S8 of ST: Deep Space 9 Could have been the best season of any Trek

[eschaton]

Season seven of DS9 would have been so much better if the Dominion war had ended at the end of season six. They could have moved on to other matters and story lines.

Season eight. Would have loved it if TPTB had largely jettisoned the Dominion, the Cardassians and the Romulans. Dealt with the after math of the war on the characters, and the Federation.

Supposedly the original plan was to finish up the Dominion War arc in the sixth season. But when Worf was foisted upon them for the fourth season, they felt the need to include the whole "Klingon tensions" subplot that went nowhere.

Honestly, I think they could have used a post Dominion War series mainly because it was really clear they had no idea how to properly conclude Ben's arc. What we got in the final episodes involving the pah wraiths was flaming hot garbage. I'd like to think with a season of just dealing with how to conclude his arc (which would include Bejor joining the Federation!) we'd find out he was destined for something greater than tackling Dukat when he's holding a book and pushing him into a lake of fire.

 

[Rusty0918]

I definitely think they should have done post-Dominion War stuff instead of just ending the war at the series finale. Sometimes, it's the aftermath of war that can be quite interesting. A fanfic series I have in mind called "Battle Group Omega" would deal with what happened afterwards. One of the characters I had in mind was a mentor to Ben Sisko and a fellow survivor of Wolf 359.

 

[JohnPrast]

You should check out the DS9 Relaunch books they are a nice season 8 & 9 you are looking for

 

[at Quark's]

Not sure that would have been a good idea. S7 already became a bit too soap-opera-y for my tastes, and a bit too much about "the final struggle between good and evil !!!".

Then again, this might also simply have been caused by drawing out the Dominion War arc for too long.

 

[drt]

Honestly, I think they could have used a post Dominion War series mainly because it was really clear they had no idea how to properly conclude Ben's arc. What we got in the final episodes involving the pah wraiths was flaming hot garbage. I'd like to think with a season of just dealing with how to conclude his arc (which would include Bejor joining the Federation!) we'd find out he was destined for something greater than tackling Dukat when he's holding a book and pushing him into a lake of fire.

I just rewatched the end of DS9 and forgot how disjointed the pah wraiths thing was - they should have made the end of the war the penultimate episode and at least spent a full episode doing something more involved (particularly after all the build up with Dukat and Winn that then went ignored for several episodes) instead of Ben leaving in the middle of the celebration party to fly to Bejor and tackle Dukat in what seemed like five minutes of time in universe.

 

[IMC Headquarters]

The next phase of the story should place a Starbase like the Yorktown near the Wormhole in order to better serve the many transgalactic passages in peacetime. Beloved though DS9 is as a community and gateway, it's just too small to accommodate the flood of interested parties seeking opportunities to rebuild, expand, and find healing following the war.

 

[STEPhon IT]

Season seven of DS9 would have been so much better if the Dominion war had ended at the end of season six. They could have moved on to other matters and story lines.

Season eight. Would have loved it if TPTB had largely jettisoned the Dominion, the Cardassians and the Romulans. Dealt with the after math of the war on the characters, and the Federation.

That's a direction I'd long hope for; while dealing with the aftermath the new crew could restart exploring the Wormhole and be done with the cliched, very overplayed supervillain threat.

 

[suarezguy]

Especially with the war lasting two years, it would have been awkward to try to try to tie up the whole fate of Bajor and/or most of the other major aftermaths of the war, relations with other powers, in one year, unbelieavable that could all happen really quickly.

 

[Prax]

7 years was the right time to stop, and even that was stretching it a bit. They did 176 episodes total. That's a lot!

late season 6- season 7 of TNG, DS9, and Voyager all felt like the fire of creativity was dwindling.

In DS9's case, I think season 4 was definitely the strongest, and most consistently high quality season of the show. By season 7, the series was falling into sitcom tropes, and had developed and abused its very own cliches. I still like season 7 very much, but have no doubt that a season 8 would not be an improvement.

 

[Beckerjr]

7 years was the right time to stop, and even that was stretching it a bit. They did 176 episodes total. That's a lot!

late season 6- season 7 of TNG, DS9, and Voyager all felt like the fire of creativity was dwindling.

In DS9's case, I think season 4 was definitely the strongest, and most consistently high quality season of the show. By season 7, the series was falling into sitcom tropes, and had developed and abused its very own cliches. I still like season 7 very much, but have no doubt that a season 8 would not be an improvement.

Agree. The war should have ended by the end of season 6 with 7 being the aftermath.