Former Deep Space Nine executive producer Ira Steven Behr has a new science fiction show, USA's The 4400, but he still has opinions about the Star Trek franchise...many of them frustrated.

"For Deep Space Nine they let us really mess around with the formula quite a bit and maybe that was bad or good," he said in a roundtable press conference reported at TrekMovie.com. He likened these days to Camelot, recalling that one day series co-creator Michael Piller said to him, "'You are doing a great job on Deep Space Nine, but you just have to realize that Voyager is coming out and it is going to be the tentpole for the franchise."

Behr added that the producers created Voyager "the real Star Trek" but he personally believed that the franchise began to decline "the moment when they put the Maquis into the Starfleet uniforms...since then it has always been trying to regain the past." He believes that series creator Gene Roddenberry would have approved of the changes Deep Space Nine made in the franchise's direction, saying, "The safer the franchise got, the weaker it got."

As for the upcoming movie being produced and directed by J.J. Abrams, reported to be an original series prequel, "it's the safe thing...it could be the greatest thing of all time, but the fact [is] that they had to go backwards into the future." He wished Abrams' team luck "because what ever is good for Star Trek will sell Deep Space Nine DVDs." However, he has not watched Lost or their other shows.

Frequent Star Trek guest star Jeffrey Combs (Weyoun, Shran) is a recurring character on The 4400, which was created by Deep Space Nine writer René Echevarria. Behr would like to have more Star Trek actors on the show but said that because the series shoots in Canada, it has not been easy to arrange.

The full article is here.

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