Lower Decks

In ‘How I Got These Scars’ #30, I wrote about the ten ‘Deep Space Nine’ writers who comprised the backbone and vision for the Star Trek series that is widely considered, if not the most popular, to be the best of the five live action TV projects. In this special series, I’m going to explore the individual contributions of those writers, which continues with a real Star Trek pro, René Echevarria.

Echevarria contributed sixteen episodes to ‘The Next Generation’ beginning in the third season, helping to set the tone most fans attribute to the series and thus the success that pushed the franchise to another level. Coming aboard DS9 in its own third season, he did it again, for another twenty-three episodes. It’s pretty safe to say that without Echevarria not only DS9 but Star Trek as a whole would be a lot less rich.

3×4 “Equilibrium” (w/Christopher Teague)
His first script proved Echevarria wasn’t going to waste any time acclimating to his new environment, as he pulled off the tricky task of adding new depth to the character of Dax, not just to her character but the specifics of Trill culture, something the series as a whole did for its main characters better than any other Star Trek.

3×12 “Past Tense, Part II” – Ira Steven Behr, René Echevarria, & Robert Hewitt Wolfe
I’ve referenced this story as among my favorites already. Here, Echevarria participates in the second half that vexed me so long waiting to see, and effectively proved me a real fan of the series.

3×19 “Improbable Cause” (w/Robert Lederman & David R. Long)
Another famous two-part story from the third season probably gets the most attention for its second half, but the first half is a rare investigation for Odo that leaves a lot of ambiguities for characters like Garak and Quark, who could often be talked of in such terms but rarely actually presented that way.

3×22 “Explorers” (w/Hilary J. Bader)
Here’s another personal favorite of mine, the father-son Sisko trip in a self-manufactured reproduction of an ancient Bajoran solar vessel that allows for a lot of reflection between the characters, one of the rare Star Trek stories that allows a story to remain as simple as possible.

3×25 “Facets”
Echevarria returns to Trill culture and allows the cast to have a little fun with performances for a change.

4×6 “Rejoined” – Ronald D. Moore & René Echevarria
One of the most controversial Star Trek episodes ever, Echevarria pushes the Trill envelope further by exploring the very subject TNG had avoided when the species was first introduced – what happens when hosts discover their past romantic lives collide in a same-sex combination? My own family practically stopped watching the series after this one, so I know how serious the ramifications were, and as a result, it was a long time before I even saw it.

4×13 “Crossfire”
Odo and his unrequited love for Kira becomes the tortured focus of an episode after it was introduced the previous season, in a story that probably still doesn’t get the respect it’s due.

4×21 “The Muse” (w/Majel Barrett Roddenberry)
Jake Sisko begins writing the story he’ll become famous for, under the worst possible circumstances in probably the most awkwardly contrived development of the series, but the rest of the episode resolves in much better fashion Odo’s relationship with another strong-willed woman, Lwaxana Troi.

5×4 “Nor the Battle to the Strong” (w/Brice R. Parker)
Jake’s best writer, regardless of the previous episode, is at it again as his career path pushes toward journalism in basically the “Siege of AR-558” of the Klingon war episodes.

5×5 “Trials and Tribble-ations” – Ronald D. Moore, René Echevarria, Ira Steven Behr, Hans Beimler, & Robert Hewitt Wolfe
A big confirmation for most of the big ten writers was participation in this episode, obviously.

5×12 “The Begotten”
For a writer who came aboard only during the third season, Echevarria did a terrific job acclimating to the characters. Here, he writes the crucial episode where Odo finally regains his shape-shifting abilities, another personal favorite.

5×17 “A Simple Investigation”
Another Odo episode, similar but not quite to the level of “Improbable Cause,” mostly because it’s basically throwaway material.

5×22 “Children of Time” (w/Gary Holland & Ethan H. Calk)
Kira finally finds out what Odo really thinks in the most fantastic circumstances possible when the crew is stranded on a planet where its own descendents apparently live.

6×4 “Behind the Lines”
All the biggest of the big also participated in the opening war arc of the sixth season. Guess what? Echevarria writes Odo and Kira. Oh, and Jake!

6×9 “Statistical Probabilities” (w/Pam Pietroforte)
Unquestionably, though, his best contribution to the war was this episode, where Bashir meets a gang of genetically modified misfits who are conscripted into the Federation’s efforts to map out strategy.

6×15 “Honor Among Thieves” (w/Philip Kim)
Next, Echevarria further stretches his palate by writing an O’Brien episode, one that tortures the chief in an exciting new way: strictly psychologically!

7×3 “Afterimage”
Giving the new Dax a workout, Echevarria also gives Garak his last real spotlight in an underappreciated effort, a sort of sequel to “The Wire.”

7×5 “Chrysalis”
Returning to the misfits of “Statistical Probabilities,” he provides a rare arc for the most fleeting of recurring characters as Bashir tries to improve the life of the introvert of the bunch.

7×9 “Covenant”
Trying his hand at Dukat, Echevarria has the unfortunate task of presenting the long-time recurring character in possibly his least sympathetic episode, the final stop along the road to total infamy. Probably another episode that deserves another look.

7×14 “Chimera”
Capping off his Odo-Kira episodes, Echevarria finally figures out how to completely cross the divide between the shape-shifter and solid lovers, culminating in a real moment of magic.

7×17 “Penumbra”
7×21 “When It Rains…” (w/Spike Steingasser)
7×24 “The Dogs of War” – René Echevarria, Ronald D. Moore & Peter Allan Fields
Working on three of the final ten episodes, including the opening salvo, Echevarria concludes his remarkable run on a second Star Trek series with little doubt of his complete integration into a show that delved deeper and more personally but in the end not so differently than its predecessor. After all, if it hadn’t, either he was a genius or the gap really wasn’t so big as it might have seemed.

Projects after DS9: ‘Dark Angel,’ ‘Medium,’ ‘The 4400’