One nerd's humble opinion

Let me just say it: I love Star Trek. I could talk forever about my favorite episodes and how clever it was that they designed Spock's ship in the latest movie to look like a Vulcan symbol. However, I do not claim to know everything about it. In fact, I don't even like everything about the entire franchise. However, I do like enough to make this assertion: Deep Space Nine was the best series of all. It has been overshadowed by the glory of The Original Series and The Next Generation, as well as the fail that was Voyager and Enterprise. Despite this, it is the best.

Before I delve into the reasons, let me explain why I don't like the other series as much. First off, although The Original Series (TOS) is enjoyable at points, it still follows the action series cliches of the era it was made in. It is mostly a template where the Enterprise goes to Planet X, meets new alien species Y, fights Z, and then flies off for a new adventure next week. Although I want to be a Trek purist, I just find it hard to watch the same episode over and over with only the names changed. Plus, the overall feeling is campy and macho, with Kirk being a somewhat cocky leader toting his interests in the name of Starfleet. However, I do have a few favorite episodes. I love "Amok Time" because it talks about Vulcan reproduction and "Space Seed" because it gave birth to The Wrath of Khan, which I will never stop loving.

The Next Generation (TNG) for a long time was my favorite. Because Picard isn't the macho eye-candy that Kirk was, the plot doesn't depend on fighting to get the action through. Instead, it works more with the diplomacy and inner conflict of the characters. Plus, it felt like a logical continuation of the Star Trek legacy as Starfleet moved further into the future and met different species.Therefore, there were new conflicts and we got to see the results of the actions taken with the previous series. It was here that the Trill were introduced and the whole Data/Dr. Soong ark which I loved because Data was my favorite character (don't ask why). However, I hated the Borg. Every time there was a Borg episode, I felt like the enjoyability of the series went away and it was returning to the brute force of TOS. It was fascinating that Picard was captured and assimilated, but after a while it felt like "The Borg are here. What do we do?" "I don't know, they're unstoppable." "Well, we better go try and stop them, then!". Give me a break.

Gah! Begone, hell beast!!

*sigh*. And now Voyager. Regarded across the board as one of the worst series, and I agree. It was as if the writers wanted to make everything up and keep away from the already established Trek universe, so they just threw the crew of Voyager across the galaxy and said "There, now we don't have to worry about continuity!" Indeed, all of the focus was on the situation and everything the crew did was gauged as either keeping them from getting home or assisting them. There was little to no investment in the characters so the whole affect was a ship full of cardboard cutouts. Also, there were the worst characters: Neelix and Tuvok. Tuvok's only major issue in the entire series was that he went through Pon Farr and didn't have his wife there to help out. That's it: major Vulcan horniness. Sure he might have died and it is a relevant issue for a Vulcan 70 years away from home, but still. And then there's Neelix. He was just annoying. The worst was when he and Tuvok were fused together to make Tuvix. It was a new low for Star Trek. Also, there was the clear fan service of Seven of Nine. It's as if they knew the story was failing so they decided to put a lady with huge tits in a skin-tight catsuit and have her say sciency things. Oh yeah, and she was Borg. The Borg just won't go away!

Every one of these people is 100% bangable.

And then there was Enterprise. It was based on the promising idea of seeing Starfleet in it's infancy, however failed by the fact that apparently Starfleet's original mission was to send supermodels into space. Seriously, every one of the cast members was gorgeous, perhaps with the exception of Dr. Phlox. A good deal of the plot was about Starfleet acting like a teenager under the aid of the Vulcan officers helping out with the programs. Although it was interesting to meet the Andorians for the first time and the Xindi were in my opinion one of the coolest species to come out of the Trek universe, the whole thing bombed with the season 3 finale, which sent Captain Archer into the past where aliens were assisting the Nazi's invade North America. I almost threw my computer against a wall when I saw a time-traveling alien in an SS uniform.

