Michael Eddington

[Kilana2]

A character who provided me with ample food for thought lately is Michael Eddington. Member of the Maquis. Big disappointment for Sisko as he trusted Eddington and was let down by him. According to Memory Alpha “Eddington” had to die because the Maquis storyline was over.



I´m glad that…..

Spoiler: Eddington Mirror

Michael Eddington is still alive in the Litverse, at least in the MU, playing an important role there. Which makes the MU more interesting. Eddington is given the chance to lead a life, although a different one

Let´s start an Eddington thread. Did you like this character? If not, why?
At least he “died in glory”. And I couldn´t bring myself to hate this guy, I don´t know why.
I really must rewatch the Eddington episodes.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

I absolutely hated Eddington. He was an egotistical jackass with delusions of grandeur. Thinking himself some kind of revolutionary was bad enough, but IIRC, he actually planned on attacking Cardassia itself! (Which is why I suspect that a large portion of the Maquis were motivated by simple racial hatred of Cardassians, but that's another matter.)

And Eddington is full of seven shades of shit when he compares the Federation to the Borg - oh, sorry, I wasn't aware the Federation forces planets to join against their will. And when he said "No one leaves the Federation"? Like hell they don't! It's happened before - the Federation allows worlds to secede. So once again he's full of crap.

I didn't shed one single tear when Eddington bought the farm. Bastard should have gotten an even more long, drawn-out death scene, far as I'm concerned.

Mirror Eddington was fine, I had no problem with him. He was every bit the decent character that his RU version was not.

 

[Kilana2]

I absolutely hated Eddington. He was an egotistical jackass with delusions of grandeur.

Chakotay is an example of an honorable Maquis leader - he had no ambitions other than to help the colonists in the DMZ. Eddington actually fancied himself some kind of revolutionary, which is not what the Maquis were supposed to be about. And IIRC, Eddington actually planned on attacking Cardassia itself!

And Eddington is full of seven shades of shit when he compares the Federation to the Borg - oh, sorry, I wasn't aware the Federation forces planets to join against their will. And when he said "No one leaves the Federation"? Like hell they don't! It's happened before - the Federation allows worlds to secede. So once again he's full of crap.

I didn't shed one single tear when Eddington bought the farm. Bastard should have gotten an even more long, drawn-out death scene, far as I'm concerned.

Mirror Eddington was fine, I had no problem with him. He was every bit the decent character that his RU version was not.

I´m grateful, that you have taught me a new expression for "kicking the bucket, dying, biting the dust, going to the happy hunting ground, meeting ones end, to perish, to snuff it... etc.

At least we agree on MU Eddington .

 

[Timo]

I loved the character for those very attributes. The show needed a good villain who wouldn't see things the way the heroes did, and Eddington delivered. Then again, so did Dukat and Winn...

(The UFP allows worlds to secede? When did that happen? The closest we got AFAIK was Turkana IV, but that was said to be an Earth colony that merely had "ties" to the Federation, not a member per se.)

Eddington is a good example of the sort of people one would expect to find among frontier freedom fighters. Lon Suder is another. That there would also be suckers like Chakotay and people going native like Hudson was dramatically interesting as well - we really got all sorts. Well, not all: the hardy frontier woman who would hammer some sense into these hotheads with a frying pan was missing, as was the wise old-timer, the idealist who refused to fight, and perhaps also the cute kid. But we definitely needed Eddington in the mix.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Kilana2]

Eddington and Damar were the two most surprising characters for me in the course of the show.

I´m glad they

Spoiler: Eddington/Damar

are still alive in the MU. I hope they aren´t killed off anytime soon in the MU, but you´ll never know.

 

[Avro Arrow]

Ah, Eddington. The (IIRC) first canonical character we got that might actually have been Canadian... at the very least, his ancestors were strongly implied to be.

And then he turns out to be a traitor. Awesome.

But seriously, I did like the character, for similar reasons to what Timo mentioned. DS9 did its antagonists well.

And his betrayal caught me completely off-guard, just as it did Sisko, so I thought that was well done.

And when he said "No one leaves the Federation"? Like hell they don't! It's happened before - the Federation allows worlds to secede.

The UFP allows worlds to secede?

Non-canonically, in the novels, sure... we've seen plenty of examples there.

Canonically, though, no, nothing comes to mind. Although I'm sure someone will jump in if I've overlooked an example.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Ah, Eddington. The (IIRC) first canonical character we got that might actually have been Canadian...

What about Sam Lavelle from TNG?

 

[Avro Arrow]

^ Hmm, yes, I forgot about him. But again IIRC he only mentioned he had Canadian grandparents, didn't he? So he definitely had Canadian ancestors, but there's pretty much no chance he was Canadian himself, or he would have said that instead, since he was trying to form a connection to Riker at the time, who he mistakenly believed was Canadian.

(True story: the first time I saw that episode, when they first stated they thought Riker was from Canada, the show had already established Riker was from Alaska... so I assumed that sometime in the next 300 years the writers intended that Alaska seceded from the US and became a Canadian province or territory instead. Riker then shot that thought down pretty quick, though! )

 

[Kinggodzillak]

Always liked the guy, Ken Marshall's a really great actor (even if he has disappeared off the face of the Earth - come back, Ken!) and the character was interesting to me even before his defection.

My only issue with the character was that we never ever found out why he joined the Maquis. Sisko asks him why at the end of For the Cause, Eddington avoids answering, and that's it. Never addressed again.

