Yes, but it is a Star Trek series. For the first couple of episodes, I thought maybe it would be clever, since they never call it Star Trek, if it wasn’t. That would throw us all for a loop. 
But, if it’s on this page it’s good enough for me.
I’ve always loved DS9, far above and beyond the two crap series that came after it.
Mostly it’s because it’s really the only Star Trek series that had an arc – and they didn’t hit the universal reset button after every episode. The characters actually evolved, dammit-- they grew, they changed, they died, they loved. And you didn’t have any dorky character “trying to be more human”. Phaugh.
What you did have were aliens who were more human than any human character on the series, and that was utterly brilliant.
I haven’t seen it mentioned yet, so FYI, DS9 will begin running on TNN (soon to be called the Spike Network :rolleyes: ) later this year.
–Cliffy
DS9 is the only Star Trek I can ever watch. It had thematic and character depth unparalleled by any of the series. “Rock and Shoals”, “The Die Is Cast”, “The Visitor”, man, that’s good stuff. I laugh when I see TNG episodes and their simplistic, interchangeable characters and dialogue.
Growing up, ever since season 3 of TNG, Saturday nights were Star Trek nights for me and my dad. Great bonding. When I got to college, it was the same thing for me and my roommates. “What You Leave Behind” (which I was disappointed by, but hey) aired the very last Saturday of my senior year, right before graduation. Haven’t watched a full episode of Trek since. Said as much to Ira Behr when I met him for a potential project at work, and he said the same thing.
It’s a shame to know just how much the DS9 writing staff loved and respected the show and its characters – they really threw themselves into their work – while knowing that the writers on the ever-hyped VOY have only crappy things to say about their work ethic, how it was all just an ego trip for Braga and no one gave a shit about the material or consistency or anything like that, etc…
You can judge a Star Trek show by its opening credits.
TOS
It begins well by showing off the ship with an accompanying dramatic voiceover. Then the Enterprise takes off, presumably “to go where no man has gone before.” That’s all well and good. Suddenly, the ship comes back the other way . Apparently they just took off without checking to see which direction they were going. Oh well, problem solved. Wait, there they go again! Where are they supposed to be going? Is Sulu drunk again? Jesus, he just missed those credits!
TNG
This suffers the same problem as its predecessor. However, this time they at least have a decent excuse. Never let Wesely drive.
DN9
It’s a space station. It sits there. A wormhole opens up.
Voyager
Paris: I have a great idea Captain! Let’s drive into the sun.
Janeway: Sounds good to me.
Paris: Now let’s drive through that wierd gas. We might get high.
Chakotay:What the hell are we waiting for?
Paris: Can we drive dangerously close to that planet’s ring?
Janeway: The question is, why aren’t we already doing so?
Enterprise
Wuss rock.
Deep Space 9 wins by default.
This is my rating of the star trek series, starting with the best:
Enterprise: It’s fresh and very low tech and I just love that approach. I especially like the setup that the vulcans are patronizing humanity and aren’t the good guys (yet) people associate with vulcans normally.
Next Generation: Data, Picard. 'nuff said.
Classic: Actually this one is cheesier than Voyager, but then again, it’s the classic. That’s why I can overlook it. Plus, the show does have its moments.
Voyager: The Holographic Doctor and Seven of Nine kinda saved the show.
DS9: Ok, this is definitely the sludge at the bottom of the bucket. Let’s see, we’ve got characters, who are going from evil to good to evil to good (Gul Dukat and Legat Damar).
Then we’ve got that whole Cardassian Nazis in space storyline, which doesn’t fit in with the positive theme of the Startrek universe.
Then we’ve got that whole Section 30something storyline, which doesn’t fit in with the positive theme of the Startrek universe.
And then we’ve got all those religious topics in a whole bunch of episodes that are really undermining the things Roddenberry wanted to do with Startrek.
