The Star Trek DS9 Episode That Ruined A TNG Appearance
For most Star Trek fans, the Deep Space Nine episode “Move Along Home” has many sins to answer for. It’s an episode that makes no sense, has no good characterization, and has an ending that confirms the entire story was completely meaningless. However, one DS9 cast member has a different issue with this episode: according to Jadzia Dax actor Terry Farrell, Alexander Siddig’s character being sacrificed instead of her own forced her to miss the TNG cameo she desperately wanted.
The Next Generation And Deep Space Nine Crossover
Before we can talk about how “Move Along Home” ruined Farrell’s dream cameo, we must talk about the TNG episode she couldn’t appear in. The two-parter “Birthright” has Captain Picard’s Enterprise docked at Deep Space Nine in order to help the Bajorans make some much-needed repairs. The A story of this episode is Worf’s investigation of whether his father is still alive, but the B story is about Data trying to decipher a mysterious recurring dream that he keeps having.
The Talents Of Dr. Bashir
Because the Enterprise is visiting DS9, Geordi La Forge can get some help from Dr. Bashir while working on Data’s dream dilemma. That allowed Alexander Siddig to be one of the only characters to appear in both TNG and DS9. However, Terry Farrell really wanted to get this cameo instead, and she blamed losing out on the “Move Along Home” script.
Why did she blame one episode of her own show on her inability to star in a different episode of another show? In short, “Move Along Home” and “Birthright, Part 1” were being filmed around the same time. The only reason that Siddig got to cameo in the TNG episode is that there is a moment in the former episode where his character suddenly disappeared, freeing the actor up to take a field trip to the Enterprise.
Move Along Home Is A Hated Episode
If you haven’t seen “Move Along Home,” you might assume that Bashir’s character disappeared from the episode for an important narrative reason. However, his disappearance is quite literally random: Bashir is stuck inside a bizarre alien game being played by Quark when the Ferengi is asked to sacrifice one of the players. Paralyzed by the prospect of sacrificing and potentially killing one of his station colleagues, Quark programs the computer to randomly choose who will go.
The Disappointment
You guessed it: the computer chooses Bashir, and nobody sees the real doctor again until the end of “Move Along Home,” where Sisko and crew find out they were never in any real danger.
As for Terry Farrell, she felt that her character should have fallen off the rock instead of merely getting injured, allowing Dax to disappear from this episode and appear in “Birthright.” The actor felt very sad about this entire development, later summing up her emotional reaction in two simple words: “I cried.”
Fans Were Denied The Interaction They Really Wanted
While we always liked Bashir’s cameo in TNG, we have to agree with Farrell that Dax would have been better in this cameo appearance. As both a science officer and a Trill with lifetimes of experience, she would arguably have been better suited to help an engineer like Geordi La Forge figure out why Data suddenly began dreaming. Plus, let’s face it: the raw chemistry between Riker and Dax would have been strong enough to power the warp core, and we’re sad we never got to see it.
