Thursday, August 4, 2011

Reason #56 Why I Love DS9 - Leeta

"Oh Rom!"

There are many reasons why I love Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and why it remains my favorite of the Star Trek franchise.

Reason #56: Leeta

She started as nothing more than one of Quark's (Armin Shimerman) dabo girls but Leeta managed to carve out her own little niche on Deep Space Nine, first as a girlfriend for Basir (Alexander Siddig) and a friend of Jadzia (Terry Farrell), but later, and most importantly, as the unlikely love interest for Rom (Max Grodénchik). The phrase beauty and the beast fits well but the couple was so undeniably adorable it's impossible to call either of them a beast.

The relationship between Rom and Leeta alone is enough to include her on a list but the character had many other highlights over the years including fighting for her rights at Quark's, as one of the temporary hosts of one of Dax's previous personalities, as part of the DS9 baseball team, and as a member of the anti-Dominion resistance.

Leeta was played by the vivacious Chase Masterson. After auditioning for the role of Jake's (Cirroc Lofton) girlfriend the writers decided to write Chase her own character. Originally Leeta was only scheduled to appear in a single episode but she soon became a favorite to fans and writers alike as one of the shows better known recurring characters. I think we're all happy with the result.

2 comments:

Kal said...

You called this one right. She's a keeper. I loved that little whine she would do when she was nervous or upset. She also could see the nobility and honor in Rom which only made him a more interesting character. Brilliant show. I watch it daily on SPACE and it's such a crackling good story from start to finish. Sisko is also my favorite Starfleet Captain. My favorite of all the episodes in the one with Tony Todd playing Jake as an old man. It's time travel done right.

Don't even get me started on Garak.

Cap'n Carrot said...

Although "The Visitor" isn't my favorite episode it does rank high on my list.

One thing I love about DS9 is how it allowed characters to evolve and change. The show let a character like Leeta organically change from from a sexpot Bashir was interested in into the perfect wife for Rom.