Reliving Deep Space Nine on DVD... (1 Viewer)

[Joseph Bolus]

There is no question but that DS9 is the Trek series that shines the most on DVD.

I think this is mainly attributable to the mostly linear aspect of the show. On DVD, the "soap opera" nature of the show truly emerges and really serves to crystallize the continuing evolution of the main characters.

I know when I was viewing it in its original run (I started with Season Four, when Worf came on board), it *became* the personification of what Star Trek means to me. The series seemed to capture the "flavor" and "Spirit" of TOS; but in a much more intellectual way, and with (of course) much better special effects to boot. Plus, I just *loved* all the Klingon-based stories ("The Way of the Warrior", "The Sword of Kahless", "Once More Unto the Breach", etc.). And this was all *in addition* to the Dominion War arc! Truly dazzling stuff!

Don't forget as well that Ronald D. Moore (Battlestar Galactica) was heavily involved with the writing of the series. His contribution to the mythos of the prophets (aka "wormhole aliens") I think helped inspire his re-imagining of the Battlestar Galactica universe.

 

[MarkHarrison]

I'm surprised no one has spoken poorly about the show yet. There always seems to be a few who didn't like it. But certainly not me. I've seen all the series, but this is the only one I've picked up. If the prices drop on the rest, I'll probably get more Trek. But for now I'm satisified only owning DS9. It was worth every penny.

 

[Mark Kalzer]

Yeah I tried some newer DVD shops around Whitby and Oshawa, but the word I get is that it is too expensive for any DVD stores to bother stocking it, which just raises the question...is Paramount making any money at the prices they currently have set for 4-7? If no one is buying, why are they not dropping all their prices? Is there some clause in the Spike TV contract that forces them not to?

 

[Kevin Hewell]

And yet it was still better from the beginning than the craptastic first two seasons of TNG.

 

[Greg_S_H]

Yeah. I had no problems with the first two seasons of DS9. It might have found new purpose in three, but it was still good Trek until then.

 

[Nick Martin]

DS9 will continue to amaze - there's nothing that seems dated, or irrelevant now. I'm referring to the parallels between contemporary events and the 24th century spin on them.

 

[JonZ]

"I'm surprised no one has spoken poorly about the show yet. There always seems to be a few who didn't like it."

Its good to see people praising it. Back when the first few seasons were airing,I thought my friend and I were the only ones who liked the show. I used to read mags like Cinescape and such back then and even they werent fond of it. It was always criticized as a major letdown after TNG, which was hugely popular.

We just used to shake our heads and wonder why no one realized what a great show it was.

 

[Sam Favate]

DS9 created an atmosphere for writers to fashion an extended narrative -- much more than the stand-alone weekly installments of TNG and TOS (or Voyager for that matter). Without DS9, it is unlikely we'd see continuing storyline shows like Battlestar or even Lost and Alias.

It is also unlikely that DS9 would have been allowed to do the serialized stories had it been the success that TNG was. As Ira Behr once put it, the studio left them alone because no one was watching. (Paramount also had other priorities with the launch of the UPN network and its flasgship show, Voyager, making DS9 among the last of the syndicated shows.)

(Of course, credit must also go to Babylon 5 - a contemporary of DS9 and a worthy show in its own right - for the serialization of episodes.)

 

[Barry_B_B]

JonZ, you took the words right out of my mouth. No one could figure out why I liked this incarnation of Trek; when I would tell people to pay attention to the stories, nothing but blank or puzzled expressions.

I love TOS, but to me THIS is the best of the franchise.

 

[Jason_V]

I was with this series from episode 1 through the very last one (alright, I even cried when Vic Fontaine sang "The Way You Look Tonight" in the finale!!). This is, bar none, the BEST Trek show. I love me some TOS and TNG, but this was the show with real people sticking in one place.

Funny part of this is that my sister absolutely LOVES this show. She'll watch the reruns no matter how many times she's seen the eppy. She's a bigger DS9 fan than I am.

 

[joshEH]

Absolutely. Within Babylon 5's non-arc episodes, its "B"-stories were frequently better than the "A"-stories they were supporting. For example, "TKO" 's B-plot about Ivanova sitting shiva for her dead father advanced her character more than any other episode up to that point, despite it being the subplot of the episode.

Even in episodes like "Grey 17 is Missing" (generally among the least-liked of B5's run), there was the outstanding B-story about Marcus, Neroon, and Delenn's leadership over the Rangers, which we now know sets up an extremely important storyline and alliance in Season Four.

 

[Nick Martin]

When the series finale "What You Leave Behind" aired, it was simulcast in a big movie theatre (The Paramount theatre in downtown Toronto), and seeing those characters, that space station, those amazing visual effects on the big screen...the closest thing to a DS9 movie I ever got.

One thing about DS9 I don't like, and it has nothing to do with the series, but instead the fans - it seems that the episode "Trials and Tribble-ations" is the overall favorite by fans, and that is very disappointing to me, because that show was a gimmick - a direct link to TOS, not a show that represents DS9 on its own terms and merits.

 

[MarkHarrison]

My wife is constantly watching DS9 reruns. She loves to watch whatever the TiVo just happens to pick up. The odd thing is we have all 7 seasons sitting on a shelf that she won't touch. She does the same thing with Buffy. I think she just likes the convience of hitting play rather than digging the discs out.

 

[Nick Martin]

Considering how much they cost, you should somehow delete DS9 from TiVo altogether, forcing her to take the time to play those discs...you paid handsomely for them, you might as well use them, right?

 

[Lloyd White]

Glad to see this series get some praise. I bought all the series at full price so I basically payed nearly 750$ with tax. Well worth it for me. I remember being so excited to see the next episode of DS9 during its first run. Also many of the plot happenings are so relevent to today that it's almost scary. Like the Dominion's psychological attempts to scare the Federation and other alpha quadrant races into making mistakes and their shock and awe tactics. Still one of my favorite shows of all time.

 

[Jeff_CusBlues]

I was always a huge fan of TOS, but never got into any of the other series. Two or three years ago, I decided to record and watch DS9 on Spike. I was hooked immediately. I recorded the two episodes each day and watched them in the evening. I liked DS9 because it took place on a space station, and they could include family type plots as well as typical Sci Fi plots. I also liked the Odo/Quark battles. There were a few episodes I missed and relied on the StarTrek.com synopsis to keep up. I still can't get into TNG and Voyager is not on anywhere that I know of. Now with hearing that the Spike episodes are so poor, I'm thinking I may need to pick up the DVDs.

 

[MarkHarrison]

Well, we've gotten one viewing out of them so far two years ago. I'm sure at some point she'll want to start at the beginning again and not just pick up random episodes here and there. I can't stand the televised episodes, but it doesn't seem to bother her for some odd reason.

 

[Nick Martin]

Is Spike the only channel showing DS9 in the US?

If so, anyone without the DVDs, or in Mark's unique case of having them anyway is constantly losing out...how can a channel have such horrible image and sound quality? Not to mention the ads that block half the screen, including episode titles and credits.

 

[Harry-N]

Yes, Spike currently has the exclusive rights to Deep Space Nine (or in their case, with the promos and stuff on the screen, perhaps it should be called Deep Space Seven-and-a-half! )

Harry

 

[Dave Scarpa]

To be fair even thou Spike is bad the DVD's don't have the best image quality either, many episodes have horrible looking compression artifacts. The Problem is the DS9 was so dimly lit often that the images comes across being extremely soft and muddy.