Epic Star Trek Re-Watch - Deep Space Nine - Season 1 - Week 4

Star Trek is fantastic. It's been part of popular culture in one form or another for 55 years at this point and has entertained and inspired millions of people over the past half-century.

So lets watch ALL of it. (Yes even the shite episodes :nod:

)

We've already worked through The Original Series, The Animated Series and the first six movies, as well as The Next Generation and it's four movies, so it's time to get comfortable and stay mostly in one place for a while...

Wikipedia wrote:Following the success of Star Trek: The Next Generation, Paramount Pictures commissioned a new series set in the Star Trek fictional universe. In creating Deep Space Nine, Berman and Piller drew upon plot elements introduced in The Next Generation, namely the conflict between two alien species, the Cardassians and the Bajorans. Deep Space Nine was the first Star Trek series to be created without the direct involvement of franchise creator Gene Roddenberry, the first set on a space station rather than a traveling starship and the first to have an African American as its central character: Starfleet Commander Benjamin Sisko (played by Avery Brooks).

So, starting Sunday 18th of December, grab youself a hot cup of Raktajino, count all your bars of Gold Pressed Latinum and pop through the wormhole for a visit to the Gamma Quadrant.

This Week!

Where to find it?

http://www.netflix.com (UK)
https://www.paramountplus.com/gb/ (UK)

Proposed Schedule

Here's a look at the proposed schedule for the next few years. Shows in red are still airing, or will be soon so it's not possible to determine an exact schedule for them. I'll review closer to the time.

The Original series - Aug 22nd to Jan 8th 2022
The Animated Series - Jan 9th 2022 to Jan 29th 2022 (3 Weeks)
Movies 1 to 6 - Jan 30th 2022 to Feb 19th 2022 (3 Weeks)
The Next Generation - Feb 20th 2022 to Jan 21st 2023 (48 Weeks)
Movies 7 to 10 - Jan 22nd 2023 to Feb 4th 2023 (2 Weeks)
Deep Space Nine - Dec 2022 to Nov 2023 (47 weeks)
Voyager - Nov 2023 to Oct 2024 (46 Weeks)
Enterprise - Oct 2024 to Apr 2025 (26 Weeks)
Kelvin Movies 1 to 4 - Apr/May 2025 (2 Weeks)

Discovery
Picard
Lower Decks
Prodigy
Strange New Worlds

Spoiler Policy
I'm not anticipating this being a big issue, but I would remind everyone that we do have some newcomers to Star Trek going through the shows with us. When discussing episodes try and refrain from mentioning specific plot points outside of spoiler boxes. General comments are fine unspoilered through. Especially try and refrain from talking about plot points and character development further down the road. So please don't mention characters leaving/dying/getting promoted or other major developments etc.

Just watch the episodes and let us know what you think!

Yessss. The best of the best. I probably won't be watching it again since I only recently finished it but I'll be posting my thoughts after re-reading the synopsis of each episode on Memory Alpha.

I've got a feeling that I am going to really annoy people over the next 20 or so weeks. :lol:

Moggy wrote:I've got a feeling that I am going to really annoy people over the next 20 or so weeks.

If you've been calling him Doocat or something I swear to god.

Tidings of Cuttooth and Joy wrote:
Moggy wrote:I've got a feeling that I am going to really annoy people over the next 20 or so weeks.

If you've been calling him Doocat or something I swear to god.

It took me 6 seasons just to remember any character names.

Spoiler: I love Quirk and Oh-dough.

gooseberry fool's about to get real :datass:

Well in about 4 months or so when we get to the good stuff... :lol:

Emissary - Parts 1 & 2

Farewell to TNG and hello DS9!

Hmm. Not bad but it didn't exactly thrill me. The commander seems a complex character and it's nice to see Colm Meaney. The others I hope will grow on me.

Interesting that they have a stable wormhole, I remember the TNG episode where a culture was trying to sell one (that turned out not to be stable). The Ferengi dude in the bar is going to make a fortune when the route is opened up properly. :lol:

It was great to see Picard though! And interesting to see that not everyone worships him. He couldn't help being turned into a Borg, but I get where the commander was coming from!

A Man Alone

An angry mob with no pitchforks or flaming torches? How half hearted.

I can definitely feel that this series is getting off to the slow start that people warned about. This was a bit of a nothing episode, but there was some character building stuff.

Hopefully some excitement happens soon!

One thing I've noticed is that although there's a big drop in visual quality from the remastered TNG, it's not something that's bothered me. Too many years of crap quality cam footage pirate movies I guess. :slol:

Past Prologue

I rushed through TNG super quickly but it's been quite a few days since I last watched a DS9 episode. Hopefully my interest kicks in soon or else this series might be a long slog. :dread:

Those Klingon sisters sure love showing off their cleavage. :lol:

Am I missing something? The terrorist guy said "if there's no more wormhole, then there's no more Federation or Cardasians!". But they've literally only just found the wormhole and everyone was strawberry floating around with Bajor before that. :lol:

Meh, this wasn't great. I thinking this really is going to be slog before we get to anything decent. And the write up for the next episode "O'Brien fixes the food replicators" isn't helping. :lol:

Babel

Why have they only got one engineer for an entire space station? :lol:

From recent experience, it's quite accurate that somewhere like Quark's would try and stay open during a quarantine and that people would refuse to stay in their rooms/ships. The future version of Alex Jones would be making a fortune.

