Seasons 1-2 of DS9 were a cure for insomnia.
If I had to watch Kira's flavor of the week boyfriend episodes one more time I could die.
You make a valid point, except for the fact that Kira had no romance-of-the-week episodes in seasons 1 or 2... or 3, 4, 5, 6 or 7. She had a long-term relationship with Bareil in seasons 2 and 3, another long-term relationship with Shakaar in seasons 4 and 5, and a final relationship with Odo in seasons 6 and 7. The only romance-of-the-week she had was in season 6 with Mirror Bareil, and that was based on her feelings for "her" Bareil. In season 3, Thomas Riker kissed her, and she had a make-out session with Bashir while under the influence of horny-flu, but both those events were minor and took place while she was dating Bareil.
Can anybody think of any others?
There was NEVER a WHOLE season of VOYAGER that was that boring. Every Season had some very interesting episodes even admist the corny holographic episodes. Even worse we have to tolerate the soap style of DS9's story-telling. If that's your thing kewl, but don't ever, EVA,EVA say DS9's weak season weren't anything more than paint drying monotony.
They were much more. Season 1 isn't great and is easily the worst season of DS9, but even that season balances out to average due to some great episodes like
Duet. Season 2 is actually pretty damn good, there's a slump in the middle of the season, but the opening group of episodes is very strong, as is the final 8 or so.
Personally, I feel that no season of DS9 even comes near to how bad Voyager's 3rd season is. Don't get me wrong, VOY season 3 has some great episodes, and
Scorpion is a classic, but the majority of that season was somewhere between horrendous and underwhelming.
But I've always said that Voyager was always just plain Smarter than DS9, like TNG. It followed the mystery and moral road better.
I disagree, Voyager tended to stay away from moral issues, and on several of the occasions when they did broach the subject they tended to screw it up somehow, such as the end of
Alliances or
Nothing Human.