"Parts Unknown: Bajor" -- with fake ads

September 27, 2020 2:33 PM

"The Hasperat has his eyes watering." fresne's fanfic short story "Parts Unknown: Bajor" takes Anthony Bourdain on a tour of Deep Space Nine and the planet Bajor. Includes commercial breaks: "Some of the inspiration for the sponsor breaks come from some conversations I’ve been having with friends about what a Star Trek show that wasn’t about Starfleet would be like." (Bourdain fanfic previously.)

This was a Yuletide story. Yuletide is a yearly fan fiction exchange where people write fanfic about rare and obscure fandoms (books, TV shows, movies, songs, etc. that don't already have a ton of public fanfic written about them). You can nominate fandoms from now till 1 October, at 9am UTC and sign up to participate 16-26 October.

posted by brainwane (6 comments total)

Since it seems to be a dead link in the original post, here's the New Yorker review of 'No Reservations: Narnia.'

As a fan of Bourdain and DS9, I am terribly happy for this. Only thing that could make it better would be a cast reading, as we've had with Garak and Bashir lately... Though it's a shame that Bourdain's not around to fill his role. Thanks, brainwane!
posted by kaibutsu at 3:14 PM on September 27, 2020 [2 favorites]

Thank you for sharing this. It's a lovely piece. Fanfiction is an underappreciated art form.
posted by Fenriss at 7:12 PM on September 27, 2020 [1 favorite]

Thanks for this. Parts Unknown is one of my favorite binge-watches, and the tone and pacing of this are spot-on.
posted by xedrik at 6:05 AM on September 28, 2020

Now I miss Bourdain and DS9 at the same time. Beautiful! I'm sometimes drawn to questions of what civilian "normal" life is like for Federation/Earth/futurepeople. I'm glad they picked up on the thread of reactionary conservatism in how many humans on the show seem to make a point out of loving "obsolete" things like cooking or baseball while complaining about how their fellow humans don't appreciate such things anymore.
posted by traveler_ at 10:57 AM on September 28, 2020 [2 favorites]

I like how the author challenged the Terra-centrism of the Federation.
Now if you'll excuse me, I need to prepare for my interview for my Qonos visa (charges painstik).
posted by The Ardship of Cambry at 2:01 PM on September 28, 2020

I'm genuinely shocked how much I enjoyed this fanfic, and how well it provided a medium for thoughts I can't imagine being explored any other way.
posted by effugas at 5:36 AM on September 29, 2020 [3 favorites]