DS9 Forum Welcome Thread: Hello fellow Niners!

Huge Niner here! Absolutely LOVE DS9.

I can still remember watching some of it during first-run, especially the last season, with the final episodes leading up to the finale, and the ads counting down until it was over.

Definitely enjoy the DS9-R novels as well.

 

Ups overlooked this post. Guess its polite to write here first. Well I will do so now.

Hello. I like DS9 a lot, am especially fascinated with Cardassians since a decade....but forgot about them for the last years and turned to Hobbits. Anyway I still like Hobbits but after rewatching DS9 the Cardassians are back too! My fave character always was and is Damar, followed by Garak. I also "like" Dukat and Weyoun. From the DS9 main characters I like Kira and O´Brien best.
Yes uhm...I like reading Fanfiction with Damar in it. So if someone knows good stories, don´t hesitate to show me the way...however everything that Google could find I read (but there are not so many Damar stories out there, and a lot of those are slash stories, which I don´t like, even some are good written, but I can only read parts of it, when it gets to slashy I have to quit).
I also like to write Fanfiction, but till now I wrote mostly Hobbits. Guess writing Cardassians is ...well...different. I mean I like writing (mild) angst, that would fit in with Cardassians, but I have no idea how to write ...military, especially not in English, as thats not my native language. However as I watch DS9 only in English, the characters speaking English in my mind...and thats means the story would need to be in English as well. But my LOTR beta (native English speaker) is a diamond and would do me the favour to beta a Cardiestory. However I am not sure yet, if I should give it a try or better leave my fingers from it.

TerokNor

 

Greetings!

I've been a casual Trek fan since the 80s, watching TOS as late night reruns. For some reason, I skipped DS9 as it was airing. I can only remember watching 4 or so episodes (including the finale, so yeah I got spoiled real quick!)

I played STO in open beta and played retail for a month. Somehow, walking through DS9 and doing the nearby missions resonated with me. I thought it was quite interesting, and I wondered why I never gave the series a chance?

So I acquired season 1, and I was quite impressed. I'm now on season 5 and I'm completely hooked! I feel really bad for avoiding the series for so long, but I can see myself going to forums like this and trying to connect with fellow fans.

 

Big-time DS9 fan here. Well, relatively big-time. I watched the whole series during its initial run, but I was only eleven when it ended, so I didn't get to do the show justice until several years ago when I did a run-through of it from a maturing perspective. At that point, there was no turning back; it's hands-down the best show in the franchise, IMO.

 

Gday

What a gr8 site.

I must say that I hated with a passion DS9 until worf joined the crew,
From then on the show had me hooked to become my favourite fanchise

Anyway, it will be nice to meet you all over time

cheers
VD

 

I'm a big Deep Space Nine Fan here too!

I Loved the Romulans in DS9.

In fact I'm a Romulan fan now because of Deep Space Nine.

And gotta love Quark, that funny ferengi.

And I'm a babylon 5 Fan as well so I love shows about Space Stations.

 

Hello, I'm Sal'ira. I contemplated whether or not I should post here. I have never actually seen Deep Space Nine. I have, though, read the the novelization of the very first episode, Emissary. I enjoyed it immensely and I hope to watch the whole series, once I'm able to purchase the DVDs. I must say, I was reluctant about Deep Space Nine because I am huge fan of Star Trek and The Next Generation. The latter is the reason I am a Trekkie. I found Emissary to be extremely refreshing and I loved the idea of Ferengi on the station. I was excited about the more constant appearances of Cardassian, as well, because they are my second favorite alien species. (Behind Vulcans, of course.) I have even looked up information about all the characters -it is very hard to wait, so I try to find all the information I can- and I was pleased with the discovery of Garak.

SyFy only shows The Next Generation and Enterprise, but hopefully in the near future, I will be able to watch Deep Space Nine. To all you long-time fans, is it as fantastic as I imagine it to be?

