By Drew Dietsch | Published
Hello everyone, they drawn Dietsch here for Giant Freakin Robot and we are talking about Star Trek again.
But not any trek Star. We are going to take a look at a series of Star Trek that broke all the rules, he was controversial with fans, he went to the middle of the studio, had tensions with the scenes with his leading actor and ended up being the Star Trek Storytelling pinnacle.
Yes, it’s time to explore why Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Failed.
Before we can step on the promenade, we have to recognize and talk about Star Trek: The next generation.
It is difficult to really understand how much success Star Trek: The next generation It was if you were around the initial execution.
Yes, most Pull fans were on the moon when it comes to the new series, but I’m sorry, the Trekkies only did not turn that program a worldwide success.
Star Trek: The next generation He hits the conventional public while he continued his television career.
The program became a focal point in pop culture for when the two -part episode “The Best of Both World” arrived in the third season, and the quality and influence of the program would continue to grow from there.
With the franchise now in full duration of the 90s, the Paramount watering to keep the ball by woring and introduction another new series towards the end of Next generationS run.
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Released on January 3, 1993, just in the middle of Next generationThe sixth season, with a pilot episode that even included Patrick Stewart as Jean-Luc Picard.
And this is where we obtain our first obstacle that stopped some Next generation The spectators of wanting to give the program a chance.
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Start its story with the character of Benjamin Sisko, a stellar fleet officer, losing his wife in the battle of Wolf 359, an infamous conflict led by Picard while Borg assimilated him and became Locutus.
The first episode of the program has Sisko together with Picard and it is immediately established that Sisko houses the resentment for the time of Picard as Locutus.
Sisko even mentions that he is considering renouncing Starfleet in the first episode, establishing the first Star Trek character that does not really agree with the Federation.
Now, I always say a version of this as a security network for anything else we are about to explore in the video, so here it goes: I love it Deep space nine. I love Benjamin Sisko’s character. You will not hear anything bad about the man on me.
However, there is no doubt that fans had understood extremely both for the character of Jean-Luc Picard and for what he represented Star Trek: The next generation In general.
And here there was an angry black man challenging that status quo directly in a new Star Trek series, and using the favorite captain of fans of the popular program to do so.
We will focus on Avery Brooks himself in a moment, but it is important to understand that Sisko’s character encapsulated a lot Deep space nineNarrative mission statement: It is time to see how much this idealism of Star Trek is maintained against more difficult and more morally complex ideas and stories.
And I thought I’m sure there were fans willing to give Deep space nineThe adversary tone is a photo from the beginning, there was a vocal contingent that let their negative opinions know.
Without a doubt there was reluctance of both fans and conventional viewers when it came to embrace Deep space nine.
Here was a Star Trek show that is not about being in a spacecraft and going to explore the galaxy.
Located in a Dossian recovered space station, Deep space nine He made many similar deliberate creative decisions that were spread against the familiarity of Star Trek.
Instead of a captain, Benjamin Sisko begins the series as commander.
Instead of a cast of immediately adorable crew members, we obtain the changing sullen and the rightest Kira Nerys.
And thought Deep space nine He certainly has a warm and silly side, it is not like the show deviated from his desire to dig in the darkest matter as he advances.
There is no doubt that Deep space nineThe tone and mood disconnected a significant contingent of the spectators.
And as the program concentrated more on episodes of various parts, recurring characters and a general serialized history, ended up removing more spectators who felt outside the circuit with the program stories.
Due to Deep space nine Running in syndication, it is bad that the program could reproduce on several occasions throughout the country or simply in a different order than expected.
It is not necessary to say that for people who knew Star Trek as an episodic franchise in which you could appear, Deep space nine He did not invite exactly to a new audience as he continued his execution.
But there were other factors that hindered the potential of Deep space nine To explode.
The gigantic success of Star Trek: The next generation He ended up suffering Deep space nine In the long run.
The study compared the qualifications of Next generation to Deep space nine And they were not excited.
I thought the program began strongly at the end of the back of Next generationIt was quickly losing the spectators and would drop them constantly through the seven seasons of the program.
To highlight this, the pilot episode of Deep space nine He registered about 18 million viewers, while the final of the series had 5 million viewers, less than a third of the initial audience.
