A documentary on the syndicated sci-fi drama “Deep Space Nine” assumes orbit at 7 p.m. on Monday around Regal Cinemas Virginia Center 20. The show, part of the Star Trek universe and which went off the air 20 years ago after seven seasons, is set far in the future and many millions of miles away.
The documentary, "What We Leave Behind," has a Richmond connection in the person and encyclopedic memory of Avery Evans, the host of WRIR's “Choppin’ It Up Geek.”
Evans gives serious consideration to comic books, sci-fi, fantasy, cartoons, video games, movies, music and sports. He’s also coming on his 13th year in the United States Army, now a major in the Reserves, where his specialty is in logistics – getting materiél to where it’s needed. Evans watched “Deep Space Nine” first as a kid –he was 10 when his mother introduced the show to him – but he gained appreciation for the program with his military experience that included deployment to Kuwait. And, that’s how he became an interview subject in the film.
“Actually it was my fault,” he says. He attended the 2017 Star Trek Convention in Las Vegas where he saw Ira Steven Behr, the “DS9” writer-producer . Evans was on the verge of deployment and got up his courage to ask Behr about interviewing him for the WRIR show. Behr agreed, and told him how he’d learned that military people enjoy “Deep Space Nine.” He wanted to interview a military person for the documentary. Evans then went out onto the floor and struck up conversation with actor Deborah Lacey, who portrayed Sarah Sisko , mother of DS9’s Capt. Benjamin Sisko.
“After I finished I looked at my flip phone, which should’ve died by the way, because its battery was dead. I had a missed call and a message. These came from David Zappone, owner of 455 Films, the production company that with William Shatner, created and produced “The Captains,” a documentary featuring the actors who portrayed “Star Trek” captains .
“I called him back, and they were around where the Enterprise bridge set was, and he told me, ‘Meet us over here,’ and soon as I hung up, my phone died,” he laughs. He found them, though, and within minutes the producers executed their own logistics in a hallway to set up lighting and microphones. Evans knows that he made it into the film but no other details.
Why do former or current service personnel enjoy this science-fiction show?
“It shows what war is like,” Evans replies, interviewed by phone. “It shows the results of Post Traumatic Stress. It doesn’t sugarcoat things; it demonstrates how a people feel after a war that didn’t go their way – the resentment, anger. And even after how things are supposed to be settled, how they aren’t, really. Somebody draws an arbitrary line and says, ‘You live here and you live here.’ The causes of the conflict don’t end there. With the Bajorans who were annexed and occupied by the Cardassians, there’s some real-world parallels – the Bajorans rise up.”
“DS9” was different from its “Star Trek” cousins – it overlapped with “Star Trek: Next Generation” and “Voyager” and it also didn’t follow the injunctions of Gene “The Great Bird of the Galaxy” Roddenberry’s. Not all the characters got along and they were cooped up in a rotating station that served as a far space bazaar and crossroads. The show was nuanced and featured a colorful blend of human and alien characters, of all shapes, sizes, colors and dispositions. Among the recurring Trek series commanders, Sisko was the only captain portrayed by an African-American.
Evans details, “He’s a widower, a single father, he’s a commander, he becomes a battlefield leader. He’s smart, he’s tough, and he’s in charge. You’d see in 1990s movies, an African American character might show up in some stories about cataclysm or the end of the world, to save things in the end, but they weren’t there from the beginning.” Sisko, though, in the final episodes becomes elevated to a form of deity.
What brought DS9 back into fandom was streaming. Netflix put the show back in circulation, and viewers accustomed to serialized science fiction – like the acclaimed renewed “Battlestar Galactica” – found similiarities. As Alexander Siddig, who played DS9's Dr. Julian Bashir says in the documentary, “People love the show. It just took them 20 years to get here.”
"What We Left Behind" is also showing at the Cinebistro at Stony Point and Regal Westchester Commons. Tickets are $12.50.
