The Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Mother-load is Mine

Star Trek – The Deep Space Nine Companion – Terry J. Erdman, Paula M. Block (2000)

            From 1993 until 1999, what I consider the greatest science fiction television show ever aired in syndication in the United States.  Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (DS9) turned the Star Trek formula upside down.  Instead of a ship and crew of high-end achievers exploring the galaxy and encountering a new threat or danger or problem every week, DS9 showed us a flawed Commander and crew who take over a commandeered Cardassian outpost orbiting a small, seemingly inconsequential planet named Bajor.  Whereas, in Star Trek: The Next Generation (TNG) the entire ship was populated by Starfleet personnel and their families, in DS9 the command crew is composed of a mix of Starfleet officers and staff, Bajoran military and government officials, and a whole slew of civilian shopkeepers and workers, not to mention the constant arrival of travelers seeking refueling, repairs, or just some rest and relaxation after a long voyage.  Because of this, DS9 was able to tell deeper, more involved stories, sometimes taking years to fully understand.

            DS9 began in 1993, as a premium syndication show, meant to be the showpiece of a new network, UPN, now defunct.  It aired for 7 years, and because it was a syndicated show sometimes it was moved, pre-empted, or otherwise ignored by the UPN people.  DS9 always sought to maintain a sense of continuity between its episodes, but once they began to fully explore serialized storytelling, if became a difficult show to follow if you had missed a few episodes.  TNG, on the other hand, told stand-alone episodes, capable of being watched in nearly any order.  Watching DS9 out of order would lead to massive confusion!  It was a good thing that the people in charge of DS9 knew how special the cast and show were and kept this all in mind as they crafted season after season of amazing science fiction television.

            Because of this, Terry Erdman and Paula Block’s book, Star Trek – The Deep Space Nine Companion, is such a favorite among fanatics of DS9. (We call ourselves Niners, BTW)  Not only does this heavy tome detail every single episode’s narrative, but it provides countless piles of data and information about the show, including cast members, trivia from behind the scenes, the production teams, and thoughts about each episode from the pertinent cast or crew members involved.  It is literally the DS9 bible, and it fetches a fair price on the secondary used book market!

            I am a huge fanatic of reference material, and to have such a motherload of data about my all-time favorite television show is so cool.  I enjoy the insight provided to me by the cast and crew as they look back on some of the best work they ever did.  I look forward to a lifetime of curiosity leading me to dig back into the Deep Space Nine Companion.  I highly recommend it, either for yourself if you are a Niner, or as a gift for someone in your life that loves Deep Space Nine.

We all live in Seinfeldia now....

Seinfeldia: How a Show About Nothing Changed Everything – Jennifer Keishin Armstrong (2016)

            Ahhhh, Seinfeld.  I must admit that, upon my first viewing of Seinfeld, I did not like it.  I found the characters insufferable from the start, each one a horror of humanity, shallow and self-absorbed to a level I did not find funny.  It took my friends' love of the show, and me watching it with them, to understand that this was a different show to the sitcoms I grew up with.  Seinfeld was intentionally a show about despicable people and the ways they ruin each other’s lives, over and over again.  It was not an insipid gag-reel of bad puns, sexual misunderstandings, and physical comedy, like Three’s Company.  It was not a thoughtful exploration of family and the raising of children like the Cosby Show.  It was not a workplace comedy like WKRP in Cincinnati, or Cheers.  This was a new creature. In the intervening decades, I have come to adore Seinfeld as the first in a new wave of American television humor.  It created something bigger than just a show, and this is the topic that Seinfeldia explores.

            The term Seinfeldia refers to the fictional universe that the TV show Seinfeld exists in, and the real-world results of this universe.  The author describes the initial stages that resulted in Seinfeld becoming a TV show.  The first ¼ of this book is like a gold mine for Seinfeld fanatics, as Ms. Armstrong details the efforts made by co-creators Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld to bring the show to fruition.    All of the players are introduced, and we get to meet the people behind the scenes, many of them contributing greatly to the hilarity that became Seinfeld’s calling card.  From the beginning Jerry and Larry sought to maintain a level of honesty and rigor with their scripts.  There were rules created to keep Seinfeld from devolving into another network sitcom copycat.  The characters would never hug it out, as in many shows.  They would not soliloquize moral lessons.  Each joke must come from a place of honesty, honesty towards the show’s goals, and to the characters themselves.  These ideas have been carried on to many other shows.

            We are introduced to the writers that made these shows so funny.  Seinfeld and Larry David both would replace most of the writers after every season, to allow for fresh ideas and new talent.  Endless inventiveness ensued.  The show was a sleeper for a few years and then, with the 4^th season, blew up in the mass consciousness.  Seinfeld became HUGE.  It was a linchpin for NBC’s Thursday Night Lineup for years.  The creators and actors all became hugely famous, even people who had small bit parts were being recognized on the street.  It is a very rare thing that a show which the network execs initially labeled as “too Jewish,” and “too New York” caught the minds of mainstream America.  In fact, the show was such a huge hit that it helped create the imaginary nation of Seinfeldia!  TV fans have long had massive obsessions over genre shows such as the Twilight Zone, or Star Trek.  To have such fandom arise for a half hour sitcom?  Unheard of, but that is what has happened.

            Seinfeld lives on in syndication, and will likely do so for as long as I Love Lucy or the Honeymooners.  It is a torchbearer for the kind of smart, caustic, and insightful comedy that can be created in a network setting.  Anyone who loves the show would get a kick out of this book.  There are many behind-the-scenes stories, details, and photographs to explore, and I feel the book only enhances my enjoyment of Seinfeld the TV show.  That is a great thing!

(This book can be purchased here: SEINFELDIA  )