01x07 - Dancing with Syndication in the Pale Moonlight

[bunniefuu]

NARRATOR:

Star Trek: The Next Generation

had successfully returned

the franchise to television,

and flourished.

How true.

NEMECEK: The syndicated model

had worked so well

for Next Generation.

Even on the business side

of things.

Next Generation was

this amazing

paradigm shift.

Paramount knew that they had

a cash cow in Star Trek,

NARRATOR: So Paramount did

what any studio does

with its prized cow.

Indubitably.

NARRATOR: Milk it

for all its worth.

We were a few seasons

into Next Generation

when they said,

"Let's get another show."

NARRATOR: This is the story of

how Deep Space Nine

attempted to take Star Trek

somewhere it had never been.

A space station.

- In other words...

- It's not a starship

boldly going.

- So even though...

- Some things

are still the same.

...most things

were very different.

So beam aboard,

and hold on tight

as we boldly go

into the depths of Star Trek.

And you can see it all

from here. in The Center Seat.

With the death

of Gene Roddenberry

in 1991,

the next chapter

of the Star Trek saga on TV

would be untouched

by its creator.

But Star Trek was now

in the hands of Rick Berman,

someone Gene trusted

more than anyone.

I felt it was my responsibility

to keep Gene's optimism alive.

NARRATOR: Which,

as the new series approached,

was easier said than done.

NEMECEK:

One of the biggest bugaboos

driving writers crazy

was the idea of Gene's

"Perfect humans."

How do you have conflict

among characters

and have it be Star Trek

and its perfect humans

In the advanced



NARRATOR: There was

another problem, too.

We can't have two

Star Trek ships

out at the same time.

Do you want to "confuse

the audience?"

With another ship show?

NARRATOR:

With The Next Generation

still on the air,

the network was looking

for something different.

They've got

the well-oiled machine

up and running,

Their problem was

how to distinguish it,

to go where you hadn't

gone before.

- NARRATOR: Meaning...

- ROBINSON: It can't be

just about going

from planet to planet

and solving problems,

you know,

with aliens in space.

NARRATOR:

So Rick Berman

and showrunner Michael Piller,

came up with

something exactly opposite.

Let's do it on a space station.

Let's not be locked

onto an Enterprise.

ANORE: The premise,

as Michael Piller

used to explain it was

"The action is gonna

come to us."

It's like Dodge City,

you know, in Gunsmoke.

And immediately now,

you're telling a story

that is different

to what has gone before.

NARRATOR: Well, different.

That's what the network wanted.

BASHIR: This is where

the adventure is.

NARRATOR: No sooner

had the adventure begun

than the worries set in.

Every new challenge

to come up with

an original Star Trek

is fraught with worry.

Are we making it too different?

You know, it was

a little bit risky.

And some of it

is just gonna be...

We're gonna have

a certain aspect

of the audience

that's just gonna be so,

you know, bullheaded,

that they won't come

and accept something new.

NARRATOR:

Although risky, the writers

were more than ready

to explore

this new style of Star Trek.

Let's push the boundaries

and see what are the edges.

What are the limitations

of what Star Trek can be?

NARRATOR: Someone

who was very interested

in pushing the edges

with both his writing

and his beard color,

was Next Generation writer

Ira Behr.

Man, he was just into it.

[CHUCKLES]

I don't know how else to say it.

NARRATOR: And coming over

to Deep Space Nine,

Ira brought some bold ideas.

Ira got very involved

in wanting to do

long strings

of continuing episodes.

NARRATOR: Which is now

bingeworthy TV.

But since the original series,

Star Trek had made its name

as an episodic epic.

That follows a definite pattern.

The minute

you have serialization,

you have lots of arcs going.

You can't miss those things.

At this point in television,

you know, almost everything

was episodic.

Yeah. When will we learn?

There were very few

serialized shows.

Dallas was a serialized show.

Dynasty, a serialized show.

Primetime soap operas.

NARRATOR: The studio wanted

a fresh approach,

but not that fresh.

The studio said no.

Paramount feared

viewers would be adrift

in this new Star Trek universe.

These shows were

going to be syndicated.

They were not necessarily

going to be syndicated in order.

The independent stations,

they don't want to have to be

locked into doing these

in the order that we

give it to them.

They want to be able

to show them

in whatever order they want

that suits their market,

because this is important

for their ratings

and they just want

to mix them up.

And they wanted

standalone episodes.

NARRATOR: And even though...

Ira was very good at

talking me into doing

what he wanted to do,

NARRATOR:

...he wasn't that good.

The studio absolutely said no.

NARRATOR:

Okay, well, that's the last

we'll hear of that.

Most likely.

It may not have been ready

for serialized plotlines,

but Star Trek was ready

for something else

far more groundbreaking.

Your hero's a n*gro captain.

Avery being the first

African-American captain,

of a Star Trek series like this,

in that day and age,

was a big deal.

People won't accept it.

It's not believable.

It just didn't happen.

It was exciting to know

that we were gonna change

history, really, with that.

This was before

there was a black president.

So this was this was really

groundbreaking at the time.

NARRATOR:

Not only did Starfleet have

its first commander of color,

but unlike the captains

before him, Benjamin Sisko

was carrying a lot of baggage.

