Continuity Error? | Female Cardassians

[Michael]

I don't know if this already came up, but I think I spotted a continuity error in DS9. Is it just me or did the make up department forget how they portrayed the cleavage of a female cardassian in the earlier episode?

Cardassian woman from "Pofit And Loss"

Cardassian woman from "Penumbra"

 

[cmdr_forst]

Maybe the actress from the second still was not comfortable with prosthetics and make-up on that part of her body. Or somebody forgot.

Or none of the above.

 

[Who_Trek]

Or... different women look different ... different Cardassain species?

 

[Unicron]

Obviously, Natima Lang ("Profit and Loss") had implants.

 

[Kegek]

It's probably like belly buttons turned in or out, or whether or not chins have a bump in them. Some Cardassian women have a spoon on their chest, and some don't. The birds and the voles, people...

 

[Apogeal Alpha01]

cmdr_forst said:
Maybe the actress from the second still was not comfortable with prosthetics and make-up on that part of her body. Or somebody forgot.

Or none of the above.

Somebody forgot, or it was like, "Hey! We gotta to shoot this scene today! On the set, everyone!" A matter of time or money.

Like the Trill spots, it just doesn't make sense for a Cardassian to be human below the clavicle bone, and we rarely saw the breasts or bodies of Cardassian women.

One more thing. Maybe Damar like freaks?

 

[sbk1234]

She has a bad rash?

 

[Timo]

Cut her some slack: not everybody can have their chest spoons stay propped so high up all their lives. It's not natural. And sagging can be beautiful, too, when you look at it right.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[AdmiralGarak]

Timo said:
Cut her some slack: not everybody can have their chest spoons stay propped so high up all their lives. It's not natural. And sagging can be beautiful, too, when you look at it right.

Timo Saloniemi

I for one refuse to neck-trick with a woman with a flaccid chest spoon.

 

[Vonstadt]

Or the second Cardie woman had Bajoran blood in her. Not unlike Dukat's daughter?

Hey I'm rationalizing but what the hey

 

[Mysterion]

Who_Trek said:
Or... different women look different ... different Cardassain species?

This would be my thinking, also. There must be some racial variations within the Cardassian species.

 

[Robert Maxwell]

It is kind of weird the way people nitpick minor cosmetic differences within alien species in Star Trek--as if all humans share exactly the same features, too.

A more valid criticism is DS9 Trills looking different from TNG ones. But I bet that's in the FAQ already, right?

 

[Michael]

Robert Maxwell said:
It is kind of weird the way people nitpick minor cosmetic differences within alien species in Star Trek--as if all humans share exactly the same features, too.

A more valid criticism is DS9 Trills looking different from TNG ones. But I bet that's in the FAQ already, right?

Well, I think nitpicking is one of the best (and funniest) aspects of being a Star Trek fan. It's not that I can't enjoy the episodes just because an alien make up doesn't look the same in another episode, really! On the contrary, that would be one of the reasons I consider said episode special. Star Trek is not perfect. It a TV show. And pointing out the curiosities can be fun!

But back to the subject: The difference in the portrayal of the female Cardassian cleavage could just be a -- talking about an in-universe explanation -- varying feature among Cardassins, yes. But I'm more interested in a real world, behind-the-scenes explanation for why they changed the initial make up. Of course you can rationalize it by saying that there are just different physical appearances of Cardassins. But do you really want to imply that it was done on purpose?

 

[Apogeal Alpha01]

Real world? In the scene with Damar, wasn't the woman supposed to be a consort, someone he was boinking? They probably just wanted to emphazise the woman's cleavage, her sexuality. The other woman was a former lover of Quark's, and in that scene wanted to shock us a bit, again, that Quark has fairly broad tastes in women. We've seen a variety of lovers, from Bajoran, to Kiligon, to Cardassian.

Hmmm, I think I could really buy that explanation!

 

[Finn]

It could be an ethnic thing on Cardassia Prime. I noticed the face "scales" and ridges, and the spoon seemed more detailed on one woman and less detailed on the other.

 

[cultcross]

Finn said:
It could be an ethnic thing on Cardassia Prime. I noticed the face "scales" and ridges, and the spoon seemed more detailed on one woman and less detailed on the other.

Yes it's not just the chest makeup, the entire prosthetic seems much less 'Cardassian' as it were than the first example photo. I'm quite happy to accept this as variation within the species, although we've seen much less variation in the extent of the male makeup.

 

[doubleohfive]

At least the wardrobe department is on top of their shit in terms of continuity!

 

[Timo]

One more thing. Maybe Damar like freaks?

Well, he shot one while on that fateful assignment to Terok Nor...

One might actually think that Dukat isn't that much of a special case in the Cardassian society. Perhaps with the strict rules on marital cheating, many Cardassian males consider it safer and more acceptable to copulate with lower lifeforms or the resulting Cardassian-animal hybrids - and find it desirable to have even their fully Cardassian mistresses look the part.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Tino]

Guys, that second breat simply looks much better without those ridges. ;-)

 

[Brutal Strudel]

I think that's probably a large part of it--Cardassian women can be sexy as hell so long as they don't over do it. That chest spoon and those chest scales? Bit too much. Couple with the cost of make up, it's a strong incentive to ditch it. (Didn't Ziyal have a subtler chest spoon, though?)