DS9 pre-season 5

[Inactive-Shapeshifter]

Hello people! I think there have been other treads about this, since is such a well-know issue by us fans, but i'm new here and i'm still watching DS9, so, i guess i can ask .

Anyway, i have heard a lot about how DS9 was bad before season 5, and i never understood that quite well. I'm in season 5 of DS9 and the improvement is indeed undeniable, but i think the series improved after season 2 as a hole... I mean... We got some great episodes before season 5, like The Visitor, just to give one example.

So, what you people think? Did DS9 become a good series after season 2 like TNG or did it only got it's path in season 5?

 

[Michael]

I know that many fans consider the fifth season to be the best of the show (while for me personally, it's the second season I love most), but in terms of "when the show got good", isn't the third season (with the addition of the Defiant and a recurring threat from the Dominion) and the fourth season (with Worf coming onboard) generally considered to be the point where the series started to become good? I don't think I ever heard someone mention the fifth season as the starting point.

 

[BruntFCA]

Yeah I usually hear people say that it got good with either season 3 or 4. Personally I love all 7 seasons but I do feel the show really hit it's stride with season 3.

 

[Tosk]

I think DS9 got good just after the intro text at the start of Emissary.

But seriously, for me the real turning point was season 2. They came out swinging with a gangbuster Bajoran politics three-parter, DS9 cemented its own identity away from TNG and never looked back.

 

[Bad Thoughts]

Season 5 is the best, IMO, but I don't see why previous seasons should be considered problematic. Looking at all the Berman era series, DS9had the best premiere, the best first season episode , the best first season finale, the best second season premiere, and the best second season finale. Of course, there were lots of TNG retread stories in those first two seasons, but they were peeled back gradually and DS9 gained its own voice. The Circle trilogy and the Maquis episodes not only did more to build on the political intrigue of ST:TUC, they were major foundations, in both tone and content, for the more complex latter seasons. Duet was a major character piece for the entire franchise, and The Wire was probably the best medical episode since Amok Time. Even in the first two seasons, the things that would make the later season unique were already being built up.

ETA: I should also mention that season 2 gives us one of the great philosophical quotes, on par with "The needs of the many ...," that Star Trek would produce: "It's easy to be a saint in paradise." It can be used in a conversation without neeeding to refer back to the series or without someone realizing that it comes from pop culture.

 

[DS9forever]

I think season 2 is a pretty decent season. The Circle three-parter, The Maquis two-parter, Blood Oath, Necessary Evil, The Wire, Crossover, The Jem'Hadar, Whispers, Armageddon Game, Shadowplay etc

 

[JirinPanthosa]

Seasons 1 and 2 were good, then it got better later once the writers figured out the characters. Although, season 2 did have the worst stretch of the series toward the beginning.

 

[drmick]

I'm watching season 5 at the moment. Nearly every episode is excellent, even the Ferengi comedy episodes raise their game.

It is unfair to say that it is season 5 that turned the corner though. I would echo all the previous posts- it really was a gradual crescendo from as far back as season 2.

 

[MacLeod]

Can't say that I've seen the comment that DSN is bad pre-S5, much like others have said the general consensus seems to be it started to get (really) good around S3 or 4. Introduction of the USS Defiant and Worf respectivley.

 

[Trek Survivor]

I prefer DS9 in the earlier seasons. To me, its peak was season 4. Season 5 was good, but season 6-7 contain a lot of bad elements that I feel weakened the series overall.

 

[ihno]

Even if season 5 is the best - how can somebody enjoy it without knowing season 3 and 4?

I used to watch season 5+ with newbies when it was new and had to explain it all, beginning with what the Cardassians are.

I think you can leave 1 and 2 out but one should start watch it with the last episode of season 2.

 

[Pere]

I liked the beginning and end of season 1 very much. A big stretch in the middle was underinspired--though mostly not awful.

Season 2 brought up the average. DS9's greatest individual episodes were still ahead, but to me if you're not digging it by this point, you're missing a lot of what I like about it.

 

[M'rk son of Mogh]

It also might depend on how much of a fan you are of Bajorans.

I hated The Circle and most anything to do with them, thus, as they started to lose out as the main focus of the show in seasons 3 and 4 especially is when my interest started to become stronger. Even though episodes earlier on like Duet are my favourite of the series, I overall consider season 1 and 2 to be my personal weakest.

 

[Inactive-Shapeshifter]

Wow! Nice to see i'm not the only one to think that Ds9 got better after season 2, not season 5.

 

[Tosk]

I hated The Circle and most anything to do with them, thus, as they started to lose out as the main focus of the show in seasons 3 and 4 especially is when my interest started to become stronger.

The Circle was ostensibly dead by the fourth episode of season 2.

 

[Dukhat]

DS9 was a great series, but like all the Trek sequels, it ran about two seasons too long. Most of season 7 were nonsense episodes and pointless eps about a character who was only on the show for one season.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

I agree the first half of season 7 was pretty weak overall, but how many episodes really focused solely on Ezri? 2 or 3? Season 7 also had the final arc and Siege of AR-558.

 

[Bad Thoughts]

I agree the first half of season 7 was pretty weak overall, but how many episodes really focused solely on Ezri? 2 or 3? Season 7 also had the final arc and Siege of AR-558.

I think it is fair to say that like TNG and VOY, DS9 was running low on energy in Season 7. Introductory episodes for a new character in the last season was definitely odd. However, the Dominion War meant that the season generally had a higher floor than the other series' final seasons. Only Enterprise was a the height of its creativity in the last season, and for the same reason: the producers were working on complex, multi-episode arcs.

 

[MacLeod]

But hasn't that been fairly common for the TNG/DSN/VOY era Trek shows they hit there peak around S3-5 with a tail off to varing degrees in S6-7?

 

[tomalak301]

My top three favorite seasons of the show were Season 5, 4 and 2. I didn't mind the Dominion War, but the stuff leading up to the War was great, and I loved Bajor's story, especially in the Circle Trilogy. DS9 was great at expanding the trek universe and those first few seasons laid the groundwork to what came later.