Why was the last episode of DS9 so incredibly awful?

[cultcross]

The Terry Farrell in the finale story was mostly the producers being over careful. They'd used her image and a voice clip in an earlier episode without asking and her agent had rung and complained (that's their job, to look after their client's image, rights, etc) so when it came to the finale, it had got round that Terry 'wouldn't allow' her image to be used so they didn't use it. This wasn't really the case at all, just an overdramatic reading of what had happened before. Terry was pretty clear at conventions even then that she would have been happy for her image to feature in the episode but nobody mentioned it to her so it didn't happen. Miscommunication, largely.

 

[Prax]

So I recently watched the clip of Worf's flashback. He's entering the airlock, and takes a second look back at the station. He remembers:

1. When he first arrived on DS9 and met Sisko(Season 4)
2. Smoking a cigar as the holodeck character in "Our Man Bashir"(Season 4)
3. Passionately kissing Ezri(Season 7)
4. Getting thrown through glass by Gow'ron(Season 7)
5. Being tortured with Ezri on the Green ship(Season 7)

That's it. If you could re-edit the flashback, what scenes would make for the perfect montage?

 

[DonIago]

I'd at least take out #2, as that isn't a "true" memory (even if as a viewer it's fun to see). #1 could probably also be replaced with something more impactful.

 

[kkt]

So I recently watched the clip of Worf's flashback. He's entering the airlock, and takes a second look back at the station. He remembers:

1. When he first arrived on DS9 and met Sisko(Season 4)
2. Smoking a cigar as the holodeck character in "Our Man Bashir"(Season 4)
3. Passionately kissing Ezri(Season 7)
4. Getting thrown through glass by Gow'ron(Season 7)
5. Being tortured with Ezri on the Green ship(Season 7)

That's it. If you could re-edit the flashback, what scenes would make for the perfect montage?

That's an interesting question!

Some clips I'd want:

The first time he and Jadzia fought in the holosuite
Getting married
Fighting Martok in "Soldiers of the Empire"

 

[DonIago]

I'd kind of like a shot of Worf in the outfit from "Trials and Tribble-ations". I daresay that would be better than the cigar-smoking shot, given that that was actually him.

 

[Bad Thoughts]

I would oppose retroactively editing the episode, but if there had been a scene between Jadzia and Worf in the montage, I think it should have been taken from Change of Heart. Deciding to save her was one of Worf's most significant turns.

 

[Prax]

I'd definitely keep the first one of him meeting Sisko.
-I'd keep the second one too, as Ezri is waving goodbye to him at that moment, although maybe put it into a different order, like at the end.
-I'd get rid of the hologram one, add in a clip of him and Dax, like the one where she jumps into his arms after they're separated during the war. Change of Heart would also make for a really good shot. Maybe one of her dying...maybe not though.
-As for the clip of him fighting Gow'ron, I would change that to either when he first stands up at the table to confront Gow'ron, or when he puts the "King's Robes" on Martok.
-I'd also take out the clip where him and Ezri are just hanging upside down on the Breen ship.

I'm surprised no one has done this yet, and posted it to youtube.

 

[UnknownSample]

The finales are never great. The shows are tired at that point, and it's too narrow and restricted as far as what they can write. It must be epic, in other words, one of the best ever. It has to tie everything up and say a sentimental goodbye to everyone. But is that something we want to see? No. We want it to continue. So an automatic downer. DS9 had to wrap up the war too. Now smush all that together and come up with a classic, a very satisfying experience. I dare you.
------------------------------
The best we seem to be able to expect is that they squeak by just barely. What I don't like about all of the finales is that they strain so hard to be epic when we know they're not. We try to help them along in our imaginations. It's sad.
-----------------------
DS9's is the best, though, because they'd had a long time to consider how that war was going to end. The sentimental stuff I'd like to sidestep entirely. That they didn't handle so well. Why have them all move on to other jobs, because the war ended? And so clumsily? In the middle of a huge battle, Bashir saunters over to O'Brien on the bridge of the Defiant and shoots the breeze with him, about what they'll do when the war's over. (1) You haven't won the war yet, idiots! and (2) It's like all the characters know they're on a TV show that's ending. New jobs? Keep the old ones!

