At the sacrifice of getting any sleep last night I've finally finished my marathon DS9 watching of all 7 seasons.
Personally, I enjoyed the series until they started a war with the other quadrant...then it just got annoying.
I'd have to agree with this. DS9 is a good show and I'd argue that it makes TNG & VOY look like kids show in comparison, especially TNG, but it seems like around season 5 of DS9 the show veered off course.
The first 4 seasons were mostly solid except for the episodes with the Grand Nagus and Troi's mother; those episodes seemed forced in trying to be humorous but personally I found them more annoying then funny.
Between seasons 4 and 5 though it felt as if the writers were cleared out of the room and a fresh batch was brought in. S5 felt like it was silly stuff with a few serious episodes in between.
Quark becomes a woman! Odo loses his virginity! Kira is pregnant... with O'Brien's child! I found myself tempted to fast-forward though multiple episodes. I resisted that temptation because I was determined to see it through. And then they went full force into war mode and kept at it till the very last episode of the series of S7.
The war mode episodes may not have been so bad but they also went full force down the religious path with the Prophets (good) versus the Pah-wraith (evil) and The Emissary (prophet) having to evaluate his own faith. Between Dukat being 'possessed', along with being the leader of a Pah-wraith cult, and Sisko embracing being a religious leader it just felt wrong.
Plot crutches? The writers relied on them, over & over again. It should be set in stone that any ST writers suggesting a story that involves "temporal disturbances" (time travel) shall be banned from submitting future story ideas. The same goes for stories involving holo suites / decks. The first few seasons the holo suites were talked about, but not seen, mostly in the ongoing relationship between O'Brien & Bashir but by the end of series I was ready to throw a remote control at the TV if they did one more full episode of Vic Fontaine! James Darren was great in the role, and the first few episodes were entertaining, but the "Franky Eyes" episode was just so stupid and unnecessary. I'd bet anything that somebody saw
Ocean's 11 and thought "
Hey, what if....".
As a whole body of work I understand why some ST fans love the series; as a whole it really does add up to more then it's individual elements. It's just a shame that the show reached a crescendo and then rolled downhill for a few years before ending.
