The Case for Star Trek: Deep Space 9 (2016)

The standard complaint about DS9 is its merely a ripoff of Babylon 5. I have not been able to stomach watching B5; if I ever have a couple hundred hours of spare time I'll attempt it, until then I'll have to trust other's opinion. Something not often mentioned is the sheer expense of these series; hundreds of hours of limited spare time have to be invested to experience it all. I watched all of DS9 when it was new and then decades later just a couple years ago; it was pleasant but compared to the alternatives I'm not sure it was a wise use of my time. I tried B5 but after a dozen or so hours invested I had barely scratched the surface yet was bored. These series are just painfully expensive. For a non-sci fi comparison try "The Sopranos" where if you're not addicted its very hard to get addicted and the time investment is insane like hundreds of hours required.

Garak is the most interesting character in all of Trek. The linked story was very human focused, but if you get past the species-ism then Garak is clearly the most interesting character in all of Trek. He certainly has the most unique and interesting lines of dialogue.

There are strange human sociology messages in DS9 that are kinda unrealistic. In DS9 land, individuals are extremely newness-seeking and would never interact with someone of their own kind if there's any possibility of interacting with a stranger, and the stranger the better; this political requirement has no relationship with reality of course, and as such the series suffers under a pallor of weirdness. Friendship and family and culture feel at best bolted on, or at worst are outright ridiculous.

There is some relationship between DS9 and Ian Banks Culture-verse, echos of one in the other. Both are kind of a window into a future that does not contain social media and the problems resulting from social media, which is kinda weird, like experiencing a science fiction novel from just before the broadcast era that naturally does not explore the numerous effects of broadcasting. Off the top of my head I can't think of any hard sci fi that is set substantially in the future yet contains aspects of social media from a decade ago, although someone here probably has some good suggestions.

This is a great post. As a long time TNG fan (and fan of The Greatest Generation podcast), I never grokked DS9. I tried many times, but the first season episodes are just so bad that I can never make it though.

An episode guide like this is helpful as well as the behind-the-scenes on the show in general.

Thanks for sharing.

Great post. Fun learning some of the back story.

I love Deep Space Nine. All of it. As in: Best show ever made.

I agree that DS9, along with Babylon 5, pioneered the long form TV story arc. Every single character goes thru the heroes journey. Convincingly. I love it.

Benjamin Sisko is my favorite captain. I'd follow that guy into a black hole.

Quark makes the show. I don't know how Armin Shimerman pulled that off. Some of the best acting ever.

My favorite episodes remain the Ensign Kim stuff from Voyager. But overall, DS9 was just the best.

Sadly I can't imagine a show like DS9 which made you think about moral ambiguity being made today, especially in the US. The "good guys" (i.e., the Bajorans) were terrorists (and religious ones at that). In some episodes, Kira openly discussed the fact that as part of the resistance, they had to accept killing civilians and other Bajoran as collateral damage.

> “O’Brien Must Suffer” episodes

Eh, these were among my less-liked episodes. None of them advanced the plot, they mostly made no sense relating to O'Brien's character (like, why did Starfleet choose him, a chief engineer, to run an organized crime sting operation), and the sum of these was O'Brien gaining this weird parallel backstory of him as some woebegone magnet for unluck. They were all clearly contrived; at least from reading this article I now know why.

(To be fair, some were really good – like when Keiko (O'Brien's wife) was possessed by a Pa Wraith. Others were just like, what the heck, O'Brien's in jail again?)

> Season one’s nadir, “Move Along Home.”

Funny thing is, this is one of the more "traditionally" Trek episodes. Meet a weird species, have some misunderstanding during first contact, everyone almost dies, but j/k it's all OK in the end and we forget anything ever happened in the next episode.

> Season 2 establishes one of Star Trek’s greatest characters, Elim Garak.

Glad he got a call out! Was disappointed he was missing from the cast drawing, given that he plays an increasingly prominent role in the later seasons.

> this would be a great time to abandon my guide and just watch the whole thing.

Uhh… but make sure to skip Profit and Lace. It's objectively awful (and I love the Ferengi episodes), and I refuse to consider it canon. Unfortunately it advances the Ferengi subplot; just imagine a story that fits the plot points and you'll be better off than watching it.

> Optional episodes: Take Me Out To The Holosuite

I highly recommend watching this. It has nothing to do with the plot whatsoever, but it's fun to watch and does a lot of good (if silly) character building. You can tell the cast enjoyed it too.

I contend that DS9 remains some of the best television ever made (and yes, I've seen, and love, The Wire). It has plenty of dumb and boring moments, but when it hits the mark it hits it so squarely and soundly that it makes a mark on the viewer for life. It takes the ball that Star Trek serieses typically play with: issues of complexity and moral difficulty that our current society is struggling with, and does more than just play around with it, DS9 knocks it out of the park. DS9 knows what it's about and isn't afraid to put a very fine point on it.

Also, there's this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tmdrhfA0-Fw

For better or worse, Star Trek TNG and DS9 have played an important role in my development. I would like to think that is was a benefit.

The major message of Star Trek in general and DS9 in particular is that despite of - no! because of! - our petty differences, we can all live together harmoniously. That harmony may require to people to avoid contact, but that is a - relatively - rare exception.

A minor message, but an important one, I think, is that violence and force are rarely, if ever, the best way to solve a problem. With a little bit - or a lot - of cleverness you can find a solution that will be satisfactory to all the parties involved. Even if you have all the right cards, simply relying on strength is not a good foundation for a long-term arrangement. Diplomacy and Compromise is.

It is a lesson - Star Trek or not - that I think could help many young people these days, Star Trek or not.

I respectfully disagree, that DS9 was a step up from TNG. It all got nailed in the Gene's quote about what you will and will not see in 24th century.

Star Trek for me is a sneak peak into a different future (maybe not 300 years, but 1000s). And DS9 is, basically, today, wrapped into a Sci-Fi suit.

Name one episode of DS9, where you'd see a problem and its solution, and be able to say "rare living human would do this". For TNG: the entire Borg thing, and that episode with Data trying to prove a tool became sentient - is something you can't find in Trump's twitter.

That is basically the same reason for the rants about Discovery: they can't make it past TNG's timeline.