The least disliked episode of DS9 - Season Seven

[BlueStuff]

This is a game that we play every few 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, please 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 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 - Improbable Cause
2019 -

Season Seven

Image in the Sand
Shadows and Symbols
Afterimage
Take Me Out to the Holosuite
Chrysalis
Treachery, Faith, and the Great River
Once More Unto the Breach
The Siege of AR-558
Covenant
It's Only a Paper Moon
Prodigal Daughter
The Emperor's New Cloak
Field of Fire
Chimera
Badda-Bing Badda-Bang
Inter Arma Enim Silent Leges
Penumbra
Til Death Do Us Part
Strange Bedfellows
The Changing Face of Evil
When It Rains...
Tacking Into the Wind
Extreme Measures
Dogs of War
What You Leave Behind

 

[BigDaveX]

Tough choice for the first elimination, but I'll go with Take Me Out to the Holosuite. It was between that and The Emperor's New Cloak, and for its MANY faults the latter at least wraps up the DS9 Mirror Universe story arc; Take Me Out to the Holosuite is just a really dumb and pointless episode.

Image in the Sand
Shadows and Symbols
Afterimage
Chrysalis
Treachery, Faith, and the Great River
Once More Unto the Breach
The Siege of AR-558
Covenant
It's Only a Paper Moon
Prodigal Daughter
The Emperor's New Cloak
Field of Fire
Chimera
Badda-Bing Badda-Bang
Inter Arma Enim Silent Leges
Penumbra
Til Death Do Us Part
Strange Bedfellows
The Changing Face of Evil
When It Rains...
Tacking Into the Wind
Extreme Measures
Dogs of War
What You Leave Behind

 

[Farscape One]

Image in the Sand
Shadows and Symbols
Afterimage
Chrysalis
Treachery, Faith, and the Great River
Once More Unto the Breach
The Siege of AR-558
Covenant
It's Only a Paper Moon
Prodigal Daughter
Field of Fire
Chimera
Badda-Bing Badda-Bang
Inter Arma Enim Silent Leges
Penumbra
Til Death Do Us Part
Strange Bedfellows
The Changing Face of Evil
When It Rains...
Tacking Into the Wind
Extreme Measures
Dogs of War
What You Leave Behind

Eliminating "THE EMPEROR'S NEW CLOAK". With this one, do I really need to explain why?

 

[tomswift2002]

“What You Leave Behind”—- this is not the best series finale (although it is better than “These Are The Voyages”) as the last half of the episode is just a clip show.


Image in the Sand
Shadows and Symbols
Afterimage
Chrysalis
Treachery, Faith, and the Great River
Once More Unto the Breach
The Siege of AR-558
Covenant
It's Only a Paper Moon
Prodigal Daughter
Field of Fire
Chimera
Badda-Bing Badda-Bang
Inter Arma Enim Silent Leges
Penumbra
Til Death Do Us Part
Strange Bedfellows
The Changing Face of Evil
When It Rains...
Tacking Into the Wind
Extreme Measures
Dogs of War

 

[Takeru]

Covenant is out, Dukat as the leader of a cult making half bajoran babies, seriously?


Image in the Sand
Shadows and Symbols
Afterimage
Chrysalis
Treachery, Faith, and the Great River
Once More Unto the Breach
The Siege of AR-558
It's Only a Paper Moon
Prodigal Daughter
Field of Fire
Chimera
Badda-Bing Badda-Bang
Inter Arma Enim Silent Leges
Penumbra
Til Death Do Us Part
Strange Bedfellows
The Changing Face of Evil
When It Rains...
Tacking Into the Wind
Extreme Measures
Dogs of War

 

[Starflight]

This season is basically a buffet of all equally-valid choices to eliminate. So many choices, but let's go for Extreme Measures, because it's just hilarious - a race through Sloan's mind (which looks exactly like Deep Space Nine!!!!) where Colm Meaney heroically tries his best to sell the crazy plot while Alexander Siddig has clearly had enough and stopped even trying.

