Am I the only one who thinks the space station setting on "DS9" is a strength and not a weakness?

[Jayson1]

I know alot of Trek fans dislike the idea of a show on a space station that "Doesn't go anywhere" but am I the only one who felt the show worked in part because it was a great setting for a Trek show? Every other Trek show has been on starships so you would think people would love to see a new setting that hasn't already been explored in great depth. Plus I like how they couldn't fly away from their problems at the end of the week which is something that made the show feel arc related though I never really felt it was as arc related as some do.
Another thing is when you have a space station you are basically having a show set in a town or city type of enviroment. I loved having Promenade were you have shops and normal type of jobs that have nothing to do with starfleet. Odo was more than a security officer but was a cop and SIsko was almost like a mayor. You had a local alien population and a constant stream of civilians who were just living their lives and not part of any kind of military structure or on some kind of grand adventure.

Jason

 

[Armus]

I liked the western aspect of DS9, something Rick Berman and Michael Piller had in mind when creating the show and setting the station up as a frontier town hot spot.

 

[Relayer1]

'Am I the only one who thinks the space station setting on "DS9" is a strength and not a weakness?'

No.

 

[Admiral2]

Does the OP truly understand what forum he posted that question in?

 

[Bad Thoughts]

Does the OP truly understand what forum he posted that question in?

He could write a post about how derivative the ship setting became in the Voyager forum.

 

[Paradise City]

It is a strength. The station's strategic importance reaching peak with the changing political circumstance in the galaxy. I liked that touch. So one never feels out of the loop. And the Cardassians are quite good as villains.

And you've got the Defiant there. So you've still got the Trek angle of teasing out the strange and unusual elsewhere.

 

[Amaris]

I liked the western aspect of DS9, something Rick Berman and Michael Piller had in mind when creating the show and setting the station up as a frontier town hot spot.

This. DS9 was Dodge City, sitting out on the new frontier, and protecting the locals from the bad guys,

 

[TEACAKE'S PLEATHER DOME]

The station is my favorite character on DS9

I am always amazed when people say they didn't like ds9 because it didn't explore.. what we got was in depth exploration of species we'd only visited for one or two eps before warping off to new ones in the other series. Cardassians, Bajorans, Ferengi, Trill.. fleshed out, visited, explored in all kinds of ways. Fantastic stuff.

 

[UnknownSample]

Exploration, schmexploration. What exploration did Voyager do? A slightly differently foreheaded generic alien people every week. We find out very little about each. Voyager just extracts itself from whatever fix they're in, and moves on. Someone registers the planet's location in Astrometrics.
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You know, exploration is a very superficial activity. You increase the accuracy of your star charts. You move on. DS9 encountered and learned far more about alien peoples staying put, than Voyager ever could.

 

[Refuge]

Being stuck on a Space Station was like being at a bus terminal. Just about brought the franchise down to a crashing state of boredom. Big Mistake to have something that doesn't trek on a show about Star trekking..

 

[UnknownSample]

Being stuck on a Space Station was like being at a bus terminal. Just about brought the franchise down to a crashing state of boredom. Big Mistake to have something that doesn't trek on a show about Star trekking..

You only theoretically go to more places in Voyager, and late Next Gen. They TELL you these are unknown alien worlds and that you're across the galaxy, and the viewer believes it. Was Voyager more interesting? The aliens were very similar to those in our part of the galaxy, and very similar to each other.
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All the Treks after TOS started out boring. Many people tuned out on DS9 early, blaming the mere fact that the station was stationary. They did not check back in on DS9 after it picked up in pace and developed. They became satisfied somehow with Voyager's "explorations" which revealed aliens far less exotic than those populating DS9 every week. But of course, Voyager moves, and DS9 doesn't, so Voyager is better.
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I want to add that there are a lot of things I like very much about Voyager. But the variety of interesting alien life and alien situations is not one of them. The Delta Quadrant was dull. DS9 was Grand Central Station, not a bus stop.

 

[Refuge]

Well I would challenge that the Star Ships only "theoretically" went more places.. there was a sense of adventure you can only get from boldly going.. whooosh! It was a big hurdle in my opinion to wrap your head around having the Space Station concept and it did rather get very political and mystical. I just think if I were Sisko I would have been itching to get onto a Star Ship.

