The Most Disliked Episode of DS9, Finals - 2025 Edition...

[Frightscape One]

Voting "SONS AND DAUGHTERS" again.

Same reasons as before.


"SECOND SIGHT" - 0
"THE ALTERNATE" - 2
"MERIDIAN" - 0
"SONS AND DAUGHTERS" - 2
"PRODIGAL DAUGHTER" - 0

 

[Faintly Macabre]

"I will teach you what you need to know to be a warrior, and you will teach me what I need to know to be a father."

Still voting for "Sons and Daughters"

"SECOND SIGHT" - 0
"THE ALTERNATE" - 2
"MERIDIAN" - 0
"SONS AND DAUGHTERS" - 3
"PRODIGAL DAUGHTER" - 0

 

[Poldon]

"Sons and Daughters"

No occupation-arc episode should still be here, so I'll take care of that. Next round vote needs some thought.

Edit to add:
I'll vote for "The Alternate" this round for the introduction of a certain Ferengi death ritual...

"SECOND SIGHT" - 0
"THE ALTERNATE" - 1
"MERIDIAN" - 0
"PRODIGAL DAUGHTER" - 0

 

[Frightscape One]

NOW we're getting to the lower tier of DS9.

I will vote for "MERIDIAN".

The A plot was terrible, but the Quark plot was fun. And this episode gifted us with Jeffrey Combs... the gift that keeps on giving to us.


"SECOND SIGHT" - 0
"THE ALTERNATE" - 1
"MERIDIAN" - 1
"PRODIGAL DAUGHTER" - 0

 

[kkt]

I'll vote for Prodigal Daughter. I enjoyed Ezri's family, not that I'd like spending a lot of time with her mom myself...

"SECOND SIGHT" - 0
"THE ALTERNATE" - 1
"MERIDIAN" - 1
"PRODIGAL DAUGHTER" - 1

Glad Sons and Daughters made it! It's a master class in how NOT to treat your young adult child - expecting orders to be obeyed instantly without question, sending your lieutenant to do your childrearing dirty work for you...

 

[Bad Thoughts]

Glad Sons and Daughters made it! It's a master class in how NOT to treat your young adult child - expecting orders to be obeyed instantly without question, sending your lieutenant to do your childrearing dirty work for you...

I wouldn't minded more of this version of Alexander.

 

[Starflight]

I've read but not voted in these threads since I'm not a DS9 fan at all, but I have to come in here at the end and try to defend "Second Sight", even if it's futile. The execution goes wrong, but the story outline - Sisko falls in love with a woman who turns out to be the idealised dream-self of a reclusive, ill telepath - is genius, and the dude's sacrifice at the end is wonderful.

"SECOND SIGHT" - 1
"THE ALTERNATE" - 1
"MERIDIAN" - 1
"PRODIGAL DAUGHTER" - 1

 

[Faintly Macabre]

Dear me. I don't like any of these very much. Prodigal Daughter centres on a character I don't like; Meridian is yet another terrible Star Trek example of a professional woman throwing up everything for lurve; and Second Sight is just not interesting. That leaves me with "Alternative" which does fill in some of Odo's background.

"SECOND SIGHT" - 1
"THE ALTERNATE" - 2
"MERIDIAN" - 1
"PRODIGAL DAUGHTER" - 1

 

[Cyfa]

Although I have a soft spot for "Second Sight", it's another vote for "Prodigal Daughter" from me. As well as learning more about Ezri and her family, O'Brien's away and Bashir misses his friend which is rather sweet.

"SECOND SIGHT" - 1
"THE ALTERNATE" - 2
"MERIDIAN" - 1
"PRODIGAL DAUGHTER" - 2

 

[Severed Heads]

The Alternate is saved by the appearance of Mora Pol.

SECOND SIGHT" - 1
"THE ALTERNATE" - 3
"MERIDIAN" - 1
"PRODIGAL DAUGHTER" - 2

 

[Sakonna]

"Sons And Daughters" would have made such a great final champion. What an utter dog of an episode. For me, its presence in the Occupation Arc is what makes it a particularly egregious and offensive failure. That was when it was most important to pull it together and NOT have a total faceplant clunker like this! Its failure extends beyond its own running time and mars everything around it.

And it has Star Trek's second worst line. "When a father and son do not speak, it means there's trouble between them." You think, Martok? Genius insight. (Literal worst line of the franchise goes to "Don't be so binary. In my universe, he was pansexual and we had DEFCON-level fun together... and you too, papi.")

