Time - Man of the Year/Time_Man_of_the_Year_Compact_Publishing_3YX-Disc-1_Compact_Publishing_1993.iso/moy/122892/12289945.000

Text File | 1993-04-08 | 6KB | 128 lines

                                                                                TELEVISION, Page 63

Star Trek: The Next Frontier


With a dark, gritty new spin-off, the futuristic cult series
moves into uncharted territory

By JANICE C. SIMPSON


    The setting, while not exactly Blade Runner territory, is
a desolate space station -- a decidedly hostile environment. It
includes a promenade with a space-age cash machine and a
holographic brothel. Through it passes a contentious assortment
of humans and aliens. Station Commander Benjamin Sisko, while
as courageous and honorable as U.S.S. Enterprise captains James
Kirk and Jean-Luc Picard, openly expresses his discontent with
his hardship assignment.

    What's going on here? Can this dark, gritty show really be
the latest spin-off in the Star Trek saga -- that seemingly
never-ending cult series about a Utopian future in which
knowledge and technology conquer disease and poverty and all the
races and species in the universe coexist in near perfect
harmony? Yes, Mr. Spock, this is Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, a
syndicated show premiering the week of Jan. 4. It takes Star
Trek, created 27 years ago by visionary producer Gene
Roddenberry, further into uncharted territory than ever before,
and is the first Trek venture initiated since Roddenberry died
last year. "We've managed to create conflict without breaking
the ideals of what the show is all about," says co-executive
producer Rick Berman. "That's one of our rules: You don't mess
with Gene's vision. We bend things a little bit, but I believe
we bend them in the same way that he would have."

    They'd better. After all, a whole empire may be at stake.
The initial 79 episodes of Star Trek, originally seen on NBC,
are venerated as TV classics and are available on
videocassette. A sequel series, Star Trek: The Next Generation,
is in its sixth season in syndication and is seen by 20 million
people each week, making it second only to Wheel of Fortune
among syndicated shows. Six Star Trek movies have been made,
grossing an aggregate of $500 million. There is a TV cartoon
show, a theater-style attraction at the Universal Studios theme
park and a legion of annual conventions of "Trekkers." A
retrospective exhibit of Star Trekiana was held at the
Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum earlier this year,
and a chain of "virtual reality" Star Trek entertainment centers
will open across the country next year.

    In most ways, Deep Space Nine follows the familiar course
charted by its predecessors. It is set in the same 24th century
as The Next Generation and deals with many of the political
situations introduced in that show. Familiar faces from older
series pop up: Enterprise captain Picard appears in the pilot,
and another Enterprise crew member, Miles O'Brien, has
transferred completely to become chief operations officer for
Deep Space Nine. "The synergy between the shows will become
immediately obvious," says the other co-executive producer,
Michael Piller.

    The primary conflict in the new series is between the
warmongering Cardassians, who gutted and abandoned the space
station after being forced out, and the spiritually minded
Bajorans, who have resorted to terrorism to end a century of
foreign occupation in their homeland. The Bajorans' appeal for
help to the Federation, the interplanetary U.N., brings Sisko
and a motley crew of officers to Deep Space Nine. There they
interact with a constantly changing cast of aliens who pass
through the frontier outpost.

    Like its predecessors, Deep Space Nine will explore
philosophical questions and social problems. Plots in upcoming
episodes deal with topics like racial prejudice and single
parenthood. Captain Sisko is played by African-American actor
Avery Brooks, who beat out 100 other contenders from all racial
backgrounds for the job, making him one of the few black actors
to star in a dramatic series. Others in the cast include former
model Terry Farrell as science officer Jadzia Dax, an alien who
combines the personalities of a 300-year-old androgynous life
form and a 28-year-old female in one being; Rene Auberjonois as
security officer Odo, a displaced alien with shape-shifting
capabilities that allow him to change into any form; Nana
Visitor as first officer Kira Nerys, a former member of the
Bajoran underground; Armin Shimerman as Quark, the
money-grubbing bartender who provides comic relief; and Siddig
El Fadil as medical officer Dr. Julian Bashir, a human doctor
who adds hunk appeal.

    But the real stars of the new series are set designer
Herman Zimmerman and special-effects wizard Rob Legato. The
basic set, which fills three sound stages at the Paramount
studios, includes a five-level operations command center, the
crew's cavelike sleeping quarters and the 80-ft. promenade. A
good chunk of the $2 million-per-episode budget goes toward
eye-popping optical effects, like travel into the wormhole that
provides shortcuts through space and gives the station its
strategic significance.

    Before his death, creator Roddenberry "had gotten awfully
mellow, and the show had begun to lose some of the excitement
and nonsense and folderol that can make it fun to do," says his
widow Majel Barrett, who provides the voice of the computer on
all three series. Deep Space Nine "lends itself to a lot more
excitement. It will be different, and yet it will fit into his
universe." As Roddenberry knew all along, there are no final
frontiers in the world of Star Trek.