From: mwgertz+@cs.cmu.edu (Matthew Gertz)
Subject: Re: Deep Space Nine News
Organization: Dept. of ECE, The Robotics Institute, Carnegie Mellon
Date: Wed, 9 Sep 1992 13:38:38 GMT

Interesting report...

system@memalph.UUCP (Woody Harper) writes:
>Here is some info on ST:DS9...

>This file is a synopsis of a talk given by Majel Barrett Roddenberry
>concerning STAR TREK: DEEP SPACE 9, at Starbase Cincy, on August 1,
>1992.  This is a rewritten and reformatted version of the info posted
>in the thread titled "<Majel on DS9>," with a few additions and
>corrections.  Most of this is direct from the DS9 Writer's Guide,
>Majel said.

>     At about the same time, a stable wormhole has been discovered in
>the Bajoran star system.

Amazing -- the Bajorans and Cardassians have had starflight (and, I assume,
advanced astronomy) for at least a century, and only now they've discovered
this wormhole in their own backyard.  Great.  (Unless, of course, it's a brand
new wormhole... or perhaps only now the Bajorans want to announce its
existance, now that the Cardassians can't use it to their own advantage -- 
this presupposes that the Cardassians missed it somehow...)

>The wormhole has given Bajor the chance it needed to rebuild, by
>becoming a center of commerce and trade.

...and plotlines...  8^)

>     Bajor has hired the Federation to administer the wormhole, and
>given the assigned Starfleet unit an old Cardassian space station. 
>The station is a wreck; the Cardassians stripped it before leaving,
>and there's very little left that works.  The Starfleet unit's first
>responsibility is to get the station operational, but in fact there's
>little chance all the problems will ever be worked out.  (Translation:
>Mechanical breakdowns will be a frequent complication in many
>stories.)

You'd think that for something as important as this wormhole (which,
according to "The Price," would be the first stable wormhole ever
discovered, since the one in "The Price" wasn't), Starfleet might spring
for a new space station... especially considering all the baddies that
might emerge from it.  I mean, what's on the other end of this wormhole?
The Planet of the Tribbles or some other non-violent area of space?
Sheesh...

(They should at least keep an armed starship handy in case Lwaxana Troi
emerges from the wormhole...  8^)

>Some info on the main characters:
>
>ODO: The Security Officer.  A shapeshifter.  He is from an unknown
>race; he was found alone on a derelict spacecraft.  He hopes someday
>that a ship will come through the wormhole whose crew can tell him who
>and what he is.

This is rather like the original description of Data, isn't it -- designed and
abandoned on a dead human colony by a race of unknown aliens, of whom he
knows nothing.  Well, as TNG borrowed from Star Trek II (the non-existant
series, I mean -- not the movie), so DS9 borrows from the preliminary
spces for TNG.  (Not that I have a problem with this, mind you...)


>  At night he must revert to his native form, a
>shapeless mass of jelly.

I still like the idea of the Ferengi sneaking in one night, dumping a few cans
of mandarin oranges into him, adding whipped cream, and selling him as an 
exotic dessert... 8^)

>MILES O'BRIEN: Chief Engineer of the space station...

Go away, Miles.  You were a moderately interesting side-character, but as
a main character, you leave much to be desired.  Please develop a
personality, at least.

>QUARK: A Ferengi who runs the main bar on the space station's
>promenade.  The promenade is a collection of bars and shops of all
>kinds (even a holographic house of ill-repute)

Ahh, holographic.  I wondered how they were going to slip the brothel past
the eyes of Paramount.  Now it makes sense.

>The Bajoran planetary leader: This gentleman is a sort of cross
>between president and religious leader.  The Bajoran culture has
>always been deeply spiritual and philosophical, and this man is
>well-equipped to lead it.  There are hints that he has some strange
>mental powers, which may or may not be explored in the series.

As long as he doesn't keep "pulling powers out of a hat," this should
be okay.  This should be a fairly controversial character as Starfleet
pragmatism bumps up against Bajoran dogma...

>DR. JULIAN AMOROS: Chief Medical Officer of the space station.  Late
>20s, just about right out of med school, this is his first major
>assignment.  He's young, confident, very gung-ho, and also rather
>naive.  He expected to be assigned to a starship, to be out on the
>frontier where the action is.  He did not expect to be assigned to a
>broken-down space station in a just-recovering ex-war zone.

Let's get out the harmonicas and all hum along to the theme from "Northern
Exposure."  8^)  I don't recall this character being in the first drafts.
Did they add him on the basis of all the Emmys Northern Exposure
garnered?  8^)

>JADZIA DAX: Science Officer.

[...]

>Meanwhile, the Trill symbiont is a rather cold personality
>with little use for sex, so when it's in control it's not very
>interested in a "relationship."  However, the host's biochemistry can
>override the symbiont's desires, so every now and again Jadzia's
>emotions get the better of her, despite the symbiont's best efforts to
>the contrary.

I will be interested to see how much autonomy the host has, and why the 
host race allows the Trill to enter and dominate their bodies...

>Recurring guest characters:
>
>KEIKO O'BRIEN will appear from time to time.

Same note as for Miles, above...

>LWAXANA TROI will be a recurring guest on DS9.  Apparently she visits
>the station at some point and develops a liking for Odo, the shape-
>shifter Security Officer.

Oh, joy...

-- 
Matt Gertz, mwgertz+@cs.cmu.edu
Dept. of ECE, The Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University.