A Brief Guide to Star Trek (28 page)

‘
Roddenberry created characters that he purposely chose not to put in conflict. There’s no good drama without conflict
.’ Rick Berman

The creators of
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
, the second TV spinoff from
The Original Series
, deliberately conceived the show as the ‘anti-
Star Trek
’. David Carson, who directed the two-hour pilot episode, said of the show’s creators: ‘I think what they’re striving for is to look at the people in the 24th century who are not so much at peace with themselves as the crew of the
Enterprise
was in
Star Trek: The Next Generation
.’
Deep Space Nine
would diverge considerably from what Michael Piller called ‘Roddenberry’s box’ of restrictive storytelling rules and would take
Star Trek
in a new direction. The new storytellers who would map this unexplored territory included Ira Steven Behr and Ron Moore.

The show debuted in 1993, during the sixth season of
The Next Generation
, and it was more a spin-off from that show than from the original
Star Trek
. Set in the same twenty-fourth-century time period, it featured many of the same characters, including Miles O’Brien (Colm Meaney) and, from the fourth season onwards, Klingon Worf (Michael Dorn). The show would match its progenitor for longevity, running for seven seasons to 1999, but would not make the step up to feature films like the previous two series.

From the beginning,
Deep Space Nine
was intended to be different. Executive producers Rick Berman and Michael Piller signalled this difference in the most dramatic way pos -sible – the show would not feature a Federation starship engaged in exploration. Instead, the title referred to an isolated space station to which the drama of each episode would come. Fan jokes at the time had the station (and potentially the series) boldly going nowhere.

Controversy dogged this ‘darker’
Star Trek
series from the outset, with J. Michael Straczynski, creator of the similarly space-station-set
Babylon 5
(which began airing mere weeks after
Deep Space Nine
), heavily suggesting that the development of Paramount’s new
Star Trek
show had been influenced by his proposal. Straczynski had attempted to sell his space station series to Paramount as early as 1989, complete with series bible, pilot script and outlines for a first season of twenty-two episodes, including development artwork and character histories. Paramount rejected this detailed proposal, but only announced
Deep Space Nine
after Warner Bros. TV picked up Straczynski’s
Babylon 5
. For his part, Straczynski remained convinced that
Babylon 5
must have influenced the development of
Deep Space Nine
, something that all involved have long denied. Straczynski decided to rise above the controversy, knowing that suing Paramount would probably not help his own career. ‘[Paramount] know what happened, and I know what happened’, Straczynski posted to his internet forum in 1996. ‘The fact that the two shows were so similar at that time – one a nobody show from nowhere, the other bundled with the
Star Trek
name – came within an inch of killing
Babylon 5
. We were told “The syndie [syndication] market can’t sustain two shows like this; you’re gonna get creamed.”’

In fact,
Babylon 5
went on to secure a five-season run (although as with the original
Star Trek
, renewal was always tricky, complicated by the fact that Straczynski had set out to tell a complete five-year story). The series even spawned its own
Star Trek
-style spin-offs in the form of a series of TV movies
and
Crusade
, a one-season follow-on.
Babylon 5
deliberately set out to challenge the
Star Trek
storytelling style, to overcome the end-of-episode narrative reset button that reasserted the status quo, and to present storylines and characters that were con -stantly changed by the narrative developments of the series. It was a storytelling approach
Deep Space Nine
would itself come to embrace in later seasons.

The new show would have the most ongoing storylines of all
Star Trek
series, with character conflict at its core. Not only did it trash ‘Roddenberry’s box’ of narrative restrictions, it made a positive virtue of ignoring them. ‘To a lot of people [
Deep Space Nine
] is not what
Star Trek
is’, admitted producer Rick Berman. ‘These two shows [
Deep Space Nine
and
The Next Generation
] were to run concurrently, so there was no question we needed to come up with something different, a little darker and with a lot more conflict.’

From first considering a second spin-off in 1991, Paramount executives knew the new show had to be distinctive, yet somehow still
Star Trek
. Thoughts turned to a series set within the Klingon Empire, explored in episodes of
The Next Generation
, but the fear of exorbitant make-up costs quickly put paid to that notion. George Takei had long been lobbying for a show of his own, featuring Sulu as the captain of his own starship. Takei had a strong fan following, but Paramount had already decided the new show would be set in the same time period as
The Next Generation
. Other ideas explored briefly included Harve Bennett’s old concept of Starfleet Academy, an option bolstered by
The Next Generation
episode ‘The First Duty’, featuring Wesley Crusher at the Academy, and Bennett’s lobbying for the concept to form the basis of
Star Trek VI
. Another notion was for a series set on a Federation Starbase or a colony planet. Starbases had cropped up in
Star Trek
since
The Original Series
(notably in the episode ‘The Trouble With Tribbles’). They were re-supply and maintenance bases, like motorway service stations or trading posts in the US old West. An entire series set among the crew and visitors to a Federation Starbase might
have strong dramatic potential, as it would be a destination or way-station for many non-Starfleet characters, thus allowing the writers to introduce a higher degree of conflict than might be allowed (or expected) from among a ‘perfect’ crew on yet another starship. The colony planet idea was discarded due to the amount of location-based filming that would have been required, and the space station concept was developed.

Setting the series on a space station rather than a starship had many implications for the drama. The location implied a degree of commitment to dealing with consequences perhaps missing from the starship shows: the people on
Deep Space Nine
could not simply fly away from their problems. Additionally, characters would get married or enjoy lengthy relationships, an additional level of commitment and source of character drama. The fact that non-Starfleet characters would feature heavily gave
Deep Space Nine
a different feeling, too, with alternative viewpoints being explored and having an impact on the show’s regular characters. As people lived their lives, their fixed location and wider relationships would inform their decision-making, with galaxy-wide consequences.

