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Author
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Topic: Star Drek
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Mike Schindler
Phenomenal Film Handler
Posts: 1039
From: Oak Park, IL, USA
Registered: Jun 2002
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posted 11-21-2008 11:52 PM
Tristan, what you see as DS9's faults, I see as its attributes.
First off, DS9 was not more popular than VOYAGER, not by a long shot. And that's actually a key factor in what I feel is its success. While Voyager was oopin' it up on the UPN, DS9 was in syndication, way under the radar. Because of this, and the fact that most people, like yourself, preferred a more traditional form of TREK, the DS9 writers were pretty much left alone to do whatever they felt like doing.
Ira Steven Behr used this to his advantage in order to tell stories that many people considered to be outside of Roddenberry's vision. Instead of presenting the universe as a simplistic paradise, Behr dug deeper in order to figure out what it was that made that paradise tick. I see this as being the central theme of the show, and it's one of the big reasons why I like it so much.
VOYAGER, on the other hand, had a slam-dunk premise which, in my opinion, they somehow managed to screw up. The idea of squishing two enemy crews together onto one ship and throwing them onto the other side of the galaxy is fantastic. The tension inside of that ship should've made it feel like the thing could explode at any minute. But instead, they were all one big happy family after a season or two.
To be fair, I kind of liked what they did with Seven of Nine, and there were about two seasons in there where the show kind of hit it's sweet spot and was actually pretty good. But at that point in time, DS9 was at its absolute peak, which greatly overshadowed anything they were doing on VOYAGER.
As far as DS9's heavy continuity is concerned, I see that as a major plus. I know that everyone's viewing habits are different, and that some people like to tune into shows at their convenience. Personally, I like it when TV shows have really heavy continuity. If there's an episode of a show which has little to no impact on the overall series, I feel like I've been cheated out of an hour of my life.
And that pretty much sums up how I felt about VOYAGER. In the first episode, they get lost. In the last episode, they get home. And in the other 168 episodes, nothing even remotely relevant or interesting occurs.
DS9, on the other hand, sets up its premise in the first episode and follows it through all the way to the end. Sure, there are some duds, especially in the early years. But at the end, I felt like I had actually seen seven years of these characters' lives and not just an arbitrary collection of adventures.
In regards to tone, I think that VOYAGER tried to be somber, but failed. Every opportunity they had to tell a story with real emotion was squandered by this ridiculous need they felt to maintain the status quo. Take, for example, the show's best episode, YEAR OF HELL. The title is pretty self-explanatory, and I feel that this is exactly what the entire series should have been. But then by the end of the episode, everything that occurred gets erased. So why did we even bother watching?
DS9 has episodes like that, but they actually matter. While the tone of the series did change from week to week, I see that as a positive. People have good days and bad days. That's life. DS9 did a great job of capturing that. Not everything is life and death. Sometimes, the big conflict of the week is whether or not you can beat the Vulcans in a baseball game.
If you're interested in seeing all that DS9 has to offer crammed into one single episode, I highly recommend watching IN THE PALE MOONLIGHT from Season 6. It is the darkest, most depressing episode in Star Trek's history, and it's unlike anything they've done before or since. It works perfectly as a standalone episode, but the events which occur also have a lasting impact on the rest of the series. It's absolutely brilliant. If you don't like that episode, then DS9's not for you. But if you do like that episode, check out the rest of the series. You won't be disappointed.
EDIT:
quote: Michael Gonzalez
Star Trek DS9 - 6x19 - In The Pale Moonlight Is the best episode ever of ANY of the series....
I missed that post at first, but yeah! What he said!
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