Star Trek TV Series DVDs, pt. 2
DS9 faced with many controversies when it first started. The series was often unfairly compared with another successful science fiction TV series Babylon 5. In fact, even the origins of DS9 is quite questionable, since it was the producer of Babylon 5 who had first offered his series to Paramount to be set in the Star Trek universe, but he was later turned down. Shortly thereafter, the producers of Star Trek came up with their own space station series. As a result, DS9 was often considered a copy of Babylon 5 throught its entire run, particularly right up to its final episode, which had many themes similar to the final episode of Babylon 5 itself! Fortunately, not too many people in the US were fans of Babylon 5, so the connection was never really made.
"Doctor Bashir, I Presume?" (DS9) (season 5, set in 2373):
- In this episode, Dr. Bashir was discovered to have been genetically modified as a child, a procedure considered illegal by the Federation. Bashir's father turned himself in for having allowed the procedure to be done, and one of the officials who presided in the case, Rear Adm. Bennett, made a comment saying that the Eugenics Wars took place 200 years ago. However, the Eugenics Wars was established to have occurred from 1993 to 1996, nearly 400 years before the episode. Apparently, the writer had remembered the scene from ST2 (set in 2285), in which Khan said that on Earth 200 years ago he was a prince, while he was writing this episode, but he had totally forgottened that DS9 takes place in the 24th century! I recommend that Adm. Bennett's line be changed to "400 years ago" so that his dialog would be more consistent.
The original actress for the captain walked out after a day of shooting, resulting in delays in shooting as a new captain was cast. There were further delays when numerous scenes from several early episodes had to be reshot as Paramount decided that the captain's previous hairstyle had less dramatic effect and could possibly dampen fans' interest in the show!
The initial seasons of VOY had rather terrible episodes since the isolation of the crew from the already established Star Trek universe has pretty much prevented certain familiar story elements from being incorporated into the stories. Nevertheless, as the series progressed, the storylines became more interesting, showcasing character developments among the main characters. Unfortunately, several original premises had either changed or evolved as the series progressed. It was decided that the Starfleet and Maquis crew will work together troublefree, causing the Maquis plotline to fade into the background. The Kazons, created as the main adversaries for the Voyager crew, had to be written off when it was found that they had never become popular with the fans. A new sexy female character was introduced in the 4th season to replace a mundane female character, in the hopes of improving the ratings (it worked). This led to a question as to whether Star Trek, often considered a successful and respectable enterprise, had to resort to such a tactic. Finally, even certain Alpha Quadrant elements showed up in VOY, from the occasional stranded ship to establishing contact with Starfleet! When the series ended, more people were glad that it had ended while it was still popular rather than being a story that got from nowhere to nowhere. Hopefully, Paramount will release VOY DVDs in the near future, possibly after the release of the DS9 DVDs.
Here are some of my recommended edits for inconsistencies in the episodes of VOY.
- We learn that Tuvok was present on the Excelsior during the events of ST6. In the flashback scenes on Excelsior bridge, the console chairs have legs. Whereas in ST6, we can see that the console chairs have a circular base. On the other hand, as The ST Encyclopedia suggests that Tuvok's memory may not have been perfect, we can attribute this inconsistency to inaccuracies in Tuvok's memory. But, if it is not too prohibitive, I would recommend that all the Excelsior console chairs in this VOY episode to be digitally altered to have a circular base.
- Tuvok mentions that two days after the Excelsior encountered the subspace shockwave from the explosion of Praxis, he heard that two Starfleet officers were arrested for the assassination of the Klingon Chancellor. But in ST6, it was said that two months had passed between the explosion and the conference room meeting where Kirk was assigned to escort the Klingon Chancellor to Earth for the peace conference. I believe that two months should be the correct duration of time passed since some time would be required for the negotiations to set up the conference. Therefore, I suggest that Tuvok's line could be changed to say that it was two months after the explosion when he heard that news. Again, this inconsistency could be due to flaws in Tuvok's memory.
The console chairs have circular bases.
- Tuvok says that he was born on Stardate 38774. But in "Flashback" (VOY), Tuvok mentions that he was 29 years old during the events of ST6 (set in 2293). This indicates that Tuvok was born in 2264, which was around the time of TOS, during which stardates were four-digits! Five-digit stardates were usually used for 24th century events, and in this case, it is simply inconsistent for a five-digit stardate to occur in 2264! I would recommend that Tuvok say a different, four-digit stardate for his birth, preferably a lower-numbered stardate since stardates increased erratically throughout the entire run of TOS.