All time best episode of DS9.

[Temis the Vorta]

Favorite: ITPM. But Duet, Necessary Evil, Purgatory/Inferno, Rocks & Shoals, Call to Arms and Sacrifice of Angels also get high marks from me.

For episodes that don't get mentioned incessantly, I also like In the Cards (which was well positioned as being the "last moment of normalcy" before things really got intense at the end of S5/beginning of S6) and the Odo & Weyoun story in Treachery, Faith and the Great River. And everything involving Kira, Damar, Garak and Odo in the final S7 story arc.

 

[MyCylon]

^
In the Cards really is one of those little gems that often go unnoticed, isn't it? I agree that it's extremely well positioned. It's highly enjoyable and fun, I think, while also managing to succeed on a character level. It provides the viewer as well as the characters with a much-needed breather before everything goes to hell .

 

[ialfan]

There are too many great ones to have one jump out as best for me. Favor the Bold / Sacrifice of Angels, The Way of the Warrior, The Visitor, What You Leave Behind, Duet, In the Pale Moonlight, Past Tense, Improbable Cause / The Die is Cast, Homefront / Paradise Lost, Crossover, Call to Arms and many more are all way up there in quality and I don't think I could pick a single favorite if I wanted to.

 

[FamilySlitheen]

I've always thought The Visitor was the best episode this series had. Yeah there were so many classics, but The Visitor resonated with me the most.

I have recently bought all 7 seasons and watched The Visitor yesterday and do you want to know something? I cried. I genuinly cried when Captain Sisko meets up with Jake for the last time. Truly heartbreaking.

 

[Liselle]

My personal favourite is The Changing Face of Evil.

Also very much like The Siege of AR-558 and Treachery, Faith and the Great River, and Rocks and Shoals.

I did not enjoy The Visitor at all, and it surprises me just how popular an episode it is.

 

[unimatrix7]

For me, The Ship is far and away the best episode of DS9. I know that's an unpopular opinion, but there ya have it.

Count me as another who didn't like The Visitor. I thought it was melodramatic, overwrought claptrap.

 

[Sheliak]

The Die Is Cast

Statistical Probabilities

Inter Arma Enim Silent Leges

 

[Apogeal Alpha01]

ITPM offers a complex and compelling story. Probably the best, and the most often discussed episode on the forum. Extremely well done. The Visitor and, The Way Of The Warrior, are second and third best stand alone episodes, in my book. Arcs are another matter.

 

[datagal]

My top two favorites are In the Pale Moonlight ("I can live it") and Way of the Warrior (Showcase Worf better than TNG)

But my personal favorite is The Reckoning because it truly shows how an "outsider" like Sisko had more faith in the Prophets than someone like Kai Winn who dedicated her life trying to learn the ways of the Prophets.

 

[Marie1]

I could not under torture choose between To the Death, IPS/BIL and... Hippocratic Oath... and Rocks and Shoals... I'll say HO just to follow the rules and pick one. But each ep had great acting- Jeff Combs, CRIII, Phil Morris, Scott MacDonald, James Horan- and showed new facets of the Jem'Hadar. They aren't killing machines, as Bashir says- They're people. And surprisingly inquisitive and complex ones at that.

 

[indranee]

this is a tough choice for me (between Duet and the Visitor), but I'll have to go with Duet.

 

[Ferd Burfel]

The whole damn series was so terrific. I liked "In The Pale Moonlight" a lot too, but episodes like "Take Me Out To The Holosuite" personify what Star Trek is to me. All the episodes that were character driven were so good, and DS9 more than almost any show I've ever seen had so many of them. So under-appreciated.

 

[Angel4576]

Tough call. A number of possibilities; Far Beyond the Stars, In the Pale Moonlight, but my personal favourite, is The Visitor. Tony Todd is exceptional, as are Avery Brooks and Cirroc Lofton.

 

[jgdst]

Chalk up another one for The Siege of AR-558. Very emotional, not your usual sci-fi fare - basically, after all the snazzy space battles and action filled fight scenes, you take a step back and are smacked upside the head with the realisation that War Is Not Fun... powerful stuff, and something DS9 handled wonderfully.

I've gotta put Empork Nor up there too. You can't beat a bit of the old murder mystery in space

 

[Pahwraith]

Most definately, "In the Pale Moonlight."

 

[2 of 10]

This is an hard one, great thread. "In The Pale Moonlight", is fantastic. One I also love is "Change of Heart". This could be the question that cannot be answered, so subjective...

 

[MyCylon]

^
Change of Heart is an episode I basically really like. But I think there's one thing that would have made it really special and would have been better for the series as a whole: I think this is where Jadzia should have died. I think it would have been far more effective and made the episode itself extremely powerful IMHO.

 

[aftermath]

Another vote for The Visitor. I thought it was remarkable the first time I watched it (and such a drastic change of tone following The Way of the Warrior). On subsequent viewings as I have gotten older I appreciate even more as an absolute masterpiece of television.

 

[Ethros]

Another vote for Nana Visitor... sorry, I mean The Visitor!

And just the all time best episode of DS9, but of all Trek IMO

 

[Marie1]

For me, The Ship is far and away the best episode of DS9. I know that's an unpopular opinion, but there ya have it.

Count me as another who didn't like The Visitor. I thought it was melodramatic, overwrought claptrap.

Same here... The ship is on my list of favs. =)