At least for 80s/90s Trek.
This show, from the first minute, looks like money was put into it. More than TNG ever got, and by season 6 budget cuts in TNG were cringe inducing. Ditto for season 7 but the money clearly went to the right place. DS9 looks solid and phenomenal, in every aspect.
People say DS9's first season is varied and uneven in quality. While not untrue, since - despite appreciating much in "Move Along Home" and find it to be sorely underrated, it is nowhere near in the same league as the first three DS9 stories - which are as confident and polished as they get, for which character traits shown clearly continue into all the later seasons. Compare DS9's first three eps with the first three of TNG. TNG was floundering, of which "Farpoint" eclipses the two that follow in terms of quality and originality. TOS wasn't serialized, each episode was its own, and numerous early episodes all had elements that could have introduced the series on their own, rolling a six sided dice would have yielded the same result regardless of number that came up. VOY felt completely underwhelming, especially as DS9 introduced far better the sort of conflict that VOY was teasing at but never quite delivered on in that way, but did deliver on others... But back to DS9: The makers of DS9 had a lot pegged from the start, including the actors. And it shows.
The actors are all clearly well chosen and the first three episodes show much excellence from them all, with a hint of camaraderie forming behind all the tussles and trust issues, and the actors make their roles lively from the start and with confidence. (Some actors have wavering moments but, as a whole, the weakest scenes or performances never truly detract, even if the audience picks up on something theatrically off. And in Treks past, it's no different: the number of times Data cracked a nuance or, worse, a contraction were noticed, Picard underacted with a droning and pausing tone enough times that his underacting became a new form of overacting, and Kirk had plenty of overacting moments that were clearly picked up on by audiences as well... yet this is Star Trek, where the ham actually helps in more, less obvious ways as it detracts. Kirk made it iconic, later captain figures had their own moments that fit in all the same and in their own way, that could be a post on its own...)
Speaking of, TOS had a solid first season, with Kirk being far more interesting and well-rounded than a hammy speech machine, but TOS quickly became "the Big Three show" and with more "out there" plotlines and the occasional over-emotive monologue by Kirk that somehow compensated and justified even the dorkiest situation. His best monologue, about risk being in the frontier business, came from one of the more bizarre (IMHO) episodes, "Return to Tomorrow".
But that was TOS - thirty years later, storytelling in general had changed and TNG had a big part in making that change. And DS9 shows risk time and time again and again. DS9 boldly went where no Trek could go before with continuity and its status quo.
This show, from the first minute, looks like money was put into it. More than TNG ever got, and by season 6 budget cuts in TNG were cringe inducing. Ditto for season 7 but the money clearly went to the right place. DS9 looks solid and phenomenal, in every aspect.
People say DS9's first season is varied and uneven in quality. While not untrue, since - despite appreciating much in "Move Along Home" and find it to be sorely underrated, it is nowhere near in the same league as the first three DS9 stories - which are as confident and polished as they get, for which character traits shown clearly continue into all the later seasons. Compare DS9's first three eps with the first three of TNG. TNG was floundering, of which "Farpoint" eclipses the two that follow in terms of quality and originality. TOS wasn't serialized, each episode was its own, and numerous early episodes all had elements that could have introduced the series on their own, rolling a six sided dice would have yielded the same result regardless of number that came up. VOY felt completely underwhelming, especially as DS9 introduced far better the sort of conflict that VOY was teasing at but never quite delivered on in that way, but did deliver on others... But back to DS9: The makers of DS9 had a lot pegged from the start, including the actors. And it shows.
The actors are all clearly well chosen and the first three episodes show much excellence from them all, with a hint of camaraderie forming behind all the tussles and trust issues, and the actors make their roles lively from the start and with confidence. (Some actors have wavering moments but, as a whole, the weakest scenes or performances never truly detract, even if the audience picks up on something theatrically off. And in Treks past, it's no different: the number of times Data cracked a nuance or, worse, a contraction were noticed, Picard underacted with a droning and pausing tone enough times that his underacting became a new form of overacting, and Kirk had plenty of overacting moments that were clearly picked up on by audiences as well... yet this is Star Trek, where the ham actually helps in more, less obvious ways as it detracts. Kirk made it iconic, later captain figures had their own moments that fit in all the same and in their own way, that could be a post on its own...)
Speaking of, TOS had a solid first season, with Kirk being far more interesting and well-rounded than a hammy speech machine, but TOS quickly became "the Big Three show" and with more "out there" plotlines and the occasional over-emotive monologue by Kirk that somehow compensated and justified even the dorkiest situation. His best monologue, about risk being in the frontier business, came from one of the more bizarre (IMHO) episodes, "Return to Tomorrow".
But that was TOS - thirty years later, storytelling in general had changed and TNG had a big part in making that change. And DS9 shows risk time and time again and again. DS9 boldly went where no Trek could go before with continuity and its status quo.
). Although he gets better I think there is something about him early on that feels full of mystery and promise, before we discover his origins. And the constable angle is good and felt different to, for instance, Worf's role on a starship (or Tuvok's role later in Voyager) - I mean, unlike a Starfleet security officer, Odo actually got to really investigate crimes.