And part of the guilt of the fall of the spectators lands directly on Paramount’s shoulders.
Only two years after the premiere of Deep space nineParamount launched its own network station, the Network United Paramount or UPN, and its main transmission was a new Star Trek program that would act as the flagship program of the Network, Star Trek: Voyager.
Because Paramount had a greater interest in UPN’s success and, therefore, TravelerMean that Deep space nine He went up to a seat in the marketing and consciousness of the company.
Traveler He also promised the public something much more traditional Star Trek with a team of spacecraft in the galaxy, so it is much more accessible and episodic for the spectators of Dut.
In many ways, Star Trek: Voyager Came out as an answer to Deep space nine In the eyes of fans and not positive.
And all the duration this time, Paramount was also financing and promotion Next generation Feature films.
While it seemed Deep space nine It was only another functional part of this mega franchise, the studies focus on optimizing the success of Traveler and the TNG The films made the creators and filmmakers behind Deep space nine Find out as “The Middle Child” or Star Trek.
And then there is Avery Brooks.
Let me reiterate: I love Deep space nine. I love Benjamin Sisko. And I love Avery Brooks’ performance throughout the series and as director of multiple episodes, especially “far from the stars”, which I made a complete video about which you should see. It’s the best Trek has done.
But there is no doubt that Avery Brooks as leadership of the series played why the program was not exactly promoting in its time.
Brooks is a truly unique actor. At that time, he was quite known as the Hawk character of Spenser: For rent And it was held enough in that program to obtain its own spin -off, A man named Hawk.
Brooks firmly felt about his appearance on television as a black man and wanted to harass his bald head and his knob.
But, the producers vetoed this since their last main actor of Star Trek was a bald man and were worried that people only saw Brooks like his former character, Hawk.
Therefore, he played several seasons before Brooks could adapt his preferred gaze to Sisko’s character.
Why do we present all this? Because Brooks has declared in the past that why it was to leave the program at the beginning of his career towards his many conflicting feelings.
Look, Star Trek fans like to think of themselves as extremely progressive and open -minded mind, but there have always been toxic and idiots fans in every follow -up and Star Trek is no different.
Brooks, without a doubt, Dalt with the racism of fans as the first black protagonist of the franchise, and there is a very good possibility that he has also experienced it behind the scene.
And I’m sorry if her rose -dyed glasses tell you otherwise, but a black advantage in a conventional television program in the 90s is something that certain white audiences were not going to accept.
Deep space nine He showed several black characters and actors, he often presented scenes with no one on the screen but black actors.
It can be so irritated in the comments about this, but it is absolutely true that a section of the conventional audience simply did not want to see a black man leading every week in his space show.
Thank you, Deep space nine He maintained a positive critical response that pronounces its initial execution, with reviewers at the time they found the change of rhythm for the refreshing franchise.
But, ash Traveler He kept finding the way through the Delta and Picard quadrant was swinging like Tarzan on the big screen, Deep space nine He played his story and concluded his seven -season career on June 2, 1999.
And frankly, he vanished from conversation in many walking circles from Traveler Continued and there was even more Next generation Movies that happen.
For a while, he felt like Deep space nine He was destined to continue being a niche favorite for franchise fans.
Until a new generation found the series through transmission.
This is where we begin to see the real reevaluation of Deep space nineFor both Star Trek fans and modern television spectators.
Thanks to the binge model of seeing transmission programs and a larger cultural will for darker material as a result of shows such as game of ThronesThe new spectators were much more willing and could be established with Deep space nineThe longest stories and the hardest tone.
Today, you can find Star Trek fans like Myelf who say proudly Deep space nine It is the best Star Trek series.
Trust me, that was not the case when the peak of the popularity of Star Trek grew.
Star Trek: The next generation It can be the general favorite of fans, but when it comes to mature narration, complex characters and power of permanence, Deep space nine Take the cake.
It is like him Andor Or its day, except that the show exists in a market where the audience for a darker and combative exploration of its franchise is ready and waiting for this type of stories.
Deep space nine He was really ahead of his time, which is a great reason he still finds new fans.
It can have a failure of the leg as failure at that time, but today, it is a proof that they managed to make any trek Star as good as good as good as good as good as good as good as good as good as good as good as good as good as good Deep space nine Before or since then.
