I have to agree with Crazyewok on not caring for Far Beyond the Stars. Other than getting to see the cast without their makeup, it's pretty pointless. Not good, but not the worst.
To each his own. I enjoyed the occasional break from space and this episode was IMO one of the best ever. Seeing everyone without makeup playing different parts was cool plus I liked seeing the trials and tribbleations that science fiction writers went through back in the day. I agree with most of the consensus here on bad episodes. I usually skip "Move along home" , "The Storyteller", and "Profit and Lace". Those for me are the stand out stinkers.
Having watched the entire series of DS9 rather recently, I must say that I only found one episode to be "Bad" -- meaning not even entertainment value. (Profit and lace was hilarious! Have a sense of humor!) Whichever episode it was where Molly O'Brien falls into a vortex and basically appears as "Nell" after growing up in some alternate plane was difficult to watch and induced more than one cringe. When (not if) I watch DS9 again, I will definitely be skipping that one.
Profit and Lace was vomiting inducing, the Vulcan episodes made very mad, and in For the Uniform there was one point I was actually rooting for Eddington to blow up the Defiant.
My main takeaway from these two is: is there any surgery Bashir won't do?!?!?! Both eps need the scene where they talk it out with him. "Doctor, I need you to erase my brother's personality without his knowledge, but don't worry, it's cool with Klingon customs." "Doctor, I need you to give me a sex change so we can overthrow the government of Ferenginar." You could have saved "Sons Of Mogh" with this! There's enough in Kurn's story that I was ready to go with this, if they just developed the decision process more. Sadly, there's no saving "Profit And Lace", but that scene could at least have been amusingly deranged. "Sure, of course! What size breasts would you like?" I actually like the B story in this one, but that Molly A plot really is a dog. It's a bummer it's Keiko's final significant appearance.
I agree about the B story. I watched the entirety of DS9 on Amazon Prime and that was the only episode I skipped ahead with. The Molly plot-line was excruciating! Sons of Mogh fails for me in terms of logic with the decision to wipe Kurn's memory, but works for me as Drama (unlike Star Trek Insurrection which fails at both). Profit and Lace gets a lot of hate, but it's so relentlessly entertaining I cannot help but enjoy it. Few episodes have made me laugh out loud like that one (Moogie!?).
Profit and Lace was definitely a missed oppurtunity. As by far the most mysogynistic (regular) character throughtout Trek, it could have gone in to greater detail about being the victim of his own ways and seeing a whole different point of view. Not to mention actually having a serious discussion about transgender rights, but nope, it just had to go and do the comedy thing....
I thought for a second you meant that they combine the two plots and have Kurn go through a sex change.
I'd say PaL, TMOTTH, Valiant, The Visitor(I was bored to tears), Fields of Fire, Sons of Mogh, For the Uniform(I am an Eddington fan), Time's Orphan, whatever the first episode of season 7 was, The Maquis(I'm a Maquis fan but I thought they looked pathetic and incompetent in this one), Children of Time(the ending made me sick-I get Odo will do anything for Kira and he isn't bound by human morals but I'd rather not have my heroes with such problems), Resurrection(or the one with Mirror Bedeil for totally blowing up MU integrated storytelling(why not arrest the intendant) and being painful), the Dax and Worf Risa episode(Jadzia and Worf make me want to empty my stomach on the floor), Starship Down(I don't how I was I bored but I was), Far Beyond the Stars(I'm sorry it wasn't a masterpiece and I found the racial stuff grating and downright silly), The Quickening(seriously Bashir I thought you were engineered genetically sure it wouldn't be a problem), the school bombing episode(for making me hate early Kira), Covenant(just watched this one-totally destroys any nuance in Dukat's character), any episode where Kai Winn speaks for more than two scenes, and that's all I can think of right now.
I have to say, I actually enjoyed Let He Who Is Without Sin...I know it gets a lot of hate but I kind of enjoy the kitchy Risa feel and although it isn't exactly handled well or with any subtlety, there is some logic and interest in Worf's getting involved in the puritanical movement. But The Muse was pretty dreadful on all fronts...and Resurrection was very boring. I actually loved Bareil and Kira early on and so there could have been something good here but somehow the episode just puts me to sleep. I have to say also, Time's Orphan is pretty ridiculous.
Mostly, filler DS9 ep's are dull rather than flat out bad. Exceptions would be Move Along Home and the Rumplestiltskin one. Quark's sex change too. Sometimes, in an A-B story, one of the two half stories is not good. That may have been a strategy. A bad story they were somehow stuck with (how?) might have been shortened, and mixed with a good story that couldn't be fleshed out.
Prodigal Daughter where we learn all about a new character (Ezri) nearly halfway through the last season. IMO any time spent on Ezri is time wasted.
Considering she was a character who only had one season, and came in during the middle of several arcs, I think they actually did a great job with Ezri.
Not that I think Prodigal Daughter is good, but it would be nice if it were judged on its own merits rather than in terms of the poutrage over the loss of Farrell and the introduction of a new character.
Isn't Prodigal daughter the space mafia sequel? Ezri had already had her own episodes before that, right?
When I rewatched DS9 a year or two ago, I was surprised by how much more I liked Ezri than I did the first time around. Also, I now perceived her less as a new character and more as a continuation of Dax -- obviously we know it wasn't driven by story, but in some ways, it seems like you'd be crazy to set up a Trill character and NOT swap hosts during the series. That said, the run of "Prodigal Daughter", "The Emperor's New Cloak", and "Field Of Fire" is one of the big rough spots of that final year, and part of that is Ezri overdose -- you read the Memory Alpha entries and it's clear they were underwater and just barely managing to get the scripts ready in time, but I wish someone had taken a beat and realized three CONSECUTIVE Ezri or Ezri-heavy shows was a bad idea. They were going to her because she was new and that made it easier to write, but they should have tried harder to rework her slot in one of those eps into a showcase for someone else. Aside: I love that scene in the final arc where Ezri lays out to Worf her true feelings on the Klingon empire. And I think her introductory bit at the end of "Image In The Sand" feels legitimately magical. So she gets at least two highpoints of the final season for me.
As someone who's considering watching the entirety of DS9 for the first time, I'm getting a clear idea of what I should watch out for.