Seeing DS9 for the first time

[Spookshow]

I watched the first two discs of the first season the other night and the show is alright. Kinda boring though. Does it pick up in later seasons? I keep hearing that it's the best Trek series.

I'm a huge fan of TNG. It's what got me hooked on Trek and I've seen every episode in chronological order.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

S1 is not representative of the series as a whole. You should watch these and then skip to S2:

Emissary
Battle Lines
In the Hands of the Prophets
Duet

 

[Spookshow]

But if I skip to season 2 I will have incomplete viewings of the entire series? I'm pretty anal about those kind of things.

 

[HRHTheKING]

I watched the first two discs of the first season the other night and the show is alright. Kinda boring though. Does it pick up in later seasons? I keep hearing that it's the best Trek series.

Be patient. The stage is merely being set. It will ALL pay off eventually.

And yes, it is the best Star Trek series.

 

[Navaros]

Season 1 is not that good other than a few episodes like "Captive Pursuit", "Duet", and "In the Hand of the Prophets".

Season 1 is very misrepresentative of the quality of DS9 as a series. The show gets a million times better after Season 1 and keeps getting better from then on til the end of the series.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

There's nothing really crucial to the plot arc other than those episodes I mentioned.

 

[indranee]

I agree and disagree with Temis here. you CAN just watch the eps she listed. however, if you are anal about these things, just watch them all. you could be spending your time doing worse things. they aren't bad, just -- as you said -- a bit boring. but they do set the stage for the characters in a way, so it doesn't hurt to watch.

the best is yet to come. I envy you -- I wish I could watch DS9 for the first time.

 

[Can]

Spookshow said:
I watched the first two discs of the first season the other night and the show is alright. Kinda boring though. Does it pick up in later seasons? I keep hearing that it's the best Trek series.

I'm a huge fan of TNG. It's what got me hooked on Trek and I've seen every episode in chronological order.

I envy you. If you watch all of them in order you will understand what a great ride it is...I think you should watch all episodes. Set up stage in all of these episodes are great...

 

[HRHTheKING]

I would recommend watching EVERY episode.

They ALL build character in one way or another.

 

[Robert Burke Richardson]

DS9 season 1 is really bad, it's true. Nevertheless, I watched it a few months ago, and really loved it. It was interesting as an already committed fan to go back and see episodes I'd only seen once before, long ago, and each episode has something somewhere -- a look from Odo, a trait revealed in Sisko, or some other plot or character bit -- that eventually grew into something special.

What's that episode where Bashir is taken over by a villain? That one was so bad it actually became entertaining!

 

[Photon]

It gets alot better.

May I suggest reading Jammer's DS9 review to seperate the sheep from the goats, the chaff from the wheat, and the silver from the dross.

 

[DeafPoet]

Robert Burke Richardson said:
DS9 season 1 is really bad, it's true. Nevertheless, I watched it a few months ago, and really loved it. It was interesting as an already committed fan to go back and see episodes I'd only seen once before, long ago, and each episode has something somewhere -- a look from Odo, a trait revealed in Sisko, or some other plot or character bit -- that eventually grew into something special.

What's that episode where Bashir is taken over by a villain? That one was so bad it actually became entertaining!

It's true. It's almost unwatchable on first viewing, when you factor out 'Emissary', 'Duet' and 'In the Hands of the Prophets', but there's stuff going on in the wonderful performances that you won't appreciate 'till later. The actors did some terrific stuff with some really mediocre writing and those characterizations will really serve to immerse you in the awesome story lines later on.

 

[Spookshow]

Bad news today. The video (and only video store that rents these seasons out) doesn't have disc 4 of season 1. So today I ended up renting disc 3, and discs 1&2 of the Animated series.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

What's that episode where Bashir is taken over by a villain? That one was so bad it actually became entertaining!

That was some great bad acting!

 

[MisterPL]

DS9 is my favorite series despite virtually being a reimagining of basic Star Trek.

This starts as a story of a commander (not a captain) on an alien space station (not a Federation starship) crewed largely by civilians and Bajorans (not Starfleet graduates) near the edge of a stable wormhole doing what? Boldly waiting where no one has waited before. The aliens will just have to come to us this time. It's practically anti-Trek.

When I first heard about it I thought, "What the hell are they thinking?" But I'm so glad I gave it a chance because it just grew and grew on me. I've enjoyed other Trek spinoffs as well but none more than this.

Keep watching. You won't be disappointed.

 

[scottydog]

^Excellent points. DS9 was full of radical departures from previous trek, and you mention several of them. Others include having a Black Captain, and having a good child character (Jake).

 

[archeryguy1701]

Along with the above mentioned points, it also shows a different perspective of the Trek universe. Up until DS9, and mostly afterwards, it shows a fairly bright utopia that humanity will eventually grow up to be part of. However, DS9 shows the darker, dirtier cracks of that utopia. It shows the flaws and the other over-looked aspects of that utopia, and that made it the most interesting for me.

I thought the DS9 crew was far more relatable that any of the other crews. They seem like actual people, not the overly optimistic diplomats that always had the wind blowing at their backs from the previous 2 shows. You're in for a treat!

 

[EEE]

I recently watched DS9 for the first time (finishing just a couple of weeks ago). I liked all the seasons against all my preconceptions and previous rejection of the series when it aired due to same. Giving it an honest second shot after running into a deal on used DVD's I couldn't pass up, I found the first season hooked me into watching AT LEAST one DVD a day, until I finished the entire series.