He was coming aboard

with a very specific,

complicated backstory.

And so we start

with a captain

losing his wife...

SISKO: Damn it! We just

can't leave her here!

...being left with his son...

I was just thinking

how much you look

like your mom.

NARRATOR: Not only would

Sisko be unlike

any captain before him.

He believes Captain Picard

is personally responsible

for the death of his wife.

[SCREAMING]

And he now has

to come to terms with all that.

Otherwise, he has

no future at all.

But he does not wish

to be among us.

In that sense, he's very much

like Captain Pike, in The Cage.

I'm tired of being responsible

for 203 lives.

By choosing all these elements.

Michael Piller set up

the incredible possibilities

for this character,

NARRATOR: But creating

a complex, conflicted captain.

would prove to be

a double-edged sword.

That was a difficult fit

for Star Trek.

Like that's not

how a Starfleet captain

should be.

NARRATOR:

Avery Brooks audition,

though he didn't know it

at the time,

turned out to be

a previous production

that showcased

his emotional range.

I had done a movie

of the week for show time.

There was a version

of Uncle Tom's Cabin.

Nobody can buy my soul.

Avery came off

as an incredibly powerful man

with hurt, with damage,

which works perfectly for Sisko.

NARRATOR: But Paramount was

on a different page.

The studio wanted Sisko

to be somebody else.

They didn't think Avery

was charismatic enough.

They wanted Kirk

and they wanted Picard.

And I think they didn't realize

that no one was

writing Kirk or Picard,

they were writing Sisko.

NARRATOR: This was going to

require an intervention.

So I went to Junie Lowry,

the casting director,

and I said, "Avery Brooks."

And she said, "Yeah,

we talked about Avery Brooks.

"He's down in the Caribbean.

He's on a vacation."

I said, "So what?"

"Send him the script.

"We're talking about a man

who could have

a job for seven years."

"You don't think

he'd want to read

this script on vacation?"

She says, "Okay,

I'll send him the script."

NARRATOR: And in the end...

I was ready to die with her.

...Avery's talent

could not be ignored.

We settled on Avery Brooks

because he was the best.

He was the best captain.

And this captain's leadership

would be tested as much

off the bridge as on it.

by a 15-year old.

I was instructed to

not be like Will Wheaton

and Wesley Crusher.

He was too much of

a problem solver/know-it-all.

and they wanted my character

to be more human and fallible,

just like a regular kid.

NARRATOR: And Cirroc

did have one advantage.

LOFTON: I think I avoided

the trap of being another

Wesley Crusher

by not knowing

about Wesley Crusher.

So you can't imitate something

that you have no idea of.

Want to go for a swim?

NARRATOR: Like

The Next Generation before it,

Deep Space Nine imagined

real life family struggles

in the 24th century.

This the food replicator.

NARRATOR: And this dose

of 20th century reality

was more alien

to American television

than even the weirdest aliens.

How often did you see

a single father

raising a child in those days

of television?

Not very often.

NARRATOR: So Paramount

would be getting

just what they wanted.

[LAUGHS]

Because I had to represent

the production end,

and I had to come at him

and tell him, "David,

you've got to move on."

He didn't want to,

and a lot of times he didn't.

Damn it, what's the problem?

NARRATOR: That problem

was to do with some

awkward introductions.

He had a lot of characters

to introduce.

Who the hell are you?

And they were all not

cookie cutter type of people.

There were all kinds of people

that we had really

never seen before.

NARRATOR: Some weren't

really people at all.

The Trill is implanted,

it's ancient.

You've got trying

to figure out that relationship.

NARRATOR: A symbiotic

relationship between

basically an ancient

asexual slug

and an alien race

called the Trill

played by Terry Farrell.

Deep Space Nine

was not just about man.

It was about a whole bunch

of different races and species.

NARRATOR: And for

the actors who played

these races and species,

well, even some of them

were a little lost.

I think,

"There's been a mistake.

This is a man's role.

"It's not written

for a woman."

And that was my conditioning.

NARRATOR: Nana Visitor

was invited to read

for the character of

a Bajoran revolutionary.

She found the way

it was written revolutionary.

KIRA NERYS:

Science fiction needs

more strong women characters.

I'm always saying that,

aren't I, Jules?

VISITOR: She wasn't

smoothed out.

She wasn't reasonable

all the time.

She wasn't controllable.

She didn't care about

how she was perceived.

She cared about

how she lived her life more

and what goals she had

and how she met those.

And too bad

if people didn't like her.

NARRATOR: Nana took

that exact attitude

into her audition as Kira.

CARSON: There was a long table

with Rick Berman and me

and two other people

sitting around behind it,

and she stormed into the room,

really, and started reading.

I think it was the first scene

with Commander Sisko.

I don't believe the Federation

has any business being here.

I was pretty pissed off

in that scene.

When she got hold

of these chairs

and started to throw them

around the room.

And it was extraordinary.

And we sat there going,

"Wow, this is really

is a revolutionary

who wants to be doing stuff."

I remember terrifying

someone in the room.

And then she did her last line,

banged her hands

on the table top

and glared at us

as if to challenge, say,

"Okay, I got it, right?"

And turned and walked

out of the room.

And she was right. She got it.

That was it.

