News Behr: Deep Space Nine Too Different For Some

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A new news article has been published at TrekToday:

In an interview with Io9, Executive producer/showrunner Ira Steven Behr speaks about creating Deep Space Nine and reaction to the show during...

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[GotNoRice]

And so, the fact that people watch it now…the only thing that kind of shook my tree a little bit was when I’ve met a lot of people in the last few years, you know, who go: ‘I loved it from the beginning and I was there all the way.’ And I’m like, really? When people tell me they didn’t like it, I totally believe them! ‘I tried to get into it when it was on, but I just didn’t like it, now, I’m a fan, but back then I didn’t like it…’ That, I totally get. The people who said they got it from the beginning, I’m like, ‘Where the hell were you!?'”

I always liked DS9 but even I have to admit it is a LOT different re-watching it now than it was watching it live back then. I was super into Star Trek back then as a kid in middle-school & high-school (Still love Star Trek, of course). Things like eagerly waiting a week or more between episodes so I could see how the dominion war would progress only to have my hopes dashed by getting stuck with a Vic Fontaine or Ezri Episiode was a bit tough to swallow at the time. Re-watching the series now, it's just a matter of clicking on the next episode, no big deal.

 

[Soong-type Android]

I didn't like DS9 at the time I have to admit due to how different it was to TNG, but have been watching it a lot on Netflix and it has become one of my favourite Star Trek series and Sisko is now one of my favourite captains. I've grown to appreciate how different it wanted to be from TNG and how it wanted to do something radically different with Star Trek.

 

[GulBahana]

I remember most of my friends who were TNG fans in '93 didn't like DS9. It was too much of a left turn for them. The pilot presented a lot of characters with rough edges and that didn't appeal to some.

 

[John Clark]

I liked DS9 from the start and over the series, would probably pick it as one if not the favourite.

One of my friends also watched, but was much more into TNG and later Voyager. Recently though, he's started to come to think of DS9 as his favourite.

 

[Farscape One]

I was a fan from the beginning. It was always my favorite STAR TREK series, and still is. Sisko is my favorite captain. My wife loves DS9, too. We are currently watching DS9. "BROKEN LINK" is the next episode. (She watches more slowly than I do. I've already gone through 397 episodes of the various shows since I started my rewatch, something I haven't done in many years.)

In fact, the DS9 documentary is coming to a theater right down the street from me on May 13. I just ordered my ticket this morning. I tried multiple times the last couple weeks but it wasn't ready. Tried on a whim this morning when I got off work, and it worked! I can't wait to see it!

 

[JirinPanthosa]

The biggest thing that kept me from liking it when it was first on is Quark. And a friend of mine recently said something similar. "Stories about a Ferengi trying to make profit, who cares?"

But I also didn't like how they reversed some of the things TNG did, and had the Federation doing some things the Federation described to us in TNG would never do.

 

[Armus]

I always liked it and it would always be too different for some. DS9 felt like a living, breathing world to me, with something exciting always about to unfold. And it was consistently funnier and more colorful
than TNG.

To be fair DS9 could have garnered more fans early on if the Bajorans had been a little less generic. I think many fans saw the robes, the earrings, and the metaphysical stuff and just tuned out. It took a awhile for some of the characters to gell and no one besides O'brien, Quark, and Odo had instant appeal. The first few episodes after the pilot could have been better. Even Michael Piller said it was a mistake to go so small scale so soon. A problem he addressed by starting off season 2 with a bang.

 

[STEPhon IT]

The biggest thing that kept me from liking it when it was first on is Quark. And a friend of mine recently said something similar. "Stories about a Ferengi trying to make profit, who cares?"

But I also didn't like how they reversed some of the things TNG did, and had the Federation doing some things the Federation described to us in TNG would never do.

Reversing things TNG did was the main reason I was compelled by Deep Space Nine, because the crew couldn't rely on what was a staple on TNG. The realization for me was as soon as the Enterprise left the station this new crew was alone. No Klingons, Romulans, or any of the familiar faces I once comfortable in viewing, this crew will have to adjust and becoming some clever chess players because these new villains or adversaries are as interesting and as intelligent as they are. Problem was these adversaries (The Cardassians) had the home field advantage and any slip up -- the mission, and the security of this new world would be in danger, which means reinforcements would take about an Earth week to reach there and that would be too late. The 1st 3 seasons especially the mid-season 1 and the real full season 2 were some compelling television and some of the most interesting character compilations Star Trek has ever done.

