What Shows Make Up the 'Core' DS9 Plot?

[Odo]

I was thinking about the 'core' plot of DS9, as opposed to the peripheral plots (like the the Maquis, the Odo/Kira romance, etc).

I came up with 37 episodes in total:

• Emissary
• The Jem’Hadar
• The Search, Part One
• The Search, Part Two
• Improbable Cause
• The Die is Cast
• The Adversary

• The Way of the Warrior
• Return to Grace
• Broken Link
• Apocalypse Rising
• Rapture
• In Purgatory’s Shadow
• By Inferno’s Light

• Call to Arms
• A Time to Stand
• Rocks and Shoals
• Sons and Daughters
• Behind the Lines
• Favor the Bold
• Sacrifice of Angels

• Waltz
• Inquisition
• In the Pale Moonlight
• The Reckoning
• Tears of the Prophets
• Image in the Sand
• Shadows and Symbols

• Penumbra
• ’Til Death Due Us Part
• Strange Bedfellows
• The Changing Face of Evil
• When It Rains…
• Tacking Into the Wind
• Extreme Measures
• The Dogs of War
• What You Leave Behind

The two pillars of what made an episode important to the main plot, IMO, was either because it furthered the Dominion arc or the Prophet arc. However, some aspects that turned out important for the show's ending (Section 31 and Dukat's madness) made some other previous episodes important to (Inquisition, Waltz).

Anyway, what episodes would you say make up the "core" DS9 plot?

 

[toughlittleship]

I would add "Treachery, Faith and the Great River" as well, as it is the first episodes to mention the disease afflicting the Founders.

 

[AdmiralGarak]

I was thinking about the 'core' plot of DS9, as opposed to the peripheral plots (like the the Maquis, the Odo/Kira romance, etc).

I came up with 37 episodes in total:

The two pillars of what made an episode important to the main plot, IMO, was either because it furthered the Dominion arc or the Prophet arc. However, some aspects that turned out important for the show's ending (Section 31 and Dukat's madness) made some other previous episodes important to (Inquisition, Waltz).

Anyway, what episodes would you say make up the "core" DS9 plot?

Using the criteria, you've got a good list. My main argument is that you've left out the core Bajor story arc. That's as fundamental a part of DS9 as anything, and integral to the Prophets related stories that you did include.

Adding In the Hands of the Prophets, The Circle Trilogy, The Collaborator, and Accession would cover the main beats nicely.

 

[Odo]

I would add "Treachery, Faith and the Great River" as well, as it is the first episodes to mention the disease afflicting the Founders.

I can see the argument for that, but then I feel like it would open a can of worms: Indiscretion could be added, since it introduced Ziyal, The Wire, for introducing Tain, etc. But I can see why someone would add TFatGR (which sounds pretty funny when you pronounce the ep's acronym)

Using the criteria, you've got a good list. My main argument is that you've left out the core Bajor story arc. That's as fundamental a part of DS9 as anything, and integral to the Prophets related stories that you did include.

Adding In the Hands of the Prophets, The Circle Trilogy, The Collaborator, and Accession would cover the main beats nicely.

Hmmm, that is a good point. I do feel the Bajoran political arc lost a lot of its importance, though it was always there, becoming more part of the DS9 backdrop then the DS9 ongoing arc, while the Prophet arc retained its importance.