All language subtitles for What We Left Behind [Looking Back at Star Trek Deep Space Nine] (2018)

Excuse me.

Isn't this a bit premature?

All right now, that's enough. Cut!

A space battle?

Really?

We can wait on that one, OK?

Hello, my name is Andy Robinson.

I played Garak,
on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine which means,

I know a little something
about truth and lies.

What We Left Behind,
is merely a documentary.

And like most documentaries
it consists of stories,

recalled in memory fueled by emotion.

Now, stories require embellishment.

Memory can be faulty,

and emotion often obscures clarity.

The end result is entertaining,
informative, heartfelt,

but it is truth,
as seen through a glass darkly.

I'm afraid...

it's the best we humans can do.

"| love Star Trek,
but this show sucks!

They broke Gene Roddenberry's
rules for Star Trek."

"The whole idea of Star Trek,

is the idea that they would
be exploring new worlds

and going where no man has gone before."

"Not bumming around a space station
talking about their feelings."

"It's more like a Star Trek soap opera:

As the Space Station Turns.

Really kind of mediocre at best."

"Just watch, say, the second half
of the second season,

and search online
for the five to 10 best episodes."

"Anything else is losing precious time

you could use for something
more pleasant like,

breaking each bone in your...
hand

with a rusted hammer!"

Oh, God.

Actors don't go into
acting to be disliked.

They go into acting to be loved,

and certainly everyone thought, well, hey,

you know, everyone loves TNG,

they're gonna love the next
iteration of the franchise.

Well, when that did not happen,
and that continued not to happen,

year in, year out,
it gets a little wearisome.

And... it hurt the actors.
I felt bad.

We were in a place
where people were just,

I don't think they were really ready
for the show.

And I think we were referred to as
"the middle brother"

disparagingly by various people.

I knew that we were the bastard child,
which actually was thrilling to me,

because that gave you guys the leeway
to do pretty much anything you wanted.

We knew we were the middle child.

And we knew that, you know,

we weren't gonna get the respect
that we deserved.

You have Deep Space Nine.

It's entire existence,

was never alone.

It was either a companion piece
to Next Generation,

or a piece that was continuing
as this new show Voyager, began.

The first one, and Next Generation

are always the ones
that are being promoted,

but it seems like our show,

which is every inch as good as those,

and, in my opinion, better,

excuse me, better, than those two shows,

there's still this perception
that we don't match up.

I think in time we'll get there,
but it's still slightly hurtful.

In the universe of new adventures,

where no one has gone before,

imagine,

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

coming to your quadrant, January, 1993.

From a studio point of view

it was certainly one of the shows
that we wanted to place a big bet on.

We were pretty confident that
the audience would welcome this franchise.

I was so against it,
my mom was against it.

I thought I knew what Star Trek was

based on The Next Generation
and classic Trek...

My idea of Star Trek
is adventure and exploration...

It bothered me a lot that they didn't
go out and boldly explore.

That's the whole point of Star Trek!

The mission of the Enterprise
is to seek out and contact alien lite.

Let's see what's out there!

Warp nine, engage!

Mr. Paris, get us out of here!

You had TNG and you had Voyager.

Every week they went to a new planet,

and then, that was fun!

Who knows what was gonna
happen on that planet?

We were on space station, slowly turning,

next to a Wormhole, next to Bajor.

It's not a crew on a ship
named the Enterprise,

going out and having fun
adventures every week.

Um... it's definitely a darker show,

and I think that threw people off-kilter
when it first came out.

What made me excited about it,

was that it was being sold
as the dark Star Trek.

I would imagine the pilot was darker,

- and sexier than anything we had seen.
- Yeah.

Everything about Deep Space Nine
was dark and dirty

and the characters didn't all get along,

and it was fun, it was exciting,

it was something totally different
in the world of Star Trek.

I don't know if that was a copy line
that the marketing department put out,

or if the fans started
thinking about it that way,

but it... it got that reputation,

and some people still think of that.

They say, "Oh I don't wanna
watch it because it's darker."

Did you feel that the look of
the show was different than TNG?

The tone was completely different,

and part of that is decided
by the production design, Herman's sets,

by Marvin Rush who had
been shooting the show.

The way the lighting
was built into the set,

there were so many practical pieces
of light that you could use,

and I always called it
"film noir in space".

Rick and Michael, with our
support, wanted to make a Star Trek show

that would satisfy a Star Trek audience
but different.

I think we saw Avery Brooks on tape

before he came in and read,

but the sides that he was given to read,
he just nailed it.

I thought he was terrific.

He was the only one for me,
who was really able to do Sisko,

because of the duality in his character.

He was able to play Sisko
with this huge weight on his shoulders,

which informed everything that he did.

I remember
when Peter Allan Fields and I

watched Avery's audition tapes for Sisko.

We were shocked, we were shocked.

We expected to see a younger man

which is how the part had been written,

some guy who was still earning his way

in the Federation chain of command,

and what we got instead
was this mature man,

this powerful man.

And it's like, wait a second,

this isn't a commander, this is a captain.

Now, you can tell me
that captains are on starships

and commanders are
on static space stations,

and that might be right,
but it's wrong for Deep Space Nine,

and it's wrong for the guy we hired.

I remember coming on
the lot of Paramount,

and there was Hawk, standing there.

We had this big,
black captain in your face.

America, come and look at me.

I'm running your show
and this is the face of it.

So, when you tell me that Hawk

is gonna be the captain
of my new Star Trek show,

I'm like, "What?!"

This is amazing!

Like some silver-plated phaser

and he's got this awesome, like,
ship he's gonna drive in,

and then he shows up
with like a full head of hair

and boring-dad version of Avery Brooks.

There was a lot of conversation

about African-American men
and facial hair,

that it was something
that was very important.

I fought for three seasons

to get Avery to be allowed
to wear the goat,

and shave his head.

This is a look he was very clear on,

that this is how he felt comfortable
as a person in life.

Why did it take three seasons?

I do think going in...

um...

particularly given that
he was coming off of Hawk,

and we were also in the 24th century

that we thought it would be a mistake...

to, um...

to-to go, um...

for lack of a better term, 'street.'

In case there's any resistance out there
to a black actor playing this role,

let's make him, you know,
not quite an Uncle Tom

but, you know, moving in that direction.

I mean, would a shaved head
be an issue today? No.

When the bald came,
and that goatee,

that had some strength
like you can't even communicate.

It was terribly sexy.

I always wanted to touch it.

Nice.

I'm glad you like it.

One of the things that
attracted me about the Star Trek,

was that I did not have
prosthetic make-up on my face.

That in somewhere, some 400 years hence,

that I would be human,

completely human,

and brown...

too.

See?

I was his first A.D. on his first episode.

- As a director?
- As a director.

It was kind of hard,
because he was very closed,

he wouldn't really share
a lot of information.

He called me aside in Quark's bar,

it was pitch black in there
'cause we weren't shooting in there,

it was dark and I went in and he said,

"| want you to make sure
that I get what I need"

and I said,
it's kind of difficult sometimes,

because I come to ask you questions

and then you act like you
don't wanna tell me things,

or that I'm bothering you, and he said,

"| guess you don't understand
my sense of humor."

And I said, "To be honest with you, sir,

- I'm not sure you have one."
- Wow.

And he kind of reared back,
his shoulders kind of reared back...

a little half-grin came
on his face and he said,

"What is it you want to know?"

And I said, "I'd like to know,

when you have a scene in your mind,

to tell us what you want."

"Come with me", he said.

"The camera will be here on the dolly.

We will pull back.
They'll walk down here.

They sit down,
we go into an over-the-shoulder.

We push in for a close-up.

We come around for an over-the-shoulder
and push in for a close-up.

- Is that clear?"
- And I said, "That's fantastic."

First time I had a big, long speech.

We're on the set, and I go through
and I fumbled it a couple of times.

Avery just looks at me.

He comes up to me and he says,
"Glide. Dig?"

And he walks away.

And I said, OK, I get
it because it's glide.

You just, move your way through it.

I think he did the same thing to Jeff.
He said like, "Slalom."

Slalom.

Get those flags on your shoulder,

go into the turn, put it all together,
is basically what he's saying.

And go, take the ride.

When he speaks,
it's not in full sentences.

What do you wanna know?

Who's your favorite character?

Child asked me.

Huh?

What do you mean?
Who's my favorite character in Star Trek?

It's gotta be Sisko!

What?

Don't make no sense, otherwise.

Avery is like,

a jazz musician.

- Jazz musician...
- Jazz musician.

You wanna understand Avery Brooks?

Imagine that you're
talking to a jazz musician.

Yeah.

The first scene I had with him
where he called me "old man",

I had to pull Avery aside.

He was saying it to me so stern,

and I was told that my character
would be a humanoid

with a symbiont inside of her,

that had lived seven lifetimes.

It was about 350 years old,
and had been a man and a woman

back and forth several times.

So I pulled him aside and I said,
"Avery, I am so sorry but,

you're so much more mature
than I am and I'm only 28.

I can't top you, and I need your help.

I'm really nervous about this,

- but, I can't be your mentor, it's clear."
- So how did he change?

His performance wasn't as intense,
it wasn't as intimidating.

He pulled back a little bit.

Benjamin, I was happy when I heard
you accepted this assignment,

and I've been worried about you.

It's good to see you too, old man.

When we first talked
about this documentary in 2013,

Avery Brooks said to me,

"You know, it can't just be a documentary
about talking heads,"

and that's what put the idea
in my head to do something different,

which was breaking episode one
of this mythical season eight.

And I called all you guys up.

So what was the feeling
when you heard about that,

and what was it like being
in the room for that one day?

Well, first of all,
any chance to sit in a room

with you and Ron and Rene' and Hans,
is, like, a golden thing.

Soto get the five of us together
just to have a drink

or-or eat some sushi together, is like,

I'll clear my schedule for that,

but to sit together to talk about
Deep Space Nine?

Oh, even better.

To break an episode, how can that not be
the most fun thing ever?

So, it is March 8th, 2015,

the band is back together.

