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IF ST: Deep Space Nine Debuted This Month

About the same. Emissary was too much for people to handle I think. All the religious stuff and Sisko being gruff with Pircard.
 
Portraying terrorist groups sympathetically would be a tough sell since 9/11
 
Do you mean the Bajorans or the Maquis? Because I don't know that I'd say the Maquis were handled particularly sympathetically. They may have started out that way with Hudson, but Eddington struck me as a radical, and once he enters the picture we're never shown what any other Maquis think of things.
 
Both. The Maquis were handled a lot more sympathetically than would have been possible on American television after 2001. You wouldn't see starfleet officers deserting to join them.
 
...in that case, I'm glad the show aired when it did. I may not have liked Starfleet officers deserting to join a terrorist group, but to pretend it would never even happen?
 
DS9 is such a specific product of it's time, it's almost impossible to imagine this show premiering in the cultural climate of 2017.

For example, today you would never portray "they keep women as naked slaves!" as the hilariously wacky quirk of comedic aliens. DS9 spends two seasons meandering around and experimenting, before deciding what interests it and focusing in to tell that story, which they make up as they go along. Today you could never let a show grow organically that way, you have to get your whole season or series plan approved before they let you shoot anything.
 
About the same. I don't see the Bajorans or the Maquis being a problem. It's all how you frame it. As the saying goes: "One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter".
 
A show with a black captain and an alien who is 'clearly' trans...Youtube would be full of videos about how PC is ruining Star Trek. Though that said, maybe the Bashir/Garak folk would get their wish! Plus it isn't on a ship. Probably be some sort of online petition to get some nacelles on that thing because it isn't 'real Trek'.

DS9 come out when Trek as a brand seemed stronger than it is today and it benefited from that. There seem to be more people, by that I mean fans, who want Trek to fail at what it is doing. Or maybe they are just louder now because of how the world has changed. Could DS9 have the two seasons it had and still get a third these days?
 
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The first season it would just be "Deep Space Nine."

Beginning in the second season it would be "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine."
I think the only thing that would constrain the reception of the series is its identification with Star Trek. Reading all the concerns voiced above would really only be things that arise from the hype that surrounds it as a new Star Trek series. I doubt the consternation over casting would have been so intense if Discovery had been announced just over the summer.
 
I'm not sure you can't portray terrorist groups sympathetically on TV. You just can't have them primarily target civilians. In the days where the powers that be are trying to label peaceful protestors as 'Economic terrorists' for disrupting traffic and people have extreme distrust of the very rich and the politicians they control, you could make an anti-authoritarian power sympathetic and people will be angry at the authoritarians for even calling them 'Terrorists'.

The only thing you couldn't make sympathetic is if they blew up bombs in civilian areas.

Battlestar Galactica did it a lot sooner after 9/11.
 
I think it would be popular but they would be wondering why the show isn't using modern tech and why Sisko's son is being played by someone in his 30's and why is Worf so skinny when they get to season 4 and Bashir seems to be really naive and on his first assigment but is old enough to have grey hair and how was the show created by 2 people and one of them has been dead for awhile now. It would be embraced but people would have some questions.

Jason
 
^I think you (intentionally?) took it too literally.

That's possible. :) Actually I think the show would be very popular. The things that we like about the show would not only be their but even enhanced by the fact that modern tv can have more of a edge to it. I even think the terrorist angle would be accepted because the Bajorans were in the right on what they wee fighting for. Also people at this time would be wanting something more than just another version of TNG which is what I think hurt it the first time around with ratings.

Jason
 
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