Jake Sisko - Completely Unlikeable

[STEPhon IT]

I think he was one of the best child characters in sci-fi, they're generally very annoying.

Just wish as a man he had more to do. There was an episode "The Muse" where an alien was absorbing his energy for him write his best work. What if the story he wrote was a prophecy of things to come and I still would've love Jake to have a connection to Ben Russell. Writing a story within the story would've been amazing.

 

[Humanoid guy]

I like Jake a lot, the visitor episode always makes me cry, his relationship with his dad felt real, and Jake being his own person, not following his famous star fleet father showed how capable of a writer he was, I just wish they used his character more, and at the end of Ds9, him with Kira looking at the worm hole, looking for his father. I can see why some people think he’s annoying, but for me I think he was an important character, Sisko needed him, they needed each other.

 

[Mr Awe]

I've just rewatched DS9 for the first time since it originally aired. Man, I can't disagree more with the OP. I thought Jake was great. A likeable kid/teen/young adult. I also loved the relationship between Ben and Jake. I was disappointed that Jake's appearances seemed to decrease in the later seasons. Although, I suppose there is only so much you can do with an aspiring writer.

 

[PR109]

Keiko was more annoying.

 

[kkt]

I liked both Jake and Keiko. Keiko seemed more like a real woman with her own needs, who wanted success for her husband but didn't want to put her own career on hold.

If I had to pick someone who was annoying it would be Bashir. The first few seasons he was just putting his foot in his mouth all the time. Then there were the treatments that would not pass an ethics review board. Dating one of his patients, even if he did reassign her to a different doctor he was the one inventing the treatment. Then we got the "superman" reveal.

 

[mlbach]

Bashir was damaged and flawed. He was also brilliant, skilled, and compassionate. All in all, a good match for Garak.

 

[Clownmeat]

He was much less annoying to me than that Crusher kid.

I felt the same way for many years regarding Wesley. I always wanted to tell him to "Shut Up, Wesley!"

 

[STEPhon IT]

I've just rewatched DS9 for the first time since it originally aired. Man, I can't disagree more with the OP. I thought Jake was great. A likeable kid/teen/young adult. I also loved the relationship between Ben and Jake. I was disappointed that Jake's appearances seemed to decrease in the later seasons. Although, I suppose there is only so much you can do with an aspiring writer.

Back on topic, this showed a disinterest in the Jake character from the writers, it seemed they were more interested in propping up other characters like Martok, Vic, Nog, and Rom who had stakes with war storylines. I'm guessing giving Jake this irrelevant occupation was a clever way for the producers "In their minds" not to kill him off.

 

[Mr Awe]

I kind of figured they wrote themselves into a corner by making Jake a writer. There's not a lot they can do with a writer during the war. They tried the Hemingway route of making him a war correspondent. But, that paled with what they could do with say, Rom, who joined Starfleet and could legitimately be in the middle of the action.

 

[HugeLobes]

Back on topic, this showed a disinterest in the Jake character from the writers, it seemed they were more interested in propping up other characters like Martok, Vic, Nog, and Rom who had stakes with war storylines. I'm guessing giving Jake this irrelevant occupation was a clever way for the producers "In their minds" not to kill him off.

Or they realized Jake's importance revolved more around his relationship with his father than his occupation? Smart to keep the focus on that and maintain Jake as an outside perspective instead of making him just one more character fighting the war.

 

[STEPhon IT]

I kind of figured they wrote themselves into a corner by making Jake a writer. There's not a lot they can do with a writer during the war. They tried the Hemingway route of making him a war correspondent. But, that paled with what they could do with say, Rom, who joined Starfleet and could legitimately be in the middle of the action.

Yeah, they had all these great things to explore with Nog and Rom, as for Rom I thought he didn't deserve. Rom is a doofus, but made him engineer savant and later the grand nagus, unbelievable. Jake could've been an engineer or something where he could have something to do beside not belonging. He became the odd man out and whenever I saw those new additions getting valued screen time I thought Jake could've had that time. I would hate to think these writers didn't want too many black figures getting screen time.

