TNG vs DS9 - The Showdown!

[flemm]

DS9 was eerily prophetic in its choice of themes. (Eery partly because prophecy was one of those themes ): infiltration, resistance, terrorism, occupation, torture, religious fanaticism, religious belief in general, aiding insurgents, subverting the law in time of war... the list goes on. Looking at that list, you'd swear the show had been made in the post 9/11 world (like nuBSG, which has a lot of those themes as well, minus the prophetic aura). But in fact DS9 was made during the dot boom/monica lewinsky era. Pretty damn impressive, really.

So DS9 will murder TNG as far as relevancy is concerned, but then it would murder most shows of the time in this regard. For whatever reason, the DS9 premise and the writers' own interests led them to explore many ideas that would suddenly become dominant preoccupations throughout society a few years after its run.

TNG can't compete in that regard, but it is what hooked me on Trek, and the show had a magic when it originally aired that I remember, and still appreciate. So it gets my vote

 

[Anthony Sabre]

DS9 of course. TNG was my favorite as a teenager but was supplanted by DS9 as I became an adult. I could give reasons but my fellow Niners have already listed pretty much all of them.

 

[arasam22]

DS9

it was hard. i sat there for literally about three minutes, thinking. but in the end, DS9 got my vote. TNG will always be my first trek love, and patrick stewart/captain picard is my favorite trek actor/character ever (besides garak of course :P), but he and data just can't compare to the whole cast of DS9, of which i love almost every character equally.

so although i love TNG dearly, DS9 just had better characters and better stories overall. and it had garak. so yes. :P

 

[xman]

TNG. No contest. DS9 floundered out of the gate and took quite some time to get compelling for me. I left off watching it before it got to the war. TNG however was compelling even through the first, somewhat unsteady first season and even the last season kept me ... (heh) ... engaged.

X

 

[Anika Hanson]

TNG because the characters were better and the storylines were better. For me it was the perfect Trek, not that there was anything wrong with DS9 it was pretty near perfect too.

 

[Cali]

DS9 for me! I only got into it this year but it has surpassed TNG as my favourite.

 

[Skywalker]

DS9. Didn't even have to think about it.

 

[khaaan!!!]

DS9, because it took risks that TNG did not: had flawed characters, had a more serialized format, it was ambiguous. Then there is the actually writing: character development, relationships, the plots just seem much more naturally flowing on DS9 than TNG. I could go on on. I have to second the comment made by flemm. When I rewatched DS9 last year what really struck me is how much more powerful the show is in today’s environment. Religious fanatics, terrorism, infringement of liberties, occupation, and resistance fighters again could go on and on at how relevant it is to right now.

 

[Tachyon]

TNG. It is better. It is true Trek. It has much better casting.

 

[Crichton-san]

DS9 in a landslide. TNG is a great show, but does not compare to DS9, imo.

DS9 was a much more personal show than TNG. You didn't have a crew of nearly infallable people flying around every week dealing with the rest of the troubled galaxy. Everyting was personal in DS9- Kira fighting Cardassians her whole life, Sisko trying after years to still get over his wifes death at the hands of the borg, Worf still trying to find his way as a Klingon in a human world... DS9 characters were more human, more flawed. The thing that really "wins" it for DS9 though are the secondary character; characters who are just as fleshed out as the main cast and acted to perfection. The incredible battles scenes and action are icing on the cake. -

 

[Too Much Fun]

TNG.

It was far more consistently enjoyable from seasons 3-6 than any other Trek with very few unsatisfying episodes.

I think so too. I wasn't going to answer this until I finished DS9 for the first time, but with only 7 episodes left, I'm pretty sure I've made up my mind. I don't disagree with a lot of the things said about DS9 in this thread. I agree that it does have a larger and more interesting cast with more variety/complexity in the characters. I agree that it has more imagination in its stories. I also agree that it has episodes that achieve a level of epicness, creativity, and fascinating characterization that very few TNG episodes can touch.

On the other hand, I think what makes me like TNG more is that I feels DS9 sometimes gets too carried away with its own mythology. This makes TNG look a lot more streamlined and less overbearing in comparison. I just can't stand all the nonsense about the Prophets, Bajor, and the conflict/history both political and religious between the Bajorans and Cardissians.

Most people seem to consider TNG's self-contained nature and more formulaic style of story (much like the original series, the formula tends to be either conflict on another planet or invasion of the ship), but there is much positive to say about this 'safe', self-contained quality. Especially for someone like me who is more interested in relationships between characters than the bigger picture (politics, religion, etc.). I really prefer my Star Trek to have minimal politics or religion involved. Just because something is more simple doesn't automatically make it worse. I do like DS9's ongoing war arc, but when they get sidetracked with stuff about the relationship between Sisko and the Prophets or Bajor and the Cardassians (Dukat & Winn, Kira & Vedek, etc.), I just get weary and frustrated.

