Chase Masterson’s Favorite Star Trek: Episode Nine in Space

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine is kind of an odd entry in the Star Trek franchise because no one goes anywhere bold and the series is heavily focused on war (which franchise creator Gene Roddenberry was clearly against). Despite these apparent setbacks, Deep Space Nine is one of the best Star Trek shows ever made and has an incredible and diverse cast of characters that provide a very unusual perspective for the Star Trek series. Deep Space Nine also features characters from outside the Federation (including Bajorans from their neighboring planet, a Cardassian tailor/spy and a whole Ferengi porridge), which helps set the show apart from its more Starfleet-centric counterparts.

Among the characters that brought some fun and sweetness to Deep Space Nine was Lita played by Chase Masterson. Lyta was a Bajoran who worked at Quark’s (Armin Shimerman) bar as a dabo girl, in addition to occasionally selling jumja sticks (a sticky Bajoran treat) on the boardwalk. Although she began dating Dr. Julian Bashir (Alexander Siddig), she ended up marrying Quark’s brother Rom (Max Grodenczyk), which meant she became part of the great Ferengi clan. But which episode impressed Masterson the most?

In 2011 article for StarTrek.com where she answered questions from fans, Masterson shared that her favorite episode to shoot was also one of the most fun to watch: Season 7’s “Take Me Out to the Holosuite.”

The Dominion War, in which Starfleet and the Federation clashed with the forces of the Gamma Quadrant, was a controversial element of “Deep Space Nine” it was too dark for some viewers. However, thankfully there were a few episodes of pure entertainment to break things up. In “Take Me Out to the Holosuite,” the DS9 crew gets a chance to play an Earth sport against a team of Vulcans and truly bond even more, both on and off screen. As Masterson explained:

“We all had a lot of fun with ‘Take Me Out to the Holosuite,’ in part because it was such a dramatic change of scenery—everyone loved getting out of the studio and into the fresh air and onto the baseball diamond. The episode itself was very inspirational, based on “courage, teamwork, and sacrifice,” as Sisko called it. It was an interesting parallel In DS9 season seven, we had the same spirit—partly because we sensed how soon the show would end, I felt grateful to be together, like the Niners Finally, this episode was fun because everyone has their own relationship with baseball, for example, Max (Gradenczyk) is a great ball player, so to sell the idea to the audience that he was clumsy, he threw left-handed. Without naming names, even the most dignified cast members are getting a little slack. Not much at all.”

While fans can guess who may have needed some slack, Masterson declined to name names. In the episode, the typically intense Captain Sisko, played by Avery Brooks, learns to appreciate the game instead of focusing on winning, and Brooks likely had a similar reaction backstage. There’s a lot of joy on the actors’ faces that doesn’t feel forced at all, and that makes this particular episode of Deep Space Nine so much fun.

While the Hololux episodes often gave the cast and crew of Deep Space Nine a chance to get some sunlight, they also gave the show’s writers a chance to do all sorts of weird things within the confines of the Star Trek universe. Indeed, “Take Me Out to the Holosuite” gives us many great comedy moments, such as the Klingon Worf (Michael Dorn) shouting “death to the opposition!” trying to scare the punching Vulcan, but it also allows some of the show’s secondary characters to really shine as well. Rom, for example, gets a chance to be a hero, despite being mostly set up throughout the series (except for Quark’s incredible reunion rally), and it’s pretty funny that Horadzenchyk is so good at baseball because Rom no.

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine has some more incredible Hololux episodes, including the one where the entire cast went pretend to be James Bond knockoffswhich eventually led to several fantastic episodes loosely centered around a 1960s Las Vegas lounge singer Vic Fontaine (James Darren). Wherever Hololux took the characters of Deep Space Nine, it was always guaranteed to teach us something new about them and our own world. In the case of Take Me Out to the Holosuite, we learned that Rom really is in charge and that winning isn’t everything, and we had a lot of fun along the way. Nice to hear the cast too.