What Would you Have Done Different? (Deep Space 9...9...9!)

[Ethergh0sts]

First, I don’t think I’d do anything different as the character, simply because (logically) if I was the character, I would be set to do those things.

Thereby the (logics) separation of them and I, when you are asked to be them… seems insane. The question, to question… insane. And to not question is to know, and all that is left is therefore to accomplish your task, and thereby, is there a request for function?

Or are you confirming yourself as a dysfunctional role.


1.

What I would have designed different about deep space nine… Perhaps:

I would have made the Bajoran cleanse the Cardassian. Seems like the tech. would allow, even if they usually lived around shrines and the desert, I mean why else would they have been near Starfleet.


2.
I would have made the Ferengi have special ops units. When I think of enemies of the future of all destiny, I imagine selling them towards far more advanced races, with safety clauses to sell them to higher races of alien life… as a peaceful mediation. I mean elimination doesn’t bring back resources!!!! Same with weapons etc..

3.

I think, I’d have added a year or two, and made Benjamin a deity sooner, and then have him have to control one or more planets, then Benjamin would have been replaced as commander, with perhaps Warf, and then it would have made more sense…

From the Klingon Perspective, Work has no authority, no position of power, so all his devotions to Starfleet, are like demonstrations that a Klingon can rise the ranks and become… well security of larger buildings.


4.

I think Quarks could have been more of a mercenary’s den, a hotspot for quick turnarounds and urgency, due to people wondering in… which was used to dress the context

 

[Bad Thoughts]

Two things:

1. Base the Emissary's journey in the last two seasons around something other than familiar Gnostic tropes.
2. Commit to one episode every season that takes places on Bajor, with outdoor shooting, and without the Kai.

 

[NewHeavensNewEarth]

First, I don’t think I’d do anything different as the character, simply because (logically) if I was the character, I would be set to do those things.

Thereby the (logics) separation of them and I, when you are asked to be them… seems insane. The question, to question… insane. And to not question is to know, and all that is left is therefore to accomplish your task, and thereby, is there a request for function?

Or are you confirming yourself as a dysfunctional role.


1.

What I would have designed different about deep space nine… Perhaps:

I would have made the Bajoran cleanse the Cardassian. Seems like the tech. would allow, even if they usually lived around shrines and the desert, I mean why else would they have been near Starfleet.


2.
I would have made the Ferengi have special ops units. When I think of enemies of the future of all destiny, I imagine selling them towards far more advanced races, with safety clauses to sell them to higher races of alien life… as a peaceful mediation. I mean elimination doesn’t bring back resources!!!! Same with weapons etc..

3.

I think, I’d have added a year or two, and made Benjamin a deity sooner, and then have him have to control one or more planets, then Benjamin would have been replaced as commander, with perhaps Warf, and then it would have made more sense…

From the Klingon Perspective, Work has no authority, no position of power, so all his devotions to Starfleet, are like demonstrations that a Klingon can rise the ranks and become… well security of larger buildings.


4.

I think Quarks could have been more of a mercenary’s den, a hotspot for quick turnarounds and urgency, due to people wondering in… which was used to dress the context

Yeah...

 

[Bry_Sinclair]

Why would Worf assume command when Kira is First Officer?

One thing I might've done differently is gone with one of the early concepts and make the station ancient, used by and added to by numerous races over the centuries. It would add a new dynamic to the show, with episodes spent exploring and uncovering the truth behind the outpost itself, as well the the role it might ultimately play with regard to the Prophets and the wormhole.

 

[Lynx]

I wouldn't have changed must except:

1. Jadzia wouldn't have been killed off. She should have been stationed on the Enterprise or some other Federation ship and returned to the station in the last episode.

2. Ezri would have been a relative to Jadzia, maybe a sister but not a Dax.

3. I would have had only one "mirror universe" episode. The concept was overdone in DS9.

4. I would have scrapped those episodes where Sisko thought he was a writer in the 20th century. I never saw the purpose with those episodes.

