5 Episodes to Get You Into "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine"

[PretenderNX01]

Yeah, it was a series I didn't get into right away but I joined maybe Season 4(?) By then I could find the reruns or previous seasons in syndication and it was all pretty cool.

I thought it had the most developed little universe out of the various Treks. The whole Bajor/Cardassia thing, the wormhole aliens, the Dominion and Odo's people, even the Ferengi got a culture of more than just being greedy. I loved the Rules of Acquisition.

Did anyone ever notice the similarities between Capt Sisko and JLU's John Stewart? Both starting with clean-shaven faces and hair and then later being more bad-ass with their bald heads and goatees.

[blackphoenix]

TWENTY YEARS?!?

It's been twenty frickin' years since DS9 first aired? Oy.

I loved this show so much--it was the last really good Trek show, IMO. Too bad they don't air it in syndication anymore. If you asked me to pick my favorite episode, I couldn't--I have several favorites! "Our Man Bashir." The one in the final season where the crew played baseball against a Vulcan crew. The one where the crew found a world populated by their descendants (which was sadly removed from existence by episode's end). Troubles and Tribbulations, obviously. They don't make 'em like that anymore.

[Ood Omega]

I wish they showed re-runs of this on TV

[Kieran_Frost]

While I 100% agree with Far Beyond the Stars, Trials and Tribble-ations and In the Pale Moonlight; BUT I think the other two choices are just HORRIBLE! Yes, DS9 explored some powerful ideas in the Visitor and It's Only a Paper Moon; but the two "stars" of those episodes are Jake and Nog. Not only two of the more unlikeable characters, but also two of the least talented actors in the series. If you want an excellent emotional episode, that also explores the Bajor/Cardassian relationship: Duet in Season 1 is magnificent. Secondly, the list completely overlooks religion. Religion is a HUGELY important concept in DS9. It shouldn't be excluded in a list designed to "introduce" you to the series. I would submit the excellent Season 1 episode In the Hands of the Prophets. It introduces one of the series major villains: Kai Winn; while also nicely shaping the conflict of religion in the series.

I do GREATLY disagree with this sentence "Something that Deep Space Nine did so well, and that other Treks didn’t really have the ability to do, was explore the impact and after-effects of major events..." Ummmm... whoever made this list CLEARLY never saw Star Trek: the Next Generation episode "Family" exploring Picard's post-traumatic stress.

[SephirothDZX]

I doubt that's the reason. At the time TNG was moving into movies but still doesn't explain why the USS enterprise wasn't at the front of the federation defence when the dominion was invading. Could have shown the ship and a brief cameo appearance by Picard or Riker and it could be done.

Wasn't that right around the time the Enterprise-D got destroyed in Generations? (In one of the lamest space battles ever)

---

Back on topic. I need to watch DS9 and give it another chance I guess, because any time I watched the series I just never got into it the same way I got into TNG. While Sisko isn't a bad character the actor who plays him is god awful in my opinion, and most of the episodes that interest me from DS9 either involve TNG characters (O'Brien, Worf, etc) or are episodes that simply pander to Trek fans (the tribbles episode).

This is totally just my opinion, but I personally didn't entirely like the whole Dominion War especially when it erupted into gigantic space battles. I always was more a fan of the threat of battle/war than the actual war itself, such as in TNG when the Enterprise would be caught between a rock and a hard place and did something awesome at the last second to avoid a big confrontation.

[Kieran_Frost]

Wasn't that right around the time the Enterprise-D got destroyed in Generations? (In one of the lamest space battles ever).

I liked the battle; even if the final torpedo shot was shamelessly stolen from Star Trek VI: the Undiscovered Country (1991)

Back on topic. I need to watch DS9 and give it another chance I guess, because any time I watched the series I just never got into it the same way I got into TNG. While Sisko isn't a bad character the actor who plays him is god awful in my opinion, and most of the episodes that interest me from DS9 either involve TNG characters (O'Brien, Worf, etc) or are episodes that simply pander to Trek fans (the tribbles episode)..

Oh, I think this is rather unfair. Firstly, comparing Avery Brooks to Sir Patrick Stewart (theatre god) is simply unfair. I do agree his "breadthy anger" got a little old; but once he got the beard and lost his hair, Sisko became EPIC! I always loved his conflict with Michael Eddington. Avery Brooks have a great voice too... he's just no Sir Patrick (so few are).

This is totally just my opinion, but I personally didn't entirely like the whole Dominion War especially when it erupted into gigantic space battles. I always was more a fan of the threat of battle/war than the actual war itself, such as in TNG when the Enterprise would be caught between a rock and a hard place and did something awesome at the last second to avoid a big confrontation.

My favourite part of the war was the comparrisons to WWII with the various countries vs. Star Trek races.

[SephirothDZX]

I liked the battle; even if the final torpedo shot was shamelessly stolen from Star Trek VI: the Undiscovered Country (1991)

Haha yeah, a few shot were stolen directly from Star Trek 6 I think. The "death" of the Enterprise-D just bugs me because all the Enterprise had to do was change its shield frequency, something that had become a commonplace procedure ever since the Federation encountered The Borg I believe, then it could have spent an entire day just dicking with that Bird of Prey. Granted, Generations has bunch of other problems beyond that which is why it's maybe the worst Trek movie (opinion).

