‘Every Choice We Make Has a Consequence: Serialized Storytelling in Star Trek’s Episodic Universe'

With its emphasis on serialized storytelling, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1993-1999) represented an important break with the expectations of the contemporaneous Star Trek viewer. Set aboard a space station rather than a starship, the characters of Deep Space Nine could rarely just warp away to their next adventure as the crews of the Enterprise (and, indeed, Voyager) could. This static location, initially believed by some fans to be a weakness of the show’s premise, would in fact lend itself to serialization and so deliver the franchise’s most involved character development and richest, most challenging long-form storytelling.

After contextualising the show’s use of serialization against the backdrop of other 1990s television science fiction (such as The X-Files and Babylon 5), this chapter discusses Deep Space Nine’s use of serialized narratives to interrogate stablished notions of what constitutes Star Trek (with the emphasis here being on war, politics, religion, and interpersonal conflict). Through examinations of storylines such as the Dominion War (particularly the six-episode opening arc of Season Six and the concluding nine-episode arc of Season Seven), Captain Sisko’s relationship with the Maquis (such as ‘The Maquis’, ‘For the Uniform’, and ‘Blaze of Glory’), and the post-occupation fate of the planet Bajor (multiple episodes throughout the show’s run), it establishes serialization as Deep Space Nine’s defining structural trait, one which allowed the show to deliver stories both broader in galactic-political scope and deeper in terms of the relationship between character and consequence than what was elsewhere available in the franchise at the time (for example, Sisko dealing with the consequences of his wife’s death and, as the series progresses, those of the wormhole’s discovery; Kira, dealing with the aftermath of the Cardassian occupation of her homeworld; Dax, dealing with the consequences of her very literal past lives; and even the journeys of supporting characters such as Nog, Garek, and Gul Dukat).

In the process, the chapter addresses the strategies whereby the show integrated standalone episodes (often fundamental departures from established tone and style such as ‘In the Pale Moonlight’) into its overarching narratives. It frames the differences between the highly serialized Deep Space Nine and other, much more episodic Star Trek series as both revitalising exercises in narrative invention and precursors to later developments in television production and consumption, before, finally, briefly considering how the series foreshadows the franchise’s contemporary use of serialization in Star Trek: Discovery (2017-present).