The Least Disliked Episode 2023: DS9 Season 3

[BlueStuff]

Our addictive biyearly game of rapid elimination returns - now with more shows than ever. It's generally a lot of fun, providing a chance to mentally revisit those episodes you may not have thought about in a while. With that in mind, why not play again?

So, here's the game. The basic idea is your standard elimination game. I'll provide a list of the episodes for each season and you need to eliminate your least favourite or the one you deem the 'worst.' Please provide an EXPLANATION for why you are eliminating your choice and be sure to copy and paste the list with your choice removed. Finally, leave at least 2 eliminations by other posters before you eliminate another episode.

No tactical voting! You cannot remove an episode just because you feel it would threaten your preferred episode's chance to win. Pretty simple. Enjoy!

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Hall of Champions
2011 - In the Pale Moonlight
2013 - In the Pale Moonlight
2017 - Improbable Cause
2019 - Tacking Into the Wind
2021 - Duet
2023 -

Season 3

The Search (I)
The Search (II)
The House of Quark
Equilibrium
Second Skin
The Abandoned
Civil Defense
Meridian
Defiant
Fascination
Past Tense (I)
Past Tense (II)
Life Support
Heart of Stone
Destiny
Prophet Motive
Visionary
Distant Voices
Through the Looking Glass
Improbable Cause
The Die is Cast
Explorers
Family Business
Shakaar
Facets
The Adversary

 

[Seven of Five]

Another terrible ROTW gets my first vote for S3. There was no chemistry between Jadzia and Dereal, and it was unbelievable that a Trill host would allow the symbiont's life to be in harm's way just for a relationship.

There is the fun B plot with Quark and Kira, introducing the great Jeffrey Combs to the franchise. However, the scenes here aren't enough to salvage the episode.

The Search (I)
The Search (II)
The House of Quark
Equilibrium
Second Skin
The Abandoned
Civil Defense
Defiant
Fascination
Past Tense (I)
Past Tense (II)
Life Support
Heart of Stone
Destiny
Prophet Motive
Visionary
Distant Voices
Through the Looking Glass
Improbable Cause
The Die is Cast
Explorers
Family Business
Shakaar
Facets
The Adversary

 

[vulcancicada]

Distant Voices is just one of those I always skip. There was always the tendency to need to use the set in 'mental' episodes and I kind of find it a confusing and overly literal way of exploring interiority.

The Search (I)
The Search (II)
The House of Quark
Equilibrium
Second Skin
The Abandoned
Civil Defense
Defiant
Fascination
Past Tense (I)
Past Tense (II)
Life Support
Heart of Stone
Destiny
Prophet Motive
Visionary
Through the Looking Glass
Improbable Cause
The Die is Cast
Explorers
Family Business
Shakaar
Facets
The Adversary

 

[Farscape One]

A really strong season.

Taking out "EQUILIBRIUM" because while it was to see a previously unknown host, it was a little boring in execution.


The Search (I)
The Search (II)
The House of Quark
Second Skin
The Abandoned
Civil Defense
Defiant
Fascination
Past Tense (I)
Past Tense (II)
Life Support
Heart of Stone
Destiny
Prophet Motive
Visionary
Through the Looking Glass
Improbable Cause
The Die is Cast
Explorers
Family Business
Shakaar
Facets
The Adversary

 

[Takeru]

Another terrible ROTW gets my first vote for S3.

Meridian would have been my first choice too, it was in no way believable that jadzia would throw her career and entire life and by extension Dax's life away for some guy she knew how long? A few days?

I'll remove Through The Looking Glass, I really didn't like how DS9 handled the mirror universe, making humans underdogs fighting for their freedom was an awful choice, I really did not like that arc.


The Search (I)
The Search (II)
The House of Quark
Second Skin
The Abandoned
Civil Defense
Defiant
Fascination
Past Tense (I)
Past Tense (II)
Life Support
Heart of Stone
Destiny
Prophet Motive
Visionary
Improbable Cause
The Die is Cast
Explorers
Family Business
Shakaar
Facets
The Adversary

 

[Oddish]

"Shakaar" is my first erasure. It's just underwhelming, and sets into motion the equally underwhelming Kira/Shakaar romance. It actually made both Kira/Bareil and Kira/Odo look good.

The Search (I)
The Search (II)
The House of Quark
Second Skin
The Abandoned
Civil Defense
Defiant
Fascination
Past Tense (I)
Past Tense (II)
Life Support
Heart of Stone
Destiny
Prophet Motive
Visionary
Improbable Cause
The Die is Cast
Explorers
Family Business
Facets
The Adversary

 

[Seven of Five]

The Search (II) is next because it was a somewhat disappointing conclusion to the epic season-opener. Everything with Odo om his homeworld was pretty awesome, and the stinger that he belonged to the founding race of the Dominion.+

Everything involved in the station story dream doesn't bear up to repeat watches.

The Search (I)
The House of Quark
Second Skin
The Abandoned
Civil Defense
Defiant
Fascination
Past Tense (I)
Past Tense (II)
Life Support
Heart of Stone
Destiny
Prophet Motive
Visionary
Improbable Cause
The Die is Cast
Explorers
Family Business
Facets
The Adversary

 

[Farscape One]

Taking out "HEART OF STONE".

The Nog story was really good, but the Odo/'Kira' one was just meh.


