Why 9?

[Mondragon]

Why 9?
A silly question, but have the creators/writers of DS9 ever explained why they picked 9

Because everyone knows 9 is the best number:

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[Mondragon]

continued...

Darn you Neil deGrasse Tyson Oh well Pluto you had a good run, though now we have suposed Nibiru as the 9th, so the cosmic order is restored.

• NINERS:
• 1. Pitcher: Jake Sisko
• 2. Catcher: Nog
• 3. First base : ("death to the opposition") Worf
• 4. Second base: Benjamin Sisko (ejected) re: Bashir
• 5. Third base: Kasidy Yates
• 5. Shortstop: Kira Nerys
• 7. Left field: Leeta
• 8. Center field: Ezri Dax
• 9. Right field: Julian Bashir x re: Quark

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

Star Trek:Wormhole
Star Trek:Gateway
Star Trek:Celestia (for "Celestial Temple")

 

[FredH]

Hear me out, but I actually think that the title “Deep Space Nine” hobbled the series and restricted its audience appeal. It just sounds offputtingly dorky. “Deep Space” and a number, I mean seriously; it sounds like a 1950s B-movie. And Deep Space, seriously, what a snoozer. Needed something like, I don’t know “Star Trek: New Frontier”, which is admittedly not amazing either, but at least isn’t as nerdy. Words suggesting a narrative, not cosmology and integers, basically.

Yes, I’m serious. As someone whose favourite Trek series is DS9, I genuinely believe it’d have been successful with a better, snappier title.

(I also think “Starbase 362” is at least as bad a title, FWIW.)

Alternately, “Deep Space” sounds pretty snazzy, and slightly less generic than “Next Generation” (which could fit any franchise title just as well) or “New Frontier” (the word frontier in Star Trek, imagine that…).

 

[Bad Thoughts]

I'm sure no one would have liked a name that might remind them of STV.

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

"Next Generation" has a double meaning - it can just as easily refer to technology as people.

 

[Christopher]

Alternately, “Deep Space” sounds pretty snazzy, and slightly less generic than “Next Generation” (which could fit any franchise title just as well) or “New Frontier” (the word frontier in Star Trek, imagine that…).

Yeah, if you want to talk about weak titles, they don't get much more generic than "The Next Generation." It isn't even accurate, since it's a whole century later, which is three or four generations.

"Next Generation" has a double meaning - it can just as easily refer to technology as people.

That makes it even worse -- a century would probably be dozens of technology generations.

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

I suppose it's more meta, then - the next gen of fans. It'd be like saying Star Trek:Gen Z in the 2000s.

 

[FredH]

Yeah, if you want to talk about weak titles, they don't get much more generic than "The Next Generation." It isn't even accurate, since it's a whole century later, which is three or four generations.

True. Though I guess you could rationalize that early TNG seemed to indicate much longer average lifespans — I seem to remember early promotional magazine-article copy about Starfleet officers often still being active in their nineties — in which case people could be having children decades later in life, effectively lengthening the average generation if this were common. But later Trek didn’t seem to continue that.

 

[Christopher]

True. Though I guess you could rationalize that early TNG seemed to indicate much longer average lifespans — I seem to remember early promotional magazine-article copy about Starfleet officers often still being active in their nineties — in which case people could be having children decades later in life, effectively lengthening the average generation if this were common. But later Trek didn’t seem to continue that.

Even if it were accurate, that wouldn't make it any less bland and generic a subtitle.

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

At least DS9 gave Sisko's baseball team a great name; NIners.

 

[kkt]

Nine rymes with a lot of things, just in case they wanted to do a musical episode.

 

[Riley]

Hear me out, but I actually think that the title “Deep Space Nine” hobbled the series and restricted its audience appeal. It just sounds offputtingly dorky. “Deep Space” and a number, I mean seriously; it sounds like a 1950s B-movie. And Deep Space, seriously, what a snoozer. Needed something like, I don’t know “Star Trek: New Frontier”, which is admittedly not amazing either, but at least isn’t as nerdy. Words suggesting a narrative, not cosmology and integers, basically.

Yes, I’m serious. As someone whose favourite Trek series is DS9, I genuinely believe it’d have been successful with a better, snappier title.

(I also think “Starbase 362” is at least as bad a title, FWIW.)

I agree to an extent. After all, "Babylon 5" isn't a terribly exciting title, but it does contain a word familiar to just about everyone and also has a bit of mystery to it. I think "Deep Space Nine" does, too, but it doesn't have the universality of the former.

Maybe "Star Trek: Strange New Worlds" would have worked in terms of brand recognition and the theme of exploring a new part of the galaxy.

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

Now I'm imagining a Cops-style show, Deep Space 911. Half the episodes take place in Quark's. Heck, half the episodes are about Quark.

 

[Tuskin38]

Which was originally spelled Terek Nor, but Marc Alaimo mispronounced it, so they officially changed it to Terok Nor to match how he said it.

Interesting, I have a cutaway poster of the station that spells it that way, but it's from at least Season 4, because the Defiant and Worf is on it, but the characters are still in the first uniforms.

Looks like there was a reprint at some point with the correct spelling based on images I've found online.

 

[Bad Thoughts]

Maybe "Star Trek: Strange New Worlds" would have worked in terms of brand recognition and the theme of exploring a new part of the galaxy.

"Strange New Worlds" is distinctive: it screams, "We're out of ideas, we're remixing the old stuff."

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

They can't call it Enterprise, that's taken. I suppose Star Trek:1701 or Star Trek:Boldly.

 

[Christopher]

"Strange New Worlds" is distinctive: it screams, "We're out of ideas, we're remixing the old stuff."

Huh? That is literally the opposite of what the phrase "Strange New Worlds" denotes. Granted, though, the show did a better job living up to the literal meaning of its title in its first season than in the second.

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

@Bad Thoughts you mean because it's not named after a new-to-us ship, station, person, planet, or at least one we haven't explored?

By that same token, LD's name would also suggest "nothing new here" - but since they're supposed to be a ship that often revisits previously seen planets, it makes sense.

 

[Mondragon]

Now I'm imagining a Cops-style show, Deep Space 911.

Or as a Comedy: Deep Space 9-9:

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Sisko - Commanding Officer Captain Raymond Holt
Oto - Detecive Jake Peralta
Kira - Detective Rosa Diaz
Jadzia - Assistant Officer Gina Linetti
Worf - Officer Terry Jeffords
Quark & Rom - Hitchcock & Scully