When Brandon Tartikoff first approached Rick Berman in 1991 about doing a new Star Trek show, he stated that he wanted it to have a classic western format; specifically, a man and his son arrive at a frontier town on the edge of known civilization. Berman brought this concept to Michael Piller, and together they set about creating a western in space. As Robert Hewitt Wolfe explains, “We had the country doctor, and we had the barkeeper, and we had the sheriff and we had the mayor, we had it all, it was all there. We had the common man, Miles O’Brien, the Native American, Kira.” Indeed, the producers initially discussed setting the show at a colony on an alien planet rather than a space station. This idea was ultimately rejected because it was felt that it would involve too much location shooting, and because they felt that fans of Star Trek wanted to see story lines set primarily in space, not on a planet.
Enter Dabo girl. IBIMB.
“I have to put Lt. Dax to work right away.”
IYKWIM.
ah, Bashir and Sisko, in the same shot. I haz a happy 
Right! Sisko knew the old Dax. it’s all coming back to me now.
“frontier medicine”
The decision to set the show on a fixed station rather than a traveling starship was also based upon a desire to look deeper into the actual workings of the Federation and to see how it dealt with the type of problems one wouldn’t find in a show set upon a starship. Michael Piller felt that by having the characters standing still, they would be forced to confront issues not usually applicable to people on a starship. Whereas on The Next Generation, issues raised each week could simply be forgotten about the following week as the ship visited somewhere else, on a space station, events couldn’t be forgotten or left behind, but had to have implications for the future. As Piller explains, “We didn’t want to have another series of shows about space travel. We felt that there was an opportunity to really look deeper, more closely at the working of the Federation and the Star Trek universe by standing still. And by putting people on a space station where they would be forced to confront the kind of issues that people in space ships are not forced to confront. In a series that focuses on a starship, like the Enterprise, you live week by week. You never have to stay and deal with the issues that you’ve raised. But by focusing on a space station, you create a show about commitment. It’s like the difference between a one-night stand and a marriage. On Deep Space Nine, whatever you decide has consequences the following week. So it’s about taking responsibility for your decisions, the consequences of your acts.”
I just go with Pagh.
It’s not really clear how pah-wraiths are related, AFAIK.
In the grand scheme of things, really, what could he say? Everyone knows it’s not his fault, but who can really separate the objective reality from the feeling?
Love that Sisko calls her “Old man”.
Terry Farrell is beautiful.
Now that’s the old man
I’m not sure why but I always thot of wraiths as mischievous, so I just accepted the term.
I don’t think pah in pah-wraiths and pagh are related though.
Aw, O’Brien’s departure from the Enterprise.
In relation to the decision to set the show in a fixed location, Ira Steven Behr, speaking in 1996, commented; “We have certain advantages that I think no other Star Trek series has had, because we do have a base of operations that doesn’t travel through space, which is the space station. Every story we do, the repercussions, the consequences don’t disappear. It’s not like the other shows where you have an adventure and then you zoom off into the great unknown. We are here, we have made a home, what we do has consequences. And I think we’re able to do this mosaic, this fabric of life in the future, which I like.”
Changing of the guard.
Gul Dukat.
Great villian.
oh, Gul Dukat. Hello.
sisko’s “looking forward to meeting him” delivery is great.
Exactly. He’s a Star Fleet captain, so he can’t be all that uninformed about the casualties of Locutus’ actions. Who could really deal with causing that pain and suffering, even against his will? The fact that he’s not a slobbering mess of a man shows just what an amazingly self-controlled person he is.
“Drop by anytime you fell home sick.” 
Yeah, much more complex in the end than “evil” or not
As we approach the end of part 1, does everyone want to power straight through or take a break?
Robert Hewitt Wolfe, speaking in 2002 stated; “I think if Next Generation and The Original Series were about going out there and discovering new things about other races, Deep Space Nine is about staying in one place and discovering new things about ourselves. Not that we didn’t go out there and discover things, but we had the same characters, we didn’t change location every week. Sisko couldn’t just solve a problem and sail off into the sunset, and never have to go back to that place again. That place was always there, and that problem could always come back to haunt him. So, in a lot of ways, it was a more complex show.”