What is DS9's Biggest Misfire?

[Seven of Five]

• Too much focus on Ezri in the final season left other areas lacking, and just me annoyed at her presence
• Extreme Measures was a botched attempt to have a final say on Section 31 with a poorly plotted O'Brien/Bashir story.
• Dukat in season seven was a poor imitation of the character we loved to hate for the first six seasons.
• The Dukat/Winn portion of WYLB was another botched element of the final arc.
• The lack of follow-up to the Odo/Kira fallout during the Occupation Arc. Talking about it off-screen was poor.

Those are always the main ones for me when I rewatch the show.

 

[Prax]

I actually like what DS9 did with Alexander. I think it was a great move to have him join the Klingon Defense Force - sure, he got teased a lot, but his crewmates did come to respect him, and they admitted that even if Alexander wasn't the best of warriors, he got the job done. He was just an ordinary, blue-collar-type Klingon crewmember, and I thought that was really cool to do. It shows that not everyone is badass - they can't all save the universe every damn day.

Alexander was best when he was ordinary. Like here.

Could you see DS9 Alexander grow up to become the Alexander we see in TNG's late season 7 episode Firstborn?

I heard a story where Rene Escheverria(I think) wanted to keep future adult Alexander around, and get rid of child Alexander. And Jeri Taylor said "No! We're not going to take Alexander's childhood away! I don't care what actor plays him."

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Could you see DS9 Alexander grow up to become the Alexander we see in TNG's late season 7 episode Firstborn?

Yes, I can.

 

[Prax]

Alexander actually grew up to be one of the more reasoned, and balanced Klingons we see. And he wanted to alter history to turn himself into the more "I.....AM KLINGON!!!!!" type of Klingon.

 

[Iamnotspock]

Not a single voyager reference-Voyager had the courtesy to mention DS9 at least four times mentioned the occupation of Bajor, DS9, the dominion war, the Maquis destruction. All they had to do was have Dax tell Sisko "hey by the way they've made contact with captain Janeway in the Delta Quadrant. Sisko could say yeah nice lady spoke to her before she was lost. Or something as simple as that.

VOY had more reasons to mention DS9 than vice versa. Every new Trek series includes a reference to its predecessor (or Cochrane in ENT's case), so having VOY launch from DS9 was a given, and further references to "When we left DS9" made sense; the Maquis were established in DS9 and TNG in order to set up their inclusion in VOY, so further VOY references to their backstory were to be expected. The Maquis' destruction on DS9 provided a great bit if character motivation for B'Elanna for the VOY writers to seize upon. When the EMH goes back to the Alpha Quadrant in 'Message in a Bottle', the Dominion War really needed to be mentioned, given the episode's plot. Conversely, once off in the Delta Quadrant, Voyager didn't really need to be mentioned again in DS9.

I can think of only a couple of cute superfluous references to DS9 in VOY; in 'Non Sequitur' and 'Pathfinder'. DS9 does have Tuvok in 'Through the Looking Glass' and Zimmerman in 'Dr. Bashir, I Presume?'

 

[Prax]

VOY had more reasons to mention DS9 than vice versa. Every new Trek series includes a reference to its predecessor (or Cochrane in ENT's case), so having VOY launch from DS9 was a given, and further references to "When we left DS9" made sense; the Maquis were established in DS9 and TNG in order to set up their inclusion in VOY, so further VOY references to their backstory were to be expected. The Maquis' destruction on DS9 provided a great bit if character motivation for B'Elanna for the VOY writers to seize upon. When the EMH goes back to the Alpha Quadrant in 'Message in a Bottle', the Dominion War really needed to be mentioned, given the episode's plot. Conversely, once off in the Delta Quadrant, Voyager didn't really need to be mentioned again in DS9.

I can think of only a couple of cute superfluous references to DS9 in VOY; in 'Non Sequitur' and 'Pathfinder'. DS9 does have Tuvok in 'Through the Looking Glass' and Zimmerman in 'Dr. Bashir, I Presume?'

I think there is an indirect reference somewhere in season 3 about "ships going missing" in badlands. It would be difficult to mention Voyager in DS9, but since they ran concurrently, maybe Bashir or O'brien could be reading the 24th century version of the Army Times about contact being made with a long lost ship, maybe in "Who Mourns for Mourn" or "His Way"

 

[JirinPanthosa]

DS9 Alexander wasn't 'ordinary', they made him from just a normal kid with attachment issues to a bumbling moron. They lowered his IQ from about 100 to about 60.

I hate pretty much everything they did with Worf's family in DS9. Alexander a bumbling fool, and what they did with Kurn was even dumber.

Agree that DS9 didn't have much reason to reference Voyager. The events of DS9 involve a war for the very survival of the Federation. Every Voyager character's home and family is directly threatened and there's nothing they can do about it. To DS9, Voyager was one Federation ship half a galaxy away whose occupants were far safer than their friends dying around them in droves.

 

[Bad Thoughts]

I would think that featuring Lewis Zimmerman in an episode's A- and B-plots should count for something. No, Voyager was not mentioned, but the episode picked up character elements of Voyager, which is much more substantive than a namecheck.

 

[Voth commando1]

Jake Sisko is such a pain in the ass.

 

[Nyotarules]

Alexander actually grew up to be one of the more reasoned, and balanced Klingons we see. And he wanted to alter history to turn himself into the more "I.....AM KLINGON!!!!!" type of Klingon.