NARRATOR: Despite

a spirited audition,

Nana was conflicted.

VISITOR: I was

so excited to get it.

I wanted to do it, so badly,

and my manager said,

"It's science fiction.

"Don't take this one.

It's going to ruin your career."

I thought long

and hard about it,

and I refused the job.

At first, I got a call

from one of the producers,

and he talked about the level

and who else was cast,

and that did it for me.

I'll find a way

to make it happen.

NARRATOR: The aggressive

audition technique

that had worked for Nana

was all the rage...

CARSON: Rene Auberjonois

came in, stalked into the room,

shut the door firmly behind him.

...with some cast members

virtually demanding

their roles.

He didn't say hello to anybody.

Just, when he'd finished,

he finished his last line,

turned his back,

walked through the door,

and slammed it behind him.

He came in with

the body posture

and the attitude

and everything that was Odo.

It was wild.

He was as rude

as he could possibly be

to all of us.

And that, that was Odo.

You're going to

get sloppy without me

to keep an eye on you.

QUARK: I don't think so.

NARRATOR: Armin Shimerman

reprised his Ferengi act

from The Next Generation,

but this time as Quark,

and was now an occasionally

affable bartender.

I would like to discuss

arranging the line of credit.

[FAKE LAUGHTER]

NARRATOR:

The Cardassians had come over

from the Next Generation too.

But the inscrutable Garak,

played by Andrew Robinson,

was derived in part

from an unlikely inspiration.

I played Liberace once

on a TV movie.

I've a wonderful time.

ROBINSON: There was

something about Garak

that always was reminding me,

he was, he became

kind of Liberace's cousin.

I do appreciate

making new friends

whenever I can.

NARRATOR: But the main

influence for Garak,

a Cardassian spy,

drew on contemporary

literature.

Conceptually,

Garak was a character

out of a Le Carre novel.

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

was a common reference point

in the writer's room.

Garak was created

with that in mind.

If you can't beat it,

spy on it.

NARRATOR: Which may explain

Garrett's other peculiarities.

I have a clothing shop nearby.

For Garak to end up

on Deep Space Nine,

and as a tailor,

it's one of the most bizarre

dramatic situations.

Dr. Bashir, isn't it?

NARRATOR: Alexander Siddig

provided Star Trek with...

Hmm, arguably its first

truly dashing doctor

as its Chief Medical Officer,

Julian Bashir.

Dr. Bashir is

this wide eyed,

idealistic Starfleet officer.

This is where

the adventure is.

Siddig, he was just terrific.

I think we all agreed on him

as soon as he arrived.

NARRATOR: Along with

Irish actor Colm Meaney...

Another new train of disruption.

...who played Chief Engineer

Miles O'Brien.

CARSON: He represented

every man, you know,

the working guy,

the guy

who got his hands dirty.

Even though it was all this

computerized stuff.

You knew that he'd look good

with a wrench in his hand.

That was a lot of characters

in the first episode,

something that posed

quite a challenge

for the director.

What the hell is

happening out there?

Very often,

directors on television

are trying to come in on budget.

They've got a lot of pressure.

And they are going to

try to move you through

as fast as possible.

That's good enough.

NARRATOR: Well, they didn't

come in on budget

nor on schedule.

Don't ask my opinion

next time.

NARRATOR: So much so,

David fell behind

with the feature length

special-effects-laden premier.

LIVINGSTON: Emissary

went over budget.

We went over schedule.

This is outrageous.

NARRATOR:

Paramount was soon breathing

down the young director's neck.

He did get a lot of crap

from the studio

about falling behind schedule

and about going over budget.

NARRATOR: But in

David's defense...

It's the hardest pilot

I've ever done.

And unfortunately, the director

has to take the wrath.

It's show business.

NARRATOR: Exactly. So what

would the audience think?

You will disarm your weapons.

NARRATOR:

The pilot for Deep Space Nine

premiered on January 3rd, 1993.

And the music comes on.

It started very strongly.

And all I could think of was,

"That's what we made?"

And I was impressed.

I was like, "Wow."

I found it beautiful.

I found it powerful.

NARRATOR: Critics

lauded its ambition.

And I think when we made it,

it was the most expensive pilot

on record, a lot of money.

NARRATOR: 12 million dollars

to be precise.

They spent so much money

on the pilot that they didn't

have a lot of money after that.

So they did a bunch

of bottle shows

on the space station.

NARRATOR: Bottle shows

are shot primarily

in one location to save money.

And it fed into this mythology

that this was a show

that boldly goes nowhere.

NARRATOR: While sh**ting

in one location reduced costs,

the makeup budget was going

in the opposite direction.

Oh. Oh.

NARRATOR: Even by

Star Trek standards,

there were more

alien races than you could

shake a phaser at.

NEMECEK:

Klingons and Cardassians

and Romulans,

much less the Ferengi,

much less the Aliens

of the Week.

We grew, in the writer's room,

to really love

the world building

of those cultures.

Every episode gave you

another opportunity

to discover something new,

to serve something richer.

So we really got in

and built their worlds out

in much bigger ways

than Next Gen

or the original series.

NARRATOR:

But the more alien stories

the writers dreamed up,

the more makeup,

which was becoming...

