The least disliked episode of DS9 - Season Five

This is a game that was played here a couple of years ago, and it proved to be a lot of fun, spanning across each Trek series, as well as a great way to mentally revisit those episodes you may not have thought about in a while. With that in mind, why not play again?

So, here's the game. The basic idea is your standard elimination game. I'll provide a list of the episodes for each season and you need to eliminate your least favorite or the one you deem the 'worst.' Please provide an EXPLANATION for why you are eliminating your choice and be sure to copy and paste the list with your choice removed. Finally, leave at least 2 eliminations by other posters before you eliminate another episode.

No tactical voting! You cannot remove an episode because you feel they would threaten your preferred episode's chance to win. Pretty simple. Enjoy!

Winners
The Original Series - Balance of Terror
The Next Generation - The Measure of a Man
Deep Space Nine -

Season One - Emissary
Season Two - The Wire
Season Three - The Die is Cast
Season Four - The Visitor
Season Five -


Apocalypse Rising
The Ship
Looking for par'Mach in All the Wrong Places
...Nor the Battle to the Strong
The Assignment
Trials and Tribble-ations
Let He Who is Without Sin...
Things Past
The Ascent
Rapture
The Darkness and the Light
The Begotten
For the Uniform
In Purgatory's Shadow
By Inferno's Light
Doctor Bashir, I Presume?
A Simple Investigation
Business as Usual
Ties of Blood and Water
Ferengi Love Songs
Soldiers of the Empire
Children of Time
Blaze of Glory
Empok Nor
In the Cards
Call to Arms

 

"The Assignment" is the one I'd get rid of first. I just don't see the point, besides making O'Brien suffer (again). Keiko is one of the most despised characters in all of Trek, and they decide to have an entire episode featuring her. Unbelievable!

--Sran

Apocalypse Rising
The Ship
Looking for par'Mach in All the Wrong Places
...Nor the Battle to the Strong
Trials and Tribble-ations
Let He Who is Without Sin...
Things Past
The Ascent
Rapture
The Darkness and the Light
The Begotten
For the Uniform
In Purgatory's Shadow
By Inferno's Light
Doctor Bashir, I Presume?
A Simple Investigation
Business as Usual
Ties of Blood and Water
Ferengi Love Songs
Soldiers of the Empire
Children of Time
Blaze of Glory
Empok Nor
In the Cards
Call to Arms

 

We can airlock Let He Who is Without Sin.
--Edit--

The motive of the New Essentialist was a stupid premise for an episode. The terrorist coup of the weather system to spoil everyone's fun on was Risa facepalm worthy. I felt that it made Worf look like a tool by joining New Esstianlist and opposing his friends.

The only redeeming part of the episode is when Worf shares the story with Dax.
SfDebris beautifully illustrates this episodes failure. http://sfdebris.com/videos/startrek/d505.asp

Apocalypse Rising
The Ship
Looking for par'Mach in All the Wrong Places
...Nor the Battle to the Strong
Trials and Tribble-ations
Things Past
The Ascent
Rapture
The Darkness and the Light
The Begotten
For the Uniform
In Purgatory's Shadow
By Inferno's Light
Doctor Bashir, I Presume?
A Simple Investigation
Business as Usual
Ties of Blood and Water
Ferengi Love Songs
Soldiers of the Empire
Children of Time
Blaze of Glory
Empok Nor
In the Cards
Call to Arms

 

Explanation?

--Sran

 

Because it's an episode that makes everyone in it look bad, stupid, petty, incompetent or any combination thereof.

As for my elimination... the Begotten. Literally an episode where they just decided to get rid of all the lose ends. Odo being a changeling and Kira's pregnancy. While Odo's arc with Mora was nice to watch, it was utterly predictable. The Kira/O'Brien baby and Shakaar and O'brien having a cock fight was just lame to watch.

Apocalypse Rising
The Ship
Looking for par'Mach in All the Wrong Places
...Nor the Battle to the Strong
Trials and Tribble-ations
Things Past
The Ascent
Rapture
The Darkness and the Light
For the Uniform
In Purgatory's Shadow
By Inferno's Light
Doctor Bashir, I Presume?
A Simple Investigation
Business as Usual
Ties of Blood and Water
Ferengi Love Songs
Soldiers of the Empire
Children of Time
Blaze of Glory
Empok Nor
In the Cards
Call to Arms

 

I'm eliminating A Simple Investigation. "Bedroom eyes" was weird and creepy and the "twist," if it can even be called that, was super-obvious.

