In a new interview, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine’s Rene Auberjonois says that he felt his guest spot episode on Star Trek: Enterprise copied a story from DS9 and that this illustrates the need for JJ Abrams 2009 Star Trek movie to "break the mold" of Star Trek and revitalize the franchise.
Auberjonois: Enterprise repeated DS9 story – Star Trek 2009 needed refresh
Rene Auberjonois played Star Trek: Deep Space Nine’s shape-shifting (and grumpy) Constable Odo for seven seasons, along with a number of other Star Trek guest spots. In a new interview with the official Star Trek site, Auberjonois comments on how when he appeared in the the the Star Trek: Enterprise episode "Oasis" he noticed it seemed familiar…
I was sitting with Scott Bakula at lunch about two or three days into shooting the episode. He said, “I like this script. I think this is a good one.” I said, “Yeah, we did this one in season three.” And he looked at me and said, “What?” I said, “It was the same sort of story.” That was not really a putdown, but when you’ve done that many years of writing stories, there will be recurring themes. I think that’s one of the reasons why I thought the new feature film really sort of broke the mold. It was time for new minds to come in and new conceptions to happen, and I think it’s absolutely revitalized the whole franchise. I have that sense now when I got to conventions, that even though ours is an old show that was done years ago, the new energy brought to the franchise by the last feature film has rekindled people’s passions for the whole Star Trek world.
The episode Auberjonois is likely referring to was actually in season 2 of DS9, called "Shadowplay." In both episodes the crew encounters a group of people who turned out to be mostly holograms. "Shadowplay" was written by Robert Hewett Wolfe, and "Oasis" was based on a story by Brannon Braga, Rick Berman and Stephen Beck.
Here are trailers for both:
For more from Auberjonois, read the full interview: Part 1 & Part 2.
My partner and i recently rediscovered DS9. i think when it aired i was too young to really understand how deep it really is as a show.
i’m on season 6 episode 3 and i am loathing the end of the series :(
Ballsy to cop to that a decade later Rene… um not.
Who cares? Enterprise was a terrible show, but it was still better than DS9. Nobody likes that pile of RDM-infested garbage.
@#3 … Classy.
What’s RDM?
Enterprise reused too many themes old stories in the first two seasons. I think they thought they were making clever homages to the old shows, but really it was more like “didn’t I already see this episode?” That mostly went away when they shifted to story arcs.
Yes, well, DS9 copied B5.
What goes around, comes around.
@Bittertrekkie That old rumor has been squashed multiple times DS9 and B5 only had a very superficial resemblance and many of the things JMS said DS9 ripped off (White Star, Shadow war) weren’t in the B5 bible he said was copied.
While I agree that the episode in question was very derivative of an earler DS9 episode to say that Enterprise consistantly copied DS9 is ridiculous.
3.
…
That was totally uncalled for. “Deep Space Nine”, is my favorite of the Trek series, and in my opinion, the best. RDM and the other writers were allowed to do things on that show they couldn’t do with TNG or VOY, and even TOS. DS9 was also the show that explored more grey areas.
I think there are a few fans of DS9 around here….
RDM – Ronald D Moore
I loved Enterprise and i re wach Eps all the time. I also loved DS( and Voyager and Tng and Tos. As a hard Core Trek Fan I love all of them. True. There was some not so great eps. But hey. Even Tos had some not so goo eps. Spock’s Brain and the Apple just to name a couple. But they all also had some great Eps as well.
Tos. City on the Edge of Forever.
Tng. The Best of both Worlds.
Ds9. What we leave behind.
Voyager. Year of Hell.
Enterprise. In a Mirror. Darkly.
These are some of the best eps and of course there are many more.
Rene Auberjonois is right. I stopped watching Voyager and Ent for this reason. Star Trek started to recycle its plots left and right, and this tendency got very tiresome.
DS9 is my favorite TV show of all time. I can’t wait for the Blu-rays!
@10:
“What You Leave Behind” is almost as massive a trash episode as “Endgame” or “These Are the Voyages”. Star Trek has not had the best luck with making decent finales, and I’m guessing part of the problem was Allan Kroeker directing all of them.
I will always say that I loved all the
Trek series’… DS9 being MY favorite.
