The documentary series chronicling rare and fascinating details of Star Trek takes a look at Deep Space Nine.

The Next Generation’s stablemate, Deep Space Nine, proved to be the troubled sibling, trying to do something different while still being recognisably Star Trek. The first show to be made entirely without any input from franchise creator Gene Roddenberry, the show bravely mixed things up by being set on a station rather than a starship (the action came to them) and in later years introduced serialised storytelling.

What’s fascinating about this episode, which features interviews with both cast members and creatives, is its honest depiction of the challenges that it faced. Forever suffering from lower ratings than the network hoped for, this was a show that kept reinventing itself to try and appease its masters – from introducing gunship the Defiant, to bringing in a star from the Next Generation, Worf. Add to that a cast member who left at the end of the penultimate season and the fact that Voyager had ‘more money and better craft services’ it’s a miracle that it made it to the end of seven seasons. Its story arc structure is now used not only in Star Trek but countless other shows, and its legacy is now rightly recognised.

Verdict: Another excellent entry in this series. Offering fewer surprises than the TNG episode, it still packs in plenty of behind-the scenes drama. 8/10

Nick Joy