Star Trek How would you rewrite Deep Space Nine?

[AndrewJTalon]

Now, before you get upset, let me make things clear: DS9 is easily my favorite Star Trek series. It took risks, it had incredible characterization, and it got dark without destroying the ideals the series is supposed to be built upon.

It did, however, still have issues. Some large and glaring, others more subtle. I think the overall arc the series took was pretty good, but it had some missteps that occurred. Whether it's because the suits didn't want to go for it, actors and directors couldn't make it work, or any number of other problems that can happen to a television series, these things happen. So here are some ideas I have for what I would do if I had creative control of DS9.

1: "Far Beyond the Stars" is often lauded as a great episode for dealing with racism head on and such. Often this episode suffers from a lot of overhyping and social justice gushing over it, but the truth is this episode was wonderfully written, directed and acted. The main theme was maintaining hope in the face of tyranny and despair, whether by racism among your own people or by the evil of the Dominion's oppression.

However! The episode has two major flaws. One, Sisko gets his vision from the Prophets when some old friend of his we've never met or seen dies in the war. He is so hurt by this, he is even considering resigning. At the end of the season, however, Dax dies by Dukat at the end and Sisko himself is considering resignation due to this grief. It's a grief shared with the audience. But this has a lot more impact than what moved Sisko.

Two, the vision shows up here. Then it shows up once when Ben Sisko is searching for an Orb to restore the wormhole. It seems to come out of nowhere and keeps popping up but isn't woven into the narrative as well as it could be.

So if it was up to me, I would have had Far Beyond the Stars be a two part, maybe three part episode. First, the season ending episode where the Federation Alliance invades Chin'Toka and the Pah'wraiths make their move through Dukat to close the wormhole and kill Jadzia. In the face of this loss, Sisko is considering resignation and retirement. The season ends with Sisko looking at his reflection in the window as Benny Russel, and then waking up as Benny Russel on a crowded 1950s street. He turned and heads away to join his friends, the reflection of Captain Sisko staring back at him.

The next episode is essentially Far Beyond the Stars, but with Sisko alternating between the Russell Reality and his own as he tries to figure out not only if he's sane, but to find out what the Prophets want him to learn. He is lost in his despair, and trying to navigate between the ugliness of 1950s racism and the fears of losing his mind in the 24th century. He then learns about his mother, and seeks the Orb of the Emissary with Ezri and Jake. Episode three would have the tense situation with the Romulans Kira has to deal with, while Sisko, Ezri and Jake seek out the Orb. They find the Orb, restore the Wormhole, and the situation with the Romulans is something left to explore more thoroughly in another episode.

If you're going to have this kind of thing in the show that's a serial, why not use it when it has the most punch?

2: Speaking of Romulans, I would have shown more of their interactions and work on the station in the wake of them equipping the Defiant with one of their cloaking devices. The Romulan played by Martha Hackett, I would have developed more as she slowly becomes a friend to the crew of DS9. Introducing a Romulan who might have divided loyalties between her people and the friends she has made.

3: Maybe reworked Winn into the Big Bad for Sisko to face in the end, rather than Dukat. It made more sense for Winn to be the ultimate adversary for the Emissary, as Dukat was far more of an adversary for Kira. And not have made the ending quite as perfunctory. I know, budgets and all but still.

4: Possibly have Ziyal be rescued by Kira and Dukat earlier. Early enough that she, Jake and Nog become fast friends and get into shenanigans. Maybe shiptease her and Jake because the look on Dukat's face would be hilarious.

What ideas do you guys have for Deep Space Nine?

 

[Hlaalu Agent]

@AndrewJTalon Benny is as real as Sisko, and that the Prophets accidentally drove him bonkers when they put Sisko into his shoes, something bled over. But don't outright say it, and hint at it, and then you can work in a scene in an epilogue with Benny being visited by Sisko and smiling, saying contentedly "So it was real..."

 

[The Original Sixth]

I wouldn't, honestly.

All things considered, DS9 weathered 7 seasons very well. It is hard, especially with multiple writers, to maintain consistency over that length of time and still end with something that is both satisfying and sensible. Even if you didn't like the ending to DS9, the ending was satisfying and it was sensible.

Compare that to B5 (which got screwed over due to corporate yes/no answers to a 5th season), compare that to Lost, compare that to Battlestar Galactica, and compare that to Game of Thrones. All of which had either poor or inane endings and some of which suffered from a falling standard of writing.