Everyone’s got a preference.
this is a point myself and other fans over the years have stressed…when trek was at its high point..movies, multi-series runnin all at the same time, u knew the well was gonna dry up having to write so many hours/stories, using almost all of the same people, not necessarily the ones that fleshed out the final script, but the originators of the stories pitched…
but the most ironic thing bout trek in the latter years was B&B could’ve really produced some great..not only trek..but tv in general if they would’ve stayed with GR’s original concept of writing good morality plays on the ‘topics of the day’. I think they were too afraid of not being PC enough, steppin on too many people’s toes/feelings..offending someone or some group. Or maybe that was the control of the studio and its fault.
yes, there were a few exceptions…but how many gay episodes, or, excuse me, ALMOST gay themed eps can there be. Wish GR couldve been round with more influence on more contriversal topics..
ok ill shut up now…
@#3: Quit trolling. DS9 had the best character development of any Trek show. It dealt with the darker side of life, and though I was too young to appreciate it when it first aired, it quickly became my favorite show once I watched it again a decade later. Comparing Enterprise to DS9 shows you don’t know what you’re talking about ;)
First, TOS was the best. DS9 was the best of the spinoffs. It was the only one that tried something new. By the time Worf joined the cast, DS9 was firing on all thrusters. Having said that, Babylon 5 was the better space station show.
Yeah! What njdss4 said! Although TOS will forever be my favorite, DS9 was the most original of the Treks.
13.
….
I have to disagree with you about “What You Leave Behind”. I thought it was a very good finale. Not as good as “All Good Things…” was of course, but a very fitting end to “Deep Space Nine”. The only criticism of WYLB I have is that it got a little too sentimental during the scene at Vic Fontaine’s in the holosuite. I really enjoyed the last scene where Jake is joined with Kira staring out of a window. The camera moving away from DS9 until the station became just a speck of light against a background of stars was very effective at conveying the feeling that us, the audience, were also leaving the station for good.
Rene is very wise and speaks the truth. Bermanized Trek was wore out, it was way past time for a return to TOS. Two sayings come to mind which fit this scenario perfectly…as far as Berman’s Trek goes, familiarity breeds contempt…which leads to the TOS reboot…proof that, absence does, ideed, make the heart grow fonder.
@19:
The whole latter half of the episode just stunk (although in regards to the holodeck remembrance scene, I’ve always found it hilarious that instead of paying Terry for a shot of Worf remembering his wife, they slotted in footage of him from the holodeck episode where he should have no recollection at all.) Dukat was completely undermined from an anti-hero/villain dichotomy to a “oh shucks, now he’s evil and possessed”. The Bajoran plot wasn’t fully developed towards anything–and that was supposed to be the driving force behind the whole series (not to mention tied to the Dominion War somehow). Instead we got some RDM mystic handwaving–a trait that was mostly constrained on DS9 but reared its ugly head again in full force during Battlestar Galactica. The whole Evil Book never made any sense in the episode, and makes even less when you think harder about it–who exactly wrote it in the first place, and if someone did couldn’t they write another? Why the hell couldn’t the nonlinear Sisko say goodbye to his son?
Ultimately the show had all the strings showing–the writers wanted to get to point B, and they bent whatever they could to get to it. It wasn’t an organic finish, and considering that overall DS9 was a fairly strong series was a massive slap in the face.
Ds9 Finale to me was well done. It brought an end to the War and Odo went home and everything was well done. Not as good as Tng but very well done. On Enterprise These are the Voyages was just crap. Plain and simple.
@ 21
You are aware that she refused to let them use past images of her for the finale?
She would only accept a whole new scene they couldn’t afford, so it didn’t happen.
Ironically, now she regrets all those decisions.
@ 21
You are aware that she refused to let them use past images of her for the finale?
She would only accept a whole new scene they couldn’t afford, so it didn’t happen.
Ironically, now she regrets all those decisions.
Personally, I liked DS9, every show had there weak points (some more than others) and strong points.
I do agree with the Constable ;)
Wow… lots of hate on this site recently… love the trashing by “Anonymous”. If you have an opinion, great, but back it up with your name.
Either way, as a fan of ALL Star Trek, I have to say that RDM did quite a good job with DS9, and Manny did a great job for Season 4 of Enterprise.
All series, from TOS to ENT had a mixture of excellent episodes (Mirror Mirror, The Doomsday Machine, Balance of Terror, In a Mirror Darkly, Twilight, Zero Hour, Storm Front 1 and 2, ETC) and also horrible episodes (Miri, And the Children Shall Lead, The Way to Eden, Spocks Brain, These are the Voyages, Precious Cargo).
