Deep Space 9 Superior

[the Fifth Race]

Does anybody else feel DS9 was the most superior and best written show of all the Star Trek shows?. I truly loved all the Star Trek shows (even ENT). Both TNG and VOY are also big-time favorites.

The storyline and character development of DS9 was outstanding. The way the series unfolded over it's 7 season run through the Dominion War is must watch television.

This thread is an all purpose DS9/Star Trek thread with a definite emphasis on DS9. We talk about and cover all Star Trek television series and movies in great detail. The core group of regulars are very knowledgeable and friendly. Please feel free to join us.

[Qasim]

The storyline and character developement of DS9 was outstanding. The way the series unfolded over it's 7 season run leading up to Dominion war (basically seasons 6 & 7) was must watch television.

Probably my 2 most favourite sci-fi seasons

[the Fifth Race]

Probably my 2 most favourite sci-fi seasons

I whole-heartedly agree!....I re-watch season 6 & 7 about every other month or so I have'nt gotten sick of it yet!. I wish Jadzia Dax would have stayed till the end.

[MarshAngel]

There are things I appreciate about DS9, the cast, the Bajoran aspect and the concept of the prophets. It's not my favorite though. Several times, I find myself bored and I just can't get into it. The show could have done without Nog and Jake and excessive heavy breathing on the part of Sisko. The way he talks is just a pet peeve of mine.

Next Generation is still my favorite and I love Voyager.

[KatG]

Definitely agree. DS9 was the best trek ever. It was a little darker and grittier than the other series. TNG would come in a close second, followed by Voyager, TOS, and Enterprise in that order.

[flippy18]

DS9 is my favourite Trek show, the only one where I've watched every episode. Kira was my favourite character all the way through, with Dr Bashir a close second I just loved all the Bajoran/Prophet/Emissary stuff to bits.

TNG was okay in places and Voyager wasn't too bad. Managed to sit through one episode of Enterprise and that was enough.

Each to their own

[the Fifth Race]

There are things I appreciate about DS9, the cast, the Bajoran aspect and the concept of the prophets. It's not my favorite though. Several times, I find myself bored and I just can't get into it. The show could have done without Nog and Jake and excessive heavy breathing on the part of Sisko. The way he talks is just a pet peeve of mine.

Next Generation is still my favorite and I love Voyager.

I agree with Jake and Nog being a little out of place and not the best of characters on DS9.

TNG was defiently me second favorite and very close to DS9. I just never get tired of watching re-runs of either show!

[the Fifth Race]

Definitely agree. DS9 was the best trek ever. It was a little darker and grittier than the other series. TNG would come in a close second, followed by Voyager, TOS, and Enterprise in that order.

That's exactly the way my favorites list would go for the various ST series.

1) DS9
2) TNG (a very close second!)
3) Voyager (especially the last 2 seasons) 7 of 9 ...droool
4) TOS
5) Enterprise

[Anubis69]

I agree, DS9 all the way. I didn't mind Jake and Nog, (the latter having some great monents after joining starfleet!) but it was the ferengi eps. in general that annoyed me. I know they were supposed to be the more light hearted, but Quark eps. were just pretty boring IMHO. Ferengi just didn't really interest me (They're good for comic relief (esp Rom) but not whole episodes) although the ep where "moogie" is captured by the dominion was pretty quality...

I wish Jadzia Dax would have stayed till the end.

.....what???? She.......what!? NO! don't tell me.....

[david2708]

Never knew why Terry Farrell would leave with just one season to go and to go to that dumb comedy with whatsaname from cheers.
Yes, DS9 was the best of the Trek bunch.
TNG and Voyager coming equal 2nd. People bag Voyager, but it was merely a return to the standalone episode format that was essentially TNG. It's just a matter of what cast you liked the best.
Enterprise? Like the third year but haven't watched the forth. The lesson in that is trek fans didn't want to go back to where it all began and just weren't interested.I think they liked the 24th century and wanted Trek to stay there.
The stuff about violating Trek lore being the cause of its failure is baloney.
Most Trek fans these days came from TNG and could careless about so-called 'Trek lore' from Kirk's era. The people whinging about Enterprise violating trek lore as the cause of its failure are only a small minority IMO.

[NowIWillDestroyAbydos]

DS9 is the only Star Trek Series that I have on DVD. I like it that much

[Samuel J. Tilden]

I've warmed to DS9 over the years, but I think that the last three seasons really dragged the show down with the never-ending Dominion war story arc. The early seasons were pretty good, though, right up there with the best of TNG. TNG will always be my favorite series, however, for reasons of nostalgia as well as the overall quality of the show.

