What cliches and annoyances does DS9 have?

[kobeyashi maru]

Never liked Avery's "breakdown" acting. And after a school mate did a spot on imitation of him I could never take Ben Sisko seriously whenever he broke down.

Brooks's acting style in general seems very "larger than life." I sort of feel that his portrayal of Sisko would work better on stage than it does on TV. Not that being "theatrical" on TV is necessarily a bad thing--it's pretty much par for the course as far as most Trek goes, TOS especially, and I enjoy watching actors of Shatner's, Stewart's, and Brooks's caliber chew up the cardboard scenery.

But DS9, I think, combines your traditional "theatrical" Trek with a more modern, naturalistic approach, and sometimes the result is a little awkward. You can see it amongst the cast even: you have theater actors like Brooks and Andrew Robinson, who always seem to be performing for the wings, or whatever that expression is, right next to more subdued, even methody portrayals from the likes of Auberjonois or Nana Visitor.

They're all good actors, and they all work great together, but sometimes the styles don't totally mix.

 

[Saxman1]

I don't have a lot of beefs with DS9, one of my favorite ST series. However:

1. Kira whining about the occupation in the early seasons at the drop of a hat, even though she was incredibly hot....which kind of made up for it...

2. Jadzia, although hotness itself, came off as smug and self-satisfied. Not played by the greatest actress in the world (Terry Ferrell) even if H-O-T....

That's about it. Great ST show, maybe even the best....

 

[cwalrus2]

If anything DS9 broke away from some of the established cliches of previous Trek series such as:

1. characters had meaningful intimate relationships that lasted for more than a single episode.

2. Different religions were respected within the context of the show which was pretty much frowned upon in TNG where religion was seen as being superstition for less evolved cultures.

3. Main characters who had sexual tension between them (ie. odo/kira) actually got some sort of payoff before the end of the tv show unlike Riker/Troi.

4. DS9 wasn't afraid to have long character and story arcs unlike TOS and TNG which relied heavily on stand alone episodes and a little on two-parters or cliff-hangers.

5. DS9 had a much richer cast of recurring guest stars than previous shows. TNG had Q and Guinan, but DS9 had Dukat, Garek, Kai Winn, Weyoun, Brunt, and more

 

[T'Cal]

I had no use for Quark. The character was silly and unnecessary.
Jadzia spewed more technobabble than Geordi and that's a lot!

 

[scottydog]

I like Worf, but I thought he was a bad addition to the cast.

I loved how everyone kept hyping up how hilarious and deep and insightful and friendly Morn was, but whenever we see him, he's completely silent. I wish Morn had the last line in the show.

That is a totally awesome idea. Morn should have had the last word!! The question is: What would he say to end the series? Hmmm....

 

[Robert Maxwell]

DS9 is and likely will remain my favorite Trek, but it was not without problems.

One thing that bugged me was when the writers had to force a particular issue. For instance, they spent years developing Dukat into a nuanced, complex individual. Apparently, some of the writers felt viewers were sympathizing with him too much, hence his psychotic break and turn as the "Anti-Emissary". Unfortunately, this threw away most of what made him interesting, and there didn't really seem to be a good reason for it, other than to make him Pure Evil and remind viewers they shouldn't like him at all.

The literal deus ex machina in "Sacrifice of Angels" proved the writers had written our heroes into a corner, and there was no way out except to have the Prophets wave their magic wand and dissolve the Dominion fleet. That Sisko didn't even think of talking to the Prophets beforehand makes it worse.

There were several things that came up repeatedly which got a little tiresome:

* Worf being a big blowhard and not having a sense of humor.
* Ferengi "comedy".
* The continual descent of the Mirror Universe concept into utter absurdity.

One thing I've always found an interesting dichotomy on DS9 is that the writers could handle complex social and religious issues with subtlety and grace, but when it came to handling romance, they felt the need to drive the point home with a sledgehammer. "His Way" is a pretty good example of that--not an awful episode, but riddled with cliches, and enough manipulation to make me wonder why in the world Kira would get together with Odo after all that. Other romances were also handled in a silly, high-schoolish fashion, except for Sisko/Kasidy, which I found fairly natural.

The last thing I can think of right now is that there were often claims of consequences, but we never seemed to see them. They did try on a few occasions--like Kira being pissed at Odo for his actions during the Occupation Arc, but that was swept under the rug with an offscreen conversation. Also, the time Kira found out Odo let innocent people be executed (I think?), and she said she didn't know how she could ever trust him again, etc. I never saw any fallout from that. Most of the relationships remained fairly static over time, and major stressors on those relationships didn't seem to have a lasting impact.

I guess none of those are really enormous complaints, certainly nothing of the magnitude of Voyager's problems, but there you have it.

 

[Ro_Laren]

Some season 1 and 2 episodes were taken from unused TNG scripts

Really??? I never knew that!

1. Jadzia's pre-Worf episodes were always the weakest link

What are you talking about? Meridian is one of the best Trek episodes of all time!!!!! In all seriousness, I didn't think Jadzia's pre-Worf episodes were bad. She is my favorite DS9 character!!

In all seriousness there are a couple things that annoyed me about DS9.

1. As some mentioned above, the Ferengi episodes were generally my least favorite.
2. I also found some of the Bajoran-religion centric episodes boring. While I appreciate the fact that it shows religion still active in the 24th Century, the episodes were still boring.
3. The Kira-Odo relationship has always been one of my biggest beefs.
4. Also mentioned above, Keiko was very whiny and dislikable in DS9. I like her more on TNG.
5. Jadzia dying
6. They didn't bring back Sito Jaxa
7. The fact that Chief O'Brien was Chief of Operations instead of an officer. He also gave orders to officers all the time (similar to Ensign Harry Kim being the Chief of Operations on Voyager and giving orders to higher ranking officers).