5. The Female Shapeshifter should have been killed off in the last episode. How I hated that ruthless moron!
I would rather have seen Dukat survive.

6. I would have ended the series in a more positive way by letting the whole good old gang remain on the station. Seeing them all split up in different directions was too heartbreaking for me. I had to watch "Emissary" directly after that episode to get everything perfect again.

Nothing more.....but.....
Hmm!
Well.......
OK, this is a personal, non DS9 related thing but me being me .......OK, the best way to say is to say it so here we go:

When the character Kes was dumped from Voyager, she could have been transferred to DS9 instead. Some smart writer could have come up with some story about her being transported there by the female Caretaker or whatsoever. Then Kes would have been saved as a character and could have been a recurring character on DS9, actress Jennifer Lien would still have had a job, it could have set up the scene for a better end of Voyager than the horible "Endgame" and I would have been an even bigger DS9 fan than I'm already is and a more happy Star Trek fan than I'm today!

 

[haddie moonfall]

Killing Jadzia Dax was a drag and it made me not like Ezri initially. Why do writers kill of the characters we love? I'm not reading books and watching series/movies because i want the real world, i want to see a better world. :-)

 

[Armus]

1.) I would not have created the character of Jadzia Dax. Another female character would be inserted in her place. Perhaps a female Ferengi.

2.) I would have recast both Bashir and Kira.

3.) I would have done episodes that fleshed out the lifestyle of the Gamma quadrant. We saw glimses of Dominion cruelty, and its effect on individual worlds, in The Quickening. I would have liked to have seen more episodes like that. The Gamma Quadrant could have been modelled on the ancient Roman Empire.

4.) I would have charted Dukat's downward spiral into villainy with more care.

5.) The Mirror episodes were overdone and they should have stopped after the first two.

6.) No Maquis Tom Riker. Riker is too smart to join that doomed outfit.

 

[kkt]

I wouldn't have changed must except:

1. Jadzia wouldn't have been killed off. She should have been stationed on the Enterprise or some other Federation ship and returned to the station in the last episode.
2. Ezri would have been a relative to Jadzia, maybe a sister but not a Dax.

I respectfully disagree. I think Ezri and Worf's difficult relationship in Season 7 made some great drama, and it couldn't have happened if Ezri wasn't joined with Dax. That means Jadzia had to die.

3. I would have had only one "mirror universe" episode. The concept was overdone in DS9.

I partly agree. I thought "Crossover", "Through the Looking Glass", and "Shattered Mirror" were pretty good. But "Resurrection" was meh and "The Emperor's New Cloak" pretty bad.

4. I would have scrapped those episodes where Sisko thought he was a writer in the 20th century. I never saw the purpose with those episodes.

Really? I thought that was among the greatest episodes of any Star Trek, even any television show, ever.

5. The Female Shapeshifter should have been killed off in the last episode. How I hated that ruthless moron!
I would rather have seen Dukat survive.

Well, Dukat did survive, trapped in the fire caves. Perhaps he can say hello to Lazarus from TOS.

I think it was appropriate for the Female Shapeshifter to survive. As the leader of the Dominion in the AQ, she was the only person who could surrender on their behalf. And once she surrendered, she's a prisoner and no longer a combatant. Killing her would have been bad faith.

Dukat as far as I am concerned should have been killed by Kira. She promised she would once. Dukat's story ark in Season 7 would have needed to be reworked completely, which is good as turning him into the devil was lazy writing and poor drama.

6. I would have ended the series in a more positive way by letting the whole good old gang remain on the station. Seeing them all split up in different directions was too heartbreaking for me. I had to watch "Emissary" directly after that episode to get everything perfect again.

I liked that they tried to tie up loose ends. That's the way it works for armed services like Starfleet, people change assignments and don't keep doing the same thing their whole careers.

