History WhatCouldHaveBeen / StarTrekDeepSpaceNine

* At first it wasn't certain that the captain on this show would be black, and Creator/RichardDeanAnderson was considered for the lead. (One wonders what would have happened to ''Series/StargateSG1'' if they had decided otherwise...) Creator/ClancyBrown declined, as he was undergoing back surgery. Creator/TimCurry was offered the role, but was busy with ''Film/LoadedWeapon1''. Creator/PeterCapaldi and Creator/AnthonyStewartHead also auditioned for the role.

* Creator/KimCattrall was offered the role of Kira, but turned it down.
* Creator/RobertPatrick was considered for Odo, but it was felt the character would be too similar to [[Film/Terminator2JudgmentDay the T-1000]]. Creator/JamesCromwell and Creator/RoddyMcDowall were also considered and auditioned.

* Creator/KathyBates was considered for the role of Kai Opaka, however she did not do television projects at the time.

* Molly Hagan was meant to reprise her role as Eris for "The Search" and later "[[Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS05E02TheShip The Ship]]", but was unavailable for both occasions.

* While "[[{{Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS05E06TrialsAndTribbleations}} Trials and Tribble-ations]]" is regarded as one of the best episodes of the series and a fitting 30th Anniversary for the franchise, there were numerous other ideas which were tossed around. One was the return of EnfantTerrible Charles Evans from the TOS episode "[[{{Recap/StarTrekS1E2CharlieX}} Charlie X]]", most likely seeking revenge in a manner similar to Barry Waddle. Another was having the Deep Space Nine crew visit the mobster planet from "[[{{Recap/StarTrekS2E17APieceOfTheAction}} A Piece of the Action]]", where they find that the inhabitants have [[YouAreTheNewTrend gone on to emulate Starfleet]] as a commentary on ''Star Trek'' fandom. In fact, a large part of the reason they decided on using "The Trouble With Tribbles" was down to random chance; they were talking about the project at a pizza place and were discussing which guest stars from the original series they might be able to get, only for Ira Steven Behr to suddenly realize that Charlie Brill (Darvin) just happened to be in that exact pizza place at that exact moment.

!!Pre-production

!!Casting

* Creator/JMichaelStraczynski considered making a cameo to reciprocate Creator/MajelBarrett and Creator/WalterKoenig guest-starring on ''Series/BabylonFive''. He decided against it, jokingly claiming that seeing his face would likely cause viewers to instantly turn off the TV.

!!Storylines

!!Movies and spinoffs

** The 2019 deaths of Aron Eisenberg (Nog) and Creator/ReneAuberjonois (Odo) pretty much eliminate any remaining chance of this. While it might be possible, though jarring, to work around the absence of Odo, who left to join the other Changelings at the end of "[[Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS7E26WhatYouLeaveBehind What You Leave Behind]]", it would be much more difficult to explain or work around Nog not being there, since his position on the station was only solidified in the finale.

* Just like with ''Voyager'''s premise, ideas were pitched around on how to [[ResetButton soft reset]] [=DS9=] into a traditional ''Star Trek'' show if the fans didn't take to it. This might be why "[[{{Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS01E01Emissary}} Emissary]]" established that the station is capable of reducing its mass in order to move; according to Behr, it was suggested that the crew strap engines onto [=DS9=] and [[http://trekcore.com/blog/2013/05/exclusive-ron-moore-ira-steven-behr-interview-part-ii/ fly into the wormhole.]]

* Just like with ''Voyager'''s premise, ideas were pitched around on how to [[ResetButton soft reset]] [=DS9=] into a traditional ''Star Trek'' show if the fans didn't take to it. This might be why "[[Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS01E01Emissary Emissary]]" established that the station is capable of reducing its mass in order to move; according to Behr, it was suggested that the crew strap engines onto [=DS9=] and [[http://trekcore.com/blog/2013/05/exclusive-ron-moore-ira-steven-behr-interview-part-ii/ fly into the wormhole.]]

* In the [=DS9=] documentary ''What We Left Behind'', Ira Stephen Behr acknowledges that the series could have done much better with explorations of sexual identity, and suggests that Dr. Bashir and Garak's rapport could have built into something more, specifically that Garak should have come out to him as "[[BadassGay a gay Cardassian]]" after the events of season 2's "[[{{Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS02E22TheWire}} The Wire]]." Yet while there are stories of ExecutiveMeddling telling Siddig and Robinson to tone down the HoYay in their scenes together, in this case the idea of making Garak explicitly queer just did not occur to the writers at the time, according to Behr.

