Star Trek: 10 Secrets Of Deep Space 9 You Need To Know

The Star Trek franchise's television heyday coincided with the development of computer generated visual effects in the mid-1990s, leading to the quick adoption of CGI to portray the franchise's more fantastical elements, previously achieved with old fashioned effects and physical models.

While digital versions of the USS Defiant, runabouts, Federation fleet, and Dominion vessels began appearing with greater frequency as the series progressed, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine's titular station would remain a physical creation. All footage of the station in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine's run was achieved through the use of the large physical model as well smaller larger scale models of specific sections of the station.

That is, until the final shot in the final episode, "What You Leave Behind".

Apparently built in anticipation of its eventual use in the series, the digital Deep Space 9 was put into action only once, for the final, long pull out from a shot of Colonel Kira and Jake Sisko on the Promenade to DS9 sitting alone in space.