TV SERIES · 1993– · USA
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
36 archived facts 5 topics 1 source Last reviewed Oct 2026
All facts (36)
- #001
Kira was a last-minute addition to the cast. The original plan was to include Ro Laren, the character from Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987), but Michelle Forbes did not want to do a series at that time.
- #002
When Colm Meaney put on the Deep Space Nine uniform, he made two requests of the costume designers. He explained that, unlike the officers, the enlisted man O'Brien was a working man. He therefore needed to be able to roll up his sleeves and needed pockets for his tools. The costume department altered his uniform accordingly.
- #003
Constable Odo was initially conceived as a young Clint Eastwood type. When Rene Auberjonois was called in to audition, the casting director told him that none of the previous actors had been "grouchy enough." So Auberjonois improvised his lines using his gruffest voice and secured the role. Odo's sarcasm eventually became such a character trademark that the writers often wrote it into his lines (such as "harrumph!"), to Auberjonois's annoyance.
- #004
Michael Dorn did not want to reprise the role of Worf because the daily makeup application was exhausting, and he was relieved that he was able to continue. Dorn said the salary he was offered made him reconsider.
- #005
Though rarely seen, there is an ATM in Quark's bar. It dispenses the various currencies used by the major races visiting the station: Federation credits, Bajoran litas, Cardassian leks and Ferengi latinum.
- #006
The "pills" jars in Dr. Bashir's office were filled with M&Ms. In many instances in the early episodes, the level of the pills changed between takes because crew members kept stealing them. The problem was solved by applying epoxy over the lids.
- #007
Wolf 359, where Sisko lost his wife and which is remembered as the battlefield between the Borg and the Federation, is a real star seven and a half light-years from Earth.
- #008
Armin Shimerman (Quark) and Marc Alaimo (Gul Dukat the Cardassian) emerged as two of the first actors to play members of their own species, and both had appeared in Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987). Shimerman played the Ferengi officer Letek in The Last Outpost (1987), while Alaimo played the Cardassian officer Gul Macet in The Wounded (1991). Edit - Michael Dorn (Worf) also played his character's grandfather (Colonel Worf) in the Star Trek film Undiscovered Country.
- #009
Garak, a former spy working as a tailor on the station, was inspired in part by some of John le Carré's spy novels, chiefly "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy." This novel was also the inspiration for both the plot and the title of Voyager's sixth-season episode Tinker Tenor Doctor Spy (1999).
- #010
The name "Deep Space Nine" came from an earlier working title and predated the decision to set the series on a space station. The producers planned to find a new title once the series was fully developed, but they kept the name, feeling it had an appealing quality.
- #011
The Dominion story was initially intended to span only two episodes. Ronald D. Moore and Ira Steven Behr lobbied to continue the story, but met resistance from Executive Producer Rick Berman, who wanted to preserve the series' episodic format. After Berman left the production to oversee the launch of Star Trek: Voyager (1995), Moore and Behr were given more creative control over the series, which turned the Dominion War into its main storyline and led it to adopt a serialized format.
- #012
Although all "Star Trek" series dealt with complex social issues, "Deep Space Nine" had darker undertones and dealt far more seriously than the other Star Trek series with genocide, terrorism, bigotry, post-traumatic stress disorder and the aftermath of war. The writers also found that, because of a space station's static setting, it was much easier for the characters to deal with the long-term consequences of their actions than for the crew of a starship, which was in a different place every week.
- #013
Trials and Tribble-ations (1996), a time-travel story, was written to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Star Trek franchise. The DS9 crew travels back to 2268, during the Star Trek (1966) episode 2.15, The Trouble with Tribbles (1967), to prevent Arne Darvin from assassinating Captain Kirk and changing the timeline. Because of the ages of William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy and the other original cast members, it was decided to have this series' cast interact with original footage from the Star Trek (1966) episode. The blue-screen and computer technology recently used for another Paramount feature, Forrest Gump (1994), was employed.
- #014
Jeffrey Combs has the distinction of playing nine different characters across the various Star Trek series. He played the roles of Brunt, Weyoun, Shran, Tiron, Agamus, Kevin Mulkahey, Penk, Krem and a virtual-suite guest. He is one of five actors to have played seven or more different characters in the Star Trek franchise; the others are Randy Oglesby, J. G. Hertzler, Vaughn Armstrong and Thomas Kopache. Coincidentally, Combs appeared in Star Trek alongside these four actors.
- #015
Marc Alaimo was known on set by the nickname "The Neck" because of his naturally long neck, which inspired the look of the Cardassian neck ridges.
- #016
According to an interview conducted in April 2003, Avery Brooks was initially required by contract to appear with hair in order to avoid confusion with the Spenser: For Hire (1985) character Hawk. In later seasons, as Sisko became established, Brooks was allowed to shave his head and grow his beard back.
- #017
Among the actors who had to read for the role of Captain Sisko were Carl Weathers and Eriq La Salle. James Earl Jones and Tony Todd were offered the role but turned it down. Todd (who appeared as Worf's brother Kurn in Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987)) appeared in this series twice; first as the older Jake Sisko in the fourth season, third episode, "The Visitor," and then as Kurn in the fourth season, fifteenth episode, "Sons of Mogh." He also appeared in Star Trek: Voyager (1995) fourth season, sixteenth episode, "Prey."
- #018
When Nielsen ratings began to fall during the third season's broadcast, the studio pushed for radical ideas for the fourth season to boost the series' popularity again. Some of its suggestions were to blow up the planet Bajor or to move the action away from the station. In the end they decided the series needed a popular character from an earlier Star Trek series. At first the producers were not pleased, because in the Dominion War story they had set up a subplot in which the Federation would face the Klingons and were already struggling to manage it. However, when someone suggested introducing The Next Generation's Worf (Michael Dorn) to the cast as a mediator between the Federation and the Klingons, the studio's decision turned out to be a disguised blessing, as it conveniently solved most of the script problems.
