Deep Space Nine Space Station

from "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine" (1993-1999)

Scale: 1:2500
Initial Release: 1994
Medium: Polystyrene
Kit Rarity: 3

About the Design

With the success of Star Trek: The Next Generation, Paramount Pictures saw a chance to expand and extend their lucrative Star Trek franchise with yet another syndicated science-fiction series.  After some debate, the decision was made to eschew the "Wagon Train to the Stars" concept in favor of "Gunsmoke in Space," in this case a series set aboard a massive space station on the far outskirts of the Federation.

"Deep Space Nine" was to be an alien (i.e. Cardassian) space station that had been abandoned by its builders and then claimed by the formerly occupied planet of Bajor, which invited Starfleet to set up shop as "administrators."  After many concepts had been proposed and rejected, the producers of "DS9" settled on this quasi-organic, decidedly threatening design that evoked the dark, sinister atmosphere they were looking to achieve.  (Granted, some people thought it just looked like a semi-Satanic Christmas tree ornament.)

About the Kit

This mass-produced polystyrene kit of the Deep Space Nine space station was released by AMT/Ertl in 1994.  Even at 1:2500 scale, it's a huge model, measuring 16 inches in diameter and standing more than a foot high (with stand).  Highly detailed, the model came complete with three mini Federation Runabouts, but no other ships to actually "dock" with the facility.  (Years later, the 1:2500 scale "Defiant" from Micro-Machines would fill this vacuum nicely.)

In 1996, AMT/Ertl released a fiber-optic version of the DS9 station; this remains the most common variation of this kit available on the collectors' market.

This model was built from an original, non-fiber-optic 1994 release.