Summary
- Star Trek: DS9 episodes involve a collaborative process with scripts pitched by various writers and "broken" in the writers' room to develop.
- Season 3, Episode 7 "Civil Defense" was a complex "man versus machine" idea that involved multiple writers and turned out to be a gem.
- The hard work on "Civil Defense" inspired writer Bo Yeon Kim, leading her to co-write episodes for Star Trek: Discovery, continuing the legacy.
Star Trek episodes are always a collaboration between countless creatives, but almost every writer on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine had a pass at one particularly complex episode. As depicted in the brilliant retrospective documentary What We Left Behind: Looking Back at Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, it was rare for scripts to solely come from one writer. Ideas would be pitched by staff writers or freelancers, and the story would be "broken" in the writers' room before being assigned to the original ideator, or a different writer to turn it into a viable script.
This is why some of Star Trek's best episodes have several writers credited for story and teleplay respectively. Back in the 1990s, Star Trek TV shows had to produce 26 episodes a season, meaning that they were keen not to waste ideas. If a story idea didn't quite fit with, say, Star Trek: The Next Generation, it might later be adapted as an episode of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. There was also a policy where budding writers could submit story ideas speculatively, which is how Mike Krohn came aboard DS9 with an episode that passed through the hands of multiple writers.
The Star Trek: DS9 Episode So Complex, Multiple Writers Submitted Scripts
Star Trek: DS9, Season 3, Episode 7, "Civil Defense"
Mike Krohn pitched the idea of a "man versus machine" bottle episode that became Star Trek: Deep Space Nine season 3, episode 7, "Civil Defense". The DS9 episode would be Krohn's only other writing credit, aside from the script for the 1995 TV movie, Ed McBain's 87th Precinct: Lightning. In Cinefantastique, Volume 27 Number 4/5, Mike Krohn fondly reflected on the short amount of time that he spent in DS9's writers' room "breaking" the story, saying:
" I've never been in a break session before. It was the most fun I’ve had in years. You have Ira, Robert, Rene, and sometimes Ron in a room together and there is an enthusiasm there. It's like you're all astronauts together, strapped to the same rocket. You just pull together and make it happen. "
Krohn was duly commissioned to write the script, but was forced to bow out due to other commitments before finishing the final draft. The job of writing the final draft was then passed around to almost every single staff writer on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, but none of them were able to turn around a script that pleased producer Michael Piller. In the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion, DS9 writer Ronald D. Moore revealed that the problem with writing "Civil Defense" was "to make the jeopardy intriguing, to find the inner story."