So, the idea is,
there's going to be an eighth season.

This is our Deep Space Nine.

There's no one looking over our shoulders,

it's where we think the series,

in the current landscape of television,
would go.

We're trying to come up with something
we could actually produce,

- theoretically, right now.
- Yes, yes.

- So 20 years have gone by in the story.
- Yeah.

I'd like to begin on the Defiant...

with Nog, who's in Starfleet,

- Captain Nog by now probably.
- Who could be a captain,

and they are getting their asses kicked.
We start on action.

It's evasive maneuvers,
it's don't fire back.

He's trying to escape,
and we don't realize,

we're wondering why was he attacked,
what has he got...

- He was attacked by a cloaked ship...
- By a cloaked ship.

So he's on the run,
someone's shooting at him.

Maybe he's running for the Wormhole.

And when he makes it through
the wormhole that's his escape

but on the other side of the wormhole
the ship is out of power and drifting.

He looks out the window
and he's like, "Oh, thank God."

Pan up from the ship...

Well, that's end of the tease, isn't it?

I'll tune in.
I wanna know what the hell is going on.

Everything that you do,
when you do a story about space,

when you do Star Trek in particular,

you can't just go rent a place
in Hollywood and start shooting.

You had to build it.

For a designer, this is heaven.

All you get to do is play.

All you get to do is dream up new things,

and because it's in the future,
nobody can say you're wrong.

Did we work on Deep Space Nine?

- We had fun on Deep Space Nine...
- Yeah, I don't remember us ever working.

We're sitting here,
in front of the space station,

l just think it's absolutely beautiful.

The initial concept
was largely based on an oil rig,

with some terracing from
a shopping mall with slips and docs.

We came up with a model
that I was very proud of.

Rick Berman said something that
infuriated me at the time

but turned out to be
brilliantly insightful.

He said, "At it's core it
has to be a simple design,

that an eight-year-old child can draw,
and you know what it is."

So that's the direction we went.

Going inside the station,
if you look at the production design,

the world of Deep Space Nine,
the scale of everything,

it really had a feel that this is a place
where people live and work.

Greatest Star Trek set ever.

Herman Zimmerman, boy,
he pulled out all the stops on that one.

Now the Promenade
had an 80-foot radius.

That's a pretty big set.

I couldn't believe, first of all,
that he got it onto the stage.

It was big, it was colorful,

it was impressive
and overwhelming a little bit.

Every detail was there,
and it was from wall to wall.

You were in a different world.

Wait a minute!
What about the power supply grid?

Do you think it'll be enough
to eliminate the force fields?

If we could overload the grid,

we might be able to cause a power surge.

Let's give it a try.

Our characters not only our jobs
but who we were,

we were serious, driven, complex women.

I loved math and science,
especially science,

and I really identified with
the character Jadzia Dax.

I was watching
characters like Jadzia Dax,

who didn't let gender roles stop her
from doing anything she wanted to do.

I liked how she was an alien,

but also very kind and loving,

and I liked how she had
a strong personality.

Because of Star Trek
I want to become a scientist.

I love Kira, and I love Dax.

And, as a young woman,
it's really important to me

to see such amazing
female characters on TV.

And they both taught me
how to not take shit from anybody.

So, thank you, Deep Space Nine.

I'll take the controls, if you like.

That'll be the day.

What did you think
when you got the role?

My first thought was
that it didn't read like a woman,

and I loved that.

I loved that it was not skewed sexually.

I like the character of Kira Nerys.

She's sassy, she stands up for herself.

She was feisty, and angry,
the same way I was when I was a kid.

She's tough, smart and kick-ass!

Women can be strong and be passionate,
just like men can.

I watched DS9 couple of years ago,

and then I recognized something
enlightening and very beautiful.

From Moogie, to Leeta, to Keiko to Ezri,

Jadzia, Kasidy, Adami,
and, of course, Kira Nerys.

Deep Space Nine offered a wide spectrum
of female personalities,

beautifully written feminism,

and... equality.

♪ I'm a bitch ♪

♪ I'm a lover ♪

♪ I'm a child ♪

♪ I'm a mother ♪

♪ I'm a sinner ♪

♪ I'm a saint ♪

♪ I do not feel ashamed ♪

♪ I'm your hell ♪

♪ I'm your dream ♪

♪ I'm nothing in between ♪

♪ You know I wouldn't want it
Any other way ♪

Perhaps we could discuss
these new rules over a drink.

If you don't take that hand off my hip,

you'll never be able to
raise a glass with it again.

Common slate... mark!

- Tell me when you're ready.
- I think we're good.

"Sisko is too politically correct.

Dax is too perfect.

Quark is ridiculous.

I tire of human-like aliens
with head bumps."

Well, sometimes so did I.

Is there anything else I could do
to make your stay a pleasant one?

Invite me to dinner.

I'd be honored.

Whenever there was a Ferengi episode,

I would bring all of the major characters
in that episode

into my house on Saturday and Sunday,

and we'd rehearse the show.

I had such respect for you guys
for doing that.

I was well aware from the very beginning
that you guys were doing that.

No, I didn't know that.

And it's not something you could
force someone to do...

- No, you can't.
- You can't put out an edict

to get people to do that,
it has to come from the heart.

We read it and we talk about it,
and then we have a little preparation.

When we come on at 7:00 in
the morning or whenever it is,

after three hours of make-up, we have
a little bit of it in the bank already.

It was such an honor to be invited
to these rehearsals that Armin's.

It was fun.
It was working with wonderful people.

I mean, you walk in
and there's Aron and Armin

and Max and Jeff
and Wally Shawn and Cecily Adams.

Cecily called me up,

and said, "Armin, they want me
to audition for Moogie."

And I said, "Great!"

And she came over to the house,

and Kitty and I worked
with her on our audition

and we were delighted when you cast her.

I know the two of us living under
the same roof isn't going to be easy,

but you're my mother and I love you.

And I love you too,

but when you say "living together",
what are we talking about, a day'?

A week, two weeks?

I don't know.
I guess till I start feeling better.

Unless, of course, you don't want me.

You're my son, how could I refuse you?

It was like a family on the show,
you know.

It was like a family on the show.

All the Ferengis who spoke,

they all had their own
specifically sculpted head.

And they had their assigned
make-up artists who'd put 'em on.

We were doing a scene,
and Armin's make-up lady,

I think, couldn't be there that day.

They came in, and I looked
at Armin and I said,

"You don't look the same today."

Then I looked at Max and I said,
"You don't look the same either.

Are you guys wearing each other's heads?"

They looked in the mirror and they went,
"Oh, my God, how could this happen!

It was on the mannequin!
It was marked for this!"

"Look! Here's the deal.

In an hour, I'm going into that bar,

and I want two Ferengis
with their heads on right when I do."

You know there's a reason why that story,
you've never heard that story.

With all due respect to Lou,
I don't think that ever happened.

I can't speak to the heads,
I don't remember.

But very definitely,

we had cheek-nose-cheek pieces
that were put on.

He got mine, I got his.

That response has invalidated
this entire documentary.

- So sorry...
- 'Cause now we have no idea...

- What's true.
- Who's telling us the truth...

- It was Rashomon. It's Rashomon.
- This is Rashomon.

We have no idea.
I'm so glad I asked this question, next!

The make-up took four hours.

And Colm, who was always bitching,

always bitching about sitting
in the chair for five minutes.

He'd get antsy.
"Alright, you don't need to do this."

"So, that's enough of that." You know.

I mean, it just cracked me up.

I was bitching about everything, all of it.

And Michael and I had this
running thing about the make-up

'cause he'd be in the chair for an hour,
an hour-and-a-half before me,

before I'd get in.

I'd pop in and get my
little bit of powder done,

and he'd look over at me and go,
"You bastard!

You bastard! Get out!"

When Avery, Rene and Colm
had to be in makeup, I was so happy!

Colm, whined.

My favorite, he says,

"Me teeth! Look what they
did to me teeth!" You know?

And, "Me nails, look what
they did to me nails!"

They put glue up here,
and he couldn't shut his eyes.

I can't close my eyes!
I can't... I feel like I can't blink!

Putting on the make-up
was quite thrilling.

It was going through the day
in the make-up that was hard.

I'm claustrophobic, and it was when
they put the wig on, I felt sealed in.

I remember going out into the sunlight
with that piece on,

and all of a sudden l was covered by ants,
that's how l felt.

There were long fingernails,

that made many aspects
of life very difficult.

It was an intensely
uncomfortable make-up to wear.

René was great to work with.

He didn't abuse his make-up.

He was conscious of what
he was having for lunch.

I couldn't eat, really, solid food,

I would be in that make-up
for hours and hours on end,

and I think it affected...

my persona on the set.

People who didn't know me

thought I was probably as grumpy
as the character Odo.

I was walking down to the set

on the last episode of season six,

and you were coming
out of the sound stage,

and you ripped your sweaty,
disgusting mask off

and said, "Here, take it as a souvenir!"

It's like here, take my pain,
that you are causing me to go through.

And I remember walking all the way back,

and I had it mounted,
and it's in my living room,

and in my library today,

and I'm gonna keep it forever.

There's a certain kind of actor,

and you take them out of
the contemporary world and they're lost.

And then there are the other actors,

an actor who maybe never
gets to be a leading man,

suddenly gets to be a leading man,

you know,
because he's wearing this make-up.

I'm thinking of you Marc Alaimo.

You, as an actor,
reminded us a lot of Avery as an actor

in that you, very strong,

when another actor acted against you,

- you weren't gonna give them any ground...
- Thank you...

They had to take it from you,
they had to meet you head on...

Why didn't you tell me all that before?

Here we go!

- I never felt appreciated on the show.

We have had this discussion,
in Vegas that time...

Nobody ever came up to me in the beginning
and encouraged me,

gave me any support, nothing!

And that really bothered me.

You felt like you weren't
having enough interaction

- with myself and the writers...
- Yeah, I always did.

I wanted somebody to come up and say,
"Man, you got this, baby!

You nailed this character."

But nobody ever, you know, did that.

