At home in the 24th century: DS9 and me:

Deep Space Nine is no more. True, the station is still guarding the entrance to the wormhole under the competent command of a lonely Colonel Kira, but we are no longer guests on it on a regular basis. And even if we were, it wouldn't be the same without a chief of security who reverts to a liquid state every 16 hours, without a Starfleet captain who is also the Emissary of the Prophets, without an ingenious Irish chief ops officer, with Garak's tailorshop deserted.

Deep Space Nine canon is frozen now, it will not grow or change anymore from now on. Anything new we want to learn about the fate of the station and its occupants we will have to invent. Maybe, hopefully, canon will begin to branch into the multitudes of alternative universes of fan's creations. I truly hope that DS9 will live on in the minds and works of fans, although I am afraid it is not nearly as popular as it deserves to be.

I am a relatively recent Star Trek convert. My 'First Contact' with Star Trek occurred four years ago, in 1996, when I found myself more and more often watching TV while cooking and eating lunch. I was living in a tiny appartment at the time, bed and desk and miniature kitchen all in one room, which enabled the kitchen smells to invade my wardrobe and the humming of the fridge to invade my sleep. On the other hand, it made doing the dishes a lot more fun if you could watch Captain Picard in the meantime...

Well, this is supposed to be a homage to DS9, not The Next Generation, so let it suffice to say that I became interested first in the captain of the Enterprise and then in the rest of the crew as well. Soon I began to appreciate the often quite fascinating plots of the show and the background it was set against.

This was my introduction to the Federation, to the Star Trek universe. It was also my introduction to being a fan, although I did not quite realize it then. I had to become obsessed with a character from another TV series first to discover 'real' fandom. To see how my fannishness asserted itself, go read my essay on becoming a fan, 'Man With Long Coat'!

Up to this day, I have not been really active in Deep Space Nine or Star Trek fandom. My 'home' fandom is another one. I've grown comfortable there and know my way around the parts of the net concerned with it. Over the past few months, though, during reruns, I have come to realize that DS9 means a lot to me. In fact, it probably means more to me than any other TV series before.

Let me tell you of a crucial experience I had regarding DS9. The show had been gone from German TV for a while, but I knew that it was about to be shown again on weekdays. Remembering how much I had enjoyed it the last time I had seen it, I was eager to see the first ep... Imagine me, lounging on the floor in front of the TV, as the credits begin, the well-known tune is heard once more, after a year's absence...

I had expected to be pleased to see DS9 again. What I had not been prepared for was *coming home*. The first glimpses of the station proved to me that for me, DS9 had gone from being 'just another nice TV show' to being an important part of my life: As I saw the familiar silhouette of the station appear on the TV screen, I felt all the powerful emotions entailed by returning to a long lost home. It was both painful and wonderful.

If DS9 itself has become a kind of home, its crew and civilian occupants are family or friends to me. DS9 has made the Star Trek universe real for me. When I discuss the political situation on DS9 with the only other Star Trek fan I know in Real Life (Hi, Susi!), we talk about it like we would talk about real politics. Things like seeing Odo finally confess his love to Kira, seeing Dax or Ziyal die or seeing Nog lose his leg have affected me deeply. DS9 has had me ecstatically happy, worried, even crushed. When I am watching people walk down the corridors of the station, I almost feel the station floor under my feet.

On a shelf in my room now sit 38 video cassettes containing 170 of the 176 eps of DS9 (lost part of the first season due to stupidity ;-)). DS9 is the first TV show ever I've tried to tape completely. Let me now sing the praise of this most creative, most innovative and most mature 'incarnation' of the Star Trek universe.

Reasons to love this show:

Where do I begin? Shouldn't it be self-evident to everyone why this series is great? ;-) There are so many reasons to love DS9. Let me name a few of them (in alphabetical order):

Vedek Bareil
Dr. Julian Bashir
Liquidator Brunt
Damar
Ezri Dax
Jadzia Dax
Gul Dukat
Michael Eddington
Female Shapeshifter
Vic Fontaine
Cousin Gaila
Elim Garak
Tekeny Ghemor
Gowron
Ishka
The 'Jack Pack'
Kira Nerys
Leeta
Maihar'du
General Martok
Dr. Mora
Morn
Admiral Necheyev
Nog
Keiko O'Brien
Kirayoshi O'Brien
Miles O'Brien
Molly O'Brien
Odo
Kai Opaka
Quark
Rom
Alexander Rozhenko
Admiral Ross
Sarah
Shakaar
The Shakaar Resistance Cell
Benjamin Sisko
Jake Sisko
Jennifer Sisko
Joseph Sisko
Sloan
Enabran Tain
Tora Ziyal
Lwaxana Troi
Weyoun
Kai Winn
Worf
Kasidy Yates
The Grand Nagus Zek

Why do I list all these characters, even the unpopular ones, even the minor ones, even Kirayoshi who is just a baby? I am listing them because they all add to the texture and complexity of the series.