Oh, I think this is rather unfair. Firstly, comparing Avery Brooks to Sir Patrick Stewart (theatre god) is simply unfair. I do agree his "breadthy anger" got a little old; but once he got the beard and lost his hair, Sisko became EPIC! I always loved his conflict with Michael Eddington. Avery Brooks have a great voice too... he's just no Sir Patrick (so few are).

Well I wasn't meaning to compare him to Stewart. I just meant in general, I don't care for him as an actor.

[Sean Walsh]

Finally, a Spinoff article that I can wholeheartedly agree with.

[The Batman]

While I 100% agree with Far Beyond the Stars, Trials and Tribble-ations and In the Pale Moonlight; BUT I think the other two choices are just HORRIBLE! Yes, DS9 explored some powerful ideas in the Visitor and It's Only a Paper Moon; but the two "stars" of those episodes are Jake and Nog. Not only two of the more unlikeable characters, but also two of the least talented actors in the series. If you want an excellent emotional episode, that also explores the Bajor/Cardassian relationship: Duet in Season 1 is magnificent. Secondly, the list completely overlooks religion. Religion is a HUGELY important concept in DS9. It shouldn't be excluded in a list designed to "introduce" you to the series. I would submit the excellent Season 1 episode In the Hands of the Prophets. It introduces one of the series major villains: Kai Winn; while also nicely shaping the conflict of religion in the series.

Regarding "The Visitor," while I agree that Cirroc Lofton was often one of the show's weaker links, that episode works because of Tony Todd and Avery Brooks. It's a solid episode because of how good Old Jake is, not how merely passable Young Jake was.

[Antares Maelstrom]

Man, I love this show, my fave Trek. You've got a really good sampling in that Top Five, shows that DS9 could be full of action, light-heartedness, music, fun, laughs, it could get totally heavy (Pale Moonlight for sure). What a range. And they had the chops to pull each type of episode off.

Remember "Explorers," when Sisko built the ancient Bajoran ship and took Jake out in it? A quiet episode, but full of the Benjamin/Jake dynamic that was at the heart of the show, the conflict over Jake's career path, the thrill of the adventure, and that cool ending w/ fireworks as the Cardassians admitted to the find that proved that ancient Bajorans had the technology to visit Cardassia in ancient times. Loved that one. That was a show I showed my young kids to introduce them to Trek.

[Antares Maelstrom]

And that ancient Bajoran ship was breathtakingly beautiful.

[Antares Maelstrom]

And DS9's secondary cast could carry their own show. Gul Dukat, Kai Wynn, Gen Martok, Rom, Dumar, Wehyoon, Quark's mom, Grand Nagus, Garak, Morn, Lita, female shapeshifter. I'd watch that show every week.

And, after that long anticipation, who could forget that reveal when we found out who the Founders of the Dominion were?

I think another great thing about DS9 was that it wasn't afraid to leave rough edges in the relationships between the characters. Remember (spoiler) in "Necessary Evil," when Kira asked Odo if he could ever trust her again after committing murder, and the episode ends as he just hangs his head down? So heavy.

[DattaBoy]

Growing up I was more into Babylon 5 and anything else I watched was just a pale substitute ...... But once I grew older I started following other sci-fi shows like Farscape and Stargate and finally Star Trek and I worked in a weird order I started with Voyager, then TNG and finally DS9 and my goodness the Pale Moonlight is my favorite episode of any sci-fi show that I have seen. It also may have helped that I am a big fan of long over arching stories and watching the pieces connect and it featured my favorite alien race and alien character the Klingons and Worf. All in all DS9 is just one of those special shows that took the then current Star Trek line to its limit. Let's hope JJ gets around to the DS9 of the new Trek verse

[Antares Maelstrom]

I loved in "Improbable Cause/The Die is Cast," with the Romulan/Cardassian first strike against the Dominion. (Spoiler) Garak interrogates Odo, and the lines between hero and villain, perp and victim, interrogator and interrogated become blurred, get danced upon, and become ultimately completely irrelevent. At the end, Garak is walking around his bombed-out tailor's shop and wipes away at a mirror, only to find Odo's reflection there, and they decide to have dinners together, having this conversation with each other thru a mirror. That was a brilliant metaphor.

[Cyke]

I do GREATLY disagree with this sentence "Something that Deep Space Nine did so well, and that other Treks didn’t really have the ability to do, was explore the impact and after-effects of major events..." Ummmm... whoever made this list CLEARLY never saw Star Trek: the Next Generation episode "Family" exploring Picard's post-traumatic stress.

Well, to be fair, a lot of the TNG writers wanted to do more follow-up episodes (for example, a true sequel to "Inner Light"), but were vetoed by the Powers That Be who wanted to keep the show as traditionally stand-alone as possible. Still, one could argue that they got the last laugh, if one considers all of DS9 to be one rather large sequel to Chain of Command.