According to co-creator Berman, he and Tiller considered setting the new series on a colony planet, but they decided a space station would appeal more to viewers, and would save the money required for a land-based show's on-location shooting.

Michael Piller considered this one of the series' best qualities, allowing repercussions of past episodes to influence future events and forcing characters to "learn that actions have consequences.

This was at the suggestion of Star Trek: The Next Generation's writers, many of whom also wrote for DS9, who said that Roddenberry's prohibition of conflicts within the crew restricted their ability to write compelling dramatic stories.

Although he maintains that he is merely a simple tailor, Garak is a former agent of the Obsidian Order, the feared Cardassian secret police; his skills and contacts on Cardassia prove invaluable on several occasions, and he becomes a pivotal figure in the war with the Dominion.

[8] Combs made his Star Trek and DS9 debut as a one-episode alien named Tiron, before being cast as two recurring characters, the Ferengi Brunt and the Vorta Weyoun.

Major arcs revolve around Bajor's recovery from Cardassian occupation; the Maquis, a rebellious Federation splinter group; and the Dominion, a hostile imperial power from the other side of the galaxy.

Throughout the series, loyalties and alliances change repeatedly: pacts with the Cardassians are made, broken, and remade; a short war with the Klingons flares up and is settled; Bajor grows into political stability; and formerly neutral powers are drawn into conflict.

Sisko and Jadzia Dax stumble upon a wormhole leading to the distant Gamma Quadrant, and discover that it is inhabited by beings not bound by normal space and time.

He is often called upon to choose between his role as Emissary and his duties to Starfleet, as when he persuades the Bajorans to withdraw their application for Federation membership after receiving a vision from the Prophets.

The political and religious implications of Sisko's status for Bajor and its spiritual leaders (most notably, Winn Adami) provide a central arc that lasts until the end of the series.

Rooted in the events of The Next Generation episode "Journey's End", in which Native American settlers refuse to leave when their planet is given to Cardassia as part of a treaty, the Maquis are an example of the show's exploration of darker themes; its members are Federation citizens who take up arms against Cardassia in defense of their homes, and some, such as Calvin Hudson, a long-time friend of Sisko's, and Michael Eddington, who defects while serving aboard the station, are Starfleet officers.

In the show's middle seasons, the Dominion foments discord to weaken the Alpha Quadrant powers, manipulating the Klingons into war with the Cardassians, and almost inciting a coup d'état on Earth.

In the fifth-season episode "By Inferno's Light", the Dominion annexes Cardassia, and goes to war with the other major powers of the Alpha Quadrant in the season finale "Call to Arms".

The Dominion War tests Starfleet's commitment to its ethics; when the formerly neutral Romulans are persuaded to ally themselves with the Federation ("In the Pale Moonlight"), it occurs only through criminal and duplicitous acts on Sisko's part.

[11] The original Star Trek series had been pitched as the science-fiction equivalent to television Westerns such as Wagon Train, and DS9 was instead analogous to shows like The Rifleman, featuring a town or trading post right on the edge of the frontier.

In addition to Berman, Piller, and Behr, key writers included Robert Hewitt Wolfe, Ronald D. Moore, Peter Allan Fields, Bradley Thompson, David Weddle, Hans Beimler, and René Echevarria.

[13] During the battle sequences between the Federation and Klingon fleets, the effects department used Playmates toys, Ertl model kits, and Hallmark Bird-of-Prey Christmas ornaments in the background to keep production costs down.

[17] The opening sequence was likewise modified in the fourth season, most notably by the introduction of CGI inserts of construction work being performed on the station's exterior by suited maintenance crews, and more docking and launching activity by ships, along with subtle colored wisps of nebulae added to the background starfield.

Of these, it won two for makeup (for "Captive Pursuit" and "Distant Voices"), one for special visual effects (for "Emissary"), and one for its main title theme music (by composer Dennis McCarthy).

[29] In addition, actor Alexander Siddig (who portrayed Dr. Bashir) expressed his enthusiasm for the fact that he, with his English accent, unusual screen name at the time of casting (Siddig El Fadil), and North African heritage, was a main character on a prominent television series, despite not being as easily racially identifiable to audiences as many other TV actors and characters were at the time.

[39] In a 2007 interview with If Magazine, George Takei, who had played the character Hikaru Sulu in The Original Series, criticized DS9 for being the polar opposite of Gene Roddenberry's philosophy and vision of the future.

[56][57] Created in the hope that Frank Sinatra Jr. would take the role,[58] the character Vic Fontaine (instead played by 1960s heart-throb James Darren) was introduced in the sixth-season episode "His Way".

The discs contain various cues from episodes scored by Dennis McCarthy, Jay Chattaway, David Bell, Paul Baillargeon, John Debney, Richard Bellis and Gregory Smith.

Each season contains several "special features", including a biographical look at a main character, information from make-up designer Michael Westmore on how various aliens were created, and interviews with cast and crew members.

It had a very positive response and surpassed its fundraising goals, and this success led to ground-breaking conversions of Deep Space Nine footage into higher definition, although it caused some delays.

In addition to interviews with cast and crew, the documentary explored Deep Space Nine's legacy; Behr also reconvened the series' old writers' room to develop a script for the first episode of an imagined eighth season, which featured in the film.

[66] The documentary's producer was Kai de Mello-Folsom, in consultation with others from the original creative team including Michael Okuda, Jonathan West, and Doug Drexler.

[77] The film reviewed various aspects of the series from a perspective of 20 years later, explored a plot for a notional eighth season and included many clips rescanned from original footage in high definition.

In the space-time distortion that occurs, most of the crew are transported 25 years into the future - in which the Federation and its allies are virtually crushed, and a fanatical sect of Bajorans who worships the Pah-wraiths have ascended to power and plan to destroy the universe to bring about a higher state of existence.

Another DS9 comic series became an example of licensed Star Trek works influencing each other as Tiris Jast, a major character from Wildstorm's N-Vector, appeared in the novel Avatar, Book One.