And lwill say it again,
the way you know we liked you,

was that you kept coming back,
and that your role kept getting better.

That is how writers tell an actor
that they like them more than anything.

I suppose it's because
of my overwhelming charm.

Michael Piller called me up and said,

"We're going to open season two
with a three-part episode."

Something that had never been done
in the franchise history.

That's the moment
where I started to think,

OK, Deep Space Nine gives us opportunities

that the other shows do not have
or did not have, and that's exciting.

There's been a lot of talk lately
about the influence Deep Space Nine

has had on television, and paving the way
for highly serialized storytelling.

I think DS9 never gets quite enough credit

for all of the things that it did
as incredibly well as it did them,

and how early they were doing them.

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
was part of a little renaissance

that was going in the 90s,
in television writing.

Without the pioneering
of serialized storytelling,

we wouldn't have Game of Thrones,
we wouldn't have Walking Dead,

we wouldn't have any number of these
appointment television shows

that we have now.

Paramount was adamant about us

not having continuing storylines.

In our shows,
the rule was no serialization.

People want self-contained episodes.

I know people in the studio were nervous
about the fact

that people might not have seen it last
week, so might not know what was going on.

In those days, people
used words like syndication

which don't really exist anymore.

Um, you needed every show like
a McDonald's beef burger

to be the same wherever the hell you were

and at whatever level of seasons.

Being episodic, you're able to jump in.

It's one episode, it opens and closes
and you get the gist of what's going on.

Well, Deep Space Nine being serialized,
you have to follow along.

I thought it was
a great creative risk to do it,

but, you know, there is a price to pay

for anything you do
that might rock the boat, right?

It lost us fans along the way.

Some markets, it was at weird hours,

some markets,
the show would be dropped for a week.

How's anybody supposed to
keep up with the continuity?

Because if you missed one
when it was running real time,

you were totally out of the loop.

The studio was very clear,

you are killing the series
by serializing it.

I knew what they were saying
made sense to them,

but I did not think it made sense
for Deep Space Nine.

Deep Space Nine
seemed to call out for serialization.

I think the biggest question
posed by the series finale,

is what happens with Sisko, you know?

It's difficult to explain.

- It's not linear.
- What isn't'?

My life,

my destiny.

The prophets saved me, Kasidy.

I'm their Emissary.

He's going back to learn
from them he says,

in the Wormhole, the celestial temple.

You're with us, now.

If he didn't come back,

whether time is weird or not,
the repercu... I mean, that's big.

- Remember, his pregnant wife and son.
- Yeah.

- But time is weird in the Wormhole.
- For him it's been a minute,

and a million years simultaneously.

- Right.
- Yeah.

- But the promise he made...
- He made a promise he'd be back.

Maybe a year.

Maybe,

yesterday.

But I will be back.

Should the sequence start
two weeks earlier on Deep Space Nine,

so you get a glimpse
of what Deep Space Nine is?

Deep Space Nine
is now a religious shrine.

People come to watch the Wormhole open.

It's Mecca! It's like the...
It's a pilgrimage site.

I have a big pitch for Kira.

She's a priestess of some kind.

- That's cool...
- So that she's really...

- A Vedek... Vedek Kira?
- Yeah. Exactly.

- I think that's really cool.
- Wow. Cool. Wow.

She's on Deep Space Nine
but as a Vedek.

If there was a religious revival on Bajor,

it's kind of interesting
to get her swept up in it.

She was the warrior to save Bajor,

and now she's still a warrior,

but she's a warrior for the religion.

Quark comes in to see her,

and she's got the pad where she says,
"ls this true?"

"Look, I'm just the messenger.

I'm delivering the message, you got it,
you don't have to come."

"Well, of course, I'm coming. I mean,
I don't know who else is gonna come."

So let's start with O'Brien.
Where is he in his life?

- What is he doing...
- He's the dean

of mechanical engineering
at Star-fleet Academy or whatever...

- Still'?
- Yeah.

So we see O'Brien comes home,

and there's some kind of a invitation.

"Come to DS9, Keiko's going..."

- We could see Molly...
- Right-Molly's 26...

Well, touch on the fact Molly's
at Deep Space Nine, which is a big thing.

She says,
"And it's a chance to see Julian, too."

He goes "Well, yeah, that's part of it."

Ezri's the commander of a ship,

and Bashir is her medical officer

and they're off boldly going.

Now Bashir and Ezri
are married though, right?

- Correct-
- It'd be nice if somebody

- was in a happy relationship.
- Yes!

L-l wouldn't mind seeing
a relationship that's lasted.

- Won‘ is coming from Kronos.
- Q'onos.

Q, apostrophe O-N-O-S, I think.

- That look right?
- I think that's it.

It's... Martok is old,
and he's transitioning out.

I think he's got a very
close relationship with Wort,

and Won‘ is gonna be his successor.

I think it's Martok saying,

"By all means, go and see your friends."

Or is it, "There are rumblings, Worf"?

Something is going on with Bajor.

This is a perfect excuse to show up

with a Klingon warship,
and see what's going on.

I think we end with Jake.

He's Jake Sisko
the novelist now, right?

I think Jake wrote Deep Space Nine
over the last 20 years.

Yeah, he's Benny Russell.

He's off, isolated,

he sends out his stories, his novels

and he's successful at it,
it's just like in The Visitor.

If we could see
the equivalent of: "Message from Quark."

And he just goes: delete.
He just deletes it...

Yeah, I love that.

We should cut to him in the shower.

We could just do that...

and see him standing
in white for just a second.

He looks.
There's a reaction shot and then we cut.

Big reunion, right?

And everyone's in Quark's.

Quark still is glad to see us,
but he's glad to see anyone...

'Cause no one paid
their bar bills when they left.

Yeah, he's still got the tab!

He still has the tab!

With interest.

You just had
that moment of reunion,

if you put the gang back together
in a room, there is that sense of...

there's the one key element
that's missing.

That Sisko's not here
and they keep talkin‘ about it,

and it's the ghost in the room.

A man who became a god,
and he's supposed to be right over there,

the Celestial Temple, you can see it
out the window every once in a while,

and there's frustrations
and there's sort of...

He never came back.
I thought he would come back.

He said he would come back, you know?

Then Jake shows up.
Jake's the last one to come.

"Now that we're all here
we should all go see him.

Quark says, "Yeah, he really
wants to see everyone."

- He's dying.

-Yeah, it's just he's dying,
it's who's dying?

So, one by one you start
to eliminate all the suspects,

and at this point
you're thinking it's Sisko.

- Right.
- Then you just cut,

and they're walking into Vic Fontaine's.

I just think we should have to embrace
the preposterousness of the fact

that all these characters are gonna come
from all over the world

to visit a dying hologram.

- I love that but that's...
- We should own that...

And I think you own it, because I think
there is something heartfelt

about that character
and his connection to those characters.

When you watch the finale,
there's so much about that special place

- and how important it all was to them...
- Right.

| kind of buy it.

The fun thing is that
you walk in there and he's like,

"Don't hit me, pally!
I got news for ya.

Reports of my death
have been greatly exaggerated."

And they all look to Quark,
and he goes, "l don't know.

My nephew, Nog, the Stan-fleet officer,
asked me to do this."

And then we cut to...
Nog is on the view screen,

and now we're caught up in time.

"I'm sorry I brought you all here
on false pretenses,

but you'll understand why."

And then, boom!

I like the idea of saying,
OK, here he is, beloved character.

Look at Nog, he's made it.
We love him.

Good on you Neg. Boom!

Guess what?

This is Deep Space Nine,
don't get too comfortable.

Being a writer, on Star Trek, is like
being on the bridge of the Enterprise.

Essentially, the metaphor of going into
space where no one has gone before,

is what a writer does every time
he sits down to the word processor.

And it's as scary as it is
for those people

who are facing the unknown in space,

'cause the blank page is our universe,
and it's the unknown.

Michael truly believed that writers
were born, not made.

He believed that if you were a writer,

there was nothing else that you could do.

He felt that he knew from
when he was a teenager

that that was literally the only thing

that he was gonna be able to do
in his life.

I think so many people owe Michael a lot.

If it weren't for Michael bringing that
script submission policy to Star Trek,

which was the only show in Hollywood
that did that,

a lot of people would not have the careers
that they have now.

I remember Mike being a brilliant,

slightly odd,

incredibly hard-to-please guy.

He was also incredibly generous.
Urn, he worked his butt off.

He thought about character first.

Plot was always secondary.

Plot only existed
to explain and to reveal character.

Many times I heard Michael say
to a writer,

"In this scene,
don't be afraid to empty the pockets."

And that meant, in this scene,

it's all about revealing the character
for who they really are.

To go deep,
beneath the surface of the character,

and reveal them in a way
the audience had never thought of,

or never expected, or just didn't know.

The development of so many characters

went so deep, and acted so profound,

that it made the whole series
very interesting.

It went where no one has gone before.

It pursued the journey inside,

not the journey out.

We spent more time talking
about characters

and "What's the growth?"
"What's the failure?"

I loved creating a character
for seven years,

that changed every week and season,

and evolved in such a rich way.

I remember being struck
by the Odo character

and the idea that he worked there before,
and he's still working there.

- You know? The same thing...
- Oh, yeah...

- He worked for the Cardassians.
- Yeah, now he's still there.

I think those stepping stones
were really important

for Odo to keep moving
towards his ultimate destiny.

I remember wanting
to write for Odo,

and wanting to do Quark/Odo stuff.

It felt like there was comedy
to be mined there,

and they were such a great duo.

Armin and l,
it was a different working dynamic

but very tight and trusting.

The last scene between Quark and Odo,

the fact that, even in parting,
we're still going to play this game

and never admit to each other
what we mean to each other.

Are you telling me
that after all these years,

after all we've been through,

you're not even gonna say goodbye to me?

- Don't take it hard Quark...
- Hard?

What are you talking about?

That man loves me!

Didn't you see?

It was written all over his back.

See, I would've thought you would be
more interested in what it was like

when I finally got to get it on with Kira.

