TREKCORE > DS9 > EPISODES > EMISSARY > DS9 Chronicles

These are 1-minute intros that were taped by several of the regular cast members. 40 episodes were chosen by the producers, and the intros were included in the reruns shown by some TV stations that run DS9 in a strip syndication package (i.e., five days a week). These intros, however, were only made for episodes in the 1st through 4th seasons.

Here are transcripts of the intros, for those of you who may not have a chance to see them. Each one is done with "Okudagram"-style graphics around the actor as he/she speaks, with a rotating image of the station, and the DS9 theme music playing in the background. The paragraphs in italics describe clips that were shown.

Part 1 - Narrated by Avery Brooks

Hello, I'm Avery Brooks. You're about to experience the very first episode from the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Chronicles, entitled "Emissary". Have you ever noticed how much time and effort it took to launch this series? Well, let me throw out a few interesting facts.

The battle of Wolf 359; a starship getting destroyed; someone looking through a Cardassian viewer at DS9; the wormhole opening as a runabout exits; SFX people with a huge model of DS9; another shot of a DS9 model; the outside of Paramount Stage 17; a Promenade crowd scene being filmed; someone working on a circuit board?; Aron Eisenberg getting his Ferengi makeup put on; a man working on a DS9 model

For the two-hour premiere, 250 special-effects shots had to be created, twice the number for an average Star Trek feature film. It cost over $200,000 to build a highly-detailed space station model. Three enormous soundstages on the Paramount lot were needed to film the pilot. And in the end, it took almost 200 people over 5 months to complete just 85 minutes of film.

Sisko and Jake come up to viewer showing DS9; Jake says, "Is that it?"; shot of the station orbiting Bajor

But all that hard work paid off. When this episode debuted, in January 1993, it became the highest-rated premiere in syndication history. So sit back and enjoy the very beginning of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: "Emissary".

Part 2 - Narrated by Michael Dorn

I'm Michael Dorn for the Deep Space Nine Chronicles. Welcome to Part 2 of "Emissary", the conclusion to the two-hour movie that launched the series back in 1993. When the producers were coming up with the idea for this new show, a lot of Western comparisons were made.

The last shot of "Emissary", with Sisko, Dax, and O'Brien walking through the Promenade

The DS9 station was called "the Fort Laramie of outer space", and similar in setting to Dodge City. Benjamin Sisko was likened to television's The Rifleman, because he was a single father playing a sheriff in a remote, townlike setting.

Sisko steps through an airlock onto the Promenade; Jake emerges from the crowd, and they hug

Even Dr. Bashir practiced "frontier medicine".

Bashir is seen treating a wounded Bajoran woman, with Odo kneeling beside them

But the Western references go way back to the very beginning of Star Trek in the 1960's. At that time, Western dramas were very popular, so series creator Gene Roddenberry thought he might fool the NBC executives into buying the show by pitching it as a "Wagon Train to the Stars". Is there any wonder why they call it "the final frontier"? So get ready, because Sisko and the gang are getting ready to circle the wagons in the conclusion of "Emissary".
 

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