If I had to change anything, it would be to shift the tone into a more geopolitical lens than the show had going for it, to portray the Dominion less as a fascist dictatorship, but really to show it to be a game of nations. That said, DS9 did a fantastic job of blending geopolitics into the narrative, so it's not anything to really focus on.

 

[Husky_Khan]

Just to show how original I am, was anyone really interested in the whole Pah'wraiths storyline? I don't quite recall when it started up (obviously the Prophets deal started from the beginning) but I'm pretty sure they were several seasons into the series before they were even mentioned and we had this weird and to me (even child me) completely uninterested in this supernatural good v evil match up going on which had corrupted Gul Dukat and whatever and played against the far more interesting backdrop of the Dominion War. Obviously, other people mentioned the parallels many times between DS9 and B5 and I won't get into that here because Deep Space 9 is strong enough to be its own show, but even if there was no inspiration for it, the Pah'wraith storyline seemed like a big ol waste of time and that in turn made the Prophets story arc all the more meh IMHO and helped downgrade the character arcs of people like Gul Dukat and the ever annoying Kai Winn as well into becoming not just fecking annoying, but going into master ShitLordess territory.... like she needed it.

The other thing I feel that could've been better was the diplomacy/politicking. There were a lot of Klingon storylines in DS9 like with the Changeling fomented Klingon-Federation War and the whole invasion of Cardassian space et cetera... but one thing that vexed me for example was the one episode solutions.

It took one episode to make Gowron an incompetent jelly, (he was always jealous of his own power I get it) having him frame Martok, Sisko giving Worf the go ahead to legally assassinate Gowron, kill Gowron, and put Martok in charge. Meanwhile in the TNG.... there were like a half dozen episodes stretched across several seasons to simply shift Klingon power into Gowron's hands through diplomacy, Duras fuckery, Romulan shenanigans and a mini Civil War and even dealing with the after effects of it.

Also the Romulans getting into the War.... also took one (pretty decent) episode. Then again the Romulan Defiant character was written out of the story despite the fact there was no character really like her (or Vulcans/Romulans) in general in the series. And of course... the Romulans earlier just showed up at the wormhole one time... no setup. And I remember the entire Alpha Quadrant signed non-aggression/peace treaties with the Dominion earlier on and this was dismissed via Odo in the start of one episode rattling off "The Gorn, the Tholians... the Romulans all made peace with the Dominion." Wait... what? When? How? Show... don't tell.

I'm going to have to rewatch the series but it did spread across seven seasons so I'm not sure if it was just a lot of filler episodes or just poor choices or whatever. I did like the series, though ultimately while I like Deep Space 9 especially in raw entertainment value and very strong character arcs overall... I feel The Next Generation is still more essentially Star Trek.

Also... the Dominion should've been more... Federation by conquest IMHO. They had three species featured, the Jem'Hader, the Vorta and the Changelings themselves. Nothing really pertaining to the Karemma or the 'Hunters' and other one episoders. Obviously the Cardassians and Breen came in later (though the Breen were kinda... abruptly tossed in as well) but still like General Chang said in Star Trek VI, the Federation grew strong through diplomacy... not conquest. Show that contrast in regards to the Dominion.

 

[Es Arcanum]

Going to agree on the pah'wraith storyline being uninteresting. At the least it should have been woven into the whole Dominion War arc in some way. For example have Dukat still in a position of authority along with Weyoun leading a last Dominion/Cardy break out from the Cardassian system to Bajor in a mirror version of 'sacrifice of angels' in a last ditch balls to the wall effort to get to the pah'wraith to release them to get their assistance against the Feds/Klingons/Romulans and allow Dominion reinforcements through.

So the last battle of the war could be fought in and around Deep Space Nine and Bajor itself with Sisko fulfilling the prophecy and saving the Prophets and Bajor and the Federation at the same time.

As it was though it was just an uninteresting distraction from the extremely interesting main plotline of the show with the war arc.

 

[Captain X]

Honestly, I think the pah'wraiths and "Sisko is the chosen one" aspects were because of RDM insisting on it, and while I think he's generally a good writer, stuff like that makes me really annoyed at him, and if I was in charge, I would have not allowed those aspects into the show. I also would have been more ambiguous on the idea of the Bajoran religion actually being based on some kind of truth.

Other than that, probably the biggest changes I would have made would have been to make the Ferengi less of a caricature and more of a fully fleshed out species/power. And I would never in a million years have green-lighted "Profit and Lace," and I would have made a lot of changes to the other bad episodes, like "Let He Who is Without Sin" and that early one where they play that stupid game, in order to improve them. And I guess generally I would make changes here and there to make things a little more consistent in terms of continuity and the like.

