10 Dumbest Things In Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
7. Prepare to Dock Somehow...?
The image of Deep Space Nine is now almost as iconic, if not equal to, that of the USS Enterprise. The sweeping pylons majestically arcing into the night, the concentric circles marking out the sections of the station and the fiddly docking ports.
A firm statement of Cardassian dominance in the Bajoran Sector, the Nor class stations are a monstrous reminder of the occupation. However when it comes to practicality they do leave more than a bit to be desired. Take the six pylons for example. Park anything of a substantial size against one and there's an inevitable traffic jam as ships attempt to arrive or leave. Curving them inwards looks glorious but in terms of practicality their shape reduces the room for maneuver significantly. Viewers have seen Dominion Battleships and a Galaxy Class USS Enterprise docked at them but only ever one of these and never anything else at the same time, severely reducing the operational capacity of DS9.
Perhaps the worst offender is the docking ring. With its recessed ports, ships are left to dock nose first. Both USS Defiant and Martok's Rotarran are fine examples here and designers had to fiddle in ways for crew to leave the ships via their nose sections which are blatantly missing on screen.
The only sensible way to dock at DS9 seems to be the limited Runabout pads only used for a non-Federation craft in the form of the Romulan shuttle from In The Pale Moonlight.