The Center Seat: 55 Years of Star Trek (2021): Season 1, Episode 6 - Dancing with Syndication in the Pale Moonlight - full transcript

"Star Trek the next generation"

had successfully
returned the franchise

to television and flourished.

How true.

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."

So Paramount did what any
studio does with its prized cow.

Indubitably.

Milk it for all it's worth.



We were a few seasons
into "next generation"

when they said, "let's
get another show."

This is the story of
how "deep space nine"

attempted to take "Star Trek"
somewhere it had never been.

- A space station.
- Or in other words...

Inside 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.

Which, as the new
series approached,

was easier said than done.

One of the biggest
bugaboos driving writers crazy

was the ideal 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
24th-century world?

There was another problem, too.

We can't have two
"Star Trek" ships

out at the same time.

Do you want to
"confused" the audience

with another ship show?

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.

- Meaning...
- It can't be just about

going from planet to planet
and solving problems, you know,

with aliens in space.

So Rick berman and
showrunner Michael piller

came up with something
exactly opposite.

Let's do it on a space station.

Let's knock be locked
on to an enterprise.

The premise, as Michael
piller used to explain it,

was the action is
gonna come to us.

Like dodge city, you
know, in "gunsmoke."

And immediately now
you're telling a story

that is different to
what has come before.

Well, different. That's
what the network wanted.

This is where the adventure is.

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 is some of it 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 in
and accept something new."

Although risky, the writers
were more than ready

to explore this new
style of "Star Trek."

Let's push the boundaries
and see where are the edges,

where are the limitations
of what "Star Trek" can be.

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.

[Laughs] I don't know
how else to say it.

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.

Which is now bingeworthy TV.

But since the original series,

"Star Trek" had made its
name as an episodic epic.

It 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 we will learn?

And there were very
few serialized shows.

"Dallas" was a serialized show.

"Dynasty's" a serialized
show. Primetime soap operas.

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
gonna be syndicated.

They were not necessarily
going to be syndicated in order.

And they wanted
stand-alone episodes.

And even though...

Ira was very good at talking me
into doing what he wanted to do.

He wasn't that good.

The studio absolutely said no.

Okay, well, that's the last
we'll hear of that most likely.

It may not have been
ready for serialized plot lines,

but "Star Trek" was
ready for something else

far more groundbreaking.

Your hero's a negro captain.

Avery being the first
African-American captain

of a "Star Trek" series
like that 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 going to
change history really with that.

This was before there
was a black president.

So this was really
groundbreaking at the time.

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.

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.

Not only would sisko be
unlike any captain before him...

He believes captain picard
is personally responsible

for the death of his wife.

And he now has to
come to terms with all that.

Otherwise, he
has no future at all.

One who 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.

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.

Avery Brooks's 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 showtime.

It was a version of
"uncle Tom's cabin."

Nobody gettin' behind my soul.

Avery came off as an
incredibly powerful man

with hurt, with damage,
which works perfectly for sisko.

I was ready to die with her.

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
wil wheaton and Wesley crusher.

He was too much of a
problem solver-slash-know-it-all,

and they wanted my character
to be more human and fallible.

- Just like a regular kid.
- Wanna go for a swim?

Like "the next
generation" before it,

"deep space nine" imagined
real-life family struggles

in the 24th century.

Is this the food replicator?

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.

So Paramount would be
getting just what they wanted...

A very different "Star Trek"

with a very different captain,

captaining a very
different starship.

It's not a starship.

- It's a station.
- Space station?

Indeed. The days of
the enterprise were over,

and captain sisko would
need a station to captain.

It was very difficult to come by

that station's design.

There was a huge
evolution to it all.

In its whole different approach,
we were going about the station

as being a kind of
tower of babel place

that was built over
a long period of time

by several cultures.

So we started doing sketching

of things that looked
like an alien platform

with different levels

and different
hardware hanging off

and places for ships to dock.

So we had these crazy designs.

