Fans, why do you like DS9?

[Warped9]

I don't post here often. Practically never. But I'm planning a website and although it will be primarily TOS-TMP centric I will be commenting on the Treks that followed.

That said it isn't my intention there, or here, to trash later Trek but to offer views on both sides. Of course my critique will be there but I also want to state reasons why others were drawn to the show.

So to that end I'm not here to comment but mostly listen to your views and insights.

Please, share with me here why you like DS9 and what you see in it.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

Character development over several seasons. Example: Damar's journey from Cardie thug to alcoholic Dominion puppet to heroic martyr. And he started out as a tertiary character.

Humor. The interaction between Dukat, Damar and Weyoun was golden.

Okay there's tons more but I gotta get going to the post office, bye!

 

[Navaros]

I, like you, Warped9, am also very TOS-centric. I am bored to tears by all the Trek shows and movies other than TOS & DS9.

I always loved TOS ever since I was a kid. Couldn't stand TNG, or DS9, as a kid.

As an adult, I can see why I rejected DS9 as a kid during the pilot...a bunch of weird, ugly aliens I don't care about jibber jabbering about immensely boring subjects. Nothing at all like TOS, which I loved. So I never watched DS9 again until many years later.

A couple of years after DS9 went off the air, I was an adult by then and I happened to catch it reruns because a couple of my house mates at the time were watching it... first I started to realize "hey, this doesn't suck, that's surprising!" then as I watched more episodes from time to time, I became compelled by what I was watching.

Why I love DS9 is the exact same reason why I love TOS, and also why I don't like the other Trek shows. Namely, both TOS and DS9 have conflict, humor, adventure, compelling non-generic characters, master actors who perform their roles immaculately, and compelling stories. I cannot find these qualities in any of the other Trek shows.

In addition to retaining all the great qualities of TOS, DS9 surpasses TOS and every other Trek show, because unlike them, DS9 has series-wide story and character development.

Ira Behr made a very poignant comment when he said that the secondary characters on DS9 have far more development than any of the main characters of any other Trek show. It is both funny and sad (for the other Trek shows) that that statement is 100% true. It is for reasons like this why DS9 is the high watermark of the Trek brand, and SciFi in general.

 

[Photon]

I like DS9 b/c:

1) it wasn't so much alien or space sickness of the week (or is that weak?)
2) serialization
3) like my cohort, Temis said, character dev. Watching Garak, Rom, Nog, Damar grow and become better was gratifying.
4) No "Boy"
5) Wasn't preachy like Voyager or TNG. The worshiping at the altar of evolution got old real, real quick. (as did the TNG movies about saving the planet)
6) It combined good testosterone-driven themes w/the cerebral and yet tried to keep the Trek-nobabble to a minimum. Geordi's "if we can modify the "X" then I think we can cause "Y" to happen if only we can the plasma dooey to work" Bleh
7) It was more family centric. Sisko and his relationship his son and his dad was gratifying to see.
8) Sisko was a kick ass guy but yet was close to his crew and had a heart of gold-but would chew out your ass if you screwed up (ask LT Comm Worf)
9) It showed the glories and horrors of war. It showed sometimes you gotta fight and not puss out b/c its not nice or PC
10) Episodes that brought this ol boy to tears-The Visitor and WYLB
11) You don't have to have a phaser fight or shoot off a volley of photon (ahem) torpdedoes to have a good show (hear that writers of V'ger?)
12) Dukat was what first intrigued me about DS9, multi-faceted sometimes bad guy sometimes pretty good guy
13) DS9 was not the sterile perfedt world as that of the shiny Enterprise. There was crime, lewdness, gambling-it had ****gasp****-religon

There's alot more but I played 3 sets of tennis in 87 degree heat and I'm bushed.
That'll have to do for now

 

[Marie1]

I liked the Dominion War (well, not liked war, but you know what I mean) and the Jem'Hadar- a complex slave enemy.

 

[RyuRoots]

DS9 did the best job with really utlizing an ensemble cast, and characters like Martok or Garak, who weren't ever in the opening credits really began to feel like mains later on. Characters really, truly evolve through the course of the show, and DS9 does a great job with episode-to-episode continuity. This is also the only Star Trek where I really love every main character. And it was so different! The station, the Defiant, the war arc, DS9 did so many things that were fresh and unique and so many stories that TNG, TOS, or Voyager never told that it was fascinating and almost always had something interesting to hook me.

