Inspired by Star Trek Online, I’d like to watch Deep Space 9 and get a better understanding of what I’m going to face in Cardassian space. At this point I’ve watched almost all of Season One, and I liked it at first, but it’s starting to bog down.
I know some people really love this show, and particularly recommend the last few seasons. When does the really good stuff start? And how much am I likely to lose from my understanding if I skip forward a few seasons?
I love DS9. I’d say it really starts to pick up about season 3 but IMHO season 2 is very good and much better then season 1. I recently watched all the seasons and for me they held up very well.
It picks up in Season 3. Basically it puts Starfleet at war with the Dominion which lasts the entirety of the final three seasons. This makes the show much more interesting than the first three seasons which tend to dwell on the exploration of the Wormhole and political affairs, that seem to drag on and on. The last season has a bit too many holosuite episodes for my taste (There’s a whole episode devoted to the staff playing baseball against Vulcans), but I think that was largely driven by a decline in budget.
It’s a good show that certainly delves deep into every character’s background and motivations. It doesn’t leave too many stones unturned. And it tends not to tread on itself. So for that, I think it’s worth watching. There are a lot of good stories there.
Thanks guys. I guess I’ll try to push through Season 2 then.
Stick with it through season 2. Deep Space 9 is the best of the Treks, but it definitely has a slow burn. Someone upthread says season 3, but I’d say that midway through season 2 is where the story arcs really start building, and the actors get really comfortable with the characters they’re playing.
People will tell you that season 4 is the best season and is where it gets good, but they’re wrong. Season 4 is a good season, but … well, I won’t spoil just why I think it’s a misstep.
Yeah, it starts out okay, then gets boring with all the dirt farmer bullshit, and then kicks back into high gear with interstellar war.
Season 3 starts with a well known old/new cast member and a huge space battle. Then they really try to integrate the Babylon 5 story arc thing into Star Trek - and quite successfully so. DS9 season 3+ is great, especially because many of the stories build onto each other and because several side characters get a lot of screen time.
Basically once Sisko grows his goatee the show picks up and doesn’t stop until it ends.
He really is just so well acted, charismatic, and badass all at once.
Season 1 and the final season (7?) are the weakest links, in my opinion. The rest are really pretty damn good. DS9 is the only Star Trek series I really like.
Yeah, the end of season 7 is a bit weaksauce, but everything up to a certain point is great. Can’t say exactly where it falls off without spoiling.
If you only watch one episode of DS9, make sure it’s the 19th episode in the sixth season, “In the Pale Moonlight”. That episode is one of the best in all of Star Trek.
But it isn’t even the best DS9 episode! That goes to “The Visitor.”
Looks like I’ve actually got that one on DVD. I picked up the “Captain’s Log Fan Collective” which has one favorite episode picked by each captain and two episodes picked by the fans via some sort of voting. “In the Pale Moonlight” is one of two episodes the fans picked as their favorite for DS9.
Ah, DS9 and B5, those were the days.
I’m beginning to wonder whether I’ll get to see another quality scifi of their magnitude in my lifetime.
rezaf
BSG was heading in that direction for a while.
I agree, but then it was displaced by some space anomaly…
rezaf
You mean when Ron Moore (“god”) finally cleared his anal blockage and dropped some epic space turds?
It’s like, go back and watch Thirty-Three and then watch any episode from the last couple seasons and see how they took what was so good and promising and then proceeded to kill, rape, and skull-fuck it (and not necessarily in that order).
DS9 isn’t going to let you down like that - if anything it started off at it’s absolute worst and got progressively better. Even S7 isn’t exactly bad, it just is a bit of a downturn compared to how good the previous 4 seasons where.
Man, the Dominion War and everything about it was just pure fucking scifi porn. We got the Defiant, gratuitous space battles, sieges, standoffs, power-plays, and it delves so dark into the Trek universe that you almost don’t know you’re watching Star Trek. It’s why DS9 is, today, the greatest Trek series ever made. In The Pale Moonlight is probably the most anti-trek episode ever made, but it’s also my favorite across all series and… huh. Maybe that says more about Star Trek than I thought.
Oh, I’d like to put in a plug for my Deep Space Nine Podcast, The Gamma Quadrant. For each 30-minute podcast, we review each DS9 episode; right now we are currently in the middle of season 2 and plan on going right through to the end. We discuss the writing, acting, directing, what we liked and didn’t like as well as some other “did you know” kind of stuff. We also have bonus podcasts from time-to-time, such as the tim e we went to the Star Trek Convention in Parsipanny, NJ last Summer. We might even do a special podcast this week with impressions from Star Trek Online. We are on itunes (search “the gamma quadrant” or “deep space nine”) or you can download directly from our libsyn site. Please come and take a listen and tell us what you think:
Podcast: http://gammaquadrant.libsyn.com
Web page: http://ds9podcast.blogspot.com
In The Pale Moonlight is my favorite episode as well. I tip my hat to Avery Brooks for his portrayal as Sisko… why isn’t he doing any movies or shows these days?