A DS9 Movie Could Have Saved Star Trek’s Film Franchise After Insurrection

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine never jumped to feature films, but a movie crossing over DS9 and Star Trek: The Next Generation could have jumpstarted the Star Trek film franchise after Star Trek: Insurrection.Star Trek: Deep Space Nine aired for 7 seasons in syndication from 1993-1999. DS9 didn't achieve the popularity of Star Trek: The Next Generation, while Star Trek: Voyager was considered as TNG's heir apparent by Paramount. After TNG, no other Star Trek TV series leaped to movie theaters. A DS9 and TNG crossover was a missed opportunity.

1996's Star Trek: First Contact was the apex of the Star Trek: The Next Generation movies. Captain Jean-Luc Picard's (Patrick Stewart) big-screen battle with the Borg grossed over $92 million and was a smash with audiences. 1998's follow-up, Star Trek: Insurrection, was a downturn, earning only $70 million and disappointing fans. It would be four more years until the final TNG movie, the disastrous Star Trek: Nemesis. Meanwhile, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine ended in 1999. Bringing Captain Picard and Captain Benjamin Sisko (Avery Brooks) together in a movie was not considered by Paramount, but what if it did happen?

Picard & Sisko Together Would've Been A Star Trek Movie Event

After Captain James T. Kirk (William Shatner) in Star Trek Generations and the Borg in Star Trek: First Contact, what the Star Trek movie franchise needed was another big event to entice audiences into movie theaters. Captain Picard meeting Captain Sisko could have been that milestone. Picard and Sisko met once before, in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine's series premiere, "Emissary," but after 1999, this would have been a Picard who was a bona fide movie star, while Sisko had become a god after the Emissary joined with the Prophets of Bajor.

A Star Trek movie crossover between TNG and DS9 would have been epic, and a must-see for Trekkers. Several story threads could have tied DS9 and TNG together, starting with Lt. Commander Worf (Michael Dorn), who bridged both shows. With DS9's Dominion War concluded, Bajor would have been a natural battleground, as it's Sisko's spiritual home while Picard has ties to it from Star Trek: The Next Generation. Chief Miles O'Brien (Colm Meaney) could have also been a conduit between the two Star Trek casts.

A successful Star Trek: TNG and DS9 movie crossover would have sparked fan interest after Star Trek: Insurrection stumbled. From there, Star Trek: The Next Generation could have passed the torch to DS9 continuing the Star Trek movies, or both TNG and DS9 could have become viable film franchises concurrently, perhaps opening the door to Star Trek: Voyager and Star Trek: Enterprise down the line. Instead, DS9, Voyager, the TNG movies, and Enterprise all ended by 2005.

Why A Star Trek: DS9 Movie Never Happened

Star Trek Was Suffering From Franchise Fatigue

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Star Trek: The Next Generation crossing over in a movie is wishful thinking, and there are reasons why it never happened. By the end of the 1990s, Star Trek was suffering from franchise fatigue after decades of continuous (and repetitive) TV series and movies. DS9 was never as popular as TNG, and Paramount did not see it as capable of inheriting the Star Trek movies the way TNG did from Star Trek: The Original Series.

Crossing over the casts of Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine in a movie would also have been an expensive proposition. DS9's cast was even more expansive than TNG's, and over a dozen characters would have fought for screen time even before villains and ancillary characters. Further, Paramount preferred Star Trek: Voyager to DS9, but Captain Kathryn Janeway's (Kate Mulgrew) show also wasn't considered movie-worthy because of its relatively poor ratings compared to TNG.

Ultimately, Star Trek under the aegis of executive producer Rick Berman was in its waning days at the start of the 2000s, and Star Trek: Enterprise was the last gasp of the glory years of Star Trek: The Next Generation a decade earlier. Left alone by Paramount, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine proved itself to be ahead of its time, pioneering serialization, and delivering a series that seems even more relevant 25 years later. Star Trek: The Next Generation's movie franchise could have benefited from a crossover with DS9, but it wasn't a viable idea to Paramount, and will forever be a 'What If?' scenario.