DS9 for those who don't necessarily love DS9?

[ananta]

I didn't say that, and I don't have any set/goal number in mind. I'm just not necessarily interested in episodes that don't have much to do with the political story, and I'm particularly not too interested in the Sisko and Quark families melodrama.

Well, I’ve introduced sceptics to DS9 before by telling them to start with season four. In terms of episode by episode quality it’s one of best of the franchise and usually it’s enough to hook people by the first couple episodes alone. (They also invariably go back to rewatch the earlier seasons at some point and benefit so much more from doing so).

Also, with regard to your dislike of the Sisko and Quark families, if you watch “The Visitor” and “Little Green Men” and still feel the same then we have nothing further to talk about and you should seriously discontinue any plans to watch more of DS9.

 

[Starflight]

I'm not a fan of DS9 either and I think the war arc is genuinely awful, so from that perspective I'd suggest trying the first three seasons. Just watch them in order from the start. The first season is a bizarre production all around and has some very strange ideas, but it contains "Past Prologue" and "Duet" which are probably two of the best episodes DS9 ever put out, along with some classic Star Trek fun with things like "Babel". The Bajor/Cardassia stuff is where the show really shines IMO, not the later Dominion stuff.

The second and third seasons are a patchy mix of good standalone episodes and some pretty bland stuff. If you start getting bored at any point, just drop the show. If you make it to season five and can tolerate the war movie pastiche crap (literally a man dying in a bomb crater in the 24th century surrounded by corpses and snarling about cowardice before the enemy, lol) then you might as well stick with it to the end, because it basically keeps that tone.

 

[kkt]

If I thought they would take the advice, I'd suggest they watch every episode starting at the beginning, and if they aren't feeling good about it by halfway through season 4, then they can quit.