Are we gonna have dinner together or not?

And if we do, then what?

I don't know, maybe we could go dancing?

And after that, I suppose
you'll expect me to kiss you.

- It's possible...
- Then who needs dinner?

Why don't I just get it over with
and kiss you right now?

Well, why don't you?

This really was a deep, loving friendship,

that became a romance.

It was not something
we were looking to do,

you guys gave it to us in dailies.

Doesn't it look like Odo
has feelings for Kira?

Doesn't Kira get a little softer around...

So we just followed your lead.

You guys, decided to make
Odo and Kira a couple.

But instead of just having them
get lost together

in the forest or something like that,

you put together
a musical romantic comedy,

in a 60's Las Vegas nightclub

with Odo playing piano,

and Kira, Nana Visitor, singing.

I loved that episode!

I was a full-on,

realized person,

who was a gray character.

During the occupation,

I didn't want to attack any facility
that had a Bajoran working in it,

but I did it.

Anyone who's not fighting with you,
is fighting against you.

Reading her,
you'd have to jolt yourself awake.

She was terrorist.

Who's a terrorist and who's not
depends on your perspective.

The British saw George Washington as
a terrorist, we see him as a war hero.

And same with Kira,
'cause we like her, as viewers,

and we've come to despise the Cardassians,

we give her a lot more latitude.

The whole allegory of terrorism
is playing out in a rather disturbing way

that was not happening in the 90s.

When our show was on,
terrorism was just plain old terrorism

in those days.
Something that happened to other people.

D0 you think
we could've played it after 9/11?

I don't know.
I really don't know.

Uh... maybe not the way she existed then.

What am I supposed to feel repentant for?
What are you talking about?

You did this to me,
and you don't even know who I am.

Fifteen million Bajorans died
during the occupation

and you want me to feel sorry for you?

I can't imagine doing the show today,

and being able to play
Kira in quite that way.

Now, there have been plenty
of terrorist characters on television.

On Homeland, Brody was a fascinating,
complex character,

but he was a problem for that show.

We were always questioning Brody.

Kira, never.

A very different time.

- There's a bond between us.
- No, only in your mind.

You're an opportunistic,
power-hungry dictator,

and I want nothing more to do with you.

I loved working with Nana.

I always had that feeling
I wanted to break her,

as a character,

and force her to fall in love with him.

I could make things
very pleasant for you here, Kira.

You know, Dukat was a pretty,

pretty sexy guy,
he was a pretty sexy character.

He was always on the make for her,
and she always pulled away.

If there had been
another road to go down,

were they like, secretly
in love or something,

that would've been terrific,
but it never happened.

I remember, you came to me and you said,

"Get ready for the next script.

You and Gul Dukat have an affair."

No, we never wrote it,
so that could not be...

Oh, oh, that! Oh!

This was... OK.

So remember you said
you never fought with me?

Yeah. No, I remember...

Do you remember me going,
"It can't be. It can't be Gul Dukat.

Anybody but Gul Dukat."

And you really wanted it to happen,

'cause I remember,
when the script came out,

you said, "OK, it's not you.
It's your mother."

That's right.

- Yeah!
- But we never... We never wrote...

- You never wrote that one.
- We never wrote the script,

that's all I'm saying.

I remember you coming to me.
No, that was the most...

- Upset I was, yeah.
- Upset you were, without a doubt.

If it hadn't been Odo,

I would've loved
for it to be a Cardassian.

That would've been a great relationship,
but just not Marc A|aimo...

Not, not...

- Gu| Dukat. Gul Dukat...
- Hello!

- Say that again, say that again.
- Gul Dukat...

Please just start all over again.

If it hadn't been Odo I would've loved

to have had a relationship
with a Cardassian,

but just not Gul Dukat.

How about Marc Alaimo?

I always felt...

that he was, he wanted her.

And it was easy,
'cause at the time, I wanted her!

Back in the day when the show was on,

without a doubt the most
popular recurring character,

and certainly the most popular
Cardassian, was Gul Dukat.

I would say in 2017,
the most popular character is now Garak.

Wow!

- Garak!
- Garak.

- Garak?
- Garak.

- Garak.
- Garak.

It's gonna be Garak.

Why Garak?

He was the mystery character.

He was the Cardassian
on his own on Deep Space Nine.

Why he was there, no one knew.

Was he a SPY?

We didn't know, until Bashir strikes up
this unusual friendship with Garak,

and every time Bashir tried to tap
and find out more about Garak,

we had more questions than answers.

What did Garak think of Bashir?

Were they friends?

Did they develop a friendship?

Or was he using him the whole time?

At first, he just wanted to have sex
with him. That's absolutely clear.

That's all he wanted from him.

"Come to my shop,
I got some nice clothes for you...

but you'll have to change first."

But then it really got complicated,

especially when Garak's addiction
and despair began to surface.

He needed someone to share it with.

He's the type of mysterious guy in DS9,

tried to live his life as a tailor.

"l forgot all about the tailor.
Afucking tailor. Fuck me!

DS9 is a religious dogma
disguised as entertainment."

"How about the tailor..."
The fucking tailor...

"plain and simple Garak,
compounded by the fact

that there only seems to be
about 12 people in the universe

and the inclusion of a lounge singer
as a serious character?"

B mark.

♪ Out of the tree of life
I just picked me a plum ♪

♪ You came along
And everything started to hum ♪

I love the duet with Avery.

We're having a good time.

And I'm thinking to myself,
"Man, Captain Sisko is singing with me.

Is this, like, too much?

Where the hell did this come from?"

♪ The best is yet to come ♪

♪ Come the day you're mine ♪

I♪

Vic dealt with simple wisdom.

If he was profound, he was profound
in the simplest way possible.

It's the oldest story in the book.

She thinks of you as a friend.

I wouldn't call that a secret.

But, women have been known
to change their minds,

you just have to give them a reason.

He had great stories, as Jimmy,

that I think the cast liked to hear,

and it relaxed the cast
just being around Jimmy.

I'm dealing with people
who look entirely different,

from anything or anyone else
that I'd ever met

- in my-in my life...
- Yeah.

Even though I'm a hologram.

I never said,
"Wow, this guy is a weird looking cat."

Like, this guy's got
a different nose or big ears.

He dealt with them like Frank
talking to Dean, you know what I mean?

Jimmy and Vic, the character
and the person playing that character,

there's wasn't a lot of difference
between the two of 'em on a lot of levels.

You wanna choose a holo-suite program
for your rehab?

Why not?

OK, kid!

That's the way you want it,
from now on you're staying with me.

Great!

Nog had a bigger story arc,

than any lead character on other shows.

Nog went from being Jake's buddy
on the Promenade,

to being a Starfleet officer,
to having his leg blown off.

I mean, show me any character on TNG,

that you can trace their story like that.

You can't and that's Neg.

Probably no character
on any of the other shows evolved as much

as the least changed character
on Deep Space Nine.

Some of the nicest episodes
were done by the non-regulars.

By the incredible guest stars,
and recurring characters that we had.

Especially, the recurring characters.

I have to hand it to you guys.

Your whole writing staff created
this great complex character

that got to change over time.

A bit early, isn't it?

Even for you.

Just something to warm the bones,
it's freezing in here.

What an arc to play, hmm?

- To go from...
- Waiting on weapons, sir.

_TQ__
-I call upon Cardassians everywhere.

Resist.

Resist today.

Resist tomorrow.

Resist till the last Dominion soldier

has been driven from our soil.

I don't remember Damar
being a big character...

- He had one line, two lines.
- And so, that's probably the biggest...

I would call that the biggest
success story, you know, in a weird way.

There was just a guy who has one line,
who suddenly became so pivotal.

Leeta was just somebody you'd notice,
and she did that well.

And so you'd want to write her
the next little dabo piece

or do something else with Rom.

You just kept finding ways
to get back to them,

'cause you like them as characters
in the writer's room,

and before you know it, they were part
of the whole extended family in the show.

We had a huge recurring cast
on Deep Space.

They were 18 or 20 people
on hold every week.

- There was Felecia Bell.
- Aron Eisenberg.

- Camille Saviola.
- Marc Alaimo.

- Max Grodénchik.
- Mark Allen Shepherd.

- Andrew Robinson.
- Roasalind Chao.

- Hana Hatae.
- Wallace Shawn.

- Tiny Ron.
- Majel Barrett.

- Louise Fletcher.
- Philip Anglim.

- John Colicos.
- Paul Dooley.

- Salome Jens.
- Kenneth Marshall.

- Robert O'Reilly.
- Chase Masterson.

- Penny Johnson.
- Duncan Regehr.

- J.G. Hertzler.
- Brock Peters.

- Casey Biggs.
- Melanie Smith.

- Cecily Adams.
- Barry Jenner.

- William Sadler.
- James Darren.

- Deborah Lacey.
- Jeffrey Combs.

- Jeffrey Combs.
- Jeffrey Combs.

I mean, Jeffrey was always up
for anything,

which is why he could do multiple parts.

Correct me if I'm wrong, Ira,
but if I'm not mistaken,

the very first episode
that I played as Weyoun,

- I'm killed at the end.
- Yeah-.

So, obviously there was...
I thought it was a one-er.

It's a one-er when
you get killed at the end...

- When you get killed at the end!
- It's hard to think of it as a two-er.

Now mind you, I was killed
by Clarence Williams Ill,

which I thought was the coolest thing.

- Mod Squad, Linc is gonna kill me.
- Yeah.

If you don't mind,
I'd like to inspect the wreckage.

That was for questioning our loyalty.

We wind up enjoying the character so much,

we killed you, brought you back,
killed you, brought you back.

- I saw you die.
- That wasn't me.

At least not exactly.

There was that group of people
who, indeed,

almost just sort of felt like
an extended part of our family.

A band of brothers,
that's what it is.

It is the company, it is the comradery,

and it's legit.

We are always tremendously happy

to see each other and be with each other.

"This is mostly not Star Trek.

No, this is about the insane corruption

of the Star Trek universe.

I literally hate the main characters.

They act like thugs,
blackmailing, coercing.

