should I start from S01E01 of deep space nine

Minime2.5

I keep hearing DS9 is the best of star trek. Being a big fan of TNG and all the movies and a casual watch of TOS I did watch some of DS9 casually. I would like to go back and rewatch it especially for the dominion stuff. I know its around season 3 or 4 that starts. Should I still start from scratch

Definitely. I did a rewatch last year or year before. Brilliant

Evade

You should start from the beginning. The Dominion are introduced at the end of season 2 but hinted at and referenced before then. There's some pretty good Bajor/Cardassia background throughout the first two seasons too.

odyssey06

There's a few self contained episodes in Season 1 you could probably skip, either they don't relate to a character arc or the wider storylines.

Babel
Q Less
The Passenger
Move Along Home
The Storyteller
Progress
If Wishes Were Horses
Dramatis Personae
The Forsaken

* Having said that I quite like the claustrophobic atmosphere to The Passenger, Dramatis Personae & Babel.

odyssey06

And in Season 2, there's a bunch of self contained episodes you could skip:

Melora
Rules of Acquisition
Second Sight
Rivals
Whispers
Shadowplay
Playing God

AMKC

Babel
Q Less
The Passenger
Move Along Home
The Storyteller
Progress
If Wishes Were Horses
Dramatis Personae
The Forsaken

I quite like ''Qless'' as it is the only time we see Q on DS9 and while'' Move Along Home'' is not great it is funny in parts and it does show Quarks thirst for greed.

pixelburp

There's garbage in season 1, but there's also much of the foundational character work with the cast that makes it worth it. Took a while to work things out but the season ain't so offensively bad it's worth skipping. Except for Bashir perhaps, his initial template was just yeeeeesh. Bad.

TheValeyard

start at the very beginning. You will notice things you never noticed before, upcoming plot changes, build up about the Dominion, etc.

Slydice

I agree. The whole series wraps well as a package from beginning to end.

Inviere

pixelburp wrote: »

There's garbage in season 1, but there's also much of the foundational character work with the cast that makes it worth it. Took a while to work things out but the season ain't so offensively bad it's worth skipping. Except for Bashir perhaps, his initial template was just yeeeeesh. Bad.

Couldn't agree more. By skipping episodes, you're often missing character development sub-plots. DS9 is arguably the best iteration of Star Trek, and it's strongest facet is its characters. My advice...start from episode 1 and keep going until the end.

Agent Coulson

Watch Babylon 5 first if you want to see a real space station and then watch DS9.

Daith

Don't skip anything. There's some bad episodes but even they can help with character development and it makes you appreciate the stronger episodes more.

I mean something like Whispers doesn't connect to anything really but it's a good episode and a good outing for O'Brien.

santana75

Agent Coulson wrote: »

Watch Babylon 5 first if you want to see a real space station and then watch DS9.

B5 Was amazing, much under appreciated. On par with DS9.

TheValeyard

santana75 wrote: »

B5 Was amazing, much under appreciated. On par with DS9.

Absolutely terrible graphics, but brilliant storytelling.

the_syco

Agent Coulson wrote: »

Watch Babylon 5 first if you want to see a real space station and then watch DS9.

If watching B5, look for the guide on how to watch it, as you watch a movie first, then episodes, then another movie, then more episodes, etc. And then you watch the spin off before you watch the last episode.

=-=

Fully recommend watching DS9 all the way through. Did it a while back, and found it to be very good.

pixelburp

TheValeyard wrote: »

Absolutely terrible graphics, but brilliant storytelling.

Oh it has aged so, so badly. I had a "how bad can it be?" the other week and taking a look at some YT videos, the answer was "incredibly bad". I watched the show as a teen so perhaps wasn't as discriminating but those FX weren't good even for the day.

Brilliant show all the same, and Londo / G'Khar remain one of the great pair of characters / rivalries in all of TV SciFi. The former's story arc a fantastic piece of proper operatic tragedy.

Sonics2k

Absolutely do.

Imo DS9 does a far better job of establishing it's character it's the first few episodes than many other TV shows do over entire seasons.

Johnny Storm

I would definitely skip ep10 "Move along Home" - JIMHO its embarrassingly bad

AMKC

Johnny Storm wrote: »

I would definitely skip ep10 "Move along Home" - JIMHO its embarrassingly bad

I disagree. Sure its not the best episode but it is a funny easy to watch episode. Besides if you don't see the episodes that are not the best how can you appreciete the great episodes that come later?

Inviere

AMKC wrote: »

I disagree. Sure its not the best episode but it is a funny easy to watch episode. Besides if you don't see the episodes that are not the best how can you appreciete the great episodes that come later?

