Did you imagine a third Star Trek series would follow TNG?

[Amasov]

I've always wondered about this. I was quite young when DS9 came on the air in 1993, so I can't recall the fan reaction.

I'm sure when TNG premiered back in 1987, it seemed ludicrous to put a different set of characters on the Enterprise. At the time, the whole idea was new to us Star Trek fans.

Having said that, with TNG being a huge success, did any of you expect another Star Trek series to be created? And, when you heard that a third series was announced, what was the initial reaction?

 

[Finn]

I didn't think much of it, no different from them making Frasier after Cheers.

 

[startrekwatcher]

It surprised me at the time although looking back a spin-off isn't so wild an idea given that we ultimately got three spin-offs for a total of five ST series.

Honestly I wasn't that crazy about DS9 since TNG really was so good. I remember that first season of DS9 really turned me off since they were doing standalones that were nowhere as good as what TNG was doing, there were too many TNG crossovers that it just reminded me of how much more I'd rather be watching TNG and finally I didn't care for the cast.

 

[SchwEnt]

Being an old timer from way back, I can say the biggest uproar I can recall in fandom after all the decades is still TNG premiere.

A Star Trek without Kirk, Spock and McCoy caused quite a backlash and considerable doubt.

Anyway, after TNG established there CAN be Star Trek without Kirk et.al. I could easily envisage a third series. But no more.

TNG enabled GR to do all the things that TOS could have done if given the time, the opportunity, the technology, etc.

DS9 took the well-established ST universe and really pushed the envelope. Explored all the possibilities that prior ST did not.

With VOY just trying to be TNG Jr, it became repetitive and unnecessary.

 

[Baconnaise]

I was almost done with high school at the time and didn't have time to watch DS9. TV wasn't a big thing during those years it was all school work drugs alcohol and sex or trying to get any of those on a 24/7 basis.

TNG I did see every now and then especially the repeats at night while eating bowls of cereal or a steak (munchies). I remember anything from season one to three was going to bore me so I changed the channel if I didn't see updated uniforms or the riker beard. TNG looked dated even when I was in high school in the early 90s.

 

[DrCorby]

Even as a long-time TOS fan, I wasn't bothered at all when TNG premiered. And when, after several years and TNG had proven it could indeed tell very good Star Trek stories, I heard that a new Star Trek series was in the works, I was intrigued.

I remember being at a local SF fan group meeting before any definite news about the new series had been released. A published local SF/fantasy author, Thorarin Gunnarsson, was talking to some of us after the meeting about some rumors he'd heard from some "Hollywood friends". He told us the new series would be set another hundred years after TNG. It would still be set on the Enterprise-D, but the ship would be old, not working well; that the Federation wouldn't be the strong power it had been, that there would be lots of dissent and conflict, etc. It was an intriguing idea, following the time-jump-forward precedent that TNG had set, the universe familiar yet in disarray...

The rumors were partly correct and partly wrong. Instead of a starship, a beat-up space station. The Federation not weakened but running the station for another government, allowing a larger number of aliens with different agendas. And happening contemporaneously with TNG, not in the future.

I liked the DS9 we got, one of my favorite series. But after TOS & a few related movies, plus TNG, the Star Trek franchise could have gone in a lot of other interesting directions...

 

[caisson2delta]

I remember that when DS9 debuted, it was a pretty big deal. Prior to the pilot, there had been an hour long interview, with the entire cast, on Larry King Live. It was definitely noteworthy. It was a big deal to me because it was the first series that I got to watch from it's debut. I missed the debut of TNG (the first few seasons as a matter of fact) because I was on active duty in the Army, serving overseas.

When I got out of the Army and began watching TNG, I was really lost (think I began watching in like the middle of season 4 or so) and it took a while to get into it. I enjoyed it and love it to this day. However, it always seemed a bit sterile and utopic to me. DS9 was different and refreshing. Many hated the first few seasons of it, but I really got into it and wish it was shown in syndication still.

 

[Admiral Shran]

When I first became interested in Star Trek, DS9 was already in it's second season. I have to say that it was TNG that pulled me into the franchise. However, I loved DS9 right from the start and it's now easily my favorite series.

 

[Diddle]

By the time I first watched Star Trek TNG, DS9 was already on.

 

[DeVario]

I imagined that if they did make another one, I jokingly suggested they'd probably call it Star Trek: The Next, NEXT Generation. Anyway, it was around September 1992 that I was reading the current issue of TV Guide and first read a brief blurb about a new Trek series that would be debuting in January. It wasn't called The Next, NEXT Generation of course, but it did sound very interesting. Space station. More edgier. Would go against the grain. More non-Starfleet main characters. I think it was at that moment that I became a fan...over three months before the premiere.

 

[Teiwaz]

I missed most of the first seasons on TV, I was at Uni, didn't have a TV and spent most of my time in the bar or organising/playing Laser Quest or RPG (studying wasn't a priority obviously). I missed any pre-show hype and didn't even hear about any rumours of a new series. I think I'm glad I saved them up for when I left, got a job and life got dull.