Let’s try to remember that we are all fans here on this site, and everyone is entitled to their own opinion. Bashing a series as a whole is a very ignorant thing to do.
Also, I am a FAN of B5 as well, and again, those series have great moments and poor ones.
Lets just try to be respectful of each others opinions here…
Not a big fan of the spinoffs but DS9 was easily my favorite. Took a while to get rolling but I thought it was well written, more adult and nuanced, with great characters. Both different in it’s approach and feel.
Years and years ago, I recall reading the MAD magazine spoof of DS9. In one of the last panels, the major joke centers around how Star Trek tends to recycle plots, because there are only so many storylines/twists/cliches out there, and considering the sheer volume of television material that has been produced, I’m surprised things have been as original as they’ve been.
I have to say after TOS, DS9 is my favorite. It was the most well rounded and interesting of shows in my opinion. It was more serialized and instead of solving problems in 45 minutes and warping away, free of any ramifications, DS9 had to live with all the consequences and explored a lot of the gray areas and difficult moral choices. In the Pale Moonlight is a highlight of the show. However, I do like Enterprise for the most part, could have done without the Xindi.
I kind of get that feeling a lot with sci-fi today and in the past decade or so. The 90’s were really the golden years of Sci-fi, with shows like TNG, DS9, The X-Files and Babylon 5 among others. After that its like “this is good but I’ve seen this story done before!” There have of course been exceptions like Farscape and Battlestar Galactica that have sort of broken the mold. Stargate is great but even Stargate at times has a “been there, done that feeling.” I’ve come to realize over the years that its not the situation itself but how the characters deal with the situation.
Take Stargate SG-1 season 5’s “Window of Opportunity” vs. – I can’t remember the name, but it was the TNG episode where the crew found themselves in a repeating time loop. Similar concepts but VERY different styles – with SG-1 taking a more humorous approach and TNG taking a more serious approach. If you copy or do a similar idea to another show, that’s fine, but make sure your approach is different enough and unique enough to YOUR show that I’m not bored during the entire episode because I’ve seen it before.
#20
You’re right. Familiarity does breed contempt—which is exactly why I don’t like the reboot.
See what I did there?
While I liked TNG more than DS9, I’ll agree that in a lot of ways DS9 was a better show. For the troll that’s talking crap about RDM, I guess you never watched Galactica.
Trek needs a new approach, maybe a story where the leads are taken over by an alien influence.
#32 been done I’m afraid
Voyager Season 3 “Displaced” – one by one The Crew are all replaced with aliens
And the other season 3 episode Warlord (avoid at all costs) Kes is possessed by the spirit of an old alien warlord out for revenge
Odo was easily one of my favorite characters from DS9, and I very much loved DS9. Watched it religiously, in fact.
Ron D. Moore? is the man – as he used to consistently respond to fan feedback on the old trek message boards of the time, much like Bob does here.
I never really got into ENT. While it looked good, like Voyager, it never stuck to its original premise. It quickly turned into recycled TNG. Only at the end, when Manny Coto came in and the show started feeling like fresh Star Trek, did I start watching it again.
“I’m not make-believe!” … hehe STILL one of Odo’s best delivered lines and a favorite of mine in all of Star Trek, from “Shadowplay”.
27. Toothless Grishnar Cat:
I also have that MAD magazine, parodying all of Trek, it´s priceless.
BTW all those Trek MAD parodies should be considered canon, that´s how good they are :)
TNG will always be my favorite as that is how I discovered Star Trek, but I think DS9 was a better show. But it couldn’t have had the chance to be a better show without TNG.
I actually prefer ENT “Oasis” to DS9 “Shadowplay”, even though I saw the DS9 one first. Both treated as mysteries obviously, but they went with a more ghost story vibe with the ENT one, while DS9 was one of stories going on that week and made more of the child losing its parents part. While ENT had her be more mature.
38. (edit) while DS9 was one of TWO stories going on that week. ENT didn’t distract from it, with a B plot.
It would be nice if Rick Berman would occasionally get credit for when Star Trek was good. 25 seasons of TV and he was in charge of 23 of them, and four movies. Should he have quit and brought in a Fred Freiberger to turn out the lights?
