Trimming The DS9 Fat

[happydave]

I feel that one of the best features of DS9 is it's long running arcs that are stronger than the other Trek series. However at 176 episodes and a lot of the episodes not really having a lot of relevance to the core story there's a lot of episodes which can be essentially removed without diminishing the core stories.

So In an attempt to try and bring DS9 into more of a tight story like Babylon 5 I've cut down the series to about 80 episodes which focus on the Bajoran Politics/Prophecy, Marquis/Eddington, Odo/Kira and the Klingon/Dominion Wars.

I think I've pretty much got most of the key story episodes, but I'm sure there's a few I've either overlooked or incorrectly included.

What's everyone think?

List is below:

1x01    Emissary 1
1x02     Emissary 2
1x19     Duet 
1x20     In the Hands of the Prophets 
2x01     The Homecoming 
2x02     The Circle 
2x03     The Siege 
2x08     Necessary Evil
2x20     The Maquis, Part I 
2x21     The Maquis, Part II 
2x22     The Wire 
2x24     The Collaborator 
2x26     The Jem'Hadar 
3x01     The Search, Part I 
3x02     The Search, Part II 
3x06     The Abandoned 
3x09     Defiant 
3x13     Life Support 
3x14     Heart of Stone 
3x15     Destiny 
3x20     Improbable Cause 
3x21     The Die is Cast 
3x26     The Adversary 
4x01    The Way of the Warrior 1
4x02     The Way of the Warrior 2
4x04     Hippocratic Oath 
4x05     Indiscretion 
4x11     Homefront 
4x12     Paradise Lost 
4x13     Crossfire 
4x14     Return to Grace 
4x17     Accession 
4x22     For the Cause 
4x23     To the Death 
4x26     Broken Link 
5x01     Apocalypse Rising 
5x02     The Ship 
5x04     Nor the Battle to the Strong 
5x10     Rapture 
5x13     For the Uniform 
5x14     In Purgatory's Shadow 
5x15     By Inferno's Light 
5x16     Doctor Bashir, I Presume 
5x21     Soldiers of the Empire 
5x23     Blaze of Glory 
5x25     In the Cards 
5x26     Call to Arms 
6x01     A Time to Stand 
6x02     Rocks and Shoals 
6x03     Sons and Daughters 
6x04     Behind the Lines 
6x05     Favor the Bold 
6x06     Sacrifice of Angels 
6x07     You Are Cordially Invited 
6x09     Statistical Probabilities 
6x11     Waltz 
6x16     Change of Heart 
6x18     Inquisition 
6x19     In the Pale Moonlight 
6x20     His Way 
6x21     The Reckoning 
6x22     Valiant 
6x26     Tears of the Prophets 
7x01     Image in the Sand 
7x02     Shadows and Symbols 
7x03     Afterimage 
7x06     Treachery, Faith and the Great River 
7x08     The Siege of AR-558 
7x10     It's Only a Paper Moon 
7x14     Chimera 
7x17     Penumbra 
7x18     'Til Death Do Us Part 
7x19     Strange Bedfellows 
7x20     The Changing Face of Evil 
7x21     When It Rains... 
7x22     Tacking Into the Wind 
7x23     Extreme Measures 
7x24     The Dogs of War 
7x25    What You Leave Behind 1
7x26    What You Leave Behind 2

 

[Jono]

It diminishes DS9. While not all episodes are great just focusing on the core story episodes makes the show and characters weaker overall.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

Well, you cut out Far Beyond the Stars. Though there is by no means universal agreement, many people, some shall I say who are close to the show, and also myself too, believe this to be the best DS9 episode. A list that calls this episode part of the fat to be trimmed therefore cannot be taken seriously.

Let's see...you cut out Once More Unto the Breach, again pretty inexcusable, in this case if for no reason other than Kor's significance to the Star Trek franchise. But besides that I happen to like it, especially the older I get.

