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A wonderful expreience!

Lynx

Vice Admiral
Admiral
After all those years and all trouble with local stations quitting the series after one season and problems with malfunctioning DVD:s and such, I have finally watched the last episode of Deep Space Nine.

And it was all a wonderful experience. A fantastic series with wonderful, likeable characters!

What started as something I first saw as simply a TNG spin-off with the limitations of a space station located in the same area turned out to develope into something ocmpletly different. The journey together with Sisko's crew took me through many different scenarios with unexpected turns and unpredicted developments here and there. All the way from the Cardassian-Bajoran conflict to the first contact with the Dominion, the Klingon-Cardassian war, the Dominion invasion and finally the liberation of Cardassia and the defeat of the Dominion, all of it together with a bunch of wonderful characters.

What at first looked as what I use to call "TNG:s minor league team" (to use sports terms) dveloped into something much more, a bunch of likeable character who each developed in their own way due to the cicumstances.

Take Sisko for example. In the beginning, I found him a bit wooden. Moody and thougtful. But he devekoped into a real action bada** but without losing his original self or his humanity during all those years of adventures.

Kira, the hot-headed Bajoran freedom fighter turned out to be a responsible leader figure who ironically heled her old enemies, the Cardassians to get rid of the Dominion occupants.

Bashir, who did seem to be nervous and unsure of himself turned into a skilled doctor and important person overall, O'Brien, just a technician and transport chief from the start became a tower of strenght during all events. Nog's transformation from a spoined kid to a responsible Starfleet Officer is anoter example. And so on.

However, special favorite Quark remained himself all the way through the series and I'm actually happy for that!

The series also gave us some fearful but also interesting villains. The female Shapeshifter who I consider the most evil villain Star Trek has come up with, Gul Dukat, a constant nuisance for Sisko and the crew all the way from beginning to end, the sceming Kai Winn and the slimy Weyoun are some examples.

There was a time when I found the Cardassians being the meanest villains in Star Trek, even worse than the Borg but at the end of the series, I felt really sorry for them, especially when the Dominion tried to annihilate them at the end of the war.

here I must also mention Garak, who became my second favorite after Quark. From the beginning something of a minor character, then a mystery and then a hero which also sums up much of the character development in the series.

If I should come up with some minor criticism, then I would have liked tosee more action in the Gamma Quadrant. Unfortunately the war put an end to all that. It would have been interesting with a federation invasion of Dominion territory in the Gamma Quadrant. The war itself did from time to time seem to drag on forever but that's what wars often do.

Over-doing the Mirror Universe is my only real complaint. Tere were simply too many Mirror Universe episodes. The Pah-Wraith plot in season 7 was so-so but at leat it gave us the charming couple of Gul Dukat and Kai Winn :luvlove: and a fitting end to both of them.

DS9 is sometimes considered to be much "darker" than TNG and Voyager. Maybe it is. But I don't consider DS9 to be a "dark" series. It's far from the "doom-and-gloom" series which are so common today. DS9 had it shares of dark moments, yes. But there were always some lighter episodes here and there to lighten up the mood, like some Ferengi episode or other funny event. In that matter DS9 is a typical Star Trek series where there is hope for mankind. Such series are rare today and unfortunately, there are no such quality series as DS9 around these days.

It feels a bit empty now when I've watched all episodes and the series is over. But fortunately there are DVD:s and if the prophets and the unreliable DVD:s in my collection are with me, it won't be long until I put a disc in my DVD player to watch "Emissary" again and here we go! DS) is definitely worth a couple of re-runs, just like my old favorites TNG, Voyager and TOS.

Thanks again Sisko and crew for a wonderful experience. I'll be joining you again soon!

:beer:
 
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As the years go by I start to consider it the best of the Trek shows. It really was magnificent from beginning to end. So much to enjoy from so many wonderful characters. It's as if the writers took everything from TOS and TNG and soared with it to new creative heights that challenged the franchise. I doubt there will ever be a show like this again.
 
