Starting on Deep Space Nine
- Thread starter royalfan5
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DS9 more than the other series(especially TOS and TNG) is quite linear, so you should watch them in order. Season 1 is bit subpar compared to the rest of the series(though has a few gems of it's own), but once you get past it, you get into some serious goodness. DS9 definitely has the best overall continuous plot and character arcs of all the Trek series. Even many of the extras are around often enough they get developed quite well.
Most will agree that DSN had a somewaht lacklustre start comparred to what came later in the shows run, but then again TNG's S1 wasn't that great either. One of the highlights of S1 of DSN is near the end the episode "Duet". Some regard it not only as one of DSN's best, but one of Star Trek's best.
Honest advice? Don't go into DS9 expecting a shining example of serialised television, it's a semi-serialised patchwork of mostly good ideas and some bad ones. For a Star Trek series, it is far and away the best at continuity and story arcs, major events do matter in future episodes, but because the show is grounded in Star Trek's usual episodic style, it sometimes takes a while for plots to be followed up on. A non-spoilery example is the story of a recurring character that betrays Sisko in one episode, but that story isn't followed up at all for a whole year, at which point we're expected to believe that Sisko has been obsessing about that betrayal all that time. Compared to modern serialised shows, DS9 comes across as somewhat amateurish. The show's strength is in that the writers were really good at taking loose plot and character threads and tying them together with unrelated threads to forge a grander narrative. There are unexpected turns on the journey, but they all (well, most of them) make sense and add something to the show's core.
Most importantly of all, DS9 makes the Star Trek universe feel alive, it's more than just a random jumble of planets, anomalies, and adventurers. Deep Space Nine is a place where people live, they have jobs, they learn, they grow, they have fun, and they struggle. All the major races get developed, both as governments and individuals. This framework allows the characters to flourish and develop in interesting ways, including complete transformations for some. There are characters in What You Leave Behind that you wouldn't recognise from watching Emissary, but you don't have trouble believing those transformations because you witness the characters being shaped by the events they're involved in.
That is why us Niners love the show.
Most importantly of all, DS9 makes the Star Trek universe feel alive, it's more than just a random jumble of planets, anomalies, and adventurers. Deep Space Nine is a place where people live, they have jobs, they learn, they grow, they have fun, and they struggle. All the major races get developed, both as governments and individuals. This framework allows the characters to flourish and develop in interesting ways, including complete transformations for some. There are characters in What You Leave Behind that you wouldn't recognise from watching Emissary, but you don't have trouble believing those transformations because you witness the characters being shaped by the events they're involved in.
That is why us Niners love the show.
Well, there's a line in a fifth-season episode, which I think is non-spoilery enough to quote... somebody talking to Sisko says something like:
"Think of it Captain! A few years ago, no one had ever heard of Bajor or Deep Space Nine. And now all our hopes rest here. Where the tides of fortune take us, no man can tell."
Which says a lot about how the show works overall. At the beginning, DS9 is an outpost on the frontier, and by the end it's the epicenter of galactic affairs.
It's a fun ride, so I suggest sticking with it.
"Think of it Captain! A few years ago, no one had ever heard of Bajor or Deep Space Nine. And now all our hopes rest here. Where the tides of fortune take us, no man can tell."
Which says a lot about how the show works overall. At the beginning, DS9 is an outpost on the frontier, and by the end it's the epicenter of galactic affairs.
It's a fun ride, so I suggest sticking with it.
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I'm going to give you a list of my favourite episodes which I think are some of the best (not everyone will agree) 
Season 1:
Season 2:
Season 3:
Season 4:
Season 5:
Season 6:
Season 7:
Season 1:
- Emissary
- Duet
Season 2:
- The Homecoming, The Circle, The Siege
- The Maquis parts 1 & 2
- The Jem Ha'dar
Season 3:
- The Search parts 1 & 2
- The Defiant
- Improbable Cause & The Die is Cast
- The Adversary
Season 4:
- The Way of the Warrior
- The Visitor
- Homefront & Paradise Lost
- For the Cause
- To the Death
- Body Parts
Season 5:
- Apocolypse Rising
- Trials and Tribble-ations
- For the Uniform
- In Purgatoy's Shadow & By Inferno's Light
- Soldiers of the Empire
- Call to Arms
Season 6:
- A Time to Stand/Rocks and Shoals/Sons and Daughters/Behind the Lines/Favor the bold/Sacrifice of Angels
- Waltz
- Far beyond the stars
- Inquisition
- In the pale moonlight
- The Reckoning
- The Sound of her voice
- Tears of the Prophets
Season 7:
- Image in the sand/Shadows & Symbols
- The Siege of AR-558
- The final 10 episodes starting with 'Inter Arma Enim Silent Leges'
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So I just finished Emissary. So far so good. It seems to me the high waists really must comeback in style in the 24th century.