I personally thought Battle Lines was the first truly excellent episode of the series, indicative of DS9's willingness to go significantly darker than TNG. This is another episode you dropped for some reason.

I think you have a fail here.

 

[happydave]

I also cut out The Visitor, Trials & Tribulations and a few others. There's a bunch of episodes which would be included if it was a "best of" list. It'd be a completely different set of episodes. But that's completely not the idea as explained in the opening post.

Of course the list is a fail if we compare it against a completely different set of desires.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

Yeah, Trials and Tribble-ations is a brilliant episode, very clever for the way they had fun with the TOS tropes; I had stopped checking after the third episode I looked for or I certainly would have mentioned it too.

But I took care that two of the episodes I mentioned had a strong bearing on your "Bajoran Politics/Prophecy" arc specifically, Far Beyond the Stars and Battle Lines. Admittedly the other one I mentioned closes out an arc besides the ones you mentioned, but it illustrates the point that I think you have narrowed your focus too much here.

Anyway, just my opinion. Cheers.

 

[Fang66]

You've made it even more of a boring soap opera than it generally was.

 

[RyuRoots]

I think it's a terrible idea. There are a lot of great episodes that aren't centric to the "main plot" that have really engaging and interesting stories. There are even some episodes that aren't very good, but still have some great character moments or exposition or development in them.

I don't think anything needs to be trimmed (except maybe Profit and Lace). Some things can be ignored if you don't like them, but the show as a whole works best when you have the core...AND the rest of the apple along with it, so to speak.

 

[reversepolarity]

I agree with many of the others here (more or less) that you're missing some of the very best episodes with such a tight cut. I do agree there's one or two tiresome/pointless episodes. Personally if i were to do such a thing it's just be a couple of ep's every season i'd drop (even then it's not always easy because they can be referenced in a later show).

P.s. dropping season 1 (or nearly all of it) seems harsh to me, it might not be core the the big arcs of the last few seasons but it sets the stage!

 

[Paulcpick]

since you cut out Looking for par'Mach in All the Wrong Places, why not cut out You are Cordially Invited... ? only episode of DS9 that I would love to have disappear from existence is Move Along Home....

 

[Quinton O'Connor]

"Move Along Home", "Second Sight", "Meridian", "Let He Who Is Without Sin..."

Remove these four and I'm happy. Go ahead and keep "Profit and Lace" -- sure, it will be the worst episode remaining without question but at least it carries on the Ferengi arc. Those other four are simply dreadful and virtually devoid of relevance.

One can argue "Second Sight" does a good job reminding the audience of Sisko's widower status but it then goes and shoots itself in the foot with a terrible plot anyway.

 

[46379.1]

What's everyone think?

I think it's a great list, sometimes when I rewatch I just want to see the long running arcs without the stand alone eps.

I think there was another thread not long ago with a similiar idea, but can't find it now.
Edit: http://trekbbs.com/showthread.php?t=145415

 

[Cyke101]

Even serialized shows need a breather once in a while. I'm not saying that all of DS9's filler episodes are masterpieces, but I feel that quite a few of them did a great job in simply telling a self-contained story, even if it didn't have much to do with the overall plots.

 

[Canadave]

Even serialized shows need a breather once in a while. I'm not saying that all of DS9's filler episodes are masterpieces, but I feel that quite a few of them did a great job in simply telling a self-contained story, even if it didn't have much to do with the overall plots.

Without the occasional "House of Quark," "Our Man Bashir," or "In the Cards," the show is definitely diminished as a whole, I agree.

 

[CommanderRaytas]

I also cut out The Visitor, Trials & Tribulations and a few others. There's a bunch of episodes which would be included if it was a "best of" list. It'd be a completely different set of episodes. But that's completely not the idea as explained in the opening post.

Of course the list is a fail if we compare it against a completely different set of desires.

Yeah, but if you cut up the series like this, it kind of takes away the enjoyment, no matter what the requirements of a specific list.