TREKCORE > DS9 > EPISODES > THE WIRE > Behind the Scenes
 

	Cirroc Lofton (Jake Sisko) does not appear in this episode.
	The Obsidian Order was originally supposed to be called the Grey Order. The name was changed once members of the crew realized that Babylon 5 (which was also airing first-run episodes at the time) already had an alien group called the Grey Council.
	Not surprisingly, Andrew Robinson (Garak) counts this as his favorite episode.
	The war between the Klingons and Cardassians in Garak's novel foreshadows the events of "The Way of the Warrior."
	A cut line from the script for this episode would have revealed that Benjamin Sisko served at the Federation embassy on Romulus early in his career, where he befriended a Romulan member of the kitchen staff named "Stolpan." It was further revealed that Stolpan was arrested by the Tal Shiar for "political improprieties," and in response, Sisko was prepared to go to the Tal Shiar Headquarters and convince them to set him free, however, Sisko was eventually pursuaded by Curzon Dax not to go.
	Robert Hewitt Wolfe on "The Wire": "We knew we were going to be spending money on 'The Maquis,' and we'd already spent a lot of money on a variety of other episodes in the second season. That's how I sold this episode. I'd had it rejected before, and I came back and said, 'We're broke and we need a bottle show. We have to use this.' A lot of these small shows turn out to be pretty good. 'Duet' was one of our best shows ever, and it was conceived to save money!"
	Ira Steven Behr on "The Wire": "The fans said they were disappointed because they did not learn anything about Garak. That's such a misreading, a real refusal to see what the show was supposed to be about. So their reaction to the show disappointed us. I felt we needed to land on the truth about Odo. I didn't feel the same need with Garak. Sometimes we'd seem to write ourselves into a corner and have to say, 'Okay, we'll tell you this about Garak.' But then we'd find a new tributary, something else to take it off that. So it wasn't about 'Oh God, now we know about Garak,' but 'Oh, now we know this about Garak, but what about that?' We kept dodging the bullet. For most of the series, I had no idea what he was. And personally, I don't know that I ever wanted to know."
	Robert Hewitt Wolfe on writing "The Wire": "When I was writing the story, the movie Schindler's List had just come out, and Ira was saying, 'Maybe he was Schindler, maybe was the guy who let the prisoners go.' And then it was, 'Maybe he wasn't; maybe he was the Butcher of Budapest.' So we just kept telling all these lies, and I think the truth lies somewhere in there. Maybe he did let people go. Maybe he did shoot the ship down. Who knows? He wasn't a gul; he wasn't in the military. He was in the Obsidian Order, and his first name is Elim. Those things, I would say, are the truth."
	Andrew Robinson (Garak) on "The Wire": "I love this show. The fact that it has the writers who are willing to write a character who tells one story, and then another, and then a third, and then have Bashir ask, 'What was the truth?' and have Garak respond, 'It's all the truth - especially the lies.' I have tremendous respect for writers of that calibre, who are willing to create a relationship between characters like Bashir and Garak that is built on the kind of exchange that happens in all really solid relationships. And then to follow through to a payoff like 'The Wire.' I wish there was more writing like that for television. I think we'd have a much healthier industry."
	Robert Hewitt Wolfe on his original idea for "The Wire": "I've experience some drug abuse among people close to me, and the truth is, you never really expect to find out some person is a drug abuser. I originally pitched the idea that Kira was addicted to some substance, like battle stimulants, and she had been ever since she was in the Resistance, and she would be for the rest of her life. And I got shot down. I mean, I know why. That's not an easy episode to do and then walk away from . So we got to do it with Garak."
	Alexander Siddig on "The Wire": "It was great to do something this dramatic. I was just old-fashioned acting which is always fun."
	Ira Steven Behr on this type of episode: "It's drama, drama. It's not about special effects, or scientific quirky ideas that may or may not ever come to realization in our world. It's about the human heart in conflict with itself. So, yes, sometimes we dare to be talky, but good talk, I think, makes great TV."
	Robert Hewitt Wolfe discusses the origination of the Obsidian Order from Babylon 5's Gray Council: "I thought, 'Damn!,'  and then I made up a huge list of different kinds of metals, gems, and colors and finally came up with obsidian, which I actually like better than gray!"