a5c7b9f00b 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 peoplethe Celestial Temple of their Prophets. Sisko,discoverer of the wormhole and its inhabitants, is therefore the Emissary of Bajoran prophesy. The wormhole&#39;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. As a Star Trek fan, it pains me to write this negative review but watching this series was even more painful. I enjoyed TNG, Voyager, and even the short-lived Enterprise, but DS9 just left me sad and disappointed. Many of the stories were adequate but the acting was weak, the dialogue often laughable, and the inclusion of a Ferengia central character turned this series into a tongue-in-cheek farce best suited for children.<br/><br/>Let&#39;s start with the characters. Captain Sisco must have taken a Quaalude before each scene which would explain his slow, boring, mono-tone delivery and glossy stare into nowhere. Wake up man, you&#39;re the Captain! <br/><br/>Major Kira was completely unbelievablea former freedom-fighter, thanks to her spackled-on makeup and distracting ear bling; which is probably why, in almost every episode, she had to remind us of her painful past battling in the trenches. Oh, did your nails keep breaking you poor thing? <br/><br/>Odo the shape-shifting security chief existed mainly to show off the liquid entity CG effects which created such awe in Terminator 2, but were overshadowed in DS9 by Odo&#39;s endless grumpy, sarcastic, whiny barbs usually traded with Quark.<br/><br/>As for Quark and the other clown-like Ferengi, well they are just painful to watch. Did they have any dialog that didn&#39;t include the words &quot;profit&quot; and &quot;gold-pressed latinum&quot;? It quickly became intolerably repetitious.<br/><br/>As muchI loved the other Star Trek series and most of the movies, don&#39;t bother with this one. Babylon 5 had some faults but overall was a much better outer space drama than DS9. There&#39;s a scene in an episode of Deep Space Nine where Chief O&#39;Brien&#39;s newborn baby is brought to the command center of the space station and left alone for a few moments. The next shot we see is from the baby&#39;s point of view, looking up at the ceiling from O&#39;Brien&#39;s sunken work station. Slowly, a bunch of smiling Starfleet and Bajor officers begin to crowd around to get a look at the little bundle of joy. It&#39;s such a perfectly human response that I couldn&#39;t help but be stunned by it. These weren&#39;t the dry automatons of ST:TNG, isolated in their ship and pontificating about the moral-of-the-week. These were people that lived in a real universe, with real problems and possessing real emotions, thoughts and feelings.<br/><br/>DS9 got real good at nailing those small human touches–the little moments of quite understanding–but it was the lengthy recurring story archs that lent the show its weight. Very rarely did the show go in for the gimmick-of-the-week mentality of the previous Trek shows. Instead of deftly dispatching a problem a week, some obstacles remain on DS9 for many seasons. Take a look at Louise Fletcher&#39;s Kai Wynn. She&#39;s a Bajoran religious leader–with substantial influence and power–who has deluded herself into thinking her quest for power is really helping Bajoran while actually bringing it to the brink of destruction. Captain Sisko, in his role of the Emissary, has to closely work with Kai Wynn but he has no easy answers in dealing with her. He can&#39;t shoot her, he can&#39;t remove her from power and he has no way to discredit her. Sisko has to live with her. Kai Wynn proves to be a thorn in Sisko&#39;s side until the end of the series.<br/><br/>I think Kai Wynn is a good example of the philosophy of the DS9 creators. Problems aren&#39;t solved with a timely contrivance sucha phased-tachyon emission or one of Picard&#39;s after-school special-style speeches. Characters on DS9 have to honestly deal with problems and occasionally (shockingly!) make sacrifices. Characters compromise their own codes of ethics for the good of the galaxy or their loved ones and face the ramifications of all their decisions.<br/><br/>Also, the characters in DS9 don&#39;t live in a vacuumthey do on the other Trek shows. There are an incredibly number of secondary characters that make DS9 seem like the only Starfleet posting occupied by more than seven people.<br/><br/>The creators also figured out that they could alter the tone of individual episodes to strengthen the seriesa whole. The inclusion of occasional comedic and romantic episodes allows the series to really broaden its appeal.<br/><br/>Finally, the character interaction is written (and acted)extremely well making it one of the best ensemble series of TV. Characters evolved over seven seasons and their relationships with each other and evolvedwell. The writers put the characterization first and didn&#39;t use themmere mouthpieces for moral arguments and meaningless techno-bablewas so often the case on ST:TNG.<br/><br/>I was sad when DS9 ended, knowing that the future of televised sci-fi was bleak, but I guess seven seasons is enough for any series. With the original Star Trek a little too dated and corny, TNG a little too stuffy and Babylon 5 (not Trek but often compared to DS9) a little too pretentious DS9 easily ranksthe best sci-fi series ever made.
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