The Star Trek episode that prompted Piller to call out the fans was “Battle Lines,” a Deep Space Nine story featuring aliens endlessly fighting on a planet where nobody can die. Looking back on the episode, the showrunner described how “It’s about rebirth and resurrection and spiritual mystical things,” something he knew the audience would enjoy based on reactions to the very first episode.

That was where he saw “people react very positively to the mystical component of the pilot.” He admitted that he and the producers didn’t do many mystical episodes in season 1 but that “Battle Lines” changed his mind. “My feeling is we should be finding more of those kinds of things. I think they’re more interesting than ships breaking down.”