HTF REVIEW: Star Trek Deep Space Nine: The Complete Fifth Season (Recommended) (1 Viewer)

[Louis_P]

It's around 17 minutes in all.Season 4 had a 40+ minutes on the bonus disk

 

[Bill Williams]

Join the club, JonZ, with all of the big gun DVD releases coming out all at one time, mesa too poor to afford it. Of course, someone out there can always get it for a nice Christmas or wedding present for me!

 

[Bryan Tuck]

Thanks for the review, Scott. Going through these season sets has helped me remember how much I love this show. So many great episodes. Such a highly underrated show; I'm glad more people are discovering it on DVD.

And "Trials and Tribble-ations" is just essential viewing for any fan of the original series. It just overflowed with love and respect for the original series, especially compared to Voyager's awkward and contrived Captain Sulu episode "Flashback."

Sorry, I don't mean to turn this into a Voyager-bashing thread, but "T&T" nailed every detail, while "Flashback" couldn't even get the timeframe right (not to mention the question of why the Excelsior's chief science officer bunks with an ensign).

Anyway, back to DS9, another standout is the season finale, "Call to Arms." I remember seeing that when it was first on, and just going "Whoaaa..." on that last shot:

The Defiant and Martok's ship joining the "Federation Task Force" as they head back toward the station.

And thanks, Jason, for the Law & Order/NYPD Blue comparison. I'd never thought of it that way, but that is a great illustration.

Good to see so many other DS9 fans out there.

 

[Ric Easton]

Great review, Scott.

Thanks for listing all the contents of the "Hidden Files" Its nice to know what I'm looking for!

When I got it home, I instantly popped in the last disc to watch the two Tribble docs. Both were excellent. Then of course I had to jump ahead in my DS9 viewing and watch "Trials and Tribble-ations" That episode is just so perfect, I must have had a big old smile on my face during the whole thing. They really did do an amazing job.

I wonder if Berman and company over at Voyager got a little jealous that DS9's 30th anniversary tribute turned out so much better than their own. Especially since Berman suggested the idea to Ira.

Ric

 

[Rollie]

Is anyone else encountering problems with this set? Specifically The episode called The Ascent on Disc 3. My player (PS2) refuses to play this episode in its entirety.

The disc freezes up at the point (During Chapter 2) when Nog and Jake are in their new quarters and Nog is talking about getting up at 0400 to go to the gym. When Nog leaves, Jake flexes his arm. At this point I got an "Unable to read disc" error.

This is my second DS9 Season 5 set. I returned the first set because the image pixelated and gave me the same disc error AT THE SAME POINT. All the other episodes on the disc seem to work fine.

 

[Andrew Bunk]

I got through this episode with no problem on a Philips 793C. Do you have any other players besides your PS2 that you can try it on?

 

[Rollie]

On my BenQ DVD-Rom, the sound and picture are jittery for a few seconds right at the chapter stop between 2+3. The disc then continues to play. I don't get an error like I did on the PS2.

I find it hard to believe that this would be a compatability issue. As I said, all the other episodes on the disc play just fine, and this is the second set I've had a problem with. Furthermore, the error is in the EXACT same spot.

 

[Emil Stoica]

Rollie,

I had to return the set 3 times before I found one that worked. However, I had no problems with "The Ascent". My fail would be on Disc 2 Episode "Let He Who Is Without Sin". It would never play the first 5 minutes of the episode. Tried them on several players with the same result. So it seems that are bad batches out there.

 

[Kevin Crays]

I'd say that average DS9 is better than average TNG, but that TNG had higher peaks (and lower valleys).

I'd say this hits the nail on the head. IMO, All Good Thing was one of the greatest Trek episodes ever. Hard to believe they came up with that on such short notice, while having much more time for Generations and ....well we've all seen it.

DS9 is the best story telling of all the Treks. Once they decided to go a more serialized route, they went back and did their homework and tied in things mentioned in the very first episode. DS9 characters have a lot of depth. Detractors often said they never went anywhere. Fans always argued that the unverse came to DS9. The nice thing about the latter is the ability to get to know so many people who come and go on the station.

In TNG, something would happen on some planet one week...and rarely did those events have any weight in the future. In DS9, everything that happened potentionally mattered. That walk on roll this week was a recurring roll next season. And by season 3 or 4 the main difference between a regular and a recurring character was whether or not their name was on the opening credits or after the commercial break.

I say get them both, they're both great shows, but DS9 is to Trek what Lord of the Rings is to Fantasy. It's a huge sprawling epic story.

That said, the last episode (especially the last 45 minutes) of the series was a disapointment. Perhaps it was rushed. Perhaps there was no way for the climax to equal the build up, but despite this quibble, it's a great ride.

If you buy DS9, and stick with it, you won't be disapointed.

 

[Rex Bachmann]

Daryl Stovall wrote (post #9):

See here

http://hometheaterforum.com/htforum/showthread.php?&postid=1358953#post1358953 for another considered opinion.

 

[Steven_J_H]

Nice review. I'm through the first 2 discs and remembering how great the show was.

Regarding the freezing issue, I have a Pioneer DVL-919, disc 2 played fine and I checked disc 3 at the freeze point without a problem.

 

[Chris]

I've always loved DS9, and I've spent the last few days going through Season 5. 1-4 are proud parts of my collection, but I have a lot of thoughts..

One of the things I really enjoyed about DS9 is how minutia was so well played, and starfleet was presented as sometimes a crappy occupation. The small attention, the "why we do what we do" element always made me really enjoy DS9. The first disc of Season 5 has three standout episodes (Looking for.. is not one of them

But "The Ship" has always been one of my favorite DS9 eps. Every other trek had it's series of red shirts, smaller characters who were quickly offed and everyone would say "damn! how could we lose ensign gonnadie? I always liked him!" "The Ship" made it a much more grueling affair, the character isn't offed in the beginning; but survives through the episode, slowly dying. One of the problems I had with TOS, and even some of TNG was how easily people would say "oh well, that happens" but episodes like "The Ship" always played it as "uh, crew dying isn't always something you forget about 10 minutes later in the episode". This is followed up by another episode where Jake, a starfleet outsider, finds out that yes, in fact, sometimes Starfleet officers panic, get scared, quit (Nor the Battle Too Strong).

DS9 had that gritty element that tended to unsanitize the future; whereas TNG had it's own charms, DS9's posture always made me feel more in touch with the characters.

From beginning to end (Season 1-7) I enjoyed every season, and found it consistently entertaining. Yes, there are a few eps I could do with out, but week in and week out, it generally fared pretty well.

Now, my one criticism. I still pick up the box sets; and I get it.. but I must be alone in thinking the TNG & DS9 box sets -look- terrible. Compared to other titles, even watching the shows on local broadcast, the picture has grain and pixelation in scenes. Part of this is just reality, in squeezing 4 episodes per disc, basically slightly over 3:30, you aren't getting the highest quality possible for the video encoding. I know I'd be alone, probably, in saying I would have gladly paid more for a higher bit rate, 2 episodes per disc version ala TOS if they had offered to do such a thing. Skin textures are particularly annoying for their "grainy" look. I'll still keep picking up the boxes, and I'm sure plenty will disagree; but it's just a thought