Season 2 is really good!

[Mike Have-Not]

I just finished season 2 of DS9 (it had been awhile since I'd watched it) and I really enjoyed it.

There is still some of the first season awkwardness early on in the season, but there are lots of good episodes. Many good Cardassian episodes, some of the best Garak episodes.

The eps that really stand out to me at the moment are "Profit and Loss" (I was actually really interested by the Quarl/Natima romance! Quark was REALLY in love with her! And she admitted to feeling the same for him!), "The Wire", The one where O'Brien is a replicant, "Tribunal", Blood Oath, "Cardassians"...

Overall a very solid season. There were a few things that rang kinda weird to me. Bashir's character (and maybe even Siddig's acting?) was not up tp par with the character I have come to really enjoy in later seasons. Also, Rom is nowhere near the same character he is later on!

What thinks you about season 2?

 

[Tallifer]

I enjoyed the second season of Deep Space Nine very much as well. I especially enjoyed the Bajoran politics and religion set against the threat of a Cardassian return: the motives were realistic politically, socially and psychologically (more so than the admittedly exciting but somewhat fantastic dramatic arc about the war against the Dominion).

 

[Mike Have-Not]

And Winn becoming the Kai! I remember watching when that ep. first aired and thinking, "Wow, they really are doing things differently. Unhappy endings!" Ha!

 

[DevilEyes]

Season is very underrated, it's one of my favorite DS9 seasons. The middle part of the season is weak, but it has many excellent episodes - "Necessary Evil" (one of my favorite DS9 episodes), "The Wire", "Whispers", "Cardassians", "The Maquis", the Circle trilogy, the finale, "The Collaborator" (Winn becoming the Kai was a great move), and the only really good MU episode, "Crossover". It's the season where the show was really starting to find itself, developing Bajoran and Cardassian culture, developing recurring characters and relationships, setting up long-term storylines like the Maquis and the Dominion.

 

[GNDN]

Rather underrated, imho, praiseworthy for all the reasons mentioned. Plenty of excellent DS9 material that has nothing to do with the war arcs.

 

[lurok]

Underrated. Was advised to skip first two series and go to series 3 on DVD to get into Dominion War arc. Never regretted, as really enjoyed. But curiousity got better of me and watched first two seasons after finishing DS9. Wish had watched in sequence now as some good episodes (Melora is a favourite) and nice to see characters develop before shat hits the fan...

 

[Eyes]

I really like the season. The Circle trilogy, with Cardassians, Melora, Necessary Evil, Second Sight, Armageddon Game, Whispers, and then from Profit and Loss to the end are all favourites. The last 10 episodes especially are just so high on quality, it's a brilliant conclusion to a season, and one of the best halves of a season ever.

It is the underrated season, really. Even most of the episodes I haven't mentioned are good. I can only think of two I might skip were I watching the series again. And that's a 'might' only.

 

[DeepSpaceWine]

Season 2 is one of the most underrated seasons in all of Star Trek out of 28 seasons (and if it isn't the most, it's damn close). DS9 alienated a lot of people with its boring 1st season and as noted elsewhere, some of those disenfranchised Trek fans tuned back in Season 2, in Season 3, or in Season 4 with Worf & the Klingons, or not at all until DS9 had the DVDs released or it aired on cable (which wasn't all that long). Fans of later on start the clock with the Dominion War, then the lack of exploration (a giant undiscovered quadrant right at their doorstep and they ignore it in Season 1) seemed remedied with the Defiant, also in Season 3. People overlook so many great episodes and the fact runabouts were used extensively for exploration in Season 2 in the Gamma Quadrant and around the Alpha Quadrant near the station as well.

 

[ClayHefner]

It's really astounding how high-quality this season is and it also shows what a rock-solid and flexible premise DS9 had.
TNG-like stories and exploration, focusing on Bajor and the Cardies, new stuff like the Maquis. Everything worked.

And the little things, the Trek things. Look at "Melora", which is usually conidered a weak episode.

The Klingon restaurant, the Elaysians (sp?), the Yridian buying the artifacts, Fallit Kot spending time in a Rommie prison, a cool zero-G scene, The Vulcan composer... none of this felt like lame name-dropping or lack of ideas.

 

[GNDN]

Very nice world-building season that set the show apart from TNG and laid all the necessary foundation for the galaxy-spanning tales to come in the latter seasons.

 

[Navaros]

Season 2 has some great episodes, namely: Profit and Loss, The Jem'Hadar, Shadowplay, Necessary Evil and The Wire.

But Season 2 also a lot more bad episodes than the later Seasons do (later Seasons have about 5 or 6 bad episodes each).

Melora is one of the most unwatchable, inherently annoying pieces of film ever made. The other episodes in Season 2 are mostly either mediocre or quite bad.

"Cardassians" is terrible. The only watchable scenes in that episode are the ones where Garak is speaking. Rugal is more annoying than all the Valiant crew combined and then multiplied by a factor of 10.

 

[ClayHefner]

Rugal being annoying helped the episode imo.
Though while I like "Cardassians"(alot actually), season two does have a number of episodes with notoriously annoying characters

Seyetik and Fenna in "Second sight", the red haired guys (all of them) in "Sanctuary", Jaro in the Circle trilogy, Melora, the trill guy, the girl in "Shadowplay", Dr. Mora, Pel...
It's all subjective of course, but Seyetik alone is memorably annoying enough for several seasons.

many of the worse epsodes have redeeming qualities though.
Like I do watch "Second Sight" on occasion. Because of the chick and the awesome FX.

"Let there be li..."
*Ka-Booom*

 

[Art Vandelay]

Yes, season 2 is great, and in its astounding consistency it might even be one of the top three seasons of all of Trek (along with season 1 of TOS and season 3 of TNG).

So many people love season 2, I don't believe it's underrated at all. I believe it is rather rated.

Now, Voyager season 5 is a seriously underrated Trek season. (And too bad they followed it up with the abysmal season 6.)

 

[DeepSpaceWine]

^
I know. People like bashing VOY Season 5 even though it has a number of good episodes. "Night", "Timeless", "Thirty Days", "Counterpoint", "Bride of Chaotica!" (very retro sci-fi), "Dark Frontier", "Course: Oblivion", "Juggernaut", "Relativity", and "Bliss" + "Gravity" are pretty good too, plus there's "Equinox", though Part I & Part II don't go together well (same story using 2 different sets of facts).

 

[tomalak301]

Season 2 is my third favorite season behind 5 and 4. It did such a great job expanding the universe (With some of TNG's help, like in Preemptive Strike) that it made things feel more organic and real. Granted there were some missteps here or there, but from the Maquis two parter to the end, it was almost Season 4 level great, and that's quite a compliment in the series young run.

 

[garak1]

I completely agree, Deep Space Nine Season 2 was an excellent season, and really set a springboard for later story arcs.

I first got into Trek mainly by way of the TOS movies and later TNG. I knew of DS9, but thougt it was a bit out there. It was only when I watched a few season 2 episodes that I began to get interested in the show. 'The Maquis' was the one that got me hooked.

There were some excellent standout episodes 'Cardassians' and 'Tribunal' the obvious choices. However, the most oustanding episode in my view was 'The Wire'. It was the episode where Andrew J Robinson really stood out in his superb performance as Garak. I fondly remember the quotes from that episode, and it was definitely one of the best Garak episodes of the entire series.

An excellent season, and a sign of the many good things to come over the next five years of the show.