DS9, out of all the TV shows, seemed to take the most chances and play it safe the least (polar opposite of Voyager) and was an amazing show for all the times that they didn't pull any punches.

 

[thedude]

Everyone has already hit on most of the reasons I loved DS9... it was my favorite series (however if ENT had continued it may have dipped to #2) but I wanted to add a few things.

What I loved the most about DS9 was the characters. Each episode had a very unique, un-Trek feeling to it. It didn't matter what happened, I was always interested in the story. With other Trek's, there were episodes I just didn't care for... and when I re-watch the series, I'll skip over. Not so with DS9. I've re-watched the series at least 10-15 times now, and it always goes from start to end, no skipping. I'll skip eps of Voyager, because, well, honestly, they're just uninteresting and the story isn't pushed in any direction... I'll also skip some TNG eps, but not that many.

I can't think of many Sci-Fi series in recent memory that were so character driven and so easily adaptable to life today. Plus, it had some killer effects, and Jadzia Dax was just nice to look at... no offense to Ezri, but I prefer my Dax to look over 18 ;-)

 

[startrekwatcher]

What I enjoyed the most about DS9 was how it used the Trek universe that TOS/TNG had created and played with it in big unexpected satisfying ways which was no better realized than with the Dominion War and how it afforded the writers the opportunity to examine different reactions to the threat. The Circle trilogy was another good example.

I also loved the serialization. I loved the smart villians. I loved the recurring cast more than the regulars. Loved the battles. Loved the political intrigue.

 

[TheGodBen]

The lesbian kiss.

*thinks for a bit*

That's about it really.



Serious mode: DS9 didn't rest on its laurels, it was always challenging itself to be something new and to do stories which had never been told on other Trek series. They weren't afraid of leaving the "Roddenberry box" if it served the story or characters. The writers clearly had a lot of passion for the show they were creating, this was not just a job for these people and their love for the show and these characters shines through in almost every episode.

And it had a lesbian kiss.

 

[Possum]

I liked it the best of the series after TOS.

I loved DS9 for the character development. The characters had a lot of depth and change. I liked that they had to stay and deal with the consequences of their actions. No saying goodbye to the planet and flying off to the next episode. I liked the continuity, but they did good stand alone episodes too. A lot of good writing.

Ben Sisko was such a great character to me. I liked the Bajoran religious themes and wish they would have done a bit more with them. I didn't like how they got into the goofy Pah-Wraiths deal. I thought that could have been done better somehow. I loved Jake Sisko. A kid on the station who didn't have to save the day yet was interesting and developed as the series went on.

I also liked the characters of Dax and Kira. Yes, they wore slightly tighter uniforms, but they were also smart and capable. I didn't feel like the writers were trying to insult half of the DS9 audience. I got that feeling from VOY and ENT- let's just make sure we get the 18 year old male demographic- to hell with anyone else. I mean, even Leeta became a fully developed character.

I liked the moral ambiguity of the show. I mean I can't picture TNG having a main character, even a future main character, kill off an entire colony. Or having a captain falsifying information to start a war. The show took chances within the Star Trek framework.

 

[Mr. Scott]

What I loved the most about DS9 was the characters. Each episode had a very unique, un-Trek feeling to it. It didn't matter what happened, I was always interested in the story. With other Trek's, there were episodes I just didn't care for... and when I re-watch the series, I'll skip over. Not so with DS9. I've re-watched the series at least 10-15 times now, and it always goes from start to end, no skipping.

I am a DS9 fan, and believe that that series was far better than TNG and especially VOY and ENT. The character development, the different races and people. Compelling stories, interesting characters.

I will say that I never cared for the doctor guy (Alexander Sidding), and the only episode I will skip is the one with the three augments, the crazy guy with the mustache, the simple minded old guy, and the deaf-mute girl who stares at the floor. Hate that episode!!!!

Also, why does the female changling have such big boobs? Why was she a she? Aren't they supposed to be jello?