Character development:

To an extent unseen before in Star Trek, DS9 is about people. Most of the characters are portrayed with surprising depth and often with an ambiguity that makes them all the more real. Many episodes are devoted to the development of single characters or the relationship between one character and another. Often, the actual 'action' is just a MacGuffin or a catalyst that initiates a certain development or leads to the revelation of a new and unexpected side of a character. At the end of seven years of DS9, nearly every character on the show has undergone significant changes.

Life on DS9 affects people. It leaves traces and sometimes scars, both mental and physical. These issues are dealt with on screen, the characters are not left to deal with their problems 'between episodes'. Characters grow with their experience and they accumulate a history. This personal background we know about increases the impact of present actions and events. When Kira, for example, joins the Cardassian resistance movement against the Dominion, we know about her past in the Bajoran resistance. We can appreciate the irony of the situation and we can imagine what Kira must feel like.

Two main characters even came into the show with a history already: Both Worf and Chief O'Brien were known to the audience as members of the Enterprise crew. This also added a lot to the feeling that the people one was watching on the TV screen had a real life and a past. At the end of DS9, the audience had been following the fates of some of the characters for up to ten years - small wonder they became neighbours/friends/family! They did so for me in much shorter a time.

Character interaction:

One of the things that distinguishes DS9 from other Star Trek shows is that on DS9, people have 'real' relationships. They are even defined by their relationships. Of course, people on the Enterprise or the Voyager have relationships, too, but they are not to the same extent the focus of these shows. This is, of course, partly due to the not-quite-so military structure of life on a space station. On a spaceship, life is ruled by military discipline. On DS9 there exists a civilian life which is accompanied by all the friction and conflicts that are usually suppressed under military discipline.

• People on DS9 have families: Sisko is raising his teenage son Jake there. Chief O'Brien, father to a daughter, is having a marriage crisis when his wife Keiko has trouble adjusting to life on the station. Some people have rather problematic family relationships: Ziyal loves her father Gul Dukat, but often dislikes his deeds; Garak is never really accepted by his father, Cardassian secret service leader Enabran Tain...
• People on DS9 dislike each other: O'Brien is severely irritated by Dr. Bashir in the beginning. Odo, chief of security on DS9, and Quark, bar owner and the driving force behind many of the criminal activities on the station, never stop trying to outwit each other. Kira, despite of her firm belief, dislikes the Bajoran religious leader, Kai Winn.
• People on DS9 hate each other: Ex-guerilla fighter Major Kira is hating Gul Dukat, the former leader of the occupation of her planet. Gul Dukat, on the other hand, is intrigued by Kira - maybe because she never stops fighting him. Some of best episodes centre on the two of them. Also, there is no love lost between Garak, exiled Cardassian spy, and Gul Dukat, still a high official in the Cardassian military...
• People on DS9 make friends: Dax and Sisko already are friends, but when they first met, Dax was a man... in a way. ;-) O'Brien and Bashir reluctantly begin to like each other and, after a while, become good friends. Bashir, a fan of 'old-fashioned' spy stories is also fascinated by Garak, with whom he is having lunch and sophisticated small-talk regularly. Jake, son of the station's commander, befriends Nog, a Ferengi, hence a member of a culture opposed to the Federation's moral values.
• People on DS9 fall in love, and some of them even marry: Odo is in love with Kira for years but doesn't dare to tell her for fear of ruining their friendship, until he finally kisses her after a shouting match in public; Quark and Bashir love Jadzia Dax who in turn loves - and finally marries - Worf; Sisko falls in love with Kasidy Yates, a freighter captain involved with the Maquis; Rom, Quark's 'idiot brother', loves and marries the beautiful Leeta, much to the surprise of everyone else on DS9.