I do agree on one part point though. I think the starting point of DS9 ,because she was a new concept, needed the viewers to become invested before they got the payoff. The others in the franchise could do stand alone episodes which satisfied with or without tying together a seasonal or longer term 'arc'.

 

[Jayson1]

Well I would challenge that the Star Ships only "theoretically" went more places.. there was a sense of adventure you can only get from boldly going.. whooosh! It was a big hurdle in my opinion to wrap your head around having the Space Station concept and it did rather get very political and mystical. I just think if I were Sisko I would have been itching to get onto a Star Ship.

I do agree on one part point though. I think the starting point of DS9 ,because she was a new concept, needed the viewers to become invested before they got the payoff. The others in the franchise could do stand alone episodes which satisfied with or without tying together a seasonal or longer term 'arc'.

Most "DS9" stories do work on a stand alone basis. Also their is something I think is worth mentioning and that one thing both shows have in common is that every episode is mostly going to revolve around stuff that is happening on the station or the ship simply because you got to use the standing sets a lot. If you go to a alien planet you usually get 2 rooms and maybe a visit to the cave set or the jungle set. To me this is something that has a deeper impact on a show that is about meeting new aliens every week as oposed to something more focused on the actual thing in which the characters live on.
It's hard to explore new aliens on a tv budget so DS9 nine had the advantage of being to tell more stories that didn't involve going to a alien planet.
"DS9" also had a ship which means they could leave for a story if they wanted and still have the station to also tell stories on.

Jason

 

[Triskelion]

I would even go so far as to say you are not the only one who thinks the seven-year series DS9 has a sound premise.

 

[Amaris]

Most "DS9" stories do work on a stand alone basis. Also their is something I think is worth mentioning and that one thing both shows have in common is that every episode is mostly going to revolve around stuff that is happening on the station or the ship simply because you got to use the standing sets a lot. If you go to a alien planet you usually get 2 rooms and maybe a visit to the cave set or the jungle set. To me this is something that has a deeper impact on a show that is about meeting new aliens every week as oposed to something more focused on the actual thing in which the characters live on.
It's hard to explore new aliens on a tv budget so DS9 nine had the advantage of being to tell more stories that didn't involve going to a alien planet.
"DS9" also had a ship which means they could leave for a story if they wanted and still have the station to also tell stories on.

Jason

This, and, I think it makes for better television, and certainly better drama, when you have to stick around after the lesson of the week, and deal with the consequences of those actions. Rarely, if ever, do we see Kirk, Picard, Janeway, or Archer have to deal with the long term effects of their actions. Sisko? He was getting retribution from his actions on day one, and it continued to the very end.

 

[Bry_Sinclair]

DS9 being in one place was its biggest strength. They couldn't just fly off on another adventure and leave a culture reeling from the dramatic shift in their civilisation Starfleet meddling had brought. The DS9 crew were there for the long haul, they got sucked into the politics of the region and were a key part in trying to stabilise what is/was a very "lawless" area.

 

[Refuge]

Most "DS9" stories do work on a stand alone basis. Also their is something I think is worth mentioning and that one thing both shows have in common is that every episode is mostly going to revolve around stuff that is happening on the station or the ship simply because you got to use the standing sets a lot. If you go to a alien planet you usually get 2 rooms and maybe a visit to the cave set or the jungle set. To me this is something that has a deeper impact on a show that is about meeting new aliens every week as oposed to something more focused on the actual thing in which the characters live on.
It's hard to explore new aliens on a tv budget so DS9 nine had the advantage of being to tell more stories that didn't involve going to a alien planet.
"DS9" also had a ship which means they could leave for a story if they wanted and still have the station to also tell stories on.

Jason

But how can the show take chances when it is safely ensconced on a go nowhere station? Predictable characters, predictable setting and predictable hammering on of predictable lessons. It was like watching a never ending feud with all its bitterness and futility. It was futility too, like the lesson to be learned was that things drag out and sacrifice is the answer.

The day Star Trek is lessened because new planets and new aliens are a bad thing is a sign of defeat.

 

[Refuge]

Gosh how did you do that? I never said that.

 

[Refuge]

Seriously UnKownSample, I don't have a problem defending my actual opinion but you have edited something YOU wrote above and attributed it as a quote of mine.. which is simply wrong. That has to be an abuse of this board..

 

[cultcross]

Christ, calm down. It's a cock up with the quote function, he was probably replying to something you wrote then deleted it but forgot the opening quote tag was still there. Not an international incident.