From: dj@ekcolor.ssd.kodak.com (Dave Jones)
Subject: Re: Deep Space Nine Preview (UK) *Minor Spoiler*
Followup-To: rec.arts.startrek.misc,rec.arts.tv.uk
Organization: Morituri Te Salutent, Inc.
X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.1 PL7]
Date: Fri, 8 Jan 93 19:07:58 GMT

Ralph Ferneyhough (phd99@keele.ac.uk) wrote:
> 
> StarDate 1993 - New Trek spin-off boldly goes on air
> 
> 	It's Star Trek, Jim, but not as we know it.
> 	Deep Space Nine, a spin-off from the hir series Star Trek: The Next
> Generation, goes on air later this month in the U.S.
> 	Set in a space station, it promises to be darker and sexier than any
> show which has gone before in the Trekky cult.

Sexy.  Pull the other one.

> 	And the 24-part series is set to make a star of unknown British
> actor Siddig El Fadil.
> 	The 24-year-old Londoner has been cast as medic Dr Julian
> Bashir.
> 	Paramount television producer Richard Berman spotted Siddig in
> an English TV production.

Hey, he's young and handsome.  That's talent in US eyes.  His character 
comes across as Luke Skywalker on amphetamines.  The writers decided he
is to be infatuated with Dax - and it shows.

> 	His out-of this world crew includes a shape-changing security
> officer called Odo, played by Rene Auberjonois.
> 	Terry Farrell plays science officer Jadzia Dax while sexy Nana
> Visitor stars as first officer Kira Nerys.

Dax is a she (as if you haven't guessed) although for the purposes of the
script Dax is a 'they' as the character hosts one of those long-lived 
symbiotes introduced in ST:TNG.

Nana Visitor is 'sexy' because that's the Express's translation of the US
term 'soap queen' (i.e. has had a career in US soap opera = bed opera).
In fact she's not that special.  The character is more dynamic than the 
Getsworse report suggests.

> 
> 2) The article was accompaigned by a photo of the cast - this had eight
> people in. The article text only mentions six people - who are the
> other two. I guess one of them is the Ferengi member - but the other
> one?
>
The Ferengi is played by Armin something or other.  The other missing name
is probably that of the young actor playing Sisko's son.
 
> 3) Is the shape changer, Odo, the same race as the one in STVI? Is this
> where they got the idea from? I guess they 'borrowed' any special
> effects from STVI anyhow.

Rene is not to be confused with mythical Sartrean spouses and other 
females of the name.  'He' is a fairly well known actor over here in both
comedy and drame fields.  He's practically unrecognizable under the makeup
they use.  He (the character) doesn't know where he's from, but there's a 
hint it's something to do with the wormhole that appears in the first 
episode and is the main hook in the series.  His humanoid shape is just
one he uses to mingle with people (in which case you wonder why he couldn't 
have done a better job of it).


> 
> 4) Why have they chosen such a wide range of 'strange' names - a lot of
> the names, both first and surnames for the characters are not exactly
> common - or is it my imagination?
>
The characters?!?  The actors have weird enough names..... Despite 
appearances all the characters are supposed to be non-Terran except for
Sisko & Son, and the Doc.  Nana Visitor will be spending the next year at 
least wearing a Nose Augmentation Device on screen, though it doesn't show
in the cast photo.  She's supposed to be Bajoran, which is where Ensign Ro
on TNG was supposed to hail from.  You remember what she looked like.
  
--
||------------------------------------------------------------------------
||Dave Jones (dj@ekcolor.ssd.kodak.com)|Eastman Kodak Co. Rochester, NY  |
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