Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine is an American science-fiction television series created by Rick Berman and Michael Piller. The fourth series in the Star Trek media franchise, it was a production of Paramount Television, a Paramount Communications Company and a Viacom Company, and originally aired in syndication from January 3, 1993, to June 2, 1999, spanning 176 episodes over seven seasons. Set in the 24th century, when Earth is part of a United Federation of Planets, its narrative is centered on the eponymous space station Deep Space Nine, located adjacent to a wormhole leading to the Gamma Quadrant on the far side of the Milky Way galaxy.
Following the success of Star Trek: The Next Generation, Paramount Pictures commissioned a new series set in the Star Trek fictional universe. In creating Deep Space Nine, Berman and Piller drew upon plot elements introduced in The Next Generation, namely the conflict between two species, the Cardassians and the Bajorans. Deep Space Nine was the first Star Trek series to be created without the direct involvement of franchise creator Gene Roddenberry, the first set on a space station rather than a traveling starship, and the first to have an African American as its central character: Starfleet Commander, later Captain, Benjamin Sisko.
Changes were made to the series throughout its seven-year run. In the third season, the starship USS Defiant was introduced to enable more stories away from the space station. The fourth added Worf, a character who originated on The Next Generation, to the main cast. The final three seasons deal with a story arc, that of the war between the Federation and an invading Gamma Quadrant power, the Dominion. Although not as popular as The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine was critically well received. Following the success of Deep Space Nine, Paramount commissioned Berman, Piller, and Jeri Taylor to produce Star Trek: Voyager, which began in 1995. During Deep Space Nine run, various episode novelizations and tie-in video games were produced. After the show ended, various novels and comics continued the adventures of the crew.
Premise
The main setting of Deep Space Nine is a space station near the planet Bajor, built by the imperialistic Cardassians during their long, brutal occupation of Bajor. After liberating themselves through a guerrilla war, the Bajorans invite the United Federation of Planets to jointly administer the station. The station is renamed Deep Space Nine, and a mixed Starfleet and Bajoran crew is assigned to manage it, led by Commander Benjamin Sisko.Shortly after his arrival, Sisko discovers a stable wormhole in Bajoran space between the Alpha Quadrant and the unexplored Gamma Quadrant, and the station is moved near the wormhole's entrance. The wormhole is the home of powerful, noncorporeal aliens whom the Bajorans worship as "the Prophets". Sisko is revered by the Bajorans as the Prophets' "Emissary"; although he is initially uncomfortable with being a religious figure, he gradually grows to accept his role.
Deep Space Nine and Bajor quickly become a center for exploration, interstellar trade, political maneuvering, and finally open conflict. Threats come not only from Cardassians, Klingons, and Romulans from the Alpha Quadrant, but also later from the Dominion, a powerful empire in the Gamma Quadrant ruled by a species of shapeshifters. The starship USS Defiant is assigned to help protect the station. When the Dominion and the Cardassians take up arms against the Federation and its allies starting in the fifth season, Deep Space Nine becomes a key Federation base in the Dominion War.
According to co-creator Berman, he and Piller considered setting the new series on a colony planet, but they decided a space station would appeal more to viewers, and would save the money required for a land-based show's on-location shooting. They did not want the show set aboard a starship because Star Trek: The Next Generation was still in production, and in Berman's words, it "seemed ridiculous to have two shows—two casts of characters—that were off going where no man has gone before".
While its predecessors tended to restore the status quo ante at the end of each episode, allowing out-of-order viewing, DS9 contains story arcs that span episodes and seasons. One installment often builds upon earlier ones, with several cliffhanger endings. Michael Piller considered this one of the series' best qualities, allowing repercussions of past episodes to influence future events and forcing characters to "learn that actions have consequences." This trend was especially noticeable toward the series finale, by which time the show was intentionally scripted as a serial.
