Star Trek Deep Space Nine - a review 25 years in the making !

People who know me, know me to be a Star Trek fan. I have had the good fortune of watching nearly every show in it's original run, with the exception of the Original Show, because at our end, it only started playing when it was already gone in the States. In the 1980s, Gene Roddenberry was asked to capture lighting in a bottle again and with associates he created Star Trek The Next Generation, a very good show with similar gung ho type characters (as in the original series) who explored even further into outer space than seen before. When Star Trek The Next Generation was running successfully into it's third season, the network expressed an interest in another Star Trek show, to be running concurrent with Star Trek TNG (and the TOS re-runs). In order not to make it similar to Star Trek TNG, this show would be about a space station that would serve as a portal into new areas of outer space, only accessible thru a stable wormhole. This was to be STAR TREK DEEP SPACE NINE.

Gene Roddenberry had passed away in 1991 and so he never saw what Deep Space Nine was to be. Maybe that was a good thing because where Star Trek TNG was a lighthearted and optimistic show about a group of very positive people, Deep Space Nine was to be a darker show, with conflicts between the major characters as well as on a larger scale. And considering what this could mean for the storyline, that turned out to be a benefit. Because where Star Trek TNG was episodic in nature (and it did not really matter in which following order you would watch them) , Deep Space Nine followed story arcs that ran for longer than a season. And these story arcs, so widely assisted by the incredible vastness of characters and philosophies displayed in the show, made Star Trek Deep Space Nine a show that was UNIQUE in its day. ( People weren't used to long story arcs then, nor were they expecting a show that would so often hit nearly all its marks, thanks to a wonderful writing team.)

The Cast of Deep Space Nine (Season 1)

Back Row Rene Auberjonois (Odo), Colm Meany ( Chief O'Brien), Cirroc Lofton (Jake Sisko) and Avery Brooks ( Benjamin Sisko)  Front Row Terry Farrell ( Jadzia Dax), Armin Shimerman (Quark), Nana Visitor ( Major Kira Nerys) and Siddig El Fadil (later: Alexander Siddig) (Dr. Bashir)

The background of Deep Space Nine is the planet Bajor, a deeply religious planet that was occupied by the aggressive and militaristic Cardassians, close to which a Cardassian Space Station Terok Nor was built, which was also abandoned by the Cardassians, when they left the Bajoran homeworld in ruins and the population to fend for itself.  The Federation would assist the Bajoran people and oversee their needs from their vantage point on the renamed Deep Space Nine station, that in the pilot is relocated to a nearby stable wormhole, offering access to unknown depths of hitherto unexplored space. Commander Ben Sisko, who does not really consider this a suitable position for himself to raise his son Jake singlehandedly, finds himself also burdened with the knowledge that the Prophets ( the deities involved in Bajor's religious world, who also happen to inhabit the wormhole ) have named him their Emissary.

Sisko finds comfort in the presence of his good friend DAX, a trill symbiont who has taken a new host, Jadzia, but science officer Jadzia Dax seems wise for her years, thanks to the trill symbiont, who has lived 7 lives before hers.  Dr. Bashir is a young and ambitious doctor who wants to live the adventure on this station and he strikes up a friendship with Chief O'Brien, who has accepted Deep Space Nine as a new post as Engineer in Chief, after having served several years on Captain Picard's Enterprise.  O'Brien brings along his wife Keiko, a botanist who starts teaching the children on the station, and their daughter. Already on board Deep Space Nine are Major Kira Nerys, Bajoran Liaison to the Federation and first officer, the shapeshifter Odo as Chief of Security and the Ferengi Quark who runs a bar on the station.

 In the first few seasons, the Cardassians make themselves known as the antagonists (along with Kai Winn, a religious leader on Bajor who is too ambitious for her own good or for the planet) but after the first three seasons we find that Odo is a Founder, one of a race of shapeshifters who have ambitions of their own and who breed soldiers in the Jem Hadar, fierce warriors that rival the Klingons in battle. Odo however has no interest in the ambitions of his fellow founders and he remains on the station because he is in love with Kira, who is oblivious to this until a few seasons later. Kira also develops from a resistance fighter with a nasty attitude to her former oppressors (the Cardassians) to a much more openhearted woman.

TOS The Trouble With Tribbles but who is that in the background?

Deep Space Nine started in 1993. In 1995, the producers thought it would be nice to pay their respects to the original show as a 30th anniversary was coming up. On VOYAGER, they would go back to Star Trek VI The Undiscovered Country, but on Deep Space Nine, the writing crew had an inspired idea: to go back into an original episode, The Trouble With Tribbles. With the computer technology that was invented a few years earlier for FOREST GUMP, they were able to insert our new characters into the footage of the original show, in a seamless romp of fun, action and humor.

Jadzia Dax and Ben Sisko on the NCC1701 Enterprise

dressed to fit the swinging sixties

As seen before in TOS and ST TNG, Deep Space Nine also made a lot of room for interesting characters who would be allowed to have their moment in the sun. Cardassian Elim Garak, the only Cardassian to remain on Deep Space Nine after the departure of the Cardassians, is played by Andy Robinson and proved to be a very worthwhile character indeed. 