In a way, off the wall

and kind of whacky,

and it had

so many challenges

that were so great.

NARRATOR: And so expensive.

Keeping up with the Cardassians

was proving costly.

The Cardassians

were part of Star Trek:

The Next Generation.

It was improved upon greatly.

NARRATOR: Improved upon by

master makeup magician

Michael Westmore,

who now had his hands very full

as head of makeup

for The Next Generation

and Deep Space Nine.

We had a thing called

the Westmore Alien.

Westmore Alien was

boxes of noses

and heads and ears

from previous aliens.

And that is good enough for me.

NARRATOR: But for

the non-randomly

put together aliens...

The Jem'Hadar had are often

one step ahead of the Vorta.

I always had something

in Earth

that the people

could associate with,

but they didn't know.

It's like the Jem'Hadar was

a little bit of dinosaur

and rhinoceros.

And you can see it's like,

"Where do you put the horn?"

The horn was their hair

in the back of their head.

NARRATOR: For Michael,

Deep Space Nine's aliens

were his canvas.

Did you tell him about

that slug inside of you?

Yes, Benjamin.

He knows I'm a Trill.

WESTMORE: With Terry Farrell.

I spotted them, by hand.

It'd take me 20 minutes.

NARRATOR: But most

procedures took quite a bit

longer than that.

ROBINSON: That mother outfit.

My makeup took

over four hours.

It was like being entombed.

"Get me out of here."

NARRATOR: For some,

the rigorous makeup routine

was just a way

to get into character.

VISITOR: They'd have us

come in early,

get our makeup on

and wait for our scenes.

So I would walk

around Paramount.

And it was one of the best ways

to prepare for being a Bajoran

who's looked at with prejudice.

Because no one was

really aware there was

a new Star Trek filming

and I'd get double takes,

and I get people looking

at my nose.

And after a while,

it would piss me off,

would be like, "What?"

[LAUGHS]

And that attitude,

I definitely brought to Kira.

Commander, let's

not be confused here.

My loyalties are to Bajor.

NARRATOR: Well, no one

would question that.

But when it came

to what Nana was wearing,

well, that was a little

on the nose.

Bob Blackman gave it

such a look and such a texture

to the whole show.

Nana,

she needed to appeal to

the 18-43 year old group more.

And so we need to put her

into spandex-like fabric

that was form fitting,

and she had a great figure.

VISITOR: It's not necessarily

comfortable.

I didn't love being

in orange latex.

Oh, I love a woman in uniform.

NARRATOR: But it wasn't

just Nana's uniform

that was stretched thin.

As Season One

turned into Season Two,

the writers were feeling

stretched as well.

We're still trying to repair

all the damage your forces did

before they left

MOORE: Because the station

didn't go anywhere,

stories that you did last week

were still kind of

with you this week

because those people

were still here.

NARRATOR: And despite

the clear instructions

from the studio

regarding

serialized plotlines...

The studio absolutely said no.

...there was really

no way to avoid it.

MOORE: As a result, you had

ongoing relationships

and ongoing stories

that you had to

pay attention to.

NARRATOR:

And despite Ira clearly

starting to get his way,

the audience wasn't so sure.

There were a lot of people

who didn't like

the way it was going.

The fact that it was serialized.

NARRATOR: A defiant

slap in the face

to the studio,

which promptly slapped

the show right back.

because,

as they initially said...

These shows were not necessarily

gonna be syndicated in order.

And they wanted

standalone episodes.

NARRATOR: Which meant

for viewers...

Who knows when you're gonna

be able to see it, much less

when you can record it.

A lot of the audience gave up.

NARRATOR:

Poor ratings confirmed

Paramount's worst fears.

MOORE: The studio

was concerned

about the ratings.

They wanted something

that was equaling,

and then, ideally,

surpassing Next Generation.

NARRATOR: Well, as it happens,

The Next Generation

was ending its seven year run,

leaving Deep Space Nine adrift

and all by its lonesome.

QUARK: Now I know we're doomed.

For all the fans at the time,

who loved to say,

"Oh, yeah, DS9.

It's the show that

doesn't go anywhere.

Because there wasn't

a starship,

it had a little trouble

finding its place

as a Star Trek show.

NARRATOR: Paramount

wanted more from its most

valuable property.

They want some change.

They want to see

a spike in the ratings.

They want to see bigger

popularity for the series.

NARRATOR: They wanted

to match the success

of Next Generation.

And short of importing

key personnel over

from The Next Generation,

Deep Space Nine...

Actually, maybe they should

bring some people over

from The Next Generation.

Like senior writer Ron Moore.

When I came on

in the third season,

I was really

a little burned out at TNG,

by the time the show ended,

and I was I was happy

and grateful

to start doing something new,

and it was a very

different challenge, you know,

and I was,

I was really energized by it.

NARRATOR: Perhaps even

a little "defiant,"

an issue that Rick Berman,

the keeper of Gene's vision,

was more than aware of.

You know, he knew we'd been

straining at the at the leash

for quite a while.

And now Gene's gone,

and I think he just sensed

that, "Okay, these guys

are wild people.

"They'll just, like,

destroy this thing"

if he didn't hold

the reins really tight.

NARRATOR: And in Ron Moore's

first defiant act...

They created the Defiant

so that they could go away

from the station.