I also like the ideas in the OP as far as connecting the Benny Russel stuff to a trauma that would have been closer than some person the audience had never heard about dying off screen. The only problem I have with connecting it to Dax is that the only reason she was killed off is because of a disagreement between her and Rick Berman. I've seen differing accounts of the nature of this disagreement, from what amounts to sexual harassment to her simply wanting to scale back her screen time for personal reasons, so I might not have killed her off, because I'm not Rick Berman and I'm not that much of a dick.

I also like the idea of keeping that Romulan liaison officer for the same reasons others have said as far as the potential for drama with a conflicted officer. It might have been interesting for her to actually end up being a part of that conspiracy to assassinate that senator, and/or for the initial non-aggression pact to result in at least the threat of her being withdrawn from her post there. Maybe even do something where she resigns and is branded a traitor by the Empire, which would result in complications in the alliance that ends up forming against the Dominion.

On that note, I guess one other major change I would have made is that I actually liked the Maquis, while the people running the show didn't and felt like it was forced on them. So I would have done more with them, and would have kept them more sympathetic, and done more to question the dogmatic way the Federation and upper brass of Starfleet were treating them. I actually found it pretty appalling that in that episode of TNG that basically set things up for the formation of the Maquis later, they told that colony that they were completely on their own and that any calls for help would go unanswered, yet when the colonists actually try to defend themselves, the Federation turned around and treated them like terrorists who had to be hunted down.

 

[Undertone]

DS9 was mainly solid. It mainly just took its sweet time getting off the ground.

I think the show's religion plot went off the rails early when they put Opaka on a bus. Really took the steam out of the "gotta catch 'em all" quest for the Bajoran Orbs. They mainly just turned to it for plot holes afterward. Prophet of the Pah'Wraiths should have been Winn's role from the start, or, for a twist, Bareil!

Bajor Is Not A Happy Place: There should have been a "The Circle" basically twice a season. Why aren't they in the Federation yet? Because they kind of aren't ready. Possibly tie this in with the orbs with each one returned noticeably settling things down.

Dukat should have died with Ziyal. Or by Ziyal's hand. Although him dating Winn was the most cartoonish evil romance we'd ever see on Trek until Queen Arachnia and Dr. Chaotica came around.

Also, what happened to Evek? Tossed out when the Detapa Council came in, I guess? I feel like the series needed more visits with a Cardassian like him who wasn't particularly evil or impressed by the Federation. Neither Garak nor Damar really fit for this aspect, and Tekeny Ghemor was almost, but not quite there.

 

[Val the Moofia Boss]

I only have three large problems with DS9

• Dax. Jadzia was intolerable. I liked Ezri but she came way too late and she had no real business being with the crew at the end, as she was a naive ship's counselor and didn't have anything to contribute to the war. Felt like she was only there because of her prior host's connection to the characters.
• The Bajorans, the Gamma Quadrant, and the Maquis became irrelevant in the second half of DS9.
• The ending for the main character was unsatisfying. Sisko should have either died at the battle for Cardassia as a legendary hero like Nelson at Trafalgar, with statues of him erected on Earth and Bajor, or he should have come back home and lived happily ever after with Jennifer and his children. Having him be taken away and leave Jennifer and Jake behind wasn't satisfying.

 

[Captain X]

The only problem I really had with Jadzia was that they basically turned her into a cheerleader instead of sticking to the detached/aloof royal smart person aspect of her that they'd originally established.

 

[Undertone]

It stands to reason that both Jazdia and Ezri were both fighting a big personality battle with the Dax symbiont.

A lot of Ezri's time was spent navigating this, but as a psychologist she actually had the toolkit to separate out whose ideas drove some of her impulsive actions. Whereas Jadzia started out with her own personality as a boring high-achiever but seemed to just kind of fade into Curzon 2.0 without really thinking about it.

 

[Undertone]

One concept I've been kicking around is making Jadzia and Kira rivals.

Basically this would amp up Dax's aloofness and elitist attitudes, some of which stem from Curzon's time as a diplomat, and others that arise from Jadzia's overachieving nature from the symbiont program. Jadzia sees Kira as a barely-reformed terrorist willing to fly off the handle at the drop of a hat. Dax also has this sense that she would be the #2 on station, if not for politics.

Dax: "Do I need to explain this to you again? I don't have time to cover for your mistakes."

