Should it have gotten an extra season or two?

[Zonker]

Given how much of the show the Dominion arc took up and how integral it became to DS9's identity I think it would feel weird if the show kept going after the war was over. Sure it would be possible to pull it off but if it only lasted another season or two, it would just feel weird. On the other hand if it went on long enough to make the Dominion War just another arc in the show then it would likely burn out before the end. Don't get me wrong, I love these characters and would love to see more of them but I think the producers made the right decision to end it when they did.

 

[Amaris]

I love the show, but a total of seven seasons was more than adequate on which to end the series.

 

[Lance]

Given how much of the show the Dominion arc took up and how integral it became to DS9's identity I think it would feel weird if the show kept going after the war was over. Sure it would be possible to pull it off but if it only lasted another season or two, it would just feel weird. On the other hand if it went on long enough to make the Dominion War just another arc in the show then it would likely burn out before the end. Don't get me wrong, I love these characters and would love to see more of them but I think the producers made the right decision to end it when they did.

I do tend to agree with this. One wonders if a hypothetical 'Season 8' would have felt like a pointless addition, and indeed if it were really going to be post-War then I'm getting shades of it maybe feeling like a roundhouse circle back to the style of Season 1: telling less "big" stories and focusing instead on rebuilding Bajor. Which would have had a satisfying closed-circle feel about it, but which might also have felt like an anticlimax of sorts.

 

[Shikarnov]

I guess my question derives from my own, personal belief that season 7 (well, counting the season 6 finale) is way weaker than most around here seem to believe. Anything to do with the Pah-Wraiths is, basically, nonsense.

I agree. And way too much Vic Fontaine.

 

[Dukhat]

Honestly, the show should have ended by the fifth season. And this comes from someone who loved DS9.

 

[kkt]

By the 5th season? Most of the best episodes were in the 5th and 6th seasons, as I see it.

 

[Griffeytrek]

I think DS9 ended about as perfectly as a ST show could. And as much as I would love more, I can't see them topping that final back half of season 7. Better to let it go out perfectly than drive it into the ground.

I mean the station is still there. The characters are still floating about the ST universe. If the new show is an anthology series as rumored it would be great to revisit some of them. But I don't think another season would have done any of us any favors. The finale to the Dominion War largely papered over some of the flaws that we're starting to creep in, not unlike the Seventh season of TNG. Things where they were running out of places to take some characters and fumbling in awkward ways. (The whole Bashir + Ezri bit for example.) an eighth season of DS9 likely would have felt disturbingly similar to the 5th season of Babylon 5. Unable to match the highs and stories of its balls to the wall predecessor.

 

[somebuddyX]

Nope. I think the war should've ended in the first half of season 7 and seen post-war storylines in the second half. That said, I really wanted some 50th anniversary specials of each ST TV show and would love to see new DS9 storylines made nowadays.

 

[C.E. Evans]

DS9 definitely didn't need an extra season, the Dominion War just took too long. The actual war really only spanned the last two seasons, but there was a lot of build-up to it as well as time taken up by having the Federation and the Klingons go at each other again before they stopped fooling around and face their real enemy...

 

[Lance]

I think DS9 ended about as perfectly as a ST show could. And as much as I would love more, I can't see them topping that final back half of season 7. Better to let it go out perfectly than drive it into the ground.

I mean the station is still there. The characters are still floating about the ST universe. If the new show is an anthology series as rumored it would be great to revisit some of them. But I don't think another season would have done any of us any favors. The finale to the Dominion War largely papered over some of the flaws that we're starting to creep in, not unlike the Seventh season of TNG. Things where they were running out of places to take some characters and fumbling in awkward ways. (The whole Bashir + Ezri bit for example.) an eighth season of DS9 likely would have felt disturbingly similar to the 5th season of Babylon 5. Unable to match the highs and stories of its balls to the wall predecessor.

One thing I actually liked about DS9's finale is that it felt like a closure, yet also felt like an open book. Yes, TNG (arguably) had that feeling too, with very good reason given they already knew they were going off to do movies afterwards, but for me, "What You Leave Behind" feels more tangible in its sense of Sisko's story has been told, but the story of the station and its inhabitants could have continued for years. Yet crucially, it didn't. Leaving us with that sense of "And The Adventure Continues...." is what fuels a lot of good feeling towards it, because it excites our minds to wonder what happened next.

 

[cultcross]

Given how much of the show the Dominion arc took up and how integral it became to DS9's identity I think it would feel weird if the show kept going after the war was over.

This. For better or worse, DS9 became 'about' the Dominion War just as much as nuBSG was 'about' war with the Cylons. Once the core storyline with the Dominion was over, the show felt over too. Sure, the premise (station on the edge of the final frontier) continues, and many of the characters were still in situ, and there were 'aftermath' stories that were possibilities, but any eighth season would have seemed like a soft reboot.
A bit like SG-1, really - the Goa'uld were defeated and the series' main arc had come to an end, but the show continued and had to come up with a new story and new bad guy for seasons 9 and 10. All to, it's fair to say, mixed reviews.