Plain and Simple Garak

Because Deep Space Nine also followed Star Trek TNG, Klingon Chancellor Gowron (Robert O'Reilly) is also appearing on Deep Space Nine, as well as the revered General Martok (J.G. Hertzler), who both made good appearances in the story arc where the Cardassians join the Dominion ( as the Founders call themselves with their associates). The Klingons take the side of the Federation and so a new war is set up. And when the Breen also join the Dominion, the Federation and the Klingon Empire are pleased to have the Romulans as their ally. 

General Martok 

The general story arc does not keep the show from having standalone episodes or side story arcs either, such as the Alternative Universe as originally seen in Classic Star Trek (when Spock had the beard, remember?). In the Alternative Universe the situation with the Station is not as positive and the characters have completely different personalities , such as the Intendent, the Kira of the Alternative Universe. 

The Intendent

But just as the Enterprise had its holodeck, so does Quark have his holosuites. Quark does have a lot of clients who want to use these for his sexual programs but Julian Bashir and O'Brien and friends also have their own holo-games to play, such as a James Bond spoof game in Our Man Bashir.

Bashir and Garak in Our Man Bashir

But all the while, the main story arc, especially in the last few years of the show, was the arc dealing with the War between the Federation and the Dominion. This also served very well to heighten the suspense as the situation began to look very much hopeless, indeed. Considering also the fate of Gul Dukat, the compelling Cardassian leader who is later dethroned and in search of his way back to power,  it becomes clear that Deep Space Nine is a show with an incredibly vast array of characters outside the main cast, with an impressive range of philosophies and lifestyles.

And when the battles do follow in outer space, the show also becomes so much more than just a Star Trek show. In the many facets seen on the show, you see themes of war, occupation, rebel fighters, collaborators (out of need to survive or otherwise), easily as much as humor ( the Ferengi episodes are a joy as by now, the Ferengi were no longer the laughing stock of the Next Generation universe ) and love and relationships. Indeed, this show is about relationships, about the relationship between Quark and Odo, always adversarial, the relationship between Garak and Bashir, the friendship between Jake Sisko and Nog, the relationship between O'Brien and his wife, the close friendship between Bashir and O'Brien and also, a new relationship between Ben Sisko and Kassidy Yates and a relationship between Jadzia Dax and the newly arrived Worf, who joined the cast from the 4th season on.

Worf marries Dax in "You Are Cordially Invited"

But perhaps the most important relationship  on this show, the relationship that ran the longest is that of Ben Sisko and his son Jake, which also has a few moments to shine, such as in the episode "Explorers" in which Ben Sisko builds a ship that sails on the solar wind and tries to 'sail' from Deep Space Nine to Cardassia Prime.  Another highlight for both Sisko's is "The Visitor" in which an accident causes Ben Sisko to disappear from our reality but he returns later, only to vanish again. Jake then makes it his life task to find out why, which results in one of the most moving, sincerely touching episodes of the whole series.

Gul Dukat with a Bajoran comfort woman

For some undisclosed reason, Terry Farrell did not sign on for the 7th season and in "Tears of the Prophets", Gul Dukat, who was possessed by a Pah Wraith ( something like the dark side of the Bajoran religion ), killed Jadzia Dax. The Symbiont was however barely saved and implanted in a new host, Exri Dax, played by Nicole DeBoer. 

The Seventh Season Cast, with Ezri Dax

instead of Jadzia Dax and an almost adult Jake Sisko

A few years ago, I watched all the episodes of Star Trek The Next Generation again and after having seen the first season of Star Trek Discoery earlier this year, I felt this was the year to go back to this magnificent show, that also ran for seven seasons. It was not that they were unable to go on. Just as with TNG, the ratings would have been good enough for an 8th season, however the decision was made to bring the show to an end after the conclusion of the Federation - Dominion War and the final confrontation between Ben Sisko and Gul Dukat.

If you have never seen Star Trek Deep Space Nine, go ahead. Give it a try. The first season did not run as smoothly as the later ones did ( but that also happened to TNG and later Voyager ) but the setting of the station and the Bajoran ( / Cardassian ) background was well executed and the performances of our main cast were excellent. Also the recurring characters deserve a mention that they were excellent. If I am truthful to myself now, I would really have to say I liked Star Trek Deep Space Nine better than I did Star Trek TNG but then I do like this whole story development business. It's okay if you don't agree. Just go ahead and give it a try.

Jake Sisko looking out at the wormhole with Kira at his side,

the final shot of the show, before the camera pulls away.

Last year I saw something of an analysis as to why Star Trek Deep Space Nine ( and Voyager ) were not released on Blu Ray.  The whole production of the show was done on video at the time and if they were to do the same reconstruction of every element as it was done on Star Trek The Next Generation, releasing the whole show on Blu Ray would cost about 40 million dollars, which was an amount that Paramount was not comfortable with, to invest. The sales of the ST TNG Blu Ray set simply did not warrant it. That is why Deep Space Nine and Voyager will never be released on Blu Ray disc. Which is a shame but even as it is, not in HD, Deep Space Nine is a wonderful show, a testament to masterful storytelling and I would like to sincerely thank all the writers, producers, actors and creative people involved in it.

Star Trek Deep Space Nine

created by 

Rick Berman and Michael Piller

all photography courtesy of CBS/Paramount