Worst DS9 Episode?

[Sakonna]

So the production of DS9 was underwater how? What did they have that hard a time constraint.

Just by virtue of how punishing it is to make 26 episodes in a year, TV is nothing but hard time constraints. You're always racing to stay up with the production calendar even when things are going well, and then there's moments where you fall further behind when certain scripts prove particularly difficult to pull together. I've never worked on a show that had more than a 22 episode season and the entire crew is pretty much the walking dead by episode 17, I can't imagine having to do a 26 episode order.

I'm eternally fascinated by just how open and uncensored the DS9 producers are when describing the behind-the-scenes of how the episodes came together and their feelings about the show. IIRC, for this batch they talk about how they had to put extra hands on "Prodigal Daughter" because the script was such a mess and taking forever to wrangle into something shootable, the rest of the staff was working on "Chimera" or "The Emperor's New Cloak", so they had to pull in a freelancer for "Field Of Fire" to even have anything to shoot.

 

[Farscape One]

Which is why they called in Robert Hewitt Wolfe, who was with the writing staff from seasons 1-5. They knew they could count on him to get a script done in time, and didn't have to as much reworking as bringing in a brand new writer of STAR TREK for "FIELD OF FIRE".

 

[cultcross]

When I rewatched DS9 a year or two ago, I was surprised by how much more I liked Ezri than I did the first time around. Also, I now perceived her less as a new character and more as a continuation of Dax -- obviously we know it wasn't driven by story, but in some ways, it seems like you'd be crazy to set up a Trill character and NOT swap hosts during the series.

That said, the run of "Prodigal Daughter", "The Emperor's New Cloak", and "Field Of Fire" is one of the big rough spots of that final year, and part of that is Ezri overdose -- you read the Memory Alpha entries and it's clear they were underwater and just barely managing to get the scripts ready in time, but I wish someone had taken a beat and realized three CONSECUTIVE Ezri or Ezri-heavy shows was a bad idea. They were going to her because she was new and that made it easier to write, but they should have tried harder to rework her slot in one of those eps into a showcase for someone else.

Aside: I love that scene in the final arc where Ezri lays out to Worf her true feelings on the Klingon empire. And I think her introductory bit at the end of "Image In The Sand" feels legitimately magical. So she gets at least two highpoints of the final season for me.

Agree on all of this.

Ezri Dax I never had an issue with even in first run, and I was a big Terry Farrell fan at the time. But she does fit better as a character on a rewatch after time has passed. The controversy is all forgotten and she works well as a continuation of Dax, and a new female character to give Kira some relief from the testosterone of the main cast. Your point about a Trill is good and something I'd never really thought of before - if you set up a character as being able to switch to a new body in episode 1, that's a Chekov's symbiote that really should do something during the series. And while it is certainly unusual to introduce a main character for the predetermined last season, you get to cheat a bit if that character already has a backstory with every other main character. I personally think she brought a nice angle to the final season, especially as a friend to Sisko in the first half, hanging a lantern on his weirdness in a way his less familiar subordinates wouldn't be able to.

Emperors New Cloak was just another achingly unfunny DS9 mirror universe episode, and should have been scrapped entirely. I'd even settle for a different Ezri story in its place. I thought Prodigal Daughter was interesting in that we got to see some non joined Trill prominently in an episode, but I wish the story had focused on Ezri using some benefit of her joining, be it wisdom or specialist knowledge, to help out - after all, isn't that the point?

Field of Fire was a decent filler episode but the Ezri connection was tenuous at best, and too dependent on the old mystery novel cliché that you have to think like a killer to catch a killer. No, you just follow the evidence, make no assumptions, and have an eye for detail. Which is what she is seen doing! This is an Odo story with him awkwardly sidelined.