In the end, producers decided

the solution to the
space station dilemma

was a simple matter of
keeping up with the cardassians.

I'm allowed to do
whatever I want.

Oh, no, no, no. The cardassians.

You can understand
that we are skeptical.

When it was finally decided

it would be a
cardassian station,

that was still a blank slate.
What did that look like?

We have to start
thinking like cardassians.

Who knows how cardassians think?

But Rick berman knew one thing
about cardassian architecture.

Rick berman rightly
said this should be a ship

that any kid watching the show
could draw in a few strokes.

All right, I haven't got
a title for this one yet.

Anybody got any ideas?

And it eventually came around

to maybe the station
could be kind of a wheel.

A circular station with a
hub, you know, with a core

made a lot of sense.

At the end of the process,
the station looked very alien.

The model for deep space
nine was six feet around,

and it was the most
beautiful model.

The designers had
reinvented the wheel for space.

They were like cogs in a wheel.

They actually had cogs
that rolled in a cogged floor.

Berman built,
up until that point,

the largest standing interior
set ever made for "Star Trek"

was the promenade.

You walk on and
you were enveloped.

You came on the set,
and it was hard not to think

that you were on a space station

and that everything
was fully functional.

It was beautiful.

Beautiful. Unusual.

It was like nothing "Star
Trek" had seen before.

Unfortunately...

"Deep space nine"
and "Babylon 5,"

they came out right
about the same time.

"Babylon 5," like "Star Trek,"
was set on a space station.

Excuse me, but I'm in the middle

of 15 things, all
of them annoying.

I think that there
were a lot of people

who thought that one
stole from the other,

that "Star Trek" was
ripping off "Babylon 5."

And it certainly didn't help

that "Babylon 5" had already
been pitched to Paramount.

J. Michael Straczynski
had come in,

pitched what we all
now know as "Babylon 5."

Not every dream I've heard
lately ends well for you.

Paramount turned it down.

Stracynski. I believe he thought

that "Star Trek"
was ripping him off.

"Deep space nine"
ripping off "Babylon 5?"

I sincerely doubt
it. I really do.

I just think that those
are ironic similarities.

Similarities that ended there

because "deep space
nine" was forging ahead,

[McFadden] With a big cast,
big set, and big expectations,

shooting on the pilot
began in August of 1992

with "the next generation"
alumnus David Carson

in the director's chair.

It wasn't the first
pilot that I'd done,

but it was certainly
the biggest.

Also big were the stakes.

I had this meeting with the
production people at Paramount

who said to me, "this is
the first time we're doing

a 'Star Trek' series
without gene roddenberry."

Paramount feared
that if "deep space nine"

ventured too far from
"Star Trek's" traditions,

the fans might desert them.

There is that risk.

So the studio instructions
were crystal clear.

"This pilot and this series is
very important to Paramount,

so we want you to know

that it's very important
that we get it right."

And, of course, a
director on a pilot

isn't just coming
in for the week,

getting an episode
together and helping.

A director on a pilot
really sets the tone.

Cut!

David had his
work cut out for him

with a complicated pilot
script called "emissary."

The "emissary" was
such a difficult story to tell.

And David needed to get it
right from the very first frame.

The first scene that I
shot of "deep space nine"

was the scene on the bridge,

and there was a lot of
movement in the scene.

So I thought this is a great way

for us all to get to
know this bridge.

So I followed them
around on the crane.

It was problematic,
and it caused Livingston

to come and tell
me what am I doing.

"You're still doing this
shot at lunchtime?" [Laughs]

'Cause 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?

The problem was to do with
some awkward introductions.

We had a lot of
characters to introduce.

Who the hell are you?

And they were all not
cookie-cutter type of people.

- [Laughing]
- They were all kinds of people

that we had really
never seen before.

Some weren't
really people at all.

The trill is an
implant. It's ancient.

Trying to figure
out that relationship.

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.

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.

