[Kyuusaku]

The Kyuu Continuum
By {UFP}Kyuusaku

Issue Four: When the Sequel is Better than the Original
October 27, 2011

NOTE: The following views are to be treated as opinions unless otherwise stated and do not necessarily reflect the views, opinions, or policies of {UFP}.

More often than not, a sequel presentation of an original sometimes doesn't live up to it. There are some exceptions to the expectation: The Dark Knight, Aliens, The Wrath of Khan, just to name a select few. But Star Trek has had the fortune of having another sequel the far outshone what came before.

Deep Space Nine.

When I first started watching DS9 in the early 1990s, it was a midseason addition to the syndication lineup and I had actually seen the presentation of the program at a couple of conventions I worked. Michael Piller was on hand in San Francisco at the Masonic and had a slideshow reel to run through that I found somewhat off-putting. My first impressions of DS9 that day were worse than skeptical. I thought that they were destroying the Trek I had known and loved. How could they possibly think that holding it on a space station was a good idea? If they were smart, they would just show another ship that is running around in Starfleet, maybe even do a few crossover episodes with The Next Generation to give it the support that it needs, but also maintaining that same in-universe feel. And why in hell do they have a Ferengi as one of the main characters?

Yeah, I came out of that panel with a bad taste in my mouth. But there's another reason why I wasn't too happy with the idea of Deep Space Nine that was generally unrelated to the various salient details of the program as presented by Piller.

See, a year before, I was at another Star Trek convention in San Francisco for Valentine's Day weekend. They had Jonathan Frakes and Marina Sirtis together as kind of a Riker/Troi shipper-themed convention to mark the occasion. During that convention, there was this very kind, very passionate fellow making a presentation about a television movie and possible series called "Babylon 5." The fellow's name was J. Michael Straczynski. He spent about an hour going through the backstory for the pilot movie, which was to be shown on syndication at some time, as soon as he had the backing for it. He did an overview of the universe, the ships, and of course the eponymous space station... all alone in the night. Once he was done with his slides and full motion videos of the computer animation sequences, he took questions and answers from the crowd. I was one of the very few people in the crowd who stayed to have kind of a conversation with the man, and I liked what I saw.

How easy was it for me to see that, and then see DS9's thing a year later and not think that someone stole an idea from this man. Especially since he admitted back then that he was waiting to hear back from Paramount on producing his show?

The whole ordeal still left me feeling bad about what happened, but eventually, both shows were produced to the satisfaction of those who enjoyed both programs... and I was one of those who loved B5 and DS9 for the stories they told. It just so happened that I almost boycotted DS9 because of my experiences.

But... let's face it... I love Star Trek too much to not give it more than a cursory examination. Even though I thought the guy who played Hawk from Spencer: For Hire (Avery Brooks) was awesome, I didn't think he could pull off a Starfleet commander after seeing his badassery on a weekly basis. Anyway, like I said, in spite of my misgivings, I'd give it some time to convince me.

At around the same time on USENET, there was a growing faction that really hated DS9 before the first episode aired. The fandom felt like it was splitting up into those were holding fast to TNG/TOS and of course, the rest were playing the same game I was in waiting and seeing what the pilot held for us. As the clock wound down toward December of 1992, the fever pitch was at its highest.

Then the episode finally aired.

My first impressions were not bad, but I wasn't in love with the show, yet. I liked the idea/premise of the show and I was intrigued by the sudden inclusion of religion into Star Trek (which seemed to be a forbidden topic in TNG) to give it that edge over The Next Generation. Also, the fact that Commander Sisko and his son were playing baseball kind of hooked my interest. I thought that including those little bits of his personality into the pilot provided a deeper insight into Sisko in the pilot than Encounter at Farpoint did for Captain Picard.

Through the first season, the episodes were kind of hit or miss. Obviously, as with TNG, they were trying to find their stride. I liked some episodes ("Past Prologue," "Dax," "A Man Alone") and disliked others ("Move Along Home," "The Storyteller," "Babel"), much by the time I got to "Duet" and "In the Hands of the Prophets," I felt that DS9 had exceeded TNG's ability to weave a story while also allowing the full cast of characters to contribute to those stories as an ensemble. TNG had this method of focusing primarily on the Picard-Riker-Data triumvirate, while the other characters tended to just be background. This got better in the fifth through the seventh seasons, but the first four were pretty bad at spreading the wealth of stories around.

Anyway, suffice to say that I moved over to the Niner camp pretty early on. I never missed an episode over the course of those seven years. Well, except for the final nine, when I was going through this denial phase of not wanting to let go. So, I took a break and then later on when my TiVo was done accumulating the episodes, I sat down and watched the end of it and then it was done.

I look back on DS9 as one of those divisive shows within the fandom. It seems that there are a lot of Trek fans who feel that DS9 didn't help Trek but rather helped to pervert it into something that was very decidedly un-Trek. But in my mind, nothing could be further from the truth. DS9 allowed stories to be told within the TNG-era universe with a more human edge to the saga. If TNG was the high-minded ideology of humanity finally setting aside its differences and working together to better themselves, then DS9 was the other side of the shiny coin; the part that was ground into the dirt and had to deal with the antithesis to the paradise-like world that the officers and crew of Enterprise lived in. That grittiness and lack of pretense coupled with a willingness to get their hands dirty and build something long-lasting was appealing after that first season.

For as long as I live, I will always maintain that Deep Space Nine was the best of Trek.

And I know I'm kicking off a firestorm, but I would love to hear comments on whether you agree or disagree. Keep it civil, keep it real, and above all else, never be afraid to show your passions for the things you love.

Next week, the Kyuu Continuum will continue its voyage into Trek fandom by presenting the program I think was the worst of Trek.

Until then,

[Caymen Greener]

Great read, Kyuu. I have always been a TNG fan, but I have to be honest I have not seen much of DS9 or VOY - just enough to know I still like TNG. But again, I missed much of the DS9 dominion war stuff as well. I also avoided Enterprise like the plague after the first few episodes (although I heard it got better). So I am well-versed in TNG, but not in the others - a fairly biased approach.

With that admitted, I think what I like about TNG is the ideological nature of its goals and personalities. Yes, they got a bit grittier towards the end, and the 4 movies definitely got to more personality issues (one reason Insurrection is my favorite is because of the character building you don't often see in other TNG content). But you're right, TNG was always more stoic and "pristine" as you said. And perhaps that's what I like about it. I can get my "grit" from Star Wars (another thread that I kind of killed discussed this debate), and I'm not trying to start a war there either.

For me, I loved the man that was Picard, his growth throughout the series/movies, his growth with his crew (which took a few years), and the overarching goals he had on behalf of the Federation.

That said, I am actually looking forward to ST:IS and plan on trying to watch a bit of the DS9 content to get a better idea of what is going on during the war.

Good read, and while I'll always be a TNG/Picard fanboi, I respect your analysis of DS9 and look forward to learning more about it.

Caymen