Ron more did write and or help write some of the best Episodes of Trek.
Tng. Yesterdays Enterprise and Relics and on Ds9. Trials and Tribbleations just to name a few. Who here did not like those Eps.
Not to criticise Rene A too much, (I love him as Odo, and as the grief striken survivor in ENT), but the fresh minds that revitalised Star Trek, basically looted same-old story ideas too. Reads the same on the page as various different elements done before – meshed together and shot using techniques that have moved on too… orchestrated by the latest hot shot UBER Director who probably doesn’t see the same old tropes.
I am a fan of all Star Trek. Having said that, it was true that after so many years, the stories started seeming like they were done before. Even parts of some episodes hailed back to others. I agree that Star Trek needed fresh blood. The time had come to move on. I was disappointed that we never got to see the Romulan War on Enterprise, but time had run out. I’m happy to see Star Trek have new life, as well as being happy that the individual series have continued in the novels and taken them in new directions as well.
If “Enterprise” had done in it’s first year what it did in it’s last year, the show would have been a hit. Took too long to find it’s way. Plus, in it’s final year, there was much more TOS reference and storylines – what us fans LOVE. “In A Mirror, Darkly” is classic Trek. Awesome.
I think he’s right.
Enterprise is a funny one for me. It was the first Trek TV series I’d watched from beginning to end. I loved it and I still do however along with Voyager, Insurrection and Nemesis, Enterprise felt like Star Trek was just going through the motions.
The cast were superb but the stories particularly in seasons 1 and 2 lacked the originality of shows like Battlestar Galactica, TNG and DS9. Enterprise really got good when Manny Coto was brought onboard. Had he been there from the beginning with Rick Berman and Branon Braga stepping back from Trek, Enterprise would have lasted the 7 seasons.
The the thing I’d like to point out is that there are only so many stories anyone can tell in this world but what does happen is writers tell them in different and original ways. this is what I feel happened in Star Trek 2009 – the writers took a premise that had been seen in various films in the past but told it in an original and exciting way that has revived a stagnant brand.
Berman and Braga failed to do that – An episode of season 1 or 2 of Enterprise could have easily been an episode of Deep Space Nine, Voyager or TNG in the way it was shot, worded and how the story was told and thats the same with Voyager too.
Berman and Braga should have let someone else do Enterprise because the premise was a really fantastic one, I just don’t feel that it had really reached its full potential. It relied too heavily on TNG type story-telling again.
Enterprise and DS9 are the least favs of mine. Ranking the series, I would say (1) TOS, (2) TNG, (3) VOY, (4) DS9, (5) ENT. If I were ranking “final seasons” of all the shows, ENT and DS9 would switch places. TNG should have gone on to an 8th & 9th season instead of doing movies. There were rumors at the time, but it didn’t happen. They lost it when they went to movies… I really like that there’s talk of remastering the TNG episodes from the original film for HD. Could see some stuff we’ve never seen before…
my ranking: 1) DS9, 2) TOS, 3) TNG, 4) ENT, 5) VGR.
for me, ds9 came closest to capturing the spirit of the original series, while also stretching the boundaries of creative storytelling. plus, the cast was amazing!
Odo is my favorite character in DS9, providing a similar strong story continuation as The Doctor in VOY and Data in TNG. All three carried a purpose through the series.
It took me a long time to look at VOY as I always considered this series as the worst. Now, it kind of (mul)grew on me, and I rate it second to DS9. I also feel that TNG is not aging well.
25
I agree. Too many hate-mongers recently. Anthony?
“I also feel that TNG is not aging well.”
i think that is more evident during the first three seasons.
45–I agree with you. While I’ve got no major beef with Berman (he was largely the reason TNG found it’s way by season 3 and 4), it was clear that the last few years he was involved Star Trek was starting to go on auto-pilot. What he should have done (starting with Voyager) is taken a more backseat role and started getting more people involved and rotating others out. He did not necessarily have to leave the franchise, but had he faded more to the background (maybe as a guiding, instead of a leading force), Enterprise and Voyager may have been more warmly remembered. Manny Coto’s addition to Enterprise was a welcome addition, but unfortunately was too little too late. I liked Enterprise, but there was no double season 4 and to some extent 3 were far superior. At least Manny Coto redeemed Enterprise in the eyes of many out there. If nothing else Enterprise went out as it should have started, a true prequel to the original series.