Political complexity:

Deep Space Nine, it is true, had the advantage of taking over the ground prepared by The Next Generation and the original Star Trek from the sixties. The stage was already set, the Star Trek Universe well established. But Deep Space Nine should transform this mild utopian universe into something darker, grittier and infinitely more real.

Paradoxically, while DS9 is static in setting, the background it is set against is very dynamic. It is much more dynamic than that of The Next Generation, although as the end of that series was nearing, elements of greater political complexity and change were introduced to it, too.

DS9 is a former Cardassian mining station near the planet of Bajor, a world that has just liberated itself after 60 years of Cardassian occupation. The Federation is presented with the delicate task of helping the Bajorans rebuild their culture and prevent any Cardassian attempt to return. In the first seasons of DS9, the characteristic problems of a post-war society are very present. Bajor is a world whose culture is deeply rooted in mysticism, but the Bajorans have also become skilled guerilla fighters in their long battle against the Cardassians. Religious fanatism and terrorism occur in the aftermath of the war. But Bajor is not the only focus of the show. DS9 always tries to show both sides of the story, and so the political developments on Cardassia are explored as well. Cardassia, a ruthlessly militaristic culture has committed near-genocide against the Bajorans during the occupation. Yet the Cardassians are not simply portrayed as 'evil'. Quite a number of episodes deal with the Cardassian opposition movement struggling for a more liberal and democratic Cardassia.

But Cardassia, Bajor and the Federation are not the only political players on DS9. The Klingons are still around, too, and their relationship with the Federation is unstable at best at first. Eventually, though, the rise of a new and very dangerous common enemy brings them into an alliance with the Federation.

Furthermore, the Romulan Empire is still a power to be reckoned with, a power that gains crucial importance for the survival of the Federation at one point of the series.

And let's not forget the Ferengi, of whose culture we learn quite a bit, although they are mostly used for comic relief.

Enter: The Dominion:

Throughout the first two seasons there are allusions made about a mysterious and dangerous power ruling much of the Gamma Quadrant - the region of space that can be accessed only through the wormhole next to DS9. When this power, the Dominion, finally comes out into the open, it turns out to be the greatest threat the Federation has ever faced. Led by the missionary and expansive 'Founders', a race that has no definite corporeal form, the Dominion wages a ruthless war against the Federation and indeed the whole Alpha Quadrant. This war is beginning to look increasingly hopeless for the Federation as the show proceeds. Although not the whole of the show deals with the war, it is a constant presence in the background, and it takes its toll on the occupants of the station.

Paradise Lost: The Federation in shades of grey:

The Dominion War changed the Star Trek Universe considerably. Without a doubt it led the Federation to lose its innocence, debatably even its soul.

Unlike any conflict earlier depicted on Star Trek, the war against the Dominion is long and dirty and shown in all its ugliness. More than once, the 'good guys' of the Federation resort to downright immoral means to achieve some crucial goal in the war's proceedings.

It would have been easy to portray the Dominion as evil incarnate, the ultimate, mysterious, entirely foreign threat, like, for example, the Shadows in Babylon 5. Yet although it is indeed presented as an incredibly aggressive political entity, the element of absolute and uncomprehensible evil is lacking. (Well, most of the time.) One member of the DS9 crew is actually a member of the elusive race of the 'Founders': Odo, security chief on DS9, is forever torn between loyalty to his friends of the Federation, and longing to be with his people, whose desire for domination corresponds with his desire for order and justice in a strange way. Even the Jem'Hadar, perfect soldiers of the Dominion born and bred only to kill, are portrayed as victims of their creators in a number of episodes. Also, while the Dominion is undebatably committing acts of great cruelty against its enemies and even its allies, the DS9 crew to their great horror discover that the Federation has a very dark side, too: In late season six, a ruthless secret organization is introduced to the Star Trek universe. Section 31, as it is called, is bent on protecting the Federation against all possible threats, by all means imaginable, up to and including genocide.

Even before the beginning of the war, though, there are hints that the 'ideal society' of the Federation we are used to believe in may not be as ideal as it once was. On DS9, the Federation is faced with serious internal conflict, maybe for the first time in its existence and certainly for the first time in the history of Star Trek on TV. A resistance movement is formed by Federation settlers who lost their homes to the Cardassians due to a treaty between the Federation and Cardassia. This movement calls itself the Maquis and goes on fighting the Cardassians. Incidentally, 'le maquis' was also the name of the French underground movement fighting against the Nazis under the Vichy régime. If you put the Cardassians for the Nazis, that leaves the Federation with the inglorious role of the collaborating Vichy régime. This shows quite clearly how betrayed the Maquis feel by the Federation.