 

[Blamo]

I didn't even cross my mind back then that there would be a spin-off.

The first inkling I had of a spin-off was a small news item in TV zone. Included with it was a promotional picture showing one of those huge Federation Starbases, with a Galaxy class ship going into warp.

Suffice to say what we got was different and I'll admit, I initially felt a bit let down. Soon changed though.

 

[Magnum]

I assumed that there would be no new series after Gene Roddenberry's death. I remember when it was first announced, I thought to myself that there was no way a series like DS9 could be successful. I figured there would be too much of a deviation from Roddenberry's vision. When I first heard about the series being centered around a space station, I took that as a confirmation of my suspicions. Sadly, I didn't even give the series much of a chance when it premiered (but I was also very busy at the time).

And now it's my favorite series.

 

[Joeman]

I guess I really didn't expect a third series. I still can't believe how quickly I was sold on TNG. Watching that first and second seasons now (yeah, I know some of you love them), I just can't see how I was drawn in so easily. Of course, obviously, they were mostly good to me back then. I guess I was so Trek starved at the time, and was excited to have new Trek. Honestly, TOS had well prepared me for the cheese factor. It seemed perfectly normal at the time.

I totally rejected DS9 when it came out. I mean come on, sitting on a space station not flying around and shit?! It's only been within the last 3 years or so that I've come to appreciate DS9, Voyager, and Enterprise. Now they are my top 3 favorite series.

 

[C.E. Evans]

I definitely thought there would be a third Star Trek series--but that it would come out in 2008 and feature a 25th-Century USS Enterprise.

But I was watching Entertainment Tonight (back when they actually had entertainment news) the day they made the official announcement of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. At the time, I was curious as hell to what it was all about. Deep Space Nine? What an odd name, I thought...

I later discovered it was going to be on a space station when I uncovered an early pre-production promotional trade magazine foldout that featured the image of a Spacedock (mushroom station to some o' ye) and the title in a vastly different purple and white logo with Starfleet emblems being used for the letter "A."

I was once again watching Entertainment Tonight when the cast was finally introduced and some behind-the-scenes footage was aired. Loved seeing Avery Brooks in the [then] new uniforms (which were my favorite at the time). And Jadzia had a different hairstyle (no ponytail) that I wished they had kept in the series. I remember being totally excited for the debut and thinking it was gonna rock...

 

[Finn]

I remember those old trailers where there was the caption that said something like "The wait is over". I remember wondering what the "wait" was for. I'm still not sure after all those years.

 

[Hober Mallow]

I remember those old trailers where there was the caption that said something like "The wait is over". I remember wondering what the "wait" was for. I'm still not sure after all those years.

Yep, I'm remember those, too. "It waits... for (quick blurb of a random DS9 character). But most of all... it waits... for you.

"Staaaaaar Trek... Deep Space Nine."

There was a lot of hype for the show, and I think with TNG's huge success, people expected DS9 to be just as successful. There wasn't so much hype about the show having to prove itself because it wasn't Kirk and Spock.

That said, there was a bit of "controversy," if you can call it that, about the show not being able to make it because -- and this drove me crazy -- "it didn't go anywhere." The idea that a stationary location meant the stories couldn't be exciting is, of course, ridiculous on its face. M*A*S*H lasted 11 years in one location, almost every show on television takes place in a single location. But "Star Trek" meant being on a ship and warping to other worlds every week, so there was automatic stigma with DS9 for some people. So, whereas TNG had to prove it could be Star Trek without Kirk and Spock, DS9 had to prove it could be Star Trek without the, uh... trek.

It didn't hurt the pilot's ratings, though, which were ginormous.

 

[Joeman]

That said, there was a bit of "controversy," if you can call it that, about the show not being able to make it because -- and this drove me crazy -- "it didn't go anywhere." The idea that a stationary location meant the stories couldn't be exciting is, of course, ridiculous on its face. M*A*S*H lasted 11 years in one location, almost every show on television takes place in a single location.

That idea certainly didn't seem ridiculous to me at the time. My idea of a show about space exploration was just that, exploring space. I never expected the 4077th to zip around to different planets.

 

[RandyS]

I had no idea it would happen. The first I heard about it was at our family gathering on Christmas 1992 and, my uncle, knowing I'm a Star Trek fan, asked me what I thought of the new "Space Trek" show coming the following month. I reserved opinion until I saw it, but was happy.

More Star Trek is always a good thing.

 

[happydave]

That idea certainly didn't seem ridiculous to me at the time. My idea of a show about space exploration was just that, exploring space. I never expected the 4077th to zip around to different planets.

Really? Exploring space doesn't mean running around looking under every space rock you can find. It means actually learning about other societies in space. It can easily be argued that DS9 does more exploring than TNG.

I mean if I explored a cave, some would expect me to look around every corner and map it out. But I can also look at the effect of water flowing through said cave, the lifeforms within the cave, rock structures etc.


The funniest thing about MASH is that the series is much longer than the actual war it was set in.