 

[hux]

He was an egotistical jackass with delusions of grandeur. Thinking himself some kind of revolutionary was bad enough, but IIRC, he actually planned on attacking Cardassia itself! (Which is why I suspect that a large portion of the Maquis were motivated by simple racial hatred of Cardassians, but that's another matter.)

And Eddington is full of seven shades of shit when he compares the Federation to the Borg - oh, sorry, I wasn't aware the Federation forces planets to join against their will. And when he said "No one leaves the Federation"? Like hell they don't! It's happened before - the Federation allows worlds to secede. So once again he's full of crap.

I didn't shed one single tear when Eddington bought the farm. Bastard should have gotten an even more long, drawn-out death scene, far as I'm concerned

All the reasons I loved him

Someone finally questioning the sanitised utopia and it's insidious influence

 

[Bad Thoughts]

I have difficulty shaking off a bit of bad direction when it comes to Eddington. There are many odd angles on him during The Die Is Cast that it is obvious Eddington would do something dastardly. It couldn't have been more telegraphed if her were twirling a mustache.

That said, Marshall was a fairly talented actor, and I enjoy the competition between him and Odo. More of it would have been welcome. It was nice to have a character that (usually) wasn't an obvious villain but was arrogant.

 

[Kinggodzillak]

I really like that initial idea of him being 'a Starfleet officer who doesn't have to be a nice guy', the one who would follow the rules and not necessarily care that it bothered people.

I tend to file Eddington as one of those plot-things that just kinda got lost in the shuffle, things that DS9 never even bothered to establish was a plot-thing until it was over. "Leeta and Bashir are breaking up!" "What, when were they together in the first place?" "Ziyal is dead! The station won't be the same without her!" "Well, she was only in two stories in the whole of the last season..." "Eddington's a traitor!" "Um...who?"

Yes, it didn't help that we rarely saw the guy; he's senior staff after all, and in season three he's the highest-ranking Starfleet officer on the station after Sisko, so he should have been around all the time. Where is he, for instance, during Way of the Warrior? The biggest crisis the station faces in the time he was there and he's...what, looking after the Detapa Council in that little room that Dukat and Garak were protecting? Or did Sisko and co just forget to tell him the Klingons were invading?

Think it's probably a fluke that he made it to season five, actually; after his introduction in The Search the guy ends up getting locked in the 'we probably won't do anything with this character again' drawer along with T'Rul and only gets let out again for The Die is Cast to pad out the subplot. It's kind of a waste, and means his eventual defection isn't as strong as it might be precisely because we haven't seen him enough for it to really be a shock.

Though I always believe he defected cos he saw how many goldshirts were gonna die in To The Death and didn't want to add one more to their number.

 

[Kilana2]

At least Eddington wasn´t simply killed off like so many other Maquis members.
He sacrificed himself for the cause.

Eddington is not the classic bad guy. He even married Rebecca Sullivan.

DS9 has many diverse and multifaceted recurring characters, Eddington being one of them.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

He was an egotistical jackass with delusions of grandeur. Thinking himself some kind of revolutionary was bad enough, but IIRC, he actually planned on attacking Cardassia itself! (Which is why I suspect that a large portion of the Maquis were motivated by simple racial hatred of Cardassians, but that's another matter.)

And Eddington is full of seven shades of shit when he compares the Federation to the Borg - oh, sorry, I wasn't aware the Federation forces planets to join against their will. And when he said "No one leaves the Federation"? Like hell they don't! It's happened before - the Federation allows worlds to secede. So once again he's full of crap.

I didn't shed one single tear when Eddington bought the farm. Bastard should have gotten an even more long, drawn-out death scene, far as I'm concerned

All the reasons I loved him

Someone finally questioning the sanitised utopia and it's insidious influence

Contrary to Eddington's rantings, the Federation did not care that the Maquis were planning to leave it. The only reason the Maquis were considered criminals was because they were attacking Cardassian colonists (and Federation ships!), threatening to make the war break out again. That's why the Maquis were hunted - their actions could have led to another war with Cardassia itself.

 

[hux]

Contrary to Eddington's rantings, the Federation did not care that the Maquis were planning to leave it. The only reason the Maquis were considered criminals was because they were attacking Cardassian colonists (and Federation ships!), threatening to make the war break out again. That's why the Maquis were hunted - their actions could have led to another war with Cardassia itself.

His Maquis identity wasn't that integral to what he represented at that moment (the Maquis are deeply dull). It's more the fact that we were finally offered a perspective that had hitherto been denied us. Eddington isn't the greatest or most complex possible incarnation of a Federation dissenting voice but he was the first real attempt and the best, most fleshed out version we got and for that alone he gets hero status in my house

It was just nice to hear a Federation citizen criticise the Utopia and hint that it wasn't perhaps all it was cracked up to be

 

[JirinPanthosa]

Eddington was an interesting villain but not a likable guy.

I don't know how accurate this is for real terrorists, but in 24 season 2 they mention that terrorists in training are told not to share their political views with anyone, to act like they don't have an opinion. Which is exactly how Eddington acted before he was revealed as a saboteur. I wonder how long in advance he was planned to be a Maquis.

 

[Dobian]

I liked Eddington too. He could be a jackass, but he had a point. And I actually thought he won a couple of those head-to-head debates with Sisko on Maquis vs Federation.

 

[Kinggodzillak]

Totally agree, when he compared the federation to the borg it was more to highlight a point than mean it literally.

I also wonder if Eddington only mentioned the Borg to hurt Sisko.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Good point. That makes Eddington even more of a douchebag, really...

 

[Ithekro]

Does he put it on his card?

Michael Eddington

Security Officer
Freedom Fighter
Douchebag