There seems to be no prime directive,

or even morality among Stan-fleet.

It's like a clumsy rip-off of Babylon 5

which in itself wasn't very good."

Wow. That must of been
difficult at times for you...

- What, for me?
- As a writer.

- Why?
- But, I don't know,

- I don't...
- I kind of loved it.

- Oh, you did?
- Yeah, I mean,

everyone's got their opinion,
and you know,

They're... if...

If you're not doing something right

unless you got people up in arms.

- That's true...
- That's true of any creative endeavor,

people aren't bothered by it or don't
like it, you're doing something wrong.

So, it's nice to know
that we hit a button there.

It might not be the button
we were aiming for,

but we definitely hit a button.

Fire!

I had some very, very interesting,

and very memorable
experiences on that show.

We film this death scene,

and, you know,
I die in Nicole De Boer's arms,

and it was a cool little death scene.

And as soon as the director says,
"Cut. OK, print that one,"

Ira loudly, and proudly announces
to the entire crew and cast,

"Ladies and gentlemen,
Star Trek just killed Will Robinson!"

Danger Will Robinson!

I didn't get to go down to the set
that much, certainly for pleasure.

But the fact that I went down there
to see that death scene,

I think speaks of my friendship to you

that I took the time
out of my busy schedule

just to make sure you were dead!

The crew on DS9,
by the time I was there,

were kind of running on fumes.

There was a lot of hours on that show.

Now I've been
in a lot of companies in my life,

and this was one of the most intense.

We did wonderful, painful work.

It was often very painful to do.

The hours were killing, you know,
and plus we never went out.

So, you guys were stuck inside.

And when we did go out,
it was, like, in the desert,

at 100 degrees, with our make-up melting.

And it was like a minimum of 16 hours.

Sixteen, seventeen hours a day...

Average day was 14 hours.
Sixteen, eighteen was not uncommon.

I have times where I show up on the set
and the crew on Deep Space Nine,

they light up with energy because
it's like, "Oh, we're gonna do a stunt!"

But it's easy to come in with great energy

when you're only there
for one to two days a week.

You guys are workin‘ the full deal,
60, 70, 80 hours a week

And so it's hard to be up all the time.

You get up at 2:00,
you try to pull your thoughts together,

you drive down there,
you pull in at around 4:00 a.m.,

and go to the chair to get made up.

That was three and a half hours of make-up
and then another half hour of costumes.

So at 7:30-8:00,
you're called to the set

and you start approximately
a 15-hour day of shooting.

I did something that I'd never...

done before or since. I...

I believe I literally
fell asleep on camera,

which is very unusual

because, ordinarily, people stay awake
when they're being filmed.

We needed to distinguish
the Gamma Quadrant

from everywhere else.

That it couldn't just be another frontier,

it had to had to have something
that would set it apart.

And then we started talking
about the idea that there would be

a worthy foe hiding in the Gamma Quadrant.

We wanted to break away
from the past and create our own future,

and that's how the Dominion was born.

But since we were writers and so insecure,

I said, "We can't risk it all
on one race of villains."

The marching orders I gave
to Jim and Pete and Robert,

was that we were gonna come up
with three villains.

We created this warrior race,
the Jem'Hadar,

and then the face men, the Vorta,

and then behind it,
the Founders that ran everything.

The Founders would be the shape-shifters,
they would be Od0's people.

You belong to the Dominion, don't you?

Belong to it?

Major, the Changelings are the Dominion.

When the Founders were revealed

that this was gonna become
a galactic war saga,

I got really excited.

Dominion, really, really
well thought out...

- Yeah, very well thought out.
- Opponents.

A complex society,
not all the same race.

Were there any favorite episodes

that stick out in your mind?

Yes, the last 10 were my favorite,

because they were emotional
and suspenseful.

- The last... episo...
- Ten.

You mean the Dominion war?

Yes, those were my favorite.

The Dominion wars,
tell me why it was a mistake.

Gene Roddenberry was my symbiont,
he was my Curzon Dax.

Gene was a firm believer that Star Trek
was not a franchise that dealt with wars.

Looking back 20 years later,
I was most likely... mistaken

because we got some
remarkable episodes out of it.

We had this crazy idea
to blow up a ship

that looked just like the Enterprise
as our season two finale,

and that implied something.

We needed our own little kind of ship.

We created the Dominion,

this great enemy of the Federation,

and all we have to fight them

are these tiny, little, crappy, runabouts.

It just isn't going to work.

We needed something with fire power,
something dangerous.

We come up with this idea
for the Defiant and you were not happy.

You kept saying,
"We can't have a ship.

Voyager is the ship, Deep Space Nine
is the space station."

The idea of having this show

that was going to perhaps
start getting more oriented

toward our characters
being on board a spaceship,

while Voyager was on the air,

and while Next Generation movies
were in production,

got me a little bit nervous.

But as usual, you, uh, conned me into it.

There were very few things
you didn't con me into, Ira.

I thought it was
more of a partnership.

A warm agreement.

Excuse me.

Hello?

I can't believe you killed Nog.

Andy, it's all theoretical.
It's not a real episode.

If you touch one hair on Julian's head...

But that's not why I called.
It's time to show the space battle.

How do you even know
where we are in the doc?

Trust me, I know
Now show the clip.

And, Ira, if you had to kill someone,

it shou|d've been Worf.

OK, then.

Let's show the battle scene, I guess.

That's one down!

Can we shake the other three?

I'm trying!

We've lost aft shields!

Forward shields are down to 15 percent.

Wouldn't this be a good time to cloak?

The cloaking system's fried.

Auxiliary power to weapons.
We're going to fight our way out of this!

It's the Klingons, sir.

They're here!

Captain, the Klingons have broken a hole
in the Dominion lines.

Dax, can you get us through?

I'd love to try.

So the Defiant blows up, killing Nog.
We kill Nog.

I'm sorry, guys, someone has to go.

I drove all the way here thinking,

O'Brien, O'Brien, we kill O'Brien

and we'll freak everyone out.

But by the time I parked,
it was like, Nog.

Damn it, Ira, don't kill Nog!

Jesus Christ!

- OK, did you like that?
Was that good? Ok good.

This is our opportunity
to kinda set the table of what...

- Right.
- The situation at the station is.

Who's putting pressure on Kira?

It's her major.
Major whatever his name is.

- Major Palik.
- Palik, sure.

If Palik's the guy who's sayin',
the sensor tells us this,

and the debris field says that...

His ship was damaged
coming out of the Wormhole,

maybe he had some asteroid debris
that he hit.

I think he's saying it's an accident,
nothing to see here.

Cut from that to Quark's.
They're in there, and they're drinking.

It's like they can't believe he's gone,
and then just one person

just has to raise the
"You know the thing that still bugs me..."

Then it's like boom, boom, boom.
They all start saying,

"Yeah, you know what?
This is weird."

- They're trying to piece together...
- What was Nog doing?

- What was he doing?
- He'd been pushing his engines.

The engines tore themselves apart.

He wanted to make a big entrance
or something, we don't know.

- And someone has to be saying "No, hey..."
- Molly.

"l knew Captain Nog."

I don't even know
what you're talking about.

This is a guy I served with.
This is a guy who I respected.

This is a man, this is like,

you guys are talking about a kid
you knew back 20 years ago.

He drew us here for a reason,
and he had something to tell us

and then he happened to die.

- Yeah right...
- It's just too perfect.

What could be interesting is if Worf,
who's now a diplomat

more than he's a soldier says,
"The treaty of so and so.

It's very specific when it comes
to the death of Federation citizens.

Ezri, you are in charge
of investigating this."

If it's Kira, Palik and Ezri...
- Yeah.

And Ezri asserting her rights...

I think Ezri can say something
like "Look, the treaty of whatever.

Federation gets to investigate.
We have jurisdiction."

I think she should
put a clock on it.

"How long were you planning on staying,
three days?"

"And then you'll catch your trip home."

- And then Ezri walks out...
- And Palik-

and there's Palik, Kira and it's
like, "Well, this is gonna be a problem."

Say beat four is a walk-and-talk
on the upper level of the Promenade.

Kira is talking
to the Federation science officer.

And it's like, listen,
I want you to look at this stuff.

"You're the best science officer
we have on this station.

I want you to do this as a favor to me.

I wanna see whatever you get
before you give it to Ezri."

She walks away,
he's staring out the window.

Jake comes up.

"Were you ever gonna come
to say hello to me?"

He goes, "hey I've been here,
you're the one who arrived."

Turns out he is Joseph Sisko.

Joseph Yates-Sisko...

The reveal that this is
Sisko's other son?

I think Jake reveals
that he's seen his father.

"| came here because I had a vision."

"He came to me, he told me to come home."

What was your favorite mission
you've been on in Deep Space Nine?

My favorite mission?

My favorite mission was raising Jake.

Come on. Come on, man!

And... the blue light is on,

and it's fading away,
and it's fading away...

and he's fading away,
and now he brings him up...

Excuse me... Come on!

- Start from the top, from the top.

- Sorry...
- Come on, man.

- Sorry.
- All right, here we go-

And he slowly comes up...

And...

cut! Good!

I realize the significance and importance
of the small things that we did

that Avery was aware of.

I didn't realize it at the time,

but it was important for him
to set a precedent

for a black man raising a child,

being there, being a father,

being involved in his child's life,

having that as his primary concern
in life.

It was a reality of the disproportionate...

Disproportionate number
of-of brown, male children

without father figures, et cetera.

So, it was very important to me,

that that relationship, you know,
remained strong.

He was creating a role model
for people to follow,

particularly African-American men,

in terms of how to treat your son.

I thought that he did
such an outstanding job

with the creation
of his relationship with Jake.

The bond that the two of them had,
off-camera,

I thought for a moment
that Avery was his daddy...

because they had
such a wonderful strength together.

When we weren't working,
he'd take me to a basketball game.

He took me to my first Lakers game,

uh, introduced me
to Jerry Buss and Magic Johnson,

and introduced me as his son,
with his son.