All were flushed down the toilet when Ira Behr took over. Everything I found interesting about the show being unique and distant became familiar to what I'd seen already on TNG: Klingons, Romulans, Breen were all back into the fold, the Federation were now closer than ever before, bringing more cliches to the mix they now have another super, major one dimensional villain called the Dominion, the first super bad guy was the Borg, but the fan-wanking didn't end there Ira brought in Worf - one of the most popular characters from TNG, to bait TNG audience to watch which meant viewers could now be more comfortable with the drivel Ira and his team can muster. A complete betrayal of the fine work Michael Pillar developed for that series, having wars and blasting and some times asking Gods to fight battles, and tarnishing potential characters is not the formula for interesting TV, that crap only satisfies viewers' own short attention spans - ones who are and still is accustom to familiarization to what they think of as Star Trek. Ira's claim DS9 was too different for some, he's dumbfoundedly mistaken, his version of the series was drowning with fan service, and was muddled with too many subplots to the point many of them could never be resolved.

 

[Spot261]

Reversing things TNG did was the main reason I was compelled by Deep Space Nine, because the crew couldn't rely on what was a staple on TNG. The realization for me was as soon as the Enterprise left the station this new crew was alone. No Klingons, Romulans, or any of the familiar faces I once comfortable in viewing, this crew will have to adjust and becoming some clever chess players because these new villains or adversaries are as interesting and as intelligent as they are. Problem is these adversaries has the home field advantage and any slip up -- the mission, and the security of this new world will be in danger, which means reinforcements would take about an Earth week to reach there and that would be too late. The 1st 3 seasons especially the mid-season 1 and the real full season 2 were some compelling television and some of the most interesting character compilations Star Trek has ever done.

All were flushed down the toilet when Ira Behr took over. Everything I found interesting about the show being unique and distant became familiar to what I'd seen already on TNG: Klingons, Romulans, Breen were all back into the fold, the Federation were now closer than ever before, bringing more cliches to mix they now have another super, major one dimensional villain called the Dominion, but the fan-wanking didn't end there Ira brought in Worf - one the most popular characters from TNG which meant viewers could now be more comfortable with the drivel Ira and his team can muster. A complete betrayal of the fine work Michael Pillar developed for that series, having wars and blasting and some times asking Gods to fight battles, and tarnishing potential characters is not the formula for interesting TV, that crap only satisfies viewers' own short attention spans - ones who are and still is accustom to familiarization to what they think of as Star Trek. Ira's claim DS9 was too different for some, he's dumbfoundedly mistaken, his version of the series was drowning with fan service, and was muddled with too many subplots to the point many of them could never be resolved.

Sorry, my attention span wandered mid way through....

 

[Armus]

Reversing things TNG did was the main reason I was compelled by Deep Space Nine, because the crew couldn't rely on what was a staple on TNG. The realization for me was as soon as the Enterprise left the station this new crew was alone. No Klingons, Romulans, or any of the familiar faces I once comfortable in viewing, this crew will have to adjust and becoming some clever chess players because these new villains or adversaries are as interesting and as intelligent as they are. Problem was these adversaries (The Cardassians) had the home field advantage and any slip up -- the mission, and the security of this new world would be in danger, which means reinforcements would take about an Earth week to reach there and that would be too late. The 1st 3 seasons especially the mid-season 1 and the real full season 2 were some compelling television and some of the most interesting character compilations Star Trek has ever done.