 

[RandyS]

I can't vote because I like them both equally. For me, TNG and DS9 are the high water marks of Star Trek. I particularly like how they were the most interchangeable shows. If you wanted to pair up the crews of these shows with either TOS or ENTERPRISE, a gimmick is needed since those shows take place in the 22nd and 23rd centuries. Same with VOYAGER since they are stranded on the other side of the galaxy.

But if Picard and Sisko wanted to join forces for an adventure (not that they did, but still), all Picard had to do was to tell Data to "set course for DS9".

Also, both shows had the best casts.

 

[Jono]

DS9, two things make it my preferred series: Characters and story.

 

[Too Much Fun]

I just watched "Strange Bedfellows" for the first time and I think it proved my point perfectly. DS9 was just too ambitious for its own good sometimes. With so many character and story arcs running simultaneously, they couldn't all work. That's what's so maddening about it for me. They have story lines and character evolutions that are SO awesome and engaging, and then they have to cut away from them to ones that are painfully stupid.

Case in point: I absolutely LOVE the subtle, well-paced, eloquently written growing frustration of Damar that has been slowly building for this whole season. I wanted to yell at him to do something to stand up for what he believes and I cheered when he finally did. Then the episode had to cut back to the lame cartoon villainy of Gul Dukat and Kai Winn and end on a sour note. The show teases me by showing how great it can be, and then undercutting that greatness with silliness. Compare this to TNG, which would have maybe two plotlines running simultaneously at the most, and wouldn't muck up their stories with all this extraneous fluff about prophets, evil cults, corrupt politicians, etc.

 

[dave_R_treker]

DS9, two things make it my preferred series: Characters and story.

... I agree. I think the characters feel more real.

 

[Navaros]

Compare this to TNG, which would have maybe two plotlines running simultaneously at the most, and wouldn't muck up their stories with all this extraneous fluff about prophets, evil cults, corrupt politicians, etc.

True, DS9 did muck up a lot of its storylines like the ones you've mentioned, but TNG had its own ways of mucking up its storylines just as badly. Ie: tons of technobabble stories; endless holodeck malfunction puts the crew in mortal danger episodes; space disease of the week puts the crew in mortal danger (granted, DS9 also has a couple of episodes like this in Season 1) episodes etc. etc.

My point is that although some of DS9's stories have very bad flaws, TNG is by no means smooth-sailing with its own stories and ergo TNG is not better in this regard.

 

[RyuRoots]

TNG. It is better. It is true Trek.

What does this even mean, exactly?

 

[TheGodBen]

TNG. It is better. It is true Trek.

What does this even mean, exactly?

It means it's not false Trek. Duh!

 

[Zulu Romeo]

DS9, on the basis of "Move Along Home" alone.

 

[startrekwatcher]

TNG.

It was far more consistently enjoyable from seasons 3-6 than any other Trek with very few unsatisfying episodes.

I think so too. I wasn't going to answer this until I finished DS9 for the first time, but with only 7 episodes left, I'm pretty sure I've made up my mind. I don't disagree with a lot of the things said about DS9 in this thread. I agree that it does have a larger and more interesting cast with more variety/complexity in the characters. I agree that it has more imagination in its stories. I also agree that it has episodes that achieve a level of epicness, creativity, and fascinating characterization that very few TNG episodes can touch.

On the other hand, I think what makes me like TNG more is that I feels DS9 sometimes gets too carried away with its own mythology.

Unlike a lot of shows these days with big epic storylines, large cast rosters, complicated mythologies that can overshadow the characters, TNG was a more intimate show. It wasn't about geopolitics or world-building or a large scale threat. It wasn't so fast-paced that your head would spin.

I also liked that it wasn't formulaic. If you really want to see formulaic just watch CSI. No, TNG might have been episodic but it had a variety of different story types--character pieces, high concept sci-fi, political intrigue, allegories.

That said, I enjoyed DS9's mythology that really takes center stage in seasons 5-7.

I just watched "Strange Bedfellows" for the first time and I think it proved my point perfectly. DS9 was just too ambitious for its own good sometimes. With so many character and story arcs running simultaneously, they couldn't all work. That's what's so maddening about it for me. They have story lines and character evolutions that are SO awesome and engaging, and then they have to cut away from them to ones that are painfully stupid.

But pretty much every traditional arc-based show has some storylines that you look forward to more than others and some that work and some that don't. The only place where those situations are absent is in shows like Lost or Heroes in season one where every storyline is connected and plays towards the big picture.

Then the episode had to cut back to the lame cartoon villainy of Gul Dukat and Kai Winn and end on a sour note.

I actually enjoyed this particular dynamic the show introduced in the Final Chapter.