Deep Space Nine: a thread for (re)watching this awesome series

yes and no

yes outwardly v pixie dream girl
no bc inwardly = old man

manic pixie dream girl old man

i think the inner old man only really emerged when convenient, as with the *insanely* over-the-top joran manifestation or when prodding worf. which is fine

that said i think she and they did a pretty great job with her character

tbf an aspect of mpdg is always ~unknown knowledge~ but hedged behind a social anxiety that makes them accessible to dorks

as i'm rewatching S07 after like a year and a half it seems i too want to live in the holosuite

the inherent thing isn’t “wow I can introduce this girl to things only I know” but “this girl has the secret keys to fixing my internal problems” so she’s definitely mpdg

so say we all xpost

xp you and Nog just chilling in there

I've decided the only way I'll get through this series is by turning my internet-browsing procrastination into DS9 procrastination for a couple of months. Just watched the pilot. It's pretty charming, tantalising setup for all the political stuff, likably stupid but not-TNG-season 1-stupid, and some of the dialogue is... quite good? I think I will split the diff between these two watchlists.

I've seen the pilot three times, when it first came out, for previous failed rewatch sometime in the past decade, and yesterday. The only things I ever remember are the shot of Sisko in the escape pod at the start, Sisko's swimsuit, and the "OW!".

yeah i just rewatched emissary again the other day and that shot from the pov of the escape pod is stunning

For a bad first season, this is a pretty great first season, so I’m excited about when this actually gets good.

I have a watchlist of which episodes to skip, but after watching ”Progress” (moving!) and an actually enjoyable Lwaxana episode (!), neither of which were on the list, I’m thinking I might as well watch the whole lot.

i really thought the first season was not bad, although it absolutely does get better. a better first season than TNG imo (I just did the TNG rewatch, i prefer it slightly to DS9 overall but it's fairly close for me).

I'll go to bat for DS9's first season, even "Move Along Home!" And DS9's Lwaxana episodes put her TNG episodes to shame, because in the latter, she's basically a "LOL old harridan" but DS9 gives her emotional depth and shading.

I will only recommend one episode to categorically skip, that being "Profit & Lace" i.e. the trans-Quark lol emotional wimmin episode, which is irredeemably awful and objectionable.

Ok I have to watch that now. Move Along Home was very silly but not unenjoyable, so miles better than early TNG nonsense. Basically almost every one of the main ensemble is a fun character actor, so it’s enjoyable watching them even when the stories r dumb.

Oh no what have I done.

haha profit & lace was the only episode i skipped when i watched the series -- hadn't even heard anything about it, just saw the preview and thought 'that sounds terrible'

yeah i wouldn't skip anything in DS9, there's a couple stinkers each season but those watch guides throw away tons of good ones just because they're lower stakes or whatever

Out of morbid curiosity, I checked https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Profit_and_Lace_(episode)#Reception, which has this delightful nugget:

This episode received Star Trek 101's "Spock's Brain" Award for Worst Episode of Deep Space Nine.

my main complaint about the early seasons is that they wouldn't let sisko shave his head

Ok maybe I’ll skip it. Or...

https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/memoryalpha/images/d/d9/Quark_as_Lumba.jpg

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/E3hrW3jVkAAD5K_.jpg

Whats this from? Orville?

‘the making of star trek deep space nine’ by judith and garfield reeves-stevens

I was just confused by all the non-ST refs there lol.

I named a piece of software “emissary” recently and the icon is Sisko, lol

Nice

prune juice: a warrior's drink

just watched the ep where they accidentally set off the station's panic mode left by the cardassians and omg it's so good, you learn more about garak in like 10 seconds than he'd revealed in the entire show up to that point, had to have been such a gag when it came out

https://t.co/4kPK1NYbPA is saddened to learn of the passing of Camille Saviola. Camille made her mark on the Star Trek Universe as the incredible Kai Opaka. She will be greatly missed. pic.twitter.com/TTgDmdYJIp

— Star Trek (@StarTrek) October 29, 2021

Never noticed that Garak is the guy from Hellraiser (and many other things, as noted elsewhere on these boards.)

yeah he’s a great character actor! i love when he pops up in old shows.

my personal fave is his “zodiac but not” killer in Dirty Harry

My brother in law gets up early with the baby and has been going through Deep Space Nine so I also have pic.twitter.com/1HlGcSae27

— Kate Beaton (@beatonna) April 16, 2023

lol

Not wrong

Kate Beaton is so good

yes, excellent

i don't really agree with this much -- she hates 'the visitor' for one thing -- but here is one person's take on the essential DS9 episodes

https://bsky.app/profile/regretagarbo.rip/post/3k7utwqt25p25

Spectacular take "deep space 9 is incredible because it’s about what if a shitty strip mall was an ancient religious site and also the pentagon"

https://bsky.app/profile/jordanjamboree.bsky.social/post/3kansp625232i

that site's not public

The post is what ET quoted, so you're good.

Just got to "The Die is Cast" in the third season. This show totally - the only word I can think of - rocks. It got way better, way quicker than I was expecting.

Special lol at the Starfleet boss taking Sisko down, after Sisko goes rogue: "If you pull a stunt like that again, I'll court martial you or I'll promote you -- either way you'll be in a lot of trouble."

It's so great.

Some of the early takes itt are absolutely bewildering.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w1Ux34qQyn0

happy 82nd to best beloved garak, a simple tailor

love him so much

I'm going out on a limb and say this is the best thing uploaded to YouTube in the last year:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZ7Kk1z0_Gc

happy bell riots day

https://i.imgur.com/lq5ssT2.jpeg

rip vic fontaine ;_;

It’s crazy how there’s loud spaceship white noise in the background of EVERY scene of this show. I usually forget about it - but when I hear it, it’s like remembering you breathe or blink - it suddenly gets 100x more noticeable (before you forget again).

I’m very slowly going through this show - I’m up to the (excellent!) Dax ex-wife episode in S4. Worf has integrated into the cast pretty seamlessly so far.

“Vic and Nog go to Sears” signed print, “Vic and Nog go to Sears” signed print, $255

https://i.imgur.com/7gMJg33.jpeg