DS9 rising appreciation

[new_mercury]

This may not be an accurate observation but recently more people seem to be appreciating DS9.
For instance up until a few years ago whenever I mentioned Star Trek either to friends or work colleagues etc some new TOS and TNG but when I mentioned DS9, I got blank faces and 'it can't be as good' s.

but recently I have had a work colleague ask to borrow DS9 on DVD, he has worked through 5 seasons in the last couple of months. When I went to buy 'these haunted seas from the bookshop' I got into a discussion with the assistant who had just started getting into DS9 and was enjoying it.
There have been a few more examples of this recently.

Is it just me???

 

[Liselle]

Well I can only speak for myself - but I certainly appreciate it more now than I used to. I didnt' even watch the whole series back when it was on originally, but did with Voyager (my old favourite) and TNG. But since rewatching DS9 all the way through on Virgin, it's now easily my favaourite, and I think the best of the lot.

 

[ria 75]

The universe of DS9 is compelling but demanding to the viewer. One can hardly begin watching it from the middle I believe. I consider it the best Star Trek series although if I'm asked what my favourite is, I'll say Voyager.

DS9 may be a bit hard for networks to broadcast, due to its length. It also takes great fidelity from the watcher. Although once you're there, you don't want it to stop.

It deserves to be rediscovered. It easily conquers the viewer (if watched in sequence). It just seems not to be given too many chances - I can only speak for France, actually. Here I think it was only broadcast once, years ago, on cable TV, perhaps not even in the original English. (And Star Trek dubbings are lame.) Whereas the not yet 3-year-old French SciFi channel is rerunning Voyager for the second time already or something. I hope we get DS9 after that.

 

[Jono]

Personally I haven't seen a marked increase in appreciation of the show from the people that I know. Though the church talky guy at my brother's church referenced the Jem'Hadar in his speech. His main focus was their motto, "Victory is life."

If anything it is probably some spin-off from the upcoming movie. After a few lean years Star Trek is getting a big kick by the release of a new film that has a connection to a very well known person in Abrams, for example if I mention there is a new Trek movie coming out most of my friends don't really care but drop J.J Abrams and that gets their attention. With Star Trek more in the headlines or whatever people start to notice the previous works more and consider checking them out.

 

[c5maier]

perhaps not even in the original English. (And Star Trek dubbings are lame.)

While I agree (and spent an awful lot of money in the 80's to import all TOS videos from the UK in order to see them undubbed) it is funny because I actually currently watch the DS9 DVD's together with my wife in the French version with subtitles in order to improve our language skills. Generally speaking, they don't seem to have butchered it.

And on topic re. the OP, it is the Star Trek that my wife likes best of all, because it has less last-minute easy solutions than the other shows have. Speaking for myself, it is a draw between TOS and DS9, with TNG coming after that. The majority of VOY and ENT I have yet to see, but that need not be any time soon. And I have found that less people know DS9 than TOS or TNG, but those that do usually like it a lot.

 

[PKTrekGirl]

Well, if this forum is any indication, there has certainly been an increase in appreciation for DS9 - especially since Enterprise went off the air.

People who either never saw it at all or who never gave it a chance when it was on began to try it again...and most times with the same result you experienced. Over the years, we have had a fair number of threads in this forum expressing the same sentiment as your own...and coming out of much the same personal history with the show as yours.

I think this is because of several reasons....but mostly because DS9 has held up better than any other Trek show. TNG looks very dated now - especially the first couple of seasons. And the themes of TNG are very '1980's Politically Correct'...and that dates the show as well.

DS9 doesn't have that problem. A big interstellar war - a good vs evil theme, is timeless. It's not a theme that 'wears out' over time.

I think the other chief reason is because these days people are much more accepting of shows with long story arcs. Back when DS9 first aired, everyone seemed to want their scifi shows episodic...with an alien of the week and the whole thing wrapped up with a nice neat bow by episode end. TOS was that way and TNG was that way, and so everyone expected DS9 to be that way. And when it wasn't, that whole 'resistance to change' thing kicked in and people tuned out.

Now? Long story arcs are commonplace in scifi TV shows. People are much more used to them and are much more willing to accept them in DS9.

 

[Admiral Rem]

Hello - I haven't logged in to this site in a very long time. I lurk quite often - especially in this board. As a long time Niner (and someone who watched it from the beginning in 1993) I can agree with your comments about a greater appreciation for DS9. I had to defend DS9 to many of my fellow Trek friends who couldn't get past the concept that DS9 was a "stationed based" show (it didn't go anywhere), a War like show (mind you that the Dominion Arc started at the end of Season 5, beginning of season 6), and had an unlikeable cast (especially for some after the airing of "In the Pale Moonlight" which I thought was one of the best character moments of the series). Again, this is what they would tell me. I consider DS9 to be my favorite Trek - the one that took Trek into a different direction and in my opinion, succeeded in showing that Trek could be done in a different way. Ira Behr, Ron Moore, an all of the writers shoudl be commended for their different approach to Trek. It may not have been the media darllng like TNG, but it had, in my opinion, superior stories, well developed primary, secondary, and tertiary characters, and for the most part good writing. For me, this show has aged and in many ways was ahead of its time.

 

[McCoy]

I was just saying in another thread that compared to other Trek, I didn't really like DS9 when it first aired. But in the past year, since falling in love with nuBSG and reading Jammer's reviews, I took the opportunity to buy the series DVD set when it went on sale for half price. After a full rewatching, it has become my favourite modern Trek.

