I saw this after DS9 and I always wondered why Miles could articulate this so clearly in TNG and sort of fall back on a not-quite-understood anger in DS9, that he would express in genuinely prejudiced ways sometimes. And I think it’s not just that DS9 was the darker show, but that the Enterprise, even with Cardassians onboard, is his space, a safe home. Whereas Deep Space Nine, formerly Terok Nor, is a Cardassian space station, designed (as pretty much all of Cardassia is) for military purposes. He’s in their territory, and he feels it.
I saw this after DS9 as well. I can rationalise it as Miles being aware of his own prejudices after this point, but because he’s not confronted with Cardassians that often in his day to day life he still hasn’t been able to overcome those prejudices.
He’s also in the guts of that station, arguing with the Cardassian computer every day. He’s also confronted with the fallout of Cardassian occupation a lot, which is likely to step back any progress he made and entrench his resentment even further.
Also, I think people are often able to articulate their emotions and understand the complexities of their psyche and STILL not be able to change their ways. Just knowing the root cause of your behaviour doesn’t mean you can change it. Which makes Miles a more realistic character.
(Oh, and TNG was always written in a dispassionate, let’s analyse the problem and it’ll go away, sort of way. Whereas DS9 was far more interested in presenting flawed people in difficult circumstances. So there’s that.)
(via yellowmoya)
