• Welcome! The TrekBBS is the number one place to chat about Star Trek with like-minded fans.
    If you are not already a member then please register an account and join in the discussion!

Worst DS9 Episode?

mike2363

Ensign
Red Shirt
Obviously any Star Trek series has its bad episodes - its just going to happen eventually.
I was just wondering if when re-running or randomly selecting your DS9 DVD collection, you come across an episode that you just skip or after it actually starts you press "return" and select another one?

For me its almost certainly: Season 1, Episode(unlucky)13 "The Storyteller".

Everything in this episode is so poorly executed, but most certainly the worst aspect is the story itself.
 
That's a good choice, I had that in mind when I was thinking of this thread. I have absolutely no idea what the writers were thinking about in regard to Dax when they wrote that. Terrible stuff.
It's not just the writing. This must be Frakes' worst outing as a director. Many of the scenes are overdone. I can at least give some credit to Farrell, as it seems she is trying to make to romcom scenes work.
 
It's not just the writing. This must be Frakes' worst outing as a director. Many of the scenes are overdone. I can at least give some credit to Farrell, as it seems she is trying to make to romcom scenes work.
I forgot is was directed by Johnny Frakes! A stain on his CV along with Thunderbirds
 
Melora - predictable, unsubtle and another creepy romance for Bashir.

Valiant - awful in every respect. Replete with cringeworthy moments (highlighted by the Red Squad chant and Jake's smarm about how cool his dad is), plot holes, horrible casting (the least-convincing elite cadets I've ever seen), awful acting...just a horrible episode, and in a really bad patch of an otherwise excellent season.

Plus The Muse, Prodigal Daughter and Profit and Lace, off the top of my head.
 
Profit and Lace

This was a stretch in DS9 where they had 3 back to back bad episodes in a row (Valiant, Profit and Lace, and Times Orphan) but P & L was so bad it was insulting. When people say Season 6 is the best season, I can't agree with that because of this stretch of episodes.
 
If Wishes Were Horses was pretty bad, and early enough it nearly made me quit the series.

The Muse was dire - not only because it features Lwaxana Troi, but also because the B story is Jake Sisko getting his poems sucked out of his head by some sort of weird alien of the week.

The Storyteller was a stinker of an episode too. Some random Bajoran village has its bad thoughts manifest themselves as a magic cloud? Yeah... No.
 
Last edited:
It's not just the writing. This must be Frakes' worst outing as a director. Many of the scenes are overdone. I can at least give some credit to Farrell, as it seems she is trying to make to romcom scenes work.

Yeah, Farrell did a pretty decent job of a young woman in the beginning of a romance. Doesn't really work to me that someone with the judgement of living 300 years is willing to commit to a 60-some years relationship with someone she's known only a few days, but given the script she did okay with it.
 
And I feel the need to stick up for poor Valiant. It's a flawed episode, for sure, and I don't think it really succeeds at what it tries to do, but it's far from the worst. That is Profit and Lace. Or Let He Who is Without Sin.

Though I have no explanation for why Red Squad wasn't disbanded after the failed coup, even if I could see the cadets being pardoned/not punished for their part. It would've been a better idea to leave Red Squad out of it altogether and just let these kids be cadets on a training cruise. (Behind enemy lines. During wartime. Yeah, I know, I know.)
 
I thought Valiant was actually pretty good. Okay, sending one of your best combat ships with a bunch of cadets is a bit of a stretch, but the drama worked and I thought the cadets were pretty believable as young hotshots who thought they could do anything. Glad DS9s writers and producers had the guts to have it end realistically instead of with a deus ex machina.
 
I thought Valiant was actually pretty good. Okay, sending one of your best combat ships with a bunch of cadets is a bit of a stretch, but the drama worked and I thought the cadets were pretty believable as young hotshots who thought they could do anything. Glad DS9s writers and producers had the guts to have it end realistically instead of with a deus ex machina.
I'd have to agree about Valient being pretty bad, the casting was terrible, I really wanted the entire crew to get killed by the Dominion. I know they were supposed to be kids but that "Captain" was a complete ass. Also got weird that Nog (a fully commissioned Officer) would just bow down to these Cadets - albeit an elite group. Did feel good when the Defiant came to the rescue at the end though with all the adults.
 
If you are not already a member then please register an account and join in the discussion!

Sign up / Register


Back
Top