5. Character Flaws
Let's run through the cast of Deep Space Nine again as we first meet them. Sisko was a burned-out, grieving widower, who ready to quit Starfleet. He even had the temerity to bitch out Jean-Luc Picard for something
that wasn't his fault (wonder what your mom thought about that...). Sisko's son, Jake, acted like a real twelve-year old boy - petulant, moody, unsure of himself. Kira was a bitter, jaded freedom fighter (or if we're honest, terrorist). She was a fighter who wasn't ready to stop fighting, even though her war was over. Also, Kira believed that the Federation was full of smug goodie-goods. Dax and Bashir were a pair of smug Federation goodie-goods. Chief O'Brien was a hothead, a neglectful husband, and kind of bigot. Odo, an alien shape-shifter lawman (the best kind of lawman, in my opinion), was one hell of a misanthrope. Odo was DS9's take on the outsider looking in on humanity. Unlike Spock or Data, Odo was quite content to not be human. In the early episodes, he went out of his way to deride human values whenever possible. Sometimes, he had a point. And Quark? Quark deserves a page unto himself. We weren't always supposed to like these characters. Most of the characters didn't even like each other at first. They could be stubborn, petty, even spiteful. They made mistakes. Most importantly, they were a complete 180 from the utopian ideals presented in The Next Generation. Each character found a way to better themselves over the show's run, in proper Star Trek fashion ... but it took time. Some fans didn't have the stomach or the patience to give these flawed characters a chance.