Exactly. Move Along Home is no better or worse than some of the tripe that TNG put out in its early days....I'm noever an advocate of skipping episodes, just watch the show and judge it for yourself.

Bobtheman

Of course its aged-30 years. But its still worth watching from the very start

Sleepy

I've been working my way through it in fits and starts for the past year or so. I stalled around 3x17 "Visionary" a good while back and after picking it back up in the last few weeks I'm approaching the end of season 4 atm (two episodes left).

I'm enjoying it more this time around (though the Bajorans still bore the arse off me) and the Dominion war is starting to bubble up more and more...

There are definitely filler episodes but so few that don't at least develop one of the main characters a little that it'd be pointless to try and identify the "skippable" ones IMHO.

B.A._Baracus

Probably is the best Star Trek show.
Have some fond memories of it. As stated above the bajoran stuff was a bit meh at times. The Dominion war is really where the show excels.

Intersting tidbit:
Don't ask me how this was, but I remember not being able to wait to see season 7 back in the day and Sky seemed to take ages to show it. But I was in Chartbusters and saw season 7 (eps 1 and 2 IIRC) on VHS and watched it ages before Sky showed it. Looking back that must have been crazy. The show being out on VHS before it was shown on tv.

Edit, found this:
https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/DS9_Season_7_UK_VHS - so they started to release S7 in March 1999 on VHS in the UK.
While ( https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Sky_1 ) says Sky showed the sixth season starting October 1998. Safe to assume they showed S7 come October 1999. So the VHS tapes started to come out a good 6 months before Sky started.

TheValeyard

Miles O Brien in 'Hard Time' was a very good episode.
DS9 had some really creative ideas and top quality acting.

Sleepy

I just had it spoiled on me in a totally unrelated thread that

Jadzia

gets killed off. Damnit, I make it 30 years without knowing that and as soon as I'm within a season or two of it happening, I run across a spoiler!

TheValeyard

Sleepy wrote: »

I just had it spoiled on me in a totally unrelated thread that

Jadzia

gets killed off. Damnit, I make it 30 years without knowing that and as soon as I'm within a season or two of it happening, I run across a spoiler!

Well, ya should have watched it twenty years ago!!

AllForIt

I re-watched it from Season 4 recently. First episode entitled The Way of the Warrior which is one of my favs. Where Worf joins the crew as a much more developed character. There is something like 25 episodes per season so that's a lot to get through, in comparison to today's offerings.

seamus

I found an article that recommends what to watch to get the best episodes and the most background story and I've been working through that. Have still ended up watching more than half of S1 and am on episode 3 of S2.

I find the clerical/political Bajoran stuff quite dull to watch (everyone is as wooden as Pat Kenny), but I'm enjoying it for the most part.

As above, it's 25 episodes per season and I have barely enough time to watch 2 or 3 a week, so I really don't want to waste time on anything that doesn't move the story along and is "OK, but not the best".

B.A._Baracus

AllForIt wrote: »

I re-watched it from Season 4 recently. First episode entitled The Way of the Warrior which is one of my favs. Where Worf joins the crew as a much more developed character. There is something like 25 episodes per season so that's a lot to get through, in comparison to today's offerings.

Sadly some shows like The Flash etc still have 23 episodes a season nowadays. Which is well too much. The writers have to be using so much filler. A show like True Detective told a good story over 8 episodes!

Just looked online and it says that the average 1 hour show (like DS9) is shot over 8 days on average. So a show that has 25 episodes (again, like DS9) had around 200 days of shooting per year. I'd say your life would be nothing but DS9 working on a show of that scale

odyssey06

B.A._Baracus wrote: »

Sadly some shows like The Flash etc still have 23 episodes a season nowadays. Which is well too much. The writers have to be using so much filler. A show like True Detective told a good story over 8 episodes!
Just looked online and it says that the average 1 hour show (like DS9) is shot over 8 days on average. So a show that has 25 episodes (again, like DS9) had around 200 days of shooting per year. I'd say your life would be nothing but DS9 working on a show of that scale

I think that was a big factor for actors in deciding to sign up for a TV series back in that era. You weren't going to be doing much other acting work in movies etc and if you were a regular on TV show X you wouldn't be guesting in another series typically.
And it was likely a 6 year contract. ON the other hand, you got guaranteed paycheck and 'residuals'.

It's easier to get actors in to do 8-10 episode miniseries, they can do film work, other TV work, stage etc

Sleepy

TheValeyard wrote: »

Well, ya should have watched it twenty years ago!!

I know, I know. At the time they were originally on Sky 1, I didn't think much of the first few episodes I watched I never warmed to the characters in the same way as I did with the crew of the Enterprise in The Next Generation. Bashir and Kira in particular put me off (and I still haven't entirely warmed to either character tbh) and Sisko just wasn't as interesting to me as Picard had been.

