02 Ben and
Jake Sisko
in “What You
Leave Behind.”03 Saucer
separationin
“Encounterat
Farpoint.”GENES OF THE
PROPHETS
Ben Sisko was the “Emissary,”
chosen by the Prophets to help
Bajor recover its dignity, and in the
last episode of Deep Space Nine, he
and Gul Dukat were swept away.
Sisko was a single father to Jake,
who became a writer – but being
Ben’s son, wouldn’t he have inherited
the genes of the Emissary? He would
then carry on his father’s mission.
A. “Tony” Gamble
Norwich, Norfolk, UK
Greatquestion,Tony– a realmind-
bender.It bringstomindjusthow
bizarrelySisko’sownarcwrappedup
asDS9ended– as wellas thelate-
series reveal that his mortal mother
Sarah’s body had been inhabited by a
“prophet alien” solely to meet Sisko’s
father and conceive their son, Ben. Once
done, Sarah’s human body was vacated
by the Prophet, and she left the family
with no real interest in them.
So that leaves us with the
question: did Sisko inherit any
“genes” from his Prophet mother, as
we understand that species and our
own genetics; or were they actually
just regular human genes from his
disinterested host mother? Th e
latter would seem to be the case,
judging not only by Jake’s reaction
totherevelationsbutBen’sas well- unchanginguntilhisDeepSpace
9 sagabecametoopersonaland
interwovenwithBajortoignore.
SEPARATION
ANXIETY
We r eStarTrek:The Next
Generation’s writerstoldexplicitly
nottousesaucerseparationasa
plotlineafterSeason1 duetothe
budgetissuesinvolvedinfilmingthe
separatedshipfootage?
JohannesKemppanen
Oulu,Finland,viaFacebook
Intheeraofthelate1980sand
earlyNextGeneration, Johannes,
CGIhadnotyetmadevisualeffects
justanother“stringofcode,”rather
thana marathonsessionofbuilding,
filming,andcompositingmodels
andbackgrounds.Soyourhunch
aboutemergencysaucerseparation
onthe“new”Galaxy-classflagshipis
spoton.Beyondthevividimpression
THE HOLODECKButthebiggestreasongoeseven
beyondmoney,andcomesnotfrom
thefrontoffice,butthe“postoffice”- post-production,thatis.Both
DanCurryandRobLegato,TNG’s
alternatingvisualeffectssupervisors,
hadlongsincegrownwearyofhaving
toshootthebigsix-footEnterprise-D
modelfora hostofreasons:thelonger
cameraset-back;itslackofsurface
detail;evenitsslowlightingrigging.
The biglugofa modelrequiredsix
handlersjusttomoveit fromcrate
toshootingrigstand!
So,theVFXstaffhada four-foot
modelbuiltafterSeason2, which
solvedsomanyvisualproblemsand
timedelaysthatit madethesix-footer - andthecompaniontwo-footer“D”
(usedforlongshots)– obsolete.Almost
everynewEnterpriseshotfilmedafter
Season2 usedthismodel.Butthe
six-footerremainedtheonlyonebuilt
toseparate. Thus,theevacuationof
familiestotheescapingsaucersection
incaseof battleorotherperilbecame
lessandlessa storydriver.
Now,a staff-drivenepiconthescale
of“The BestofBothWorlds,PartII”
wouldtotallyseemto callfora newtake
onthesaucer-sep– andworththehassle
of wrestlingthebigmonsteranditstwo
unwieldysectionstofilmoncemore.
Butnot,in contrast,thetypicalmission-
of-the-week.Whichis whythenexttime
the1701-D’ssaucerseparated,it was
ona moviebudget– andit wasforever!
madeinthepremiere,“Encounterat
Farpoint,”saucerseparationisseen
a secondtime(viastockfootage)to
makea vividstorypointlaterthatyear
in“The ArsenalofFreedom.”Butwe
alsoknowthata proposedsaucer-sep
wasdroppedfromtheearlydraftof
“WhentheBoughBreaks.”
Tobeaccurate,theSeason 2 TNG
Writer’sGuidecarriednospecific
directiveforwould-bestorypitchesto
avoidthesequence.Although,with
saucer-sepprimarilyusedas a combat
tactic– involvingthebattlebridgeand
battlesection– youdofindthison
thelisttowould-bewritersofwhat
nottodo:0302