The least disliked episode of DS9 - season four

[BlueStuff]

This is a game that we play every two years, and 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 favorite 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 because you feel they would threaten your preferred episode's chance to win. Pretty simple. Enjoy!

Winners
The Original Series - Mirror, Mirror
The Next Generation - All Good Things...
Deep Space Nine -

Season One - Duet
Season Two - Necessary Evil
Season Three - The Die is Cast
Season Four -

The Way of the Warrior
The Visitor
Hippocratic Oath
Indiscretion
Rejoined
Starship Down
Little Green Men
The Sword of Kahless
Our Man Bashir
Homefront
Paradise Lost
Crossfire
Return to Grace
Sons of Mogh
Bar Association
Accession
Rules of Engagement
Hard Time
Shattered Mirror
The Muse
For the Cause
To the Death
The Quickening
Body Parts
Broken Link

 

[Seven of Five]

The Muse should go first. A horrible episode that shouldn't be in such a strong year.

The Way of the Warrior
The Visitor
Hippocratic Oath
Indiscretion
Rejoined
Starship Down
Little Green Men
The Sword of Kahless
Our Man Bashir
Homefront
Paradise Lost
Crossfire
Return to Grace
Sons of Mogh
Bar Association
Accession
Rules of Engagement
Hard Time
Shattered Mirror
For the Cause
To the Death
The Quickening
Body Parts
Broken Link

 

[Bad Thoughts]

Shattered Mirror. It's a vehicle to reunite Jake with his mom, but the actress is too wooden to make this enjoyable. And there is nothing particularly special about mirror Garak.

The Way of the Warrior
The Visitor
Hippocratic Oath
Indiscretion
Rejoined
Starship Down
Little Green Men
The Sword of Kahless
Our Man Bashir
Homefront
Paradise Lost
Crossfire
Return to Grace
Sons of Mogh
Bar Association
Accession
Rules of Engagement
Hard Time
For the Cause
To the Death
The Quickening
Body Parts
Broken Link

Aside: it is already difficult to single out the completely bad episodes.

 

[Seven of Five]

Exactly. The change in consistency for this season is amazing.

 

[Terok Nor]

Accession. That Bajoran guy was a total douchebag.

The Way of the Warrior
The Visitor
Hippocratic Oath
Indiscretion
Rejoined
Starship Down
Little Green Men
The Sword of Kahless
Our Man Bashir
Homefront
Paradise Lost
Crossfire
Return to Grace
Sons of Mogh
Bar Association
Rules of Engagement
Hard Time
For the Cause
To the Death
The Quickening
Body Parts
Broken Link

 

[Isolinear]

I sell Body Parts with a heavy discount. Meh. Kind of funny, for a Ferengi episode, when Quark is getting paranoid. But it's still a Ferengi episode with Ferengi humor. And the rest of the season is so much better. This is going to be hard.

The Way of the Warrior
The Visitor
Hippocratic Oath
Indiscretion
Rejoined
Starship Down
Little Green Men
The Sword of Kahless
Our Man Bashir
Homefront
Paradise Lost
Crossfire
Return to Grace
Sons of Mogh
Bar Association
Rules of Engagement
Hard Time
For the Cause
To the Death
The Quickening
Broken Link

 

[Bad Thoughts]

Return to Grace. I'm going to admit I thought this was one of the better episodes at first, intending to show Dukat redeeming himself ... in his own arrogant fashion. However, I've found over the years that the script is very unbalanced, and it is Kira who is doing most of the heavy lifting, as well as a fair amount of projecting.

The Way of the Warrior
The Visitor
Hippocratic Oath
Indiscretion
Rejoined
Starship Down
Little Green Men
The Sword of Kahless
Our Man Bashir
Homefront
Paradise Lost
Crossfire
Sons of Mogh
Bar Association
Rules of Engagement
Hard Time
For the Cause
To the Death
The Quickening
Broken Link

 

[DonIago]

I'll open fire on "Rules of Engagement". The episode has some interesting stylistic flairs, but I can't quite bring myself to agree with the conclusions it draws, and IIRC the guest acting is somewhat lacking, beyond the somewhat ridiculous (IMO at least) idea that the UFP would extradite Worf to the Klingons in the middle of hostilities with them.

The Way of the Warrior
The Visitor
Hippocratic Oath
Indiscretion
Rejoined
Starship Down
Little Green Men
The Sword of Kahless
Our Man Bashir
Homefront
Paradise Lost
Crossfire
Sons of Mogh
Bar Association
Hard Time
For the Cause
To the Death
The Quickening
Broken Link

 

[Seven of Five]

The Sword of Kahless for me next. I find it a bit dull after they leave the station.

The Way of the Warrior
The Visitor
Hippocratic Oath
Indiscretion
Rejoined
Starship Down
Little Green Men
Our Man Bashir
Homefront
Paradise Lost
Crossfire
Sons of Mogh
Bar Association
Hard Time
For the Cause
To the Death
The Quickening
Broken Link

 

[Terok Nor]

Crossfire. That Bajoran guy was a total douchebag.