Release docking clamps,

aft thrusters at one quarter,

port and starboard

at station keeping.

NARRATOR: So, Star Trek

pimped its own ride

with a brand new battleship

and a revised mission.

Let's give Sisko a ship.

Let's see him getting out there.

The Defiant was a prototype,

the first ship in

what would've been

a new Federation battle fleet.

NARRATOR: The ship was new,

but in launching it,

Star Trek was actually

returning to its roots.

Stand by, weapons and shields.

Oh, look, it's

the Star Trek crew

getting off on a ship

and doing stuff.

Well, that's the DNA

of Star Trek all along.

Thank you for finally

figuring that out.

NARRATOR: And just to make sure

no one missed that

Star Trek was back on track,

producers threw in

a little shock and awe.

Fire!

It's got Gatling g*n phasers.

Oh, my God.

NARRATOR: They may have

gained some Gatling g*ns,

but in Season Three,

the Big g*n, Michael Piller,

the showrunner, would depart,

leaving Deep Space Nine's

future uncertain.

NARRATOR: With the new

injection of talent

from the wildly popular

Star Trek:

The Next Generation...

Wild.

Helping me go crazy.

...showrunner

Michael Piller had left to work

on other upcoming

Star Trek projects.

That was good news

for Ira Behr,

who would finally

have his chance to take

the reins as showrunner.

We gave more and more input

to Ira Behr,

who was one of our top writers.

So that took

a lot of the load off of us.

Ira, 'the-bluebeard-genius'

Behr.

He is phenomenal.

You never know what color

his beard is going to be

from day to day.

He was beyond energized.

He was just on fire.

NARRATOR: And despite

his bright beard...

As the series went on,

they certainly went

to darker places.

They had a lot more

shades of grey.

VISITOR: Not everything was

black and white

on our show.

Not everything is

black and white in life.

And I found it very true.

NARRATOR: But Ira was sh**ting

for more than truth.

Ira wanted more warfare,

more violence.

[SCREAMING]

My feeling was

it strayed a little bit far

from Gene's ideals

and his hopes of what

the future was going to be.

And as a result, Ira and I

had a number of disagreements.

NARRATOR: But the darker hues

of the rejuvenated

Deep Space Nine

seemed to leave its audience

in a dark place, too.

NEMECEK:

We've added the Defiant

and that makes, ooh, action,

and yet the viewer numbers,

the ratings, aren't going up.

NARRATOR: And so,

for Season Four,

they just brought in

more people from

The Next Generation.

Michael Dorn was brought over

to try and bring over

some of that flavor.

Must be an exciting prospect.

MOORE: They wanted to

juice the show

in some capacity.

So, you know, bring over

a TNG character.

Look who's here.

NARRATOR: Unfortunately,

Klingons are not known

for blending easily

into their environments.

LOFTON: It took a little while

for him to warm up

to us, you know,

because he was almost

like his character.

Like, "I will not talk to you

unless it's necessary."

What more is there to say?

My only fear was that

they were going to replace me

with Michael Dorn.

I really, really

worried about that.

And that did not happen.

NARRATOR: For the writers, Worf

was just as unwelcome.

I do apologize again

for the inconvenience.

I felt the hand of the studio,

forcing us to do something

that wasn't organic to the show.

But if they feel this strongly,

let's try to make them happy

so that we could do the things

we really want to do.

Okay, let's find

something interesting

and new to do with Worf

that we haven't done until now.

It will be a glorious adventure.

NARRATOR:

When Worf failed to bring

The Next Generation level

ratings to Deep Space Nine...

It continues to struggle

in the ratings.

NARRATOR: Not even

Captain Sisko's

Season Four makeover

could bring in the viewers.

Avery was trying to

find the character

at the same time,

and part of it was his look.

I couldn't agree more.

NARRATOR: But the studio

couldn't agree at all.

MOORE: You know, Avery

wanted to shave his head

and have the goatee.

The studio, they

didn't want to do that.

Rick didn't want

to do that, either.

But it's Starfleet now on DS9.

And he's got to have

the clean cut Starfleet look

and have the, you know,

the pointed sideburns

and the whole thing.

It's like, "Come on.

Come on!"

MOORE: Ira fought really hard

to let him shave his head

and let him have the goatee

because Ira felt it makes

Avery comfortable in his skin.

NARRATOR: After all,

the more heroic the lead,

the greater the chance

of hero-worthy ratings.

Avery Brooks's

biggest claim to fame

before DS9

was playing Hawk

on Spenser: For Hire.

The name is Hawk.

He was a hero in my community.

Yeah.

I prefer the bald Avery Brooks

because there's power

in that baldness.

And it gave him authority.

There's no question,

bald with the goatee

is the best Sisko.

NARRATOR: Well,

he would say that.

There's no guarantee of that!

NARRATOR: Deep Space Nine

had weathered four years

of disappointment.

And neither Worf's

whimsical ways,

Captain Sisko's shiny head,

nor Ira's blue beard

were enough

to stop Star Trek trying

one last thing.

Unfortunately, it had nothing

to do with Deep Space Nine.

They got busy

with the next show.

Paramount had already begun

developing Star Trek: Voyager,

putting DS9

further in the shade.