Nana visitor was invited to read

for the character of a
bajoran revolutionary.

She found the way it
was written revolutionary.

Science fiction needs more
strong women characters.

I'm always saying
that, aren't I, Jules?

Nana certainly came on
strong for her audition as Kira.

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.

And 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 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
tabletop and glared at us

as if to say, "okay,
I got it, right?"

And turned and
walked out of the room.

And she was right.
She got it. That was it.

I'll find a way to
make it happen.

The aggressive audition
technique was all the rage...

René 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.

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 was odo.

You're gonna get sloppy

without me to
keep an eye on you.

I don't think so.

Armin shimerman
reprised his ferengi act

from "the next generation,"
but this time as quark,

and was now an
occasionally affable bartender.

I like to discuss arranging
a line of credit. [Laughing]

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 have a wonderful song.

There was something about garak

that always was reminding me...

He became kind
of liberace's cousin.

I do appreciate making
new friends whenever I can.

But the main
influence for garak,

a cardassian spy, drew
on contemporary literature.

Our conception of garak

was a character out
of a le carré novel.

"Tinker tailor soldier spy"

was a common reference
point in the writers' room,

that garak was created
with that in mind.

If you can't beat it, spy on it.

Which may explain
garak's other peculiarity.

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.

It's Dr. Bashir, isn't it?

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.

Along with Irish
actor colm meaney.

Another neutrino disruption.

There were 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 got a lot of pressure,

and they are going to
try to move you through

as fast as possible.
That's good enough.

Well, they didn't come in
on budget nor on schedule.

Don't ask my opinion next time!

So much so, David fell behind

with the feature-length
special effects laden premiere.

"Emissary" went over budget.
We went over schedule.

This is outrageous.

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.

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.

Exactly.

You will disarm your weapons.

The pilot for "deep space nine"

premiered on January 3, 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.

Critics lauded its ambition.

And I think when we made it,

it was the most expensive
pilot on record. A lot of money.

$12 million 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.

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.

While shooting in one
location reduced costs,

the makeup budget was
going in the opposite direction.

Oh. Oh.

Even by "Star Trek's" standards,
there were more alien races

than you could
shake a phaser at.

Klingons and
cardassians and romulans,

much less the ferengi, much
less the aliens of the week.

In a way off the wall
and kind of wacky,

and it had so many
challenges that were so great.

And so expensive.

Keeping up with the
cardassians was proving costly.

Well, the cardassians were part

of "Star Trek the
next generation."

It was improved upon greatly.

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.

The Westmore alien was boxes
of noses and heads and ears

from previous aliens.

And that is good enough for me.

But for the non-randomly
put-together aliens...

The jem'hadar 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
on the back of their head.

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.

With Terry Farrell, I spotted it
by hand. Take me 20 minutes.

For some, the
rigorous makeup routine

was just a way to
get into character.

They 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 get double takes,

and I get people
looking at my nose.

And after a while,
it would piss me off.

It 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.

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.

Well, Nana, she needed to appeal

to the 18-to-43-year-old
group more.

And so we put her
into spandex-like fabric

that was form-fitting as
she had a great figure.

It's not necessarily
comfortable.

I didn't love being
in orange latex.

Oh, I love a woman in uniform.

But it wasn't just
Nana's uniform

that was stretched thin.

As season 1
turned into season 2,

the writers were
feeling stretched as well.

We're still trying to
repair all the damage

your forces did
before they left.

Because the station
didn't go anywhere,

stories that you did last week

were still kind of
with you this week

'cause those people
were still here.

And despite the
clear instructions

from the studio regarding
serialized plot lines...

The studio absolutely said no.

There was really
no way to avoid it.

As a result,

you had ongoing relationships
and ongoing stories

that you had to
pay attention to.

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.

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
stand-alone episodes.

Which meant for viewers...

Who knows when you're
going to be able see it,

much less when
you can record it.

Lot of the audience gave up.

Poor ratings confirmed
Paramount's worst fears.

