Movies - TV
The Behind-The-Scenes Battle Over Star Trek: DS9’s Dominion War
By WITNEY SEIBOLD
While there are a few conflicts, “Star Trek” creator Gene Roddenberry explicitly made a pacifist show. The idea of diplomacy became even more prominent in “The Next Generation.”
However, the ideas of peace and diplomacy seemed to break down in “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine” as the Dominion threatened outright war on the galaxy.
The move away from pacifism resulted in co-creator Rick Berman butting heads with showrunner Ira Steven Behr over whether or not war belongs in “Star Trek.”
There was a build-up to the Dominion War throughout “Deep Space Nine,” but Berman didn’t like the idea and felt that “Star Trek” should remain about diplomacy.
In a StarTrek.com interview, Berman explained, “Gene had been very specific to me about not wanting ‘Star Trek’ to be a show about intergalactic wars, interspecies wars.”
Despite disliking the Dominion War idea, Berman agreed to let Behr oversee a war-centric story arc. However, he expected it to end after a quarter of a season.
Berman shared, “I felt that the whole arc of these wars was something that could get done in half-dozen episodes. Ira felt differently and he pushed it, and it went longer.”
He continued, “I was not necessarily happy that it went as long as it did. But these are the kinds of disagreements that people involved with a television show have.”