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How Would You Change "Deep Space Nine"?

Sisko should have spoken to / said good bye to Jake at the end. Wish I could have added that. Jake and Kasidy in that scene together with Sisko would have also worked.
 
While I do agree Ben should have had at least a brief scene with Jake because relationship was one of the main cornerstones of the show, my head can explain this away with the fact Jake is an adult now and because Ben remembers the events from "THE VISITOR"... he knows that Jake will flourish. It probably gave Ben a level of comfort he didn't really have because Kasidy is not only his new wife, but also pregnant with their child.
 
That's a pretty weak argument. Deep Space 9 has overcome social evils. But children still cry when their parents die. They can relax and enjoy themselves. Watching the 'boob tube' and mourning your dead friends are not 'Social evils'. DS9 still has a moneyless society on Earth, still has the good natured human race.

TNG showed us the way to overcome social evils was to give up our basic humanity. DS9 showed we can overcome them while keeping our humanity intact

Uh, no. For me, this is the weak argument. That people always have been and ever will be the same because “human nature.” And yet my newsfeed is perpetually offering be articles about how Boomers, Millennials, and Gen Z all see the world in different ways and can’t seem to understand one another. Add another 20 generations to that. Culture matters, and the future will leave us all behind to think we knew what our "nature" was. TNG at least attempted to wonder what a real future might be like. DS9 played it contemporary. Other shows do that better.

And no, the only way to have a utopian society is to defend a utopian society. Saying otherwise is just naive, it opens the door for any dictator or demagogue to take over. It's a paradox, and it's an unfortunate fact about reality you can't wish away.

Hi, they've got Starfleet to do the military part, and Starfleet Intelligence to do the intelligence part. 31 is a genocidal terrorist organization and completely unnecessary to maintain the peace.

The Nazi weapon was not required for the victory in the slightest sense. Excepting that convincing the Founder to trust that they would honor their end and cure it was part of what ended the bloodshed. Without the 'Nazi weapon' the military victory would have happened all the same, only there wouldn't have been a risk of every Gem Hadar in the universe berserking to the last man.

31 proved spectacularly that no matter what the Federation says or does, they're fundamentally corrupt and a mortal threat to Changelings, that the war was even more necessary than the Dominion might have thought its outset. The Female Changeling was willing to kill all Cardassians for their fleet switching sides; what do you think her reaction should have been to 31's genocidal bioweapon? She nonchalantly played the long-game when Dukat lost his mind and they had to withdraw from DS9..."Time to pack." And she was able to hide things and lie to Odo before, when the stakes weren't nearly as high. All the Founders needed to do was accept the cure, regroup, and with their millennia-old genetic-engineering industry develop their own genocidal virus against the hypocritical humans. They were blackmailed into surrendering in the first place, and they only lost their foothold in the Alpha Quadrant; the bulk of their - superior - strength remains untouched and unseen in the Gamma Quadrant.

We should also keep in mind that by the time Worf was fighting Ikat'ika, he was already hurt badly with at least several bruised ribs due to the 7 Jem'Hadar he already beat. Even a warrior as good as Worf will have trouble fighting a fully ready Jem'Hadar First while wounded.
Worf is a Navy SEAL, but the Jem Hadar should be Terminators. Doesn't matter how great a fighter you are; you're not coming out of a fair fight alive. Let alone against 7. ...kids show.
 
Worf is a Navy SEAL, but the Jem Hadar should be Terminators. Doesn't matter how great a fighter you are; you're not coming out of a fair fight alive. Let alone against 7.
The Jem'Hadar should be Terminators, yes. As in, physically unstoppable cybernetic augments. Instead of cutting off their magic juice when they rebel, you simply type "terminate unit 5474712" into your computer, and their electronics shut down and they die.

However, for that matter, the Federation should be fighting with flying drones, little autonomous ones with phasers and bigger human-controlled ones with photon torpedoes. If they're going to send biologicals, they should be wearing something like the hazard suits in "Elite Force". So it's kind of even.

Regarding the Jem'Hadar, since they were biological, and since their combat training was genetically encoded (along with their ability to walk and talk and their near-absolute loyalty to the Founders), it's reasonable that it was simplistic on nature. Punch, evade, shoot. No need to burn resources on extensive training; if a Jem'Hadar falls, you pop out a new one in three days, same capability as the old one. They are the epitome of what Guinan called "disposable people". And of the Founders' cruelty; they and Section 31 really deserved each other.
 
There is one basic flaw in Section 31's genocide plan... there's no way to guarantee all of the Founders would be infected. Just by virtue of many being on undercover, long term missions, there would likely be a handful that don't get infected. (Exactly what the Lovok Changeling in "THE DIE IS CAST" pointed out.) But all it takes is just one Founder to stay alive and order the Jem'Hadar and Vorta to destroy everyone until their last man is dead.

