How Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Helped to Invent Everything You
Love  20 years ago today, the very first episode of Star Trek:
Deep Space Nine aired on American television. And Star Trek
would never be the same again — but Deep Space Nine also had a
lasting impact on all genre television. The grittiest of Star
Trek series helped to give us a lot of the things we take most
for granted on science fiction and fantasy television today —
and here are just a few of the ways.  Those long, sweeping arcs.
It seems like a weird thing to mention now, because every random
cop show or space adventure has storylines that carry on from
episode to episode, more like serialized novels than collections
of self-contained stories. But back when Deep Space Nine
started, the idea of following "arcs," especially ones that went
on for more than one season, was still more unusual on TV. For a
Star Trek show, especially, it was considered weird to have so
many continuing storylines.   As writer/producer Ron Moore said,
in an interview