Probably my favourite episode of DS9 so far, despite me thinking it was just going to be a crappy "O'Brien fixes stuff". But it's still not clicking with me, the series feels quite flat and lifeless.

I haven't done a proper DS9 watch-through, so I'm looking forward to going through this one properly with the group!

It's one of the issues I have with DS9 - for all of TNG's flaws in its first season, most of the episodes were at least quirky and fun. I can actually sit and enjoy watching them, warts and all. I don't think I could start at S1 of DS9 again.

Fortunately DS9 gets much, much better later on, even though I ultimately consider it below TNG overall.

In all honesty if TNG hadn't been airing at the same time for the first 2 seasons of DS9 I'm not sure DS9 would've taken off

Man, Sisko is such a prick to Picard in the first episode

Man, coming back to DS9 always feel comfortable. That theme is amazing. :wub:

This will probably be my fourth or fifth complete run-through with DS9, so everything is tinted by foreknowledge of what's to come.

The Emissary

A Man Alone (Just noticed the IMDB order is different from the Netflix one. That's annoying)

So it's excellent opener, followed by a bang average season.

I think my issues with early DS9 are just that. It's not bad, it's just a bit flat. It's hard to know how much of the overall story arc they knew about in advance, but the first two seasons really are all about world-building. Getting to know Bajor and the characters before the main story arc is revealed. It's slow going, especially for newcomers, but it all gets so much sweeter as it progresses.

Lagamorph wrote:Man, Sisko is such a prick to Picard in the first episode

I totally understood where Sisko was coming from though.

He battled the Borg and his wife was killed. And in front of him is the man who led the Borg invasion.

We might all know that Picard wasn't to blame and I'm sure Sisko knew it deep down. But I can't honestly say that I wouldn't react exactly how Sisko did.

Cheeky Devlin wrote:I looooooove DS9

I think we might have a falling out over the next 47 weeks....

Moggy wrote:
Cheeky Devlin wrote:I looooooove DS9

I think we might have a falling out over the next 47 weeks....

I think I anticipated that when you said you liked Neelix. :dread:

Cheeky Devlin wrote:
Moggy wrote:
Cheeky Devlin wrote:I looooooove DS9

I think we might have a falling out over the next 47 weeks....

I think I anticipated that when you said you liked Neelix.

If we fall out over DS9, then we are going to be in a full on war over Voyager. :lol:

We'll be fine. I think.

Moggy wrote:
Lagamorph wrote:Man, Sisko is such a prick to Picard in the first episode

I totally understood where Sisko was coming from though.

He battled the Borg and his wife was killed. And in front of him is the man who led the Borg invasion.

We might all know that Picard wasn't to blame and I'm sure Sisko knew it deep down. But I can't honestly say that I wouldn't react exactly how Sisko did.

He's still a prick though given he'd have gotten a full briefing on what actually happened with the Borg and assimilation process.

Lagamorph wrote:
Moggy wrote:
Lagamorph wrote:Man, Sisko is such a prick to Picard in the first episode

I totally understood where Sisko was coming from though.

He battled the Borg and his wife was killed. And in front of him is the man who led the Borg invasion.

We might all know that Picard wasn't to blame and I'm sure Sisko knew it deep down. But I can't honestly say that I wouldn't react exactly how Sisko did.

He's still a prick though given he'd have gotten a full briefing on what actually happened with the Borg and assimilation process.

But people aren't robots (well Picard kind of is

). Sisko coming face to face with Locutus after all that had happened to him? There are very very few people that wouldn't feel instant revulsion and hatred towards him.

Moggy wrote:
Lagamorph wrote:
Moggy wrote:
Lagamorph wrote:Man, Sisko is such a prick to Picard in the first episode

I totally understood where Sisko was coming from though.

He battled the Borg and his wife was killed. And in front of him is the man who led the Borg invasion.

We might all know that Picard wasn't to blame and I'm sure Sisko knew it deep down. But I can't honestly say that I wouldn't react exactly how Sisko did.

He's still a prick though given he'd have gotten a full briefing on what actually happened with the Borg and assimilation process.

But people aren't robots (well Picard kind of is ). Sisko coming face to face with Locutus after all that had happened to him? There are very very few people that wouldn't feel instant revulsion and hatred towards him.

Totally this.

That's not something that most people are going to just move on from, and Sisko really hasn't been able to move on from it.

"You exist here." In his mind and soul he never left that room on the Saratoga.

He's internalised it and he carries it with him everywhere he goes.

So, yeah when he's put in a room with the individual who is arguably responsible for that, he's not gonna be in a good mood.

Epic Star Trek Re-Watch - Deep Space Nine - Season 1 - Week 4

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