It’s been a long road for the DS9 documentary What We Left Behind, but the time is nearly here. In August the DS9 doc team gave an update on how they had “locked” the edit at Star Trek Las Vegas and later announced Dennis McCarthy was set to compose the music. This week they have another update on post-production, including the release of the first image from the animated “season 8” scene.
Season 8 Gets Animated
One of the exciting parts of the documentary is a Writers’ Room feature where showrunner Ira Steven Behr gathered with four of the Deep Space Nine writing staff – Ronald D. Moore, Robert Hewitt Wolfe, Hans Beimler, and René Eschevierra – to break a story for what would have been the first episode of a hypothetical eighth season of Deep Space Nine.
A look at the writers’ room session from What We Left Behind
One of the stretch goals of the crowdfunding campaign was to hire an animator so selected scenes of the season eight story break session could be brought to life. This week the documentary team released the first look from that animation. The image features what appears to be Ezri Dax as a captain in a uniform like those seen in the future Starfleet depicted in the Star Trek: The Next Generation finale “All Good Things.” It’s not clear if this scene is a flashforward or if their envisioned season eight jumps forward in time entirely.
Captain Ezri Dax from animated season 8 segment from What We Left Behind
Sound Mix Being Finalized At Famous Facility
The team also announced this week that the directors are up at the world renown Skywalker Sound facility at Skywalker Ranch in Marin County, California putting final touches on the music and sound design.
Ira Behr points to the Skywalker Sound buildings
World premiere set for Destination Star Trek in the UK
In August the first private screenings of What We Left Behind for backers in Los Angeles (October 12th) and New York (October 14th) were announced. The red carpet world premiere has since been announced to be at Destination Star Trek in Birmingham, UK on October 20th. The UK private backer screening has also be set for Birmingham on the 19th.
The NYC private screening is full up, but a handful of seats have become available for the Los Angeles backer event and can be purchased for $150. Tickets for the UK premiere (which gives entry to both the private screening on the 19th and to the world premiere on the 20th) are also available for $100. You can find out more and purchase by going to the documentary’s BackerKit store.
There’s still a few seats available for the UK premiere
Last steps to finish the film and remaster scenes in HD
The team is almost done, but the version shown at the October screenings won’t quite be the final product. The team says:
After our event in Birmingham, we’ll be finishing up the film and preparing it for digital stream. As hard as we’ve tried, not ALL graphics and HD remasters will have been completed in time for the preview events — but we promise it will be well worth the wait for the final full release. This finishing stage also includes captioning and translation for our international backers.
The team is still seeking additional funding for the remastering of scenes from Deep Space Nine into HD. More details on HD sponsorship is available at the BackerKit store.
An image capture of DS9 remastered in HD from What We Left Behind
Keep up with all the updates and news on the DS9 documentary in our What We Left Behind category here at TrekMovie.com
“Captain” Dax? I’m guessing there’s a significant time jump in play.
Yeah I reckon so with the time jump… i know she earns her command by taking command of her ship, but that was years later. I looks like possibly Worf and his “ponytail” in front of her. I’m so excited for this and all the time and effort that you can see and from what you hear that has gone into it. TNG is still my fave show and would love to have seen it done now with the same stories but with today’s budgets and not be limited with technology. But DS9 I loved for the story telling and the Dominion Arc that basically started in season 2. I was too young when both shows came out to truly appreciate them at the time. Thank god for Netflix.
Well you’ll be getting a bit of TNG when the Picard show arrives! :)
But I get your point, to redo that show in today’s time would be awesome. I would love that too. I suspect someday they will do a reboot of the show like they did with TOS and the Kelvin films, but probably not for another decade or so.
I didn’t realize they would be doing any actual story telling for the DS9 documentary. It’s pretty surreal to see an animated Dax. I guess they are doing a time jump like the Picard show is. I can’t wait to hear what a season 8 might have been like.
Yeah I reckon Discovery will have a massive influence on the looks and sets on the ships. But yeah if they could do to TOS and do it to TNG, we probably would have seen The Battle of Wolf 359 on that episode
Her command of her own ship is from the novels. There’s no reason to think they’d adhere to that since this was for an eighth season of the TV show.
I kinda feel like they’re pushing it. The whole Destiny story line where Dax gets command of a starship in the novels doesn’t sit right with me. Never has. It’s way out of character for her as she’s not even the type of character to be a flag officer in the first place.
I wonder if any of the animated scenes will have dialogue
Oh WOW. The root beer scene with Garak and Quark is one of my favorite DS9 go-to scenes for a quick laugh, so I’m very familiar with how it looks right now on DVD. This HD frame, unlike our favorite tailor‘s reaction, is NOT vile! It looks fantastic!
The question is do I have hundreds of dollars to throw at this project to immortalize a few frames of DS9 in HD for all eternity…and I think we all know the answer
I HATE Ezri Dax. They should kill her off! I love nearly everything else about the series. Love it! (Except the mirror universe episodes; those SUCKED!)
I will only agree that DS9 went to the MU well too many times. One was plenty.
It always bothered me the Mirror Universe never got a proper last episode on DS9.
I loved the MU stories in DS9, mostly the first two. But sadly the last one for me just truly sucked, what a let down. I caught a rerun of that episode on TV a few months ago and it’s still just as bad as I remember it unfortunately. I don’t know who came up with turning it into a comedic Quark story line when it should’ve been a big epic story to tie it all up. Wasted opportunity.
Would you have liked a recast Jadzia. Because they fired the actress. So they replaced her with Ezri.
I’m actually considering purchasing the disc. Waiting to see what the suggested retail price is. That will play a very large role in my decision.
$35. You can pre-order it right now from their store.
https://ds9doc.backerkit.com/hosted_preorders/
I’m just happy this is FINALLY coming out!
Do I see a (old) DS9 grey uniform just to the right of ‘future’ Ezri Dax?
Wait… doesn’t having Season 8 NOT immediately follow Season 7 defeat the purpose of a Season 8?
Its not a knock against the character but I just never saw her as commanding a ship. Maybe something drastic changes that I haven’t read about but yeah…I just don’t see it.
Its disturbing to see that HQ is available but only for selected people. Bah!