The studio was concerned
about the ratings.

They wanted something
that was equally

and then, ideally,
surpassing "next generation."

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.

Paramount wanted more
from its most valuable property.

They want some change.

They wanna see a
spike in the ratings.

They wanna see a bigger
popularity for the series.

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 happy and grateful
to start doing something new.

And it was a very different
challenge, you know,

and I was really
energized by it.

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 had
been straining 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,

and they'll, like,
just destroy this thing

if he didn't hold
the reins really tight.

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.

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 have been

a new federation battle fleet.

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
in "Star Trek" all along.

Thank you for finally
figuring that out.

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 gun
phasers, oh, my god.

They may have gained
some gatling guns,

but in season 3,

the big gun, Michael piller,
the showrunner, would depart,

leaving "deep space
nine's" future uncertain.

With a new injection of
talent from the wildly popular

"Star Trek" "the
next generation"...

Wild. We would 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 blue
beard 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.

And despite his bright beard...

As the series went on,

they certainly went
to darker places.

They had a lot
more shades of gray.

Ira wanted more
warfare, more violence.

- Aah!
- But the darker hues

of the rejuvenated
"deep space nine"

seem to leave its audience
in a dark place, too.

We've added the defiant
in the mix. Ooh! Action.

And yet the viewer numbers,
the ratings aren't going up.

And so for season 4,

they just brought in more
people from "the next generation."

Michael dorn was brought over

to try and bring over
some of that flavor.

It must be an exciting prospect.

They wanted to juice the
show in some capacity,

so, you know, bring
over a tng character.

- Look who's here.
- Unfortunately,

klingons are not known

for blending easily
into their environments.

It took a little while for him
to warm up to us, you know,

'cause 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.

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 'em happy

so that we could do the
things we really wanna do.

And, okay, let's find
something interesting

and new to do with worf that
we haven't done up until now.

It will be a glorious adventure.

When worf failed to bring

"the next generation"-level
ratings to "deep space nine"...

It continues to
struggle in the ratings.

Not even captain sisko's
season 4 makeover

could bring in viewers.

Avery was trying to find the
character at the same time,

and part of it was his look.

I couldn't agree more.

Ira thought really hard

to let him shave his head
and let him have the goatee,

because ira felt it makes
Avery comfortable in his skin.

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 is
power in that baldness.

And it gave him authority.

There's no question
bald with the goatee

is the best sisko.

Well, he would say that.

There's no guarantee of that!

"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.

Well, we were never
the shiny new thing,

so the idea of
"voyager" coming along

was like, "yeah,
they're gonna try again

'cause they didn't
get it with us."

And because they were network,

they got more money,
bigger budget, better trailers,

the whole gambit.

Their craft service was amazing.

I mean, everything that could
be better was better for "voyager."

We were sitting there
like, "wait a minute.

We've been here for,
you know, all this time.

How come we didn't get
the brand-new trailers?"

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 war of ratings.

He just felt like "voyager"
was getting all the attention

for being a "network" show.

He felt like no one was
paying attention to little ds9.

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.

At some point, Paramount
just threw up their hands.

Paramount left us alone.

"The show's still dark.
The ratings are okay.

They're never gonna
pick up the ratings.

Ah, whatever. Let 'em
do whatever they want."

And they just started
leaving us alone.

Ds9 got to do pretty
much what it wanted to do.

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.

That was one of the
most special episodes.

Take a look at these readings.

[Boy] Are you gonna
buy that or not?

It was a period piece.

We're talking about
police brutality.

Stop it! Stop it!

This was a special
subject matter

that you wanted to make
sure you were getting right.

[Sobbing] I am a
human being, damn it.

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.

This was the original
"Star Trek" ethos

of infinite diversity,
warts and all.

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.

But don't worry.

Ira, Ron, and the
writers were not done yet.

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?

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.

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.

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 gonna
have a continual,

long series of episodes
that aren't stand-alone."