Image in the Sand
Shadows and Symbols
Afterimage
Chrysalis
Treachery, Faith, and the Great River
Once More Unto the Breach
The Siege of AR-558
It's Only a Paper Moon
Prodigal Daughter
Field of Fire
Chimera
Badda-Bing Badda-Bang
Inter Arma Enim Silent Leges
Penumbra
Til Death Do Us Part
Strange Bedfellows
The Changing Face of Evil
When It Rains...
Tacking Into the Wind
Dogs of War

 

[Seven of Five]

Prodigal Daughter really sends me to sleep.

Image in the Sand
Shadows and Symbols
Afterimage
Chrysalis
Treachery, Faith, and the Great River
Once More Unto the Breach
The Siege of AR-558
It's Only a Paper Moon
Field of Fire
Chimera
Badda-Bing Badda-Bang
Inter Arma Enim Silent Leges
Penumbra
Til Death Do Us Part
Strange Bedfellows
The Changing Face of Evil
When It Rains...
Tacking Into the Wind
Dogs of War

 

[Takeru]

Chimera, it would have worked in an earlier season but at that point in the show it felt way too late, as a reminder that there are other changelings like Odo and Laas out there it was pointless because there was no way the show would ever follow up on that plot thread so close to the end, so Laas comes and goes and that's it.


Image in the Sand
Shadows and Symbols
Afterimage
Chrysalis
Treachery, Faith, and the Great River
Once More Unto the Breach
The Siege of AR-558
It's Only a Paper Moon
Field of Fire
Badda-Bing Badda-Bang
Inter Arma Enim Silent Leges
Penumbra
Til Death Do Us Part
Strange Bedfellows
The Changing Face of Evil
When It Rains...
Tacking Into the Wind
Dogs of War

 

[Armus]

Prodigal Daughter really sends me to sleep.

Image in the Sand
Shadows and Symbols
Afterimage
Chrysalis
Treachery, Faith, and the Great River
Once More Unto the Breach
The Siege of AR-558
It's Only a Paper Moon
Field of Fire
Chimera
Badda-Bing Badda-Bang
Inter Arma Enim Silent Leges
Penumbra
Til Death Do Us Part
Strange Bedfellows
The Changing Face of Evil
When It Rains...
Tacking Into the Wind
Dogs of War

I was going to eliminate Prodigal Daughter because I did fall asleep watching it.

 

[BigDaveX]

Badda-Bing Badda-Bang, while certainly not terrible, was probably the episode most guilty of making it feel like Vic Fontaine had hijacked the show in this season, and isn't memorable enough in its own right to stay in.

Image in the Sand
Shadows and Symbols
Afterimage
Chrysalis
Treachery, Faith, and the Great River
Once More Unto the Breach
The Siege of AR-558
It's Only a Paper Moon
Field of Fire
Inter Arma Enim Silent Leges
Penumbra
Til Death Do Us Part
Strange Bedfellows
The Changing Face of Evil
When It Rains...
Tacking Into the Wind
Dogs of War

 

[Claudia]

Image in the Sand
Shadows and Symbols
Afterimage
Chrysalis
Treachery, Faith, and the Great River
The Siege of AR-558
It's Only a Paper Moon
Field of Fire
Inter Arma Enim Silent Leges
Penumbra
Til Death Do Us Part
Strange Bedfellows
The Changing Face of Evil
When It Rains...
Tacking Into the Wind
Dogs of War

"Once More Unto the Breach"... not for this episode. Have just enough of Klingons, Kor...

 

[Seven of Five]

Aside for the charming singing scene, Chrysalis is a bit of a weak romance of the week for Bashir and Sarina.