[Wyrminarrd]

For the most part I´m not a fan of DS9, the show got of to a slow start and really didn´t get really interresting until the whole Dominion war got going. The last season was great, it was the first time star trek had actually had a storyline going on and it made for a much greater immersion in the show.

But I´m still firmly of the oppinion that TNG is the greatest of all star trek series, the show had great stories and an even greater cast.

[Uber]

Does anybody else feel DS9 was the most superior and best written show of all the Star Trek genre's?. I truly loved all the ST shows (I even learned to like Enterprise eventually). TNG was second favorite (Picard and Data are two favorite Star Trek characters).

The storyline and character developement of DS9 was outstanding. The way the series unfolded over it's 7 season run leading up to Dominion war (basically seasons 6 & 7) was must watch television.

Well initially, I felt that the show was a little slowpaced...which, to be fair, was during the time they were trying to establish the characters and get their footing. At the beginning, the episodes were a little disjointed and random.

Everything changed however with the advent of the Dominion. The stories became more compelling...of course adding Michael Dorn to the mix was a great idea because he just was electric on that show. He seemed to really tie the cast together...and I thoroughly enjoyed the chemistry he shared with Jadzia. I hated that Dax was killed off though...I LOVED Dax. But then I'm not a fan of killing off a lead character...EVER.

So to answer your question or at least I guess to give my opinion, I agree that Deep Space Nine had some truly fabulous story arcs, well developed characters and compelling plots. It is definitely one one of my favorite SciFi shows...and is one of the best Star Trek series.

[Madeleine]

ITA. DS9 was the first Trek show where there really wasn't much of a reset button. I think it learnt from Babylon 5. The first two years were rather slow and were all about the story of the week, but once the Dominion was introduced things got very interesting.

It wasn't just darker than other Treks, but it allowed the darkness to get inside the main characters in a way that its predecessors had only allowed to happen when there was mind-affecting alien tech or possession involved. Worf seemed to flourish as a character in that environment. In TNG he'd always been expected to behave as a human, and he'd be congratulated whenever his human upbringing was allowed to take over and chastised when his much darker klingon traits emerged. In DS9 he was allowed to be a klingon. I liked Jake too, because after Wesley it was unexpected to have a teenager who seldom if ever saves the day and who doesn't even particularly want to.

It also felt much more dynamic in terms of character structure. I know that apart from Dax and Worf there were no major main cast changes, but the characters themselves had more room to change and grow, because the ever-growing importance of the space station and the ever-increasing responsibilities involved with its operation gave each character an excuse to stick around the same place for seven years. TNG never rung quite true because it was harder to believe in Riker and Data staying on the enterprise as #2 and #3 rather than moving to a command on a smaller ship or even a level transfer. I might be wrong but I'm pretty sure that no other Trek had such a large supporting cast as DS9, and there's nothing like a big pool of minor characters to add verisimilitude. Some of the minor players like Winn and Dukat and Garak and Rom got more development and meatier stories than other shows give to the main cast. That was good.

Sisko should have gone bald sooner. He was a bit bland until he got shaved, and after that he got better and better . But even that is perhaps one of the show's strenghts - maybe it was Sisko's tardiness in coming to the fore that allowed the other characters to all make their mark early on and distinctively. Each of them had a unique voice and a defined role. And proper stories, not like Hoshi or Geordi.

I did like pre-DS9 Trek very much, but I saw it as a very allegorical show. Stuff with Q, or with those "I'm black and white, he's white and black" aliens was never at all believable. It was fable and fantasy, excellent and inventive. But DS9 felt realistic. Not real, just realistic.

[sueKay]

DS9 isn't my favourite trek, but I agree that that was when Star Trek was at the top of it's game.

[the Fifth Race]

It wasn't just darker than other Treks, but it allowed the darkness to get inside the main characters in a way that its predecessors had only allowed to happen when there was mind-affecting alien tech or possession involved. Worf seemed to flourish as a character in that environment. In TNG he'd always been expected to behave as a human, and he'd be congratulated whenever his human upbringing was allowed to take over and chastised when his much darker klingon traits emerged. In DS9 he was allowed to be a klingon. I liked Jake too, because after Wesley it was unexpected to have a teenager who seldom if ever saves the day and who doesn't even particularly want to.

