The Least Disliked Episode 2023: DS9 Season 5

[BlueStuff]

Our addictive biyearly game of rapid elimination returns - now with more shows than ever. It's generally a lot of fun, providing a chance to mentally revisit those episodes you may not have thought about in a while. With that in mind, why not play again?

So, here's the game. The basic idea is your standard elimination game. I'll provide a list of the episodes for each season and you need to eliminate your least favourite or the one you deem the 'worst.' Please provide an EXPLANATION for why you are eliminating your choice and be sure to copy and paste the list with your choice removed. Finally, leave at least 2 eliminations by other posters before you eliminate another episode.

No tactical voting! You cannot remove an episode just because you feel it would threaten your preferred episode's chance to win. Pretty simple. Enjoy!

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Hall of Champions
2011 - In the Pale Moonlight
2013 - In the Pale Moonlight
2017 - Improbable Cause
2019 - Tacking Into the Wind
2021 - Duet
2023 -

Season 5

Apocalypse Rising
The Ship
Looking for par'Mach in All the Wrong Places
...Nor the Battle to the Strong
The Assignment
Trials and Tribble-ations
Let He Who is Without Sin...
Things Past
The Ascent
Rapture
The Darkness and the Light
The Begotten
For the Uniform
In Purgatory's Shadow
By Inferno's Light
Doctor Bashir, I Presume?
A Simple Investigation
Business as Usual
Ties of Blood and Water
Ferengi Love Songs
Soldiers of the Empire
Children of Time
Blaze of Glory
Empok Nor
In the Cards
Call to Arms

 

[Sakonna]

"Apocalypse Rising" is shoddy trash. The story is just shit and it's possibly the most incompetent direction of the entire Berman era. As terrible as the script is, the lousy execution makes it even worse.

I really wonder what went wrong. The directors other credits are among Trek's greatest hits, so he's no slouch. Sometimes you just swing and miss I guess.

The Ship
Looking for par'Mach in All the Wrong Places
...Nor the Battle to the Strong
The Assignment
Trials and Tribble-ations
Let He Who is Without Sin...
Things Past
The Ascent
Rapture
The Darkness and the Light
The Begotten
For the Uniform
In Purgatory's Shadow
By Inferno's Light
Doctor Bashir, I Presume?
A Simple Investigation
Business as Usual
Ties of Blood and Water
Ferengi Love Songs
Soldiers of the Empire
Children of Time
Blaze of Glory
Empok Nor
In the Cards
Call to Arms

 

[Seven of Five]

Let He Who is Without Sin... is one of the worst episodes of DS9 ever made, basically involving a story with Worf in a bad mood.

The Ship
Looking for par'Mach in All the Wrong Places
...Nor the Battle to the Strong
The Assignment
Trials and Tribble-ations
Things Past
The Ascent
Rapture
The Darkness and the Light
The Begotten
For the Uniform
In Purgatory's Shadow
By Inferno's Light
Doctor Bashir, I Presume?
A Simple Investigation
Business as Usual
Ties of Blood and Water
Ferengi Love Songs
Soldiers of the Empire
Children of Time
Blaze of Glory
Empok Nor
In the Cards
Call to Arms

 

[Sakonna]

God, how did I miss "Let He Who Is Without Sin", that one is my most hated DS9 ever. I put it below "Profit & Lace." I just saw "Apocalypse Rising" at the top and got furious remembering how bad it was and that was it!

 

[Seven of Five]

I enjoy it enough, it's a shame they dropped the ball by having Martok as the changeling. At least they didn't stop the ball when they found the internment camp.

 

[Summer Solstice]

"Children of Time" - I don't particularly like time travel and I think it's kind of obvious that they are going to avoid the crash landing.


The Ship
Looking for par'Mach in All the Wrong Places
...Nor the Battle to the Strong
The Assignment
Trials and Tribble-ations
Things Past
The Ascent
Rapture
The Darkness and the Light
The Begotten
For the Uniform
In Purgatory's Shadow
By Inferno's Light
Doctor Bashir, I Presume?
A Simple Investigation
Business as Usual
Ties of Blood and Water
Ferengi Love Songs
Soldiers of the Empire
Blaze of Glory
Empok Nor
In the Cards
Call to Arms

 

[Qonundrum]

A few thousand tribbles screamed at a fate worse than being chucked into a Klingon ship:

Trials and Tribble-ations​

Granted, season 5 is mostly winners and even the lesser ones have some good ideas - just not executed great.

T&T-ations is by no means a lesser story; it gets the most important bits right and weaves around an old tale, complete with melding new images in with the old seamlessly. For the most part.

But is it the best?

Nope.

Be glad the orb of time also threw the ship halfway across the galaxy along with a hundred years of time.

Be glad Kirk and Spock never noticed the impurities of a human and a trill with its symbiont crawling in the grain hold.

