quote:

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As for DS9, I can report that on Monday, March 26th [I think Ron meant Monday, March 29th -LB], we will begin production on the final episode of the series. Today is the last day of shooting on the final episode that I had a hand in writing, which is named "The Dogs of War" for now. Rene and I co-wrote the teleplay on this one and it is with a heavy heart that I watch the last few dailies of scenes that I helped to craft.

As many of you know by now, the last nine episodes of the series are tightly interwoven and build to the finale and I think that you'll be pleased to see many familiar faces crop up in surprising ways as we wend our way to the end. I just saw the first episode last night, entitled "Penumbra" and after you see it, I suspect you'll want to hang around the next eight.

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On whether the DS9 sets will be saved for a possible movie:

quote:

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Unfortunately, they will all be torn down and thrown into the trash. It's a hard and cruel world...

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On what happened to the Alpha/Gamma Jem'Hadar storyline:

quote:

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We dropped the ball on this one. It sounded like a cool idea at the time and we kept telling each other that we'd follow up eventually, but it just kinda got away from us.

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On what story Ron would like to see in a future DS9 movie or miniseries:

quote:

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To be honest, I'm not rooting for another DS9 movie or miniseries or whatever. I think the show should be allowed to end its story in our finale and then be left alone.

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On cloaks in the mirror universe and "The Emperor's New Cloak":

quote:

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Yep. This is what's known in Hollywood as a "Mistake." The decloaking ship in the earlier Mirror episode was sort of a throwaway -- an optical that was thrown in, but which really didn't have anything to do with the story. As a result, the decloaking shot didn't stick in anyone's mind when we were reviewing those shows and talking about the established stories. Unfortunately, no one on the entire production remembered that one shot until the episode was in the can. Oh, well...

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Ron's take on strongest and weakest episodes of the season:

quote:

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Strongest: "The Siege of AR-558", "Badda-Bing, Badda-Bang", "Inter Arma, etc.", "It's Only a Paper Moon"

Weakest: "Covenant", "Prodigal Daughter"

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Stories Ron would liked to have told if there were more time for the series:

quote:

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There was a story about Klingon Hell that I wanted to do and an episode that revolved around doing an entire day at Quark's. And the DS9 Musical, natch.

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On whether he would write a DS9 film if offered:

quote:

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Uh... let me think. Yes.

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On whether will we get to see Miles and Julian's
Alamo holo-program:

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We're not going the see the program -- it would be hard to deliver the goods on a TV budget.

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Will Odo be killed off?

quote:

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Oh yeah, like I'm going to give away the fate of a major character.

Keeping wondering and worrying...

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Ron's response to Majel's letter to Communicator:

quote:

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I have very little argument with Majel (who wrote a letter saying that Gene would never have approved of having a continuing war in a Trek series). She's probably right. It would've been very hard to argue Gene into going this way and maybe he'd have never gone for it. However, I would've still argued for doing the Dominion War with him and if he'd rejected it, I would've thought he was wrong. I respect Gene and his work, but I don't think he was always right and I'm not going to pretend that I do. The Dominion War has been one of the better storylines we've come up with whether Gene would've agreed or not.

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In addition, Ron says we will get a final farewell to Keiko, Molly, and Yoshi. We'll also get one more Miles/Julian adventure.

If you'd like to read Ron's entire post, Jason at Star Trek News should have the full thing posted soon.
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Lawrence Boucher
[email protected]
"The first step to a successful revolution
is destroying all competing revolutionaries."