Nothing more.....but.....
Hmm!
Well.......
OK, this is a personal, non DS9 related thing but me being me .......OK, the best way to say is to say it so here we go:

When the character Kes was dumped from Voyager, she could have been transferred to DS9 instead. Some smart writer could have come up with some story about her being transported there by the female Caretaker or whatsoever. Then Kes would have been saved as a character and could have been a recurring character on DS9, actress Jennifer Lien would still have had a job, it could have set up the scene for a better end of Voyager than the horible "Endgame" and I would have been an even bigger DS9 fan than I'm already is and a more happy Star Trek fan than I'm today!

I gave up on watching Voyager about season 3. I would just as soon not see any of their characters again. The whole point of putting Voyager in the Delta Quadrant was having no crossovers between them. And the only point of Kes was to be in love with Neelix, which is a pretty lame basis for any character.

What else...

- Jadzia should have had some clips in the montage in the finale. Yes, I know about why they didn't, but I wish the powers that be found a way to make it happen for the good of the show.
- The whole Pah Wraith plot was pretty hokey. I'd rather have some ambiguity in the characters, like Season 5 Dukat, not the mustache-twirling villain of Season 7. I enjoyed the reference to Kirk's fight with Gary Mitchell in "Where No Man Has Gone Before" but even among Star Trek fans most people needed to have it explained to them.
- Not really happy about Sisko going off to be a prophet for who knows how long. Maybe he could turn into a prophet halfway through Season 7 and then be seen visiting Jake or Kassidy once or twice before the finale, just to show that he wasn't abandoning them.
- Some closure for Tom Riker. If they didn't want to do his Escape from Cardassian Gitmo episode, then just a one-off line that he was confirmed killed when the Dominion and Cardassians combined forces.
- Bajor needs to enter the Federation. If the last episode no longer had to tell the story of the Pah Wraiths, maybe that could take up that half hour of airtime.
- I didn't think Ezri and Julian had such great chemistry. I'd rather have seen other partners for each of them.
- Quark should get some financial windful and his own moon at the end of the show. Or maybe go work for Rom on Ferenginar. Not be stuck tending that worthless little bar for the rest of his life.

 

[Roboturner913]

Not much I would've changed TBH. One nitpick I would have is, in the later seasons the political/social/cultural turmoil of Bajor from the first 2 seasons was put on the back burner. It was like, oh we have a more "exciting" mass appeal storyline now, with a dangerous enemy and whatnot. It almost felt like the show's mission to tell more intriciate, human interest type stories was a little compromised after that. Because the Bajorans were basically stand-ins for us humans, with all our religious and social and political upheaval.

But still, not much I would've changed. The show is damned near perfect as it is. It never strayed too far from what the core of the story was about and it set up a lot of standards for modern arc-based televison. Hard to imagine something like Battlestar Galactica or Smallville, or even something like Friday Night Lights, as generic as that series was, without DS9 (and probably Buffy deserves credit too) paving the way. Nevermind everything that's come since then.

 

[Farscape One]

The ONLY thing I would change on DS9 is add a few episodes in the Gamma Quadrant. See more of what life under the Dominion was like. We got glimpses of it in dialogue in season 2 with "SANCTUARY" and "SHADOWPLAY", among others, and seeing it firsthand in "THE QUICKENING". We only got to see a few species from the Gamma Quadrant.

Besides that, I wouldn't change a single thing. DS9 had a magic about it that is virtually impossible to replicate. Not having a season as the only STAR TREK series on tv is, in my opinion, one of the big reasons why they got the latitude that they did.

We'll never get another situation, or series, like that again. I can't speak for anyone else who watched it while it aired first run, but I'm damned lucky, proud, and honored to have actually watched DEEP SPACE 9 from beginning to end while it was in production.

 

[Bad Thoughts]

Oh, I forgot something:

3. Sisko should have a piano in his office. As he consults with Kira or Dax or whomever, he should plunk out extended chords and talk to them in Jive. And maybe he should have a big Willie Dynamite-style fur coat, but Starfleet issue.

 

[Farscape One]

I can see it now...

(SHAFT-like music playing, Sisko walks onto the Promenade with a purple suit, pimp cane, red sunglasses, and feather hat.)