 

[robtclements]

The two words you're probably sick of hearing by now: the characters. The writers of DS9 sensed that there was a generation of adults you'd grown up with the language of ST; & set out to create a world in which adult situations could infiltrate a childlike dream. A brazen thought, brilliantly realised

 

[Jono]

Initially I liked it because of the cool action. It was the excellent box art on the "In the Cards"/"Call to Arms" VHS tape that got me to rent it out at the video store. I enjoy action movies and I really enjoy war movies (especially classic war movies) so that pulled me in. The story and characters kept me renting them out and then buying it on DVD.

 

[Warped9]

Keep 'em coming, folks. Although I'm not a huge fan of the show I do recognize many of the reasons you've been stating and I intend to reflect that in my retrospective.

 

[Ensign_Redshirt]

The lesbian kiss.

*thinks for a bit*

That's about it really.



Serious mode: DS9 didn't rest on its laurels, it was always challenging itself to be something new and to do stories which had never been told on other Trek series. They weren't afraid of leaving the "Roddenberry box" if it served the story or characters. The writers clearly had a lot of passion for the show they were creating, this was not just a job for these people and their love for the show and these characters shines through in almost every episode.

And it had a lesbian kiss.

Actually, it had two lesbian kisses.

 

[satchelmouth]

Quality is the only word that describes DS9, oh sure TNG had its moments and TOS was classic, I'll avoid mentioning voyager and ent, but DS9 shone through and through.

The Characters - not gonna beat a dead horse, but the characters had developed, unlike in most trek where they stayed the stale versions of who they were at the beginning (with the exception of TOS). Where DS9 outsines even TOS however is the development of secondary characters, villains who weren't blatantly evil, but fought for their own causes (Weyoun, Dukat, Damar in his pre-hero stage, and even Eddington, who I would call an adversary more than a villain). I especially loved the blatant flaws the heroes exhibited (Sisko destroying Maquis colonies, lying, cheating, etc.) , not like the picture perfect TNG crew with their boy wonder Wesley, and the Voyager crew with the Maquis who readily assimilated into a starfleet crew. Voyager had a chance to develop villains even more, with Seska and Maj Culluh, but they killed them both in favor of neutering the Borg. And finally, episodes would have an effect on events in future episodes (though DS9 did break this rule once in a while, such as O'Brien being perfectly fine in the episode after Hard Time).

 

[TheGodBen]

Actually, it had two lesbian kisses.

So it did! How could I forget mirror Ezri and the Intendant?

 

[arasam22]

garak.



but seriously... people keep saying his, but i feel like you can't stress it enough... the characters were so good.

DS9 has quite a different feel from the other trek shows because it takes place on a space station rather than a ship... i actually rather liked this change. not only did it allow minor characters to return or whatever, but it was new. it wasn't just another TNG but with different characters on a different ship. it was truly original.

and then... there are the characters. on TNG, i basically like data and picard. and that's about it. sure, the other characters have their moments, but those are the only two that i realy love. on DS9, however, i am hard pressed to find characters i don't really like. the characters are great, and the acting is phenomenal across the board.

and then of course, there is garak. he and gul dukat kept me watching this show.

 

[Praetor]

I like the serialized storytelling and large roster of characters, and the fact that the exploration of religion was a constant theme. I liked that they explored war in the Trek format, but wish they would have explored it a bit more.

I also like that it was set on a space station for a change. (I see DS9 and VGR as spinoffs of TNG, which I in turn see as a sequel to TOS.)

Also, I love Garak, Dukat, and Damar. (Hell, Cardassians in general were brilliantly done.) And, there's Weyoun. And lesser-seen characters like Vreenak and Cretak who still made a big impression.

And even that Klingon guy, Martok, was okay.

 

[Jaespol]

Exploration - that may sound odd since DS9 was set on a space station and it has been criticised for lacking the exploration of new worlds seen in TOS, TNG and VOY but it was more than just skimming the surface exploration of aliens of the week, DS9 explored right to the core of alien cultures such as the Cardassians, Ferengis, Bajorans.
It gave the show real depth that we were learning about these aliens cultures and traditions and histories and they weren't just there randomly to present a threat.
DS9 gave us dozens of alien faces each week and integral alien characters that expanded the existing mythology tenfold.

DS9 was also an expert juggler, its amazing just how it managed to juggle so many characters (way beyond the opening credits characters) and so many plot threads at one time - this was not seen in any other ST before or since.