In the vicinity of the liberated planet of Bajor, the Federation space station Deep Space Nine guards the opening of a stable wormhole to the far side of the galaxy. The stable wormhole discovered by the Deep Space Nine crew is known to the Bajoran people as the Celestial Temple of their Prophets. Sisko, as discoverer of the wormhole and its inhabitants, is therefore the Emissary of Bajoran prophesy. The wormhole's other end is in the Gamma Quadrant, halfway around the galaxy from Bajor. That section of space is dominated by the malevolent Dominion. The Dominion is led by the Changelings, the race of shapeshifters to which Odo belongs. As of the beginning of the sixth season, Cardassia has joined the Dominion, and together they are waging war on the Federation and their Klingon allies. The war is quickly becoming the most costly war ever for the Federation, and the Deep Space Nine crew must fight to protect their way of life. DS9 has become perhaps the best of the Star Trek series to date. Yes it was slow in developing…so slow in fact that it ran off many normally stolid Star Trek fans. It has, however, within the last 3-4 seasons finally found its place in the Trekkian Lore. The addition of "Worf" brought the series a wonderful cross of what was and what is, crosslinking the faster paced Star Trek: TNG to the more planted DS9. I have come to enjoy DS9 more than any of the other Star Trek series as of late…..and I am an original "Kirk" fan… ;)…. I will miss DS9 when production is closed, but I will enjoy the syndicated repeats just as I have the first run shows….maybe Paramount will make a feature length film with this crew…hint, hint,…..<br/><br/>Leeta. A lot of the central elements of Deep Space Nine's overarching plot thoroughly rub me the wrong way. As an agnostic bordering on atheist, I strongly resented the emphasis on religion present in the series. The primary expression of this, of course, is the introduction of Bajor's mysterious "prophets" at the very beginning of the show, which continue to be a central aspect of the series as it unfolds. The sudden revelation of the "pas wraiths" as their nemesis near the end, the Bajoran's devils whereas the prophets are their angels, was even more ludicrous. I guess what offended me most of all is that the show held a certain reverence for mystical belief, whereas The Next Generation went out of its way to disprove or explain so-called supernatural happenings.<br/><br/>The Bajorans' faith isn't the only religion treated this way. A lot of ink is spilled on the scripts for episodes dealing with the Klingon and Ferengi religions also and, while they are humorous, once again the reverence the characters give these beliefs strikes me as a bit off-putting. For example, in one episode, Lieutenant Worf is determined to win a difficult battle so someone important to him (I won't reveal who, for fear of spoilers) will get into the Klingon "heaven" of "Sto-vo-kor." And this person isn't even a Klingon! And the other characters actually go along with him for such a foolhardy reason! Ah, perhaps I'm clinging to a little bit of the old shrill anti-theist screed I picked up as a reaction to my fundamentalist youth, but I found myself wishing that Star Trek had concerned itself with reason and objective analysis instead.<br/><br/>As far as the series as a whole goes, it shares a lot in common with The Next Generation, with plenty of technobabble, last-minute countdowns, and clumsy physical combat to go around. It also touches on some more intelligent topics as well, such as religious tolerance (one good side effect of putting so much emphasis on religion), covert intelligence operations, and the moral questions of war. My favorite episodes tended to center around the alien races, particularly the Klingons and the Ferengi. The Klingons were funny in their pomposity, and the Ferengi, with their incompetence and greed, were obviously intended to be a "comic relief" race. More favorites included the episodes dealing with the secretive, almost-rogue Starfleet organization known as "Section 31," with its obvious parallels to the NSA and other shadowy US organizations of today.<br/><br/>Deep Space Nine differs from The Next Generation in the fact that it is much more serial, as opposed to episodic, in nature. There are multiple-episode arcs spread throughout the seven seasons. These arcs are the show's setpieces, and they really shine. I have to say, though, that the Jem'Hadar, the Vorta, and the Founders weren't nearly as intimidating an enemy as the Borg from The Next Generation. They even seemed to me to be rather bumbling at times, with simple humans like Benjamin Sisko being able to get the better of supposedly genetically bred supersoldiers like the Jem'Hadar in hand-to-hand combat.<br/><br/>Supposedly, in the writing for The Next Generation, Gene Roddenberry stipulated that none of the characters should have significant interpersonal conflicts with one another, reflecting the evolved nature of the human race in a span of over 300 years. After all, Earth has eliminated poverty and money, don't you think they could also get rid of personal drama? But Ronald D. Moore and the other writers of Deep Space Nine found this unrealistic, so they made a conscious decision to alter Roddenberry's vision and make the characters of Deep Space Nine more earthy and sharp around the edges. It makes for a more compelling show when people actually have disagreements and get up in each other's faces. It also makes it more like a soap opera, which one may have distaste for, but to each their own. I kinda liked it, personally.<br/><br/>The final, nine-episode arc that concludes the series is wondrous. Nearly all of the threads introduced in the show's primary story lines, the war against the Dominion as well as the significance of Benjamin Sisko as the emissary of the prophets, is wrapped up perfectly. I have a hard time thinking of many television shows that concluded everything so well, except perhaps for Breaking Bad.<br/><br/>Anyhow, although the show is textbook Star Trek in most ways, it differs from the formula significantly in several others, particularly when it comes to religion and personal strife. One of those aspects I didn't care for, the other I did, enough for me to bump a star off my final rating. I give Deep Space Nine a hearty "thumbs up," with a rating of four stars out of five.
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373 weeks ago