Frequently Asked Questions

Q: On the petition it says it belongs to the Deep Space Nine: Horizons campaign. You’re the DS9 “Make A Movie” Campaign, yet you claim to own it. What gives?

A: The Horizons campaign switched management in January, 2002, and so it became the DS9: “Make a Movie” Campaign. We’re still the same campaign, but we’ve made a few changes. We’ve moved to a different website, with the assistance of Dick Davies from StarfleetLibrary.com and we have added a postcard campaign. We’re also working on other things to help us with our goal.

Q: What, exactly, is your goal?

A: Primarily we want a DS9 movie of course. If not that, it would be great if there were a TV Movie or Miniseries instead. We simply want DS9 to be continued in some way. We feel that DS9 was not given as much recognition as it deserved, and that even though the DS9 finale “What you Leave Behind” was excellent, there were still some unanswered questions and many story opportunities to take advantage of.

Q: Such as…?

A: Such as “Will Bajor ever join the Federation?” “Will Sisko, Odo, O’Brien, and the rest of the crew reunite?” “What is the Alpha Quadrant like in a post-war era, and how is the Federation recovering from such steep losses?” “Did the alliance between the Klingons, Federation, and Romulans hold together, or did they part ways?” “What became of Garak and Cardassia?” “Is Section 31 gone for good?” “Has the Dominion obeyed the peace treaty?” “Will Kira and Odo renew their romance?” “Who will be the next Kai?” “Is Dukat really dead?” The list goes on.

Q: Why don’t you think TNG, Voyager, and Enterprise deserve a movie?

A: One thing to understand is that this campaign is not *against* a particular movie, it is *for* a DS9 movie. Just because we’d rather see DS9 continue doesn’t mean anything out of disrespect to the other series. As a matter of fact, we’re fans of all of those series. In TNG’s case, it’s very likely that “Nemesis” will be the last for them, and that was apparent even before the box office figures came in. Most of the cast wants to move on, and they have a right to feel that way. After all, even if you didn’t count the movies, they had the most screen time out of any ensemble Star Trek cast. In Enterprise’s case, the show is still on the air. Last but not least, with Voyager, it’s simply a question of which series is next in line. We’re not saying Voyager movies shouldn’t be made in the future, if Voyager fans wish it.

Q: Why do you believe people would go out to see a DS9 movie? The fan base was a lot smaller than TNG’s and the general public doesn’t know who Captain Sisko even is.

A: There’s a common belief that DS9 didn’t have the same amount of fans TNG did when it was running. However, when you look at the ratings of the two shows while the two shows were running concurrently (during the ‘92-93 & ‘93-94 television seasons), DS9’s were only slightly smaller than that of TNG’s. DS9’s ratings went into a decline up until its last season, but TNG was also beginning to decline at the same time from its peak in the 5th season, so there’s no way of knowing that its fan base is *that* much larger than DS9’s. Had TNG run for 5 more years, it’s likely it would have seen the same decline DS9 did. That’s not to take away anything from the fact that TNG was the more successful series, that’s just to say that it’s more accurate that the fan bases of the two series are comparable rather than say that TNG’s fan base dwarfed that of the series that came after it. Plus, there’s probably more of an appetite among the DS9 fan base for a DS9 movie than there was with the TNG fan base for a TNG movie in 1994, since “Generations” was produced directly after the series ended, and it was a given that they weren’t saying goodbye to the Enterprise-D crew. It’s been nearly 4 years since the series ended with no word on a DS9 movie, so we’d definitely be very eager to see one if it is made because we miss the series greatly.
As for it appealing to the general public, all you have to do is make a good movie, and they will come, and with that, there’s really no reason to say one crew would make a better movie than another that would attract the general public. For those who think they’d identify more with Picard or Kirk more than Sisko…how many people(besides the people who read the book series) knew who Frodo was before “Lord of the Rings” was made into a movie? The only people who knew anything about it were the people who read the book series. And much like DS9, there’s a complex history involved and a lot of attention paid to continuity to match…yet there was no problem making it into a movie and having people identify with it.

Q: Why would a DS9 movie be profitable to the studio?