Yeah, there was no weak characters in DS9. The weakest, Dax. still had plenty of great moments. It exceeded TNG and I would've laid good money on a spin-off of a spin-off of a spin-off flopping creatively. But that did not happen..
 
So glad you enjoyed the series! As you start the second watching, you'll start to see depth and foreshadowing that you might have missed the first time through. Cheers!
 
Yeah, there was no weak characters in DS9. The weakest, Dax. still had plenty of great moments. It exceeded TNG and I would've laid good money on a spin-off of a spin-off of a spin-off flopping creatively. But that did not happen..

Dax was better the In Uhura, Crusher, Yar, Troi , Torres, Kes, T'Pol, Hoshi, and Burnham.

(That probably has more to say about SF pre-2000 than anything else.)
 
Yeah, there was no weak characters in DS9. The weakest, Dax. still had plenty of great moments. It exceeded TNG and I would've laid good money on a spin-off of a spin-off of a spin-off flopping creatively. But that did not happen..

Perhaps that is in part due to the fact they went with a different direction rather than more of the same.
 
Perhaps that is in part due to the fact they went with a different direction rather than more of the same.
The actors on DS9 all had stronger acting backgrounds than most of the TNG cast, the characters on DS9 had real differences with each other & it's a grittier show. That we sailed close to the Cardassians & Bajorans rather than getting jaded with those two races, we engaged with them making it a bit more deeper than a show that generally skipped from race to race on an episode per episode basis. And don't get me wrong here, folks - TNG itself was a quality show.
 
I like all the four best Trek series, TOS, TNG, DS9 and Voyager.
All had their different charm and lot of great character.
But after being able to watch the whole DS9 series, I must state that DS9 had gained a lot of points in my ranking.

However, one thing that strikes me is that I do find it stupid of those in charge to end all those seres after sven seasons.

OK, TOS is a special case here but TNG, DS9 and Voyager could have continued for many years, just like NCIS and it's spin-offs and the CSI series. All those series have continued for more than 7 seasons and in most cases held or are holding the same high standard after 15 seasons or so.
 
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Congratulations! You’ve now seen the best Trek has to offer (IMHO).
Now, put it away for 2-3 years and just think about it and talk with us about it. Look at a few clips on YT here and there. Then, when some time has passed, binge watch it again from beginning to end. If you thought you liked it now, just wait until that second viewing in a few years!
 
Congratulations! You’ve now seen the best Trek has to offer (IMHO).
Now, put it away for 2-3 years and just think about it and talk with us about it. Look at a few clips on YT here and there. Then, when some time has passed, binge watch it again from beginning to end. If you thought you liked it now, just wait until that second viewing in a few years!
Thanks for the advice.

But honestly, I don't think I can wait for 2-3 years. My fingers are already itching to pick up the first season's fist CD and watch "Emissary" again.

However,I think that I can wait a month or so, at least to when my vacation is over.
 
However, one thing that strikes me is that I do find it stupid of those in charge to end all those seres after sven seasons.

OK, TOS is a special case here but TNG, DS9 and Voyager could have continued for many years, just like NCIS and it's spin-offs and the CSI series. All those series have continued for more than 7 seasons and in most cases held or are holding the same high standard after 15 seasons or so.
You know what they say "All good things..."

Maybe the DS9 and VOY showrunners had their own version of the seven year itch. Maybe they had a hankering to move on to something else after hitting the seven season mark.
 
After all those years and all trouble with local stations quitting the series after one season and problems with malfunctioning DVD:s and such, I have finally watched the last episode of Deep Space Nine.

Glad you got through it, it's a great show!

And it was all a wonderful experience. A fantastic series with wonderful, likeable characters!

And characters one can like to hate! :D

What started as something I first saw as simply a TNG spin-off with the limitations of a space station located in the same area turned out to develope into something ocmpletly different.