"Quark! Those Dabo girls betta have my latinum!"

 

[Armus]

The ONLY thing I would change on DS9 is add a few episodes in the Gamma Quadrant. See more of what life under the Dominion was like. We got glimpses of it in dialogue in season 2 with "SANCTUARY" and "SHADOWPLAY", among others, and seeing it firsthand in "THE QUICKENING". We only got to see a few species from the Gamma Quadrant..

Agreed. What we saw was great but it could have been explored more.

 

[Lynx]

The ONLY thing I would change on DS9 is add a few episodes in the Gamma Quadrant. See more of what life under the Dominion was like. We got glimpses of it in dialogue in season 2 with "SANCTUARY" and "SHADOWPLAY", among others, and seeing it firsthand in "THE QUICKENING". We only got to see a few species from the Gamma Quadrant.

Besides that, I wouldn't change a single thing. DS9 had a magic about it that is virtually impossible to replicate. Not having a season as the only STAR TREK series on tv is, in my opinion, one of the big reasons why they got the latitude that they did.

We'll never get another situation, or series, like that again. I can't speak for anyone else who watched it while it aired first run, but I'm damned lucky, proud, and honored to have actually watched DEEP SPACE 9 from beginning to end while it was in production.

Oh dear, I forgot to write that. I would also had liked to see more of the Delta Quadrant.

kkt wrote:

I gave up on watching Voyager about season 3. I would just as soon not see any of their characters again. The whole point of putting Voyager in the Delta Quadrant was having no crossovers between them. And the only point of Kes was to be in love with Neelix, which is a pretty lame basis for any character.

Kes was a lot more than Neelix's girlfriend which we could see in season 2 and 3 of Voyager. And moving her to DS9 would have saved the character from destruction and given DS9 another great recurring character.

 

[Tenacity]

, Sisko walks onto the Promenade with a purple suit, pimp cane, red sunglasses, and feather hat

Sisko would show Kai Winn "the pimp hand" when she stepped up in his face.

Worf does kill his brother.
Ezra is male, yes it would make the show male heavy, but i think the dynamic would have been interesting.
The entire Founder/Dominion arc one to one and a half seasons.
Bashir is never a engineered genie.

 

[flandry84]

Find whoever came up with the Odo/Kira romance and stuffed them in a closet.
Make the Riker thing a double bluff and have Tom actually infiltrate the maquis on behalf of SI.

 

[kkt]

Make the Riker thing a double bluff and have Tom actually infiltrate the maquis on behalf of SI.

Ooo, I like that idea!

 

[NewHeavensNewEarth]

Make the Riker thing a double bluff and have Tom actually infiltrate the maquis on behalf of SI.

Riker is not particularly smooth at undercover operations, as we clearly saw in the Malcorian hospital.

 

[Bry_Sinclair]

Riker is not particularly smooth at undercover operations, as we clearly saw in the Malcorian hospital.

He did exactly as Bond does in every movie and got his leg over

Have got couple of other alteration I would've loved to have seen, the first comes in two different forms, that being either go with the original pitch for "Hard Time" and have the crew liberate Sito Jaxa and have her become a recurring character as she slowly deals with what she's had to endure for years; or have a newly commissioned Ensign Dorian Collins arrive on the station in Season 7, wracked with survivors guilt, PTSD and depression, but start to address them with Counsellor Dax's guidance and the help of Jake and Nog. Granted you could have both of them on as recurring characters, though maybe tweak Sito, making her mission with Joret Dal be more complex than even Picard knew and that she was always meant to go into Cardassian space, be altered to appear Cardassian and work as a liaison for Starfleet Intelligence with their double agents in the Central Command. The second alteration would be to keep Sub-Commander T'Rul about in some function.

 

[NewHeavensNewEarth]

I've written pretty thoroughly on a couple things DS9 should've done differently that would've made a whole lot more sense for the show and for the franchise, but they still put out a good show. My thoughts: https://www.trekbbs.com/threads/the-big-3s-takeover-of-gq.298093/