* Molly Hagan was meant to reprise her role as Eris for "The Search" and later "The Ship," but was unavailable for both occasions.

* Creator/JMichaelStraczynski considered making a cameo to reciprocate Creator/MajelBarret and Creator/WalterKoenig guest-starring on ''Series/BabylonFive''. He decided against it, jokingly claiming that seeing his face would likely cause viewers to instantly turn off the TV.

* Just like with ''Voyager'''s premise, ideas were pitched around on how to [[ResetButton soft reset]] [=DS9=] into a traditional ''Star Trek'' show if the fans didn't take to it. This might be why "Emissary" established that the station is capable of reducing its mass in order to move; according to Behr, it was suggested that the crew strap engines onto [=DS9=] and [[http://trekcore.com/blog/2013/05/exclusive-ron-moore-ira-steven-behr-interview-part-ii/ fly into the wormhole.]]

* Ronald D. Moore wanted to reintroduce the Tholians as major antagonists, which got the support of the entire writing staff. However, special effects limitations convinced them they could not portray the Tholians without them looking ridiculous, so the idea was canned. Similar concerns had previously prevented them from appearing on TNG, where they also had serious support for a re-appearance. It wouldn't be until 2005 on ''Enterprise'' where they would finally re-appear.
** Paradoxically, Ronald D Moore (and the entire writing staff, according to him) was adamantly against reintroducing other iconic TOS races such as the Andorians, Tellarites, and Gorn, presumably as they were seen as irredeemably corny. They too would have to wait until ''Enterprise'' for their return. Robert Hewitt Wolfe on the other hand claims there was support among writers to bring back the Andorians, but they were not allowed to (presumably by Berman and Moore).

** Creator/MichaelDorn was to appear as mirror universe Worf in the season 2 episode 'Crossover', two seasons before Worf would become a regular on the show, but Dorn was shooting the TNG finale at the time. His lines were given to Andrew Robinson as Mirror!Garak, who was only supposed to have a minor appearance.

** Initially it was Vulcan, not Betazed that was conquered by the Dominion during "In the Pale Moonlight", but the writers nixed that because they felt it would offer Sisko too much justification for the extreme measures he then undertook. Ironically, Creator/JJAbrams would happily blow Vulcan to smithereens in [[Film/StarTrek2009 the 2009 movie]]. In an even more ironic decision, he blew Vulcan to smithereens for ''precisely'' the same reason that Ron Moore ''didn't'' have it occupied: it showed how serious things were, and that things were not going to be the same again.
** The tension between the original Jem'Hadar from the Gamma Quadrant and the new "Alpha" Jem'Hadar was supposed to be a running plot thread, but it got dropped and "One Little Ship" ended up being the only episode to mention the two varieties of Jem'Hadar.

* Guinan was supposed to cameo in "Rivals" (where Martus Mazur would be revealed to be her wayward son), but Creator/WhoopiGoldberg had to turn it down as it conflicted with the filming of other projects. All references to Guinan were then removed from the script.

** The finale originally was filmed to make it clear Sisko was never coming back. He had ascended to a higher plane and, for doing his duty, had to leave his old life behind forever. After they finished filming, Avery Brooks worked up the nerve to express his concern: it didn't look good that a black man was abandoning his pregnant wife. The writers quickly realized their mistake but with so much filming already done, all they could do was add a quick line making it clear Sisko would return.

** Any hopes of resurrecting the project would seem over: the actors have all seriously aged out of the roles (at the time of writing, it's been fourteen years since the show went off the air). The 2006 auction at Christies where a huge number of props (including the "hero" model of the station itself), costumes and other items from the series were sold off made it even less likely and the 2009 reboot of the entire ''Star Trek'' franchise would seem to be the final nail in the coffin. One person who doesn't seem to mind is Alexander Siddig, who believes [=DS9=] deserved to be "[[BritishBrevity put to bed]]". Nana Visitor, however, thought the show had a lot more mileage left. (Mostly, though, she wishes she could have had one year of [[http://www.startrek.com/article/ds9s-major-kira-nerys-nana-visitor-part-2 running the station!]])
** The 2019 deaths of Aron Eisenberg (Nog) and Rene Auberjonois (Odo) pretty much eliminate any remaining chance of this. While it might be possible, though jarring, to work around the absence of Odo, who left to join the other Changelings at the end of "What You Leave Behind", it would be much more difficult to explain or work around Nog not being there, since his position on the station was only solidified in the finale.