 

[cultcross]

I forgot to answer the actual question. Worst episode? Probably overall Profit and Lace. Most of DS9's bad episodes slot into 'boring' or 'uninspired' rather than 'actively terrible' (such as The Muse, Times Orphan, Move Along Home, Q Less, Starship Down, Lwaxana Troi in anything at all, all the Mirror Universe episodes after the first one) but P&L is just a disaster, taking what was already a shaky premise and missing an opportunity to turn it into an obvious but at least well intentioned moral lesson, opting instead for a slapstick cringefest devoid of any redeeming features.
Let He Who is Without Sin is a close second. Worf supports terrorism and once killed a kid - *laugh track* This episode is howlingly bad all the way through - even the producers admit they dropped the ball on this one.

 

[UnknownSample]

I liked how Worf having caused that death explained his stick-in-the-mud-ism throughout all of NextGen and DS9.

 

[MadeIndescribable]

I've never worked on a show that had more than a 22 episode season and the entire crew is pretty much the walking dead by episode 17, I can't imagine having to do a 26 episode order.

I went to a Q&A with a Torchwood producer and writer, and some asked (rather angrily) what was the sense in "only" making 13 episodes per season and not 20+ like in US. The producer's answer was to (rightfully, IMO) question why the US would make so many in the first place!

Plus in the ten years since, it does seem like US TV is abandoning 20+ seasons more and more.

 

[cultcross]

I always thought 26 episode orders were madness. They just open the door for mediocre filler, the 'album track' episodes which were just there to fill airtime. Nobody is going to churn out 26 polished gems a year, it just seemed to be the quickest way to make it to the magic 100 episodes for syndicated reruns.

 

[marlboro]

Only 26 episodes? Pikers.

Back in the day American tv shows did 30 plus in a season. The first season of I Love Lucy was 35 episodes. The first season of the Twilight Zone had 36. Gunsmoke did almost 40 in a half hour format, and maintained a rate in the high 30s for several years in a 60 minute format.

 

[Sakonna]

I always thought 26 episode orders were madness. They just open the door for mediocre filler, the 'album track' episodes which were just there to fill airtime. Nobody is going to churn out 26 polished gems a year, it just seemed to be the quickest way to make it to the magic 100 episodes for syndicated reruns.

On the other hand, though it's so punishing to produce, I thought DS9 did a better job of wrangling 26 episodes than the other shows -- one of the things that makes this my favorite Trek is that it was the most ambitious, they just try to do SO MUCH. Even when it falters, I'm impressed with the attempt, and I wonder if they would not have discovered their greatest strengths without so much space to play around in. After the first season, there's still a fair number of failed episodes, but I don't really see filler episodes the way TNG and VOY always had. DS9 really used the space 26 shows afforded to experiment and follow side stories to see where they led. It's a show that grew organically, in a way that can't really happen on TV today, where everything has to be much more pre-thought.

Truly, the only episode I would just erase is "Let He Who Is Without Sin." It's so joyless and flat, I have nothing favorable to say about it (maybe the scenery is nice?). "Profit & Lace" is in many ways a worse hour of television, but at least there's something interesting about it, in that it's an intriguing/disturbing time-capsule of what can happen when a bunch of seemingly liberal men in the 90's could set out to make an episode about equal rights for women: they don't see any reason why it shouldn't also be full of attempted-rape-as-high-comedy.

 

[kkt]

Agree on all of this.
I thought Prodigal Daughter was interesting in that we got to see some non joined Trill prominently in an episode, but I wish the story had focused on Ezri using some benefit of her joining, be it wisdom or specialist knowledge, to help out - after all, isn't that the point?

Now that you mention it, my impression from Ezri's family is that Ezri would never have been able to stand up to her mother before she was joined. Ezri ran away to join Starfleet against her mother's wishes primarily to get away from her.

 

[MadeIndescribable]

"Profit & Lace" is in many ways a worse hour of television, but at least there's something interesting about it, in that it's an intriguing/disturbing time-capsule of what can happen when a bunch of seemingly liberal men in the 90's could set out to make an episode about equal rights for women: they don't see any reason why it shouldn't also be full of attempted-rape-as-high-comedy.

Yep, first step in solving a problem is acknowledging there's a problem in the first place. And Profit And Lace is a very big acknowledgement...