Apocalypse Rising
The Ship
Looking for par'Mach in All the Wrong Places
...Nor the Battle to the Strong
Trials and Tribble-ations
Things Past
The Ascent
Rapture
The Darkness and the Light
For the Uniform
In Purgatory's Shadow
By Inferno's Light
Doctor Bashir, I Presume?
Business as Usual
Ties of Blood and Water
Ferengi Love Songs
Soldiers of the Empire
Children of Time
Blaze of Glory
Empok Nor
In the Cards
Call to Arms

 

Thank you.

This episode made me develop a strong dislike for Shakaar. I actually saw it before I saw "Crossfire," which made said dislike even more intense. It would have been nice seeing O'Brien cold-cock his self-righteous ass.

--Sran

 

Ferengi Love Songs is another terrible Ferengi family 'comedy' hour, so off it goes.

Apocalypse Rising
The Ship
Looking for par'Mach in All the Wrong Places
...Nor the Battle to the Strong
Trials and Tribble-ations
Things Past
The Ascent
Rapture
The Darkness and the Light
For the Uniform
In Purgatory's Shadow
By Inferno's Light
Doctor Bashir, I Presume?
Business as Usual
Ties of Blood and Water
Soldiers of the Empire
Children of Time
Blaze of Glory
Empok Nor
In the Cards
Call to Arms

 

"The Ascent" is another episode I don't like. It reminds me too much of the film Alive, and there's no follow-up to it. It's an hour of television devoted to Odo and Quark taking cheap-shots at each other until they're rescued by the Defiant.

--Sran

Apocalypse Rising
The Ship
Looking for par'Mach in All the Wrong Places
...Nor the Battle to the Strong
Trials and Tribble-ations
Things Past
Rapture
The Darkness and the Light
For the Uniform
In Purgatory's Shadow
By Inferno's Light
Doctor Bashir, I Presume?
Business as Usual
Ties of Blood and Water
Soldiers of the Empire
Children of Time
Blaze of Glory
Empok Nor
In the Cards
Call to Arms

 

Looking for par'Mach in All the Wrong Places - Romance in Trek (especially dopey romance) rarely works out. Especially when you throw in Ferengi and Klingons. The technobabble ventriloquism was pretty bad.

Edit: Oh yeah, the B-story. O'Brien and Kira almost having a "moment".....ugh.

Apocalypse Rising
The Ship
...Nor the Battle to the Strong
Trials and Tribble-ations
Things Past
Rapture
The Darkness and the Light
For the Uniform
In Purgatory's Shadow
By Inferno's Light
Doctor Bashir, I Presume?
Business as Usual
Ties of Blood and Water
Soldiers of the Empire
Children of Time
Blaze of Glory
Empok Nor
In the Cards
Call to Arms

 

"Business as Usual" for being kind of pointless and for the way every other cast member basically shuts Quark out when they hear about his gun-running. Seemed unnatural, forced.

Apocalypse Rising
The Ship
...Nor the Battle to the Strong
Trials and Tribble-ations
Things Past
Rapture
The Darkness and the Light
For the Uniform
In Purgatory's Shadow
By Inferno's Light
Doctor Bashir, I Presume?
Ties of Blood and Water
Soldiers of the Empire
Children of Time
Blaze of Glory
Empok Nor
In the Cards
Call to Arms

 

Empok Nor, for being a bit dull. I didn't like seeing Garak as he was written here, and the episode in general feels flat.

Apocalypse Rising
The Ship
...Nor the Battle to the Strong
Trials and Tribble-ations
Things Past
Rapture
The Darkness and the Light
For the Uniform
In Purgatory's Shadow
By Inferno's Light
Doctor Bashir, I Presume?
Ties of Blood and Water
Soldiers of the Empire
Children of Time
Blaze of Glory
In the Cards
Call to Arms

 

This might surprise people, but I've got "Blaze of Glory" next. It's a great idea, but the execution is poor. I mean, Eddington as the hero? It doesn't work. He's not a sympathetic character, no matter how many times the writers tried to portray him that way.

Why?

Well, he wasn't a member of the regular cast, for one thing. He was always depicted as something of an outsider- DS9's answer to Will Decker from The Motion Picture- and drew the ire of fans even before he defected because he was a threat to Odo and because he tried to sabotage the Defiant. I don't know if the writers planned for him to betray Sisko and the others from the time his character was conceived, but he always came off as someone of questionable loyalty even before his true allegiance became known.

