To put the "weakness" of season 7 in perspective, there were three episodes--Treachery, Faith, and the Great River; Siege of AR-558; and Only a Paper Moon--that were not only arguably great, but were completely unique in Trek lore.
DS9 pre-season 5
- Thread starter Inactive-Shapeshifter
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And IMHO that was 2 or 3 too many.
I never view d the introduction of Ezri as an entirely new character. It was more the exploration of an aspect of Dax that could only have been done with this main character in the whole of Trek. And the writers took the chance to do it.
I suppose 'good' depends on what you're seeking in the program.
I enjoyed seasons 1 through 2 ( perhaps as far as 3.5 ) as they had a claustrophobic scope and were about the characters and the Bajoran / Cardassian situation. Occasional arse-kickings courtesy of the Dominion kept our heroes humble.
If the writers had thought of the Sisko-Sarah-Prophets concept at that stage and had written that in I'd have been quite happy to have had DS9 tied-up in four seasons. A nice self-contained story of a man finding his destiny.
But the introduction of the Defiant and the downgrading of the Dominion to routine cannon-fodder sent them off an a 'more war-war!' arc which I found misplaced and boring. 'Oh look another anonymous starship blown to pieces. Whatever.' I really didn't care one way or another whether the Federation was defeated.
There were some excellent character-based episodes in the later seasons but I missed many of them on the first pass because I'd drifted away from the show.
I enjoyed seasons 1 through 2 ( perhaps as far as 3.5 ) as they had a claustrophobic scope and were about the characters and the Bajoran / Cardassian situation. Occasional arse-kickings courtesy of the Dominion kept our heroes humble.
If the writers had thought of the Sisko-Sarah-Prophets concept at that stage and had written that in I'd have been quite happy to have had DS9 tied-up in four seasons. A nice self-contained story of a man finding his destiny.
But the introduction of the Defiant and the downgrading of the Dominion to routine cannon-fodder sent them off an a 'more war-war!' arc which I found misplaced and boring. 'Oh look another anonymous starship blown to pieces. Whatever.' I really didn't care one way or another whether the Federation was defeated.
There were some excellent character-based episodes in the later seasons but I missed many of them on the first pass because I'd drifted away from the show.
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I sort of think of DS9 as two different series, divided somewhere around Season 4 -- not to the magnitude of the division between seasons 2 and 3 of TNG, but still a significant shift.
Season 2 is the high point of the first half, Season 5 the high point of the second. The prison camp episodes rock me.
Season 2 is the high point of the first half, Season 5 the high point of the second. The prison camp episodes rock me.
Yeah, my mindset kind of goes along with this. Except for that bit about TNG -- IMO the shift in tone in DS9 season four is much more significant than what happened between TNG seasons 2 and 3.
Even back in the day, I've always subconsiously seperated DS9 into two distinct phases: Seasons 1-3 have an all-round different feel, partially because there's that sense of DS9's isolation. One gets the feeling in the first three seasons that there are big events happening somewhere else in the Federation which DS9's characters only occasionally crossover into. Season 4, on the other hand, sees things heat up, and Deep Space Nine itself becoming ever more increasingly significant in Federation affairs.
I liken it to the station being almost a far flung outpost in the first three seasons, but being the front line in the remaining four.
The point where it changes happens to coincide with a new title sequence, showing the station more bustling with traffic. It's a symbolic recognition that Deep Space Nine is suddenly THE place to be.
Whatever the case, it does make for a quite significant change in the overall way the show approached material. The addition of Worf, and Sisko's promotion to Captain and change of hairstyle, are also symbolic indicators of the show entering a new phase. Sure, the Jem Hadar and the USS Defiant had already been introduced previously. But in my own mind, "The Way Of The Warrior" feels almost like a soft reboot of the series' entire format.
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