, not to cover up the stupid things he’s done. Garak’s version of the truth requires an open and nimble mind, and I think, a desire to know what the truth really is, beyond what most people have considered. I feel that he would be very unimpressed with what passes for a good lie these days.

Dominant Function: (Ne) Extraverted Intuition, “The Hiking Trails”

Garak exemplifies the phrase “Making it up as you go along.” It’s impossible to get a straight answer out of the man. His response to any given question will change depending on when you ask it, and he can spin a tale from nothing at a moment’s notice.

As he tells Dr. Bashir, the real moral of the story of The Boy Who Cried Wolf isn’t: ”Never tell a lie,” but, “Never tell the same lie twice.”

ENFP: Ezri Dax, “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine”

ENFP – the Champion, the Energizer, the Discoverer

Jadzia took a couple seasons to settle into her personality, as she had been newly joined to the Dax symbiont. Ezri never wanted to be a host, so when the symbiont passed to her after Jadzia’s death, she had to adjust on the fly. My typing is based on the one year we have with her, but I feel like even through the mess of her emergency joining with an ancient creature, the real Ezri shines through.

Dominant Function: (Ne) Extraverted Intuition, “The Hiking Trails”

Ezri works as a counselor, and her approach is very different from Trek’s most famous counselor. While Troi used Fe to empathize and draw people out, Ezri uses Ne to speak conceptually about psychological topics and help her patients make useful cognitive connections. She diagnoses the root of Garak’s claustrophobia by talking it out with him and hitting on a sudden insight that ties it all together. She solves the murder mystery at her family’s home in a similar manner.

When she’s treating Nog for his PTSD, she gives him lots of space, allowing him to live in his holosuite fantasy for a while if that’s what he needs. She extrapolates from small pieces of evidence the psychological profile of a serial killer, concluding that it’s an embittered Vulcan. Ezri also uses her dreams as a way to interpret how she’s really feeling about Julian, walking herself through the imagery to discern what it means in relation to her waking life.

It’s this approach to her life and work that feels very much core to Ezri, outside of any influence the Dax symbiont and her previous hosts have on her, so I feel it’s safe to say this cements her as an Ne-dom both before and after joining.

DS9 MBTI: Ezri Dax, an Introduction

DS9 had a gift for acknowledging its problems and working them into the story. The station got a starship. The captain got a makeover. The cranky Klingon came aboard to boost ratings, but was worked effectively into the cast of misfits.

And when a character had to be written out and replaced in the last year of the show, the new girl in town came in with as much confusion and uncertainty as you’d expect from anyone in that situation.

I admit to experiencing unhealthy youthful nerd-rage when Terry Farrell left DS9 abruptly, just one year before the finish line. I wanted to see my favorite show make it to the end with all its main characters intact, and on a character-dependent show like DS9, that seemed even more important than most. How do you go on with one of the most spirited, vital female characters ever created for Star Trek missing from your cast?

ENFJ: Julian Bashir, “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine”

ENFJ – the Giver, the Mentor, the Believer

It’s encouraging finally to see an Fe-dom character in Star Trek who’s a good guy. As a nerdy sci-fi show, I think Trek prefers Thinkers over Feelers, and most of our heroic Fe-users have also been Introverts (McCoy, Worf, Troi). Till now, all we had in the Extravert category were Janice Rand and Edith Keeler, and they weren’t around long; and Quark’s kind of an anti-hero. We have two ENFJ Trek villains, with more to come on DS9. Bashir himself started out extremely unlikeable, a brash, arrogant Extraverted Feeler on a crew run by moody Fi-users. Some fans never got over that. Some, like O’Brien, found a lot to love and respect about our young doctor.

(Some of us just thought he was cute, but that’s beside the point.)

Dominant Function: (Fe) Extraverted Feeling, “The Garden Fountain”

Doctor Julian Bashir wants to save the world. Or, worlds. He wants to help every sick or injured person he meets, whether they want his help or not.

Charismatic and charming in ways that infuriate his crewmates when he first arrives on DS9, Bashir eagerly talks up his own intelligence and accomplishments as if waiting for applause. He lets the unimpressed Kira know what a sacrifice he made by taking this assignment “in the wilderness.” He often mentions the one question he got wrong on his final medical exam, which made him second in his class instead of first—it’s later revealed that he missed the question out of fear of appearing too perfect, and to hide his genetically engineered nature.

Even after all his embarrassing behavior in the first episode, Bashir shows he’s ready for the job by jumping in to treat the injured during an attack, and commanding Odo’s assistance.

After that, even as he’s growing out of his youthful arrogance, Bashir continues to throw himself at situations where a gallant healer is needed.

