As 2003 marks the tenth anniversary of the premiere of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, we'd like to declare this year the year of DS9 by providing some tips on the DVD releases, featuring live chats with the cast and crew, and reflecting in general on what some consider the boldest of all the Star Trek shows.
Gene Roddenberry never really knew Deep Space Nine; his passing was over a year before the show premiered in January of 1993. However, the people entrusted with the future of the franchise, and this new show — executive producers Rick Berman and Michael Piller — saw to it that the quality and level of storytelling, as defined in the original Star Trek and refined in Star Trek: The Next Generation, would expand the franchise in a way the Great Bird could certainly be proud of.
Sure, the premise alarmed some long term-Trek fans: A show based on a remote outpost instead of a squeaky-clean starship, led by a non-captain (Commander Benjamin Sisko), and the promise of more conflict within the confines of the station and beyond. If the original series was "Wagon Train to the Stars," this was touted as "The Rifleman in Space." A new setting, a familiar concept. Or vice versa. Berman and Piller knew in their hearts that there was something new and different that had yet to be explored within the Star Trek universe — an environment where the limits of human and alien tolerances could be tested. Deep Space Nine would be this environment; the new stage as it were, a place where dramas of the future would unfold.
To complicate matters, Deep Space Nine would not be the Starfleet-style space station viewers were accustomed to, one of well-appointed interiors and dependable technology. This station was a repurposed former Cardassian mining station known as Terok Nor. The whole look and feel was completely different: Cardassian architecture being more angular, with ellipses, trapezoids and main architectural structures in sets of threes. Looking at the station from the top down, you would see three upper docking rings, three spokes that ran from the central ops portion of the station to the outer ring. The color scheme for the station was hardly stuff of Starfleet interior design. Dark, uninviting color schemes were the order of the day. In spite of these hurdles, the atmosphere of Deep Space Nine was lightened by its inhabitants. The essence of the show's drama was that the crew would have to contend with all the ramifications of the setting as well as the people who passed through this galactic hitching station.
The show was a success, but like TNG, took a while to mature. All good things do. The makeup of the main crew, and their development, played a key part in determining the success of the show. For the first time in a Star Trek show, a mixture of Federation and non-Federation officers, not to mention other principal characters as station employees and proprietors, were presented working together. For the most part, anyway. The fact that many of them did not get along added spice to the drama. Odo, the shapeshifting head of station security, was in constant conflict with Quark, the local barkeep. Commander Sisko, a widower with his only offspring in tow — an adolescent son named Jake — had to deal with a hot-headed Bajoran, Major Kira Nerys, as his second in command. The remaining crew had their issues as well. The beautiful but distant science officer, Jadzia, was a Trill who appeared humanoid, but had a symbiont named Dax living within her. It is with Dax that she shared several lifetimes' experience and the maturity that brought. The symbiont even managed to make the transition to a new host, Ezri, in the final year of the show following the death of Jadzia. With the young, eager and sometimes naive doctor, Julian Bashir, we had a character who was ready for life on the frontier and all the challenges it represents. Chief Miles O'Brien represented the everyman, the family guy, the workaday Joe whose personality is perhaps more grounded than most.
With their proximity to a stable wormhole that gave passage to the previously inaccessable Gamma Quadrant, members of the Deep Space Nine crew were able to explore new areas of space. And face dangers hitherto only hinted at, notably the devastating and show-defining Dominion War. Together, the characters of Deep Space Nine fought, loved and dealt with each other and the day-to-day challenges that life on an outpost at the edge of a frontier would bring.
What set Star Trek: Deep Space Nine apart from the other shows was that it gave fans a story arc across several seasons, key characters came and went, and a reliable supporting cast chipped in with their personalities, each unique. All the people in this setting — supporting and main, human and alien, good and evil — changed. By the end of the show's run, no single character is truly recognizable to the one he or she began as. The result, when all was said and done, was a science-fiction diamond, a multi-faceted jewel with many sides that were eventually revealed in the light. Certain characters we had a handle on from the start and knew what we could ultimately expect from them: Gul Dukat, the Female Shapeshifter, Brunt, Kai Winn, and Weyoun. Still others took time to reveal their characters' true nature: Damar, Martok, Garak, Gowron, Rom and Nog to name a few. Others never said a word, but their presence was always felt: Stand up and take a bow, Morn. Still others, we enjoyed purely for the sake of their being there, like holo-nightclub host and crooner Vic Fontaine. No other Star Trek show had created this type of ensemble where supporting cast was often as integral to the story as the main cast.
From the pilot, "Emissary," to the outstanding finale, "What You Leave Behind," the show never ceased to pull off the improbable, or the impossible. What the producers left behind was a multi-layered world — and when it was at its best, many consider it the best Trek has ever been.
Where does Star Trek: Deep Space Nine rank with you? Discuss on the Star Trek Message Boards!