Obviously, there is potential for fail in the Star Trek franchise, so why does DS9 stand above the rest? Well, first of all it is basically a sequel series to TNG, directly following the events established by it's sister series and even following some of the characters as they moved off of the Enterprise and onto the space station, Deep Space Nine. However, since the station was in a different location and was near the wormhole to the Delta Quadrant, there was potential to introduce new species and conflicts into the story.

There were also clear themes in DS9 that related to issues in the real world. The first episode, Emissary, deals with the DS9's commander, Sisko, coming to terms with the fact that he is basically a messiah in the Bajoran religion and this comes with a whole new bundle of responsibilities on top of the ones related to running a space station. DS9 primarily deals with the question of "what if religion is real and higher beings do exist?" and it mixes spirituality with science fiction quite well. The series also deals with the issue of imperialism and if  powerful governments should interfere with the issues of less powerful ones. Most Bajorans don't want a Starfleet presence on their planet because they fear that they will loose their independence, and yet are reluctant to make them move out because Starfleet is the only thing holding back the Cardassians from invading again. In a post-Cold War world, the issue of protection and invasion is obviously relevant and is echoed quite well within the series.

And now there is my favorite part of DS9: Gul Dukat. He is just one of the villains in the series, and what makes him so amazing is that he is so complex. He starts out as the commander of DS9 during the Cardassian occupation of Bajor, is then banished from the Cardassian command, becomes a renegade, allies himself with Sisko, then goes back to the Cardassians, goes insane, and then ultimately goes rogue again and embroils himself in the feud he has with Bajor. He even stoops so low as to disguise himself as a Bajoran and sleeps with their spiritual leader. Dude, that's cold.

Dukat, the ultimate badass.

The best part is that you can see this all happen. You can never really trust him, so you never know if he's sincere when he helps the DS9 crew and therefore you aren't surprised when he rejoins the ranks of the Cardassian command, and yet you don't know if he's just playing them too. Plus, when he goes insane it's a completely new side for him and then makes his character even better.

Another great character I just have to mention is Jadzia Dax, a Trill whose conflicts I find thoroughly fascinating. As a Trill, she is implanted with a symbiont being who houses the memories of its previous hosts, so in fact she is many characters in one. She holds so much knowledge and history and is in a way without gender because the symbiont's previous host was male, which leads to a steamy lesbian-esque episode. However, the most intriguing aspect is when Jadzia dies and the Dax symbiont is implanted in another Trill, Ezri. Even though she is a new character, she still has Jadzia's memories and therefore it is hard to tell if she is really gone.

Now don't get me wrong, DS9 isn't without its flaws. The most obvious one for me is that I am not particularly fond of the commander, Benjamin Sisko. This might be just the actor and not the actual character, but his dialogue is extremely flat and is expression emotionless. This was probably an attempt to represent the figurative mask Sisko had to wear when he was remaining calm even though a whole bunch of bad things were happening around him, but even the emotional scenes seemed forced. Also the whole Dominion aspect of the series was a little complicated. The Dominion was basically the Borg of the series, although not as annoying. Plus there were the orbs that the crew had to find which made episodes more of a quest-based story rather than a science-fiction one, but I am willing to forgive all of that for the sheer greatness overall of the series. They addressed many relevant issues throughout the story and wove it well into the plot, instead of just episodes like "this one is about homosexuality but not really" like in TNG. I felt extremely invested in the struggles the characters had and genuinely cried during "The Seige of AR-558" and "Sacrifice of Angels". Sure, bits of the series got very silly, but because overall the series was good it didn't annoy me as much as when similar things happened in the other series.

So why is DS9 overlooked? I have no idea. Probably because it wasn't as bombastic as TOS and TNG, or as much of a failure as Voyager or Enterprise. There were no DS9 movies, only a nod to the series in First Contact and Insurrection. To me, it will always be the gem of the entire franchise and I will continue to locate a Bajoran earring and recite the Rules of Acquisition to show my allegiance to the characters.

Long live Bajor and Deep Space Nine!

(images from here, here, and here)