The mere existence of an underground movement automatically questions the motives and policies of the political entity it originates from. Thus, the Maquis questions the Federation. Section 31 tries to protect the Federation, but by using grossly immoral means compromises the Federation it claims to protect. There are also frightening tendencies within official Federation organizations, within Starfleet itself: Signs of a creeping militarization, fanatism and paranoia, especially when it becomes known that the Founders may have infiltrated the Federation government. On DS9, it often seems like Star Trek's idea that humankind has moved on and reached a new stage of ethical development was just an illusion...

Just like its cultures and empires, DS9's characters are painted in shades of grey in some of the best moments of the show. Captain Sisko, for example, has to make a number of ethically highly difficult decisions. In the episode 'In The Pale Moonlight'; he teams up with Garak, sly Cardassian tailor, spy and killer, to trick the Romulans into joining the alliance against the Dominion. At this point of the war, Sisko is desperate enough to forge secret service reports and tolerate Garak's killing of witnesses. Garak himself is a very complicated character - a skilled liar, who used to be a member of the feared Cardassian secret service. Nevertheless he is one of the 'good guys' now and tries to do his part in saving the Alpha Quadrant. To pick a third - and last - example: Odo, despite his proverbial sense of justice, was in a way a collaborator during the Cardassian occupation of Bajor and responsible for the death of at least three innocent people at the hands of the Cardassians. DS9 doesn't give any easy answers to the questions it provokes. It is left to the audience to decide whether the actions of the protagonists are simply wrong or maybe were necessary or at least forgiveable.

Cultural contact and change:

On DS9, many different species live together. Many of the characters are outsiders, exiles or weirdos in their own cultures, and some of them become so in the course of the series. People living between cultures are a recurring theme of the show.

There is Odo, a changeling, i.e., a member of the Dominion by race, who has lived all his life among 'humanoids'. The only non-humanoid life form on the station, he is fundamentally lonely, because even his friends cannot really understand him. There's Worf, a Klingon raised by humans on earth. Too much of a Klingon to really feel comfortable among humans, but an outcast among Klingons, he is another character that doesn't fit in anywhere. Tora Ziyal, daughter of ex-occupation commander Gul Dukat and a Bajoran woman, is neither accepted on Cardassia Prime nor on Bajor. Her father's decision to acknowledge her leads to his political downfall (although this downfall, as it turns out, is only a temporary one). And Nog, a Ferengi, and nephew of ultra-capitalist bar owner Quark, takes Sisko as a role-model and joins Starfleet - for fear of living the miserable life of his father, a Ferengi without the 'lobes' for profit. (It was, by the way, the Ferengi who had me most bewildered when I caught the first glimpses of DS9 - I couldn't quite reconcile the apparently important role they played in the show with the Trek universe I knew! ;-))

And, of course, there's Captain Sisko. He is considered a religious icon by the Bajorans straight from his arrival and slowly grows into that role. He also in a way becomes a believer in the Bajoran Prophets, who are considered simply a newly discovered alien species by the rest of Starfleet. In the later seasons of DS9, he is planning to build a house on Bajor. While the three aforementioned characters are 'aliens' influenced to some degree by human/Federation values, Captain Sisko is a human from Earth who is 'going native' on Bajor. As far as I know, this is the first time we have seen a main character of a Star Trek show become 'estranged' from rationalist Federation culture.

Cultures do not only meet and occasionally collide 'inside' certain characters, they meet and collide all the time on the station whose crew and population come from many different planets. Culture contact is a constant reality on Deep Space Nine, and many an unlikely friendship is made.Cultural contact facilitates cultural change. Therefore, cultural change and sometimes upheaval is another central characteristic of many DS9 episodes, and of the whole series. Of course, the Dominion war is also a form, or rather, a result of cultural contact - the result of a contact gone wrong.

The first Star Trek Messiah:

Maybe the most curious new ingredient DS9 added to the Star Trek universe is the Bajoran mysticism. The Federation is tolerant of the beliefs of people, but at least on Earth, in human culture, religion is but of marginal importance in the twentyfourth century. There may be humans in whose lives religion still plays a certain role - Chakotay from 'Voyager' comes to my mind spontaneously - but mostly, humans, and maybe the Federation as a whole, seem to be skeptical of 'irrational' belief systems.