The Search (I)
The House of Quark
Second Skin
The Abandoned
Civil Defense
Defiant
Fascination
Past Tense (I)
Past Tense (II)
Life Support
Destiny
Prophet Motive
Visionary
Improbable Cause
The Die is Cast
Explorers
Family Business
Facets
The Adversary

 

[Takeru]

It actually made both Kira/Bareil and Kira/Odo look good.

I wouldn't say that, nothing makes the Kira/Odo romance look good.

Taking out "HEART OF STONE".

Yup, so annoying

I'll take out Explorers, it was nice to see Sisko and Jake together for an extended period of time but ancient Bajorans making a spaceship out of wood and levers and somehow getting it into space where it caught some technobabble and went to warp is a bit too much in my opinion.


The Search (I)
The House of Quark
Second Skin
The Abandoned
Civil Defense
Defiant
Fascination
Past Tense (I)
Past Tense (II)
Life Support
Destiny
Prophet Motive
Visionary
Improbable Cause
The Die is Cast
Family Business
Facets
The Adversary

 

[Seven of Five]

Prophet Motive is a pretty average Frengi hijinks episode. It's a pretty forgettable episode, aside from Quark and Rom's reaction to the new Rules of Acquisition.

The Search (I)
The House of Quark
Second Skin
The Abandoned
Civil Defense
Defiant
Fascination
Past Tense (I)
Past Tense (II)
Life Support
Destiny
Visionary
Improbable Cause
The Die is Cast
Family Business
Facets
The Adversary

 

[Farscape One]

I'll take out "VISIONARY".

"I hate temporal mechanics."

I agree with both O'Briens.


The Search (I)
The House of Quark
Second Skin
The Abandoned
Civil Defense
Defiant
Fascination
Past Tense (I)
Past Tense (II)
Life Support
Destiny
Improbable Cause
The Die is Cast
Family Business
Facets
The Adversary

 

[Oddish]

I'll take out "The Abandoned". It's not bad, very few S3 episodes were. But it seems to do little more than just give us additional demonstration at how bad the Dominion is, creating such genetic abominations.

The Search (I)
The House of Quark
Second Skin
Civil Defense
Defiant
Fascination
Past Tense (I)
Past Tense (II)
Life Support
Destiny
Improbable Cause
The Die is Cast
Family Business
Facets
The Adversary

 

[Seven of Five]

Lots of strong episodes left now. I'll go with Fascination next, which is probably more of a fluff piece. I like it, just not as much as the other ones.

The Search (I)
The House of Quark
Second Skin
Civil Defense
Defiant
Past Tense (I)
Past Tense (II)
Life Support
Destiny
Improbable Cause
The Die is Cast
Family Business
Facets
The Adversary

 

[Farscape One]

Strong season, and still very strong episodes left.

Turning off "LIFE SUPPORT".

Good episode, but the drastically different tones of the Bareil and Jake/Nog stories hurt the episode a bit overall.


The Search (I)
The House of Quark
Second Skin
Civil Defense
Defiant
Past Tense (I)
Past Tense (II)
Destiny
Improbable Cause
The Die is Cast
Family Business
Facets
The Adversary

 

[BlueStuff]

A lot of good episodes remaining. Admittedly, it's been a long time since I watched DS9 in its entirety - but I think I'll take out Facets on the basis that I tended not to enjoy most Jadzia and Trill episodes, so I probably didn't like this one much.

The Search (I)
The House of Quark
Second Skin
Civil Defense
Defiant
Past Tense (I)
Past Tense (II)
Destiny
Improbable Cause
The Die is Cast
Family Business
The Adversary

 

[Takeru]

Defiant for how they treated Tom Riker, making him join the Maquis was actually interesting, handing him over to the cardassians at the end was awful though, the crew knows how cardassians treat their prisoners, this should have never happened.


The Search (I)
The House of Quark
Second Skin
Civil Defense
Past Tense (I)
Past Tense (II)
Destiny
Improbable Cause
The Die is Cast
Family Business
The Adversary

 

[Oddish]

Tough list. I guess the weakest one left is "Family Business". Too bad; it's one of the few Ishka episodes that doesn't feature the systematic destruction of the Ferengi culture... but it does set it up.

The Search (I)
The House of Quark
Second Skin
Civil Defense
Past Tense (I)
Past Tense (II)
Destiny
Improbable Cause
The Die is Cast
The Adversary

 

[Seven of Five]

Wow, tough list to eliminate from. I'm leaning towards Civil Defense as the weakest. It's a bit like DS9's answer to Disaster, and I like both, but it probably would have been more at home in the first season, when problems were still happening left, right, and center.

The Search (I)
The House of Quark
Second Skin
Past Tense (I)
Past Tense (II)
Destiny
Improbable Cause
The Die is Cast
The Adversary

 

[Takeru]

The Die Is Cast for the torture scenes, Garak became a truly evil character in this episode and I hated how he begged Odo to give him something so that the torture could end as if he wasn't in control, some really vile "You're doing this to yourself" energy. Garak could have stopped at any point, he chose not to! And "If I hadn't done it someone else who would have been even worse would have" is not an excuse, try that in court and see how it works.


The Search (I)
The House of Quark
Second Skin
Past Tense (I)
Past Tense (II)
Destiny
Improbable Cause
The Die is Cast
The Adversary

 

[Oddish]

Re-pasting the list with "The Die is Cast" removed.

The Search (I)
The House of Quark
Second Skin
Past Tense (I)
Past Tense (II)
Destiny
Improbable Cause
The Adversary