The least disliked episode of DS9 - Season Three

[Bad Thoughts]

There are few things in DS9 that I laugh at harder than the slow turn of the other characters to Dukat after he tries to beam away, activating a recording from his Cardassian superior to deactivate his command codes and tell him he's a disgrace to their people.

You mean Garak calling out Dukat for hitting on Kira wasn't funnier?

 

[MakeshiftPython]

I enjoy "Civil Defense" a lot, I just don't think of it as a top episode of S3 just because there are much stronger episodes above it to me. I like the little things like how it confirms the idea of Dukat loving the sound of his own voice.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

I think Civil Defense is the strongest of the 'bottle episodes'. It's a base concept but very well written. Sometimes execution is more important than concept.

 

[kkt]

Heh! My immediate response was: "Really? I always thought 'Civil Defense' was regarded as a consensus favorite of season 3, at the start of the round my assumption was that it would end up at least top five or so"

And then a second later I recalled that was exactly how I responded to your post in the season two thread.

Though your reason for not liking it as much totally makes sense to me. I see it from a slightly different angle: what makes "Civil Defense" such a good episode is how well-developed the characters are at that point. The story itself is nothing great, but the whole thing is elevated by how specifically and vividly rendered the relationships are throughout. In season one they didn't yet have a strong enough hold on several of the characters to have been able to pull this episode off, or they just hadn't found things yet (for example, Dukat was still just Cardassian Face On Viewscreen, and playing him off Garak had not yet occurred to anyone)

Yes, this story was much better being told after we have seen the cast relating to each other already. And another reason it's better in season 3 than it would be earlier is that the audience thought they knew the station. When the station was brand new to our heroes, it would not have been nearly as much of a surprise when it turned around and bit them.

 

[DonIago]

I think Civil Defense is the strongest of the 'bottle episodes'. It's a base concept but very well written. Sometimes execution is more important than concept.

Certainly while "computer goes haywire" is nothing new to Trek, this particular style could only have been done on DS9.

 

[BlueStuff]

Civil Defense is one of my favorites of the series, and one that works so well because of the fine chemistry between the cast and the unique setting of the station.

Also, let's try not to hound people for their choices. First and foremost, it's a game.