Unlike Star Trek: The Next Generation, interpersonal conflicts were prominently featured in DS9. This was at the suggestion of Star Trek: The Next Generations writers, many of whom also wrote for DS9, who said that Roddenberry's prohibition of conflicts within the crew restricted their ability to write compelling dramatic stories. In Piller's words, "People who come from different places — honorable, noble people — will naturally have conflicts". The series took a more cynical view of human nature and the United Federation of Planets than the utopian vision presented in The Next Generation, and unlike its predecessor, it featured main characters who were not from the Federation and could offer an alternative perspective.
Cast
Main cast
Supporting cast
Recurring characters
The series' setting — a space station rather than a starship — fostered a rich assortment of recurring characters. It was not unusual for secondary characters to play as much of a role in an episode as the regular cast, if not more. For example, "The Wire" focused principally on the recurring character Elim Garak, while in "It's Only a Paper Moon", the central characters were Nog and Vic Fontaine, with the regular characters in supporting roles.Several Cardassian characters figure prominently in DS9, particularly Gul Dukat, a senior member of the Cardassian military involved in the occupation of Bajor, played by Marc Alaimo. A complex character, Dukat undergoes several transformations before ultimately resolving as a profoundly evil character, and Sisko's archenemy, by the show's conclusion. A StarTrek.com article about Star Treks greatest villains described Gul Dukat as "possibly the most complex and developed bad guy in Star Trek history".
Elim Garak, portrayed by Andrew Robinson, is the only Cardassian who remains on the space station when the Federation and the Bajorans take over. Although he maintains that he is merely a simple tailor, Garak is a former agent of the Obsidian Order, the feared Cardassian secret police; his skills and contacts on Cardassia prove invaluable on several occasions, and he becomes a pivotal figure in the war with the Dominion.
Damar is introduced in the fourth season as an aide to Gul Dukat, and he rises in stature as Dukat regains prominence. He becomes the leader of the Cardassian Union when Dukat has an emotional breakdown, but dissatisfied with Cardassia's relationship with the Dominion, Damar forms and leads an insurgency against the Dominion, playing a vital role in its eventual defeat.
File:Visitor and Auberjonois by Beth Madison, 2.jpg|thumb|Nana Visitor and René Auberjonois, who portrayed the characters of Kira Nerys and Odo, respectively
Jeffrey Combs has stated that he had auditioned for the role of William Riker on Star Trek: The Next Generation, but when Jonathan Frakes later directed the DS9 episode "Meridian", he recommended Combs for a part. Combs made his Star Trek and DS9 debut as a one-episode alien named Tiron, before being cast as two recurring characters, the Ferengi Brunt and the Vorta Weyoun. He went on to appear in 31 episodes of DS9. In "The Dogs of War", he became one of the few Star Trek actors to play two unrelated roles in the same episode. He would later play the recurring role of Shran on Star Trek: Enterprise.
In addition to Quark and his brother Rom, several other Ferengi had recurring roles, including their shrewd mother Ishka, who eventually engineers a social revolution on Ferenginar; Rom's son Nog, the first Ferengi to join Starfleet; and Grand Nagus Zek, the Ferengi leader. The Bajoran character Leeta, who works at Quark's bar and later marries Rom, is sometimes involved in the Ferengi storyline.
The Klingon Empire plays a significant role in DS9. Aside from Worf, recurring Klingon characters include Chancellor Gowron, leader of the Empire, who was introduced on The Next Generation, and General Martok, a leader of the Klingon forces in the Dominion War, who succeeds Gowron as Chancellor when Gowron is killed by Worf late in the series. Kor, a Klingon character from Star Trek: The Original Series, appears in three DS9 episodes; one of them, "Blood Oath", unites Kor with two other Klingons from the original series: Koloth and Kang. John Colicos, William Campbell, and Michael Ansara reprised their original series roles.
Morn is a minor character who is a fixture in Quark's establishment, sitting at the bar over the course of seven years. It became a running joke that though the other characters remark on how talkative and funny he is, he never speaks a word on camera. Morn did have a line in the script for pilot episode "Emissary", but it was cut due to run-time considerations, after which the creators conceived the joke that he never talks.