Of the episodes I listed above, I think I have how I rank my Top 10 sorted.
1. "The Way of the Warrior"
2. "Necessary Evil"
3. "Past Tense"
4. "Emissary"
5. "Whispers"
6. "The Visitor"
7. "Duet"
8. "Rejoined"
9. "The Jem'Hadar"
10. "The Maquis"
To sort them, I used the "What would I rather watch?" Method that I used last year when I finally sorted out how I rank
the first 10 Star Trek Movies. In case you want to know, but don't click on the link, I rank them: TWOK, TVH, FC, TUC, TMP, TSFS, TFF, GEN, INS, and NEM. But anyway...
The first eight ranked DS9 episodes on my list left me riveted, or in the case of
"Whispers" ended with a shocker that makes you get something completely different out of it the second time you watch, just like
The Sixth Sense.
I didn't want to include
"Duet" just because I thought I was "supposed to". But, when I thought about it, I really was
that captivated by it. You can tell you just be reading my thoughts about it in the DS9 Re-Watch Thread. The same with
"The Visitor".
With
"Emissary", I was wondering in the back of my mind, "Do I have it in this list just because I think it's one of Star Trek's best pilots, or do I really think it's that good of an episode even without taking it into account. And I decided I really
did think it was that good, pilot or not.
"The Jem'Hadar" and
"The Maquis" don't leave me riveted but they're
very good, aren't afraid to put the Federation under a microscopic lens, and have compelling arguments from different points-of-view. They also both move DS9 and the immediate situation in the Alpha Quadrant forward.
"Rejoined" was way ahead of its time and I loved it as even just an episode about Dax instead of The Kiss. I even went out of my way to have two separate posts, one to talk about The Kiss and another to talk about the episode itself and why it's one of my favorites.
"Past Tense" hit way closer to home than one might think. For something that was made 30 years ago, they were pretty on the ball with what's going on right now in terms of the Bigger Picture.
"Necessary Evil" has a lot of character complexity, they did a great job making the station look and feel different when it was Terok Nor. Odo's backstory, how he met Kira, Quark, and Dukat, the whole neo-noir visual style and shooting style, the mystery going on with Vaatrick Pallra, Odo's narration, all great stuff. It really feels like I'm watching a 1940s movie, except it's a DS9 episode.
Then there's
"The Way of the Warrior". This episode was jam-packed. Action, political intrigue, shifting alliances, Worf at a crossroads in his life, Sisko and Odo telling Worf they once faced similar crossroads. Yeah, I know I took half a point off for how easily the Klingons were defeated, but that's just a nitpick, when I'm actually watching and I'm in the moment, I don't care. Then there's how Worf does or doesn't get along with everyone and how well he fits into the DS9 picture.
I know I didn't go in order explaining my rationale for these episodes. I just typed out a whole stream of thought, and you can see the order I ranked them at the top of this post anyway.
The runner-up episodes that I ended up crossing off my list from the original 15 that I started off with, listed in chronological order:
"Dax" --> This one is an early favorite but, ironically, I don't think there was enough of
Jadzia in the episode. She's silent for most of it and I think had this episode been made in Season 2 or later, it would've played out differently even if everything that happened in it stayed the same. So, without being able to hit that type of potential, it could only go so high, as much as I liked it.
"In the Hands of the Prophets" --> I wanted to include this one because of the whole debate about teaching science versus teaching religion in the classroom but am I thinking about how great of a debate the subject is or how great of an episode it is? It cracked my Top 15, but not my Top 10. Great speech at the end, though, from Sisko about the progress made during DS9's first season.
"Blood Oath" --> As great as it was to see Kor, Koloth, and Kang, and as great as it was to see Jadzia Dax insist on being part of the Blood Oath, this episode just missed making the cut. It's definitely in my list of Top 10 Klingon Episodes, though.
"The Wire" --> This is another one I really wanted to include, but it's mostly Garak playing head-games with Bashir. As fun as that is to watch, it also wasn't enough for it break through when I had to be more cut-throat.
"Homefront" & "Paradise Lost" --> This was another painful cut. The idea of having the military run things is scary, as is watching how paranoid everyone on Earth is. The President feels in over his head. Joe Sisko steals the show. Admiral Leyton's my favorite Badmiral.
But there's no follow-through after this episode with the Changelings on Earth, the immediate situation is dealt with quickly, and Joe Sisko had more of a presence in the first episode than the second. And, for some reason, in my head I always thought the battle between the Defiant and the Lakota lasted longer than it actually did. So, unfortunately, as much as I like this two-parter, it didn't make the cut.
Might as well type this one now: honorable mention goes to
"Second Skin", which occurred to me while I was typing this post, but I can't believe I left out of consideration! It still doesn't make my Top 10, but I'm going to give it a shout-out anyway.
