From Chris Snellgrove
| Published
When Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Premiere, it took some time to escape the shadow of The next generation. This shadow performed particularly thanks to the first season of DS9, the Kameen of TNG characters such as Captain Picard, Lwaxana Troi and even Q. not Transform the final into a large cliffhanger event.
In the hands of the prophets
After the first two seasons ended with independent final, The next generation The third season began a tradition of Cliffhangerendations that led directly to the next season. This could be both exciting and annoying for fans. After watching the Borg Assimilate Captain Picard, we had to wait a whole Summer To find out whether he would be saved or simply saved by Riker’s bold plan that Borg Cube would destroy. As DS9’s future showrunner Ira Steven Behrs explained, the show intentionally avoided making “in the hands of the Prophet” in a cliffhanger because the producers hoped to save money.
“I know that people wanted the big cliffhanger and I love Cliffhanger, but they are usually a gimmick,” said Behr. “Unless you can find a gimmick that will work for you, why are it doing?” This is together with the fact that “we had no way of successfully doing this due to the budget restrictions”, why “in the hands of the prophets” is an independent episode.
How expensive would it have been to make this a two -part episode? After the then showrunner Michael Piller, A Star Trek Cliffhanger costs “traditionally at least at least at least $ 100,000 more” because additional action scenes are required. In this case, Deep Space Nine‘The first season had already gone the budget, and because he was “a responsible producer”, he didn’t want the show to make a cliffhanger to make a cliffhanger.
While there were financial considerations that made “in the hands of the prophets” a one-and-done episode, this was ultimately a creative decision. As Behr emphasized, the best cliffhangers are based on solid gimmicks, and because they couldn’t imagine an audience, he did not have the need to make this episode a two-partner player. Accordingly, Behr found that there was no need to arbitrarily follow such a new tradition in the franchise: “To say that you have to have a cliffhanger is ridiculous,” he said.
Michael Piller apparently agreed … Although the show had already exceeded the budget for the season, he would have given all the excellent cliffhanger ideas. “If we had a wonderful cliffhanger we wanted to do, I would have been behind it,” he said. But in the end he had the feeling that “we already had (one …) episode that could be a season ended that gave the season to be complete.”
We already saw “in the hands of the prophets” as one of the best consequences of Deep Space Nine. As Behr and Piller emphasized, it did not need a second part to enable convincing television. But to hear how the two deliberately conclude the idea that the season had to end in a cliffhanger just because Tng We have always brought warmth to our cold, cold volcanic hearts. This spin -off has always broken the rules, and this early Maverick spirit is only one of many reasons why Deep Space Nine remains that Best Star Trek Show ever made.
