The least disliked episode of DS9 - Season One

This is a game that we play every few years or so, 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, and wait at least 6 hours after your last vote, before voting again.

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

Hall of Champions
2011 - In the Pale Moonlight
2013 - In the Pale Moonlight
2017 -

Season One

Emissary
Past Prologue
A Man Alone
Babel
Captive Pursuit
Q-Less
Dax
The Passenger
Move Along Home
The Nagus
Vortex
Battle Lines
The Storyteller
Progress
If Wishes Were Horses
The Forsaken
Dramatis Personae
Duet
In the Hands of the Prophets

 

I'm removing Move Along Home, "it was all just a game" was a silly resolution to a plot that was stupid from the start. I always skip this one in rewatches.


Emissary
Past Prologue
A Man Alone
Babel
Captive Pursuit
Q-Less
Dax
The Passenger
The Nagus
Vortex
Battle Lines
The Storyteller
Progress
If Wishes Were Horses
The Forsaken
Dramatis Personae
Duet
In the Hands of the Prophets

 

I'll eliminate "If Wishes Were Horses". Silly without being funny.

Emissary
Past Prologue
A Man Alone
Babel
Captive Pursuit
Q-Less
Dax
The Passenger
The Nagus
Vortex
Battle Lines
The Storyteller
Progress
The Forsaken
Dramatis Personae
Duet
In the Hands of the Prophets

 

Wow. Two of my favourite season 1 episodes removed right off the bat. Interesting.

I'm voting for Q-Less. A cheap ratings boost that would begin the long demise of the awesomeness of Q. It added nothing to DS9 and just reminded us how great the Q/Picard relationship was by comparison.

Emissary
Past Prologue
A Man Alone
Babel
Captive Pursuit
Dax
The Passenger
The Nagus
Vortex
Battle Lines
The Storyteller
Progress
The Forsaken
Dramatis Personae
Duet
In the Hands of the Prophets

 

The Storyteller! Move Along Home is pretty bad, but I'm always surprised it's the consensus worst-season-one-ep when THE STORYTELLER is also in season one. Ugh, this episode! That ridiculous Bajoran village and all the mystical cloud monster nonsense! It's all just so stupid. I was always pro-Bajoran, but they really did flail around with them that first year -- they did not have a clear vision for Bajoran society.

Emissary
Past Prologue
A Man Alone
Babel
Captive Pursuit
Dax
The Passenger
The Nagus
Vortex
Battle Lines
Progress
The Forsaken
Dramatis Personae
Duet
In the Hands of the Prophets

 

The Storyteller IS pretty bad. I was thinking about removing it.

 

I'm removing The Passenger. There are no Zero Stars eps of DS9 for me, but Sid's acting (Sorry man, it's true!) and the glacial feel just don't do it for me.

Emissary
Past Prologue
A Man Alone
Babel
Captive Pursuit
Dax
The Nagus
Vortex
Battle Lines
Progress
The Forsaken
Dramatis Personae
Duet
In the Hands of the Prophets

 

I'll remove everything but Pale Moonlight. We all know how this will end.

 

I'll erase Battle Lines. Found it dull, and it handed Kai Opaka a pointless, wasteful death. Also, I once dropped a pizza when taking it out of the oven just before watching this episode.

Emissary
Past Prologue
A Man Alone
Babel
Captive Pursuit
Dax
The Nagus
Vortex
Progress
The Forsaken
Dramatis Personae
Duet
In the Hands of the Prophets

 

Removing Dax, it was an interesting premise to ask if Jadzia Dax could be held responsible for something Curzon Dax did but the episode sidestepped the issue by making Curzon innocent. What's left is a mediocre legal drama where once again a non lawyer acts as a lawyer and Dax acting like a moron who won't defend herself because reasons.


Emissary
Past Prologue
A Man Alone
Babel
Captive Pursuit
The Nagus
Vortex
Progress
The Forsaken
Dramatis Personae
Duet
In the Hands of the Prophets

 

Captive Pursuit

From what I remember, it's a hit or miss episode. Far worse episodes exist and were already called. As I recall, good moments include Sisko ripping into O'Brien at the end, the ideas behind the naming convention for Tosk, and the burgeoning friendship between Tosk and O'Brien.

