Star Trek Deep Space Nine

For better or worse, ‘Star Trek: Deep Space Nine’ always stood out from its sister shows. Most obviously, it was set on a space station, so that the strange new worlds often came to them. And most importantly, as it found its footing, it became a much more serialized and character focused show than any ‘Star Trek’ before or since. And it did this at a time when television as a whole still very much favored a “done in one” episodic format. When the show ended in 1999, that approach allowed it so with a far greater sense of closure than any other ‘Star Trek’ to date. But as satisfying as that ending was, it still left a number of questions unanswered, mostly driven by where the characters found themselves at the end of the run. Now, fans have a chance to get some answers to those questions straight from the show’s writers.

Former ‘Deep Space Nine’ showrunner Ira Steven Behr has kicked off an Indiegogo campaign to fund the completion of a documentary examining the show. Titled ‘What We Left Behind: Looking Back at ‘Star Trek: Deep Space Nine,'” the film will not only include an extensive look at the series’ past, but also at its future. In addition to assembling the expected interviews with both the series’ stars and its fans, Behr has also reunited a number of the show’s writers (including Ronald D. Moore, Rene Echevarria, and Hans Beimler) to plot out the premiere episode of a hypothetical eighth season. Imagine ‘Deep Space Nine’ getting a revival similar to what ‘The X-Files’ had last year and you’ll be on the right track. Speaking with The Hollywood Reporter, Behr described the genesis of this session and the way the team approached this hypothetical episode:

That was an idea that I had based on a conversation with [Captain Sisko actor] Avery [Brooks], because Avery kept saying, “Don’t make it talking heads only.” It got me thinking, what would be something you’ve never seen before? There were ground rules, which was everyone had to watch the final episode of season seven, so everyone remembered where everyone was on the playing field, or at least read the Wikipedia page. We weren’t going to have and cheat sheets. We are going in there with nothing for on day to see if we could get through a pilot episode of the show. And we did. Obviously, as with any show, you don’t break a show in a day – and if you do, you still go back the next day and refine. This is the raw material, but it’s a fascinating process. We had a fantastic time doing it. It was amazing how time slipped away and everyone was back doing their thing and interacting and arguing and getting passionate and it was really a magic day.

For more information on ‘What We Left Behind’, or to make a donation, you can head over to the project’s Indiegogo page. As of this writing, they are less than a day into the crowdfunding campaign and just under $10,000 away from the funding goal. And as always, be sure to check back with ScienceFiction.com for more on the project as it progresses.