You know, "These are my children," that's
how he would, you know, introduce me.

And, um, I felt like part of his family,

I felt the love, I still feel that way.

He hasn't let go at all, you know.

We still maintain
a very close relationship.

What?

I was just thinking...

how much you look like your mom.

When you look up
black shows in the 90s,

you won't find our show,

on the list, at all.

Recently there was this show
on CNN called The 90s.

And on the episode dealing with television,

they stated something

that surprised me

and really kind of pissed me off.

The 90s gave us several shows

that didn't really explode in the ratings

but were very influential
to other people making television.

Homicide is one of them.

They had so many African-American
characters in the cast,

that on several occasions,
they were the only people

on camera interacting with one another.

And that sounds like, "So?"

But as late as the 90s,
that wasn't done on television.

It's not true.

One of the identifying traits
of Deep Space Nine,

was that we had many scenes
with an all-black cast.

Ira Behr came to me,

He said, "| have this idea

and I wanna know
whether you are interested,

because you will be
in front of the camera,

but I also wanna know
if you wanna direct."

I said "Well, OK."

And, you know,
because of the writing of it,

because it talked about 1953,

because it talked about who we are
or who we were,

this idea of this brown man,

writing this science fiction,

I thought that was incredibly clever.

Originally, on our director's schedule
for that season,

Avery wasn't scheduled to direct
Far Beyond the Stars,

and I think as we talked about it more,
it became clear,

we can't not have Avery
direct that episode,

because it's all about representing

this struggle in our country's past

and, in some senses, the present.

He didn't wanna publish my story,
and we all know why.

Because my hero is a colored man!

Hey! This magazine belongs to Mr. Stone.

If he doesn't want to publish this month
we don't publish this month, end of story.

When Benny Russell had his breakdown,

that was more realistic, I think,
than most of the fans realized.

- To hell with you...
- Avery was so deeply into the character,

that he went down and stayed down.

There are things
I don't remember in my life,

but I can see him on the floor.

He falls to the floor,
and I'm saying, "Well, I gotta say cut.

But how long should I let this go on?"

They called cut, and he's not coming out.

And I know what that feels like
as an actor.

You're gone, and he was... he was gone.

If I'd stood there for a half
an hour, I think he would have kept on.

He was very committed to that part
and very committed to that scene.

He would say,
"Well, we want those moments on set."

He would say it as a director,
"We want God to show up."

meaning it's beyond control,

it could go one way or the other.

You don't know, it's dangerous,
it's dangerous acting.

So it was-it was scary and wonderful.

Can I have my drawing back?

Hey, ‘DOV-

I'd watch that tone of voice
if I were you.

Having an African-American captain
right after these L.A. riots,

I think that gives the show
some real weight,

and of course in my classroom,
using Star Trek: Deep Space Nine,

particularly the episode
Far Beyond the Stars,

that is where I really bring in

the experiences of the early 90s.

When we were doing the show,

Rodney King was getting beat
on television.

Twenty-five years later...

black people are getting beaten
and killed on television.

We haven't advanced much.

[Yeah!
Imam] Yeah!

We got pulled over
for a busted tail light...

You also had people,
very fine people, on both sides.

The bottom line is,
when people cannot come to the conclusion

that every person on this planet,

is worth treating as a human being,

when we cannot agree on that basic,

most basic concept,

don't talk to me about 400 years from now.

The good news is,
is this is gonna be

- a short act.
- Yes.

So act three is, then they have to do
whatever investigation they're gonna do.

- The question is still open.
What was Nog up to?

What was he doing in the days
leading up to his death?

Just to pitch it, there's something
really interesting about,

if we have a detective on this show.

If we have a cop on this show, it's Odo,

and what he comes back for is

to figure out who murdered Nog.

If Kira asks for his help, then I buy it.

If Kira goes to him and says,
"Nog has been murdered.

I need you.
I need you to figure this out,"

he'll do it for her, that I buy.

We can easily save Odo
for another episode.

I'm just saying,
it's OK to keep them wanting more.

- Sure, sure...
- You know'?

Now I really believe
we could do 26 episodes.

- I'm on board now...
- Twenty-six?

- So, Ops, where are we?
- Somebody's quarters.

Ezri, she walks in the door
if you play it from the beginning.

And maybe we say
this is the entire Starfleet contingent.

And she says,
"You guys are livin‘ in the boonies!"

They say,
"Yeah, well, that's our life here.“

Somebody says something like,

"Nog got obsessed with something
in the last couple of weeks.

He didn't talk about it,
but he knew it was important.

And I don't know what happened,
but I know that he and Kira

- had a major blowout..."
- That's good...

"the day before he left,"
or whatever...

- Had a blow out with Kira?
- "Well, she didn't tell us about that."

- Yeah.
- You know, and then you go back to Kira,

"Hey, you failed to mention
that you and Nog had..."

"Well, because that is irrelevant.

He died in an accident,

what we were arguing about
has nothing to do with that."

I would have her not say it's an accident.
What I would say is,

"I'm going to handle this."

- That's better.
- Yeah.

"Look, it's not 20 years ago.

This isn't your job anymore.

This is gonna get handled,
but I want you off the station. Go home."

This is on the Klingon ship, right?

Worf is executing
the afternoon's batch of prisoners.

"Today is a good day to die for you
and you and you."

What I thought,
you beam Worf down to Bajor.

And then Garak appears.

- They're not particularly friendly...
- They still didn't like each other.

But it's, what the hell's going on?

Don't trust the Bajorans.

- "Including Kira?" "Especially Kira."
- Yeah,

You know, it's that kind of...

Well, why wouldn't Garak reach out
to Bashir or...

He knows Worf is a man of honor
who will act on this information.

Worf is a Klingon,
and this time we Klingon rules.

We need someone
who's gonna get pissed off.

Garak says, "Martok wanted proof.
I've got proof, here it is."

And he pulls out a thing,
and he shows him.

"Here is Vedek Kira
on a missionary excursion."

"Those are Jem'Hadar."

- "Yes, they've converted."
- They haven't announced it yet...

They haven't announced it yet,

but you're looking
at the new Bajoran army.

Yeah, and we think Nog got onto that,
and that's why he was killed.

"You have no friends here,
trust no one."

- Trust no one.
- No one.

- Commander Worf!
- Chief.

- It has been a long time.
- Too long, welcome aboard!

Just what this station needs,

another Klingon.

I don't remember whether I was asked
by the studio to bring Worf on

or to bring
a Next Generation character on.

I get a call in my hotel room from Rick,

and he said, um,
"| wanna ask you something.

How would you feel about
coming back on Deep Space?"

The studio was concerned
that we weren't doing well enough

and that we needed to compete.

They just sort of gave us one of
the greatest hits from another show,

and brought him on to our show and said,
"Make it work."

I thought it would be a little difficult
for some people.

It pissed us off, not because of Michael,
Michael's a lovely man.

It was an acknowledgment,
certainly of TNG,

which had been a huge success,
and was making movies and all that stuff,

that's where I felt slighted.

I get the Klingon thing we can bring
that in, but I wasn't excited about it.

I was nervous.

I felt like it was a threat
to my character.

I thought that he would suddenly be
the right hand man,

and I would be demoted
to bringing them coffee.

Maybe it's a sign of my, perhaps,

lack of engagement
toward things in the world,

but it never occurred to me
to go beyond that.

I was delighted to see Michael,

I had known Michael from TNG,

and, you know, delighted to see him there.
He's a great guy, and a terrific actor.

People ask me,
"What was your favorite episode?"

You know, and I say,
"Well, my best was on Deep Space Nine.

There were two Klingon episodes
that were just Shakespearean and epic."

I mean, they were just beautiful.

Once More into the Breach,
where Kor dies,

and Soldiers of the Empire.

That's Star Trek, that's Klingons.

On the Enterprise
I was considered to be quite amusing.

That must of been one dull ship.

He was the most dour Klingon,

even as a kick-ass Klingon.

You gave him sex appeal, and he gave you

the right to become 'Action Barbie, '

- or whatever you wanna call it.
- Right, right. Oh that was LeVar!

LeVar Burton was directing
one of the episodes,

and LeVar had called me "Action Barbie",

and I was like "Yes!"
That was so cool.

Suddenly Dax could dust it up
with the best of 'em...

I loved it!

Do you remember coming up to me
and telling me

- you were gonna make Dax more roguish?
- Yeah!

I was so excited when you said that!
Yes!

- Doesn't she ever lose?
- Ahh. Don't you wish!

All of that gave me more depth,

it gave me something rich to pull on.

When she came into the show,
she did not know what she was doing.

She didn't know how to act,
she didn't know anything.

This was her graduate school.

She just got better and better
and more confident.

At the end of the fifth season,

before the sixth season ever started,

um...

that's when negotiations were supposed
to start for the seventh season.

Like, a certain group of us
was given a take it or leave it offer.

There was no obligation to go forward,

but, naturally,

um... you want to.

You broke my heart a little bit.

My heart was broken too.

The last season when I was told
by one of our producers

that I was really lucky to be there

and I really should sign the next contract

because if I weren't there on the set,
I'd be at Kmart.

That was the last straw for me.

She's definitely coming back,
I don't care what they're saying.

I just refused to believe it.

- Yeah, I couldn't understand that...
- 'Cause we had the whole...

- The Worf story was a big... success.
- Yeah.

How did Terry Farrell get away
that late in the game?

They usually only get to you
as a studio head

after they've had the same conversation

in a different way
with the executive producers.

What I didn't appreciate was
somebody not talking to me.

And I really felt like
it was important to be heard.

If you think I'm valuable,
how come I'm not being listened to?

I remember distinctly,

you know, one meeting where she came
into my office and was crying,

and she felt that there were
opportunities for her in network shows,

and she said that,
"l just want out."

I didn't want to die,

but there was a point where it was like,
you know what?

Don't dismiss me!

Talk to me!

I can't imagine
that anybody wanted her to go away.

She was good.

Only the people involved know the facts.

We just know what people wanna tell us.

- Who died there?
- Jadzia!

