Within the Star Trek franchise, Deep Space Nine and Enterprise are without a doubt the two most controversial and polarizing series among the five television series. Enterprise drew a great deal of criticism for what some saw as its portrayal of an arrogant and somewhat intolerant Starfleet. Following on the heels of the wildly popular Star Trek: The Next Generation (TNG), which continued to reflect the idealism and optimism of its founder Gene Roddenberry, DS9 shocked many viewers.
Set on a decrepit Cardassian space station far from the Federation home world, DS9 was a darker and more complex place inhabited by less than savory characters compared to the clean, pristine bridge of Jean-Luc Picard’s USS Enterprise. While viewers easily fell in love with the memorable TNG crew, including Commander Riker, Counselor Troi, and the android Data, the same cannot be said for the DS9 crew with its angry Commander Sisko, hot-headed Major Kira, and the Ferengi barkeep Quark. Despite the fans passionate zeal for TNG, it was Deep Space Nine that would produce the single best season of any Star Trek series.
I just recently finished watching all 7 seasons of DS9 in order and after completing season 6 I once again realized how good DS9 was. Season 6 picks up on the ongoing Dominion War, which pitted the Federation against the aggressive Founders from the Gamma Quadrant who forged an alliance with the Cardassians in their quest to conquer the Alpha Quadrant. However, DS9 didn’t just fill the screen with battles and exploding ships, but explored various aspects to the struggles of war.
The main thrust of the early episodes is the Sisko’s effort to regain control of DS9 after having to abandoned it at the end of the previous season. Sisko takes a captured Jem’Hadar deep into Dominion territory to destroy a key plant that produces ketracel-white, the drug that controls the Jem’Hadar soldiers. In the next episode Sisko and his crew are forced to ambush and massacre a Jem’Hadar troop who are marooned on a planet without an adequate supply of the ketracel-white. For most of the season the Federation fights a defensive war that produces few victories.
Later episodes include Sisko’s bold and successful plan to retake the space station. I should add that Season 7 has a few episodes that continue to examine the impact of war, including the impact of extended warfare on shell-shocked forces (Siege at AR-558) and the struggle of wounded soldiers (It’s Only a Paper Moon).
In what is one of the best single episodes of Star Trek, In the Pale Moonlight, Sisko painfully chooses to violate Federation values by tricking the Romulans to enter the war against the Dominion in order to save Starfleet lives. With the help of Garak, the station tailor and former Cardassian spy, Sisko hatches a plan that leads to the death of a co-conspirator and a Romulan official, but which convinces the Romulans that the Dominion plans to break their alliance and attack them.
What makes this episode so compelling is that we learn about it through Sisko’s personal log where he describes the conspiracy and the moral dilemma he faces for participating in this questionable action. But in the end he accepts what he did because he couldn’t live with anymore Starfleet deaths. What viewers see in this season is the cost of war and how it weighs on those who fight it. One of the heaviest costs is the death of Jadzia Dax at the hands of Gul Dukat in the season finale.
Season 6 also provided one of the great DS9 episodes, Far Beyond the Stars, which explores the history of racism in a rather unique way. Suffering from mental exhaustion, Sisko falls into a dream state where he is a black science fiction writer in 1950s America. We get to see most of the crew without make-up and uniforms playing different roles in Sisko’s new alter ego, Benny Russell. Benny struggles to overcome racism that blocks his effort to publish a science fiction tale about a space station commanded by a black captain. Despite a vicious beating by two cops, he pushes forward with his story only to find that the publication was destroyed before it could be distributed because the publisher believed readers would object to a black captain.T he pain and mental anguish Benny expresses is powerful and moving. This is Star Trek at its best.
These compelling episodes alone would make Season 6 rival any other single season from TOS, TNG, Voyager, or Enterprise. But a few other interesting episodes and themes only add to its breadth and depth. Before Dax is killed viewers get to watch the growing love between her and Worf, including their Klingon wedding. Dr. Bashir’s genetically-engineered background is explored through his efforts to work with brilliant but unstable genetic mutants. Gul Dukat tells Kira about his love affair with her mother and we see his mental breakdown following the death of his daughter Miral.
Moreover, the complex, complicated world of DS9 introduces us to Section 31, a secret Federation intelligence agency that works below the radar and outside Starfleet regulations. In Inquisition, Dr. Bashir is secretly transported to a holosuite where it appears that he is under investigation by Starfleet for treason. After finally realizing this was a guise, he learns about Section 31 and its nefarious history and activities. Finally, DS9 writers introduce one of the most interesting and entertaining new characters, Vic Fontaine, an early 1960s Vegas lounge singer who resides in the holosuite. Played by James Darren, Vic not only sings and performs, but dispenses relationship advice to Odo.