All were flushed down the toilet when Ira Behr took over. Everything I found interesting about the show being unique and distant became familiar to what I'd seen already on TNG: Klingons, Romulans, Breen were all back into the fold, the Federation were now closer than ever before, bringing more cliches to the mix they now have another super, major one dimensional villain called the Dominion, the first super bad guy was the Borg, but the fan-wanking didn't end there Ira brought in Worf - one of the most popular characters from TNG, to bait TNG audience to watch which meant viewers could now be more comfortable with the drivel Ira and his team can muster. A complete betrayal of the fine work Michael Pillar developed for that series, having wars and blasting and some times asking Gods to fight battles, and tarnishing potential characters is not the formula for interesting TV, that crap only satisfies viewers' own short attention spans - ones who are and still is accustom to familiarization to what they think of as Star Trek. Ira's claim DS9 was too different for some, he's dumbfoundedly mistaken, his version of the series was drowning with fan service, and was muddled with too many subplots to the point many of them could never be resolved.

Don't mince words!

I agree with everything you wrote about the first two seasons. DS9 produced some of the finest stories in Star Trek's history during the second season in particular.

 

[STEPhon IT]

Sorry, my attention span wandered mid way through....

GOOD! I wouldn't expect anything more.

 

[NewHeavensNewEarth]

The 1st 3 seasons especially the mid-season 1 and the real full season 2 were some compelling television and some of the most interesting character compilations Star Trek has ever done.

Seasons 1-3 were a mess of species-of-the-week wandering through the wormhole, no serious development of the Gamma Quadrant, endless political drama on the Bajoran end of things, and everything moving at a snail's pace with no direction. I have issues with the other seasons, too, but seasons 1-3 were a gloomy mess that needed guidance and help.

 

[Soong-type Android]

The biggest thing that kept me from liking it when it was first on is Quark. And a friend of mine recently said something similar. "Stories about a Ferengi trying to make profit, who cares?"

I always felt the Ferengi were an antisemitic caricature like Watto from The Phantom Menace.

 

[STEPhon IT]

Seasons 1-3 were a mess of species-of-the-week wandering through the wormhole, no serious development of the Gamma Quadrant, endless political drama on the Bajoran end of things, and everything moving at a snail's pace with no direction. I have issues with the other seasons, too, but seasons 1-3 were a gloomy mess that needed guidance and help.

Good to know, Ira was Hollywood's own renaissance man... only on the TREKBBS' Deep Space Nine Threads.

 

[Armus]

I always felt the Ferengi were an antisemitic caricature like Watto from The Phantom Menace.

If there is any whiff of that, it probably has to do with the way they were casted and acted more than any intention on the part of the producers.

 

[NewHeavensNewEarth]

I always felt the Ferengi were an antisemitic caricature like Watto from The Phantom Menace.

Star Trek has always had 1-dimensional approaches to species, often able to sum them up in one or two words. Vulcans are logical, Klingons are warlike, Romulans are cunning, Ferengi are greedy. It's interesting that you associate greed with Jews.

 

[Soong-type Android]

It's interesting that you associate greed with Jews.

Well, it is an age old racist stereotype.

 

[Qonundrum]

I confess:

In 1993, TNG was in its 6th season and its burnout already started a year before. TNG had rubbed off on me this belief that DS9 would be more of the same. I saw a couple episodes of season 1, decided too quickly it was more of the same...

I pretty much skipped the show until the media blitz over "The Way of the Warrior". That's when I first became a fan, this show was daring to push some boundaries. There, I felt at the time, were some misfires but a couple decades later and revisiting those, I found new perspectives and more to like. And, yes, "Starship Down" is light years better than "Disaster" could ever be.

I wouldn't revisit seasons 1-3 for some time, but when I had, I appreciated it a lot more. Especially season 2. And, perhaps, season 1 since without being during the heyday of TNG shackled to it, it being seen as its own show is just easier now... that might be a part of why I was more tuned into it for season 4. TNG wasn't there, Worf was back, but the actual stories were going in a new and not quite expected way.

 

[Qonundrum]

And TNG couldn't begin to do stuff like "Sons of Mogh" and the arc culminating with the all-time great "For the Uniform". (Never mind the sheer awesomeness of the arc that led to another all-time great, "In The Pale Moonlight".)

And I was technically older as well. Time and maturity...

DS9 has an amazing balance on future idealism steeped in reality. Most Trek shows have something of interest, but DS9 is, to this day, my favorite Trek incarnation. Followed by TOS (warts and all)...