 

[PKTrekGirl]

I was just saying in another thread that compared to other Trek, I didn't really like DS9 when it first aired. But in the past year, since falling in love with nuBSG and reading Jammer's reviews, I took the opportunity to buy the series DVD set when it went on sale for half price. After a full rewatching, it has become my favourite modern Trek.

Another satisfied customer.

 

[ria 75]

perhaps not even in the original English. (And Star Trek dubbings are lame.)

While I agree (and spent an awful lot of money in the 80's to import all TOS videos from the UK in order to see them undubbed) it is funny because I actually currently watch the DS9 DVD's together with my wife in the French version with subtitles in order to improve our language skills. Generally speaking, they don't seem to have butchered it.

It's mostly the acting I object to in dubbed version. It's so flat. It makes the shows sound dumb. For the translation, a lot slips by, in dubbed version of course. Unless you really know that business like I do. The VOST subtitles you read on top of the dubbing may be a simple contraction of the dubbing - a common, cheapass subtitling practice called transfer or something, I can't remember. It saves the full cost of a translation. Which is one of the possible reasons why a given subtitling looks so bad on top of the original English. And when it's a proper translation, many translators are not specialized enough.

How are you enjoying my good old town Toulouse?

 

[FamilySlitheen]

Can ANYONE explain this to me. I'm not a Star Trek fan. I can't stand what few episodes I've seen of TOS,TNG,VOY and ENT but I ADORE, simply ADORE DS9. I got into it purely by accident (it was on when I was waiting for one of my friends to get ready to go out and thought WOW).

The characters are 3 dimensional with diverse problems, the Dominion War story arc is excellent, the paranoia that permeates the series is tangible and the action scenes are second to none.

I've just bought all seven series and am currently half way through series 4. I have no intention of buying any other Trek because, frankly, I'm not interested.

 

[ria 75]

Well, DS9 simply is the best Trek of all, the most multidimensional, also the least Trek-like - no trekking: space station, with, instead, the serious, continuing topics of ongoing war and diplomacy, espionnage, etc., etc.

 

[Admiral Rem]

From my perspective, DS9 is the flip side of the coin of what Sar Trek TNG was about.

TNG: the series on the exploration of the human condition that was analogously linked to their exploration of space through a large and mighty ship traveling from world to world.

DS9: Was the exploration of the human condition in a "not so perfect setting with "not so perfect" characters that had to face the consequences of their actions on their station and the world around around them.

The ship on TNG and TOS was the vehicle for them to explore the human condition. On DS9, they explored the human condition on a space station, later on the Defiant.

 

[NKemp3]

DS9 has been getting respect from magazines (other than EW) and websites for ten years. The past six or eight years you will see much more passionate appreciation from every day fans on various TV/film message baords. This isn't really all that new.

 

[I am not Spock]

DS9 has this intangible appeal which means that even if someone doesn't like the other Trek shows, he or she may dig it nevertheless. My two younger brothers have not been impressed by TNG, VOY, or ENT, but they did say DS9 and TOS were cool when I showed them samples of each.

 

[Jono]

DS9 has this intangible appeal which means that even if someone doesn't like the other Trek shows, he or she may dig it nevertheless. My two younger brothers have not been impressed by TNG, VOY, or ENT, but they did say DS9 and TOS were cool when I showed them samples of each.

That could be said of any of the shows. We see a many examples just on this board of people who only really like one of the series. I only have two friends who are really into Trek and one only really likes TNG and the other only likes Voyager.

 

[Jax]

I watched all 7 seasons earlier this year and since I was young when it aired originally it was like having a new show to watch...

AND I FUCKING LOVED IT .

Infact I watch Babylon 5 & this back to back and dam that was just fun

 

[scottydog]

Can ANYONE explain this to me. I'm not a Star Trek fan. I can't stand what few episodes I've seen of TOS,TNG,VOY and ENT but I ADORE, simply ADORE DS9.

This is interesting, but I think I can understand. In my opinion, of all the star trek series, DS9 is the most consistently excellent.

As much as I absolutely adore TOS, half to 2/3 of the episodes are awful. The other 1/3 to 1/2 range from very good to phenomenal. And so if you first see some of the bad ones, I can understand being turned off of TOS completely.

TNG is also on its game for only about 1/2 to 2/3 of the time. The remaining third of the eps are truly bad and would turn me off of TNG if I saw those bad ones first.

VOY and ENT have the same problem with consistency. But DS9 does not. The vast majority of DS9 episodes are high quality.

 

[Robotech Master]

Yes.

DS9 is teh bomb.

 

[Angel4576]

Apologies to VOY/ENT fans, but, Trek's finest days are generally represented by TOS/TNG and DS9. TOS has been re-run to death, TNG is incredibly dated in parts, whilst DS9 continues to hold up remarkably well. TOS would come across as being dated as well, but for its charm and virtual showcase of 60s values. It's cheesy to the point of being retro, which TNG isn't.

DS9, with its dark tone and fresh (for Trek) approach, stands out like a sore thumb in Trek's landscape, but in a good way. Whilst Voyager for sure, and Enterprise for the most part, come across as being irrelevant today, DS9 still captivates.

It certainly doesn't surprise me these days to hear of DS9's continued popularity. From experience, when people talk about Star Trek today, it seems to be in terms of TOS or DS9, as neither really play into the 'geek' stereotype that say TNG, VOY or ENT might.