But I'm really glad that they screwed up with the eyeline toward Marlena from the TOS episode being paid homage to, since Sisko's in her spot now and - oopsie - it makes Uhura look somewhere else, which is A-OK by me since they had the lady officer in TNG's "Encounter at Farpoint" check out Riker too. Not to mention Gary Mitchell in TOS's WNMHGB. And that one scene I need to track down one day where the dude walks past Wesley and checks him out (from season 2, I'm certain...)



Also, here's that TOS crossover - the one you've rarely heard about because it didn't exist before:

(On edit - seriously, look at the edit)

To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

Accept third party cookies

The fun is 0:42 in. Which makes sense, if you know that 42 is life, the universe, and everything...


What's left:
The Ship
Looking for par'Mach in All the Wrong Places
...Nor the Battle to the Strong
The Assignment
Things Past
The Ascent
Rapture
The Darkness and the Light
The Begotten
For the Uniform
In Purgatory's Shadow
By Inferno's Light
Doctor Bashir, I Presume?
A Simple Investigation
Business as Usual
Ties of Blood and Water
Ferengi Love Songs
Soldiers of the Empire
Blaze of Glory
Empok Nor
In the Cards
Call to Arms

 

[Qonundrum]

Let He Who is Without Sin... is one of the worst episodes of DS9 ever made, basically involving a story with Worf in a bad mood.

To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

Accept third party cookies

But it's the best episode ever! 178 words for "rain"! There's no word for "crisp" on Ferenginar! They're all in a dome! The dome's entryway is an arch! In the shape of a Hor'gon! Who doesn't want to walk between those legs!

To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

Accept third party cookies

Dang, the dome earlier didn't have windows! (that's probably the best scene in the story...)

On the plus side, here's the other director's edition of the same story:

To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

Accept third party cookies

Worf is still harsh, but he is honorable in keeping his word!

 

[Takeru]

For the Uniform, Sisko is a criminal and should be in prison, poisoning that colony was inexcusable.



The Ship
Looking for par'Mach in All the Wrong Places
...Nor the Battle to the Strong
The Assignment
Things Past
The Ascent
Rapture
The Darkness and the Light
The Begotten
In Purgatory's Shadow
By Inferno's Light
Doctor Bashir, I Presume?
A Simple Investigation
Business as Usual
Ties of Blood and Water
Ferengi Love Songs
Soldiers of the Empire
Blaze of Glory
Empok Nor
In the Cards
Call to Arms

 

[Sakonna]

"Things Past" is a bit of a flop. Very awkwardly structured story. They're trying to recapture that "Necessary Evil" magic, and they fail.

The Ship
Looking for par'Mach in All the Wrong Places
...Nor the Battle to the Strong
The Assignment
The Ascent
Rapture
The Darkness and the Light
The Begotten
In Purgatory's Shadow
By Inferno's Light
Doctor Bashir, I Presume?
A Simple Investigation
Business as Usual
Ties of Blood and Water
Ferengi Love Songs
Soldiers of the Empire
Blaze of Glory
Empok Nor
In the Cards
Call to Arms

 

[Oddish]

"The Assignment". While it's "turnabout is fair play" for "Power Play" and gives Keiko some much needed action, it introduces the Pah Wraiths. The Bajoran religion did not need a devil.

The Ship
Looking for par'Mach in All the Wrong Places
...Nor the Battle to the Strong
The Ascent
Rapture
The Darkness and the Light
The Begotten
In Purgatory's Shadow
By Inferno's Light
Doctor Bashir, I Presume?
A Simple Investigation
Business as Usual
Ties of Blood and Water
Ferengi Love Songs
Soldiers of the Empire
Blaze of Glory
Empok Nor
In the Cards
Call to Arms

 

[Seven of Five]

Ferengi Love Songs is a bit too goofy for its own good and is definitely a bad Ferengi episode. It's a shame they didn't build on Family Business by having Ishka being a tool for change as opposed to an awful partner for Zek.

The Ship
Looking for par'Mach in All the Wrong Places
...Nor the Battle to the Strong
The Ascent
Rapture
The Darkness and the Light
The Begotten
In Purgatory's Shadow
By Inferno's Light
Doctor Bashir, I Presume?
A Simple Investigation
Business as Usual
Ties of Blood and Water
Soldiers of the Empire
Blaze of Glory
Empok Nor
In the Cards
Call to Arms

 

[Farscape One]

Another very, very strong season. Recent years have made me reevaluate this season as the second best season of DS9, right behind the obviously phenomenal season 4. (With season 6 being just a hair behind season 5.)

Taking out "A SIMPLE INVESTIGATION". A solid episode, but I feel it would have made a bigger impact on Odo if it was produced while he was a solid.


