Why Deep Space Nine is the Most Realistic Star Trek Series

[Enterpriserules]

This is a great article on Den of Geek talking about the realistic take DS9 has on the Star Trek universe. One of the things I say on The Orb all the time is that DS9 took the ideals of the Federation and asked what's it mean to really live like this, especially in a universe that does not share those beliefs a lot of the time. This article does a great job of pointing out where DS9 really challenges us to ask the hard questions through it's 7 year run.

 

[Bad Thoughts]

Family should have been the first thing on the list. The first images of the series were of a man dealing with his son and the loss of his wife. The last were of a son pondering the loss of his father. Sisko's relationship with Jake may not have always been at the center of the series, but there was always O'Brien with his family, Quark/Nog/Rom, Worf and Jadzia's marriage, and even Odo's tense relationships with other changelings.

 

[House Stark]

Very interesting read. Highlights all that I loved about DS9. Not only was a it a great Trek but a great TV show in its own right.

 

[Richard Baker]

Excellent article- it puts forth a lot of things I never really considered before. DS9 is still not my favorite series, but I do respect it and the effort it made to create a new take on the Star Trek universe.

 

[Hypaspist]

Good article! On the point of religion, I like how they went beyond the superficial with it and actually expressed differences. My favorite part was when Ducat and Kira are investigating the crash sight, and Ducat is visually disturbed by her presence around the dead. He showed that he actually understood the Bajoran's way but that despite the Cardassians normally appearing very stoic, they actually do have a completely different way of looking at death. It would be like if a modern nation still held to ancient Egyptian practices without it being implied that they are wrong and backwards.

 

[bbailey861]

Very good read. I also think it was the most realistic series ever portrayed. I hope if and when there is another Star Trek series that they are not afraid to delve into the issues, arguments, and conflicts of the sort that were covered in DS9. They are just as relevant, if not more so today. As mentioned in one of the other threads, I think by Bry_Synclair, it'll take balls of steel to get those kinds of shows made in today's environment - although I think it's exactly what we need.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

I don't think DS9 is any more realistic than other Treks as it still had basically the same rules and same moral compass as all the other Trek series. Just it was a little more critical of utopia.

 

[jojolimited]

Great article. thanks for the link.

 

[wulfio]

I have a hard time believing a space faring race would be so ultra religious.

Bajorans always struck me as a medieval culture, that happened to be able to make space ships.

Good harvest? Bless the Prophets! How can your culture develop that kind of technology when your leaders and innovators think like that.

And it's not like the show represented a world that had a dichotomy of religious folks and scientists. Everyone was just ridiculously naive, with the exception of Dr. Mora.

 

[JeffinOakland]

I have a hard time believing a space faring race would be so ultra religious.

Bajorans always struck me as a medieval culture, that happened to be able to make space ships.

Good harvest? Bless the Prophets! How can your culture develop that kind of technology when your leaders and innovators think like that.

And it's not like the show represented a world that had a dichotomy of religious folks and scientists. Everyone was just ridiculously naive, with the exception of Dr. Mora.

Kira seemed capable of bridging the gap. Many of our most famous scientists were deeply religious people. One does not cancel out the other.

 

[wulfio]

Kira seemed capable of bridging the gap. Many of our most famous scientists were deeply religious people. One does not cancel out the other.

I don't want to start a religious debate. But...

In contemporary society none of the most famous scientists are religious. If your argument is someone who lived 300 years ago, you need to stop. Albert Einstein believed in a greater power. That is much different than theology. However if you've paid attention to science at all in the last 60 years, you'd realize how preposterous religion is.

In the famous words of Friedrich Nietzsche, God is dead. Fundamentalism has no place in an advanced civilization, and especially science; it's the height of hubris.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

Well for one, the Bajorans have hard proof their Gods exist and that they do influence every day events.

And I know some very smart, rational people who see science as the 'what' and religion as the 'why'.

 

[Bad Thoughts]

Sorry, Dr. Collins, you mapped the human genome, but you don't count.

 

[Tosk]

Also, we don't know definitively when Bajor as a whole became deeply religious.

It's likely that they were far less so before the orbs started appearing, ("Proof" that your Gods exist would tend to do that) and that was only ten thousand years prior to DS9.

As Picard says, Bajorans were "architects and artists, builders and philosophers when humans were not yet standing erect" so that gives them a 200,000 year head-start on us.

Now, all that said...they did seem to take a long time to go into space in a major way. They only started using lightships as late as Earth's 16th century, so they were evidently content to take their time jumping out into the dark.

 

[JeffinOakland]

Millions of scientists believe in a higher power of one sort or another.

Star Trek is rife with religion. Vulcans, Klingons, Ferengi, Romulans, Betazoids, Talaxians and even a few humans display various religious/spiritual beliefs and traditions.

 

[Bad Thoughts]

Now, all that said...they did seem to take a long time to go into space in a major way. They only started using lightships as late as Earth's 16th century, so they were evidently content to take their time jumping out into the dark.

Weren't the Vulcans and Ferengi slow to expand into deep space?

I doubt an image of Bajoran religiosity can be made by extrapolating into the past. The occupation made the Kai the only native cultural and political authority, probably exaggerating the importance of religion. Before the occupation, Bajor may have been more India than Afghanistan, with more balance than fundamentalism.

 

[wulfio]

Well for one, the Bajorans have hard proof their Gods exist and that they do influence every day events.

They aren't gods, they are aliens. If we went to the Paleolithic era with our modern technologies we would be considered gods.

 

[Bad Thoughts]

Well for one, the Bajorans have hard proof their Gods exist and that they do influence every day events.

They aren't gods, they are aliens. If we went to the Paleolithic era with our modern technologies we would be considered gods.

Tha Bajorans understand that there might be physical realities just beyond their grasp that allow the Prophets to do things beyond the average corporeal entity, and yet they still treat the Prophets as deities.

 

[Enterpriserules]

I love that DS9 shows that there is faith in the 24th century. As a man who has faith it is nice to see validation in Star Trek. I think DS9 shows how you can be a rational person and be a person of faith. I think to say that faith has no point in advanced civilizations is the height of hubris. Kira, Sisko, Worf all have faith, each in a slightly different way, but none of them is completely irrational or "crazy".

 

[JirinPanthosa]

Yeah, there's a difference between a religious person who literally thinks the world is 6000 years old (Disproven) and a religious person who thinks God created the universe (Not disprovable).

There are lots of religious people I know who aren't running around denying evolution and denying their children medical care in lieu of prayer, but who think God was the force that set the universe in motion.