It also felt much more dynamic in terms of character structure. I know that apart from Dax and Worf there were no major main cast changes, but the characters themselves had more room to change and grow, because the ever-growing importance of the space station and the ever-increasing responsibilities involved with its operation gave each character an excuse to stick around the same place for seven years. TNG never rung quite true because it was harder to believe in Riker and Data staying on the enterprise as #2 and #3 rather than moving to a command on a smaller ship or even a level transfer. I might be wrong but I'm pretty sure that no other Trek had such a large supporting cast as DS9, and there's nothing like a big pool of minor characters to add verisimilitude. Some of the minor players like Winn and Dukat and Garak and Rom got more development and meatier stories than other shows give to the main cast. That was good.

Sisko should have gone bald sooner. He was a bit bland until he got shaved, and after that he got better and better . But even that is perhaps one of the show's strenghts - maybe it was Sisko's tardiness in coming to the fore that allowed the other characters to all make their mark early on and distinctively. Each of them had a unique voice and a defined role. And proper stories, not like Hoshi or Geordi.

I did like pre-DS9 Trek very much, but I saw it as a very allegorical show. Stuff with Q, or with those "I'm black and white, he's white and black" aliens was never at all believable. It was fable and fantasy, excellent and inventive. But DS9 felt realistic. Not real, just realistic.

I agree that Worf came into his own on DS9 more so than he ever did on TNG!, and the point you make about the storyline delving into the whole Klingon/Federation relationship head first really gave Worf and some other great Klingon characters (Martok and Goran in paticular) a chance to shine.

LOL...on Sisko going bald, it reminded me of when Sisko (Averry Brooks) played Hawk on the great early 80's show with Robert Urrich 'Spencer for hire'.

The show did have a Babylon 5 feel to it (not all seasons but a few), which in my opinion is a very good thing!.

I did'nt really care to much for all the Ferengi epsiodes throughout the series, I did enjoy Quark and Armann Shimmerman is an outstanding actor!. But they seemed to cartoonish and bumbling. But after buying all the seasons on DVD and re-watching them more than few times over. I saw the beauty of the Feregi characters and changed my mind about them completely. Some of the best DS9 episodes invloved Quark and Odo.

[Perriman33]

I preferred DS9 because of the storyline and the contiuation of each episode.My friend prefers TNG mainly because you can watch the episodes in any order.
The cast were great as well in DS9 with loads of different relationships to focus episodes on (the chief and the Dr being one of my faves). And because the cast weren't all shipmates fighting for the same side it made it interesting when the action started. And the battles were on a huge scale with whole fleets kicking ass.
And I think we saw more of the politics and backgrounds of the startrek alien races which was missing from the TNG. You gotta love picard though, cool as a cucumber!

[Darth Buddha]

In terms of science fiction ideas, DS9 was not actually that strong.

The original series, with silicone life forms (the Horta), alternate universes (the Mirror Universe), etc. really was strong in that area. So too was TNG with lots of questions about when does artificial life get rights, closed time loops (Yesterday's Enterprise), techno-organic life (the Borg), and so on.

But DS9 beat them all with characterization, story arc, and richness of surroundings. While it took advantage of many of the earlier introduced science fiction ideas (the Mirror Universe, etc.), it didn't really impress me with new innovations or expanding the concepts. But no other Trek was more of an ensemble performance, and no Trek had better recurring characters.

A pity that the subsequent Trek's couldn't learn from DS9 and try to bring more of the science fiction back to the show. Voyager and Enterprise didn't manage to do either the science fiction or the arc/characterization bit, though in Season 4, Enterprise DID start to find a balance between arc and stand alone episodes.

[the Fifth Race]

In terms of science fiction ideas, DS9 was not actually that strong.

The original series, with silicone life forms (the Horta), alternate universes (the Mirror Universe), etc. really was strong in that area. So too was TNG with lots of questions about when does artificial life get rights, closed time loops (Yesterday's Enterprise), techno-organic life (the Borg), and so on.

But DS9 beat them all with characterization, story arc, and richness of surroundings. While it took advantage of many of the earlier introduced science fiction ideas (the Mirror Universe, etc.), it didn't really impress me with new innovations or expanding the concepts. But no other Trek was more of an ensemble performance, and no Trek had better recurring characters.

A pity that the subsequent Trek's couldn't learn from DS9 and try to bring more of the science fiction back to the show. Voyager and Enterprise didn't manage to do either the science fiction or the arc/characterization bit, though in Season 4, Enterprise DID start to find a balance between arc and stand alone episodes.

Amen Darth!...as usual you hit the nail on the head with your take.

I agree that there were and are better pure scifi shows, but I totally agree that DS9's characterization and especially the surroundings, not to mention a great stroyline/scripts/and actors made DS9 standout even by todays standards. DS9 did alternate reality and even time travel better than any other scifi shows that come to mind. As far as the stand alone episodes go, DS9 had there share of great ones in the earlier seasons.