 

[UnknownSample]

Yep, first step in solving a problem is acknowledging there's a problem in the first place. And Profit And Lace is a very big acknowledgement...

If that ep really had a point, and if that point was equal rights for women, good God, what a roundabout and torturous means they used to get us to that point, or rather, to get Quark to that point, since the DS9 audience gets it already. What a fabulous way for someone to begin to empathize with and respect women. Now if only all misogynists could get temporary sex change operations, sexism would be finished! Never mind just thinking about the subject, and realizing people need respect. He's got be made a woman to get it.
=========
I saw it as a bit of tacked-on meaning to justify some camp about "dressing up" gone out of control.

 

[MadeIndescribable]

I saw it as a bit of tacked-on meaning to justify some camp about "dressing up" gone out of control.

Well, which ever way you look at it, I meant that looking back you can't helpmbut acknowledge there was a problem in terms of...

when a bunch of seemingly liberal men in the 90's could set out to make an episode about equal rights for women: they don't see any reason why it shouldn't also be full of attempted-rape-as-high-comedy.

 

[UnknownSample]

Well, which ever way you look at it, I meant that looking back you can't helpmbut acknowledge there was a problem in terms of...

Yes, I read that.

 

[Sakonna]

I saw it as a bit of tacked-on meaning to justify some camp about "dressing up" gone out of control.

When they describe the genesis of the "Profit & Lace" in interviews, it's been that it started from the feminism angle and grew from there.

The original idea for this episode came from René Echevarria; "We were all at lunch, talking about doing an episode about Moogie, the feminist movement, and giving Ferengi women the right to vote. It was a very preliminary discussion, and I said, 'I have this feeling that Quark ends up in a dress. I don't know why, but I think somehow Quark and Rom have to masquerade as women in order to pull something off." (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion)

Also on Memory Alpha, this bit of lore about the episode has also always been particularly amazing to me:

The production staff had high hopes for it during preproduction; indeed, after Behr sent the script to Michael Piller, Piller returned it with a memo reading "this is going to be a classic"

 

[MadeIndescribable]

Well it was classic something...

 

[Voth commando1]

That last line makes me chuckle-a classic? There must have been a very potent substance in the writer's room.

 

[Qonundrum]

"Bar Association" is the worst. It's riddled with clichés and oversimplification of the issues that made "painting by numbers" look even simpler as a result.

By comparison, "Profit and Lace" is almost as bad in forcing an issue and under near-risible circumstances. Bringing in the cast of Laugh-In didn't exactly help improve matters (but kudos to Henry Gibson for donning the prosthetics and make-up needed)... but at least Quark learns a lesson about not harassing female workers at the end - it showed P&L actually could deliver on at least one of its issues with some effectiveness (and I found it interesting the coworker was genuinely interested in being with him, to learn as opposed to being threatened. But it felt like natural drama and could have made a good episode on its own. Either way, BA failed to do anything even remotely original at every turn. )

 

[Indysolo]

I just finished watching this for the first time. Greatly enjoyed the series, but there were some episodes I couldn't stand. "Prodigal Daughter" and "Field of Fire" have both been mentioned a few times and rightfully so. Both were pointless entries, and added nothing to the overall story. "Field of Fire" was especially bad, with the killer they're looking suddenly walking into the same turbolift. Also, a killer who hates pictures of people smiling! It was torturous and could be my least favorite of the series.

Only one other episode made me realize "this is bad" midway though the way "Field of Fire" did and that was "In the Cards". It stops the main storyline dead and everyone is acting out of character, making stupid decision after stupid decision. Jake wants to win an auction but needs to be reminded he doesn't have money. Huh? Leeta sleeps with a teddy bear and Nog knows how to sneak into her room? It literally has this line of dialogue: "Lions and Gigers and bears." "Oh, my.". It was painfully unfunny and pointless.

Neil

 

[kkt]

I liked all those episodes, Prodigal Daughter, Field of Fire, and In the Cards. Not one of the top few, but definitely worth watching and I don't skip over them when I rewatch. Not every episode has to be advancing the main storyline.