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DAVID CARSON
(Director, 'Emissary')
"I was very happy to reshoot it. I'm one of those people
who shoot the first day and the second day and then want
to do it all again because as you go along you learn more
about the people you're working with and what you can do
with them. The bits that we reshot showed more of a
military man with a problem. When we confronted the script
to start with in terms of performance, the basic premise
of the script was, here is this man and his son coming to
take over a space station where he doesn't want to be and
an appointment which he resents. At that time, there were
clear indications that he was being offered a job back at
a university on Earth and he was sounding like he was
going to take it. He would have done anything to get off
the station. He also hated Picard for what he perceived he
did to his wife. When you take those elements together and
you set off to tell a story about a man who is basically
your hero and leading DS9 into other worlds and galaxies
for what you hope will be a long series, it's very
difficult to find the balance in performance between angst
and unhappiness and yet project a personality that your
audience would want to let into their living room every
time he comes on the screen. It's a very fine line to
draw."
"When you
shoot a lot of stuff and commit yourself to doing it, you
do miss the bits and pieces that are inevitably lost when
you have to get it down to time. I think there are
sections of [the pilot] I would like to see back. When you
try and bring it down to time, everybody loses something
they like. In the end, you have to separate yourself from
your own wishes and go with what's good for the project.
There are details of storytelling I liked having in there.
I always liked the balance of the teaser at a slightly
longer length with some more details of exactly how Sisko
finds everybody during the Borg attack and where they all
are. As far as television is concerned, the
special-effects people did such a wonderful job that its
excitement was sustainable for longer.
I think one of the reasons is that you're dealing with
complex subjects. It isn't like doing 'Married... With
Children'. You don't actually know what subject matter
you're dealing with as you're going along. The number of
checks and balances a script has to go through are very
great. When I arrived to do [TNG's] 'Yesterday's
Enterprise', it was nothing more than an outline to
prepare with. It makes things very difficult when the
scripts aren't ready. At the same time, I never think it's
a good idea to have the scripts ready if they're not good.
I've always thought that it doesn't matter when the script
arrives, provided that it's bloody good when it gets
there. If you sort of settle for it six days in advance
because you've got to make a schedule, and it isn't that
good and you can do it on time and on budget, I don't
think you're really winning the game."
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