Can we talk about why DS9 never had its own movie franchise?
I’m watching S7E20 right now and the entire scene before the Defiant undocked from DS9 had that cinematic vibe you only get from a bonafide Hollywood movie.
Tng already started, they had more popular actors and generally were a larger commercial success.
Honestly: cardassians were a major part of ds9 and we're publicly unpopular because they were such complex characters, and the dominion weren't much better.
Tng has an excellent rogues gallery, they invented most of those races, and data was, at the time, the most popular character in trek, potentially outshining spock himself.
Ds9 wasn't flashy or digestible in comparison, it was more cerebral than even tng, even their wars were complex.
Finally, ds9 was a second tier syndication, it got worse airing times and worse networks than tng, especially as UPN started pumping voy and tng was on... Either scifi (before syfy) or USA.
And people were starting to tire of trek near the end, especially with voy.
Also Avery Brooks wasn't interested in playing Susko anymore. Nana Visitor wanted to raise her kid. Tensions between her and Alexander Siddig father of the kid. So casting would be a problem.
DS9 being a more story arc focused show that had wrapped up it's stories didn't help either.
DS9 pulled off a political space drama that could rival Dallas or MASH and they got 7 seasons. I'm rewatching it again and I still can't believe that prime time viewers would sit through these episodes that are just 2 people arguing the nuances of humanity for 45 minutes. It's nothing like TV is today.
As far as a movie, I think the TNG movies weren't that Trek. They often took the characters in strange directions, favored more digestible plotlines, and wrote dialogue that you'd expect from AI. I value the television wellspring of Trek in the 90s/early 2000s. It is so cool, and that era is still bearing fruit today.
I would like to see more of the DS9 characters, and like to see what a movie budget would do, but I don't trust that a DS9 movie would've been given the reverence needed to make it right. It has been great to see Picard and the ST world in the later years, but I don't know if it makes the lore any better. I'm not sure that we are any closer to another golden decade of ST.
Thanks for posting this and helping me get some of my thoughts on DS9 coalesced. Do you have a DS9 movie plot you think would've worked? Those 'golden years' of Trek were also open to the most fan input, with concepts and entire scripts being submitted. If we had 26 episode seasons to play with, maybe they'd take our call.
Yeah ds9 was not my cup of tea. It absolutely felt painful to watch 2 characters being locked in over dramatic conversation for an hour with commercials. I mean what else is there to do on a space station but wait around, not very exciting. Second why are the ferengi merchants? Doesn't everyone have access to a replicator.
I’m with you. I’m here for 45 minutes of story that’s wrapped up at the end and you can go on about your day. I think I read once that DS9 (in regards to being on a space station) described as the characters going on a journey since they weren’t on a ship and was immediately not, and am still not interested.
I’m glad that people like it, I’m glad that it’s their thing and that it brings them joy but it is absolutely not for me and that’s okay
Second why are the ferengi merchants? Doesn't everyone have access to a replicator.
Latnium can't be replicated so it can be properly used as a store of wealth and replicated antiquities can be detected. Large items like ships can be replicated in parts, but need to be complete to exceed the value of their replicated parts.
When a culture is built around trade, they will find ways to trade.
Also, it's likely that the writers needed that culture type to directly conflict with the ideals of Starfleet. Conflict makes for a good plot line.
Remember that Deep Space Nine and Voyager were regarded as “spin-off” series at the time. It would have been harder to justify a theatrical outing for either of them because they weren’t the “main” Star Trek or had the Enterprise like The Next Generation.
And the TNG movies were still being made after both of those series went off the air. It would have been nice if they could have rolled Deep Space Nine or Voyager into one of those movies (some early leaks from back in the day suggested they tried to do that).
I think there are a couple of reasons. STIX and STX were failures, one so bad it ended the franchise. Also, IIRC Avery Brooks wasn't happy about the Sisko ending and he has pretty much stayed out of the limelight since DS9. While it was on the air the viewing figures weren't extraordinary. Worf was thrown in to get more TNG fans interested in the same way Jeri Ryan was put in a catsuit on VOY. DS9's last two seasons were binge TV before we knew that existed, it was ahead of its time, which explains why it's a sleeper hit and fan favorite. But not a great financial success at the time.
Agreed... maybe because the series ended with such finality?
yea it had a whole arc which ended as it should. from beginning to end. TNG, enterprise was more episodic arcs than a whole series arc. nutrek for how bad they were, could not replicate DS9 series arcs.
i think any new trek series going foward, not showrunners lik kurtzman, should focus on other quadrants.
Just make a movie about whatever the hell Sisko has been doing.
Also, it was because ds9 was a sleeper and everybody loved tng. Voyager also got the shaft in that. And I don't blame tng at all, but ds9 and voy should have gotten their time in the movie limelight. If anything, ds9 has the MOST potential for a comeback/reboot compared to the other two... Tng was "Picard, the era", voyager was "we're lost and will fix the borg problem kindve", but ds9 has too many problems and lose ends. Too many characters and what ifs. Maybe it's better that way though. Like when something as a cliffhanger stays awesome if you never touch it again, and as soon as you do, it erodes the original's legendary, untouchable status in your mind. Like maybe berserk should've just ended, maybe ff7 shouldn't have been remade, maybe Shrek should've ended at 1, and maybe star wars should've stopped at rouge one.
I would watch “A quadrant of their own”
people were absolutely sick of star trek, after more than a full decade of back to back trek series and a run of average to terrible films
I’ll disagree with you there. People aren’t sick of trek; maybe they’re sick of Hollywood bullshit trying to tell us what we think we should like. But trek is trans dimensional. Even my 10 year old gets it, and he’s usually buried in his iPad when I watch star trek.