Part II, Chapter LIV: "The Twelfth Night"
“There was a lot of pressure on us, knowing that we were going to be launching UPN. Of course, we knew what the story was going to be, and we couldn’t change it at that point. ‘Emissary’ had been a success as a pilot story, so we were confident that a lot of people would watch the opening story we wrote. Still, the fact that Paramount were counting on us to give the network a noteworthy launch was a bit daunting.”
- Ira Stephen Behr, on the launch of
Deep Space Nine’s second season. [1]
Originally, the plan had been for
Deep Space Nine to begin airing during the usual season slot, beginning in September 1994, onto June 1995. However, plans for UPN’s new network launch interfered with that. Their plan to launch the network with the opener for the second season of
Deep Space Nine was slightly altered, however, when fears were raised over whether new viewers would be able to follow on with the story. To rectify this, right before the second season opener “The Homecoming” was to air, they would show “Emissary” once more. The date of the premiere was set as Thursday 12th of January, 1995.
Many fans had taken issue with the fact that, with a few notable exceptions,
Deep Space Nine did not seem to be going in the “brave new direction” that had been promised to the fans. The writers were eager to fix that, and decided to make a few changes to the show. Firstly, Ira Stephen Behr decided that the Gamma Quadrant needed a face, a dark mirror of the Federation. For this, they created the Dominion. The Dominion would not actually appear until the finale, “The Jem’Hadar”, but would be mentioned by various species throughout the season. Behr’s intent was to introduce them as recurring villains, culminating in war between them and the Federation in a few seasons time. [2]
In addition, the show would gain many recurring characters this season, in addition to those already introduced. Most important would be the ambassadors, from various major and local Alpha Quadrant powers. They would appear periodically to represent the interests of these powers in the Gamma Quadrant, as
Deep Space Nine effectively acted as the border post and embassy. [3]
As a result of this, many minor species that had only been mentioned in passing, or not seen for a very long time would begin to make more appearances. Three of these species, representing “local minor powers” were the Breen, Tzenkethi and Tholians. In their design, while the Breen were humanoid, all three were made to be more alien, with the Breen and Tholians wearing encounter suits. In particular, the difficulty of operating the Tholian suit resulted in them making relatively few appearances, while the Tzenkethi required large amounts of heavy prosthetics and a full body rubber suit. [4]
The idea of the ambassadors came primarily from J. Michael Straczynski, who along with Ira Stephen Behr, was now running the show. Straczynski felt that his suggestions had largely been overlooked during the first season, but was being given a greater say in the story now. He had a large part in designing the species of the Gamma Quadrant, and in various Alpha Quadrant species that would appear in the background of the show. His aim was to make the show seem like there were actual aliens there, seeing a departure from “rubber forehead” prosthetics that the show had used for a long time. In addition, many species that had only made fleeting appearances or not at all in
The Next Generation, such as Caitians, Andorians and Tellarites, would make a return. [5]
Another recurring character to be introduced this season was Klingon Starfleet officer Lt. K’Rene, first seen in the episode “Khitomer”. One of an increasing number of Klingon officers in Starfleet, K’Rene would transfer from the
USS Khitomer to the
Lakota in that story, becoming one of the recurring characters from that ship. Unlike many other Klingon officers seen before, she would be a scientist, acting as the science officer of the
Lakota. American actress Virginia Madsen was cast in this role.
Controversially at the time, K’Rene and Jadzia were to enter into a relationship. While same-sex relationships had appeared in the franchise before, most notably with Dr. Henderson on
The Next Generation, this would be the first time that both members were main or recurring characters. Dax would be revealed to be pansexual, with gender not playing a role in whether she is attracted to someone. [6]
The character of Dr. Julian Bashir would undergo some personality changes, as many fans, and Siddig El-Fadil, disliked his character in the first season. Given that he had been working on “the frontier” for a year now, it was decided that Amoros would have lost much of his “greenness”, and would have matured somewhat as a character. In addition, his friendships with Garak, O'Brien and Kelly would continue to be explored. [7]
Off the back of one successful season, despite some of the “Berman controversy” stemming from the show, the second season would be eagerly awaited, as it was to become the flagship show for UPN. Once more, the pressure would be great.
[1] Alright, every now and then I tie the title in to make a joke referring to the number of the chapter or something. This is one of those times. Twelfth Night is the play that popularised the name Olivia in the English-speaking world, and Olivia is often shortened to Liv, or LIV. Normally the references are obvious, but as I just do them to entertain myself, I thought I'd explain this one, as it's also why UPN launches on the 12th, not the 16th.
[2] The Dominion is something that won't be hugely different to OTL. The events involving them, however, are quite different.
[3] Yeah, this bit is also me adressing your criticisms, and doing something to fix them. I was planning on adding the Ambassadors, I've just done it a little earlier.
[4] I'm going with the Star Trek Online Tzenkethi look. Of course, this is 1995, so the special effects are prosthetic. But they look properly alien, and they are mentioned a few times, so I wanted to actually show them, as they're a local power. Also, Tholians are a personal favourite of mine. I like the less human looking aliens.
[5] I too felt that the "Berman era" was a little human-centric, even with how many alien species we saw. So I'm changing that, giving us more background characters that aren't human. In fairness, DS9 was pretty good at this IOTL, but still.
[6] So I'm adressing the request for another Starfleet Klingon, and also the question as to how Klingons would view homosexuality.
[7] I like Julian, so his character will change more earlier. I have big plans for him, and everyone else to be fair.