DS9 MBTI: Doctor Bashir, an Introduction

One precept that DS9 set out to challenge from the beginning was the idea that characters on Star Trek couldn’t come into conflict with each other. This idea made it tough for the writers to create interesting stories, so on DS9, non-Starfleet and non-Human characters were introduced to spice up the mix. Doctor Bashir, however, is fully human (if a little enhanced), and though he’s idealistic as any Star Trek character, his youth and naivete actually served to make him the biggest jerk on the show.

He annoyed everyone for most of the first couple of seasons, until his natural do-gooder-ness began to mature. It was a risk the writers, and actor Alexander Siddig, were willing to take. Though some fans never overcame their first impressions, I think the gamble paid off.

And speaking of maturing, can we talk for a minute about how well Alexander Siddig has aged?

Wow. Just…(knocks back a drink)

Okay, on to the episode list.

ISTJ: Miles O’Brien, “Star Trek: TNG/Deep Space Nine”

ISTJ – the Inspector, the Trustee, the Steward

Chief O’Brien was dubbed DS9’s Everyman character, one the writers could throw into any manner of weird and wild adventure and see how he bore up. Since the ISTJ is the most abundant personality type in MBTI theory, the role makes a good fit. Whether facing temporal anomalies on TNG, or bumpy-headed aliens on DS9, the Chief brings a down-to-Earth perspective to a far-out place.

Dominant Function: (Si) Introverted Sensing, “The Study”

Chief Petty Officer Miles O’Brien has a long record of service with Starfleet. His early assignments directed the path of his later career, moving from tactical to engineering, and then specializing in transporter operations after he performed a nifty trick to beam his crew out of an emergency. While he’s humble about his own accomplishments, he’s proud to be part of the established institution of Starfleet. He also boasts of his Irish lineage, as it includes a king and a union leader.

O’Brien experienced a great deal of combat as a young enlisted man during the Cardassian Border Wars. In court, he’s counted as an expert witness based on the number of combat missions he’s run, and the recognition he’s received. As steady and useful as the Chief is in such situations, he doesn’t love his memories of being a soldier.

The war colored O’Brien’s view of Cardassians for the rest of his life. He frequently calls them “Cardies,” and he’s slow and stubborn to trust any of them he meets. Even the Cardassian war orphan who stays with the O’Briens only bonds with Miles after they realize they both dislike Cardassian food. The Chief witnessed the many atrocities the Cardassians committed, but he tells one Cardassian that what he truly hates is what he became because of them—a killer, even if it was in combat.

DS9 MBTI: Chief O’Brien, an Introduction

When watching Star Trek: The Next Generation as a kid, I would check the opening credits at very season premiere to see if Colm Meaney was credited as a series regular yet. He’d been appearing on the show as a recurring guest star since the very first episode (although I don’t think he got a name until Season 2). He even had major plotlines in several episodes, and just generally always seemed to be around, dependably working the transporter controls.

When it was announced that the Chief would join the new spin-off Deep Space Nine as a main character, it felt just right. Finally, he was getting the status he deserved! He’d get more stories and more development, not to mention that a married character with a spouse and kids would be part of the lead lineup of a Star Trek cast for the first time.

Little did we or Colm Meaney know that there was a whole universe of hurt waiting for O’Brien at the mouth of the wormhole. His problems only began with the constant head-butting with his wife, and the pestering from a certain young punk of a doctor. O’Brien, due to his regular-guy personality, was subjected to annual “O’Brien Must Suffer” episodes, in which the writers put him through the physical and emotional wringer to see how he’d hold up.

ESFJ: Quark, “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine”

ESFJ – the Provider, the Facilitator, the Caretaker

DS9 enjoyed making its characters outcasts from their home cultures. As the self-professed keeper of Ferengi tradition, Quark has the farthest to fall when he loses everything and becomes a failure in his people’s eyes. It’s then that he discovers that he’s made friends among the misfits on the station—the hew-mons and other non-Ferengi he’s disdained, but still served as their faithful bartender.

Dominant Function: (Fe) Extraverted Feeling, “The Garden Fountain”

Quark could also be called, “the Host, the Negotiator, the Party-Planner.” His bar is the hub of DS9’s civilian population, arguably as important as Ops itself. When Sisko convinces/blackmails him to stay and keep the place open after the Occupation, the community on the station comes back to life.

Despite their ongoing combative relationship, Quark feels actual affection for Odo, and always tries to goad the constable into admitting the same. He likes messing with Odo’s composure using Fe in the same way Odo likes to frustrate his life using Te. They have it out one day while stranded on a mountain together, and Quark assures Odo he meant every hateful word—and the feeling is mutual.

Quark’s materialism isn’t driven just by personal desire, but by the need to be seen as a successful Ferengi. His culture says that acquiring profit by any means necessary is the goal of life, and Quark aspires to this standard. When he fails, he’s embarrassed. When his family fails him, or bucks the values they were raised with, Quark tries to shame and bully them back into line.