Star Trek Deep Space Nine - The Complete Seasons 1-7 [DVD] (2004) Review
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Why precisely was DS9 the finest of the STAR TREK series? It had a very good cast, though not clearly the best of the various series in the franchise. Deep Space 9, the space station, was not especially compelling nor were the sets much different than other shows. I think the reason it easily surpassed the other shows in quality was the political premise of the show and the way they stuck with that from beginning to end. While Cardassians, Romulans, and Klingons appeared on other series, only DS9 fully exploited the potential of their struggles with one another. The introduction of the Bajorans, the Jem'Hadar, the Dominion, and the Breen gave the series a complexity that none of the other series even remotely approached. Long story arcs always give series more depth and focus, and this was one of the great limiting factors in the other series, all of which relied on standalone formats without any real overarching story, even VOYAGER, which had a long story arc built into its very structure, that it failed to embrace.
While the main cast was not clearly better than other STAR TREK series, the cast of recurring characters were far and away to best. Garak, Gul Dukat, Rom, Nog, Martak, Keiko, Leeta, Zek the Grand Nagus, Weyoun and Brunt (both played by Jeffrey Combs), Damar, Vic Fontaine, and many others gave the show a marvelous depth and diversity. Oh, and we can't forget Morn, perhaps the most famous TV character never to have uttered a single word of dialogue. The show also does the best job of the various TREKs of fully exploiting the contrasting cultures of the various races. I never really came to like the Klingons in any of the series and DS9 shows it as a rather foolish culture, with hints that they were on the verge of collapse and change. I was slow to like the Ferengi, but I came to enjoy the absurd light they are used to place hyper free market capitalists in our own society (sort of Milton Friedman taken to his logical extreme).
Although DS9 depended upon a mythology developed in the original series and refined in THE NEXT GENERATION, the series actually resembles BABYLON 5 more than those shows. Both were set in space stations built beside wormholes. Both dealt with ongoing political conflicts. Both had commanders with a prophetic destiny. Both began at roughly the same time (DS9 began in January 1993 while BABYLON 5's Season One began in 1994, but the made for TV movie that served as a back door pilot was released in Feberuary of 1993). B5 has a substantial number of passionate fans. I am not among them. I have a number of problems with it, from what I believe is weaknesses in the writing deriving from a lack of a strong writing staff (J. Michael Stracyznski, though unquestionably a very good writer, simply tried to shoulder too much of he writing, despite not being very good with humor and writing somewhat stilted dialogue -- I think the show would have been stronger if he had allowed other writers to take on much of the burden, allowing him to work more on redaction) and rather extreme over acting and rather bizarre character design (I am thinking of Peter Jurasik's ridiculous hair and absurd accent). I understand completely what aspects of B5 some find appealing, but they generally are not bothered as I am by the weaknesses of the show, or at least are able to overlook them. DS9's overall story arc doesn't contain quite the degree of pathos of B5, what with the tragic story of Londo and the complex fate of G'Kar, but I find it overall a more consistently successful series, with fewer of the missteps that marred B5.
I have found in discussions that a surprising number of people who have watched the original series and THE NEXT GENERATION, or even VOYAGER, have not seen DEEP SPACE NINE. Of the four major series in the franchise (I see ENTERPRISE as a rather minor offshoot of the other series), this was the least watched series despite being by far the best. I think part of the explanation for that lies in the more involved story. With the other three series, you could easily miss a dozen or two episodes and completely enjoy an episode, understanding every aspect of the episode. But if you missed a dozen episodes of DS9, you would find things completely changed since the previous episode. This reflects the ongoing evolution of the story.
Although I've seen all of the STAR TREK series at least twice all the way through, this is the one series that I would be most interested in rewatching once again. I have to admit that all in all I'm not a huge STAR TREK fan, but I am very definitely a DS9 fan. In my own ranking of the best SF series of all time, this is the one STAR TREK series that I would rank up with BATTLESTAR GALACTICA (which was headed by DS9 alum Ronald D. Moore), FIREFLY, and FARSCAPE. Any serious fan of TV SF has probably seen this a couple of times already, but I think something that Nana Visitor said in the extras for the Season Seven box set is true, that people might have liked this when they first watched it, but upon rewatching it they are going to be genuinely surprised at how good it is. And the mark of a good series is definitely that it is better the second time through.
Includes STAR TREK: DEEP SPACE NINE Seasons 1-7
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Beware of Chinese Bootlegs - Valar1 - Kalifornia, USA
Don't be fooled by the people offering a "brand new factory sealed" DS9 set for ridiculously cheap prices [mine was 100 bucks cheaper than the official Amazon price]- they are bootlegs from China, they are new, do look similar to the US official sets but are defective in quality- you can tell the difference because of the cheapness of the plastic used for the cover, cheap paint used to paint the logo on the discs, and the fact that the discs have bubbles in them. They may or may not freeze when played depending on the quality of your player. You are getting ripped off, they cost 1/5th to 1/10th in China, these guys claim they are from the US, they do claim to have addresses here but they have the sets shipped directly from China to your home [takes about 3 weeks to arrive] and you wind up paying for shoddy stuff. I know this because it happened to me, I wound up filing a claim with Amazon, and thank god those guys are honest and helped me recover my money. So- 5 stars for the show, 5 stars for Amazon, and negative 5 for the bootleg selling scum
I love DS9, but some of the discs was coded right - Keith O. Judon -
I LOVE DEEP SPACE NINE. This show never got credit it deserves or the respect. However with the particular discs I bought, some of them was not coded or programmed right. Instead of getting the selection menu to navigate through each episode, I got the coded information behind it, and while I was able to play all the episodes I was still limited in being able to easily navigate through seasons 5-7.
keith
Jul 11, 2010 19:35:14
