Season 2 is really underrated

I'm not sure that's true. TNG season six is pretty strong, it's seven that falls flat. I suspect it was because Jeri Taylor was developing Voyager, and Moore & Braga were focusing on the movie script. The staff writers are pretty open about the burnout they had that last year.

 

^ I meant Season 7 where every other episode was "Let's meet X's parents/brother" or "Will X and Y hook up?"

 

But... but... BUT... season 7 has "Gambit", "Lower Decks" and "All Good Things..." for example. I haven't seen many episodes from that season twice so far, but it can't be that worse I agree though that for example season 6 had better episodes overall.

 

Michael Piller began his transition to DS9 in the sixth season, but his absence wasn't really felt until the 7th. I believe the core writer's room in the first two seasons of DS9 was Piller, Behr, Robert Hewlett Wolfe, and Peter Allan Fields (IMHO the best writer in all of Trek). Only Piller moved directly over from the TNG writer's room though. Behr hadn't been heavily involved since TNG Season 3 (Piller wanted to resign at the end of the season and hand the keys to Behr, but he chose to quit instead), Wolfe had only written a single TNG episode at that point, and Fields only three TNG episodes.

The TNG writers room didn't really disband until the end of the 7th season and the start of DS9 Season 3/VOY Season 1. When the room broke up DS9 got Moore and Echevarria, VOY got Braga and Menosky, and Naren Shankar was just plain laid off. DS9 clearly ended up the better out of the deal.

 

^Peter Allen Fields wrote some of DS9's best episodes in season 2. I also liked James Crocker, who wrote "Cardassians" and "The Maquis Part I". With all those strong writers, guided by Michael Piller at the helm, the writing in season 2 is sharp and focused. When I rewatched the series last year, season 2 gave me the most pleasure.

 

The more I learn about how the writer's room worked on DS9, the more I realize how impossible it is to choose who was the best writer. Peter Allen Fields is credit with the script for Duet, but Ira Steven Behr spent three days spouting the vile, violent, racist, inhumane things that Darheel might say, which Fields sifted through in order to construct the dialogue. Ronald D. Moore did a "page one" rewrite of In the Pale Moonlight, such that Michael Taylor admitted it almost an entirely different story from the script he turned in based on Peter Allen Fields' story. And Rene Echevaria did major rewrites to Michael Taylor's first script, The Visitor, making the wrap around story between elder Jake and the young writer have its own arc and developing the interaction between Bashir, Dax and O'Brien. None of them received writing credits. The names that you see are just a reflection of who got paid. You have to assume that other people decided keep their names off so that the residuals didn't get divided up too much.

From what I can tell, a writer (on staff or freelance) pitched a story idea. They presented it to the writing staff. If they liked the story, they bought it. Then the writing staff, along with the writer, met to break down the story scene-by-scene. If they had confidence in the freelancer, he could try to write the story on his own. If that was the case, the delivered script was delivered to a staff writer--maybe Ronald Moore or Rene Echevaria or Hans Beimler or Robert Hewwitt Wolfe--who started tweaking the story. Often the tweaks were severe: the episode had to be reworked so that it worked with the overall goals of the series, especially as the Dominion war story developed. Then Ira Steven Behr took a look at it. Each episode was touched by many writers. I think that Star Trek involved more involvement of producers in reworking scripts than other series, even going as far back as TOS. I suspect the tendency was amplified on DS9.

 

NO. Doing it economically means somewhat less time, but getting across a great deal anyway. Viewers needed to be eased into Bajoran politics, not dumped in to the deep end, before they've been enticed into being interested in Bajor. I won't address the rest of your assumptions because it's a response to things I did not say.
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About some people's comments about season 6 and 7.. seeing some peak with 6 and then a dive in quality in 7 is ridiculous, because those two seasons are very similar, a pair.

 

just watched The Jem'Hadar. Of course, I had seen it before. But Wow! hard to believe they packed all that into one 45 minute episode, and so ominous. What a way to set the tone for the rest of the series. It is hard now to view the series in the same way I did when it first aired, but the destruction of the Odyssey was a real "oh, shit" moment. I remember when I was 13--14 years old and saw that episode for the first time, it blew my mind - and even at that time, what I realized was, this problem wasn't just going to go away like TNG did with the Borg. They were already committed to a semi-serial form of storytelling by then, all the pieces were in place and they just needed to knock the first domino over, and boy they sure did it with that episode. Talk about effective storytelling! Wow

 

''The Jem'Hadar'' is indeed one of the best episode of season 2

 

I remember watching "The Jem'hadar" for the first time, it was DS9's "Q Who", which introduced a dangerous new threat to the series. It left you excited for season 3, which would explore a new alien race that was unquestionably unique. It was a good finale to end a great season.

 

I've always said that Season 2 is probably DS9's best season or at least its most under appreciated one.

It's almost all good to great episodes.

But, more than that, it was DS9 at its most daring, most diverse. While later seasons were dominated by a few major storytelling arcs, in DS9, the writers weren't afraid to get weird. The episodes run a much wider spectrum of storytelling and subject matters.

To be fair, there are certainly some duds, like Melora, Second Sight and Rivals.

But there are outstanding episodes like "Whispers", "Necessary Evil", "The Maquis". There are underappreciated gems like "Rules of Acquisition", which still cracks me up and is arguably the best of the Nagus/Ferengi-centric episodes in the entire series. Even a straightforward episode like "Armageddon Game" is actually quite good and plants the seeds of the Bashir/O'Brien friendship. The Jem' Hadar were never scarier than in the episode that bears their name and "Sanctuary" was one of the few times any of the modern series did TOS-style social commentary well.

I even dug "The Collaborator" and the Circle Trilogy, even though I can't say that I really missed the Bajoran-centric storylines when they were ultimately put to bed.

Basically, Season 2 soars because of its variety. The episode explores many corners of the DS9/Trek universe. There's comedy, political thrillers, social commentary, sci-fi, romance, drama, etc. It's the perfect stew and really showed DS9 coming into its own.

 

Yes, and yes. The scripts and stories never got stronger than they were in season 2. If there was anything that improved, after season 2, it was the music, and Avery Brooks with shaved head.