- She died in the shrine.
- Jadzia died in the shrine.

End of season six.

That's how we got Ezri.

I thought she died on a ship

and Ezri was the only one
that could take her trill... ness.

- Yeah?
- She died on the station,

and Ezri was the closest trill
to Deep Space Nine,

- or something like that?
- Yeah, that's it.

- Something like that.
- I wasn't even there

- and I remember it better than you.
- I thought she died on a ship.

I know this has been a hard time for you,
old man, but...

Don't call me that!

I'm not the old man,
I'm not Curzon or Jadzia.

No, you're Ezri, Ezri Dax.

When Ezri came along, I thought that was
a smart addition, out of necessity,

and to make her a follow-up Dax
was brilliant as well,

because you still had the essence
of what the audience knew,

yet it's something new and different.

It makes so much sense
that it be someone

who continues on
one of your loved characters.

You know, you now get to still
see how everybody feels

about losing Jadzia through Ezri.

My sense always was,

by-by this horrible collision
of losing Terry

and bringing on a new character,

it gave you a whole... bang!

It'll be just like old times.

Except, different.

Nicole had a strength about her.

- And she had a spark.
- Yeah.

And, she was up for it. There were a lot
of people that wouldn't consider that,

because they felt like
it was the last year,

and she embraced it completely.

I did feel like Alice in Wonderland

being dropped into this amazing,

fleshed out,
realized world of rich characters

that I got to play with,

but it was tempered
with the fact that there's gonna be fans

that aren't gonna like me, ever.

This is just, forget about that,
you know that, it's fact.

We were introducing a new character,

which was really fun to write.
She was really fun to write.

I do remember liking how it changed
the dynamics of her and Worf.

I can't believe I'm stuck here with you!

Perhaps you would rather be back
on the station with Captain Boday.

You sli‘ vak!

When Nicole came on the show,
there was an easy way to go:

OK, they're gonna get back together,
and you just went, blip!

- Julian?
- Yes.

- We have to get up.
- Are you sure?

The big pressure was,
when I started working on Deep Space Nine,

I was supposed to be a sexy dude.

I had never got the girl, you know.

In the beginning
I wasn't really a huge fan.

Everyone hated him at the beginning.
He was just like a really annoying guy.

I'm aware that I have a tendency
to run off at the mouth sometimes.

- Ls that a fact?
- Suppose it's just a nervous habit.

- I hope you don't hold it against me.
- Oh, not at all, sir.

Julian Bashir was too immature.

Intellectually far more cooked
than he is emotionally.

Terry Farrell,
she was suddenly my love interest.

I was punching above my weight
when I was on the same stage with Terry.

- Are all your leaders women?
- Yes.

- All of them?
- You heard her, Julian.

Jadzia had no need for Bashir.
When Ezri came along...

- Good morning.
- Good morning.

It's like she was not intimidating.

She seemed to need Bash“
as much as Bashk needed her.

Finally, in season seven,
a love story for Bashir that worked.

Oh, right!

And who, originally,
way, way back,

was obsessed with her.
And she thought he was so callous.

- Yeah!
- You know? We made lemonade.

Dr. Bashir became
a lot more complex by the end.

He really grew on me.

You know, by the end he was awesome.

Bashir was arced beautifully

in the simple relationships
he had with the women on the station.

With Jadzia Dax and, finally, with Ezri.

He had matured, he'd arrived.

I'm prior service, and there's a lot of
prior service people here.

I'm a veteran of both Afghanistan
and a rotation of the Republic of Korea.

I was in the military for a long time.

- I was in the military.
- I retired from the Navy.

I served for 15 years.

I'm in the Army Reserves.
I'm a captain.

Captain Benjamin Sisko, Avery Brooks.

He is the reason why I joined
the United States Navy.

Every Friday morning,
for the past three months,

I've posted the official list
of Starfleet personnel killed,

wounded, or missing in the war.

It's become something of a grim ritual
around here.

Not a week goes by that someone
doesn't find the name of a loved one,

a friend, or an acquaintance
on that damned list.

I've grown to hate Fridays.

When I talk to people
who are ex-service people,

as your commanding officer,
they don't want a friend.

They want someone
who's gonna keep them alive,

and I think Avery played Sisko as a man

who cared deeply
about keeping his people alive

in very, very dangerous circumstances.

The war, at this time, allowed,
I think, the show to deal with

a lot of these kinds of issues
that traditionally don't get dealt with.

We tend to focus on the nature
of the conflict and the exploding ships,

and the fighting itself,
and not what are the other costs of war.

There's no such thing as a good war,
or a just war.

Everybody who gets involved in a war,

gets blood on their hands,
period, full-stop.

Kira was a freedom-fighter,

she had post-traumatic stress.

That is someone
who is on the edge of their emotions.

She can't just calm down, not able to.

I think within seven years, we showed
a progression of a freedom-fighter,

with post-traumatic stress,

who gradually recovers
by the end of the show.

The show really spoke

about nuances of war
that people don't know.

Deep Space Nine had the guts to have
an episode with Nog losing his leg.

I can't tell you how many times
a veteran has come to me,

and they would say,
"That show... That show helped me.

It helped me when I came back.

It helped me get through," you know,
whatever the individual was dealing with.

And that's powerful.

If I can get shot, if I can lose my leg,

anything can happen to me, Vic.

If I stay here, at least I know
what the future is going to be like.

You stay here, you're gonna die.

Not all at once, but little by little.

Eventually, you'll become
as hollow as I am.

Science fiction allows you to do
a lot of different things

that you couldn't do
on regular network television.

It allows you to explore
all these different kinds of social,

political and cultural issues.

It allowed for exploration
of family relationships,

and depth of character
and even, the Bajoran religion,

which is less exploration-oriented,

and more about the dynamics
and conflicts going on

with these characters
that we see regularly.

Deep Space Nine takes religion seriously.

Yes, it's not binary, there's a...

- No no.
- The rest of Trek is science or religion,

whereas Deep Space Nine is like...
It's a bit more complicated than that.

The captain's faith is strong.

He will prevail.

It's not much to bet his life on.

You're wrong.

It's everything.

I like the idea
that they could have that spirituality

and science come together
in a show like this.

It makes it easier, I think,
to explore religious themes,

in the context of a different culture,
as opposed to ours,

where everyone
is applying value judgments.

I really respected how hard
you guys were trying

to give the LGBT community representation.

At the time in the 90s, it was
a big thing to have gay relationships.

There were quite a few people
that were upset,

that had thought there
should be a warning,

because they were upset that they couldn't

have a conversation with their children

about what the episode was about.

So we did something controversial that,

still to this day people
come up to me and say, "Thank you."

That was the first time l felt like l saw
two people just love each other,

not because of what their sex was,

but just because they really
just loved each other.

You know what? Lose the check.

- Really?
- Yeah, lose it.

We did not earn a check
for sexual identity.

How come? I thought Rejoined
was a wonderful episode.

Yeah, it was great,
but one episode in seven years,

we could've done better.

Trust me, we should've done better.

What about Profit and Lace?

That was all about sexual identity
and it actually plays better today

than when it originally aired.

Comedy's too broad.

We sh0u|d've played it for drama.

Besides, Garak was clearly gay.

I mean, everyone knew it,
and we never played it.

What we shou|d've done,
after The Wire in season two,

the episode where Bashir helps him
get over his addiction,

we shou|d've had Garak come out to Bashir
as a gay Cardassian.

You think that the studio
would have actually let you do that?

Maybe not, I don't know.
Probably not, but we never asked.

That's why we don't get the check.

Garak comes out as gay in season two,

we have five seasons to play
that Bashir and Garak relationship.

Where that would have gone,
who the hell knows,

but it cou|d've been so cool.

Well, then you want me
to change that to an "X"?

An that is harsh.

Let's not be so self-critical, OK?

OK, well how about this?

Yeah, that?! do.

I think it's time we get back to the film.
How do we do that?

I think you can just press
any of those buttons there.

- How about the big red one?
- Try it.

OK, hold on to my hat.

In the context of the 90s,

this is when homelessness
was really becoming a public issue.

By the early 2020s,
there was a place like this

in every major city in the United States.

Why are these people in here?
Are they criminals?

No, people with criminal records
weren't allowed

in the sanctuary districts.

Then what did they do to deserve this?

Nothing, just people...

without jobs or places to live.

Past Tense, parts one and two,
that was full-on

social... commentary.

I mean, that episode... I mean,
look at today, it's kind of happening.

Everybody thinks it's prophetic.

It isn't, and we're still suffering
from the same problem.

It got to the point
where they didn't care

how many people were in here.

They just wanted to keep them
out of sight.

That only makes things worse.

Causing people to suffer
because you hate them is terrible.

But causing people to suffer
because you have forgotten how to care,

that's really hard to understand.

Documentary is a finite thing,
you only have so much time.

We did the writers' room,

we could only have
so many writers in there

for the one day we were doing it,
without it being too many voices.

So I just wanted to give a nod
to those people who were on the show.

Peter Allan Fields who created
the character of Garak.

Jim Crocker, who came in season two
and helped create the Dominion

and David Weddle and Bradley Thompson

who came as freelancers in season five,

and were on staff
for seasons six and seven.

I salute all of those people.

I have a thought, I have a thought.

- You don't have to raise your hand,
you're the head writer.

- He's the boss!

Well, I was thinking, the one thing
that we did that I know I'm proud of,

and I think we're all proud of, is that
Bajor never got into the Federation.

Season one, episode one was,

"Ben, you're here to get Bajor
into the Federation."

And Bajor said, "Screw you guys.
We're taking your captain

and we're making him a god."

I like the idea of using Section 31.

I know they used it in a movie
but it's ours, we created it.

And l think it's talking about
today's political situation.

I think the plan of Section 31,

is this is the example to them,

in their way of thinking,

why religion had to disappear from Earth.

'Cause religion separates you
from other people,

so we have to kill the Bajoran religion.

Section 31's plan is,

if you destroy the wormhole
and the prophets,

simultaneously shut down the gate,

then suddenly,
we'll be the big players in town again.