 

[DonIago]

I'm really glad they didn't make Jake an engineer or something where he'd "belong". It's been done and it was unnecessary here, and why stigmatize someone becoming a writer?

 

[Mr Awe]

Yeah, they had all these great things to explore with Nog and Rom, as for Rom I thought he didn't deserve. Rom is a doofus, but made him engineer savant and later the grand nagus, unbelievable. Jake could've been an engineer or something where he could have something to do beside not belonging. He became the odd man out and whenever I saw those new additions getting valued screen time I thought Jake could've had that time. I would hate to think these writers didn't want too many black figures getting screen time.

I said Rom but meant Nog. Two childhood friends, but Nog's career was more TV series friendly than Jake's! I agree, Nog becoming Nagus was too ridiculous!

I don't think it was a racial thing with Jake. They showed fantastic relationship between Ben and Jake. Cassidy joined the mix. And Worf was another black guy. My guess is that they wanted to avoid the Wesley cliché of, "there's nothing more that I want to do than join Starfleet because of my Dad!" Of course, Wesley didn't join at the end. But they might have wanted to avoid it with Jake. Unfortunately, that didn't give him much to do, particularly when the Dominion War was front and center.

 

[kkt]

In my timeline, Rom became Nagus and Nog stayed in Starfleet.

Rom becoming Nagus was kind of ridiculous, but so is the entire office of Nagus. I hope Moogie sticks around to advise Rom so that he doesn't get thrown off the top of the Tower of Commerce within the first month.

Wasn't Cirroc trying to limit his DS9 episodes the last few years? He was in school, right? So they could put him in if there was something important for him, but he didn't want to show up just to play a couple of games of Dom-Jot and say "Hi, Dad."

 

[Bad Thoughts]

I would hate to think these writers didn't want too many black figures getting screen time.

You'd better put up some evidence for that argument.

 

[Rey]

I really liked Jake, though I wish he had more of a chance to DO stuff. Unfortunately, being one of the few non-military people in a big arc about a war means you get back seat. Maybe he could've acted as a viewpoint character to explore/better develop the civilian perspective during the Dominion War. Just to break up the war drama for an episode or two here and there.

Even though he took a major backseat towards the end, I'm still really glad the writers didn't just throw up their hands and have him enlist since that would be easier to write.

 

[nic3636]

Jake was always kind of meh. I didn't love him or hate him, he was just there.

 

[ThatsMrCaptaintoyou]

I didn't like any child star but Naomi wasn't so bad

 

[Xhiandra]

I didn't find him annoying. Nor did I particularly like him, though.

Early on, his scenes were quite pointless, I would say, but I think making him a writer was a good decision, actually.
It freed them to write different kinds of stories, with some very good Jake-centric episodes (The Visitor, Nor the Battle to the Strong, ...); though he remained quite pointless in stories where he was peripheral.
The way they decided to make him a writer, though, was quite sudden. Feels like it wasn't intended from the start, but decided on the spot, in the middle of a season.

Never really found Keiko annoying, either.

 

[STEPhon IT]

I said Rom but meant Nog. Two childhood friends, but Nog's career was more TV series friendly than Jake's! I agree, Nog becoming Nagus was too ridiculous!

I don't think it was a racial thing with Jake. They showed fantastic relationship between Ben and Jake. Cassidy joined the mix. And Worf was another black guy. My guess is that they wanted to avoid the Wesley cliché of, "there's nothing more that I want to do than join Starfleet because of my Dad!" Of course, Wesley didn't join at the end. But they might have wanted to avoid it with Jake. Unfortunately, that didn't give him much to do, particularly when the Dominion War was front and center.

I don't think it was either but I missed having another black character who could've been developed into a man and have some interesting stories tell. There could've been a lot to explore with Jake but the producers were not interested in the character, but rather have things to told for Nog, Rom, Martok, Vic, and many others. They not only avoided the cliché's but avoided him all together by not making him not part of anything relevant to the series anymore. They're journeys characters have to go through and cross and Jake never crossed that threshold. Making him a writer stunted his growth and that's a shame to a promising character of color.