The MOST Disliked Episode of DS9 - Season Six...

[BlueStuff]

I'll adopt TIME'S ORPHAN. I really like the performance of older-Molly.

SONS AND DAUGHTERS
FAVOR THE BOLD
RESURRECTION
STATISTICAL PROBABILITIES
HONOR AMONG THIEVES
WRONGS DARKER THAN DEATH OR NIGHT
HIS WAY
THE RECKONING
THE SOUND OF HER VOICE
TEARS OF THE PROPHETS

 

[BigDaveX]

Favor the Bold. Maybe not quite as memorable as the second half of the two-parter, but still a very good episode, and it's kinda awesome how Morn of all people ends up playing a major role in saving the entire Alpha Quadrant.

SONS AND DAUGHTERS
RESURRECTION
STATISTICAL PROBABILITIES
HONOR AMONG THIEVES
WRONGS DARKER THAN DEATH OR NIGHT
HIS WAY
THE RECKONING
THE SOUND OF HER VOICE
TEARS OF THE PROPHETS

 

[Sakonna]

"Resurrection" It's another one of those eps made weird by placement -- first in immediately following the Dominion arc, and also within the MU narrative itself. This is an odd choice to follow "Shattered Mirror."

Setting all that aside and viewing it in isolation, this is a good episode. After "Rejoined", it's DS9's 2nd-best ROTW. Nana Visitor can make any script work, so a Kira-focused ep is never a bad idea. It was great to have her playing opposite herself as the Intendant again... if that had never happened again after "Crossover", it would have been a missed opportunity.

It's also interesting to compare to the back half of Discovery's first season, which spent so much time working a similar story angle. Not to knock Disco, which I (more or less) enjoy... but "Resurrection" did it better.

SONS AND DAUGHTERS
STATISTICAL PROBABILITIES
HONOR AMONG THIEVES
WRONGS DARKER THAN DEATH OR NIGHT
HIS WAY
THE RECKONING
THE SOUND OF HER VOICE
TEARS OF THE PROPHETS

 

[Farscape One]

"Resurrection" It's another one of those eps made weird by placement -- first in immediately following the Dominion arc, and also within the MU narrative itself. This is an odd choice to follow "Shattered Mirror."

Setting all that aside and viewing it in isolation, this is a good episode. After "Rejoined", it's DS9's 2nd-best ROTW. Nana Visitor can make any script work, so a Kira-focused ep is never a bad idea. It was great to have her playing opposite herself as the Intendant again... if that had never happened again after "Crossover", it would have been a missed opportunity.

It's also interesting to compare to the back half of Discovery's first season, which spent so much time working a similar story angle. Not to knock Disco, which I (more or less) enjoy... but "Resurrection" did it better.

SONS AND DAUGHTERS
STATISTICAL PROBABILITIES
HONOR AMONG THIEVES
WRONGS DARKER THAN DEATH OR NIGHT
HIS WAY
THE RECKONING
THE SOUND OF HER VOICE
TEARS OF THE PROPHETS

I think the more specific placement of this episode, being directly after the beginning war arc of season 6 AND the wedding of Dax and Worf, no matter what episode came after those episodes, would feel like a letdown.

 

[Farscape One]

I will preserve "HONOR AMONG THIEVES". I always love O'Brien episodes because he is an excellent actor, and you can easily connect with his character. Despite the rather predictable way the episode wnded up becoming, his performance, along with Nick Tate's, really sell the episode.

SONS AND DAUGHTERS
STATISTICAL PROBABILITIES
WRONGS DARKER THAN DEATH OR NIGHT
HIS WAY
THE RECKONING
THE SOUND OF HER VOICE
TEARS OF THE PROPHETS

 

[BlueStuff]

STATISTICAL PROBABILITIES is safe. The Jack Pack aren't too annoying here, in fact I find them entertaining.

SONS AND DAUGHTERS
WRONGS DARKER THAN DEATH OR NIGHT
HIS WAY
THE RECKONING
THE SOUND OF HER VOICE
TEARS OF THE PROPHETS

 

[Tosk]

Dang, an episode I like is actually going to win this time around.