* In the [=DS9=] documentary ''What We Left Behind'', Ira Stephen Behr acknowledges that the series could have done much better with explorations of sexual identity, and suggests that Dr. Bashir and Garak's rapport could have built into something more, specifically that Garak should have come out to him as "[[BadassGay a gay Cardassian]]" after the events of season 2's "[[{{Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS02E22TheWire}} The Wire]]." Yet while there are stories of ExecutiveMeddling telling Sidding and Robinson to tone down the HoYay in their scenes together, in this case the idea of making Garak explicitly queer just did not occur to the writers at the time, according to Behr.

* In the [=DS9=] documentary ''What We Left Behind'', Ira Stephen Behr acknowledges that DS9 could have done better with explorations of sexual identity, and suggests that Dr. Bashir and Garak's rapport could have built into something more, specifically that Garak should have come out to him as "[[BadassGay a gay Cardassian]]" after the events of season 2's "[[{{Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS02E22TheWire}} The Wire]]."

* In the DS9 documentary ''What We Left Behind'', Ira Stephen Behr acknowledges that DS9 could have done better with explorations of sexual identity, and suggests that Dr. Bashir and Garak's rapport could have built into something more, specifically that Garak should have come out to him as "[[BadassGay a gay Cardassian]]" after the events of season 2's "[[{{Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS02E22TheWire}} The Wire]]."

* Creator/MalcolmMcDowell, who had been played the BigBad in ''Film/StarTrekGenerations'', once said he'd like to appear in the series, but only if his nephew - Alexander Siddig - would direct the episode. He was offered the role of Hagath in "[[{{Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS05E18BusinessAsUsual}} Business as Usual]]", but he was unavailable. The role went to Creator/StevenBerkoff, [=McDowell=]'s costar in ''Film/AClockworkOrange''.

* Creator/TimBlakeNelson auditioned for Quark. Creator/KurtwoodSmith was offered the role, but turned it down, as he didn't want a role that required prosthetics (though, ironically, he would show up in an episode as Odo's Cardassian predecessor as chief of security on Terok Nor). Creator/JonPolito was also considered.

** Later, when they decided that the character would be black, Creator/JamesAvery[[note]]He was busy with ''Series/TheFreshPrinceOfBelAir''[[/note]], Creator/KeithDavid, Creator/LaurenceFishburne, Creator/JamesEarlJones, Creator/TonyTodd and Creator/CarlWeathers were each approached. Had Jones been cast, the character would have been an admiral, and Jake would have been his ''grand''son.

** Though he auditioned for the role of Doctor Bashir, producers briefly considered casting Alexander Siddig as Sisko, but ultimately decided he was too young.

* Creator/FamkeJanssen was originally offered the role of Jadiza Dax, but turned it down in order to focus on a film career. Creator/TeriHatcher was also considered.

* Creator/JMichaelStraczynski considered making a cameo to reciprocate Majel Barret and Creator/WalterKoenig guest-starring on ''Series/BabylonFive''. He decided against it, jokingly claiming that seeing his face would likely cause viewers to instantly turn off the TV.

* Creator/JMichaelStraczynski considered making a cameo to reciprocate Majel Barret and Creator/WalterKoenig guest-starring on ''Series/BabylonFive''. He decided against it, jokingly claiming that seeing his face would likely cause fans to instantly turn off the TV.

* Creator/JMichaelStraczynski considered making a cameo to reciprocate Majel Barret and Creator/WalterKoenig guest-starring on ''Series/BabylonFive''. He decided against it, joking claiming that seeing his face would likely cause fans to instantly turn off the TV.

* Melora from "Melora" was meant to be the station's chief science officer, but this proved impossible due to problems with portraying zero gravity. It was possible, however, to feature her as a one-off character. In the novel 'verse, she would eventually become head of stellar cartography on the ''[[Literature/StarTrekTitan Titan]]''.

