Ways in Which The Other Treks Were Better

[Rahul]

My main gripe with DS9 are the "filler" episodes. A lot of other Trek shows had pretty dumb or stupid plots for filler episodes. But on DS9, I oftentimes felt an entire episode long nothing happened.

The workers on Quarks bar go on a strike? Jake Sisko wants to get a rare card for his dad? Those are C- or B-plots for an episde at best. Cenetering an entire 45 minutes around each of those premises was.... suuuper boring. I enjoyed the show when actually something was happening! Even their "big event"-episodes were pretty slow - but that was IMO a good choice.

But those nothing-happens-for-45-minutes episodes were reeeaally annoying, especially if they dealt with problems the Federation should have long solved. (COME ON! DS9 is FULL of shops and trade! Don't tell me Starfleet Officers at the border of Federation space don't have some kind of currency with them! Even if no money is needed in the Federation core worlds....they surely would have some in less developed regions of space! That's an entire episode built around a premise that makes no sense, without anything happening in it. Even in "A night in Sickbay" at least SOMETHING happened!)

 

[HugeLobes]

The workers on Quarks bar go on a strike? Jake Sisko wants to get a rare card for his dad?

Can't really speak to the bar strike since I haven't seen all of DS9 in a while, but In the Cards is great! The whole point is to have this more lighthearted, whimsical episode right before things go bad at the end of season 5 and start of season 6. I wouldn't call it a filler episode because it's very connected to the larger events happening around it in terms of both plot and tone.

DS9 has plenty of episodes where 'nothing happens', but they almost always use those episodes to say something about the characters. IMO, that's one of the main things seperating DS9 from other Trek shows.

 

[marlboro]

No other show had a character as shitty as Rom. Even Neelix looks down on that dope.

Edited to add: I didn't have a problem with most of the "filler" episodes but I did occasionally have a problem with their placement within the larger storyline. It was very annoying having to watch some silly holodeck episode when the previous episode was a dramatic war story that kept you on the egde of your seat wondering what was going to happen next.

 

[Bad Thoughts]

have a problem with most of the "filler" episodes but I did occasionally have a problem with their placement within the larger storyline.

What makes them filler episodes? It's a show about life on a space station. Why wouldn't they show, well, life on a space station?

 

[kkt]

No other show had a character as shitty as Rom. Even Neelix looks down on that dope.

Rom grew from being a terrible businessman and gopher to a pretty good maintenance engineer (even leaving aside becoming Grand Nagus at the end). Neelix was never anything but a lousy cook that everyone felt to sorry for to say so.

 

[Farscape One]

Rom was not a bad character. He grew a lot, from being an idiot brother to a great engineer (Got Sisko and the others back into their bodies in "OUR MAN BASHIR", came up with the self-replication idea for the minefield.), husband, and ultimately Grand Nagus.

And Neelix... maybe not a great cook, but he turned out to be a great ambassador for Voyager, as well as being very much a jack-of-all-trades guy. He is not a loser, either.

 

[marlboro]

Jar Jar Binks > Neelix > Rom

 

[Farscape One]

Putting Jar Jar Binks above Rom or Neelix? Wow... that's hatred.

 

[marlboro]

All Im saying is that if it wasn't for Rom, not only would DS9 be on Blu-ray by now, but Ariana Grande and Pete Davidson would never have broken up.

Prove me wrong.

 

[HugeLobes]

Rom > Jar Jar Binks > Neelix > Knowing Ariana Grande’s relationship status

 

[kkt]

All Im saying is that if it wasn't for Rom, not only would DS9 be on Blu-ray by now, but Ariana Grande and Pete Davidson would never have broken up.
.

Who's Ariana Grande and why should I care who she's dating?

 

[JirinPanthosa]

Speaking of Rom, I liked Rom in cases where he wasn’t just s comic foil for Quark, but it makes me think of another issue.

Every non human character besides Dax is on a first name basis with their head of state. They kinda made it credible with Worf due to his TNG history and with Kira, but with Quark it was ridiculous. Quark should have been nothing to Zek. Just the Ferengi who was there whenever he was on DS9. It should have been Quark plotting to steal Zek’s attention, not Zek forcing himself into Quark’s life.

And the whole democratic reform on Ferenginar should have been a harder fight.

Ariana Grande is a pop star who is dating a Saturday Night Live cast member. Which I know only because I watch SNL.

 

[USS Firefly]

Who's Ariana Grande and why should I care who she's dating?

Probably a one day fly

 

[UnknownSample]

Rom was an off the rack Ferengi at first. Later he became a very good character, the underdog no one noticed but who should have been listened to all along.
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DS9 didn't so "epic" well, it didn't present large SF concepts with the sense of awe they need and deserve. TOS was great at that. The best DS9 example is when the creation of a proto universe was treated as a small side issue in an episode...

 

[HugeLobes]

Rom was an off the rack Ferengi at first. Later he became a very good character, the underdog no one noticed but who should have been listened to all along.

I think this sums up the Neelix vs. Rom thing. Rom started off a nothing character and then got slowly developed into a secondary character most fans seem to like. Neelix was explicitly written as the main goofy comic relief character, and he became one of the most hated characters in Trek.

DS9 took their time developing a fun character. Voyager tried to force it right out the gate and ended up with something awful.

 

[marlboro]

I'll quote myself from an old thread:

There is nothing more grating than an unfunny comic relief character.

Rom acts and speaks like a bumbling fool, but he's a genius
Rom is a hideous alien, but hooks up with one of the most attractive trek characters
Rom displays no real business acumen, but becomes Grand Nagus

Hilarious.

I hate the actors performance as well. I would rather hear Nellix's "Mr. Vulcan! Mr Vulcan!" for all of eternity than listen to Rom "der" and "duuuh" through every scene. An awful awful character.


He's like some comic relief character from an 80s kids show. You can almost hear Baby Elephant Walk whenever he bumbles into a scene.

DS9 writer #1: you know what The Dogs of War really needs? A subplot featuring Snarf from Thundercats.

DS9 writer #2: Brilliant!

 

[HugeLobes]

Do you not like Rom or something?

 

[Reyman]

Rom was a great idea for a character, just poorly executed.

Neelix was just a poor concept for a character.

Imagine of instead of Neelix, Voyager had to take the delta quadrant version of Garak on board for the ride. Epic story lines ensue.

 

[Leviathan]

Worst episodes.

Sub Rosa and Threshold were more worse than Profit and Lace.

...more worse...that's a thing right?

 

[JirinPanthosa]

To me Rom had good moments and bad moments. Sometimes he was just annoying and grating and he never should have become Nagus. And his voice should have been less exaggerated. But he had some really good moments too, like helping O'Brien when Keiko was possessed, the way he supported Nog when Quark sabotaged his test, the union. The minefield. When he was an unconfident mechanical genius getting out from under Quark's thumb was when he was best.

I see Neelix as like a piece of a good concept for a character without the other piece that would have balanced him out.

I would agree that DS9 was lacking that 'epicness' factor TOS and TNG had to really bring the drama and suspense to cookie cutter scifi premises.