By the time it got to the later seasons and was getting a good reputation, I was in college and rarely home to see them: too busy drinking tbh! By then, it was competing with Voyager in the Sky 1 schedules and I'd have caught far more of that by chance than DS9 (basically, if they were on, I watched them but didn't plan my day around catching them or bother recording them).

Found it crazy that I've been around Star Trek for two decades or so without ever hearing about it and as soon as I'm within a season of it happening, I fall across a spoiler mentioning it on an unrelated forum! Can't blame anyone for spoilers at this stage, just unfortunate timing!

tromtipp

Bashir was badly acted in the early episodes, as well as written like an obnixious brat, but the character and the actor both developed over time.

I think

killing Jadzia was a big mistake - they could have let Terry Farrell take time off, they could even have given us another Dax (I like Ezri) without a death - just needed a little imaginative writing and some tweaking of Trill physiology.

The way they did it leaves a sour taste, with is sad in a great series.

Evade

Use

[//spoiler] with one / for spoiler tags. Changing it to white does nothing if you use the dark theme.

I've always thought a promotion to captain and a transfer to a different front would have been better.

B.A._Baracus

odyssey06 wrote: »

I think that was a big factor for actors in deciding to sign up for a TV series back in that era. You weren't going to be doing much other acting work in movies etc and if you were a regular on TV show X you wouldn't be guesting in another series typically.
And it was likely a 6 year contract. ON the other hand, you got guaranteed paycheck and 'residuals'.

It's easier to get actors in to do 8-10 episode miniseries, they can do film work, other TV work, stage etc

I know it's all hindsight but selecting DS9 over maybe / potentially getting some decent parts in movies was probably the shrewd move. Colm Meaney accordingly had hesitation about joining DS9 to be free for movie parts.

The friends cast is reported to get 15 million a year each now from work 20 years ago. Now DS9 wasn't as popular as friends but it's still shown. Still on Netflix. The cast must be getting 250,000 each or something. Not bad for a day's work from yester'year

B.A._Baracus

tromtipp wrote: »

Bashir was badly acted in the early episodes, as well as written like an obnixious brat, but the character and the actor both developed over time.

I think killing Jadzia was a big mistake - they could have let Terry Farrell take time off, they could even have given us another Dax (I like Ezri) without a death - just needed a little imaginative writing and some tweaking of Trill physiology. The way they did it leaves a sour taste, with is sad in a great series.

I think the producers were insulted by her request or offer
She said how she wanted a reduced role (who knows maybe for the same money?) But not only ended getting killed, but replacing her with a new character in a shows last season. That screams screw you lady

tromtipp

Thanks Evade, I managed it eventually.

Transfer to a different front would have been excellent, but a little crisis (maybe as a result of a pregnancy - she was trying for one) with the symbiont splitting (quite possible, we've never been told they don't) and only one physically possible recipient could still have given us Ezri - maybe cut out some angst, and let her analyse the problem with Curzon (very creepy bloke) as acutely as she did the problem with the Klingon empire.

I miss DS9

Full_Circle_81

I would fully recommend watching it in its entirety, not cherry picking episodes from the earlier seasons, as even the less polished episodes still advance the characters and world-building of the show.

I was definitely someone who came to it as a major fan of TNG and it took me a while to warm to many of the characters. But looking back on it now, it's use of continuing storylines throughout the seasons was a huge advantage over TNG in allowing the characters to grow and change over the course of the show. I can appreciate that much more now (after a recent viewing) than I did when I originally watched it as it aired.

As for Babylon 5 and its visuals, they may have aged poorly compared to Treks bigger budget and use of miniatures, but at the time I remember being completely wowed by what the CGI on B5 achieved. The space battles on B5 were much more exciting and dynamic compared to anything on Trek, because of the freedom CGI allowed them. I know Trek eventually moved on to CGI models at some point, but when B5 first aired it blew my tiny mind!

It's really such a shame that neither classic show will ever get a proper HD presentation/restoration. You'd think that the execs at Paramount and WB would see the benefit of future-proofing their shows for HD streaming.

Rawr

Took me a long while to warm up to DS9 back in the day. I guess I was wondering what this station-based show was doing near my Enterprise-based TNG high-horse

I'm not a massive fan of S1, since I felt it was Bajor-heavy and I really started to get sick of the Bajorans. But it's still really good Trek.

One could also skip "Q-less", but you'd then be missing out on one really fun scene.

(Sisko punches Q in the face)
Q: You PUNCHED me?! Picard would never punch me!

Sisko: I'm *not* Picard!!