While there are a few marginal episodes in Season 6, especially those regarding Quark and the Ferengi, I would put this season of DS9 up against any other single season from the other Star Trek series. In terms of drama, power, intrigue, and excitement, DS9 season 6 reminds us of the sheer greatness of Star Trek and why it is still unrivaled in the history of science fiction television.
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12 Comments
Totally agree with this article. Once the Dominion War got going a bit, it quickly became the most interesting show going. Intergalactic politics, anyone?
I’ve been rewatching the series for the last year or so with a friend of mine who had never seen all of it. We’ve been skipping the crap and focusing on the good stuff. We just watched “Inquisition” the other day. Such an excellent show!
When going though my collection of Star Trek DVDs, looking for an episode to watch, I find that I enjoy DS9 more than the other series, with TNG being my second choice. If I pull a DS9 season out, it’s usually Season 6. And the episode that I usually watch is “In The Pale Moonlight.” Most of the critics that I’ve read hold up “Far Beyond the Stars,” as the best episode of the season (and series), but “Moonlight” is far more powerful, in my opinion. Avery Brooks deserved an Emmy nod for his performances; but sadly the syndicated series didn’t have as much clout as the major networks did back then.
DS9 was, for the most part, an aping of Babylon-5. The shows aired sometimes back-to-back in their original syndication, and there’s even evidence that DS-9 wasn’t even conceived until Paramount was pitched B5 during the third season of Star Trek: TNG.
Even if that’s just hyperbole, the “me to”-ism of DS-9 was striking. The Dominion didn’t show up until B5′s Shadows were becoming a nice, scary big-bad on sci-fi TV. B5 got loads of praise and critical acclaim for “Severed Dreams,” an episode where the station declares independence and, in essence, becomes part of a civil war against Earth. Suddenly the DS-9 station gets loaded with weapons and has a big duking out with the Klingons.
If DS-9 really wanted to go the Babylon 5 route of having an interesting and coherent arc, it should have found a head writer. Instead, they let anyone pitch an idea, and lots of plot points (like Odo dating Kira) were tacked on because a script ran short on time.
As for the episodes you cite, that’s great and all, though Section 31 is basically an aping of the Psi Corps and the Machiavellian Alfred Bester, Vic Fontaine and the whole holodeck spy thing came from the writers trying to glom onto the popularity of “Goldeneye” when it was in theaters (much like how Voyager tried to capitalize on one of the Jurassic Park sequels), and Dax being killed was less about drama and more about Terry Farrell not renewing her contract.
DS-9 had some good moments, but there was no real coherence. They were literally making it up as they went along, and the continuity put forth in the final season was only there because they knew the show was going to end.
Here’s how I read what Someguy posted: blah, blah, blah… *I’m a Babylon 5 fanboy*… blah, blah, blah.
Deep Space Nine has nothing to do with Babylon 5: If anything, J Michael Stacinsky used similar aspects with his show: “Space Station near a Jumpgate/Wormhole”. It is not uncommon that he thought of his idea at the same time Pillar and Berman thought up Deep Space Nine. But that is where the similarities ended: babylon 5 is a deliberate retelling of Lord of the Rings, DS9 is WW-II. Also, Terry Farrell planned on quitting DS9 after s6, whereas Claudia Xtian got fired, because the tried to get too much money to continue and Joe fired her butt. Harlan Ellison wrote it into one of the season 5 eps: The one with those 2 janitor guys.
Agree totally. Series 6 of DS9 is definitely the best of Star Trek. What DS9 does better than any other Trek-series is it makes every episode feel like part of an ongoing series rather than just an adventure-of-the-week (not that there’s anything wrong with the TNG/Voyager model). Series 6 more so than any other. Events of one episode influence others, things don’t just happen one week and then get forgotten about, everything builds up to something great.
Disc 5 of the boxset is the most watched of my Trek collection and sums up why I love this series. Over the 4 episodes Kira deals with the fact her mother had a thing with an evil man (Dukat), corruption at the heart of starfleet (Section 31), Sisko betrays everything he stands for to win a war, and Odo sings some lounge numbers. It really is the perfect mix this season. If we just ignore the Quark emergency sex change episode at least.
Regarding Babylon 5, DD9 writers had already planted the Dominion war seeds in season 2 so I don’t think they were copying Babylon 5.
I am glad DS9 is finally getting some love. it is BY FAR the most complex and rewarding of the Star Trek series, on par with the Original series in terms of provocative and timely storytelling and it also has what was for me the single best episode of star trek, which was “The Visitor”.