With the death of Gene Roddenberry in 1991, and his lessening involvement in
The Next Generation
before that, Rick Berman was freer than ever before to do something different with
Star Trek
without the Great Bird of the Galaxy hovering over his shoulder – although Roddenberry had been involved in some of the earliest discussions of what would become
Deep Space Nine
. As far as Roddenberry had been concerned, he was the only person who could create and cast a
Star Trek
TV series or movie – an argument he’d used to prevent Harve Bennett’s Starfleet Academy proposal from proceeding. Berman took a different view of things: ‘Before he died I worked closely with Gene for five years. I learned his language and his religion and his outlook. I have been obsessively true to it. Gene’s involvement in
The Next Generation
had been minimal since the first year of the show. [
Deep Space Nine
] will be absolutely true to that vision, it’s a show that rests on Gene’s idea of the future.’
Despite his assertion, the storytellers working under Berman would deliberately undermine his stated adherence to Rodden-berry’s strictures, setting out to create in
Deep Space Nine
the anti-
Star Trek
they believed modern television audiences required.

Various titles were developed for the new show, including the rather bland
Starbase 362
(most Starbases featured in various episodes of the two preceding
Star Trek
series had numerical identifiers) and the oft-suggested
Star Trek: The Final Frontier
. Inspiration for the exact setting and dramatic situation of the new series would be drawn from a handful of specific episodes of
The Next Generation
.

The Next Generation
episode ‘Ensign Ro’ had introduced the planet Bajor and the Maquis rebel faction, both developed further in
Deep Space Nine
. Bajor had suffered under the oppressive rule of the Cardassians for generations, with the orbiting space station Terok Nor recently vacated and reoccupied by the now freed Bajorans alongside Starfleet personnel, led by Commander Benjamin Sisko (Avery Brooks). ‘Ensign Ro’ introduced the character of troubled Bajoran Ro Laren (Michelle Forbes), intended to be a regular on
Deep Space Nine
. However, Forbes declined the offer, making way for the station’s First Officer Kira Nerys (Nana Visitor). The joint control of the station was intended to pave the way for Bajor to join the Federation, with the station renamed
Deep Space Nine
.

The Maquis rebel faction grew out of
The Next Generation
episode ‘Journey’s End’. That saw a group of Native American settlers refuse to leave their colony world when it is reassigned to the Cardassians under the terms of a treaty. Unusually for
Star Trek
, the Maquis (the name taken from French Resistance guerrillas during World War II) were a human resistance group made up of Federation citizens, many of them working within Starfleet. They would later reappear in
Star Trek: Voyager
.

An additional element was the discovery of a stable worm-hole, with the station residing between the wormhole and Bajor.
The wormhole offered access to the largely unexplored Gamma Quadrant of the galaxy, so was strategically important. This development saw the return of the Cardassians, who had stripped the station during their withdrawal from Bajor. Interested in accessing (or controlling) the wormhole as much as the Bajorans and the Federation, the Cardassians would become recurring villains.

A further complication saw the wormhole perceived by the religious Bajorans as fulfilling a long-held prophecy. The alien beings inhabiting the wormhole and living beyond linear time and space are seen as gods by the Bajorans. In their religion, the wormhole is the Celestial Temple, while the aliens are dubbed the Prophets. Sisko is seen an emissary of the Prophets after he survives an encounter with the wormhole inhabitants and he subsequently acts on their behalf.
Deep Space Nine
started with a much more complicated and more sophisticated set-up than
The Next Generation
had only a few years previously.

Another break with the past was taken in the casting of leading character Commander Benjamin Sisko (the equivalent to Captains Kirk and Picard). It was decided to spearhead
Deep Space Nine
with an African-American actor, although thought was also given to casting a woman. Experienced movie names Tony Todd (
Candyman
) and Michael Clarke Duncan (
The Green Mile
) were considered, but the leading role went to acclaimed stage actor Avery Brooks (known to US TV audiences for the sidekick role of Hawk on
Spenser: For Hire
and its short-lived spin-off
A Man Called Hawk
in the 1980s). ‘Today, many of our children, especially black males, do not project that they will live past the age of 19 or 20’, Brooks told Michael Logan of
TV Guide
in 1993. ‘
Star Trek
allows our children the chance to see something they might never otherwise imagine.’ Brooks was following in the footsteps of such
Star Trek
role models as Whoopi Goldberg and LeVar Burton, who’d both stated that the existence of such characters in
Star Trek
’s future had fuelled their own ambitions.

The other regular roles on
Deep Space Nine
were filled by a
variety of television actors who were not particularly well known. Two of the most experienced – Armin Shimerman and Rene Auberjonois – had their faces disguised by heavy alien make-up as Quark, a Ferengi, and Odo, a shape-shifter. Movie star Famke Janssen turned down the role of alien Trill Jadzia Dax, allowing Terry Farrell to take the part, but only after the pilot had been filming for over a week. Siddig El Fadil (now Alexander Siddig) played the genetically boosted Dr Bashir, the station medic.

This ensemble cast allowed
Deep Space Nine
to escape from the focus on a core triumvirate of characters (like Kirk–Spock– McCoy and Picard–Data–Riker), allowing for a wider range of representation. Odo channelled the split nature of Spock, being a shape-shifter living among humans, and Kira Nerys anchored the Bajoran–Cardassian story nexus, while Sisko’s character arc explored issues of power, responsibility and faith, especially through his relation to the wormhole aliens and the fact that he was essentially engineered by them to battle the evil Pah-Wraiths.