Cutting away the fat from DS9

[RobertScorpio]

The exclusion of these episodes would have made for a tighter arc and perhaps more tense story but...

I didn't mind several of them. Like Badda-Bing, Badda-Bang. That episode does nothing for trek but was good entertainment and fun. It should prolly be replaced with "Take me out to the holosuite...., which despite the fact I love baseball, was terrible...

And I have to admit that I love The Magnificient Ferengi, Who Mourns for Mourn and His Way....

and I am also a B5 fan, but I appreciate the differences

I am with you...HIS WAY is the best romantic TREK episode of all time...And BADDA BING...was a great fun episode...though the Original Post does admit he liked some of the stand alone episodes...

Rob
Scorpio

 

[AntonyF]

An interesting thread, and I also think you could cut away quite a bit of fat. The Ferengi episodes I liked more early on, but later on they really oustayed their welcome.

Probably the one I would have to defend most from that inital list is the Ascent. It gave the best Odo/Quark development since the first season. Distant Voices was also a lot of fun.

 

[CaptJimboJones]

Well, personally I'd cut the first three seasons entirely.

 

[Lightbulb Sun]

I think those "fatty" episodes were needed in seasons 5-7. Everything got so serious with the Klingons and Dominion, it was good to be able to tune in and get something refreshingly not murderous. Not that I disliked the war, but I think that a change of pace was needed.

That said, how did Take Me Out to the Holosuite not make some of these lists? Arwful.

 

[startrekwatcher]

I think those "fatty" episodes were needed in seasons 5-7. Everything got so serious with the Klingons and Dominion, it was good to be able to tune in and get something refreshingly not murderous. Not that I disliked the war, but I think that a change of pace was needed.

I think shows like Heroes and Lost have shown that a series can be entirely arc-based with no standalones if they have enough material to explore and sustain it. And in my opinion, DS9 did. So much so that it is one of the few Trek series that could have gone on into another season but that wouldn't have been necessary had that got rid of a lot of the mediocre stuff in the last few seasons and focused attention on the elements unique to the show that made it so interesting in its final seasons.

 

[Navaros]

IMO there are two separate issues getting muddled together in this thread:

1. Should DS9 have had standalones?

and

2. Should DS9 have had standalones that were unwatchable crap episodes?

I guess these issues get muddled because none of the Dominion-specific episodes in DS9 were bad, whereas many of the standalones were extremely bad episodes.

The correct answer IMO is that DS9 could do with having lots of episodes removed simply because they are really bad episodes, not because they are standalones. By the same token, 'lightening the mood' is not a suitable excuse to have standalone episodes are are bad/unwatchable, of which DS9 has a great many.