Deep Space Nine broke Star Trek for the better

The week before, Star Trek: Deep Space NineStar Trek celebrated its 30th Birthday with the official Star Trek social network presence. The only acknowledgements were a thank you tweet asking for fans’ favorite episodes to be named, as well as a new listicle featuring great quotes from Star Trek. The official anniversary logo was released and merchandise launched, though with little fanfare. After all, there are five new Star TrekTalk about shows, such as a reunion with the loved ones Next GenerationCast due February 1 Star Trek: Picard. Paramount’s relative quiet about the anniversary is disappointing, but hardly surprising. As fans of the series — or its stars and producers — will tell you, it’s always been this way. Deep Space Nine was Star Trek’s problem child from the very beginning, and that’s exactly what made it so ahead of its time.

The show’s struggle for recognition is detailed in the 2018 documentary Deep Space Nine’s Legacy: A Look Back, which is essentially a love letter from the show’s former showrunner Ira Steven Behr to his cast and crew. This smash hit was spun out. Star Trek: The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine launched in first-run syndication on January 3rd, 1993, and it was immediately apparent that this wouldn’t simply be the same premise with a different cast. This was prior to Law and Order and CSI or NCIS finding huge success with precisely this model. They could simultaneously run up to three series with the premise Crime: But Elsewhere.

Rick Berman, Michael Piller and others decided that Star Trek should not be limited to sending another Starfleet Crew on an adventure to explore places no one had gone before. It is possible to get in touch with Rick Berman and Michael Piller. Star Trek was “Wagon Train to the Stars,” as Roddenberry had often pitched it, Berman and Piller wanted their series to be Gunsmoke. Their new heroes will live in space station Deep Space 9 where they can experience adventure, rather than riding to a new place/planet and confronting a problem. This would make it impossible for the characters to just move along the space trail and forget about the episodes. They’d be forced to clean up their own messes and rebuild the place — and themselves — a little differently each time.

Image: Paramount

Image: Paramount Domestic Television

But, for a franchise whose heroes champion “infinite diversity in infinite combination,” Star Trek’s fanbase has a predictable habit of dismissing the new and different. Viewers rejected DS9 for a variety of reasons, from the reasonable (“What happened to that tireless Star Trek optimism?”), to the ridiculous (“You mean the station just Sits there?”). Even after Next GenerationTrekkies could not stand the space drama and instead waited for its less ambitious, more familiar successor. Star Trek VoyagerThe next January. Deep Space NineIt was the last Trek show on TV for a couple of months, and then it was abandoned in favor. VoyagerThe flagship series on the UPN TV network is titled “The Original Series”.

Not only that, but the 1995 launch of UPN/The WB meant first-run syndicated dramas lost their prime time slot and were replaced by The WB. VoyagerNationally aired on Mondays at 8. DS9’s schedule was erratic. (In my marketplace, DS9(Unless the Mets were playing night games, they ran Saturday nights at 7 PM. This was particularly troubling given the Mets’ night game. Deep Space Nine’s commitment to serialized storytelling, which only deepend across its seven seasons. A viewer could miss important story developments or characters if they missed an episode. Even Ira Steven Behr, the showrunner, admitted this to me. We Left Behind that it was not a boon to the show’s ratings at the time.

However, it is perfect for streaming TV. Deep Space NineThe 2010s brought a fresh start to life. Star Trek: The Original SeriesAnd Next GenerationThey are timeless but remain relevant for many decades. Deep Space NineThe classic Star Trek series is what feels most familiar. moderne. While certainly not the first of its kind, it’s an early example of television’s growth from a medium for short stories to a canvas for sprawling odysseys. Moreover, existing in the very ’90s middle ground between story-of-the-week and full serialization puts it in the now-precious sweet spot in which every episode feels like a satisfying dish rather than a single bite of a meal that’s being spread out across ten courses. This model is similar to what its younger siblings use today. Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, ProdigyPlease see the following: Lower decksThe, who have generally received a more warm welcome than their older fully serialized sisters DiscoveryAnd Picard.

