Alternate History in Star Trek Part 15: Deep Space Nine Finds Its Feet

[Gary Oswald]

Discuss this article by @Thande here

 

[Thande]

I was converting VHS tapes again yesterday and came across a DS9 episode of which I have absolutely zero memory, I was going full Mandela Effect for a while. Turns out it's the obligatory once-a-year bad Mirror Universe episode stuck in the middle of the great Dominion War arc and I think I just blanked it from my memory.

 

[RyanF]

These two seasons are very interesting considering how much things were in flux for Deep Space Nine but that which did wind up playing a huge part of practically all either seeded or introduced here. From the Dominion to the Maquis, and from challenging Ferengi misogyny to a certain alternate timeline associated with reflective glass. Even accidentally like "Blood Oath" accidentally foreshadowing the big part Klingons would play in later seasons.

However, there's a lot that was planned or suggested that never made it. The article highlights at least three characters who were intended to be recurring but never wound up coming back after their introductory tale. Melora, from the episode of the same name and covered in the article. Calvin Hudson, of "The Maquis" both figuratively and literally, who was actually spared death by the end of the episode with the intention of being a recurring villain, and then immediately regretted not killing him off. Sub-Commander T'Rul, the Romulan officer assigned to Defiant in "The Search" was also meant to be recurring but never returned. Actor Martha Hackett got to be Seska on Voyager instead. Would have loved for T'Rul to be kept on myself, I'm always keen for more Romulans, and especially in DS9.

Overall as well there was still some discussion of a serious re-tooling which, as the article says, wouldn't be fully gone until season four. I suggested a while back in the main Star Trek thread that one of the proposed ideas (taking the station through the wormhole) might have actually led to DS9 doing Voyager's core concept far better than Voyager itself ever achieved in OTL.

 

[Death's Companion]

Past Tense are the only episodes of Deep Space Nine I watched in full, they were very good and I enjoyed them, it was disappointing when I got to the actual series from the start and just found it unwatchable.

 

[Thande]

These two seasons are very interesting considering how much things were in flux for Deep Space Nine but that which did wind up playing a huge part of practically all either seeded or introduced here. From the Dominion to the Maquis, and from challenging Ferengi misogyny to a certain alternate timeline associated with reflective glass. Even accidentally like "Blood Oath" accidentally foreshadowing the big part Klingons would play in later seasons.

However, there's a lot that was planned or suggested that never made it. The article highlights at least three characters who were intended to be recurring but never wound up coming back after their introductory tale. Melora, from the episode of the same name and covered in the article. Calvin Hudson, of "The Maquis" both figuratively and literally, who was actually spared death by the end of the episode with the intention of being a recurring villain, and then immediately regretted not killing him off. Sub-Commander T'Rul, the Romulan officer assigned to Defiant in "The Search" was also meant to be recurring but never returned. Actor Martha Hackett got to be Seska on Voyager instead. Would have loved for T'Rul to be kept on myself, I'm always keen for more Romulans, and especially in DS9.

Overall as well there was still some discussion of a serious re-tooling which, as the article says, wouldn't be fully gone until season four. I suggested a while back in the main Star Trek thread that one of the proposed ideas (taking the station through the wormhole) might have actually led to DS9 doing Voyager's core concept far better than Voyager itself ever achieved in OTL.

Very interesting. I also felt the series suffered from T'Rul not returning - having a Romulan on board would have been an interesting dynamic and would help avoid how vague the Romulans' position often felt in DS9 until the sixth season, they seemed to go alternately from helping out and trying to blow up the station without context. If T'Rul had still been there then they could have fleshed this out by saying it was the work of different rival political factions etc. and given the Romulans a bit more depth (crib from Diane Duane's novels) as had been achieved with the Cardassians.

Past Tense are the only episodes of Deep Space Nine I watched in full, they were very good and I enjoyed them, it was disappointing when I got to the actual series from the start and just found it unwatchable.

The first season is definitely at best an acquired taste, but there's plenty to recommend the series as a whole. If you enjoyed Past Tense I would suggest watching the two-parter Homefront/Paradise Lost and see if that appeals to you.

 

[Warthog]

given the Romulans a bit more depth (crib from Diane Duane's novels)

Duane's world building, culture and lore are so deep that I've occasionally tuttutted in a TNG or DS9 episode that "wait, that's not cannon"

 

[Ncw8]

I did like the way the writers snuck the first reference to the Dominion into the episode Rules of Acquisition. Since this was a Ferengi episode, no one paid it much attention until later.

Pel: "Who's the Karemma?"

Zyree: "An important power in the Dominion."

Quark: "The Dominion? What's that?"

Zyree: "Let's just say if you want to do business in the Gamma Quadrant, you have to do business with the Dominion."

For me, one of the most significant parts of the episode The Jem’Hadar was when Quark gives his Patrick Stewart Speech on why Ferengi are better than humans. It feels like the point where the writers decide to take Quark and the rest of the Ferengi more seriously

Quark: "The way I see it, hew-mons used to be a lot like Ferengi: greedy, acquisitive, interested only in profit. We're a constant reminder of a part of your past you'd like to forget."

Sisko: "We don't have time for this…"

Quark: "But you're overlooking something: Hew-mons used to be a lot worse than the Ferengi. Slavery. Concentration camps. Interstellar wars. We have nothing in our past that approaches that kind of barbarism. You see? We're nothing like you. We're better."

 

[RyanF]

I did like the way the writers snuck the first reference to the Dominion into the episode Rules of Acquisition. Since this was a Ferengi episode, no one paid it much attention until later.

It's also a view of the Dominion that we never really got after the main three species of it were introduced, of the individual member/subject species. The Hunters from "Captive Pursuit" ostensibly being another example, and I believe they were meant to reappear during the Dominion War but never come to be.

Does make sense in context that once the Jem'Hadar, Vorta and Founders got involved the word would be sent that "wormhole is a no-go, folks; if you have a problem direct your complaints to the Jem'Hadar legions we'll be dropping off."

 

[Thande]

I did like the way the writers snuck the first reference to the Dominion into the episode Rules of Acquisition. Since this was a Ferengi episode, no one paid it much attention until later.




For me, one of the most significant parts of the episode The Jem’Hadar was when Quark gives his Patrick Stewart Speech on why Ferengi are better than humans. It feels like the point where the writers decide to take Quark and the rest of the Ferengi more seriously

I had forgotten that and thought "Sanctuary" was the first mention, good point.

It's also a view of the Dominion that we never really got after the main three species of it were introduced, of the individual member/subject species. The Hunters from "Captive Pursuit" ostensibly being another example, and I believe they were meant to reappear during the Dominion War but never come to be.

Does make sense in context that once the Jem'Hadar, Vorta and Founders got involved the word would be sent that "wormhole is a no-go, folks; if you have a problem direct your complaints to the Jem'Hadar legions we'll be dropping off."

The Star Trek Fact Files did a section once on subject peoples of the Dominion to make it look more fleshed out, but they ended up counting people from 'conquered or destroyed' races like the Teplanites from "The Quickening". About the only other Dominion subject race we ever got to see were the Karemma, and they only appeared a couple of times.

 

[Death's Companion]

I kind of like the idea that the Ferengi are so shitty all the time because their absolute worst is frankly beneign compared to the shit humans get up to unsupervised so don't need to build their entire society around being goody two shoes out of social anxiety they might murder a few million people if they ever let their guard down.

"Like yeah I'm going to have a few pints tonight because I walk home and have never punched someone drunk, stop tutting at me mister teetotal after killing a kid that time."