Meanwhile Kira, who literally fought for everything in her life, detests Jadzia's attitudes and is in complete disagreement with her on how to define success and merit. Kira also thinks she would be #1 on the station, if not for politics and religion.

Kira: "Unlike *some* people around here, I only have one life to live."

 

[Captain X]

Sounds like a good set-up for a tsundere couple, too.

 

[Typhonis]

Something I posted elsewhere was the Cardassian occupation makes no economic sense unless they were getting off on Bullying the Bajorans.

Cardassians come from a resource poor area so they should have some of the best and most efficient mining techniques known. They should be premier miners and resource workers in the quadrant. Yet they spend fifty years strip mining a backwards planet in their own back yard.

I call bullshit.

What they did to Bajor was not a resource grab. It was a fucking power trip. They brutalized the locals because they could not for any economic gain. Hell did it even show how they mined? Did they even have proper tools or were the Cardassians laughing as they gave them insane quotas and iron picks and shovels.

 

[Knowledgeispower]

Something I posted elsewhere was the Cardassian occupation makes no economic sense unless they were getting off on Bullying the Bajorans.

Cardassians come from a resource poor area so they should have some of the best and most efficient mining techniques known. They should be premier miners and resource workers in the quadrant. Yet they spend fifty years strip mining a backwards planet in their own back yard.

I call bullshit.

What they did to Bajor was not a resource grab. It was a fucking power trip. They brutalized the locals because they could not for any economic gain. Hell did it even show how they mined? Did they even have proper tools or were the Cardassians laughing as they gave them insane quotas and iron picks and shovels.

That would help explain Dukat's obsession with wanting the Bajorans to like him.

 

[Captain X]

I just seem to recall that they only described them strip-mining the planet, and that this ruined the planet's biosphere. What makes less sense to me is that they apparently sent the ore up to a station in orbit to process it instead of doing it planet-side and transporting the processed ore right off-planet in ships, or even finished products, for that matter.

 

[Val the Moofia Boss]

Something I posted elsewhere was the Cardassian occupation makes no economic sense unless they were getting off on Bullying the Bajorans.

Cardassians come from a resource poor area so they should have some of the best and most efficient mining techniques known. They should be premier miners and resource workers in the quadrant. Yet they spend fifty years strip mining a backwards planet in their own back yard.

I call bullshit.

What they did to Bajor was not a resource grab. It was a fucking power trip. They brutalized the locals because they could not for any economic gain. Hell did it even show how they mined? Did they even have proper tools or were the Cardassians laughing as they gave them insane quotas and iron picks and shovels.

My understanding is that Cardassia was like Imperial Japan. Cardassia was an emerging power and was late to the party. Most of the surrounding space in the Alpha quadrant has already been captured/annexed/absorbed by the Klingons (we know in TNG that they have conquered other peoples like the Gorn), the Federation, or the Romulan Empire. The Cardassians had mined uninhabited planets (like what Empok Nor was used for), but once those planets were gone... the only thing left in the area was Bajor. This also provided an excuse for the imperialistic Cardassians, who wanted Cardassia to become an empire that controls other planets, just like the Federation/Klingons/Romulans. Even when the occupation wasn't making any material gains, the Cardassians still held onto Bajor due to their pride. IIRC they only withdrew when there was just so little return on investment, and the Resistance was making things a nightmare more than ever before.

I just seem to recall that they only described them strip-mining the planet, and that this ruined the planet's biosphere.

I don't recall Bajor's biosphere being ruined. By all accounts people were still living on the surface as farmers for the past 50 years. There is also the episode about Kira's mother, where we see that they were living down on the surface about 20ish years before the show began. Perhaps key excavation/mining areas were desolate for miles around, but it seems that the overall planet remained Earth-like and habitable.

 

[Captain X]

I guess I was thinking that they'd left large portions of the planet desolate from their mining, which is why they didn't want those aliens from the Gamma Quadrant trying to settle on their planet.

 

[Bear Ribs]

In Emissary it states that the Cardassians deliberately dumped poison on Bajor's fertile farmland when they realized they were losing the world, so a lot of the problems came from there. There's several points throughout the show where they mention various irrigation, soil reclamation, and agricultural projects to try to get their food supply back in order, and the whole thing with the Skrreeans who wanted to settle Bajor because they were farmers and thought they could help with that.

I'm under the impression that the deliberate salting of their fields did the most ecological damage to Bajor rather than the mining operation itself.