Every Star Trek Series Ranked Worst To Best
2. Deep Space Nine
Controversial from the beginning, Deep Space Nine broke the mould, ditching the episodic star ship formula and setting the action firmly in the one place, on a space station over a distant planet. From the beginning, the show was dark. The Federation moved in to help a world recently freed from occupation to rebuild. Religion plays a key theme throughout the series and there is an open dialogue on the merits of terrorism in the struggle for freedom.
If Roddenberry wanted to teach humanity to rise above their failings, then Deep Space Nine was often the mirror that showed those failings, warts and all. This was not a bright and Utopian view of the future. This was darkness. This was strife. This was failing to understand and love thy neighbour. This was sectarianism and xenophobia, hidden under the veneer of Starfleet.
It was also the most character driven entry to the franchise. The very setting of most of the action in one place allowed the show to explore the consequences of those actions. Something that may happen in the first or second season could reappear in the fifth or sixth, linking perfectly in with the character growth as shown on screen.
The Dominion War was created to show what Starfleet was capable of in the future, not unlike the decision to embrace the Navy in the Wrath of Khan. Time has brought more fans to the station than initially visited and the recent losses of Rene Auberjonois and Aron Eisenberg are sorely, sorely felt.