And all of a sudden,
they would occur.

Ira had planted the
seed of one such arc

way back in season 2 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?

With this tiny mention
of the dominion,

ira would spawn one
of "deep space nine's"

biggest arcing plot lines...

You belong to the
dominion, don't you?

Which would not
only fly in the face

- of the network's wishes...
- These keep you strong.

But possibly gene
roddenberry's as well.

The dominion. Rick
said so at the time.

He said, "gene would
absolutely have killed this story."

But we were able to get it
done, and we did talk him into it.

And so, you know, even
though he'd draw these lines,

he was willing to
kind of move the lines

and move the goalpost
with us every once in a while,

'cause he could recognize
that this was a really good story.

Ron Moore and ira behr

were waging a war
on "Star Trek" tradition.

They would push
the series' boundaries

into new territory

with the season 6
dominion war 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.

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.

Captain's personal log.

Recording a captain's log.

And then that was
gonna be the frame.

Maybe if I just lay
it all out in my log,

it'll finally make sense.

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, it's a
'Batman' reference?"

And I said, "no. I mean,
no, 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 it's not really a phrase.

It's really just something
that was said in 'Batman.'"

I just like the sound of it.

Whatever Ron thought it meant,

the episode was
a radical departure

with "Star Trek's" heroes
taking a devilish turn.

[Sisko's voice] I was going to
bring the romulans into the war.

The dominion war.

With the federation losing,

captain sisko
conspires with garak

in a dance of disinformation.

It was willing to
push characters

into darker and 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.

So perhaps for the first
time in "Star Trek's" history,

the dirty tricks weren't
being played by the villains,

"in the pale moonlight,"
was a "Star Trek" episode

unlike any other.

And it is about a
disinformation campaign.

It's about fake news
that the good guys use

in order to start a war,

or a different part of the
war, with the romulans.

Five years before
the second war 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.

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 murder
another character on camera,

it was gonna 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.

And the captain, too, was
suddenly machiavellian,

light-years from "Star
Trek's" original hero.

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 murder

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.

And when sisko's
dance with the devil...

- Get up!
- Spins out of control...

- You killed 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
that "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.

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 the deepest 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.

When it deals with
complex issues

and dives into things
that are meaningful,

that's when "Star
Trek" really works.

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.

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 [bleep]

Probably are 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

'cause we weren't ratings-wise
as successful as they were.

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's your senior
year, and that's gonna be it.

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 go into 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.

Unimpressed with her offer,

actress Terry
Farrell checked out

and Nicole De boer wormed
her way in, so to speak,

as the same character

but, of course, in
a different body.

Basically, an alien
slug named Dax

found a new alien host,
and Nicole was that alien.

It's me. Dax.

What kind of
alien is it? [Laughs]

Because I had done
some prosthetic work before

on an episode of "outer limits."

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'd love that."

It's a relatively complicated,
symbiotic relationship.

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.

But an even more complicated
relationship for worf.

No. Of course worf wasn't
too excited about me.

I was your wife.

You are not jadzia.

Now in its final season,

the production raced to
complete its 26 episodes.

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.

And it all came together
for the very last episode.

You always said I
look 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.

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.

The dominion war
comes to an end,

and the crew lit 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 ira planted perfectly

to be shot the very
last day of shooting.

It was just an amazing day.

This one's from the heart.

The final episode of "Star
Trek deep space nine"

went out on June 2, 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.

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 storylines.

And "deep space nine"
is bigger than ever now.

It's found a whole
new following.

Routinely landing

at the top of the best
"Star Trek" series list,

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.

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.

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,
led in so many ways

that I believe without it,

I would have been
on a different path.

As "deep space nine"
completed its mission,

a new "Star Trek"
show was already on air

with its own first to boast of.

I was the first female captain.
It was an established fact.

- You're serious.
- Very.

But like all firsts, this
one wouldn't come easy.

This was an unprecedented
moment in the history of television.