I like most of the episodes you mentioned, but you lost me at
The Emperor's New Cloak. That episode is Mirror Universe at its worst, with all of the things that sucked about it: silly plot, evil lesbians/bisexuals
and overall pointlessness (good humans and, now, good Bajorans [Leeta], fighting against evil Cardassians and Klingons, right, we really need the MU for that... no, right, we need it in order to have some girl-on-girl action
). It even combined two worst aspects of DS9: MU and Ferengi comedy at its worst.
Well, I liked all of the mirror universe episodes (except
"Resurrection", which I haven't seen), so that's the first reason I feel differently about it than most people. The other thing is that basically I think you and many others who are against that episode are just taking it too seriously.
I think it's just fun. Not as overtly comedic as something like
"Fascination" for example, but like people are supposed to see that episode, I mostly see it as a silly and enjoyable romp. I thought it was cool to see Ezri being ruthless and the sex stuff just amused me. I liked Rom's constant bewilderment at everything going on too. It was a very obvious joke, but sometimes those jokes work (the movie
"Airplane!" for example).
It's way worse than Prodigal's Daughter. Prodigal's Daughter could be removed and we wouldn't feel any difference, but if Emperor's New Cloak was removed, it would make season 7 and the show overall better by a few notches. Not that MU on DS9 didn't suck before that, but this episode was its nadir.
I appreciated the
"Emperor's New Cloak" as a bit of a break from all of the serious events going on in season 7, it was a welcome bit of comic relief for me. It was fairly self-contained. I don't understand why you think it seriously hurt the season overall. It's not like some major events in it impacted subsequent episodes in a significantly negative way.
"Prodigal Daughter", on the other hand, just bored me, so it felt like a waste of time. When I have to choose between an episode with its heart in the right place that's dull and an episode that's entertaining, but pointless, I'll choose the more entertaining one.
Are you serious?
ITHOTP is a great episode! And you accuse other people of being spoiled?! There are tons of stinkers in season 1 you could have chosen, and instead you pick one of its best episodes?!
Well by now I think you're familiar with my bias against Bajoran-centric episodes. I looked over the whole list of season 1 episodes to make my choice and I found it was the one that bothered me the most, because it left me really reluctant to continue watching DS9 seasons after finishing season 1. It not only bored me and focused relentlessly on my least liked alien species on Star Trek, it also irritated me because I don't like religious debate being brought into Star Trek. It never worked for me on DS9 and this episode was one of the times when it got on my nerves the most. I would say I generally think sci-fi and religion don't mix, but I really like the way it's been used in BSG, so I guess it's just DS9's way of dealing with it that bugged me. Other season 1 episodes were just so forgettable that I don't have any feelings about them at all.
The rest of the season 1 episodes I didn't like much were pretty poorly written, but at least have something positive I can remember about them. For example,
"Move Along Home" had sort of a campy quality that made it enjoyable in parts, despite its overall cheesiness....same with
"If Wishes Were Horses". A lot of people hate on
"Q-Less" and yeah, the technobabble in that episode is agonizing, but Q and Vash were great on TNG, and even if they weren't as cool in this episode, it was still nice to see them again and they had a few great moments.
Eh, I don't think the Alexander stuff is particularly bad
and I really liked the Ziyal stuff. It isn't anywhere near being one of the worst episodes!
Yeah, in that case it was just hard for me to pick a worst episode because I haven't seen a lot of episodes from season 6 (including many that are often cited as the worst episode by others) and I think what I've seen of that season was solid. Of what I have seen, one thing I remember pissing me off most in that season was the way Alexander was written. I really liked him towards the end of TNG.
It wasn't even an erotic kiss! I swear I'm not just trying to sound 'mature', but I didn't find it that sexy. Yes, the two women were both beautiful, but in the context of the story, it's a really bittersweet scene. Of course people will just think of it as hot girl-on-girl action, but there's much deeper and emotionally powerful stuff going on in that scene and episode, gutterbrains. 
Out of seven seasons that each have a ton of stinkers, you pick THOSE as the worst? Methinks some people are spoiled.
