TREKCORE > DS9 > EMISSARY > BEHIND THE SCENES INTERVIEWS > David Carson #2
 

DAVID CARSON (Director, 'Emissary') "I think it's great to be able to [shoot on location] on any show. It gives it great width and breadth - if the show calls for it, and this show did - and it was very cleverly woven into the strangeness of the story, which was very good. It was good that there were earth locations and as down to earth as baseball games and stuff like that. I enjoy working on stages also if one is able to use them imaginatively, where they don't look like stages. I think a stage can be as effective a location, even though sometimes people who work on stages all the time yearn to do location work. One of the things that appealed to me about the script was that it was very unusual to tell a story like this. Essentially, it's about a Starfleet officer who does not want to take over the command that he's told to take over. And he bitterly resents the officer that is ordering him to do this to such an extent that his resentment is literally murderous, because he believes that [Picard] was directly responsible for the death of his wife. That's a pretty strong story you have there. I think it was felt by the studio that we should tilt the balance back toward more affability; certain things were taken out of the script, like looking for other jobs. Michael's stage directions emphasized that Sisko was constantly unhappy, restless, disliking the Cardassian architecture and everything that went with it. He was appalled with what was going on there but nevertheless was there to do his job. But if you tell a story about a guy who's just there to do his job, he doesn't have that spark of get up and go, and let's solve the mystery that you associate with a Star Trek story. I think Michael and Rick were rightly very careful to keep the basic elements that have always been very common to Star Trek stories and characters. It's a fascinating process of trying to make sure the facets of the character that are presented immediately to the audience are rich and yet immediately accessible, and in that sense, I think there is good in both ways of doing it."

BACK TO EPISODE LIST, BACK TO EMISSARY INDEX, Interviews: David Carson - Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 | Marvin Rush | Michael Piller | Rick Berman | Terry Farrell | David Livingston