“In The Pale Moonlight” is an example of why DS9 was the peak production of all of the Trek shows of the 90′s – When you watch these shows, you forget that a lot of the spaceships, planets, and exterior scenes are mostly PRACTICAL effects. They made hundreds of craft, they blew up half of them. But as good as Season Six was, and it was good-Everyone forgets that season seven has an 11-Episode story arc that begins with the episode “Penumbra” – Mostly it is Worf and Ezri-Dax trapped on a planet and being captured by “The Breen” (Who we still have never seen), but many pieces of that final story begin right there and the series did not stop for a second until the very last episode.
When you start watching this series, it is easy to begin by watching a few of the season 1 episodes, the series began a lot like The Next Generation, slowly they brought in The Dominion, then problems with The Klingons (Which actually was caused by The Dominion “Founders”) – Which brought in Worf, and we all benefitted by learning even more about him.
He lost his house again, this time for good: He lost his brother Kurn, and almost his son Alexander. And then the Cardassians, at first their treat lessens, they have a government upheaval and the Military is overthrown, suddenly they are real allies, and then just as suddenly, they are dire enemies. Once you get into Season 3, there is a geometric progression, it is almost like having Lord of the Rings put into a space opera, but actually babylon 5 was based on Lord of the rings.
The more I think about it, is that Deep Space 9 was a world-war II parallel: It begins in a relatively peaceful time, and then WAR is trust upon The Federation, eventually embroiling several other cultures/races: The Klingons, the Romulans, and even the Cardassians kick against the Dominion at the end with another uprising started by “Damar” (Casey Biggs), helped by Elim Garak and Colonel Kira, who were trapped on the surface of Cardassia Prime while the Jem ha’dar were destroying it’s cities.
By watching how these “alien” races interact, a lot of commentary about ourselves is brought out: There is Religious Hypocrisy, in Kai Winn: The head of an entire planetary religious body, and she does not even believe, never has believed in her own religion.
Watching DS9 is like trying to eat one peanut – It cannot be done, you watch one episode? Then pretty soon you are watching the whole series: All 179 episodes of it! And three of those episodes are genuine double-episodes!
“In The Pale Moonlight” is an example of why DS9 was the peak production of all of the Trek shows of the 90′s – When you watch these shows, you forget that a lot of the spaceships, planets, and exterior scenes are mostly PRACTICAL effects. They made hundreds of craft, they blew up half of them. But as good as Season Six was, and it was good-Everyone forgets that season seven has an 11-Episode story arc that begins with the episode “Penumbra” – Mostly it is Worf and Ezri-Dax trapped on a planet and being captured by “The Breen” (Who we still have never seen), but many pieces of that final story begin right there and the series did not stop for a second until the very last episode.
When you start watching this series, it is easy to begin by watching a few of the season 1 episodes, the series began a lot like The Next Generation, slowly they brought in The Dominion, then problems with The Klingons (Which actually was caused by The Dominion “Founders”) – Which brought in Worf, and we all benefitted by learning even more about him.
He lost his house again, this time for good: He lost his brother Kurn, and almost his son Alexander. And then the Cardassians, at first their treat lessens, they have a government upheaval and the Military is overthrown, suddenly they are real allies, and then just as suddenly, they are dire enemies. Once you get into Season 3, there is a geometric progression, it is almost like having Lord of the Rings put into a space opera, but actually babylon 5 was based on Lord of the rings.
The more I think about it, is that Deep Space 9 was a world-war II parallel: It begins in a relatively peaceful time, and then WAR is trust upon The Federation, eventually embroiling several other cultures/races: The Klingons, the Romulans, and even the Cardassians kick against the Dominion at the end with another uprising started by “Damar” (Casey Biggs), helped by Elim Garak and Colonel Kira, who were trapped on the surface of Cardassia Prime while the Jem ha’dar were destroying it’s cities.
By watching how these “alien” races interact, a lot of commentary about ourselves is brought out: There is Religious Hypocrisy, in Kai Winn: The head of an entire planetary religious body, and she does not even believe, never has believed in her own religion.
Watching DS9 is like trying to eat one peanut – It cannot be done, you watch one episode? Then pretty soon you are watching the whole series: All 179 episodes of it! And three of those episodes are genuine double-episodes!
I want to address that Babylon-5 spammer: Terry Farrel PLANNED to quit at the end of season 6, whereas Claudia Christian, actually did get fired cos she wanted too much money: Harlan Ellison wrote that into one of the episodes, after she was gone.
I agree with everything here. Also, I would add that it was a combination of Jadzia’s death and Ezri’s acting that spelled death for the series.