I watched and enjoyed Past Prolouge, but unfortunately, I got a bad DVD from netflx, and the Third Episode was non-working. Hopefully I won't miss anything important because of it.
I watched and enjoyed Past Prolouge, but unfortunately, I got a bad DVD from netflx, and the Third Episode was non-working. Hopefully I won't miss anything important because of it.
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It's a show that definitely gets better as you go. The later half of the series in particular is pretty good. Have fun!
A Man Alone? It has some Odo character work, but nothing essential. Much more (and better) Odo stuff to come.
Watch it all in order and you're going to love it. I wish I could watch DS9 again the whole way through for the first time. S01 is a bit slow on it, but when certain things kick in you are screaming out for another episode. Seasons 5-7 are some of my all time favourite episodes of any TV show and love the arcs it comes up with.
If you're going to watch them back to back, there's a couple of things you'll notice.
Odo's changing make-up. His features change from episode to episode. I think this is mostly first season.
The Ferengi's changing personalities. The Ferengi go from mean-spirited opportunists to baffoons. Especially Rom's personality.
I think it's third season when Sisko turns into A Man Called Hawk. Or is that 'returns to'?
Dr. Bashir becomes much less high-strung.
Dax's personality markedly changes at the end of the 6th season.
I can't say any more without spoiling things.
Odo's changing make-up. His features change from episode to episode. I think this is mostly first season.
The Ferengi's changing personalities. The Ferengi go from mean-spirited opportunists to baffoons. Especially Rom's personality.
I think it's third season when Sisko turns into A Man Called Hawk. Or is that 'returns to'?
Dr. Bashir becomes much less high-strung.
Dax's personality markedly changes at the end of the 6th season.
I can't say any more without spoiling things.
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I just finished watching the 7 season run a couple of weeks ago. Like others, I would only suggest that you watch them in order. With such a break since the last time you watched the run, I know how you'll feel. This is a series that gets better every season. Have fun.
I will have the rest of season 1 in my possesion by tomorrow, and I will probably get another 10 episodes watched by the end of the weekend, depending on weather and such. My plan is to go pretty much full tilt through it, as I have more free time to watch stuff this time of year.
Dax's personality markedly changes at the end of the 6th season.
Personality change? Well I -guess- you could call it that.
Technically, that's fourth season. Late S3 he gets the beard, season 4 he adds the bald.
Excellent post, I completely agree. While DS9 is obviously not a pre-planned arc show in the way Babylon 5 was, the writers did a great job of looking at past episodes and tying things together so it looked like a cohesive narrative. The X-Files tried to do the same thing with it's mythology and completely fell on it's arse as the writers would always forget stuff so nothing fit together. Making it up as you go along is a perfectly fine way of writing a show, as long as the writers always keep in mind past continuity points.
About S1, the brushing aside of the wormhole/Prophets plotline is one of the weirdest things in DS9. It's discovered in Emissary and treated as some great, mysterious miracle. By the next episode, and for the rest of the season, it's treated as mundane as we would treat a toaster.
So I've gotten through Q-Less. I enjoyed Babel and Captive Pursuit much more than Q-Less. especially Captive Pursuit. It seemed to me that Captive Pursuit was able to do a classic exploring type story within the confines of the station. I don't have a lot say about Babel I guess. I enjoy Q a lot more when he is trying to make some sort of real point instead just being an irritant, and the whole episode seemed to me that they just felt they needed more to tie the series to existing Trek than anything else.
This happened a lot with season 1 of DS9. The Duras Sisters, Q, Vash, Lwaxana Troi, all popping in with no real purpose other than to say "Hey this is Star Trek too!" At least when Gowron shows up during season 4 there's a point to it.
Really when DS9 finds it's own identity and starts having it's own guest stars reoccurring so much they have their own character arcs and development, is when the good stories come. Even though Dukat is introduced in Emissary it really isn't until season 2 he starts to fill out the primary antagonist role.
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