Am I the only one who thinks the space station setting on "DS9" is a strength and not a weakness?

[fireproof78]

There was much 'trekking' and journeying in DS9 - not necessarily of the interstellar kind....
The inner journey was frequently the focus, sometimes represented subtly.

"The human journey has just begun..." or something like that

The station setting was initially a turn-off for me for the series, but as I watched it, and rewatched it, I warmed up to it, because it allowed for the stability of the environment as things gradually became more and more unstable. I think the setting on the station allowed for some inherent unique plots and stories that proved very enjoyable over the long run.

 

[Bad Thoughts]

I'm not sure that there was anything necessarily better, or even different, with the station setting. As I argued above, TNG had plenty of bottle episodes--meetings with scientists and diplomats or slices of life on board--that could have been set on a station. K'mpec could easily have pulled up to DS9 ask Sisko to expose his murderer, and any energy sucking new born could have appeared out of nowhere to endanger the station. Conversely, Destiny and Rejoined could have been told on the Enterprise. If anything, it made to bridge, or in this case, ops setting less critical to storytelling and, subsequently, less interesting. There wasn't much point to staring at a screen as if parked on the Barcalounger in front of the TV. Regardless, the station still required that the producers and writers chose to do something differently than TNG in order to exploit the unique setting.

 

[cgervasi]

When DS9 about to start, I was afraid the writers would not be able to stick to the station premise. I thought they would find ways to make the station move. When they moved the station in the first episode, it reinforced my idea. I was happy they did not go this route. Even when they got the Defiant, there was no feeling whatsoever for me that the show became about the Defiant. It had bunk beds and really gave the feel of a large, powerful, heavily-armed shuttle.

 

[The Grim Ghost]

They did go lots of places though. That is one of the coolest things about DS9. You have the focal point of the station and Bajor. But they are right next to the wormhole so literally anything can come through to them. And add in the runabouts and later the Defiant and we see tons of episodes taking place off station. DS9 had it's fair share of "planet of the week" episodes. Best of both worlds!

 

[LJones41]

I never had a problem with a space station as the main setting for a TV series. I'm a big fan of "BABYLON 5".

 

[Nakita Akita]

I like DS9 and Next Generation almost equally. I liked DS9 because I always figured if there was space exploration going on, I'd end up on a relay station for a 2 year rotation
Now THAT would be a boring show.

 

[UnknownSample]

I thought everyone was won over once the Dominion War got going, and that the old idea of its being boring because it was a space station had gone away. I mean, you had a story bouncing around between Bajor, Earth, Cardassia, Romulus, another galactic quadrant... I think people react to the idea of the stationary station more than the reality of how DS9 was.

 

[Balok's Decoy]

Oh my god, if I had a holodeck, I'd never leave.

Scott Adams, the guy who created Dilbert, had a really funny observation about holodecks. Something to the effect of "the holodeck will be society's last invention."