The Wormhole on the Ponderosa

[Maurice]

I haven't seen this mentioned before, but here's a fun bit of DS9 trivia.

The DS9 Promenade set stood in Paramount Stage 17, which from 1959 to 1970 was another home out on the frontier: it was where Bonanza's Ponderosa Ranch interior sets stood.

Stage 16, which was TNG and Voyager's "Planet Hell" set was also used by Bonanza, and contained the Ponderosa Ranch house exterior, barn, bunkhouse and horse corral.

So, I guess the "frontier" tradition stuck with those stages for a long time.

 

[Robert D. Robot]

That is some cool trivia, Maurice. Thanks for sharing! I enjoyed Bonanza, but -even as a kid- it bugged me that the exterior of the house and surrounding buildings looked like they were an indoors set.....

 

[Maurice]

Mostly it was for cost/schedule control. In a soundstage you don't have to worry about weather and lighting changes, and you can shoot night scenes easily and without dragging a crew out overnight, which is more expensive.

 

[SpHeRe31459]

Neat bit of trivia! :-)

Yet another way Trek and westerns have a connection.

 

[The Old Mixer]

The early publicity for the show said that if Star Trek was Wagon Train to the stars, DS9 was Bonanza. Nifty that the connection extended to the stage used.