DS9 Celebrated as “Most Influential” Star Trek Series

Popular website Hollywood.com unveiled a new column this week, Get The To The Geek, promising to focus on “everything that prevented you from getting a date in high school: sci-fi, comics, videogames, basically anything that features something going ‘pew pew.'” Rather than pontificate on the state of geekery today, columnist Christian Blauvelt chose to devote his inaugural column to expounding on the many reasons why Star Trek: Deep Space Nine is the best Trek of them all. (OK, there’s also some pontificating, but it’s minimal.) Here’s an excerpt:

9. It Was Groundbreaking In Its Diversity Without Ever Being Smug or Self-Conscious About it

After years of shows with racially and ethnically diverse casts like Lost and Grey’s Anatomy we may forget just how revolutionary it was in 1993 to cast an African-American as the lead on a show not geared primarily toward an African-American audience. And as a Starfleet Captain no less! This was not color-blind casting, however. A native of New Orleans and proud of his heritage, Sisko was truly a 24th century African-American. The key was that, though he was proud of being black, he wasn’t defined solely by being black. The same goes for a character that was every bit as groundbreaking, Alexander Siddig’s Dr. Bashir, who may have been the first-ever Arab character as a series regular on an American primetime drama. Bashir was cultivated, stylish, savvy. Oh, and a genius. Quite a difference from the way people of Arab descent are often stereotyped on TV. The fact that DS9 acknowledged this diversity, while making it clear that each character’s race and ethnicity was only one part of what made each unique was a triumphant balancing act that many series still struggle with today.

(Read the full column here…)