Rent Star Trek: Deep Space Nine on Amazon Video (paid link)
Written by: David Koepp (screenplay by)
Created by: Rick Berman, Michael Piller, Gene Roddenberry (based on Star Trek)
Starring: Avery Brooks, René Auberjonois, Terry Farrell, Cirroc Lofton, Colm Meaney, Armin Shimerman, Alexander Siddig, Nana Visitor, Michael Dorn, Nicole de Boer
Rated: TV-PG
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Plot
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.
Verdict
This is a solid sci-fi series that is overshadowed by Star Trek: The Next Generation and Babylon 5. Unlike TNG this is less of a perfect world with conflicts between inhabitants of the space station. Not every episode ends in resolving all issues, but there are a lot of sillier episodes with dress up episodes that use the holodeck. This also seems to copy a few major elements of Babylon 5. If you're a sci-fi fan this is certainly worth watching.
It depends.
Review
I grew up with Star Trek: The Next Generation. I remember many episodes and have a lot of nostalgia for the series. That was my first introduction to and set my appreciation for Star Trek. The rule on that show was no staff conflicts per creator Gene Roddenberry. This show didn't have that rule so character development is much richer. Being a space station we see more species which offer an alternate perspective that isn't always Federation approved.
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| Terry Farrell, Alexander Siddig, Avery Brooks play Jadzia Dax, Julian Bashir, Ben Sisco |
Commanding officer Benjamin Sisko (Avery Brooks) is awesome. He's fair, but stern as he deals with everyone that comes through the station, and that's no easy task. He knows when to be firm and when to compromise. He has a love for baseball, which I appreciate, and that means there are a lot of baseball themed episodes. Sometimes it gets a bit silly. This show likes to play dress up. Sometimes it's just a bit silly. With a show that can be dark, those episodes are much lighter. It makes for a strange tone. One episode has all of the characters out of make up which is fun. Another episode manages to insert this cast into the original series episode Trouble with Tribbles.
Many of the characters have biases which is great for the series. First officer Kira Nerys (Nana Visitor) was a former guerilla fighter. Ferengi Quark owns a bar and like most of his species is obsessed with making profit. He and his kind also are the source of a lot of comedy, which often veers to silly.
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| Nana Visitor and René Auberjonois play Kira Nerys and Odo |
While I like the drama in the show as it makes the characters richer, this series doesn't mine sci-fi concepts like previous iterations of the world. There are episodes that do, but I wish there were more. There are many fun episodes from TNG that explore sci-fi concepts. There aren't as many here. I want this show to generate questions.
The story becomes more serialized towards the end which also is my major criticism. There seem to be many elements of the story pulled directly from the absolutely fantastic Babylon 5. Paramount, which produced this show, had rejected Bablyon 5 in 1989. That was after seeing the first twenty odd episode scripts, the overall arc, and many character biographies. There are just too many similarities to think that Paramount didn't try to copy it. Babylon 5 is a sci-fi soap opera in the best possible sense. The show is solid from the beginning, but half way in I realized everything had a point and purpose as it built to a vast story arc. It's basically a televised novel. The show is incredible and severely underrated, dwarfed by all things Star Trek.
I certainly enjoyed this show, but I'm going to compare any sci-fi series to Babylon 5. It's inevitable. It's difficult for anything to rank against that. If this were airing today, I'd recommend watching it. My only hesitation now is that there are so many shows out there, and this isn't even the best from the time period. While the characters are richer than TNG, that show has some classic episodes, and the original series is absolutely a must watch.
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