 

Yes it is, but not right away. Season 1 is not that great, the show was still establishing its own identity, and there are quite a few bad and average episodes, although there are also a few great ones, but even in the bad episodes, there are usually some great character moments. DS9 has really great characters, and no Trek show gives so much attention and character development to every main character, and a bunch of great recurring characters. Seasons 2 and 3 are much better, it's where the show started doing its own thing and established all the main story arcs, but they're still inconsistent (season 2 has a stretch of bad episodes in the middle, but also some awesome episodes and a stretch of excellent episodes at the end). The show keeps getting better, and from season 4 onward it is a lot more consistent and very exciting. Season 5 and a lot of season 6 are absolutely fantastic. I have some problems with season 7, but overall it is a very good ending to the show.

 

Short answer: yes

Long answer: DS9 is a strange beast. On the one hand, it is a spin-off and, in the early going, it feels like one. There is some good acting and some good writing, and the whole feel of the show is much closer to the original series' notion of space as the frontier than TNG. So, the show does have some strengths and its own feel from the beginning in certain respects. That said, a lot of the episodes feel like TNG standing still: the anomaly or alien of the week simply arrives at the station instead of the crew seeking it out. The recycling of a few minor characters from TNG does not help.

Gradually, the show starts to develop its own identity. The political situation on Bajor is explored in greater detail, as are tensions with the Cardassians. Each character is fleshed out to a greater extent than in previous Trek shows. The gamma quadrant goes and gets an identity of its own in the form of the Dominion. The station goes from being a frontier town to being the center of the universe, basically.

What impresses me most about DS9 is that the ball just keeps rolling right up until the end. There is never a plateau where you can say: okay now the show is what it is going to be from now until the end of the final season. New ideas are constantly being introduced, more layers are added, more characters, more subplots, more thematic depth. The war, the prophets, romance, terrorism, espionage. By the end, the scale of the show has grown to the point where its practically bursting at the seams, and in season 7 you can tell the budget is stretched to its limit and the writers are straining a bit to hold it all together.

All in all, I find that DS9 is a special ride from start to finish. What separates it from other Trek shows (even the ones I also enjoy) is how much it evolves over time, how much growth there is on all levels: plot, depth of characterization, scope of the fictional universe, thematic depth, supporting cast.

DS9 can be discussed endlessly because there is so much going on. Not all of it works, but nearly all of it is interesting, even the total failures. And when it is great, it is truly great

 

Thank you, DevilEyes and flemm! It seems that the first season or so of every series is like that. They stumble, trying to find what's good and what isn't. Of course, they don't usually have two extremely popular older siblings to outshine. Thank you, you've made me even more excited to see Deep Space Nine.

 

Hi everybody. Big DS9 fan here. It is my favorite of all Trek series. I remember watching it every weekend afternoon (back when they aired syndicated shows) and I loved it. I have just started to rewatch the series again and since it has been 17 years since it first started airing, most of the episodes feel new to me (even though I know what happens in the long run). I look forward to chatting with you all.

 

i loved ds9 it is the best trek show ever
its a shame they never made a film about it

 

Hello! I've been a Trek fan for about 15 years, but it was mostly TOS and TNG when I was younger. I stumbled on DS9 in its last few seasons when I was a teenager and realized it was one of the most underrated shows on television.

Glad to have found this forum!

 

Hello everyone,

I thought that I would post on here since I haven't been on this forum in so long. I've been a Trek fan for 17 years now. I got into Star Trek because of Voyager, but it was Deep Space Nine that kept me watching. Glad to be here again.

 

Introductions are in order I guess. I have been a star trek fan since I watched the original series with my dad.

Watched all of TNG and loved it-in fact, with reruns probably have seen each episode more than once!

I watched DS9, but lost track when it changed time periods in it's original run.

Recently I stumbled across it on iTunes, and wound up downloading all they have! (think I will invest in the DVD's though).

I think DS9 is the best of Trek for me: love the character development, writing, acting and story-arcs...

I appreciate that some of the stories resonate with me now in 2010, more than they did in the 90's.

I look forward to interesting discussions!

 

Hello. I'm new here.

I just registered to say that I'm deeply troubled and concerned by what I have seen in DS9.

I'm not sure that DS9 is good for our children. I'm afraid it might even endanger the very foundations of our western civilization. I don't mean any offence, but there are some serious problems here I'm afraid you people haven't noticed.

