Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

J that lovely planet risa &

j I simply can't embrace j

j the glory that is kronos j

j it's mostly for the klingon race j

j but my station in deep space j

j is sadly much too far away j

j I miss the promenade j

j and the busy cargo bays j

j I left my quark &

j and captain sisko j

j nearby a trill

j they call to me j

j but deep space nine is rather far j

j I'm stuck on ferenginar j

j where it never rains, no, no j'

j it only pours j

j miss those dominion wars &

j I miss doc Bashir j

j and constable odo j

j major Kira j

j and the operations team j

j I wish I could beam j

j beam all the way home j

j home to quark and captain sisko j

j to ds9, my happy time j

j my dream j.

Excuse me.

Isn't this a bit premature?

All right now, that's enough. Cut!

A space battle?

Really?

We can wait on that one, ok?

Hello, my name is Andy Robinson.

I played garak, on Star Trek: Deep space nine which means,

I know a little something about truth and lies.

What we left behind, is merely a documentary.

And like most documentaries it consists of stories,

recalled in memory fueled by emotion.

Now, stories require embellishment.

Memory can be faulty,

and emotion often obscures clarity.

The end result is entertaining, informative, heartfelt,

but it is truth, as seen through a glass darkly.

I'm afraid...

It's the best we humans can do.

“I love Star Trek, but this show sucks!

"They broke gene roddenberry's rules for Star Trek."

"The whole idea of Star Trek,

is the idea that they would be exploring new worlds

and going where no man has gone before."

"Not bumming around a space station talking about their feelings."

"It's more like a Star Trek soap opera:

As the space station turns.

Really kind of mediocre at best."

"Just watch, say, the second half of the second season,

and search online for the five to 10 best episodes."

"Anything else is losing precious time

you could use for something more pleasant like,

breaking each bone in your... Hand

with a rusted hammer!"

Oh, god.

Actors don't go into acting to be disliked.

They go into acting to be loved,

and certainly everyone thought, well, hey,

you know, everyone loves tng,

they're gonna love the next iteration of the franchise.

Well, when that did not happen, and that continued not to happen,

year in, year out, it gets a little wearisome.

And... it hurt the actors. I felt bad.

We were in a place where people were just,

I don't think they were really ready for the show.

And I think we were referred to as "the middle brother"

disparagingly by various people.

I knew that we were the bastard child, which actually was thrilling to me,

because that gave you guys the leeway to do pretty much anything you wanted.

We knew we were the middle child.

And we knew that, you know,

we weren't gonna get the respect that we deserved.

You have deep space nine.

It's entire existence,

was never alone.

It was either a companion piece to next generation,

or a piece that was continuing as this new show voyager, began.

The first one, and next generation

are always the ones that are being promoted,

but it seems like our show,

which is every inch as good as those,

and, in my opinion, better,

excuse me, better, than those two shows,

there's still this perception that we don't match up.

I think in time we'll get there, but it's still slightly hurtful.

In the universe of new adventures,

where no one has gone before,

imagine,

Star Trek: Deep space nine

coming to your quadrant, January, 1993.

From a studio point of view

it was certainly one of the shows that we wanted to place a big bet on.

We were pretty confident that the audience would welcome this franchise.

I was so against it, my mom was against it.

I thought I knew what Star Trek was

based on the next generation and classic trek...

My idea of Star Trek is adventure and exploration...

It bothered me a lot that they didn't go out and boldly explore.

That's the whole point of Star Trek!

The mission of the enterprise is to seek out and contact alien life.

Let's see what's out there!

Warp nine, engage!

Mr. Paris, get us out of here!

You had tng and you had voyager.

Every week they went to a new planet,

and then, that was fun!

Who knows what was gonna happen on that planet?

We were on space station, slowly turning,

next to a wormhole, next to bajor.

It's not a crew on a ship named the enterprise,

going out and having fun adventures every week.

Um... it's definitely a darker show,

and I think that threw people off-kilter when it first came out.

What made me excited about I,

was that it was being sold as the dark Star Trek.

I would imagine the pilot was darker,

- and sexier than anything we had seen. - Yeah.

Everything about deep space nine was dark and dirty

and the characters didn't all get along,

and it was fun, it was exciting,

it was something totally different in the world of Star Trek.

I don't know if that was a copy line that the marketing department put out,

or if the fans started thinking about it that way,

but it... it got that reputation,

and some people still think of that.

They say, "oh I don't wanna watch it because it's darker."

Did you feel that the look of the show was different than tng?

The tone was completely different,

and part of that is decided by the production design, Herman's sets,

by Marvin rush who had been shooting the show.

The way the lighting was built into the set,

there were so many practical pieces of light that you could use,

and I always called it "film noir in space".

Rick and Michael, with our support, wanted to make a Star Trek show

that would satisfy a Star Trek audience but different.

I think we saw Avery Brooks on tape

before he came in and read,

but the sides that he was given to read, he just nailed it.

I thought he was terrific.

He was the only one for me, who was really able to do sisko,

because of the duality in his character.

He was able to play sisko with this huge weight on his shoulders,

which informed everything that he did.

I remember when Peter Allan fields and I

watched Avery's audition tapes for sisko.

We were shocked, we were shocked.

We expected to see a younger man

which is how the part had been written,

some guy who was still earning his way

in the federation chain of command,

and what we got instead was this mature man,

this powerful man.

And it's like, wait a second,

this isn't a commander, this is a captain.

Now, you can tell me that captains are on star ships

and commanders are on static space stations,

and that might be right, but it's wrong for deep space nine,

and it's wrong for the guy we hired.

I remember coming on the lot of Paramount,

and there was hawk, standing there.

We had this big, black captain in your face.

America, come and look at me.

I'm running your show and this is the face of it.

So, when you tell me that hawk

is gonna be the captain of my new Star Trek show,

I'm like, "what?!"

This is amazing!

Like some silver-plated phaser

and he's got this awesome, like, ship he's gonna drive in,

and then he shows up with like a full head of hair

and boring-dad version of Avery Brooks.

There was a lot of conversation

about African-American men and facial hair,

that it was something that was very important.

I fought for three seasons

to get Avery to be allowed to wear the goat,

and shave his head.

This is a look he was very clear on,

that this is how he felt comfortable as a person in life.

Why did it take three seasons?

I do think going in...

Um...

Particularly given that he was coming off of hawk,

and we were also in the 24th century

that we thought it would be a mistake...

To, um...

To-to go, um...

For lack of a better term, 'street.'

in case there's any resistance out there to a black actor playing this role,

let's make him, you know, not quite an uncle Tom

but, you know, moving in that direction.

I mean, would a shaved head be an issue today? No.

When the bald came, and that goatee,

that had some strength like you can't even communicate.