87: Brigadon’t

Primitive Culture: A Star Trek History and Culture Podcast

DS9’s “Meridian” and the 1954 Hollywood musical that inspired it.

Perhaps more so than any other Star Trek series, Deep Space Nine leaned heavily for inspiration on the world of 20th-century film. But not every futuristic retooling of a classic movie could reach the heights of “Badda-Bing Badda-Bang,” which we discussed in our previous episode. Perhaps the least-successful of DS9’s cinematic adaptations was the third-season episode “Meridian,” which took its central conceit from the 1954 MGM musical Brigadoon, about a magical Scottish village that appears only once a century.

So what exactly was lost in translation between the Scottish Highlands and the Gamma Quadrant, and how could the DS9 writers have approached this particular challenge differently? Or was the whole enterprise simply a fool’s errand—Brigadoomed from the start?

In this episode of Primitive Culture, Duncan Barrett and Tony Black answer these questions and more. Join us as we strap on our kilts, ready our cabers, and pay a rare visit to this little-loved Star Trek episode and the ersatz Scottish movie that inspired it.

Chapters Intro (00:00:00) Brigadoon (00:02:50) To B-Plot or Not to B-Plot (00:22:43) Space Soap Opera (00:39:55) Brigadoomed? (00:55:25)

Host Duncan Barrett Guest Tony Black Production Tony Black (Editor) Duncan Barrett (Producer) C Bryan Jones (Executive Producer) Matthew Rushing (Executive Producer) Ken Tripp (Executive Producer) Tony Black (Associate Producer) Clara Cook (Associate Producer) Norman C. Lao (Associate Producer) Amy Nelson (Associate Producer) Richard Marquez (Production Manager)