VISITOR: Well, we were never

the shiny new thing.

So the idea of

Voyager coming along

was like,

"Yeah, they're gonna

try again because they

didn't get it with us."

LOFTON: And because

they were network,

they got more money,

bigger budget, better trailers.

The whole gambit.

Their craft service

was amazing, hair--

I mean, everything

that could be better

was better for Voyager.

We were sitting there

like "Wait, wait a minute.

"We've been here for,

you know, all this time.

"How come we didn't get

the brand new trailers?"

NARRATOR: Not everything

was better,

but let's not

get ahead of ourselves.

Producer Ira Behr felt his show

had been abandoned

by Paramount brass,

and left to fend for itself

in the w*r of ratings.

He just felt like Voyager

was getting all the attention

for being a "network show"

and no one, he felt like

no one was paying attention

to little DS9.

NARRATOR: Oh. No one is

paying attention, you say?

With Paramount no longer

breathing down its neck,

DS9 had a unique opportunity

to spread its wings.

MOORE: At some point, Paramount

just threw up their hands.

Paramount left us alone.

"The show is still dark.

The ratings are okay.

"They're never gonna

pick up the ratings."

"Ah, whatever, let them

do whatever they want."

And they just started

leaving us alone.

DS9 got to do pretty much

what it wanted to do.

NARRATOR: With

a free hand creatively,

DS9 was able to ask

questions of itself,

of Star Trek, and ultimately,

of its audience.

For example, in the episode

Far Beyond the Stars,

they asked a lot of questions.

[GRUNTS]

That was one of the most

special episodes.

Take a look at these readings.

MAN: Are you gonna

buy that or not?

LOFTON: It was a period piece.

We're talking about

police brutality.

WOMAN: Stop it! Stop it!

LOFTON: This was

a special subject matter

that you wanted to make sure

you were getting right.

I am a human being, dammit.

In case you haven't been

paying attention

to the headlines,

but it hasn't gone away.

Star Trek is the future.

And that means

that these people

were writing these,

they are hopeful in heart

that the future,

people will eventually

see the world

the way the world truly is.

Things are going to change.

They have to.

NARRATOR: This was

the original Star Trek ethos

of infinite diversity,

warts and all.

JOHNSON JERALD:

The world full of people

who have red skin,

brown skin, black skin

and white skin,

and if any skin I left out,

that's in that too.

NARRATOR: But don't worry,

Ira, Ron, and the writers

were not done yet.

MOORE: Let's push further

than anyone thinks we can.

Let's challenge

what Star Trek is.

How good is the Federation?

Don't they have

their own problems?

What happens when they face

this kind of crisis?

What about this?

NARRATOR: Well,

Ron was about to get

the chance to find out.

NARRATOR: With Ira Behr

in the driver's seat...

That's when we really

started to feel like

we were a sailing ship

and Ira was at the wheel.

NARRATOR: A wheel that Ira

had been spinning

in the background

for quite a while.

Because if you remember...

Ira got very involved

in wanting to do long strings

of continuing episodes.

The studio absolutely said no.

NARRATOR: But with the studio's

attention elsewhere,

Ira really only had

Rick to convince.

That wouldn't be

too much of a problem.

Ira was really good at pulling

the wool over your eyes.

He would say,

"We're not going to have

"a continual

long series of episodes

that aren't standalone."

And all of a sudden,

they would occur.

NARRATOR: Ira had planted

the seed of one such arc

way back in Season Two

right here.

Let's just say if you want

to do business

in the Gamma Quadrant,

you have to do business

with the Dominion.

The Dominion? What's that?

NARRATOR: With this tiny

mention of "The Dominion,"

Ira would spawn one of

Deep Space Nine's

biggest arching plot lines.

You belong to the Dominion,

don't you?

NARRATOR: Which would

not only fly in the face

of the network's wishes...

It will keep you strong,

...but possibly

Gene Roddenberry's as well.

MOORE: The Dominion.

Rick said so at the time,

he said, "Gene would

absolutely have

k*lled the story."

But we were able to get it done,

and we did talk him into it.

And so, you know,

even though he would

draw these lines,

he was willing to kind of

move the lines

and move the goalposts with us

every once in a while

to kind of, 'cause

he could recognize that this

was a really good story.

NARRATOR: Ron Moore

and Ira Behr were waging

a w*r on Star Trek tradition.

They would push

the series' boundaries

into new territory

with a Season Six

'Dominion w*r' episode

that was unlike anything

Star Trek had done before.

I can see

where it all went wrong.

In the Pale Moonlight.

It's a controversial episode.

Michael Taylor wrote

the first draft.

NARRATOR:

That's freelance writer

Michael Taylor,

who would later

join the writing staff.

We were having trouble

making it work.

And it got handed to me

and I came up with

the wraparound structure

and Sisko talking

to the camera.

SISKO: Captain's Personal Log.

Recording a captain's log,

and that that was

gonna be the frame.

Maybe if I just laid it

all out in my log,

it'll finally makes sense.

NARRATOR: Ron Moore thought

the title of the episode

made sense too.

Because everybody knows

about the pale moonlight.

Right?

When I wrote that title,

I was under the impression

that that was just a saying.

You ever dance with the devil

in the pale moonlight?