* Creator/TimBlakeNelson auditioned for Quark. Creator/KurtwoodSmith was offered the role, but turned it down, as he didn't want a role that required prosthetics. Creator/JonPolito was also considered.

** The 2019 deaths of Aron Eisenberg (Nog) and Rene Auberjonois (Odo) pretty much eliminate any remaining chance of this. While it might be possible to work around the absence of Odo, who left to join the other Changelings at the end of "What You Leave Behind", it would be much more difficult to explain or work around Nog not being there, since his position on the station was only solidified in the finale.

* The first season was only 20 episodes long, and finished with the rather disappointing ''In the Hands of the Prophets'', which featured a villain [[KarmaHoudini getting away with it]] and lacked a [[{{Anticlimax}} clear]] [[DownerEnding resolution]]. If they had shifted the Season 2 opener ''The Homecoming'' to the end of Season 1, it would have made for an engrossing and suspenseful season finale cliffhanger that could have jacked up the ratings for the entire series.
** More than that, ''In the Hands of the Prophets'' was sandwiched between ''two'' much better episodes, either of which could have held up as a solid season finale; though it wouldn't have given them a cliffhanger, the penultimate episode of Season 1, ''Duet'', is generally considered one of the best episodes of the entire series, and would have been a more than adequate note to end the season on.

* The episode "[[{{Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS06E22Valiant}} Valiant]]" would have had Jake be paired with Kira, however this was changed as they realized that had Kira had been there, she would have kicked ass, took names, and hauled the cadets and the ''Valiant'' back to Federation space.

** The finale originally was filmed to make it clear Sisko was never coming back. He had ascended to a higher plane and, for doing his duty, had to leave his old life behind forever. After they finished filming, Avery Brooks worked up the nerve to express his concern: it didn't look good that a black man was abandoning his pregnant wife. The writers quickly realized their mistake but with so much filming already done all they could do was add a quick line making it clear Sisko would return.
* In [[Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS02E24TheCollaborator The Collaborator]], the producers originally intended Bariel become Kai, but they decided that would seem a waste when they could have the treacherous SmugSnake Winn rise to that position and become an even more effective recurring villain for the heroes to deal with, considering now she has real power but still has to be diplomatic through clinched teeth to Sisko the Emissary.

* While "[[{{Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS05E06TrialsAndTribbleations}} Trials and Tribble-ations]]" is regarded as one of the best episodes of the series and a fitting 30th Anniversary for the franchise, there were numerous other ideas which were tossed around. One was the return of EnfantTerrible Charles Evans from the TOS episode "[[{{Recap/StarTrekS1E2CharlieX}} Charlie X]]", most likely seeking revenge in a manner similar to Barry Waddle. Another was having the Deep Space Nine crew visit the mobster planet from "[[{{Recap/StarTrekS2E17APieceOfTheAction}} A Piece of the Action]]", where they find that the inhabitants have [[YouAreTheNewTrend gone on to emulate Starfleet]] as a commentary on ''Star Trek'' fandom. In fact, a large part of the reason they decided on using "The Trouble With Tribbles" was down to random chance; they were talking about the project at a pizza place and were discussing which guest stars from the original series they might be able to get, only for Ira Steven Behr to randomly look around and suddenly realize that Charlie Brill (Darvin) just happened to be in that exact pizza place at that exact moment.

* While "[[{{Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS05E06TrialsAndTribbleations}} Trials and Tribble-ations]]" is regarded as one of the best episodes of the series and a fitting 30th Anniversary for the franchise, there were numerous other ideas which were tossed around. One was the return of EnfantTerrible Charles Evans from the TOS episode "[[{{Recap/StarTrekS1E2CharlieX}} Charlie X]]", most likely seeking revenge in a manner similar to Barry Waddle. Another was having the Deep Space Nine crew visit the mobster planet from "[[{{Recap/StarTrekS2E17APieceOfTheAction}} A Piece of the Action]]", where they find that the inhabitants have [[YouAreTheNewTrend gone on to emulate Starfleet]] as a commentary on ''Star Trek'' fandom. In fact, a large part of the reason they decided on using "The Trouble With Tribbles" was down to random chance; they were talking about the project at a pizza place and were discussing which guest stars from the original series they might be able to get, only for Ira Steven Behr to randomly look around and suddenly realize that Charlie Brill (Darvin) was sitting at the counter.