Ivylad doesn’t like Star Trek, but I think he gets into Deep Space 9, although he will never admit it.
Anyway, the episode was on recently where Martok intercepts a transmission from the Maquis, saying that they were launching missiles against Cardassia. Sisko springs Commander Eddington from prison to help him find the launch site and deactivate the missiles.
It’s a ploy, there never were any missiles. Instead it was a plot to reunite with his wife and the survivors of the Maquis. Eddington dies, holding back the Jem H’Dar so the rest can escape.
When Ivylad heard Eddington’s name and that he was a commander, he snorted. He said that it must be an homage to the real Commander Eddington, who in World War II was accused of rape and volunteered for a suicide mission.
The only Google reference I can find for a Commander Eddington during WWII is a John Wayne movie, In Harm’s Way. Has Ivylad confused his John Waynephilia with an actual event? Did DS9 choose Eddington as a reference to another commander, fallen from grace, who redeems himself to save others? Or is it just a fluke? The WW II commander is named Paul, not Michael, so maybe that clouds the issue.
And yes, I know about the X-Files reference during Trials and Tribble-ations, which made me think they’re not above coy asides.
When they get back to the future (heh heh), two Starfleet officers from the office of temporal investigations or some such interview Sisko to make sure he didn’t do anything to alter the timeline in such a way that they could tell. Their names were Remuld and Lucsly, or some other anagram of Mulder and Scully.
In fact, I think the episode might have been Sisko telling them his story.
“Considering Trek’s history?” Does that mean character names usually reference RL scientists and explorers? I ask because Ivylad seemed to think that Commander Michael Eddington’s life paralleled Commander Paul Eddington, a disgraced officer who goes on a suicide mission. So perhaps it wasn’t just a same-name scenario?
Also place names and ship names. They also reference miltary leaders and politicians of some peculiar note, along with other sci-fi writers and their ideas (Yoyodyne, for example). Sometimes it’s not easily seen if at al, but merely in the script or in graphics too small to be imaged on screen.
Still, it could be a WWII officer reference. My Trek Ency doesn’t say. One thing it does mention, tho, is the character developement with Les Misérables in mind, which is mentioned in the eps, iirc.
I’ve recently read the Deep Space Nine Companion (a behind the scenes book with breakdowns of each episode and lots of interview snippets) and Eddington as an homage doesn’t ring a bell at all. Doesn’t mean it isn’t true, of course, but I don’t think it’s very likely either… Ira Steven Behr is a huge geek and very proud of his in-jokes and references. If he had intended Eddington as a homage – the character was always intended to be a traitor from day one – I think he would have mentioned it to the book’s writer.
It’s hazy but I’m pretty certain that there was a ‘maquis’ group in France during the occupation.
The name apparently comes from a type of scrub plant that is dense and impenetrable. Given that the fighters had the reputation of coming from the forest I’d say that makes sense.
