Should the war have ended earlier?

[LOKAI of CHERON]

^^ Lokai, just curious, what would you have done with DS9 without all the Dominion back story?

Personally, I can't imagine DS9 without the build up to and the war seasons. Earlier DS9 was basically a poorer version of TNG without the exploration. At the end of Season Two, just before the finale of "The Jem'Hadar", the show looked rudderless. How long could they go running around the Gamma Quadrant in runabouts before it was cancelled?

I'm happy to reply, but I fear you'll baulk with incredulity at my answer!

In Season One, far from being a poor man's TNG, I felt DS9 was actually a funky/quirky take on the established Trek storytelling style. For me, it was an interesting way to enjoy a "weekly Trek fix" with fresh characters set on a "cool" alien space station.

That season was the perfect balance of old and new for me. I just finished watching "The Passenger" for example, a prime example of the kind of thing I really liked.

Personally, I would have left the show as is, it was perfect the way they had it. Obviously, characterisation and complexity would have developed as the writers and actors became more familiar with the material - a "slicker" product would have emerged.

Again, just my opinion, but "Pah-wraiths" and prophecies et al, veer sharply away from what Star Trek is for me - I hated all that. "The Reckoning" is a prime example. Add in the often boring and drawn out "war arc", and I guess that's why I struggled with a lot of the later episodes.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

I agree the Pah'Wraiths stuff didn't work very well and I wish they'd taken the Emissary story in different directions, but I don't think it would have been as powerful a show without the characters being pushed into extreme situations where their morality is tested.

I do like seasons 1 and 2, but look at the tropes they used. They had two 'Infection that makes people behave weirdly is spreading gradually among the cast' episodes in one season. They had two or three 'Weird anomaly that skews reality' episodes in a short period of time. DS9 worked the best in episodes that were about the characters and the immediate setting like Duet than when it used TNG style writing.

 

[Nebusj]

The Dominion War arc is my favorite thing that Trek has ever done, in any of it's iterations. I actually think it was just about perfect, length-wise. True, I would have liked to see a little more follow-up afterwards, especially in regard to the broader ramifications for the larger Trek universe, but it's understandable that they ended it on a high action note. I consider it a failing of the Next Generation movies that they barely mentioned the war.

It strikes me now that it would've been interesting to see a Trek take on The Best Years Of Our Lives.

 

[milquetoast]

Do you think DS9 would have been better if they ended the war earlier in the series?

- I had heard somewhere that they were supposed to wrap up the war arc much earlier in the series but then they brought Worf in and introduced the Klingon storyline.

In all honesty, the show started off after two wars. Wolf 359 and the Cardassian Occupation of Bajor. We saw the Siskos and the Bajorians recovering from those wars, so I don't think we needed to to see the aftermath of the Dominion war.