A: First of all, the actors involved wouldn’t need to be paid nearly as much as the TNG or TOS casts were paid, so the profit for the movie wouldn’t be sucked into the actor’s paycheck’s. And if they scaled back the special effects budget so it wouldn’t take as much money to produce as “Nemesis”, they could also lose less money that way, as well. Also, there’s no reason to say people won’t go to a DS9 movie, as we stated in reply to the previous question.

Q: How would they make a DS9 movie if the sets are torn down? Wouldn’t that be expensive to rebuild?

A: Some of the sets from the Defiant still exist. You’ve probably seen the bridge before on Voyager or Enterprise and didn’t even realize it. One of the most recent appearances was in Enterprise’s “Fortunate Son” where it was a cargo freighter’s bridge. On Voyager, it appeared as the bridge of the ship Nightingale, in the episode with the same name. As for the DS9 sets, that’s a different story. They were in fact deconstructed. However, they wouldn’t need to rebuild all of the sets to make a DS9 movie. And considering that they were able to make the sets of the Shinzon’s vessel Scimitar and the Romulan Senate in “Star Trek: Nemesis” or the Ba’ku villiage in “Star Trek: Insurrection”, or the sets for an all-new Enterprise in “First Contact”, this isn’t impossible to recreate the DS9 set. And if they were able to build these sets for a television pilot, why not a movie? The costs of the computer monitors which were extremely expensive in 1992 for the sets in places like Ops has come down a lot over the past ten years as more and more advances are made…advances in other areas to make construction more cost effective have been made as well.

Q: DS9 had a pretty complex history, isn‘t it impossible to make a movie out of that?

A: Just because a series has a complex history doesn’t mean it can’t be made into a movie. “Harry Potter” and “Lord of the Rings”, two of last years’ biggest hits, had complex continuity but that didn’t stop people from coming to see it.

Q: Would the actors involved in DS9 sign on to make a DS9 movie?

A: So far, there aren’t any actors we know of unwilling to make a DS9 movie.

Q: Wouldn’t having a DS9 movie harm the current DS9 Relaunch book series that is being released by Pocket Books?

A: Here at the campaign, we love the DS9 Relaunch series and certainly hope that a movie would acknowledge the events from the books “Avatar” onward. Several of those books would make good movies in of themselves! Our stance on the relaunch is different now than what it was when the campaign was the “Horizons” campaign, mainly because the old management hadn’t read the books at the time and also didn’t want to upset Pocket Books if they thought that a movie would interfere with their efforts. That stance has obviously changed in part from the change in management , because we read the books regularly and don’t think Pocket Books would really be offended. Our opinion can be summed up by one of the Senior Editors at Pocket Books in charge of the relaunch, Marco Palmieri, who said he’d love to see a movie and added, “I'm frequently surprised whenever someone suggests that interest in the relaunch and interest in a feature film are mutually exclusive. It's all about the same thing: keeping DS9 alive in some form.” (Source: DS9 Avatar eGroup, http://groups.yahoo.com/group/deepspacenineavatar)

Q: What are the chances of this campaign even succeeding?

A: We wouldn’t even dare to say. But since “Star Trek: Nemesis” premiered, the chances are higher, because the necessity to change crews is now more apparent. Now that this could be TNG’s “final journey” (and considering box-office figures, it’s safe to say it will be), there will be a definite need for a new crew or a combination of crews in order for there to be a Trek XI. And if enough of you help with the campaign, we can make this work.

Q: How can we help?

A: Send in a postcard, for one thing. Also, if you can, try to distribute flyers at conventions, fan clubs you might be involved in, or to anyone you know who might be interested in the campaign. Get your entire family to participate if you have to. The flyers are available to be printed off here on our website, as is the address you can send in postcards to. Since we’ve already sent in the petition, it’s more important that you send in a postcard than sign the petition. Or if you prefer sending letters rather than postcards, do it that way just so long as you send it. And don’t think that letters and postcards don’t count. In fact, each letter or postcard you send is said to actually represent 1,000 people! But definitely sign the petition for support. We do need it. Anything and everything you can do is appreciated no matter how insignificant you think it may be. And STAY POSITIVE.