- #019
Alexander Siddig (Dr Bashir) and Nana Visitor (Kira) married in real life in 1997 (after the series' fifth season).
- #020
Because the Trill had first been shown in The Host (1991), an appliance had to be attached to Jadzia Dax's forehead, but after a test most people felt Terry Farrell's face was too beautiful to be partly covered with prosthetics. Instead, she was to have spots on the sides. These were applied personally by Michael Westmore every day; a process that initially took more than an hour, though over time it came close to forty minutes. Westmore actually did his "signed" work by adding two spots in the shape of an M and a W. From that point on, all Trills were shown this way rather than in the version shown in Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987).
- #021
In "Trials and Tribble-ations" (1996), Dax takes an interest in Spock when Sisko and Dax see Kirk and Spock. In August 2017, Terry Farrell (Jadzia Dax) became engaged to Adam Nimoy, the son of Leonard Nimoy (Spock).
- #022
Although he is often called a regular, Cirroc Lofton appeared in only eighty-five of the series' one hundred seventy-three episodes. Morn (Mark Allen Shepherd), the most frequently recurring character, appeared in ninety-two episodes. Interestingly, despite that total, Shepherd is not listed in DS9's cast.
- #023
When Nana Visitor became pregnant, the situation was explained in the series by having Kira serve as an emergency surrogate mother for Keiko O'Brien's baby. Surprisingly, Visitor was absent for only one episode ("Let He Who Is Without Sin..." (1996)) because of her son's birth. In fact, she cut her maternity leave short for fear that a long absence would lead the writers to significantly reduce her role in the rest of the series.
- #024
In the script, the Jem'Hadar were described as hardened warriors almost resistant to phaser fire. When Makeup Supervisor Michael Westmore read this description, he immediately thought of the thick skin of rhinoceroses and reptiles, so he designed the Jem'Hadar to resemble dinosaurs, particularly horned triceratops.
- #025
The name of the alien race "Ferengi" is derived from the Persian word Farangi, meaning "foreigner."
- #026
Deep Space Nine's primary design was based on a gyroscope, but with its top and bottom sections removed. Some of Herman F. Zimmerman's earlier designs had full rings, also like a gyroscope, and the idea was that rotating the station would create artificial gravity, until someone said this was unnecessary because Star Trek ships use gravity generators. However, the idea of a halo-shaped space station stuck and was used in the final design. Fans had already noted many similarities to Babylon 5 (1993), in which the title station rotates to create artificial gravity, so artificial gravity produced by rotating the episodes would have complicated matters further. Fans accused Paramount of stealing many aspects of the series after J. Michael Straczynski pitched it to Paramount Studios in the late '80s.
- #027
Dax was initially conceived as an alien confined to a wheelchair from a low-gravity world and floating around her own room. The concept was dropped because rigging the "flight" cables was too difficult. However, the idea was revisited in "Melora" (1993), which featured a guest character.
- #028
Quark and Odo were intended to be Deep Space Nine's "Bones and Spocks," two crew members who always clashed with each other. However, because Armin Shimerman and Rene Auberjonois spent so many hours together in makeup, they became such good friends that Shimerman felt that, despite all their efforts, their affection for each other faded in later seasons.
- #029
Majel Barrett guest-starred in several episodes, reprising her role as Lwaxana Troi from Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987). This made it the last Star Trek series or project in which Barrett would appear on screen. Barrett continued to play the computer voice for this series and Star Trek: Voyager (1995), and she did so for Star Trek: Enterprise (2001) and Star Trek (2009). Throughout this series, Barrett appeared on screen in every Star Trek incarnation.
- #030
From the fourth season onward, the writers felt they had unprecedented freedom to generate ideas for Dominion War stories. The series' early seasons aired concurrently with the final seasons of Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987), so they had to preserve the continuity of the second series' story developments. After The Next Generation concluded in 1994 and Star Trek: Generations (1994) was released, there was no immediate plan for more feature films, and Star Trek: Voyager (1995) would not be directly affected because it was set in the Delta Quadrant. The writers thus felt they could turn the main story in any direction, and they decided to disrupt the peaceful status quo of the Alpha Quadrant by setting many groups against one another.
- #031
The Maquis was the name of French resistance fighters during World War II.
- #032
Robert Patrick was considered for the role of Odo, but it was thought the character would resemble Robert Patrick's role in Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) too closely.
- #033
Joseph Sisko, Benjamin's father and Jake's grandfather, was played by Brock Peters, who had played Admiral Cartwright in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986) and Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991).
- #034
As in Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987), Q was intended to appear semi-regularly in this series, but he appeared only in the first season, seventh episode, "Q-Less." Q would instead continue to appear in Star Trek: Voyager (1995). In addition, the producers announced that Whoopi Goldberg would reprise her role as Guinan for one or two guest appearances and that they intended for Leonard Nimoy to appear as Spock, but the plans never materialized. Several other recurring Next Generation characters would appear in this series, including Vash (Jennifer Hetrick), Lwaxana Troi (Majel Barrett), Gowron (Robert O'Reilly), Worf's brother Kurn (Tony Todd) and the Duras Sisters (Barbara March and Gwynyth Walsh).
- #035
Ferengi men are usually shown wearing headpieces on the backs of their heads, but some, like Quark, never wear one. Asked about this on Twitter, Aron Eisenberg replied: "Because our prosthetic heads only went up to just above the collar and they needed something to cover that up, hence the headpiece. Armin Shimerman's head went further than his collar, under his clothes. That's it! It was all about the makeup."
- #036
The tankards used for Klingon bloodwine are actually measuring vessels used in cooking.
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