 

[DonIago]

Honestly, I think it's pretty realistic that after the end of a major war, people tend to reconsider their life priorities, and whether they are where they want to be.

 

[Cyke101]

Honestly, I think it's pretty realistic that after the end of a major war, people tend to reconsider their life priorities, and whether they are where they want to be.

Yeah. Whenever I browse actors on Wiki and then fall into that time sink of links and links and links, I'm sometimes amazed at the sheer number of vets (particularly WW2, Korea, and Vietnam) who left the service, like James Doohan and Leonard Nimoy, or outside of Trek like Morgan Freeman and Mel Brooks. Then there are publishers like Hugh Hefner and Stan Lee. More recently, Rob Riggle served in Afghanistan. And this is just the arts & entertainment sector. No doubt way more vets entered other industries like business, technology (NASA in particular), education, etc.

I mean, if there's anything that would prompt a major career change and a reassessment of life goals, there's probably nothing like surviving constant and traumatic near death experiences of war.

 

[jamestyler]

I'm surprised no one has done this yet, and posted it to youtube.

A few have! I saw one years ago that was really nicelt done, re-edited with more Dax clips and MUCH better Quark clips taking out that awful "Quark in the background" shot they added for some reason.

Unfortunately it was years ago and I doubt they'd have lasted long.

 

[Sakonna]

I periodically look on YouTube for a reedited Worf finale montage and have never found one. I hope it pops up again one of these days... unlikely, but I was hoping they might insert one into the documentary. It really is a jarring false note that Worf isn't thinking of the woman he met, fell in love with, married, and watched die while leaving the place where all that happened.

The Terry Farrell in the finale story was mostly the producers being over careful. They'd used her image and a voice clip in an earlier episode without asking and her agent had rung and complained (that's their job, to look after their client's image, rights, etc) so when it came to the finale, it had got round that Terry 'wouldn't allow' her image to be used so they didn't use it. This wasn't really the case at all, just an overdramatic reading of what had happened before. Terry was pretty clear at conventions even then that she would have been happy for her image to feature in the episode but nobody mentioned it to her so it didn't happen. Miscommunication, largely.

That's interesting, I hadn't heard that specific version of it before. Though there's a lot of slightly different versions of the story.

I always take a professional interest, I've had jobs where one of my responsibilities was making sure the image releases were signed when we were using old footage or stills of an actor who otherwise wasn't in the episode, and I just can. not. imagine. the production that is run so badly that this process breaks down. It's always one of those things where a million people are all over it, studio lawyers, the post department, casting, the production office, the accountants, etc etc... the quantity of failures that had to occur for something to make it ON THE AIR without the actor signing a release... it just blows my mind, though it probably seems like a small thing from a non-entertainment-industry perspective.

What's interesting is that, in various versions I've heard recounted over the years, it's her image in the wedding photo in "Image In The Sand" and/or her audio in "Penumbra" that caused the problem. But she's also seen in the previously on clips in "Shadows & Symbols", which is also not allowed without getting the actor to sign a release and pay them something -- which is almost always just one day at scale! At the time, that was probably in the $600 range or so.

So even in the accounts that claim she refused to have her image used in the finale, I think, they screwed up (maybe) three times and got away with it, I can't blame her...

ETA: though I didn't start dealing with this stuff until around 2002. Maybe that's why it was such a closely monitored thing then, because every show was making the same screw up in the 90's.

 

[captainkirk]

Honestly, I think it's pretty realistic that after the end of a major war, people tend to reconsider their life priorities, and whether they are where they want to be.

It also makes a nice change from TNG and TOS where the whole crew kept their old jobs for so many decades. Chekov went from being first officer of the Reliant to pretty much his old job just because they didn't want to change things up.

 

[Refuge]

I think it made sense. Sisko becomes God like, I mean wasn't he always?

DS9 becomes a transit station with a really cool bar and the rest get regular jobs. Inspiring really.

 

[Charlie W]

a show with such fantastic writing ends with such a contrived pile of garbage - why?!?!

I just watched it, myself. It has the feeling of a show that was cancelled with 2-3 episodes left in the season, and had to scramble for an ending. This would also explain as a previous poster noticed, why they re-used footage from old battles. The amount of time it would take to computer render all of that, back in 1999, would be incredible and eat up half the budget.