And everybody kept

coming up to me and saying,

"Oh, so it's

a Batman reference?"

And I said, "No."

I mean, "No, it's not.

"It's not about Batman.

It's just about the phrase,

"about the saying,

'Dance with the devil

in the pale moonlight."'

And then later

came to find that,

well, it's not really a phrase.

It's really just something

that was said in Batman.

I just like the sound of it.

NARRATOR: Whatever

Ron thought it meant,

the episode was

a radical departure,

with Star Trek's heroes

taking a devilish turn.

SISKO: I was going to bring

the Romulans into the w*r.

NARRATOR: The Dominion w*r.

With the Federation losing,

Captain Sisko

conspires with Garak

in a dance of disinformation.

It was willing

to push characters

into darker,

more ambiguous territory

than the other Star Treks did.

You have Sisko and Garak

both engaged in this really

untoward tale of darkness.

And it may be

a very messy,

very bloody business.

When Sisko asks him for help,

he has a pretty good idea

of the lengths to which

Garak is going to go.

Sometimes fairness

doesn't win the day.

And there are dirty tricks

that have to be used.

You knew I could do

those things that you

weren't capable of doing.

NARRATOR: So,

perhaps for the first time

in Star Trek's history,

the dirty tricks weren't being

played by the villains,

and the consequences

were deadly.

In the Pale Moonlight

was a Star Trek episode

unlike any other.

MOORE: And it is about

a disinformation campaign.

It's about fake news

that the good guys use

in order to start a w*r.

You know, or a different part

of the w*r, with the Romulans.

NARRATOR: Five years before

the second w*r in Iraq,

Star Trek actually

foreshadowed the rise of

manufactured truths.

It's a fake!

- It's a fake!

- It's a fake!

It's a fake!

We're dealing with fake news.

And the use of fake news.

How, you know,

news and information

could be used by governments

and people in power

to get what they wanted.

And you don't usually

see the good guys

do that on television.

And if I had to do it

all over again...

I would.

NARRATOR: Freed from

the traditional scruples,

In the Pale Moonlight took fans

into the darkest territory

of them all.

Garak kills the forger.

I mean, he murders him.

And I deliberately

played it off camera

because the episode as a whole

is already pretty dark.

I'll be along shortly

to say hello.

And I just sort of had

an intuitive sense,

that if I have one of

our semi-regulars, who we love,

in cold blood, m*rder

another character on camera,

it was going to be

a whole thing.

So I just

buried it in the story

and it happens off camera

and I just knew that

that would make it

easier to slip by.

The joy of playing Garak

was derived

so much from his lack of

what we think as

being moral or ethical.

Well, I suppose that depends

on how you look at it.

NARRATOR: And the captain, too,

was suddenly Machiavellian,

light years from

Star Trek's original hero.

MOORE: Sisko does things

in that show

that you can't imagine

Kirk doing

or any of the other

starship captains.

We took that character

pretty far

and engaged in

deception and m*rder

and, you know, criminality

and all kinds of things,

in service of a higher goal.

And I think that's

an interesting place

to take a character.

[GRUNTS]

NARRATOR:

And when Sisko's

dance with the Devil

spins out of control...

You k*lled him!

...he faces a reckoning.

Sisko might have

even expected it

to have been a worse price,

like Sisko might have had

a deeper, darker fear

in the back of his head.

and once I go to Garak,

who knows what the price

is going to be.

You may have just saved

the entire Alpha Quadrant.

And all it cost...

was the life of

one Romulan senator,

one criminal,

and the self-respect

of one Starfleet officer.

NARRATOR: And so we see

a Starfleet captain

forced to make

peace with himself

before his enemies.

So I will learn...

to live with it.

At the end, when he says,

"and I can live with it,"

he can live with the fact

that he made those choices.

That's the moral of the story.

And he embraces it,

and he hates himself for it

at the same time.

I can live with it.

Someone

breaks the fourth wall

and speaks directly

into the camera,

that's as deep as you can go.

What makes Sisko

such a great leader

is that he deliberates

and he tries to do

the right thing,

even when it means

that he has to do

the wrong thing.

It's a great morality tale

of how far is too far.

MOORE: I think you go with them

on the ride.

You feel the pressure.

You understand the stakes

of this galactic w*r

that's happening.

Step by step, you understand

why they keep doing

what they're doing,

even as part of you

is repelled by it.

The truth is,

you can live with it, too.

And that says something

about you,

and that says--

and that's a fantastic

interesting interaction

between show and audience.

When it deals with

complex issues, and dives into

things that are meaningful?

That's when Star Trek

really works.

MOORE: Only Deep Space Nine

could do that

and I think it is

one of the very best

Deep Space Nine episodes.

I'm very proud of that.

NARRATOR: But no matter

how proud or how good,

ratings remained uneven,

as one of Star Trek's

most creatively

ambitious chapters

neared its end.

We sort of knew that probably

only gonna go one more year.

TNG got seven years.

It stood to reason

that we probably

weren't gonna get

more than seven years,

because we weren't,

ratings-wise,

as successful as they were.

NARRATOR: With the end

in sight, they began tying up

all the loose ends.

You're trying to give these

actors a satisfying end.

It was a melancholy

sadness to it.

