Talk:Destiny (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine)

Long plot
Odo's raining on Quark's prade concerning vole fights is my favorite piece of dialog in the whole series. JesseG 17:49, 25 May 2006 (UTC)

I think O'brien could've done well pursuing a relationship with the Cardassian scientist.
 * Sorry, but the voles and O'Brien's interaction had to go - the summary was longer than most movie plots! (At least they're still explained in the quotes.) Clarityfiend 20:00, 26 March 2007 (UTC)

Screen Plays
The book "Screen Plays" by David S. Cohen includes a whole lot of background information to this episode and the spec script he wrote with Martin A Winer that eventually became this episode. (Vanity Fair mentioned it in passing as a "funny experience" but doesn't go into any detail.) The large "Introduction" chapter at the start of the book explains how in the hope of getting work on Seaquest DSV they decided to write a script for different show, and wrote a Deep Space Nine script. They also end up sending the script to Paramount not expecting any response. The story was about the Emissary and a prophecy that despite his best efforts Sisko could not avoid. They mention Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness as an influence, as Starfleet were concerned about the Bajorans seeing Sisko as "The Emissary" and a bureaucrat named "Marlowe" being sent to push Sisko to disprove he is the Emissary. The problem is that Sisko is the Emissary and his efforts to disprove the prophecy only end up confirming it.

Paramount ended up buying the script and Cohen worked on several versions and also on the episode Crossover.

The Google Books view of the book Screen Plays shows some snippets of this. The introduction chapter mentions that the entire spec script is available on his website but although I found a link that "Click here to read the spec Deep Space Nine script Martin and I wrote" I cannot get it to work (and the Internet Archive doesn't seem to have a copy either). You may be able to borrow the book from a library (such as the Internet Archive) and read it yourself.

TLDR, there's a substantial amount of information available about the writing and development of this episode, if and when someone has the time to expand this article. (I might get around to doing it myself eventually, no promises.) -- 109.76.192.179 (talk) 13:00, 21 August 2021 (UTC)
 * Borrowing books from the Internet Archive turns out to be straightforward enough. Also found a copy of the book https://vdoc.pub/documents/screen-plays-how-25-screenplays-made-it-to-a-theater-near-you-for-better-or-worse-4g3giedcln70 and it does not require a login. Looks legit.
 * Extracting and condensing the key points and writing them into suitable details to be include in this article is not so simple. I will probably come back around to this eventually but if anyone else has any interest at all in adding to the article please do go right ahead. -- 109.78.198.204 (talk) 05:28, 24 October 2021 (UTC)