The show made it clear that all were infected and dying, except of course the 100. But that was a little convenient.
 
It made sense in principle, though. The Jem'Hadar were the Dominion's fists, the Vorta were its voice, and the Founders were its brain. Destroy the brain, and the Dominion collapses.
 
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The Female Changeling was already prepared to kill all Carassians, everywhere, as soon as the time was right - as revenge for the Romulan-Cardassian plot to destroy all the Founders in "The Die Is Cast". In an uncharacteristic tipping of her hand, she tells Garak so in "Broken Link".
 
I found a thread that asked how fans would change "Voyager". Now I'm asking how would any of you change "Deep Space Nine"?
Make the war shorter and have more stories written to explore the Gamma Quadrant; there lots ideas to explore IMO. I would've love to conceive a story where Sisko discovered ancient Bajorans who were lost in the Gamma Quadrant and they created an entirely new sub culture that was completely different from Bajor as we knew it. It would show the progressive possibilities Bajor could've been if it wasn't for the Cardassian occupation. Not sure whether to reveal new space villains or they are revealed to becoming the new villains.
 
The Female Changeling was already prepared to kill all Carassians, everywhere, as soon as the time was right - as revenge for the Romulan-Cardassian plot to destroy all the Founders in "The Die Is Cast". In an uncharacteristic tipping of her hand

Maybe not... possibly by giving the Dominion its foothold in the Alpha Quadrant, they bought a pass for previous actions.

Unfortunately, once the Dominion made the decision to court the Breen, they discarded the Cardassians, causing the latter to ultimately rebel. That caused the Dominion to resume/accelerate its original plan.
 
Cut the leftover TNG plots in the season one (The Passenger, If Wishes Were Horses, Q-Less, Babel, A Man Alone) & season two (Playing God, Paradise, Second Sight, Rivals, Invasive Procedures) and focus more on Bajor rebuilding/Gamma Quadrant stories.

Again in Season 7, cut the one outing episodes that were kind of pointless (Take Me Out To The Holosuite, Covenant, Prodigal Daughter, The Emperor's New Cloak, Field of Fire, Chimera, Badda-Bing, Badda-Bang) & work on closing more stories. It also gives them more time to end the war better than it did.
 
I really liked a lot of those Season 7 episodes! Seems to me they did a pretty good job tying up loose ends, at least better than most TV shows get to do.

I have to agree. The only duds of season 7, in my opinion, are "CHRYSALIS", "PRODIGAL DAUGHTER", and "THE EMPEROR'S NEW CLOAK". By far, DS9's 7th season is the best season 7 of the franchise.

(Of the listed episodes that were considered 'pointless', here are my thoughts...

"TAKE ME OUT TO THE HOLOSUITE" - I find baseball a very boring sport. And when this first aired, I wasn't much of a fan of the episode. But on rewatches, there's a lot to love here. First, it's a fun episode that helps keep some lightheartedness during the war. Second, it's fun watching the crew work together outside of a life and death struggle. And third, it again shows Sisko's character flaw: his obsessive tendency. It's always good to see our captains be human and not flawless people. Makes them real.

"COVENANT" - We see Dukat fully immersed as a Pah-Wraith believer. It sets up his arc at the end nicely, and makes perfect sense given his narcissistic traits. It's also a great reminder of the dangers of religions and cults.

"FIELD OF FIRE" - While this could easily have been an Odo episode due to the investigation, I found it more interesting to watch Joran, the one Dax host that demanded a revisit. I'm glad they recast him here, because he brought a menace and calm that was unnerving.

"CHIMERA" - It was a nice love story for the Kira/Odo relationship. It also retroactively brings even more depth and emotion to their goodbye in the finale. Plus, it was nice to finally meet one of the hundred.

"BADDA-BING, BADDA-BANG" - A fun episode to have right before the serious final chapter. Watching our crew do a caper was great fun... and I don't really like caper type stories. And the episode is worth it for two things... the slow motion walk of the crew and Avery Brooks singing at the end.)
 
It's a shame that these episodes couldn't be moved to seasons five and six. I don't dislike any of them, even though I don't feel compelled to watch Covenant or Chimera on rewatches.
 
"Field of Fire" is one of my favorite episodes of DS9. It shows why it was a travesty that Ezri was a last season addition... a character with her potential deserved at least three. And while I think "Badda" seemed to resolve Sisko's issues with Vic's too fast (1m 11s, according to YouTube), it was a fun ride. And agreed about Avery Brooks singing!
 
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Its weird to see an episode of "Covenant", because having Dukat immersed in the Pah Wraith aliens doesn't make him more of a villain. I thought it was something established in the pilot episode, but once again its way to strip him from all of the wonderful facets he had to make him a 1 dimensional demento. Great characters should never be treated this way.
 
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