Writer Ronald D. Moore says why Star Trek: Deep Space Nine ended exactly when it needed to instead of “overstaying its welcome” like TNG.

Star Trek writer Ronald D. Moore says that Star Trek: Deep Space Nine didn’t “overstay its welcome” like its predecessor, Star Trek: The Next Generation. TNG revitalized Star Trek with the continuing mission of the Starship Enterprise, in an episodic format that gave writers the freedom to introduce new ideas to Star Trek. As TNG evolved, later seasons experimented with concepts and format. DS9 originally built on TNG‘s success, but soon coalesced into a serialized tale with a strong focus on the multifaceted characters of Deep Space Nine. DS9 became an experiment unto itself, so later seasons featured more payoff after years of buildup than untested one-offs.

Ronald D. Moore was deeply involved creatively with both Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. As a writer, script editor, and producer on Star Trek: The Next Generation, Moore wrote or co-wrote 27 episodes, including TNG‘s finale “All Good Things…”, which Moore co-wrote with producer and frequent collaborator Brannon Braga. Moore went on to work as a supervising (later co-executive) producer on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, and writer of 30 DS9 episodes. Moore is responsible for writing some of DS9‘s best episodes, including DS9 season 6, episode 11 “Waltz”, and DS9 season 7, episode 4 “Take Me Out to the Holosuite”.

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Star Trek Writer Ronald D. Moore Says DS9 Ended When It Needed To

DS9 didn’t “overstay its welcome” like Star Trek: TNG did.

In The Fifty-Year Mission: The Next 25 Years by Mark A. Altman and Edward Gross, Ronald D. Moore talks about the ending of DS9 and how it compared to the end of TNG, both creatively and critically. Read his quote below:

I always looked forward to the work on DS9. There was just something about being in the room and breaking the stories with that group of guys. It became amazing. You really challenged yourself and each other and the work just kept getting better. It seems like we got out just when we needed to. We got offstage before the applause died down. I’m very happy about that. TNG, I think, overstayed its welcome. The last season of that show is kind of rough. With DS9, nothing would have pleased me more than to come back for an eighth season, but, creatively, once we started the Dominion War arc, that felt like it should wrap up at the end of season seven. I don’t know what the hell we could have done to top that.

TNG‘s seventh season took risks that sometimes paid off, like the time-hopping adventure of Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) in TNG‘s series finale, “All Good Things…” but some episodes, like Dr. Beverly Crusher’s (Gates McFadden) Gothic romance in TNG season 7, episode 14 “Sub Rosa”, missed the mark. DS9 rose in quality as it progressed, with some of its most memorable episodes, like DS9 season 6, episode 19 “In the Pale Moonlight”, and DS9 season 7, episode 8, “The Siege of AR-558” airing in its final 2 years.

The Dominion War Defined DS9

The end of the Dominion War marked the end of DS9.

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine was defined by the events of the Dominion War, an ambitious arc that sprawled across quadrants and also dove deep into psychological studies of DS9‘s characters. The Dominion War set DS9 apart from other Star Trek series, but it was only possible because of the particular set of circumstances surrounding DS9‘s production. Because Star Trek: The Next Generation wrapped following its seventh and final season, there was precedent to set a seven-year cutoff point for Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. That precedent, combined with a trend towards serialization for 90s television, meant that DS9‘s writers could plan an overall story arc with genuine character development.

The Dominion was seeded as early as DS9 season 2, as a hint that a political force to be reckoned with existed in the Gamma Quadrant. Amidst DS9‘s singular episodes, the nature of the Dominion as a dark mirror to the United Federation of Planets emerged. Where the Federation united disparate races in common goals, the Dominion ruled through fear and control, and a clash between the two powers was all but inevitable. The ensuing war between the Dominion and Federation became the defining conflict of DS9, so the end of the Dominion War marked a natural ending point for Star Trek: Deep Space Nine as a series.