CBS Images

CBS Images

Though the depiction of an inclusive future for humanity has been one of Star Trek’s watchwords from the very beginning, Deep Space Nine is the classic series that comes the closest to meeting today’s standards for diversity. The series doesn’t just give the franchise its first Black leading man but also its most conflicted and textured, in single dad/station commander You can read the entire series here. That Order Benjamin Sisko (Avery Brooks). In We Left Behind, Cirroc Lofton, who portrays Sisko’s son Jake, laments that Deep Space NineIt is not often mentioned when discussing Black TV shows, despite its prominence and numerous storylines featuring exclusively Black actors. To be fair, the behind-the scenes are also fascinating. DS9The majority of the population was white.

DS9The female roles it played were far more varied and important than those of its predecessors. Kira Nerys, a former terrorist now works for the planet she died to free. But the government has changed and the ghosts of her past are hiding around every corner. Jadzia Dax (Terry Farrell) has lived half a dozen lifetimes, both as a man and as a woman, and grows over time from a dime store Spock to the show’s endlessly lovable rogue. Recurring character Winn Adami (Louise Fletcher) might be Star Trek’s most fascinating antagonist, a religious leader whose faith and judgment are clouded by insecurity and political ambition.

What is most important, however,? Deep Space NineStar Trek is the show that I feel most pressing of all Star Trek series, past or present. It embraces nuance more than any other Star Trek show. Star Trek, as it has been since the beginning, is didactic. It allows storytellers to safely approach controversial or delicate topics without having to step back or create new context. Deep Space NineIt is not unusual. But rather than spend 40 minutes attacking social problems head-on, the captain should deliver a concise thesis statement prior to the credits roll. DS9The audience is left to make their own decisions. Captain Sisko’s dilemmas are complex and their solutions are often not satisfying. Not only does this make for more interesting television, but it also tends to age much better than clear-cut “message episodes,” which are necessarily painted by the specific biases and blind spots of their time. There are still some absolute groaners in the bunch (“Profit and Lace” comes to mind, in which Quark goes undercover as a woman and predictable sexist hijinx ensues), but Deep Space NineIts age is less evident than Star Trek: The Next Generation because it examines complicated issues with complex characters over long periods of time and instead of simplifying or moralizing.

Captain Sisko is forced to make terrible choices — up to and including an outright war crime — in order to save the Federation from being conquered by the totalitarian Dominion. As the horrific acts of Kira Nerys in her homeland’s occupation, they are both shocking and shameful. And necessary. Similar ambiguity is applied to the Maquis. These antagonists are from the initial seasons of the series and wage war against Cardassians. It’s Sisko’s job to protect that peace, but even he must agree that the colonists are justifiably enraged by being betrayed by their own government. Doctor Julian Bashir discovers that the Federation has an amoral, secret intelligence branch called Section 31. These actions prove to be downright wicked. Deep Space NineNever give up on your full, morally nihilistic and ethical relativism. There is always a line to choose between right or wrong. However, this is not the case. Next Generation, where the strict Kantian philosopher Jean-Luc Picard sits in the captain’s chair, that line is not static.

The Trek fans were also furious at this episode back in the day when it was broadcast. Star Trek can sometimes feel like a cult due to the devotion of its followers but also because it does try to teach you how to live. That a new installment of this quasi-holy text — the first composed entirely after the death of creator Gene Roddenberry — would question or contradict this vision of the future was abhorrent to some, but it in fact adds an ingredient that is essential to any faith or philosophy: doubt. Doubt the incorruptibility of our heroes. Doubtful that the current values we hold dear are the most noble. It is hard to believe that all of our experiences can be shared. Deep Space NineIt does not destroy Star Trek’s future ideals, but it does challenge its dogmatism. And, at a time when the only thing that moves faster than information is judgment and we are increasingly desperate for new ways of thinking and living, there’s never been a better time for a long, interrogative look at the world of tomorrow.