You know...for the longest while, I thought DS9 season 1 and 2 were horrible....but watching them in reruns this year (they're airing on the Canada Sc-fi channel, Space), many of them are pretty good...even the Bajoran stories.

They're okay, but I think it all really came into its own after series three.

I felt that the initial seasons of DS9 tried briefly to take up the original Star Trek vein of having "explorer-type" stories... In these, much beloved of TOS and TNG, the crew discovers a new lifeform, then learns a bit about them before the episode delivers a moral message (about humanity) in the course of examining the new aliens. Then the new aliens go off into the sunset and we forget all about them for ever after.

Witness "Captive Pursuit." New aliens discovered (the Tosk and the Hunters). Moral message delivered (about humanity engaging in bloodsports "although we've never been barbaric enough to hunt a sentient being"). Tosk flies off into the sunset along with the Hunters, presumably, and there is never again any mention of him or his people. (When watching the Dominion stories, I often found myself thinking, "whatever happened to the Tosk? Come to think of it, he did look quite a bit like the Jem'Haddddddar, didn't he?")

I like the shadowing of future events. It's fairly obvious when you re-watch the early seasons that Ira Steven Behr went back and tried to fit a lot of the early mythology into the later seasons. The early throw-away mention of the fire caves being one example (in, I think, The Nagus)

It's perhaps a small thing but it makes it seem more real and grounded to me.

Hey Rene! You must be watching the same episodes as me. Incidentally, Canada's sci-fi channel seems to run a lot more trek. TOS at 4pm mon-fri, DS9 at 5pm, and Voyager at 10pm. On Saturdays and Sundays, they're going to start running four-hour marathons of an episode from each series. Woo-hoo!

Anyway, I really enjoy the first two seasons; they have a wonderful space-operish, interstellar thoroughfare feel. Best of all, in Season 2, I love all the little allusions to the Dominion (in Rules of Acquisition, Sanctuary, Shadowplay). This culminated in what was one of the most innovative finales in "The Jem'Haddar," an excellent episode which would eventually change the entire dynamic of the series.

As far as starting off went, DS9 did very well. Season 2 was good for the reason that there weren't too many grand story arcs going on. It was almost like TNG's season 3 in that respect. As a result, there were many highly enjoyable ditties-for-episodes in that season, such as Blood Oath, Rules of Acquisition, and Whispers (my favourite of the season).

Then the Dominion showed their ugly faces and verily did chaos descend. Can you say "Babylon 5"? Can you?!

(I'll get me coat now...)

YES! LEAVE! There are B5 fans on this board and if you weren't such a coward as to post anon., we would find you and destroy you.....


[a joke people, a joke...but don't bash that show!]

Ha!

Knew it would provoke a response!

Just testing ya....

I wonder who you are Anonymous... you seemed to be referencing a British comedy show at one point. Could eb wrong, though.

Anonymous, please try not to provoke the huddled masses. They're really touchy about these matters, and hate it when such things as The Truth™ are pointed out to them...

[PS - Note the smiley - yes, please note it well...]

Crossover redeems any of DSN s~~t early episodes. It was wicked seeing how one mistake by Spock made a complete targs breakfast of the mirror universe!

I think DS9 had a far stronger and even first two seasons than NextGen did. Duet, Dramatis Personae, In the Hands of the Prophets, Progress, The second season opening trilogy, Necessary Evil, Sanctuary, Whispers, Paradise, and The Wire were all good episodes.