From Amazon.com
Of all the spinoff TV incarnations of
Star Trek,
Deep Space Nine had the hardest job persuading an audience to watch. By all accounts, Gene Roddenberry had concerns about the idea before his death in 1991. It took two more years to develop, and when it finally aired in 1993 reasons for that concern were evident right away. The show was dark (literally), characters argued a lot, no one went anywhere, and the neighboring natives were hardly ever friendly. Yet for all that the show went against the grain of the Great Bird's original vision of the future, it undeniably caught the mood of the time, incorporating a complex political backdrop that mirrored our own.
In the casting, there was a clear intent to differentiate the show from its predecessors. Genre stalwarts Tony Todd and James Earl Jones were considered for Commander Sisko before Avery Brooks. The one letdown at the time was that Michelle Forbes did not carry Ensign Ro across from The Next Generation, but when the explosive Nana Visitor defiantly slapped her hand on a console in the pilot episode, viewers knew they were in for a different crew dynamic. In fact, the two-part pilot show ("The Emissary") is largely responsible for DS9's early success. Mysterious, spiritual, claustrophobic, funny, and feisty, it remains the most attention-grabbing series opener (apart from the original series') the franchise has had. The first year may have relied on a few too many familiar faces--like Picard, Q, and Lwaxana Troi--but these were more than outweighed by refreshingly detailed explorations of cultures old and new (Trill, Bajoran, Cardassian, Ferengi). As it turned out, Deep Space Nine was the boldest venture into Roddenberry's galaxy that had been (or ever would be) seen. --Paul Tonks
Additional Features
The first season of
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine follows the same pattern as the
Next Generation sets: four episodes per disc, very good Dolby Digital 5.1 and 2.0 surround sound, English subtitles, and one disc of bonus features. Those features total about 75 minutes, including an 18-minute documentary "
Deep Space Nine: A Bold Beginning," a profile of Kira Nerys, makeup and props spotlights, and other short segments, all incorporating a variety of cast and crew interviews from 1992 (the beginning of the series), 1999 (the end), and 2002. It's good stuff, but
Star Trek television DVDs seem overdue for a commentary track on at least a few episodes.
The packaging is noticeably different. Instead of TNG's heavy cardboard box and foldout disc trays, DS9's trays are bound in a book format, which makes the discs much easier to get to; on the downside, the outer plastic sleeve seems more susceptible to wear and tear. Another benefit is that the set occupies almost 50% less shelf space than a season of TNG, meaning that from the Original Series to TNG to DS9, each series is getting more compact, which is a welcome development for Trekkers who had been considering renting a storage unit to house their collections. --David Horiuchi
DVD ~ Avery Brooks
DVD ~ Avery Brooks
DVD ~ Avery Brooks
DVD ~ Avery Brooks
DVD ~ Patrick Stewart