Poor guy wanted to fit in, after all he was part human. The adult DS9 Alexander was cute, no bad teeth lol

 

[JirinPanthosa]

Maybe Future Alexander realized he couldn't make Alexander into a warrior, so instead he hit young Alexander on the head to make him too dumb to cause his father's death.

 

[Beard_vs_Geek]

The biggest misfire I feel was not having a big goal or over arching story soon enough. In season 3 The Dominion became a big threat and totally changed the story lines and made a singular goal for the characters to have. Before this, when people were still getting to know the show and be introduced to it for the first time the complaints were always the same. "It's like he's managing a hotel." In other words "Whats the goal?".

 

[Navaros]

DS9's biggest misfire is Jadzia Dax. She is an utterly useless character who serves no narrative function whatsoever. On top of that, she is also incredibly obnoxious, and bland, and boring, and one-dimensional. There is no legitimate reason why she should have been included in the cast, much less as a regular.

 

[Prax]

DS9's biggest misfire is Jadzia Dax. She is an utterly useless character who serves no narrative function whatsoever. On top of that, she is also incredibly obnoxious, and bland, and boring, and one-dimensional. There is no legitimate reason why she should have been included in the cast, much less as a regular.

Isn't it obvious? Dax is there to give Sisko characterization, so he can say "...old man..." in a gravelly voice once per episode.

 

[Voth commando1]

I don't mind expo dumps if it's information that's new to the audience. Some shows have expo dumps that insult the audience. Like, they'll have a great scene where they communicate things with actions and body language, then they'll have characters state all the things that scene showed you. Like "Time to explicitly state what already made obvious just in case you're a moron."

DS9's usually not guilty of this, it's generally the worst in sitcoms.

I don't mind expo dumps that much for some people it helps build interest and anticipation and gives IU background.

 

[Voth commando1]

I agree about the Julian-Ezri relationship. I don't know that I'd call it the biggest misfire, but it is an annoyance in the otherwise mostly excellent final episodes. I never really got it. I know people say, "well, now Bashir can be with Dax!" but that is exactly what I don't like about it. Ezri is a person, not a consolation prize. It didn't help that I found Bashir's pining over Jadzia annoying rather than poignant, or whatever the show was going for. When he and Quark got all mopey over Jadzia wanting to have a baby because that meant she was happy with Worf, I was thinking, "wow, you guys are shitty friends." Which, I expect that from Quark, but it felt like Bashir was being rewarded for that in the end, and it just rubbed me the wrong way.

Actually I could fully empathize with their sentiment. Sometimes especially as a guy seeing your female friend off with someone else is dreary and depressing.

Bashir remarks that because of that(during a game of Tongo) that he would not find true happiness.

And I felt terribly sorry for him.

 

[Prax]

Speaking of consolation prizes, quite a few were handed out on finale day.

• Bashir finally gets a Dax
• Sisko gets to ascend into heaven
• Rom gets to become Grand Nagus
• Nog gets a promotion to Lieutenant
• The Feds finally get the Doms to surrender
• Keiko finally gets to go back to earth...
• ...with O'brien, who finally gets a cushy Professorship at the Academy.(Where he will no longer suffer so much abuse)
• Odo finally gets to join the great link
• Worf is awarded "Ambassadorship to Qo'noS"
• Kai Winn finally gets to die
• Garak finally gets to return to Cardassia for good
• Doookot finally gets sent to hell

 

[Peach Wookiee]

Speaking of consolation prizes, quite a few were handed out on finale day.

• Bashir finally gets a Dax
• Sisko gets to ascend into heaven
• Rom gets to become Grand Nagus
• Nog gets a promotion to Lieutenant
• The Feds finally get the Doms to surrender
• Keiko finally gets to go back to earth...
• ...with O'brien, who finally gets a cushy Professorship at the Academy.(Where he will no longer suffer so much abuse)
• Odo finally gets to join the great link
• Worf is awarded "Ambassadorship to Qo'noS"
• Kai Winn finally gets to die
• Garak finally gets to return to Cardassia for good

You forgot one...
Dukat literally gets sent to Hell.

 

[GeorgeKirk]

The Pah Wraiths. What a stupid, stupid idea.

So at the very beginning of the show we learn that the "Prophets" the Bajorans worship are real, only they're incorporeal aliens who live in the wormhole. They're so alien, in fact, that they don't understand the concept of linear time and it's strongly implied (if not stated outright) that they can't even exist in our space-time continuum. And that's a really good, cool idea.

But then, in a bit of thinking that the Power Rangers writers' room would reject as too hackneyed, they decided that they needed "evil Prophets", too. And that, instead of existing outside of normal space-time, these evil Prophets should just hang out in some Bajoran caves because of reasons.

From that bad decision sprang so many other bad story directions--from Gul Dukat allowing a Pah Wraith to fly up his nose so his character could take a strange left turn from "complicated ex-dictator" to "evil wizard/cult leader" to the absolutely ridiculous notion that Benjamin Sisko's entire destiny, his purpose in life was to throw the Bajoran Necromonicon into the depths of the Fire Caves, thus trapping the Pah Wraiths there for all eternity.

This is supposed to be a science fiction show, right? So what's up with the swords-and-sorcery bullshit? The Pah-Wraiths were a terrible, awful, horrible idea. Rene Echevarria, you wrote some great stuff for Star Trek and you've had a successful career, but fuck you for coming up with the Pah Wraiths. I hope you're as ashamed as we are.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

I don't mind expo dumps that much for some people it helps build interest and anticipation and gives IU background.

Like I said, the only expo dumps that bother me are the ones that repeat and dumb down info we already have.