No Dominon War?

[RobertScorpio]

I am willing to bet a zillion dollars that there was no inkling in the first season that the last four seasons would be the Dominion War arc...so, if that is true, would the show have lasted with out moving away from the Bajoran/Cardassian stuff and towards a more action/adventure DS9?

Rob
Scorpio

 

[Navaros]

Berman hated the Dominion War and they had to fight Berman vehemently just get as much of the Dominion War into the show as they did manage to. If Berman got what he wanted the war would have been over in 4 episodes total for the whole series or there would have been no war at all.

There was not much inkling of anything good in the first season, just a TNG rehash. Yes there are a couple of episodes that are exceptions to this, but not many. Berman is to blame for this IMO; he co-created DS9 as a lame TNG rehash with no character or plot development whatsoever (just like TNG), then the other showrunners evolved DS9 way beyond that in spite of Berman (esp. when his hands were more full mucking up Voyager instead of DS9, starting ~ around Season 2 of DS9). The war in DS9 is just one of many aspects of this.

I don't agree DS9 would have been more 'action/adventure' with no war though. TOS was action/adventure. TNG was anything but action adventure, and so too would DS9 have remained anything but action/adventure if it had stayed it's (vastly boring) original course. Likewise for VOY, which lasted 7 seasons despite having almost no action/adventure.

I would say yes, DS9 would have lasted 7 seasons with no war, given that it had better ratings than Voyager and Voyager lasted 7 seasons despite having no war and being a far, far less interesting/less good show than DS9 (regardless of DS9's war arc being present or not). Thought it certainly wouldn't have been as much of a masterpiece of a show, or as entertaining, without the war.

 

[crouteru]

Personally, I don't think the Cardassia/Bajor political story arc would have lasted for 7 years. It was mostly the second season that did all the great stuff with that storyline, but it seems obvious that the writers didn't think that could sustain the series, so the Dominion arc was gradually introduced quite effectivly through the second season and became a main focus after that.

 

[Marie1]

The Dominion war rocked! I imagine it was either that or GQ exploration... I prefer what they did tbh, tho I'm curious about the latter.

 

[dave_R_treker]

DS9 may have lasted 7 seasons without the Dominion war, so as long as Berman wasn't involved.

 

[mic of orion]

I am glad that reason prevailed and we had Dominion war, it was really fun to watch DS9 from season 4 onwards. I liked few episodes from 1-3 seasons, but for me all kicked off from season 4. my two cents

Really, thing I didn't like about DS9 was Dukat - not sure of proper spelling, I think he was most boring Cardasian ever, and his indulgence with Kai in last few episodes made me sick to watch, I just went fast forward.

Sorry if you disagree ppl, but that's just my opinion

 

[Marie1]

^ Nooo, I agree with you, esp. that his evil was almost epic, so much death and worse. He was disgusting. And yes, him and Winn... that was creepy. But maybe opposites don't attract? LOL

Tho I liked Season 3 too... and I maybe the character development and humour helped in the first two seasons? It would have been hard to jump into the war without the first two seasons, even if they had fewer explosions...

 

[2 of 10]

I actually liked, well actually not liked Dukat, however, he was an interesting character. The whole thing with Maj Kira, having her mother as his mistress, I could deal with that. The part that crossed the line for me was in the last season. He kills Jadzia, has some plastic surgery and presto-chango he passes for a Bajorian, and then suduces Kai Wynn and manages to call forth the Pa-Waiths with Wynn's help.

At least for the final scene they gave him back his REAL Cardissian appearance, this is the Dukat I wanted to see for most of the season 7.

I am a huge DS-9 fan, however, I have begun to appriciate "Voyager" more and more as I watch more episodes. They both fit under the "Trek"
umbrella very well...

 

[Marie1]

DS9 may have lasted 7 seasons without the Dominion war, so as long as Berman wasn't involved.

I never noticed til you posted this, and I actually went and looked- and are you ever right... there are an awful lot of non-dominion episodes in Season 7... weird.

 

[superstring01]

The only reason I started to like DS9 was because of the war. I never even made it past episode four in the first season. I just happened to catch the last episode of season two, and it intrigued me. I didn't bother to go back and figure out what had happened before because I knew that something "new" had happened and that the old stuff just sucked. Starting in season three I was hooked, all the way up till the end.

I remember missing "By The Pale Moonlight" because I had to move from Florida to Arizona, and didn't watch for two weeks. A friend told me what had happened and I almost had a break-down. No TiVo back then!!!

It's turned out to be the best episode of them all.

~String

 

[Red Ranger]

From the beginning, all the Bajor/Cardassian stuff kind of bored me, even though there were some fantastic eps based on this conflict. The decision to focus more on the Gamma Quadrant and the threat of the Dominion is when I think DSN came into its own and established its own unique niche among ST series. And without the Dominion War, we wouldn't have such compelling characters as Weyoun and Damar, and Senator Vreenak, or the at the time surprising development of the Cardassians joining the Dominion. Loved that twist. Nor would we have had the gut-wrenching ep In the Pale Moonlight which introduced us to Vreenak. -- RR