Star Trek: The Next Frontier

By JANICE C. SIMPSON

The setting, while not exactly Blade Runner territory, is a desolate space station -- a decidedly hostile environment. It includes a promenade with a space-age cash machine and a holographic brothel. Through it passes a contentious assortment of humans and aliens. Station Commander Benjamin Sisko, while as courageous and honorable as U.S.S. Enterprise captains James Kirk and Jean-Luc Picard, openly expresses his discontent with his hardship assignment.

What's going on here? Can this dark, gritty show really be the latest spin- off in the Star Trek saga -- that seemingly never-ending cult series about a Utopian future in which knowledge and technology conquer disease and poverty and all the races and species in the universe coexist in near perfect harmony? Yes, Mr. Spock, this is Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, a syndicated show premiering the week of Jan. 4. It takes Star Trek, created 27 years ago by visionary producer Gene Roddenberry, further into uncharted territory than ever before, and is the first Trek venture initiated since Roddenberry died last year. "We've managed to create conflict without breaking the ideals of what the show is all about," says co-executive producer Rick Berman. "That's one of our rules: You don't mess with Gene's vision. We bend things a little bit, but I believe we bend them in the same way that he would have."

They'd better. After all, a whole empire may be at stake. The initial 79 episodes of Star Trek, originally seen on NBC, are venerated as TV classics and are available on videocassette. A sequel series, Star Trek: The Next Generation, is in its sixth season in syndication and is seen by 20 million people each week, making it second only to Wheel of Fortune among syndicated shows. Six Star Trek movies have been made, grossing an aggregate of $500 million. There is a TV cartoon show, a theater-style attraction at the Universal Studios theme park and a legion of annual conventions of "Trekkers." A retrospective exhibit of Star Trekiana was held at the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum earlier this year, and a chain of "virtual reality" Star Trek entertainment centers will open across the country next year.

In most ways, Deep Space Nine follows the familiar course charted by its predecessors. It is set in the same 24th century as The Next Generation and deals with many of the political situations introduced in that show. Familiar faces from older series pop up: Enterprise captain Picard appears in the pilot, and another Enterprise crew member, Miles O'Brien, has transferred completely to become chief operations officer for Deep Space Nine. "The synergy between the shows will become immediately obvious," says the other co-executive producer, Michael Piller.

The primary conflict in the new series is between the warmongering Cardassians, who gutted and abandoned the space station after being forced out, and the spiritually minded Bajorans, who have resorted to terrorism to end a century of foreign occupation in their homeland. The Bajorans' appeal for help to the Federation, the interplanetary U.N., brings Sisko and a motley crew of officers to Deep Space Nine. There they interact with a constantly changing cast of aliens who pass through the frontier outpost.

Like its predecessors, Deep Space Nine will explore philosophical questions and social problems. Plots in upcoming episodes deal with topics like racial prejudice and single parenthood. Captain Sisko is played by African-American actor Avery Brooks, who beat out 100 other contenders from all racial / backgrounds for the job, making him one of the few black actors to star in a dramatic series. Others in the cast include former model Terry Farrell as science officer Jadzia Dax, an alien who combines the personalities of a 300- year-old androgynous life form and a 28-year-old female in one being; Rene Auberjonois as security officer Odo, a displaced alien with shape-shifting capabilities that allow him to change into any form; Nana Visitor as first officer Kira Nerys, a former member of the Bajoran underground; Armin Shimerman as Quark, the money-grubbing bartender who provides comic relief; and Siddig El Fadil as medical officer Dr. Julian Bashir, a human doctor who adds hunk appeal.

But the real stars of the new series are set designer Herman Zimmerman and special-effects wizard Rob Legato. The basic set, which fills three sound stages at the Paramount studios, includes a five-level operations command center, the crew's cavelike sleeping quarters and the 80-ft. promenade. A good chunk of the $2 million-per-episode budget goes toward eye-popping optical effects, like travel into the wormhole that provides shortcuts through space and gives the station its strategic significance.

Before his death, creator Roddenberry "had gotten awfully mellow, and the show had begun to lose some of the excitement and nonsense and folderol that can make it fun to do," says his widow Majel Barrett, who provides the voice of the computer on all three series. Deep Space Nine "lends itself to a lot more excitement. It will be different, and yet it will fit into his universe." As Roddenberry knew all along, there are no final frontiers in the world of Star Trek.