1) Everyone's skeptical and dismissing towards authority.

And authority is often shown as corrupt or as a tool of the few to extend their basic comforts on the blood and sweat of others. Sometimes it even hints that the good guys might not be right!

Everyone that I know agrees with me that this might put dangerous ideas in young minds. There's a reason why authority is authority. It's because it is wiser and thinks for us. But Sisko and the crew always undermine Starfleet and take the arrogance to act like they know better. But we are not supposed to know better.

I would be very scared if I didn't know that my goverment is always on the side of good, but DS9 suggests that governments have self-interests. Sometimes the self-interest of only the ones in power, who have self-delusional nationalist fantasies they want to realize despite the interest of their people.

Imagine what might happen if we would think with our own heads. There will be anarchy and chaos! All those protests and riots! It's just not right.

2) A criminal is active in criminal business and is still portrayed as a hero.

It teaches our children that you can do bad things but still be considered good. And that is wrong. Stealing and smuggling are wrong. Back in the old days when people were more proper, we used to cut their hands off. DS9 sanctifies crime!There's already too much crime in our world. Why encourage more?

3) Strong female characters. Also terrorists.

It has been continously hinted that a certain female character has *actually* killed people in her past!

This gives all sorts of wrong ideas to our girls and young women. Everyone who is proper and moral knows that a woman is a tender and shy being who should abhor all violence! It's the manfolk who are by nature violent and it's a womans role to take care of them and their homes, while the men are out killing other men.

But a women killing men is just wrong. Why, good heavens, this might even lead to homosexuality!

And she was a terrorist!

4) Suspicious male relationships

I always feel a strange sensation whenever Garak and Bashir are on screen. I'm afraid there's too much of feminine tone in the way Garak says "Doctor."

Men should not dine together and leave each other with suspicious ambiguous feelings that make the mind think all sorts of peculiar thoughts.

Men should grunt and drink beer and have no touchy-feelies with each other.

5) Black guy as a lead.

I mean, come on - everyone knows that you only put white people as leads in TV.

I'm not a racist, I once saw a black person and I didn't even call the police! Well, not immediately anyway. But I'm afraid that in this politically correct climate we are forgetting that in 99.9% of our TV we always have white leads. Why should DS9 be different? Because it's a rebel show that intentionally wants to corrupt the minds of our younglings?

Black people are only given safe shows like The Cosby Show or any other where their just funny, because it is impossible to take them seriously in dramatic roles anyway.

And everyone knows that it was the white people that civilized the world and created modern civilization, because white people are by nature more advanced and decent. Other people just had sex, while we repressed this animalistic side of us and became more moral and invented industrialism and capitalism that has made the modern world such a wonderful place to live in.

Portraying a black man in space as an intelligent and loving man, who treats others with respect, speaks proper english and is politically in charge - it's just not proper, I'm afraid.

It's a disrespect against white people and their service to the world.

A proper and moral DS9 should have had a white, moral and decent guy, a prime in every aspect as a lead. Actually everyone should be white. Except for the aliens perhaps. And the women characters are in their rooms all the time. Or in the kitchen. And they should not speak too much.

And every episode should be about the superiority of human culture, with each episode portraying a moral fault in alien civilizations, and then the white guy would deliver a speech about how wrong it is and then everyone would learn their lesson and stop doing bad things and accept human culture and reject their own.

And none of that Starfleet is not good thing please. We have to have someone to root for.

But the way DS9 is, it is just immoral. It teaches our children to be government-hating, lesbian, man-killing, drug-smuggling, terrorist ebonic-speaking thugs! And Jesus would not approve, I'm afraid.

 

Welcome back to this den of deviants, Jimmy Bob. Are you going to post more detailed accounts of all the horrors and immoral things seen on DS9?

 

Yeah, I'm sort of trying to feel out the general acceptance level of that here and see if GodBen still loves me.

 

Welcome back, Jimmy Bob. Don't you have a review thread with your name on it somewhere?

 

He won't love you anymore when he finds out you called him GodBen instead of TheGodBen! He's very sensitive about that stuff!