Season 1 is often "Hi there, I'm a spinoff!" yet the actors elevated even the most banal stuff, and (as I posted in another thread earlier) Armin and others added dimension to characters that were originally written as one-dimensional. Even "Emissary", which does a great job in letting Sisko have three dimensions from the get-go, still has a TOS-like plot featuring TNG characters. It's a weird blend and despite its problems it's still a great opener.

The journey together with Sisko's crew took me through many different scenarios with unexpected turns and unpredicted developments here and there. All the way from the Cardassian-Bajoran conflict to the first contact with the Dominion, the Klingon-Cardassian war, the Dominion invasion and finally the liberation of Cardassia and the defeat of the Dominion, all of it together with a bunch of wonderful characters.

And Eddington! No other Trek series has done anything like his arc. Maybe STD but I've not seen enough whole episodes to know if they've tried doing the same thing.

What at first looked as what I use to call "TNG:s minor league team" (to use sports terms) dveloped into something much more, a bunch of likeable character who each developed in their own way due to the cicumstances.

The worst part is that they didn't get more than "Defiant becomes a taxi for Worf" in their "First Contact" movie. But by 1996, DS9 was already its own show and such a crossover may not have worked. Not with the comedy in the movie anyway.

Take Sisko for example. In the beginning, I found him a bit wooden. Moody and thougtful. But he devekoped into a real action bada** but without losing his original self or his humanity during all those years of adventures.

Still loved him facing off Picard in the premiere. He did get Picard-lite moments when dealing and delegating with Quark, which was actually intriguing. I still prefer Sisko in seasons 3-7 as by then the show is fully defined, though even in season 1 the same traits are there. WOuld have been a lot worse if the writers hadn't exploited the characters and what the actors brought to them. Especially Quark as, back then, I was surprised to see a Ferengi - the butt of any TNG episode featuring them. The makers of DS9 were on the right idea in improving the Ferengi, but Armin himself got the ball rolling - here's an article I can't post often enough: https://www.gamespot.com/articles/how-quark-became-a-fully-realized-ferengi-on-star-/1100-6457562/

(It's worth the full read!!)

Kira, the hot-headed Bajoran freedom fighter turned out to be a responsible leader figure who ironically heled her old enemies, the Cardassians to get rid of the Dominion occupants.

Nana Visitor holds her own, even in the pilot when angry over Bashir's ignorance over her people's plight.

Bashir, who did seem to be nervous and unsure of himself turned into a skilled doctor and important person overall, O'Brien, just a technician and transport chief from the start became a tower of strenght during all events. Nog's transformation from a spoined kid to a responsible Starfleet Officer is anoter example. And so on.

The DS9 equivalent to Barclay in some ways, he is his own original person and not a clone of Barclay, McCoy, or anyone else. He's arguably in my top 5 characters - depending on how much coffee I'd drank before voting.

However, special favorite Quark remained himself all the way through the series and I'm actually happy for that!

Yeah, DS9 does what TNG never really could - give depth to the Ferengi. (Again, Armin got that ball rolling and added MUCH to DS9.)

The series also gave us some fearful but also interesting villains. The female Shapeshifter who I consider the most evil villain Star Trek has come up with, Gul Dukat, a constant nuisance for Sisko and the crew all the way from beginning to end, the sceming Kai Winn and the slimy Weyoun are some examples.

All first rate, indeed!

There was a time when I found the Cardassians being the meanest villains in Star Trek, even worse than the Borg but at the end of the series, I felt really sorry for them, especially when the Dominion tried to annihilate them at the end of the war.

The Borg were cool early on, but the Dominian and Cardassians never got stale. That's pretty amazing, IMHO.

here I must also mention Garak, who became my second favorite after Quark. From the beginning something of a minor character, then a mystery and then a hero which also sums up much of the character development in the series.

