Moore/Behr Interview: Studio wanted to get rid of Bashir/Move Station

[toughlittleship]

Re: Moore/Behr Interview: Studio wanted to get rid of Bashir/Move Stat

I'm confused as to why Paramount suits wanted "to fly DS9 through the wormhole". Clearly they didn't know what they were talking about.

 

[C.E. Evans]

Re: Moore/Behr Interview: Studio wanted to get rid of Bashir/Move Stat

I'm confused as to why Paramount suits wanted "to fly DS9 through the wormhole". Clearly they didn't know what they were talking about.

They might have been thinking that the station should be in unexplored territory and away from the stuff going on at Bajor. Yeah, it would have defeated the original purpose of Starfleet establishing Deep Space Nine, but it would have made the series more about going out and exploring rather than Bajoran politics and religion at that point.

 

[Marcus Porcius Cato]

Re: Moore/Behr Interview: Studio wanted to get rid of Bashir/Move Stat

How reliable are these stories, it has been more than two decades since DS9 begun, can't memories change and fade...

 

[NKemp3]

Re: Moore/Behr Interview: Studio wanted to get rid of Bashir/Move Stat

The new stuff in the interview, from what I can gather, are the bits about Roddenberry (particulary Risa) and wanting the station to travel through the wormhole. The rumors about Bashir on the chopping block had been around since the end of season one however when he was arguably the most unpopular character.

The DS9 through the wormhole idea is something i can see Paramount wanting because one got the sense in the interviews during those days that TPTB of DS9 were trying to defend the show's more stationary premise in comparison to previous Trek shows. The Roddenberry revelation, as I mentioned above, is the biggest one and one that I have not heard before, at least not from that angle. But I will say that when TNG was hitting its stride during its middle seasons there was a lot of stuff floating around that it was only after Roddenberry had released his grip on the production side of things (and of course died not so soon afterwards) did the series come into its own under Berman and Piller. This was respectfully talked about in the media although you would never read a quote from Berman and Piller or anyone else confirming this. So what Behr and Moore are saying now makes sense in that Roddenberry was a controlling type who was firm on his utopian vision of the 24th century. All Moore and Behr are doing are providing specific details (including the revelation that Stewart wanted to "sex up" Picard's image to some extent).

 

[JirinPanthosa]

Re: Moore/Behr Interview: Studio wanted to get rid of Bashir/Move Stat

It really confuses me why the studios kept the "make it like TNG" mantra for so long, it eventually killed the franchise on television. I think a show like DS9 would be stellar in todays climate.

All things considered... DS9's staff wasn't -that- much darker than TNG's... what
.

DS9 WAS much darker than TNG. That's in part because you couldn't get more "lighter" than TNG....well, not outside of Stargate. TNG was great but in many ways it was more rosy and upbeat and positive than TOS. DS9 on the other hand was less feel-good because so many of its characters were shaded in darkness. Not to mention in its final two seasons there was an all-out war taking place in the AQ.

DS9 at it's core though had the same morality of TNG. Sisko upheld the same ideals of Picard, it's only his situation that was darker. Sisko was put in a position where his ideals came in direct conflict with the preservation of those ideals. Picard was never put in that kind of situation.

TNG presented us a utopia, and DS9 held that utopia up as something to strive toward that may not be really possible. But the ideals were the same.

 

[Lance]

Re: Moore/Behr Interview: Studio wanted to get rid of Bashir/Move Stat

Interesting. The funny thing is I've always wondered about exactly how much interference from TPTB they had on the DS9 staff. As a syndicated show I've always felt TNG benefited from not having to meet strict criteria like a typical network show, and that Berman, Piller and Taylor were given a lot of leeway to self-regulate the content of that show (which they did). VOY famously had much more studio interference, but I've always suspected that the situation of it being a network show (UPN) was a large part of that. Which brings us back to DS9. My gut instinct has always been that DS9 didn't suffer much by way of studio "notes", but on reflection it seems clear that they did. The attempts to revamp the format (introducing the Defiant in season three, and transplanting Worf into the series in season four) indicate that there were obviously notes floating around saying the format needed boosting.

I'm certainly glad they resisted the temptation to "make it more like TNG" and that Godawful idea about putting engines on the side of the station. Maybe the Defiant was a compromise? An ability for the series to tell more rampantly "Star Trek" type stories with a ship while not selling out the concept of DS9 itself being stationary.

 

[Hober Mallow]

Re: Moore/Behr Interview: Studio wanted to get rid of Bashir/Move Stat

I'm certainly glad they resisted the temptation to "make it more like TNG" and that Godawful idea about putting engines on the side of the station. Maybe the Defiant was a compromise? An ability for the series to tell more rampantly "Star Trek" type stories with a ship while not selling out the concept of DS9 itself being stationary.

I remember when I read that DS9 was getting its own starship, my reaction was, "Oh, God, they're f***cking caving in!" The idea that the show was boring because "they don't go anywhere" was the most common criticism of the show, and by far the stupidest. Yeah, that's why CHEERS didn't work, because the bar wasn't flying off in space somewhere. Or 99.999% of all TV shows which every existed which don't "go anywhere." The whole idea of the Defiant felt like a not-so-veiled attempt to placate the morons who thought the show had to "go" somewhere.

However, had I known that Paramount had wanted the station to go blasting off with rockets pretending to be a starship, I would have thought, "Defiant? Yeah, I can deal with that."

 

[Trek Survivor]

Re: Moore/Behr Interview: Studio wanted to get rid of Bashir/Move Stat

Two things I will never forgive the bean-counters at Paramount for in regards to DS9:

1)Not allowing the Dominion occupation of DS9 to last a few more episodes at the beginning of season six.
2)Not allowing the ENTIRE seventh season to be strictly continuous like the last nine eps of the seventh season (The Final Chapter). Boy, that would have been something.

Interesting. Both of these are ideas I am very opposed to - so if the 'bean counters' are responsible for stopping them, I suppose they deserve my thanks!