Why the Next Generation and Deep Space Nine overlapped

The Next Generation was at the end of its third, beginning of its fourth season and it was doing remarkably well. Paramount thought it would be great to get another series going. They thought that rather than have the series begin when Next Generation ended, which they knew was going to be about seven years, it would be great to try to overlap them, which they did with Deep Space 9.

In the first year, that overlap was remarkably successful, both series continued to do very well. So the theory was, if the audience seems to be willing to accept two Star Trek series simultaneously, let's get another one ready for when Next Generation comes to an end - creating Voyager. At the time I personally felt that it was getting a little close to overkill. The Next Generation was coming to an end, we had just written the movie, Star Trek Generations which was going to be coming out within six or eight months of the end of the series. We had Deep Space 9 at end of its second season, and we had Voyager starting, all at the same time. I think it was a little much.

I was very pleased that for the last two years we've just had one show on the air, which was Voyager, and that there's been no overlap. Now it's really the first time, since The Next Generation began, that a new Star Trek show is starting without another one in existence.

I think, in the current environment, I'm very pleased that, Paramount has slowed down a bit with Star Trek. We have a film that we're going to start shooting in October, and when it comes out, in 2002, there'll have been a three and a half year hiatus since the last film. Prior to that, the last three movies had two years between them, so we've given the audience a little bit more of a break,