Image in the Sand
Shadows and Symbols
Afterimage
Treachery, Faith, and the Great River
The Siege of AR-558
It's Only a Paper Moon
Field of Fire
Inter Arma Enim Silent Leges
Penumbra
Til Death Do Us Part
Strange Bedfellows
The Changing Face of Evil
When It Rains...
Tacking Into the Wind
Dogs of War

 

[Sakonna]

I hate "Dogs Of War." It bums me out that the 2nd-to-last episode of this incredible series is such a let-down. The Kira & The Cardassians bit is good, but everything else in this ep fails totally.

Image in the Sand
Shadows and Symbols
Afterimage
Treachery, Faith, and the Great River
The Siege of AR-558
It's Only a Paper Moon
Field of Fire
Inter Arma Enim Silent Leges
Penumbra
Til Death Do Us Part
Strange Bedfellows
The Changing Face of Evil
When It Rains...
Tacking Into the Wind

 

[Farscape One]

Image in the Sand
Shadows and Symbols
Afterimage
Treachery, Faith, and the Great River
The Siege of AR-558
It's Only a Paper Moon
Field of Fire
Inter Arma Enim Silent Leges
Til Death Do Us Part
Strange Bedfellows
The Changing Face of Evil
When It Rains...
Tacking Into the Wind

This was a great season, and the ones left are hard to take out.

But I will remove "PENUMBRA", simply because it is more a setup episode for the final stretch than anything else.

 

[NovaStar]

Removing Image In The Sand, just a poor opening for the series for me. Ezri's Introduction could have been handled better.

Shadows and Symbols
Afterimage
Treachery, Faith, and the Great River
The Siege of AR-558
It's Only a Paper Moon
Field of Fire
Inter Arma Enim Silent Leges
Til Death Do Us Part
Strange Bedfellows
The Changing Face of Evil
When It Rains...
Tacking Into the Wind

 

[Claudia]

Shadows and Symbols
Afterimage
Treachery, Faith, and the Great River
The Siege of AR-558
It's Only a Paper Moon
Inter Arma Enim Silent Leges
Til Death Do Us Part
Strange Bedfellows
The Changing Face of Evil
When It Rains...
Tacking Into the Wind

Removing "Field of Fire"... Doesn't fit here anymore, another Dax symbiote-story that doesn't have much impact on the overall story.

 

[Seven of Five]

Afterimage is made better by having Garak in it, but otherwise the story with Ezri trying to help both herself and him is a bit straightforward.

Shadows and Symbols
Treachery, Faith, and the Great River
The Siege of AR-558
It's Only a Paper Moon
Inter Arma Enim Silent Leges
Til Death Do Us Part
Strange Bedfellows
The Changing Face of Evil
When It Rains...
Tacking Into the Wind

 

[NovaStar]

Shadows and Symbols is going for having a disappointing resolution for me.

Treachery, Faith, and the Great River
The Siege of AR-558
It's Only a Paper Moon
Inter Arma Enim Silent Leges
Til Death Do Us Part
Strange Bedfellows
The Changing Face of Evil
When It Rains...
Tacking Into the Wind

 

[tomswift2002]

“The Siege Of Ar-555” goes down for not being that memorable. I just remember (from the novels) that Nog loses his leg in this episode.

Treachery, Faith, and the Great River
It's Only a Paper Moon
Inter Arma Enim Silent Leges
Til Death Do Us Part
Strange Bedfellows
The Changing Face of Evil
When It Rains...
Tacking Into the Wind[/QUOTE]

 

[Sakonna]

"Inter Arma Enim Silent Leges" I'm so annoyed by the recasting of Cretak in this one. It should have just been a new character. That really throws it off for me.

The whole thing doesn't quite come together. I could never really put my finger on why this episode was so unwhelming to me. It seems like it should work, all the ingredients are there. It just didn't cook right somehow.

Treachery, Faith, and the Great River
It's Only a Paper Moon
Til Death Do Us Part
Strange Bedfellows
The Changing Face of Evil
When It Rains...
Tacking Into the Wind