I think this episode would have had much more emotional value had Bernie Casey been able to reprise his role as Cal Hudson from "The Maquis." Hudson's character is mentioned as having died during a battle with the Cardassians, but it would have been nice for him to have an on-screen death. If nothing else, it may have provoked an emotional reaction from Sisko and also established a pattern that would continue once the war started- Sisko and other crew members losing close friends. Brooks did a nice job of reacting to the news about Hudson's death, but there was no other mention of the character following that scene. As Dax knew Hudson, it would have been nice had both she and Sisko taken a moment during the episode's final scene to remember their friend.

--Sran

Apocalypse Rising
The Ship
...Nor the Battle to the Strong
Trials and Tribble-ations
Things Past
Rapture
The Darkness and the Light
For the Uniform
In Purgatory's Shadow
By Inferno's Light
Doctor Bashir, I Presume?
Ties of Blood and Water
Soldiers of the Empire
Children of Time
In the Cards
Call to Arms

 

Doctor Bashir, I Presume... I just don't like they retconned Bashir's genetic enhancement. It would've been epic if they said from the beginning he had a dark secret in his past and Bashir was behaving accordingly, but no it was just thrown out there and left to deal with. Even Robert Picardo can't overcome the awkwardness of that and as for the B plot with Rom and Leeta... that was painful to watch at times, I actually thought Rom was masturbating when he was rubbing his ears watching Leeta... she should've gone for Zimmerman.

Apocalypse Rising
The Ship
...Nor the Battle to the Strong
Trials and Tribble-ations
Things Past
Rapture
The Darkness and the Light
For the Uniform
In Purgatory's Shadow
By Inferno's Light
Ties of Blood and Water
Soldiers of the Empire
Children of Time
In the Cards
Call to Arms

 

Soldiers of the Empire is a bit of average Klingon fare. It's good to see Martok struggling to re-adjust to life after his imprisonment, but the rest the plot is middling.

Apocalypse Rising
The Ship
...Nor the Battle to the Strong
Trials and Tribble-ations
Things Past
Rapture
The Darkness and the Light
For the Uniform
In Purgatory's Shadow
By Inferno's Light
Ties of Blood and Water
Children of Time
In the Cards
Call to Arms

 

Sorry but "In the Cards" is no longer on the cards it has to go. Not a bad episode but the rest are simply stronger episodes.

Apocalypse Rising
The Ship
...Nor the Battle to the Strong
Trials and Tribble-ations
Things Past
Rapture
The Darkness and the Light
For the Uniform
In Purgatory's Shadow
By Inferno's Light
Ties of Blood and Water
Children of Time
Call to Arms

 

Gonna have to toss Rapture. The whole episode was one big anti-climax, with the let down of Bajor not joining the Federation. Sisko's whole vision quest was just absurd at times and really out of tone with things.

Apocalypse Rising
The Ship
...Nor the Battle to the Strong
Trials and Tribble-ations
Things Past
The Darkness and the Light
For the Uniform
In Purgatory's Shadow
By Inferno's Light
Ties of Blood and Water
Soldiers of the Empire
Children of Time
Call to Arms

 

A lot of my faves falling by the wayside. I'll take out Apocalypse Rising, which was a very good season opener, but the ending with Martok as the changeling instead of Gowron was a bit of a cop-out. The writers more than make up for it with both characters eventually, but it doesn't stand alone well.

The Ship
...Nor the Battle to the Strong
Trials and Tribble-ations
Things Past
The Darkness and the Light
For the Uniform
In Purgatory's Shadow
By Inferno's Light
Ties of Blood and Water
Children of Time
Call to Arms

Oops, I forgot to remove Soldiers of the Empire a couple of posts ago. Done it now, sorry!

 

"Children of Time", more of the Odo/Kira romance.

The Ship
...Nor the Battle to the Strong
Trials and Tribble-ations
Things Past
The Darkness and the Light
For the Uniform
In Purgatory's Shadow
By Inferno's Light
Ties of Blood and Water
Call to Arms

 

"Ties of Blood and Water" is next. It was nice to see Legate Ghemor's character again. He was a good man and was superbly acted. That said, I found the Kira angst over reliving her father's death annoying. As much as I enjoyed her character, I could have done without her family's backstory and the weird love-triangle between Kira, her mother, and Dukat. This was just more of that nonsense from a different angle.

I did like the confrontation between Sisko and Dukat in Quark's with Weyoun downing the poisoned kanar. A great scene in an otherwise dull episode.

--Sran

The Ship
...Nor the Battle to the Strong
Trials and Tribble-ations
Things Past
The Darkness and the Light
For the Uniform
In Purgatory's Shadow
By Inferno's Light
Call to Arms