Before DS9 ended, there were all these rumors floating around that Odo was going to die. Happily, he didn't. However, as I recall, there was no scuttlebutt of any sort as to what would happen to Sisko. Why?
Actually there was. We also heard that Avery Brooks tried to change what happened to him becaue he felt it would be offensive to African-Americans. Obviously, he didn't succeed.
There were rumors and changed premises even before DS9 aired. Sisco and Dax were going to have an uncomfortable attraction that they would try to deny.
What was offensive about it? That an African American can't become something important?
Actually, he thought the "death and becoming a Prophet" thing would be offensive. Don't ask me. I'm glad to see that it wasn't changed.
I don't remember hearing any spoilers about Odo's return to the link. That floored me! [anyone want to bet the Odo-will-die rumor was started by Paramount so that what actually happened would have a not-spoiled impact?]
Where's the Enterprise! I want to see the Enterprise! Remember that rumor where the Enterprise was supposedly going to show up in one of the final episodes? And that other one where Worf got mad at Julian and Ezri and left the station (some thought that explained what Worf was really doing on the Enterprise in ST:INSURRECTION)? I still wish the Enterprise would've shown up in some form in the final episode or something -- even if it was just a backround shot....
And there was a rumor that DS9 would be converted into space debris at the end. No party at Vic's...
But Ira Behr said long before the episode aired that the only guarantee was that the station would not be destroyed.
I was looking through a DS9 guide I had which was released at the beginning of season 7. It included a list of season 7 episodes already produced, and I found a reference to an episode called 'Dysfunctional', in which
"Ezri secretly arranges to have her symbiont removed by an alien doctor, not being able to cope with her new lifestyle anymore"
Does anyone have any idea where this storyline came from, and whatever happened to it?
They were thinking of it, but it got scraped!! I quess TPTB didn't think it was believable.
I think Avery Brooks was unhappy with the notion of his character's "death" and subsequent leaving a fatherless black son behind. He thought it perpetuated the sad fact (and stereotype) that most black American children have absentee fathers. I read he did get the producers to insert a line of Sisko indicating he'd be back one day.
I don't the problem was with Jake: he was an adult by then. But IIRC he left behind Kasidy and their unborn child.
I liked the way Avery aquitted himself throughout the series as a tough guy with a tender heart who cared deeply for his son and his own father. I bet Avery had something to do with that, for he's quite a pro. He since taught drama courses in college.
Consider the contrast to Picard, who disliked children, never married, and didn't even get along with his own family.
How do you know he was unhappy about it?
Avery Brooks has said so. I'm sorry but I don't have the energy to dig it out of cyberspace but I've seen it before too. It was Brooks who insisted that Sisko say that he would return some day because of that, all too common, stereotype of black men who knock up their girls and than split. The 24th century is supposed to be passed such things, but Star Trek is a franchise that's produced today for today's audience. And I can totally see Brooks' issue that people will see "look at that; the final frontier & still the black man knocks up a woman and than splits."
@ Cepstrum & BriFitz, forget the stereotype for the moment. Sisko's "death" does *loosely* follow an old Hollywood TV formula: Any character that marries and/or "does it" results in one character's "death", or other form of departure from the series. It was told at a convention that I attended circa 2000 by Gil Gerard.
True, this was the series' finale, but it happened nonetheless. Remember Worf & Jadzia? The O'Briens are a notable exception.
I can hear the Guild rummaging through your minds thinking of other exceptions. "What about Leeta/Rom?" I suggest a new topic: "Which Married with Children Couples Made It To the End of a Series' Run Intact?" In fact, I'll start it myself.