I think it is, personally.
It still has flaws, and I've come to see more of them as time goes on. But it's still one of my favorite TV shows, and definitely the best Trek series, just edging out TNG for me.
Just watch Emissary and What you Leave Behind back to back for a reminder of how everyone really changed and grew over those seven years.
You know what's an absolute
trip?
Though it ended up being much more heavily serialized than other Trek shows, that wasn't really the plan for DS9 from day one. Sure, they maybe wanted to have more story arcs than TOS or TNG, but during the first season, no one on the production or writing staff had any idea that we were going to end up with the Dominion War, and the Pah-Wraiths, and that Sisko and Dukat were going to end up developing this intertwining, multi-leveled adversarial relationship (and sometimes decidedly NOT adversarial, which made it even more interesting... their relationship was, above all else, complex), with episodes like "Waltz", ultimately all leading to the big fire cave scene in "What You Leave Behind."
NONE of that was planned out.
But having finished the series, knowing what you know, go back to "Emissary", to the scene where Dukat and Sisko first meet.
It's totally filmed like they DID have it all planned out.
From the way the music fades out when Dukat
slowly, dramatically steps through the doorway to Sisko's office, to the way the camera stays zoomed way in on his face when he says, "Good day, Commander", followed by a dramatic pause from Sisko before replying,
"Gul Dukat."
It's
incredible to watch this scene after having seen the whole series, knowing what happens between these two characters. It's almost hard to believe it WASN'T all planned out.
