Moore talks about how he decided to join DEEP SPACE NINE over VOYAGER after the conclusion of TNG, saying he knew the former was going to venture into serialized territory due to its very nature. By the time the Dominion War came along, Moore says producer Rick Berman was against carrying it beyond four episodes.
"I remember when we got into the Dominion War, Rick was adamant at first that the war would only take 3 or 4 episodes at the most, and we just said, "Sure!" We lied," he admits. "We just knew that once we got the ball rolling that we'd never wrap it up in 3 or 4 episodes, so that was just trickery. And then as the war went on, Rick would weigh in periodically about how heroic the characters are and "Why does this one have to be so depressing" and "This one's too violent...." And we're like, "It's a f***in' war! What do you mean it's too violent?"
Season seven's "The Seige of AR-558" and "It's Only a Paper Moon" dealt a major blow to Aron Eisenbery's 'Nog', a semi-regular by that time. Moore says Berman argued with DS9 show runner Ira Steven Behr over its execution.
"I remember one particularly insane argument that Ira and Rick had when Nog was injured and ended up losing a leg, there was this ridiculous extended argument that I was in a room while Ira was on the phone," Moore recalls. "We had written the draft where he had lost both his legs, and Rick was just appalled. "We can't lose the character's legs!" And we were like, "No, we've got to. We've got to have somebody who's injured in this war who's not just a guest star in the background." It was a very important point. And the argument got to the point where they were arguing about, "Well, does it have to be one leg or two? And is it above the knee or below the knee?" It was just, like, they were negotiating over where Nog was to lose his leg. It was just absurd."
The BATTLESTAR GALACTICA screenwriter says another such battle involved the death of Terry Farrell's 'Dax'. Berman thought she shouldn't be killed in cold blood and the ultimate death scene was unsatisfying to Moore. He characterizes Rick's input on scripts as "conservative."
"They were just always conservative. You were always pulling back from something. You were never given a note saying, "Go farther. Go wilder. This needs to be more shocking." It was always "Pull it back. Be safer."
Once VOYAGER was on the air, Moore says there was a very clear distaste for DS9 among Paramount and Berman. He says the DS9 staff even wanted the show to continue beyond season seven, but the studio was adamant about giving VOYAGER a solo-run for its last two seasons, despite never having given DS9 the same opportunity.
"I don't think Paramount ever loved it," he says. "I know Rick didn't really love it, and it was just the bastard stepchild of the franchise."
It doesn't have anything to do with what century or timeline Trek is in, or what the Klingons' foreheads look like, or what colors the nacelles are. Space opera is dead on TV because of business reasons, not creative reasons. Bickering about content is pointless.
