What We Left Behind (2019)

Looking Back at Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (2019)

Dirs. Ira Steven Behr + David Zappone

A crowd-funded documentary that examines the legacy of DS9. There's some fan-input, but the bulk of it comes from the people who made the series what it was, from the traditionally unseen producers and crew to the onscreen cast.

The man on the cover cradling the station in his hands is Ira Steven Behr, whose role as show-runner from 1995 onwards was instrumental in shaping how DS9 evolved in its later years. The documentary feels very much driven by him, too.

That's not a criticism; the film is an engaging exploration that highlights the creative scope and accomplishments of all concerned - provided you like DS9. If you hate it or feel that it deviated too much from Gene Roddenberry's original vision, then you'll probably want to warp past WWLB.

If you're on the fan side of the fence, there are two main things to get excited about. First is the quality of episode footage used. It's in HD! [1]

If you own the DVDs, you'll know how awful the PQ was. The HD footage shows how things ought to have looked. I'm no accountant, but I'm willing to bet that the staggering amount of dollars Paramount spent funding Alex Kurtzman's dogshit Trek could've paid for a similarly successful HD restoration of most, if not all, of DS9's seven seasons. For reference, it's estimated they spent $200+ million on Starfleet Academy alone. That's one expensive turd.

The second thing will appeal most to fans of DS9's style of storytelling. It gathers five seasoned Trek writers together in a room to brainstorm how a continuation of the show might begin, if it was to get revived. They pitch ideas for a first episode, set twenty years after Season 07's finale. The guys do in a single short session what Paramount have failed to do since the TNG movies ended: they make Star Trek interesting again! Listening to the ideas being thrown around is utter joy. Like TOS, TNG, and DS9 at their best, the session left me sad and elated in equal measure.

I almost don't want to point out the negatives, but there's one that can't be ignored. The scene in which Behr reflects on how sexual identity was handled within the series is pretty awful. It feels like a late addition and comes across as some kind of obligatory inclusion; an attempt to sate Paramount and the 'modern' audience that they believe exists, perhaps? Whatever the case, it feels heavily pre-scripted and casts a shadow over the sincerity that he nurtures elsewhere. I'll be skipping past that entire scene on my next viewing. And the singing, too, probably.

[1] There's always a caveat. 😐 It's been reframed to a 16:9 AR. It looks great, but it's cropped.