 

[Green Shirt]

I remember Majel Barrett Roddenberry saying at the Shore Leave Con between seasons 1 and 2 that they were signed for 10 years and 250 episodes. I wonder why it didn't happen.

 

[Griffeytrek]

I remember Majel Barrett Roddenberry saying at the Shore Leave Con between seasons 1 and 2 that they were signed for 10 years and 250 episodes. I wonder why it didn't happen.

Diminishing returns regarding how syndication works. 3-4 seasons was the magic number to make a series profitable for long term almost perpetual syndication in reruns. With every season beyond that increasing the profitability. But each subsequent season increasing it less than the one before. This kind of hit its magic sweet spot typically right around 7-8 seasons in the can. Past that the escalating costs of subsequent production can start to become more than the returns you get from adding the extra seasons. In short we didn't get a TNG or DS9 season 8 because there was very little difference between what a broadcast network would pay for 7 seasons of a show vs what they would pay for 8.

 

[tomalak301]

I think it could have benefited from one more season to finish up the Bajor in the federation story and have some aftermath to the dominion war.

After reading the DS9 books that formulated season 8, I wish that was part of the live series.

 

[Six of Twelve]

If they hadn't allowed the Dominion War dominate the last four seasons and had wrapped it up by the end of season six, then they could have used season seven to move on to other things and tie up all the loose threads. The last episode of season seven could have had Sisko return from the Prophets in time to see the baby born and to have seen Bajor admitted to the Federation, with Sisko being honored for his work that made that happen. Episodes showing satisfactory resolutions for the other characters could have happened, too.

So, if they'd wrapped up the war one season sooner, then seven seasons would have been sufficient.

 

[TwoJakes]

Sisko would obviously not disappear

Was the actor contracted for more than seven seasons, if not would Avery Brooks have signed on for more.

Wasn't a big part of Terry Farrell's departure that her contract was up and she already had another acting job lined up?

 

[SPCTRE]

More Trek is always fine by me, but it might have accelerated the decline of the franchise/franchise fatigue.

Trek content was at a saturation point (arguably beyond that) already anyways.

 

[Vandervecken]

I think an 8th season devoted to a Borg-invasion-done-right could have been cool with DS9--would have brought the series full circle, and we never saw our DS9 stalwarts grapple with the Borg outside of Emissary, which was just character-building really. Maybe the Borg attack both Dominion and Federation/AQ, reaching into two quadrants at once, forcing the one-time enemies to join forces (which would be so obvious a result of a simultaneous attack on both that it would have to be part of some grander Borg strategy).

And more Garak!

 

[Takeru]

It could have continued but I still voted against it. Too many shows suffer from the studio trying to squeeze as many seasons out of it as possible while they're losing cast members and run out of ideas at the same time until they have to end the series because no one's watching anymore.
A series ending on its own terms is a good thing and I like that they stuck to seven seasons, I respect them ending it at that point.

In the long term it's better to be remembered as a good series and not a series that used to be good but didn't know when to stop until it became a shadow of it's former self.

 

[Griffeytrek]

This. For better or worse, DS9 became 'about' the Dominion War just as much as nuBSG was 'about' war with the Cylons. Once the core storyline with the Dominion was over, the show felt over too. Sure, the premise (station on the edge of the final frontier) continues, and many of the characters were still in situ, and there were 'aftermath' stories that were possibilities, but any eighth season would have seemed like a soft reboot.
A bit like SG-1, really - the Goa'uld were defeated and the series' main arc had come to an end, but the show continued and had to come up with a new story and new bad guy for seasons 9 and 10. All to, it's fair to say, mixed reviews.

But that was kind of the thing. By the end of the Dominion War the entire map had changed. DS9 began as a remote frontier outpost on the far fringes of nowhere with access to the only mountain pass leading to the next continent, if you will. The full story arc of DS9 was the rapid change. From the small frontier outpost, to conflict with a powerful neighboring force to the rapid development via inrushing military forces until finally at the end of the war, it is no longer the frontier, but now a Major port of call and member state. The only thing they failed to show us was the next step, as construction on a massive Federation Spacedock begins over Bajor. The Alamo is now San Antonio. Manifest destiny and expansion has caught up to DS9 and Bajor. They are no longer the far frontier. Rather they are the starting place from which one journeys to the next frontier. It wasn't so much that the show just became about the dominion war. It was that the Domion War was a critical step in the shows and the stations story arc. Frontiers don't remain Frontiers forever. Part of what makes DS9 stand out is that they seemingly recognized this and allowed the change to organically occur. Rather than reset to start each week. (an issue that plagued Voyager). But with that, the story had to largely end where it did. Yes there may be remaining stories to tell around or that pass through DS9. But DS9's story itself is largely finished. The station as a character has passed through its story arc.