I was a little apprehensive about Star Trek: Deep Space Nine when it came out. I'm wary of too many sequels and when this show debuted, there were two Star Trek series and 6 movies out so far, so I was afraid that this may be overreaching a little. But my fears were needless. The creative writing that was set loose in the last 4 seasons of TNG was still on an upward climb. TNG probably didn't necessarily need to end when it did, but I think the producers were afraid of burning it out and wanted to proceed with movies with the new cast before they got too old. Consequently, it stopped at it's peak and as it turns out, there was still so much left to build on and so much good material left to write.
Deep Space Nine ended up being the Star Trek series that was least like Star Trek and I don't think a lot of people liked that. Personally I loved it. The first 2 seasons were typical of something new. They threw a lot of stuff up on the wall to see what would stick and there were a lot of stand alone episodes. But, through it all they continued the thread begun in TNG regarding the uneasy peace between the Cardassians and Bajorans. This made a solid canvass to paint on. Just as the Klingons and Romulans were further developed in TNG, the Ferengi, Cardassians, and Bajorans were further developed in this series. And without the standards and expectations attributed to the starship exploration versions of Star Trek, they were free to be completely forward and honest about things that will never actually go away: money and spirituality as personified in the Ferengi and Bajoran races. Yes, the audience is told without a doubt the the wormhole aliens are not actually gods so as to keep with the party line that religion is false, but as I said yesterday, at least there was some kind of representation that was not always evil and corrupt. Then they managed to strike gold again with a primary adversary. In TOS it was the Klingons, mostly. In TNG it was the Borg. And in DS9, it was the Dominion. And as many times as wars have been talked about in the all previous Star Treks to date, we never got to see one in real time. So, DS9 made a war story. And the underlying war plot had so much depth and so many points of view to explore that, as I said, it became the least like Star Trek of any Star Trek. That's what set it apart. It was more progress in the Star Trek evolution. I don't think it was as popular on the whole, but it has more than earned respect, at least my respect, for boldy being different... going where no Star Trek has gone before.
My favorite character was Garak, hands down. He was the cherry on top. Just the right amount of spice. Not overused, but always important. He was one of those bad good guys who got to get away with a lot of things that the regular good characters didn't. It's immensely satisfying to the darker sides of most good people who like to see the rules broken in favor of the right side of issues for a change, even though they can't do it themselves. My favorite in the main cast after Odo (always love the lonely, unique characters) was Jadzia Dax and I was so, so, very thankful they'd modified the Trill race from the original prototype introduced in a one-off episode of TNG. It made her character complex, fascinating, and versatile. In connection, I have to mention Ezri Dax. I thought they started her out right, but in effort to "wrap up" her character, they totally ruined it. I would've done things differently and I wish they would've just eased her away from the cast altogether by having her resign or reassigned after her introduction. It would've given that character a much more dignified end. My least favorite was Jake Sisko. Again, not for any fault of the actor. I mean, maybe it's just because I'm not a kid person, I don't know. But I though Jake was fairly boring and useless unless he was paired with Nog.
Deep Space Nine is my second favorite Star Trek series, but it's such a close second that I often count it as a tie with TNG. I missed most of the last season, unfortunately. I don't do the Netflix thing, but one day I hope to rewatch all of TOS and DS9. (I still catch the TNG reruns on BBCA every day.) I'd happily buy all the sets on DVD.... Star Trek is money well spent! :D
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