The Way of the Warrior
The Visitor
Hippocratic Oath
Indiscretion
Rejoined
Starship Down
Little Green Men
Our Man Bashir
Homefront
Paradise Lost
Sons of Mogh
Bar Association
Hard Time
For the Cause
To the Death
The Quickening
Broken Link

 

[Eliczo]

Hard Time next, its been a long time since I've seen it but it doesn't stand out as much as the rest of the season

The Way of the Warrior
The Visitor
Hippocratic Oath
Indiscretion
Rejoined
Starship Down
Little Green Men
Our Man Bashir
Homefront
Paradise Lost
Sons of Mogh
Bar Association
For the Cause
To the Death
The Quickening
Broken Link

 

[Seven of Five]

Bar Association is ok for a Ferengi episode, but should leave the better episodes alone.

The Way of the Warrior
The Visitor
Hippocratic Oath
Indiscretion
Rejoined
Starship Down
Little Green Men
Our Man Bashir
Homefront
Paradise Lost
Sons of Mogh
For the Cause
To the Death
The Quickening
Broken Link

 

[boldygoing]

I'll take out Rejoined, it was an ok episode, I just never found Trill culture to be that interesting.

The Way of the Warrior
The Visitor
Hippocratic Oath
Indiscretion
Starship Down
Little Green Men
Our Man Bashir
Homefront
Paradise Lost
Sons of Mogh
For the Cause
To the Death
The Quickening
Broken Link

 

[Bad Thoughts]

Hard Time next, its been a long time since I've seen it but it doesn't stand out as much as the rest of the season

WOW! I must call shenanigans. Hard Time is consistently ranked among the top 10% of D9 episodes. Indeed, Playboy ranked it as the #16 of all Star Trek episodes (of all series), and Io9 ranked it at #42. There are probably two other episodes in this season that will easily rank higher, but such an early elimination is suspicious given the reasons and the poster's own admission to have not seen it in some time.

 

[Terok Nor]

Sons Of Mogh had the most un Star Trek climax of any episode of Star Trek I've ever seen. People talk about Sisko's actions in "In The Pale Moonlight" but what about him sanctioning Bashir erasing someone's memory and altering their appearance? Not to mention Bashir violating medical ethics and actually doing it. I never believed Worf, Kurn or any other Klingon would be willing to allow this charade to happen.

The Way of the Warrior
The Visitor
Hippocratic Oath
Indiscretion
Starship Down
Little Green Men
Our Man Bashir
Homefront
Paradise Lost
For the Cause
To the Death
The Quickening
Broken Link

Hard Time next, its been a long time since I've seen it but it doesn't stand out as much as the rest of the season

WOW! I must call shenanigans. Hard Time is consistently ranked among the top 10% of D9 episodes. Indeed, Playboy ranked it as the #16 of all Star Trek episodes (of all series), and Io9 ranked it at #42. There are probably two other episodes in this season that will easily rank higher, but such an early elimination is suspicious given the reasons and the poster's own admission to have not seen it in some time.

It's just a game. Don't take it so seriously.

 

[Seven of Five]

I'll take out For the Cause. As interesting a twist as having Eddington work for the Maquis, and Kasidy being a sympathisor was, the twists literally came out of nowhere. And in the case of Kasidy, aside from her reappearance in Rapture, it's never mentioned again.

The Way of the Warrior
The Visitor
Hippocratic Oath
Indiscretion
Starship Down
Little Green Men
Our Man Bashir
Homefront
Paradise Lost
To the Death
The Quickening
Broken Link

Oh don't worry about the casualties Bad Thoughts, it's all just part of the game. It mixes things up. In this round I've personally lost Rejoined, Accession and Hard Time, which I rate as either very good or excellent.

 

[Isolinear]

Down with Starship Down! I never believed for one minute that our heroes were in any real danger. It's a 'stuck in the elevator' type episode when you think about it. And I'm always annoyed by Kira's "I can't lose you because you're my God" whining. Sorry, but I can't stand it.


The Way of the Warrior
The Visitor
Hippocratic Oath
Indiscretion
Little Green Men
Our Man Bashir
Homefront
Paradise Lost
To the Death
The Quickening
Broken Link

 

[boldygoing]

Our Man Bashir takes a champagne cork to the face! I enjoyed this episode as a fan of 60s Bond movies, it was a good send up and didn't take itself seriously. That being said, it's not as good as the remaining episodes.

The Way of the Warrior
The Visitor
Hippocratic Oath
Indiscretion
Little Green Men
Homefront
Paradise Lost
To the Death
The Quickening
Broken Link

 

[Seven of Five]

Little Green Men is a fun episode but stronger ones remain.

The Way of the Warrior
The Visitor
Hippocratic Oath
Indiscretion
Homefront
Paradise Lost
To the Death
The Quickening
Broken Link

 

[Terok Nor]

I'll remove Indiscretion. It's a good episode but I prefer the others.

The Way of the Warrior
The Visitor
Hippocratic Oath
Homefront
Paradise Lost
To the Death
The Quickening
Broken Link