Review: Rewatching Deep Space Nine

It's not enough to just say that one 'likes' Star Trek. This is because of Star Trek's long (40+ year) history and especially the more recent series and movies, which introduce story reboots, altering of the entire time line and a move away from science fiction. This practically necessitates that one places oneself as a fan of a specific incarnation of 'Trek'. As a case in point, I'm not remotely old enough to be familiar with the original Star Trek series (just 'Star Trek') which is now referred to as 'The Original Series' (TOS). Its successor (The Next Generation) was also before my time, but it's one of the ST series which I fully watched. I never really got around to watching more than a few episodes of TOS for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is of how different it feels.

The first Star Trek series which I watched as it aired was Star Trek Voyager (VOY). I thought it was okay back then, me as a child back then figured it did have too much chatter in it, though. Only later as I rewatched it a few years back did I realise the sheer emotional depth and the bleakness of the situation that the Voyager crew went through. Here I could definitely say that rewatching it made me appreciate the series infinitely more.


Deep Space Nine (DS9) is a bit of an odd series in the Star Trek universe. It doesn't take place on a starship, for one. Instead it puts the show on this clunky old Cardassian space station that's orbiting a planet (Bajor). This against the backdrop of the former occupation of Bajor by the Cardassians for the past decades (as covered in TNG as well), with the United Federation of Planets ('Federation') being asked to have a presence in that area as a neutral party to ensure that everyone lives up to their end of the peace agreement.

I do not remember exactly when I first watched this series. It must have been somewhere around the time that I also caught up with TNG. My memories of DS9 from back then are rather vague and incomplete. More of a set of impressions rather than a solid sense of what the story was about. This made rewatching it recently quite an interesting experience, to see how much of it I could recall.


The first two seasons of DS9 were okay, I thought. I remembered some episodes from the first time I saw them, such as 'Move Along Home' (S1, E10) and 'Battle Lines' (S1, E13). Episode 15 ('Progress') was also quite memorable, and served to weave a bit more story around Bajor, though I always felt that too much of the larger context here was lacking. In later seasons the rebuilding of Bajor is mentioned too (e.g. S3, E24), but it is always in passing and there never forms a sense of what the status of Bajor is, or how well the rebuilding is progressing. This even against the plentiful reminiscing by the Bajoran people on the show, including Kira, about the horrors inflicted on Bajor by the Cardassians in the past.

Starting with the fourth season, things got a bit more rough for me, as the ramping up of the Dominion plot line get interrupted by random time travel episodes ('Little Green Men') and a lot of relationship and pregnancy-related drama. This against brilliant episodes like 'Hard Time' (S4, E19) and 'The Quickening' (E24), which sadly are not (significantly) referenced later on, as it is the kind of episode that should have left a serious impact on both Julian and O'Brien. At this point the series really feels like it's ripping itself apart as it tries to both maintain a coherent serial story arc and have independent episodic content at the same time.


The rest of the seasons continue pretty much the same way, with Ferengi homeworld issues, Trill and Klingon mating rituals, Odo's quest to figure out humanity and the occasional bizarre episode like 'The Ascent' (S5, E9) with totally out of character performances by Odo and Quark. There is also the awkward personality shift in Dr. Bashir into a kind of Data replica, with cold, inhuman behaviour and a display of super-human traits, which was never a part of the character until then.

There are the occasional bursts of action, like with the retaking of DS9, but that is followed by more episodes that feel like they can be skipped or at least glanced through briefly, as they serve no real purpose to building up the characters, or to add to the Dominion War story arc. There is also the introduction of a new character (Ezri) at the beginning of season 7, who adds some fresh blood after Jadzia's character began to feel rather stale throughout season 6.

As for season 7 as a whole, though supposedly intended to build up towards the show's climax in the Dominion War, feels more like a half-hearted attempt to try and wrap up the countless loose threads that have been left carelessly lying around from the preceding seasons. Although some episodes are exceedingly good (Nog's battle experiences and struggles with war trauma, for example), as a whole it feels like a show that is running out of time and plans.

The result is sadly a finale that feels flat and forced, with a last-minute plot twist for captain Sisko thrown in that completely wastes the potential. Especially after previous uses of his character in 'Far Beyond The Stars' (S6, E13) and 'Shadows and Symbols' (S7, E2), the ending that DS9 ends up with uses none of that, doesn't tie things together and somewhat fizzles out without leaving behind anything meaningful.

When I look back on how the final episodes of TNG and Voyager affected me emotionally, with a sense of warmth and belonging for TNG, and the bitter-sweet return for Voyager, then DS9 didn't leave me with much more than a handful of memorable episodes. While not the worst Star Trek series by far, it also does not feel inviting to watch it again some day.


Next on my 'to rewatch' list is Star Trek Enterprise, which I thought was the worst Star Trek series ever when it first aired. Maybe it now actually feels decent after suffering through the 'Star Trek' reboot movie by JJ Abrams and enduring the onslaught of Star Trek Discovery and Picard. Also one day I should rewatch all of Babylon 5, as one of the few proper story arc-based series to ever have been released.


Maya