Anyway, I feel like I keep coming along at the exact moment where my vote would end the round.

And it'll happen again! Voting again for "The Alternate", which saves that.

Next round I go with "Second Sight." I love the first 20 minutes!

"SECOND SIGHT" - 1
"MERIDIAN" - 0
"PRODIGAL DAUGHTER" - 0

 

[Starflight]

#SaveSecondSight2025

"SECOND SIGHT" - 2
"MERIDIAN" - 0
"PRODIGAL DAUGHTER" - 0

 

[Severed Heads]

Second Sight has some funny scenes with the husband.

SECOND SIGHT" - 3
"MERIDIAN" - 0
"PRODIGAL DAUGHTER" - 0

 

[Cyfa]

Sorry - not saving "Second Sight" (even though I like it). I'm sticking with "Prodigal Daughter".

"SECOND SIGHT" - 3
"MERIDIAN" - 0
"PRODIGAL DAUGHTER" - 1

 

[Sakonna]

If it comes down to "Meridian" and "Prodigal Daughter", I am really going to have a tough time making a choice. They are both so agonizing!

"Meridian" is two awful plotlines, and the only redeeming features are Jeffrey Combs performance and makeup, and the way that Nana Visitor plays that scene where she wins Quark's contest. The number of emotional shifts she does in that scene! She is an astounding actress.

I suppose it also has some pretty locations.

"Prodigal Daughter" is two pointless stories mashed into one, and the only redeeming feature is that I kind of like the vibe & visual aesthetic on Sappora VII. But oh my god, doing an Ezri family story was a terrible idea! And doing a sequel to "Honor Among Thieves" was also a terrible idea! No one needed either of those, so to double-dose it...

I really couldn't tell you what happens in "Prodigal Daughter", because I find the story so unengaging every time that I just zone and admire the visuals. I might as well put it on mute.

 

[Detached Nacelle]

I consider Second Sight quite superior to the other two which are two of my lowest rated DS9 episodes and very deserving of being finalists.

It's a bad episode in my eyes but Meridian has the Quark b story to redeem it. Prodigal Daughter does not really have anything positive I can say.

"MERIDIAN" - 1
"PRODIGAL DAUGHTER" - 0

 

[Pumpkin Bread]

Meridian, for Jeffrey Combs and Kira with Quark's head.

"MERIDIAN" - 2
"PRODIGAL DAUGHTER" - 0

 

[Qonfounding Ghooool]

Neither is very compelling, but a retread of "The Shiny New Dax" clinches it over love stories... which subjectively aren't my thing unless it's in the form of a tragedy, and then both leads must be skunks in that old nature TV show for me to really sit through it in most cases*... or the one with night vision that makes them look all evil, like this:

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(Duck for cover, their tails are all straight-up pointy and ready to aim!)

Or this:

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(Can't wait for the argument the next morning to begin, and then the place gets to smell up...)
.
* One of the few exceptions to this, oddly, is from TOS** with "The Paradise Syndrome" from TOS where I could actually buy into Kirk falling in love... never mind the horrific tragedy at the end, which was jaw-droppingly hefty for 1969 as to what it was telling...

** the one where Kirk seemingly Rikers it up every other week, in a temporal discontinuity since it was Riker who went back in time to teach Kirk how to do it right since only Riker could endanger the whole of Starfleet by getting jiggy in "The Game", but I digress within how many digressions by now?


"MERIDIAN" - 2
"PRODIGAL DAUGHTER" - 1

 

[Severed Heads]

What a choice.

I'm voting for Meridian as Prodical Daughter is a train wreck.

MERIDIAN" - 3
"PRODIGAL DAUGHTER" - 1

 

[Frightscape One]

I have to save, between the two left...

"MERIDIAN".

The Quark plot was fun, AND it introduced Jeffrey Combs to our unuverse. "PRODIGAL DAUGHTER" was just such a mess of a script and episode, it didn't even feel like a DS9 episode. Third worst episode of the series.


"PRODIGAL DAUGHTER" becomes the winner for 2025! A first, too... and now 4 of the 5 worst episodes of the series have won. (Only "THE RECKONING" is left to take the prize...)

This was fun! Thank you all for playing! I will begin VOYAGER season 1 shortly. Hope to see you all there!