The Ship
Looking for par'Mach in All the Wrong Places
...Nor the Battle to the Strong
The Ascent
Rapture
The Darkness and the Light
The Begotten
In Purgatory's Shadow
By Inferno's Light
Doctor Bashir, I Presume?
Business as Usual
Ties of Blood and Water
Soldiers of the Empire
Blaze of Glory
Empok Nor
In the Cards
Call to Arms

 

[Sakonna]

"Empok Nor", for being so underlit I can never rewatch it. If it's not 2 AM with the blinds drawn in a completely dark room, you can't see a damn thing in this episode!

The Ship
Looking for par'Mach in All the Wrong Places
...Nor the Battle to the Strong
The Ascent
Rapture
The Darkness and the Light
The Begotten
In Purgatory's Shadow
By Inferno's Light
Doctor Bashir, I Presume?
Business as Usual
Ties of Blood and Water
Soldiers of the Empire
Blaze of Glory
In the Cards
Call to Arms

 

[Oddish]

Empok Nor", for being so underlit I can never rewatch it. If it's not 2 AM with the blinds drawn in a completely dark room, you can't see a damn thing in this episode!

Sounds like watching "Picard".

Removing "The Ship". As episodes go, it's not horrible, but it seems to join "Empok Nor" in the TOS "let's kill all the redshirts" tradition. And, the ending is a big downer.

Looking for par'Mach in All the Wrong Places
...Nor the Battle to the Strong
The Ascent
Rapture
The Darkness and the Light
The Begotten
In Purgatory's Shadow
By Inferno's Light
Doctor Bashir, I Presume?
Business as Usual
Ties of Blood and Water
Soldiers of the Empire
Blaze of Glory
In the Cards
Call to Arms

 

[Farscape One]

I have always really loved "THE SHIP" because it's one of the few episodes where we actually see the captain examine the cost of a victory, and really mourn the loss of crewmen under him. (Yet another reason why the Sisko is my favorite captain.) From that perspective, I don't look on it as a downer, just more realistic.


Taking out "RAPTURE".

It's a good episode, but it's one of the only times in the series where I can't defend Sisko's actions. He very clearly violated the Prime Directive here, and he should have received a reprimand or something. And Winn was completely wrong in trying to blame Jake in his decision to save his father's life because of a religion.


Looking for par'Mach in All the Wrong Places
...Nor the Battle to the Strong
The Ascent
The Darkness and the Light
The Begotten
In Purgatory's Shadow
By Inferno's Light
Doctor Bashir, I Presume?
Business as Usual
Ties of Blood and Water
Soldiers of the Empire
Blaze of Glory
In the Cards
Call to Arms

 

[Seven of Five]

Doctor Bashir, I Presume? is a decent if unspectacular episode, so it's gone. It was fun seeing Robert Picardo on DS9. The retcon on Bashir's history with genetic engineering was mostly handled well, even if it came out of nowhere.

Looking for par'Mach in All the Wrong Places
...Nor the Battle to the Strong
The Ascent
The Darkness and the Light
The Begotten
In Purgatory's Shadow
By Inferno's Light
Business as Usual
Ties of Blood and Water
Soldiers of the Empire
Blaze of Glory
In the Cards
Call to Arms

 

[Sakonna]

God, three of these I would love to off. I guess I'll go with "The Begotten." Such a disapointing petering out of so many different things. A Dr. Mora follow-up that adds nothing to that overall story. An anti-climactic end to Odo-as-solid. The final appearance of Shakaar.

Sounds like watching "Picard".

Really? Huh, that's not a problem I have with the modern era. Except for a few of those early Disco's ("Context Is For Kings", I might as well have my eyes closed), it still all pops for me during the day. I guess it can really depend on your TV too.

Looking for par'Mach in All the Wrong Places
...Nor the Battle to the Strong
The Ascent
The Darkness and the Light
In Purgatory's Shadow
By Inferno's Light
Business as Usual
Ties of Blood and Water
Soldiers of the Empire
Blaze of Glory
In the Cards
Call to Arms

 

[Farscape One]

Taking out "BLAZE OF GLORY".

It was fine, just not as good as "FOR THE UNIFORM" in terms of the Sisko/Eddington conflict.

Looking for par'Mach in All the Wrong Places
...Nor the Battle to the Strong
The Ascent
The Darkness and the Light
In Purgatory's Shadow
By Inferno's Light
Business as Usual
Ties of Blood and Water
Soldiers of the Empire
In the Cards
Call to Arms

 

[Seven of Five]

As much as I love Martok, and how he got his groove back, I think Soldiers of the Empire plays a bit like a generic Klingon episode and stands out as a little bit worse than the ones left.

Looking for par'Mach in All the Wrong Places
...Nor the Battle to the Strong
The Ascent
The Darkness and the Light
In Purgatory's Shadow
By Inferno's Light
Business as Usual
Ties of Blood and Water
In the Cards
Call to Arms