If there were a "Previously, on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine"

[asp7485]

Would a quick recap of past events have helped DS9's ratings? Many, many other shows started doing them around DS9's time. Even though it hadn't been done on Trek before, it might've been a great help to the series. Plus, it would've been great to hear the cast members, particularly Avery Brooks announce, "Previously, on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine" each week!

-Aaron

 

[Crewman6]

^They did do that, but only for two and three part episodes - the "Circle" trilogy, "Improbable Cause/the Die Is Cast", etc.

Majel Barrett did the V.O.

Should they have done it every week like "The Shield" or "The Sopranos"? Eh, couldn't hurt....

 

[Jamee999]

Re: If there were a "Previously, on Star Trek: Deep Space Ni

They did it on the BOBW and Unification...

It's been done by Trek.

 

[toughlittleship]

Re: If there were a "Previously, on Star Trek: Deep Space Ni

When the BBC aired The Begotten for the first time, after a large gap in season five, they added a very long previously on Deep Space Nine segment. It was very impressive and would love to see it again some day.

 

[asp7485]

Re: If there were a "Previously, on Star Trek: Deep Space Ni

I know they did it for multi-part episodes, but I was thinking an every week segment. I think it might've helped.

-Aaron

 

[Orac]

Re: If there were a "Previously, on Star Trek: Deep Space Ni

They did it for half of the episodes in the 10 part finale.

 

[Tomalak]

Re: If there were a "Previously, on Star Trek: Deep Space Ni

toughlittleship said:
When the BBC aired The Begotten for the first time, after a large gap in season five, they added a very long previously on Deep Space Nine segment. It was very impressive and would love to see it again some day.

I don't remember that. Someone must have an off-air around.

I do remember the one they showed before TNG: 'Family', which was a couple of years after they had shown BoBW 2, due to BSB snatching the exclusive rights to air the show first.

 

[Pegaritaville]

Re: If there were a "Previously, on Star Trek: Deep Space Ni

asp7485 said:
I know they did it for multi-part episodes, but I was thinking an every week segment. I think it might've helped.

Kind of like they do on nBSG. Yeah, that might have helped, but they also would've needed to cut out some scenes in the episodes to make room for the recaps.

 

[Kolrad]

Re: If there were a "Previously, on Star Trek: Deep Space Ni

No, I don't think it would have helped. DS9 wasn't as much of a serial as BSG, Lost, or Heroes. Most of the episodes can stand or fall on their own merits, and the ones that continue old plotlines usually manage to handle the exposition within the episode itself.

 

[DanCPA]

Re: If there were a "Previously, on Star Trek: Deep Space Ni

I don't think it really would have helped

 

[Nebusj]

I'd rather they didn't. In general I like it better when the necessary backstory is fed in through well-done exposition -- ``incluing'' it's sometimes called -- rather than being fed in a lump at the start. It doesn't bother me when it's part two of a two-parter, generally, particularly when it's picking up on the cliffhanger. When it's trying to put together all the big plot points of the last 14 episodes I tend to prefer they just jump into the story and trust we can get what's going on.

I know it's hard to slip in the subtler things, but it's hard to get all the things that people who've memorized each episode would notice packed into a ``Previously on This Show of Shows'' blurb too.

 

[matt70374]

Just my opinion but I don't like the "Previously on.." at the beginning. You only have a set amount of time to tell a story on television, and I just fell that having a recap at the beginning of every episode would have taken away precious time that could be used on the story itself.

 

[benny]

Re: If there were a "Previously, on Star Trek: Deep Space Ni

Nope. It's a sloppy way of trying to lure new audience members.

"Hey, look! You don't need to have seen the previous seven years of episodes in order to watch the finale because all the storylines you need to know about are told in 60 seconds!"

Insults the regular viewer. If I had known I didn't need to watch all of Voyager and just watched Endgame with the recap...

 

[Navaros]

I think it would have been tacky if done the wrong way. Ie: Just saying "Previously on DS9..." and then showing scenes. That's bland and would not have helped in my view.

I really love how the show Supernatural does this. Often what they do on that show is show "THEN..." and then play an extremely awesome classic rock song over scenes from past episodes. This keeps the recaps entertaining. Although that technique might not quite work on Star Trek persay, especially if they chose the wrong songs...definitely don't need any "Faith Of the Heart's" on DS9!

To sum up, I say good idea if done creatively, bad idea if done normally.