I'll save THE SOUND OF HER VOICE this time. Apart from the sci-fi twist in the tail, it's mostly just an excuse for good character stuff.

SONS AND DAUGHTERS
WRONGS DARKER THAN DEATH OR NIGHT
HIS WAY
THE RECKONING
TEARS OF THE PROPHETS

 

[Bad Thoughts]

I'm saving Tears of the Prophets. It has problem hanging together as an episode (miss Wolfe), but individual scenes are very memorable: Here's to the Losers, Sisko peeling potatoes, Worf's last words to Jadzia, etc.

SONS AND DAUGHTERS
WRONGS DARKER THAN DEATH OR NIGHT
HIS WAY
THE RECKONING

 

[JirinPanthosa]

Not voting for the episode that not only brought back Alexander but reduced his IQ by 50 points, not voting for the episode that introduced the Magical Hologram. I guess among the other two I'll go with Wrongs Darker Than Death Or Night because although it has execution issues, it made Kira confront moral ambiguities.

SONS AND DAUGHTERS
HIS WAY
THE RECKONING

 

[Garth Rockett]

I hate to leave part of the opening arc in the bottom two (even if it is the weakest of the six) but I've got to save His Way. I love Vic Fontaine, and I thought he brought a lot to the show late in the run. Plus, it's a key Odo-Kira episode.

SONS AND DAUGHTERS
THE RECKONING

 

[Sakonna]

I am saving "The Reckoning"! Which is fairly lousy and unfavorably redirects the narrative in multiple ways. But I am thrilled to do it and make "SONS AND DAUGHTERS" our season 6 "winner."

I haaaaaaaaaaate "Sons And Daughters." I've actually been hoping that would win the whole time, I just never thought a Dominion arc installment would make it to the final two. But I think it's placement in the arc makes its offenses worse, not better. A "Meridian" or "Profit & Lace" can be ignored, but there's no avoiding this one. They really needed to use this real estate well, and they dropped the ball entirely.

Both stories in "Sons And Daughters" are dreadful, empty, and false, incompetently dragging down the larger story in pursuit of goals that aren't even good ideas. Emphasizing Ziyal as this paragon of forgiving sweetness doesn't make her impending death more tragic, it just makes her entire character feel like the cheap contrivance of a hack writer. That moment where Kira opens the dress and is girlishly swept away by "a pretty dress, picking out just for me by Hitler!" may be my most hated scene of the series. The A story also has the distinction of retroactively ruining the very satisfying wrap-up TNG gave Alexander, and to what purpose? This story is dull slop and then it goes nowhere.

The continuity mess here isn't just confined to TNG connections -- the Kira story does not sync well to where she's at in the eps immediately preceding and following. And what happened to the whole Rotarran crew we were JUST introduced to in "Soldiers Of The Empire"? It's not exactly a continuity error, in that it's plausible they were killed or cycled out to other assignments, but that was basically a backdoor pilot for "Star Trek: Klingon", and those characters were interesting -- why not recur them here? It should have been easy to build on that setup and give us another satisfying installment with them.

It even fails in basic craft ways. It's badly directed (the directors two other DS9 eps: "The Begotten" and "The Reckoning") The dialogue is clunky and tin-eared ("When a father and son do not speak -- that means there is trouble between them"). And the editing is terrible! That was never a thing I thought on DS9, but this ep feels hacked together with a cleaver. So many rough & abrupt cuts!

I'll stop ranting now. But man do I hate this episode!

 

[Farscape One]

"SONS AND DAUGHTERS" is the 'winner' of season 6. Kind of reinforces the argument that the placement of an episode in a series can be an advantage or detrimental. I have to say, I am surprised by the turnout. But this season was particularly exciting for me, in terms of seeing what episodes were saved and why. This season, and your voting, is exactly why I started these threads, and I truly thank you all for your votes. This was so much fun!

I will bd starting the seventh season shortly.