As far as I can recall, back around 1992 when the earliest promotions for "Deep Space Nine" were being released, the form of the space station had not even been decided on. Although it's possible that they were considering using the Spacedock for the new station at some point, it's probable that the image of the Spacedock here was just being used as a stand-in for the as-yet-to-be finalized Cardassian design. (If I find anything relating to this in my future scans, I'll let you know.) Several other versions were published (which we'll see in subsequent posts) before the Cardassian design was finally revealed. This poster, measuring about 3 feet tall, came from an oversized TV industry magazine as a pullout. This might be the biggest view of the Spacedock you will ever see. (The exterior link in the image below, when clicked, will open up a higher-rez version than Blogger will allow me to post. I wanted you to enjoy the full view!)
Personally, I would have liked it better if they went with this design, but any TV show would have lacked the budget to be able to populate it with the appropriately-sized sets it would have required, not to mention the sheer number of different areas the viewer would have expected to see. This thing was a city in space! Scaling it down to a managable (and depictable) size was a necessary requirement for any design.
Bonus: Below, a panel from the April/May 1990 edition of the Official Fan Club magazine about Mark Lenard's return to the small screen in the role.
wow - very cool! i always really liked the DS9 logo used for the early promo materials, i wish they'd used it on the series. i was always a little disappointed that they used the TMP font for the series credits, the original logo was much more distinctive.
ReplyDeleteVery cool and strange. I'm glad they went with a dingy, alien station design though, that was part of DS9's early appeal.
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