#ds9doc

... in no particular order.

The most entertaining aspect of the doc was probably the writers’ room session where, over the course of a day, they plot what would be the first episode of Season 8 of DS9 - taking place twenty years after the end of Season 7. It’s dramatized with animated storyboards. It would make for a hell of a story, very provocative in terms of how certain characters would have developed. They would also begin by killing off a character in Act 2 (that fans would find unsettling - I know I would).

Although fun, it aches that there’s no chance this 8th season, with its very bold story-line, will never be shot.

I love how much Nana Visitor is in this doc. She’s practically the co-host or second chair to Ira Steven Behr. She is just a continual delight. When you see this, watch the entirety of the credits.

I wish there were more of Andrew Robinson (who played Garak). He doesn’t appear in any group interactions (does he live in Europe now or something?). They don’t touch upon his novel, A Stitch in Time, which for my money is the best Trek book ever written. He also gets to be more candid about his portrayal of Garak than ever before. Ira asks him what he thought Garak wanted out of a relationship with Bashir. Robinson says, “initially, he just wanted to have sex with him.” So yes, every Garashir shipper’s read on the romantic nuances of those characters is right on the money.

Ira addresses regret on how DS9 didn’t go as far as they could with sexual politics and LGBTQ representation. Garak is obviously gay, he points out, so why didn’t they just run with it after “The Wire”? Would the network have approved of Garak being openly gay? No. But they didn’t try, that’s the point. So they don’t earn a pat on the back in that category, per Ira Behr’s hindsight.

Seeing all the remastered negatives in HD is a wonderful, of course, but like the story pitch for Season 8, it aches that we’ll probably never get to see a full restoration of DS9 like they did for TNG. We’re basically shown a brief glimpse of something gorgeous - and then the steel door slams down in front of our eyes. If I thought starting a petition would do any good I’d consider it.

I may have more to add after this initial thoughtdump, but for now I’ll get started on my back-to-front re-watch of DS9, and blog it here. Subscribe and follow along if you like. We could get some interesting threads going.