But what bugged me most was how the shiny new wormhole has aliens coming through it, and O'Brien has the means to use the Cardassian replicators to instantly and magically replace damaged components despite their not having been programmed for Tosk Technology(tm). What with Tosk being from another portion of the galaxy that's a complete mystery and all, it takes more suspension of disbelief than what's possible.

Then there's the issue of "out of bounds", how will they prevent the Tosk from going "sod that, bugger off!" and warping through the wormhole while workin' the Watusi and going "nanny nanny nyah nayh"? Seems a little too pat and ending.

That and Tosk's hunters seem rather capable and imposing, complete with some advanced weapons of intrigue and fascination. You know a story is filler if they magically disappear, never to be seen again or referenced. But in those bright red outfits and brusque attitudes, even the 6th Doctor would fit in. Now there's a spinoff crossover, the Tosks' hunters are all Time Lords with regenerations gone awry!



What's left:

Emissary
Past Prologue
A Man Alone
Babel
The Nagus
Vortex
Progress
The Forsaken
Dramatis Personae
Duet
In the Hands of the Prophets

 

Man, as much as I looooooooove this show, season 1 is BAD! I look at this and think "I still hate so many of these, how could I even pick one I hate the most?"

I guess I'll go with... Dramatis Personae. It's a fine filler ep for TNG. It does not fit on DS9. Having essentially all the characters be fully overridden by alien personas makes this episode feel like nothing. You can have SOME of your characters get possessed, but you need MORE of the characters to stay not-possessed so there's a reason to still care about what's happening!

Also, it does that annoying thing where it uses the Bajoran/Cardassian conflict as window-dressing, just to get us to an unrelated sci-fi caper, but that tossed-aside setup -- Kira wanting to deny passage to aliens she believed funneled weapons to the Cardassians -- is more interesting than the actual story! They should have just actually done a whole episode about that!

Emissary
Past Prologue
A Man Alone
Babel
The Nagus
Vortex
Progress
The Forsaken
Duet
In the Hands of the Prophets

 

This is getting tough now. I'm going to remove "The Nagus" because I'm not a fan of 'evil Rom'.

Emissary
Past Prologue
A Man Alone
Babel
Vortex
Progress
The Forsaken
Duet
In the Hands of the Prophets

 

Removing Past Prologue, "this is were the prophets live ... let me throw a bomb at them" plus Lursa and Betor who feel shoehorned into the episode to get a TNG connection.
The episode also introduces Garak, that's generally good but in retrospect he's a bit too shifty, he might as well wear a "I'm a spy" hat. This would have been funny if he had just screwed with Bashir's head for fun but considering what we learn about him later it's weird.


Emissary
A Man Alone
Babel
Vortex
Progress
The Forsaken
Duet
In the Hands of the Prophets

 

I'm kicking off Babel. I never really cared for the premise.

Emissary
A Man Alone
Vortex
Progress
The Forsaken
Duet
In the Hands of the Prophets

 

I haven't seen these episodes since 1993. Some of them I don't remember. I do remember liking Duet the best. Hope that one wins. The first few episodes after the pilot were pretty weak. A Man Alone can get lost.

Emissary
Vortex
Progress
The Forsaken
Duet
In the Hands of the Prophets

 

The Forsaken can go. There's certainly a lot worse in the season, but it's a pretty hackneyed story that had been done better over on TNG.

Emissary
Vortex
Progress
Duet
In the Hands of the Prophets

 

I'll remove Vortex as I like the others more.

Emissary
Progress
Duet
In the Hands of the Prophets

 

Removing Progress. It's just not in the same league as the others.

Emissary
Duet
In the Hands of the Prophets

 

Out of those left, In the Hands of the Prophets is my least favourite. I'm not certain I can give much of a reason for that one, but I think the 3 left of the best of season 1.

Emissary
Duet

*edit as I was ninjad.