Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

From Wikinfo

Search for "Star_Trek:_Deep_Space_Nine" on Wikipedia, Wikimedia Commons, Wiktionary, Wikiquote, Wikibooks, Mediawiki Wikia, Wikitravel, Google Advanced Search, Yahoo Advanced Search, WorldCat Advanced Search, Amazon, Recent NY Times, Older NY Times.

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine is the third in a series of sequels and prequels to the television show Star Trek. The show ran for seven seasons, from 1993 to 1999, and it was set aboard a former Cardassian space station (the Deep Space Nine of the title) in the orbit of the planet Bajor. In the first episode, the Federation and Bajoran crew discovers the presence nearby of a wormhole, the Celestial Temple of Bajoran prophecy, which allows the DS9 crew to travel to the Gamma Quadrant. For the rest of the series, Deep Space Nine is stationed next to the wormhole itself.

The crew aboard the station faced many struggles, including a major war with the Dominion, an array of previously unseen alien races led by "the Founders", a race of shape-shifters. The Founders genetically engineered some of these races to worship them as gods.

The series strayed from the original tone of Star Trek by being much darker and less focused on exploration. It contains many religious themes and overtones, with the Bajorans worshipping "the Prophets", a race of alien beings living outside time in the wormhole, and the member races of the Dominion worshipping the Founders.

Another story arc which extends throughout the series involves station commander (later promoted to captain) Benjamin Sisko's predestined role as the "Emissary" of the Prophets to the Bajoran people.

The show was never the tremendous ratings success that its predecessor had been, but it remained the top rated first-run syndicated drama series throughout most of its run. Since its conclusion, a dedicated and expanding Internet fan following has begun to consider it the best incarnation of Star Trek, a belief that is still widely disputed.