Without them knowing it's us.

That's very important!
No fingerprints!

Right.

Once that's gone,
then they will see the light,

according to Section 31,

and without religion propping them up,

they'll come into the Federation.

The other thing I was thinking was,
if any of our characters

actually did end up in Section 31

and maybe running the goddamn thing

would be Bashir.

Contemporary storytelling.

It's allowing some of our characters
to have really lost their way, you know?

So it's 5:30.

Do we wanna just, like,
kind of give a big shape for four

and a big shape for five,
and call it a day?

Like in the old days, in the real of it
we would all now go off and take pitches

and we'd come back tomorrow morning
and we'd go like,

- "We know we can finish this tomorrow."
- Right.

But, we're not coming back tomorrow.

Well, OK, going where we were going,

there's been tensions rising
between the Federation

and the Bajoran authorities...

Palik is specifically worried

that some element
of the Bajoran government

ordered N0g's death and murdered him.

Palik eventually is putting the pressure
on Kira to like, "Hey!"

- "Kick the Federation off the station..."
- Exactly!

- Kira is boxed in a bit...
- Because of the Jem'Hadar, right?

She's in on that.
That's why she's more on edge.

- She's not as open...
- She's not happy about it.

She's not happy,
but it's a secret she has to hold,

'cause that's her oath
and she can't tell her old friends

that this is what their government's
really thinking about doing.

I think we could do this act
in five scenes.

However we do it, at the end four,

Joseph Sisko could come find Jake

and tell him, "I've got news for you.
Starfleet killed your buddy Nog."

Section 31 killed Nog
because Nog knew something...

What he was really finding out was that
Section 31 was gonna kill the prophets.

He had found that out,
he was rushing back to say, "Holy shit."

Yeah, that's the mystery
within the mystery! Yes!

All right, so then act five.

That's when things spiral out of control.

Kira's kicking people off the station
and they don't wanna go,

and now you've got some run and jump
or some stuff,

and then guns are drawn.

Bird of Prey moving.
You've got Bajoran ships moving,

there's even a Starfleet vessel coming in.

This is gonna explode.

And then Kira could show up
"What the hell are you doing?"

"| have my orders.

You can stand on my side of the barrel
or the other side.

It's your choice, Vedek."

You can get that moment,
where which side will Kira stand on?

And she pulls out a security guards gun
and she steps in front of her friends.

Guns come up.

They're all about to shoot
at each other, and then...

And a big white light,
"What's happening?“

And then Sisko appears.

Sisko appears on the Klingon
bridge, he appears on the Bajoran bridge,

he appears in all these places
simultaneously,

and then the last place he ends up...
is with Jake.

He turns...

l'm Sorry-

It's the first episode
of a long season, right?

- Along season.
It's the first episode of a long season,

and you just wanna say, "Holy shit!"

And now we can leave that as a cliffhanger

and we'll all walk away,
pat ourselves on the back,

and think our imaginary selves
will have to get together

to break the imaginary rest of the season,

which is fine, 'cause we know we would
come up with something.

I think if we would keep going,

we would keep
massaging the mythology a bit.

- Yeah, of course.
- But I think the general shape...

- This is one day...
shape of it is kind of there.

It took us two whole days to break
these stories back in the day, you know?

Sometimes three!

The lesson is, when you don't pay us,
we do faster, better work.

To the best crew
any captain ever had.

This may be the last time
we're all together,

but no matter what the future holds,

a part of us, will always remain here,
on Deep Space Nine.

I started to think about the title
of this final episode,

which is What You Leave Behind,

and I started to think,
"What have we left behind?"

I think I leave behind a lot of good
memories of a lot of talented people.

I leave behind a Star Trek franchise

that will forever be different because
of what we did on Deep Space Nine.

They told more intimate,
character-driven stories.

Star Trek, as a franchise,
has always been very progressive.

But I think that Deep Space Nine
doesn't get enough credit for really being

probably the most progressive.

Of all the Treks,
I think it's the one that holds up most

- to modern viewing, actually.
- I think so, yeah.

- Again, ahead of its time.
- Yeah.

I've noticed that there's a whole
different group of fans now,

because it's being shown and streamed.

They binge-watch it,
like we're all doing now,

and they really get the flavor
of the whole show.

You can watch the whole thing in, like,
a week, if you're me, or a month...

It's just amazing, you know?

If it's your favorite show,
you can binge watch it many times.

I never get sick of my favorite shows.

That's been the key.

Not making people watch it
every week at 4:00 a.m.

The show is the same exact show,
nothing has changed.

What's changed is the delivery system.

Now it's easy to binge,
time has been good to Deep Space Nine.

You've seen the original series,
you've seen Next Generation,

now watch Star Trek: the best generation,
that's how I describe Deep Space Nine.

We put together a series of actors,

and a series of characters,

and it leaves me with a great sense
of pride and satisfaction that it worked.

Being a part of television history
like that,

being a part of being able to communicate
with not millions of people,

but hundreds of millions of people
over the years,

and tell them stories
that maybe affected their lives,

is a big thing to take with you.

We're in Vegas right now,
with a ton of people downstairs.

Three, four, 5,000 people,
they love the show.

Just took 'em 20 years to get here.

People, whenever they're in a series,
or a movie,

"Oh, we're such a family,
we're such a family."

And that's true, it's true,
but there is a deeper,

a familial connection,

and I've been so blessed
that I've had that in my life.

I have this show in my life,

in one form or other,
just about every day.

And that's a gift, it's taught me so much.

We're really lucky
to have this experience.

There's not one other job I've ever done,

that I am this connected to the people.

If some being came down
and said, "OK, this is it.

You can't do the business anymore,"
I'd say, "Fine."

It was a great period in my life.

It was a period I enjoyed immensely.

We left behind something that touched so
many millions of people around the world,

that I think it's a good shared legacy
for all of us.

I left behind a cast and crew

that probably won't be together again,
at least not in the same way.

That's very emotional, you know?

Ha!

What I left behind was...

any... bitterness,

any resentment about the business.

So many things changed in my life
because of this,

because of playing Garak.

I've gained so much more
than I ever left behind.

I learned to love life.

I don't do it as well as Quark,

but I try to emulate what he taught me.

The time that we spent together
is so magical.

It was so much fun.

I had such a wonderful time.

That seven years changed my life.

I just wish there was a way
I could go back

and just relive that,
just one more time.

It would make me so happy.

I feel like I started this journey
on this doc for the actors.

And, obviously, as we started
working on this doc,

I started to include the writers,

the crew, everyone who worked on the show.

But originally, it was for the actors.

To give them validation
for the work they had done.

As we do the documentary,

I realized what a hollow pursuit that was,

because the validation,

the important validation,
has been there all along.

It's all of us.

We are the validation.

Family, is the validation.

Well, at least now in my obituary,

it's not gonna say best known
as Clayton Endicott Ill on Benson,

'cause he was a wonderful, funny character
but he was a nit-wit,

and so now...

What can I say?

I don't know what else to say.

Casey.

- Jeff.
- Gentlemen.

Where's Max?

Oh, yeah!

- Here's one for you.
- OK. Go ahead.

What?

What?

- Finally...
- Oh, I love you, too!

That's a wrap!

That's a wrap.

Come on!

All right.

OK, OK, I know
what you're all thinking.

Afull-length documentary
about Star Trek: Deep Space Nine,

and not a single
mention of Iggy Pop?

Why am I not surprised?

Yeah, I get it.

Well, we tried,
I called his manager.

Iggy was overseas touring,
but I was gonna call again...

- Wait. Wait! No. Wait.
- And I...

Sorry, I'm really sorry.

A small confab.

499V P0P-
-Yeah.

Really?
N“ ' ‘We Iggy Pop,

but out of all the things that you
left out of What We Left Behind,

Iggy POp?

Yeah!

Well, no, what about
Trials and Tribble-ations?

We did a lovely piece about
Trials and Tribble-ations.

- Good...
- It was in the cut, it was out of the cut.

It was in, it was out.
Check the special features.

- I will.
- And while you're waiting for that...

- here's your very own tribble.

Thank you! No, wait, no.
This is not gonna distract me.

- In the Pale Moonlight.
- Same thing, in, out.

- And you can live with that?
- I can live with it.

I can live with it.

No, you cannot live
with leaving out Duet.

Everything I did was
for the greater glory of Cardassia!

Nana, are you really going to ask me
about every single episode?

No, no, not every episode,

just the really great ones
and the ones with great titles

- like The Visitor.
- We'd be here all day.

Besides, why just
concentrate on episodes?

What about the time...

What about the time we put
Keiko O'Brien's baby

into Kira's body just so we could justify
your real life pregnancy?

I'm so glad you brought that up,
because wasn't that your wife's idea?

Laura, no mention?
Don't get it.

You're not gonna mention Laura?

You've never forgiven me,
for your mother and Gul Dukat.

Yeah, that's true.

Look, there's a whole bunch
of other stuff we could talk about.

What about the Bashir and O'Brien‘s
seven year friendship...

- Yes.
- What about Morn?

- Right...
- What about The Mirror Universe?

What about Ferengis as
20th century human beings?

- What about your marriage to Sid?
- What about all those things?

We had to make choices,
Nana, difficult choices,

otherwise this film would be
eight hours long, at least.

He says that
like it's a bad thing.

You realize, Nana, that by now,
no one is paying attention to you and me?

All the lndiegogo backers are looking
for their names on these credits.

- Oh, yeah. Yeah, fair enough.
- How do say that name?

- Ohh. That's tough.
- That's a tough one huh?

Yeah.

So I'm just» One more thing and I'm done.
One more thing.

How could you leave out

the single greatest moment

in our show's
seven-year history?

And what the hell would that be?

Oh, my God.
Oh, my God, Ira...

- Huh?
- Oh, wow. You know something?

- You have a point.
- Yep.

She has a point.

Run the greatest moment,
in DS9 history.

What I want to know is,
out of all the stories you told me,

which ones were true
and which ones weren't?

My dear doctor, they're all true.

Even the lies?

Especially, the lies.