DS9's equivalent of a Q-like trope but as an original character in his own right. And with an edge that only DS9 could get away with (ditto for the Q episode, which shows Q in a way that TNG couldn't begin to do regarding Vash.)

If I should come up with some minor criticism, then I would have liked tosee more action in the Gamma Quadrant. Unfortunately the war put an end to all that. It would have been interesting with a federation invasion of Dominion territory in the Gamma Quadrant. The war itself did from time to time seem to drag on forever but that's what wars often do.

It might have been,m as a counterstrike.

Over-doing the Mirror Universe is my only real complaint. Tere were simply too many Mirror Universe episodes. The Pah-Wraith plot in season 7 was so-so but at leat it gave us the charming couple of Gul Dukat and Kai Winn :luvlove: and a fitting end to both of them.

^^this

The mirror universe stuff just seemed nonsensical, convenient, and over the top. In short: fanservice. Or perhaps that because TOS and TNG (and VOY) had such defined archetypes for characters that a mirror equivalent would be more compelling. DS9's characters are so complex and grayscale that a mirror universe version just feels lacking.

However, the season 4 episode with the contrived holodeck malfunction and they're trapped in Bashir's spy program, the alter-identities of the crew more than make up for all the technobabble. Avery Brooks steals the show, IMHO, as the villain. Partly because they've gone back to the old tropes of good-vs-evil, but I'll appreciate the attempt at taking complex characters and trying to make mirror contrasts out of them. The cliché good-vs-evil cardboard archetypes just work better and, that's the title, "Our Man Bashir" readily reminds of that.

DS9 is sometimes considered to be much "darker" than TNG and Voyager. Maybe it is. But I don't consider DS9 to be a "dark" series. It's far from the "doom-and-gloom" series which are so common today. DS9 had it shares of dark moments, yes. But there were always some lighter episodes here and there to lighten up the mood, like some Ferengi episode or other funny event. In that matter DS9 is a typical Star Trek series where there is hope for mankind. Such series are rare today and unfortunately, there are no such quality series as DS9 around these days.

Seconded. It has its dark/gritty moments but is still very well-rounded, with nihilism kept to a minimum. So when that's used it's used well. Which also and oddly reminds me of "Year of Hell" (VOY) despite its reset button approach. :D

It feels a bit empty now when I've watched all episodes and the series is over. But fortunately there are DVD:s and if the prophets and the unreliable DVD:s in my collection are with me, it won't be long until I put a disc in my DVD player to watch "Emissary" again and here we go! DS) is definitely worth a couple of re-runs, just like my old favorites TNG, Voyager and TOS.

Thanks again Sisko and crew for a wonderful experience. I'll be joining you again soon!

:beer:

Yeah, I'm getting a hankering to rewatch "Emissary" again as well. I know some of it is iffy but what's really good still sticks out as being awesome. From the Borg at the start to Sisko's confrontation with Picard, Sisko doing a Picard to Quark, etc... the cornball "What is this thing call lurve?" had already been lampooned by Red Dwarf but that's okay... :D
 
Barclay was pretty unbelievable. Him getting admitted to Starfleet Academy, let alone graduating, let alone getting a starship assignment, just boggles the mind. If they really wanted to have that character, they should have made him suffering from PTSD somehow that greatly reduced his ability to socialize and cope. But the only series with enough guts to treat PTSD seriously was DS9.
 
There are lots of people with extreme social anxiety who can make it through because they're smart enough to pass all the tests and finish their assignments. He probably didn't become as detached as he was and addicted to the holodeck until he got to the Enterprise.
 
Maybe the DS9 and VOY showrunners had their own version of the seven year itch. Maybe they had a hankering to move on to something else after hitting the seven season mark.
Whether or not they wanted to do more DS9 is hard to tell, but we do know that Ron Moore was not yet ready to leave Star Trek, and it seems that Behr was happy to work no longer with/for Berman.
 
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