The earliest defining moment of DS9

The destruction of the Odyssey just seemed to me like a "Hey fans, we're NOT GONNA BE LIKE TNG". More a statement of what the show is not than what the show is.

 

Right. And it wasn't a reversible time anomaly or something like, say, "Cause & Effect" or "Yesterday's Enterprise" (though both were enjoyable eps in their own right nonetheless). I had the same feeling about later eps of DS9 like with Dominion War, as well as the new JJ Abrams Star Trek movie. The instant they destroyed Vulcan in that movie, I knew that we were in for some serious stuff and that they weren't going to pull any punches. At that point, it was made clear that nothing nor anybody is "safe" in the new series. I ALMOST thought that they were going to push a "reset button" at the end of the movie when they destroy the Narada and almost get sucked into the Black Hole but they didn't and for that I was thankful.

 

Yeah, I definitely agree. teacake's moment from "Emissary" is a critical one, to be sure, but I feel that "Duet" provided a more focused definition, along the lines of, "Yes, this show will be about suffering and we are not going to shy away from discussing the ambiguities of sufferings and their causes." Kira's line, "No! It's not." at the end is probably the defining moment for me, actually. DS9 was about change (see Quark's last lines in the series), and that line sums it all up, right there.

(Also, teacake, I want to echo what others have said: your analysis of that scene from Emissary is very eloquently put indeed. )