Fair warning: I’m in the middle of a full-franchise Star Trek watchthrough. I began with The Original Series and then moved on to The Animated Series, the original cast movies, The Next Generation, the TNG movies, and Deep Space Nine. I’m currently in the middle of Season 7 – the show’s final season – and I’m already sad to see it end.

Even though I grew up on the Star Wars side of the great Wars vs Trek divide, my mother was (and still is) a huge Trekkie. So as I’ve made my way through all of that Trek, it was little surprise that I’d already seen most of it. Except for The Animated Series and the odd episode of The Original Series, it was all incredibly familiar.

Growing up, The Next Generation was MY show. Jean-Luc Picard was MY captain. And the crew of the Enterprise D was MY crew. In my humble teenage opinion, it was everything Star Trek stood for.

Then I got to Deep Space Nine and everything changed. I’d seen most of the first season when it first aired, but beyond that was undiscovered Trek. I’d seen none of it. How exciting is that?

I’ll admit that the first couple seasons of DS9 is rough going. The cast seems uncomfortable together, the writers don’t seem to know what to do on a stationary space station, and the show was living in the shadow of in-its-prime TNG. From what I remember and understand, the fans also didn’t give it a fair chance.

And to be fair, Deep Space Nine is incredibly different from all the Trek that preceded it, especially The Next Generation. Where TNG was hopeful and optimistic and shiny, DS9 was dark, gritty, and more… real. It starred morally questionable characters, featured a terrorist as a first officer, and centered itself almost immediately on the religious politics of an alien species.

It was different.

But as I made my way through 7 seasons of DS9, I’ve come to the conclusion that this show is the best of what Star Trek can possibly be. Season 6, for my money, is one of the best seasons of science fiction ever made. There are plenty of highlights, but two episodes stand out as among the best the franchise has ever created: “In the Pale Moonlight” and “Far Beyond the Stars.” The latter is probably my favorite DS9 episode of all. It might be my favorite episode of Star Trek.

So as I close in on the end of Deep Space Nine – the pinnacle of Star Trek – I remain excited for the personally undiscovered Trek to come (Voyager and Enterprise), but it’ll be sorely painful to leave this show behind.

That’s why the release of a new documentary about the show is so thrilling. I’ve been watching this one for a while. Several years in the making (it began as an Indiegogo campaign), What We Left Behind is a look back at Deep Space Nine, the show that was woefully underappreciated in its time but that has steadily grown in popularity and finally earned the accolades it deserves – and should have gotten during its first run.

Featuring extensive new interviews with the cast and crew of Deep Space Nine and newly remastered HD footage from the show, What We Left Behind also focuses on the original writers of the series as they craft a brand-new episode of Deep Space Nine, developing what would be the eighth-season premiere if the show were to return to the air today. Directors Ira Steven Behr (showrunner of the original series) and David Zappone (Star Trek docs The Captains and For the Love of Spock) bring an in-depth look at the show, its fans, and its ongoing appeal to audiences of all ages.

The documentary will be in theaters for ONE NIGHT ONLY thanks to Fathom Events and tickets are on sale now! Following the May 13 screening will also be a taped roundtable discussion with Behr, Zappone, and the producers for a peek behind the scenes and the making of the film.