Season 7 Revisited

[Armus]

After rewatching DS9's 7th and final season on DVD not only do I think it's a significant improvement over season 6 but I think it is one of DS9's best seasons. There are 3 or 4 really bad episodes, Prodigal Daughter, The Emperors New Cloak, Covenant...but every season has those and the rest of season 7 is quite solid, Ezri Dax was a great character and huge improvement over Jadzia, the production values, music, and focus on ending the show with a climactic resolution really impressed me. I also thought Nana Visitor looked much more attractive with her longer hair and her character was well utilized during season 7. Sending her to teach Cardassians how to start a resistance against the Dominion was a logical use of her character.

I most liked Treachery, Faith, and the Great River, Chrysalis, The Siege of ARR 558, Inter Arma..., Chimera, Field Of Fire, Its only Paper Moon, and the final arc of episodes.

DS9 almost achieved a Star Wars epic feel by often cutting back and forth between Damar/Weyoun on Cardassia and Sisko on DS9. I really enjoyed the relationship and dialogue between Damar and Weyoun this season. The Breen had a great look and sound and they provided some nice tension between The Cardassians and The Dominion. I liked how everyone but the audience knew exactly what they were saying.

As crazy as it was, the Dukat/Kai Winn arc was written and acted as best it could be, and I really enjoyed the scene between Winn and Kira where Kai Winn almost repents. In the end, Dukat, as deranged as he is, is still more likable, and I was glad he got to avenge her treachery.

Overall I thought DS9's final season was much better than I first gave it credit.

 

[kkt]

I liked Prodigal Daughter. In other respects I agree with your post, season 7 was very well done.

 

[Bry_Sinclair]

An epic end to an epic series.

 

[Bad Thoughts]

I think that Season 7 is great, the best final season for any Trek series, but I do think it suffers in comparison to season 6 when it comes to ideas and, more importantly, it comes nowhere near season 5's consistency.

Things that are great: Odo's dilemma, the Cardassian opposition movement and Kira's involvement, the price of war in AR-558 and Paper Moon. That acting was top notch. No one phoned anything in, and I sense they all believed deeply in the stories they were doing.

Things that were not so great: Dukat as the the anti-emissary (Alaimo acted it well, though) and the Pah Wraith movement, the origins of the Changeling disease, no episodes focused on Jake, the disconnectedness of the stand-alones from the overall narrative. Most of these are problems of execution.

The biggest problem I have with season 7: no big Sisko episodes. Every season since the second had one or two big episodes mid-way in which Sisko's character was put under the microscope: The Maquis, Past Tense, Destiny, Homefront/Paradise Lost, Rapture, For the Uniform, Waltz, Far Beyond the Stars, and Pale Moonlight. These episodes showed Sisko's growth as a leader and a religious figure. The best season 7 contributes is Siege of AR-558, wherein Sisko shows his ability to manage the fatigue and pain of soldiers while getting them to commit to the fight. It is not, though, an episode about Sisko.

What season 7 has is myth. It's big, it's epic. The villains take our heroes to hell, figuratively and literally. The despair feels real. The stories are complex and interwoven. In the end the good guys prevail not because they fight the best, but because they spent seven years convincing a downtrodden people that their beliefs are the best hope for a just and compassionate universe. That's pretty cool.

 

[Balok's Decoy]

After rewatching DS9's 7th and final season on DVD not only do I think it's a significant improvement over season 6 but I think it is one of DS9's best seasons. There are 3 or 4 really bad episodes, Prodigal Daughter, The Emperors New Cloak, Covenant...but every season has those and the rest of season 7 is quite solid, Ezri Dax was a great character and huge improvement over Jadzia, the production values, music, and focus on ending the show with a climactic resolution really impressed me. I also thought Nana Visitor looked much more attractive with her longer hair and her character was well utilized during season 7. Sending her to teach Cardassians how to start a resistance against the Dominion was a logical use of her character.

I most liked Treachery, Faith, and the Great River, Chrysalis, The Siege of ARR 558, Inter Arma..., Chimera, Field Of Fire, Its only Paper Moon, and the final arc of episodes.

DS9 almost achieved a Star Wars epic feel by often cutting back and forth between Damar/Weyoun on Cardassia and Sisko on DS9. I really enjoyed the relationship and dialogue between Damar and Weyoun this season. The Breen had a great look and sound and they provided some nice tension between The Cardassians and The Dominion. I liked how everyone but the audience knew exactly what they were saying.

As crazy as it was, the Dukat/Kai Winn arc was written and acted as best it could be, and I really enjoyed the scene between Winn and Kira where Kai Winn almost repents. In the end, Dukat, as deranged as he is, is still more likable, and I was glad he got to avenge her treachery.

Overall I thought DS9's final season was much better than I first gave it credit.

Even though my two favorite episodes are in season 6, I think overall season 7 is probably the best season Star Trek has ever produced. The way they managed to bring everything together like that is nothing short of amazing. Devoting the last 9 episodes to one final, massive story arc was bold and it paid off. It has far more greatest hits than it does misses, and even the misses aren't THAT bad.

 

[tomalak301]

Season 7 of DS9 is probably the best final season of a trek show. Considering I enjoy Ezri more now than I did before might have helped. Not only is the final chapter pretty good but there are many great episodes before that.

 

[Jetboogieman]

Love season 7.

In fact I personally consider season 6 and 7 (for the most part) to be some of the finest TV ever made.

There's so many episodes in Season 7 that just do the job for me.

Take Me Out To The Holosuite (it might be silly but I still love it).
Chrysalis
Siege of AR-558
It's Only A Paper Moon (one of the finest episodes of Trek in totality)
Badda-Bing Badda-Bang (again another silly one but, I still love it)
Tacking into the wind

These ones really stand out to me.

 

[Nakita Akita]

I never liked Sisko falling into the Lake of Fire or wind tunnel if fire or cave if fire or whatever it was called.
I wanted him to live.
I wanted him and Cassidy to get married, and have a bunch of kids.

 

[tomalak301]

I never liked Sisko falling into the Lake of Fire or wind tunnel if fire or cave if fire or whatever it was called.
I wanted him to live.
I wanted him and Cassidy to get married, and have a bunch of kids.

Considering his penance, I don't think that was ever going to happen.

 

[kkt]

I never liked Sisko falling into the Lake of Fire or wind tunnel if fire or cave if fire or whatever it was called.
I wanted him to live.
I wanted him and Cassidy to get married, and have a bunch of kids.

I bet he'd have preferred that too