Seriously, DS9 is such an insult to Roddenberry, it’s annoying. It may be a decent show, but it’s definitely not “Startrek”.
GOOD! Roddenberry’s idealistic pacifist hippy vision of the future was the most obnoxious thing this side of Britney Spears. Spitting on his vision was the best thing they did.
I can’t believe I’m agreeing with SPOOFE about something Trek related, but you tell her! (him?)
Him.
Well, I don’t quite see what’s great about taking an author’s idea and turning it completely around, because producers think it’s better. Sure, the ratings and all your comments might justify it, but I for one would feel so much better about DS9 if it were an independent show and not set in the Trek Universe at all. shrugs
The Ferengi episodes got infinitely more fun for me when I finally realized that the Grand Nagus was the same actor who played Vizzini in The Princess Bride. Was this something where I was just slow, or did it take anyone else a while to notice?
“The stock market’s down!? Inconceivable!”
“Never go against a Ferengi when Profit is on the line!”
To get back from the hijack, I found DS9 more consistently enjoyable than TNG or Voyager. They all had good and bad episodes, but DS9’s various story arcs (never really used in the other series) gave it someplace stable to fall back on. I think the “Emmisary” stuff was a little overdone, but I loved the huge space battles they brought in for the Dominion wars.
Oh yeah, I forgot about the space battles. Whatever prompted the Federation to have a captain command the whole fleet in the huge space battle at the end of the final season?
And not just any Captain, but the same guy who screwed up at Wolf359.
The person, who wrote the season finale, should be tarred and feathered, imho.
I hated Jadzia Dax for just the opposite reason.
It was pretty obvious that Terry Farrell was a model, not an actress, before she came onto the show. Unlike Nana Visitor, who emoted enough to annoy Mr. Blue Sky, Terry Farrell didn’t emote at all. She just sat there smiling pleasantly. Cardassians could beam onto the station and beat her with clubs, and she’d still just sit there smiling pleasantly. Her bland smarminess was far more annoying to me than Nana Visitor’s Bajoran hissy-fits ever were.
It’s one thing if the producers just THINK it’s better. It’s another if they’re actually right. Roddenberry’s vision of the future (well, for TNG, anyway) was stale, 2-dimensional, idealistic, unrealistic, and played up the Federation as a whole bunch of pansy-asses.
DS9 showed that, while the Federation prefers to explore and expand their horizons, they ARE capable of kicking butt and taking names if they needed to. That’s what Roddenberry’s vision lacked… strength (and, well, good storylines).
Especially that episode where they armed the station to the teeth in order to fight the Dominion. One of Trek’s better action sequences. (In the same class as the future Enterprise firing the phaser cannon and slicing up the future Klingon ship in “All Good Things…”)
What? The Borg decimated a fleet of 39 starships at Wolf 359 and you’re blaming it on the First Officer of a Miranda class starship?
[slight hijack] BTW, Aesiron, I’ve been meaning to tell ya that I love your location, Sector 001. [/slight hijack]
We now return you to your regularly scheduled discussion of DS9.
Thanks. It’s much better than the mundane “Miscellaneous City, USA” I had to begin with. What makes it infinitely cooler is that it’s technically true too.
Sisko was more than just a captain at the end of Deep Space Nine. He held the RANK of captain, but his field position was direct subordinate (adjacent, I believe) to Fleet Admiral Ross, the battlefield commander of the Federation/Dominion War. Basically, Sisko was the “first officer” for the whole battle fleet, and therefore could order around everyone else, except for Ross.
I don’t remember that but my memory sucks and that sounds plausible enough.
That’d make him a Commodore, by the way.
Sisko was Fleet Captain or something, not Commodore. Don’t make me break out the tapes, since i don’t know which one it is on and my lack of remembering episode titles has the episodes labeled with random things: “Worf disobeys” “Jake Chicken” “Private Ryan” “cool space fight” “Cool space fight” and “Dax dies”