Next year is your senior year,

and that's going to be it.

NARRATOR:

All the pieces were in place

for Deep Space Nine's

seventh and last season

to go out with a bang.

Unfortunately, before

they could even start,

there was a bombshell.

Heading into its final season,

Deep Space Nine was dealing

with the loss

of a key cast member.

Dax would not see

a seventh season.

You're going to a seventh

season, you know it's gonna be

your last season.

So the network isn't gonna

start throwing more money

at you because this is it.

So she got squeezed.

NARRATOR: Unimpressed

with her offer,

actress Terry Farrell

checked out.

DS9's writers had a problem

they never saw coming.

We made no accommodation

for what it would mean

to pull Dax as a character

completely out of

the structure of the show,

and I don't think any of us

were really ready to do that.

NARRATOR: Terry Farrell

walked out.

But if you can't change

the character,

you can always change

the actress.

And Nicole de Boer wormed

her way in, so to speak.

As the same character,

but of course,

in a different body.

There was something

of a scramble, and it became

"Oh, my God.

Okay, wait a minute.

How does this work?

How are we gonna go about this?"

And there was a certain,

like, "Oh, my God."

NARRATOR: Basically

an alien slug named Dax

found a new alien host,

and Nicole was that host.

It's me.

Dax.

NARRATOR: But she had

some questions.

What kind of alien is it?

Because I had done some

work before

on an episode of Outer Limits.

NARRATOR: Which had proved

to be at the outer limits of

Nicole's tolerance for makeup.

I would not probably be able

to do that on a daily basis.

So he said, "Don't worry,

it's very minimal makeup."

And I said, "Okay.

I love that."

NARRATOR: It's

a relatively complicated,

symbiotic relationship.

I was told to look at it

as a new character,

although I would have

the memories of Jadzia

as well as all these

other people before,

with the symbiont.

NARRATOR: So Nicole had

a lot on her mind.

And the whole thing is that

she wasn't trained to be joined,

so that is going to be

complicated for her.

People need time

to get over losing Jadzia.

NARRATOR: But

an even more complicated

relationship for Worf.

Now, of course, Worf wasn't

too excited about me.

I was your wife.

You're not Jadzia.

NARRATOR:

A fact that allowed the writers

to explore new territory.

Well, there's an opportunity

to do different Dax stories,

change relationships.

Now she has a different host.

We just kind of embraced it

as an opportunity to expand

instead of contract.

NARRATOR:

Now in its final season,

the production raced

to complete its 26 episodes.

And they're getting

kind of tired.

It's like the seventh season

and the hours were grueling.

For at least 16 hours a day,

and longer.

It was insane.

There were people there

that didn't see

their children grow up.

NARRATOR:

And it all came together

for the very last episode.

You always said

I looked good in a tuxedo.

They just went where they felt

the story took them

and then finally landed

this sucker at the end

with an amazing finale.

NARRATOR:

Inarguably the biggest

story arc of them all,

teased from

the very first episode,

Captain Sisko finally

takes his place among

the Bajoran Prophets.

Your Time of Trial has ended.

NARRATOR: The Dominion w*r

comes to an end,

and the crew live it up

for one last night.

To the best crew

any captain ever had.

People like myself.

other members

of the support staff

got to be in the episode.

So all of us were the extras

for those scenes,

and I replanned it perfectly

to be shot the very last

day of sh**ting.

It was just an amazing day.

This one's from the heart.

NARRATOR: The final episode

of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

went out on June 2nd, 1999,

leaving the audience

wanting more.

Which now, thanks to streaming,

they can have.

DS9 has definitely

stood up over time,

more so than the other shows.

Which is ironic,

because, at the time,

it was thought of

as the lesser show.

NARRATOR: And as it happens,

that controversial

serialized format

turned out to be

ahead of its time.

And the vast story arc

gave the show a long life.

Today, the definition

of the word 'streaming'

shows that people

watch these shows because

they are continuing arcs,

continuing story lines.

I think the fact that the way

people view shows

is different.

And binge-watching a show

is the way DS9

needed to be seen.

And Deep Space Nine

is bigger than ever now.

It's found

a whole new following.

NARRATOR: Routinely landing

at the top of the 'Best

Star Trek Series' lists,

thanks largely to

its wide-ranging

and eclectic storylines.

And now, I get a lot

of transgender people

coming up to me saying,

you know, "Do you know

how important this character

has been for me?

"It was someone

I could turn to

that was like me."

Out of the entire franchise,

I think Deep Space Nine

was the best

because it dealt with issues

that a whole bunch

of people were facing,

especially people of color.

NARRATOR: With

Captain Benjamin Sisko,

Avery Brooks had made

Star Trek history.

Avery, he just put

his heart and soul into it.

It was really stunning to watch.

LOFTON: He taught me a lot.

The advice that he gave me

along the way

were life lessons that just

make you a better man.

He, by example, lead

in so many ways

that I believe, without it,

I would have been

on a different path.

NARRATOR: As Deep Space Nine

completed its mission,

a new Star Trek show

was already on air,

with its own first

to boast off.

I was the first female captain.

It was an established fact.

- You're serious.

- Very.

NARRATOR: But like all firsts,

this one wouldn't come easy.

This was an unprecedented moment

in the history of television.