What We Left Behind

 YouTube, What We Left Behind (2019) documentary

'You've seen The Original Series and The Next Generation, now you can watch The Best Generation.' That's my favourite quote of the documentary because it's so true. There's been so much Trek in the time since this was released, more main cast deaths, and a continually changing world, so it's a strange point at which to see it for the first time. With the most up to the minute news from 'Starfleet Academy,' the next Trek series to come, we learned Nog only made it to Commander and The Sisko never returned from the Celestial Temple, or that seems to be the suggestion (historical records can be inaccurate, of course, and that is set almost a thousand years into the future...), the point being that the ideas this team of writers came up with in their day of returning to the world of Deep Space 9 has already been overwritten by the current crop, and presumably they feel just mentioning 'DS9' characters or events qualifies as a sort of service to the fans, not realising the damage they do by nailing such things down. But that's the Trek world we're living in now, where so much of what made Trek great has fallen away to be replaced by... well, we can see them making a doc in another twenty years with exactly these kinds of comments being read out as they did about 'DS9' in this very doc, and I don't want to hi-jack myself in a review of this specific production by bemoaning how bad things have become (my other favourite quote which really stood out for today was 'officers don't want a commander who's their friend, they want someone who's going to keep them alive' - and I know that's not necessarily mutually exclusive, but it is a big issue with modern Trek!), but it's tough not to go there when this doc reminds you so potently of how far, far beyond all those distant stars, and Trek that came after it, that was: D. S. 9. (And even though I disagree with the viewer comments they read out, I appreciated Ira's response that he was pleased it made an impact with those people, even though it was a negative reaction - something we could do with more today in the ever greater polarity of 'sides').

I'm not sure I was really in the know about backing docs when this was being advertised - I knew about the production itself, it took some time and obviously they got the word out to back it, and docs... well, I can often take them or leave them, however great it is to see these actors, writers, producers, etc, the whole shebang, but if I'd known how difficult it was going to be to get a copy I probably would have put down the hard, cold latinum and ensured I had my name in lights (well, the end credits), if nothing else than to get a hard copy. But it never seemed possible to get a European region version of the disc and while I've always been on the lookout in all the familiar places it never happened for me. So it was with great glee I recently discovered Shout! Factory had generously put the entire doc up on YouTube as a freebie and it's with that I send them grateful thanks for the chance to finally see the most important Trek doc in recent years, perhaps ever! While the series has been given comparatively shortest shrift in the modern Trek era (and in some ways that's a good thing as it's a bit risky when those people meddle with something they don't fully understand), this doc is a hugely fitting tribute to what is not just the greatest Trek, but my favourite series in any world (and that includes space, too). It punchily runs the gamut of so many gears and cogs that made up the series that when they mention it not being eight episodes during the end credits, I thought that might actually be about right to do the series justice.

On the other pylon, there's always the danger they might spend more time on the more controversial topics which they're forced to breeze over, some of which I didn't appreciate, some of which I did. Some of which appeared to be bizarre reinterpretations based on current ideological fervour. But I'm not going to get too much into criticising what I have to consider one of the best Trek-related productions of the last twenty years, despite the vast output we had in the last few especially. This is that famed love letter to Trek that has been bandied around (it was this, it was that - primarily and controversially said of the 'Enterprise' finale, which I also love!), and it all came from Ira Steven Behr, still fighting the good fight even to this day (or that day), protecting the corner, going to bat, holding the baseball, whatever analogy you want to use. Now much of the novelty and anticipation had evaporated by the time I got to see this - I knew we were getting Rene Auberjonois and Aron Eisenberg before their deaths, I knew Avery wasn't coming back with new comments as he felt he'd already said what he had to say on the subject, and I knew several of the writers gathered together to 'break' the beginning of a Season 8 that will never see the light of day. So it didn't surprise me in that way. I was surprised they had Max Grodenchik sing the intro when it surely must have been written for James Darren to reprise his Vic Fontaine, but maybe he was too ill or tied up (another one we've lost since this doc was released), not that Max doesn't sing it beautifully, he does.

But there's so much they couldn't fit in - maybe for me the biggest missing piece was Barry Jenner as Admiral Ross, I could be wrong, but I don't even remember the casting directors mentioning his name when they were giving a rundown of the many extended cast (some of whom were only in three episodes, but it shows how integral they were!), and it wasn't until his picture came up at the end that I suddenly was surprised there hadn't been any discussion of the best Admiral in Trek. What I did love as much as I hoped I would, were the ideas shooting back and forth as all these great writers who made it with 'DS9' and have gone on to be powerhouses in their own right, were happy to come back together and hash out a new story. I'm aware there's an extended version of this on the physical release and this is perhaps the one bonus I feel the absence of, only being able to see the doc itself, but I'm not too sad, we do get a lot of them. I think there's always a danger in thinking the people of the past could Make Trek Great Again, as it were, not remembering they aren't the people they were then - I mean, just look at what happened with Bryan Fuller, he managed to singlehandedly create the genesis for so many problems that have helped lay the groundwork of all this current era! So I don't look to the big names as a guarantee they wouldn't take it off in their own direction (just listen to Ira when he talks about what he'd have done differently with Garak at the time, for an example!), but what worked with this exercise was recreating the little band they had back then and just going for it as if they were back then, not necessarily making it for the 1999-2000 TV season as it was, but continuing twenty years later in the now.

It showed they still had it where it counts and if they want to do more 'DS9' go right ahead, you have my blessing if this segment was anything to go by. With the caveat it would have to be done like that, of course! More than anything the doc is an emotional tribute - this isn't always a good thing, there's far too much throwing our guts all over the place in our time, but what I mean is, they got the tone just right, as much as modern Trek fails to on that score. Of course it's a delight to see these old actors, for example, after all these years, and most of them have aged exceedingly well, but already this doc is a few years old so it's a product of a different time, stuck in amber, and that gives even more perspective to its making and makeup, it's not the latest new thing in Trekdom. But it is a finished, slick, successful piece that uses humour and lightness alongside the serious in the same way the series did. Look at Andrew Robinson basically playing Garak as a human in his first scene where he sets the stage: it's an absolute delight and straddles the line between light and shadow, reality and fiction, drawing you in like the opening to a Shakespeare play. I'd have liked to see the whole cast together, I didn't feel we really got that (again, I think that may have been one of the extras), but whenever we saw a group of them it was so lovely. And you can tell, just as the series was a passion project, essentially the equivalent of a low budget concept, the art they wanted to make rather than some Thing of The Week (although I wouldn't lay the burden of modern TV's dreary penchant for serialisation at the series' door - it had the perfect blend of continuing arcs and individual sci-fi concepts that made it work far better), and so was the doc itself.

Like Auberjonois at the end, I'm not sure what else I can say - it is disconcerting to hear actors using offensive language for whatever reason when you really only know them as their characters, but they are people in real life. I was going to take notes and make comments on the doc in more detail, but I found myself simply being drawn in to the doc, not needing to distract myself by stopping and starting. It's a lovely thing to have done, and in the same way 'The DS9 Companion' is the best behind the scenes book I've ever read, this doc is just about the ideal companion piece, another staked out flag (maybe one of the ones on Jeffrey Combs' slalom which Avery Brooks told him to ski down?), that connects our time to that past where for so many years it was the best thing being made. I collected every video for a reason, you know! It reminded me I need to get back into rewatching the series again, no greater tribute needed.

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