When Starfleet Commander Benjamin Sisko is given the command of Deep Space Nine, he is confronted with an 'irrational' belief system par excellence: The Bajorans believe him the 'Emissary' of their gods, the Prophets. (Addendum: I just noticed that this could be viewed as an ironic comment on the old cliché of the (white) explorer who is worshipped as a god by natives somewhere in the bush: Firstly, because Sisko is black, while most of the Bajorans seem to be white, and secondly, and more importantly, because here the 'civilized' visitor is converted by the 'natives', whose culture is in fact several thousands of years older than human culture.)

Sisko reluctantly accepts this role so as not to hurt the Bajorans' feelings, but with time, it becomes more than just a role to him. He is having visions, and comes to recognize the prophets may actually help him cope with his life. What's more, he comes to recognize that, at least for him, destiny exists, and he discovers faith. Boldly put, Sisko is the first messiah figure on Star Trek, yet the series treats the topics of faith and destiny in an oddly undogmatic, maybe even indecisive way. Strange as it may seem, the answer to the question if the 'Prophets' are really gods and if Sisko really is a divine emissary is: 'Yes and no. Yes from the Bajoran point of view. No from the Federation's point of view. It is all a matter of perspective.' For Sisko, however, there does not seem to be much doubt anymore after a certain point of the development. Most of the time he still acts like a Starfleet captain is supposed to, but there are moments when it becomes obvious that he has not only adopted the Bajoran religious terminology, but also the Bajoran world view. (Unfortunately, the plot thread dealing with Sisko's fate is brought to a less than satisfactory end, though.)

Compared to earlier (and later) Trek, there's an amazing over-abundance of god-like figures on DS9. The show not only introduces the Bajoran Prophets, but also the Founders, the shapeshifting race from the Gamma Quadrant. Their rule is based on a tyrannical religious system with themselves as gods. While the wormhole aliens / Prophets are mysterious but benevolent, the Shapeshifters have created their religion for reasons of self-preservation. Sisko's faith in the Prophets seems to be justified most of the time because the Prophets seem to actually care about the Bajorans. The faith of the Vorta and the Jem'Hadar however, races genetically constructed to serve the Founders, demonstrates the other side of the coin: Their 'gods' mainly use their faith as a means of controlling them.

Generic variation:

So much for content. But DS9 is also interesting for 'formal' reasons. The show employs and sometimes parodies a multitude of generic conventions to tell a multitude of stories. There's drama, crime, war/anti-war movies, comedy, romance, courtroom drama, there are James Bond parodies and even a DS9 version of Casablanca, starring Quark as Humphrey Bogart.

With all the dramatic events of galactic scale, comic relief is often needed to lighten the mood. In many cases, the Ferengi serve this purpose. Another element of comic relief are bizarre side characters like Morn, a massive alien who practically lives in Quark's bar. Morn is more of a running gag than a real character. He is seen in almost every episode of the series. The other characters repeatedly claim he talks too much, but we never actually hear or see him do anything but brood silently over a drink.

DS9 is the first Star Trek show that managed to give me a real impression of what life in the Star Trek universe might be like. It is rich in detail, and it is the details that make life on the station seem so real. There are a few eps that are undebatably below standard, but even these episodes usually provide at least some interesting detail that makes the watching worthwile.

Where do we go from here?

Yesterday I watched 'What You Leave Behind'. I cried. Twice, actually, sentimental me. The evening of the same day I was given 'Emissary' as a belated Christmas gift by my good friend Susi (who had also cried for DS9). It may have been a bit late for a Christmas present, but to me, the timing could not have been better. It had a good feel to it, watching the very first episode on the same day as watching the very last one - except that it nearly made me cry again. A circle was closed. The wonderful thing about circles is that they never really end. The sad thing about them is that they don't change or progress, either.

A good thing has ended, and I still can't quite grasp it. Deep Space Nine may not have been perfect - was there ever a long-running TV series that was? - but a large part of it came pretty close. Damn close, at least for me. I will go on refusing to let it die.

Somewhere I've read the phrase 'it has gone to rerun heaven' to describe a show out of production. Well, in that sense: I hope that Deep Space Nine will see