The original Star Trek series was a landmark in science fiction television history. It nudged sci-fi TV from juvenile shows like Lost in Space into more thoughtful territory with engaging ideas, compelling drama, and three-dimensional characters. Star Trek: The Next Generation was also a landmark. In many ways it opened the doors for sci-fi shows of yet a higher level of quality (J. Michael Straczynski’s Babylon 5 and Ron Moore’s Battlestar Galactica follow in its footsteps). However, in this writer’s opinion, it is the third series in the franchise, Deep Space Nine, that outshines all versions of Trek, before or since. While each series has its merits, none of them match this one, which due to its masterful writing is, of all the Trek series, the most human. DS9 was able to take the best of what Trek had done in the past, disregard most of its missteps, and push the franchise’s boundaries into bold new directions.
As all Trekkers worth their quadrotriticale know, the original Star Trek was originally sold by Gene Roddenberry as “Wagon Train to the stars.” DS9, by contrast, was loosely modeled after The Rifleman. Rather than joining a crew as it voyages among the stars, we witness the activities of Commander (later Captain) Benjamin Sisko as he commands Deep Space Nine, an old Cardassian mining station orbiting the ravaged planet of Bajor, assisted by a mixed staff of Starfleet and Bajoran personnel. In this series we see the consequences of Sisko’s actions, and we are presented with questions that neither the Original Series nor The Next Generation were prepared to offer. DS9 explored concepts such as how far one should go to win a war, whether freedom fighters are terrorists, and whether church and state should remain separate. None of the other Trek series, with a few sporadic exceptions, address these types of issues with the thoughtfulness of DS9. It has great potential in its setup, and in most cases, it fulfills that potential admirably.
The first and most important factor contributing to the superiority of DS9 is the series’ writers, who are able to look into their characters and use them to explore the show’s themes of religion, war, and consequence. These writers craft stories such as “Duet” (written by Peter Allan Fields), a gut-wrenching Holocaust analogy in which Major Kira is forced to question the morality of her own actions during the Cardassian occupation of Bajor. Much later in the series, the episode “In the Pale Moonlight” (story by Fields, rewritten by an uncredited Ronald Moore) examines the morality of Captain Sisko’s willingness to participate in the murder of a Romulan official in order to win the war against the Dominion. These are but a few examples of how DS9’s writers strive to allow the audience to ponder more nuanced and meaningful ethical questions. None of the other series portray its main characters in such an imperfect way. While all of the series have strong writing, DS9’s staff is unique in its ability to place its characters in situations that have no clear-cut right or wrong answers and to not always have them do the “right” thing. They take risks with the characters and with the basic Trek format, and the result is a show that constantly invites its viewers to think carefully about debatable ideas themes that the other Trek series usually avoid.
Also in marked contrast to other Trek series, DS9 often questions the Federation itself. Early in the series, Sisko comes to a point at which he must to decide whether to aid the Maquis (a splinter group with legitimate reasons for breaking from the Federation) or turn them in. Later in the series, a secret branch of Starfleet called Section 31 develops a virus that could completely eradicate the Dominion’s leaders, committing, in effect, genocide. It is difficult to imagine earlier Treks portraying the Federation in such an unsavory light. This type of storytelling allows viewers to mentally participate in the stories in a way that can make them question their own ideas and assumptions. Though the other series provoke thought as well, they also often provide the answers to the questions presented.
DS9, in contrast to the other Trek series, also offers many connected story lines and arcs that enable it to tell a broad, continuous tale. The multifaceted and interconnected stories become so important to the show that the first six episodes of the sixth season are one long story, and the series ends with a ten-episode arc that resolves most of the series’ subplots. By the end of the series, these story lines have woven their many individual parts together so that they all affect each other. The serial aspect of the show also allows it to create a large group of recurring characters who are, at times, almost as well developed as the regular characters, particularly Gul Dukat, Star Trek’s best villain. This storytelling method forces the series to follow and cope with the consequences of the characters’ actions, and it also makes it harder for the writers to reset everything back to normal with an unsatisfying plot device -- something that happens too often on other Trek series -- therefore strengthening the continuity of the series and the viewer’s ability to relate to it.
This willingness to take chances with established Star Trek lore and the willingness to show that the perfect universe imagined by Gene Roddenberry could also have flaws make DS9 the best Star Trek series of them all. The writers of this series are interested not only in continuing the Trek franchise; they also want to explore beneath its pristine finish and see what really makes the Trek universe work. In doing so, they ultimately reinforce the series’ overall optimism, demonstrating that even in an imperfect world, there is happiness and contentment to be found. They show us a Federation we have not seen before, and in doing so, they make the tale of the aging station at the frontier of Federation space the best that Star Trek has to offer.
Eric Miller
All of the factual information in this article comes from http://memory-alpha.org.
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