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prometheus

Were you happy with the direction DS9 took?

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The Dominion war was right for DS9. The characters of DS9 were usually more versatile and susceptible than in TNG, and the Dominion war just like the Maquis rebellion before it gave them a good backdrop to deal with this.

 

On the downside the war proved bad for the show in the long run. Mostly because the show seemed unable to wrap it up. They just kept giving us more and more fleet battles one no different from the other. Even after they had the courage to destroy the Defiant they actually brought it back and gave us, suprise surprise another big fleet battle. Excuse me while I yawn. They never could or never dared to write themselves out of it, and in the end it more or less swamped the finale.

 

Possibly one might also note that the Dominion were a little too unambiguously evil, but that may be said of many Star Trek villains.

 

There's little doubt DS9 was a better show in the early seasons. For all that the Dominion war was right for DS9 and its characters.

Edited by Hooray for boobies

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Were you happy with the direction DS9 took?, Was the Dominion War satisfying?

 

Yes of course, to both questions.

 

DS9 was the first Trek series free of Roddenberry and his silly rules.

 

As such, it became IMO the best Star Trek series of them all.

 

Never bettered, and unlikely ever to be.

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From an artistic perspective, I think DS9 accomplished some amazing things. From an entertainment perspective, it was good, but way too predictable at times.

 

And I did not care for the way they made the series one continuing storyline (that is, the "arcs" and overall "Arc." That's one thing I never really liked. It works in small doses and in occasional callbacks for devotees, but long-term, it aids in making it predictable. I mean, when the Dominion War started, we knew in the end the Federation would win. Only through things like deceiving the Romulans, bringing the Breen into the picture, and the way the tide turned on Cardassia Prime; did it keep interesting enough.

 

From a visual perspective, I got sick of looking at darker tones of yellow, green, brown, and all the black shadows. We get it... this is the darkest Trek series from a psychological perspective. Don't overdo it.

 

I did love DS9 overall though. Really some amazing television. Not as good as TNG, imo, but a fairly close second.

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From an artistic perspective, I think DS9 accomplished some amazing things. From an entertainment perspective, it was good, but way too predictable at times.

 

And I did not care for the way they made the series one continuing storyline (that is, the "arcs" and overall "Arc." That's one thing I never really liked. It works in small doses and in occasional callbacks for devotees, but long-term, it aids in making it predictable. I mean, when the Dominion War started, we knew in the end the Federation would win. Only through things like deceiving the Romulans, bringing the Breen into the picture, and the way the tide turned on Cardassia Prime; did it keep interesting enough.

 

From a visual perspective, I got sick of looking at darker tones of yellow, green, brown, and all the black shadows. We get it... this is the darkest Trek series from a psychological perspective. Don't overdo it.

 

I did love DS9 overall though. Really some amazing television. Not as good as TNG, imo, but a fairly close second.

On a couple of points I couldn't disagree more, I loved the multi-episode arcs. I thought the way they did them was perfect. Especially toward the end. For a casual viewer it may make it harder to follow but for an avid, never miss an episode user it's just great.

 

The overall arc, I think of it like a painting. You start out in episode 1 with a blank canvas and begin painting an epioc story that by the time you get to the end is just an awesome story that came to life. Taking Sisko from wanting to leave the Federation to being the child of the prophets and going to "live" with them and everything in between was just an incredible journey from start to finish and to me is the very best of Trek bar none.

 

TNG would be my third favorite behind TOS in the #2 slot with Enterprise 4th and Voyager 5th. TOS was an original, ahead of it's time. TNG was really good, but every week was just "much of the same" from the previous weeks. DS9 had an overall story and stories within that story and then character stories within those stories. It was a very complex series.

 

The colors they used were due to Cardassian designs and to go with Federation colors and design elements just wouldn't have been right, not on the station anyway. It was, afterall built by the Cardies (using Bajoran slave labor).

 

Just an awesome series, I wish it had gone on for a few more years.

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I understand and respect your opinions. I'm used to being in the minority with favorites of anything.

 

Admittedly, part of the reason the arcs irk me so much is because I watched the series by renting via Blockbuster and Netflix, and quite often would get the DVDs out of sequential order. Maybe someday when I can actually afford Trek on DVD, I'll be able to watch it in a more suitable manner.

 

 

With my luck though, by the time THAT happens, DVDs will be obsolete. :congrats:

 

As for the colors... yeah, it's Cardassian, but how did it get to be Cardassian? The writers and designers had to decide at some point that the darker tones of earthy hues would be the color scheme. I'm not asking for campy bright, but I don't like having to raise the brightness on my TV to pick up details I might otherwise have missed.

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I understand and respect your opinions. I'm used to being in the minority with favorites of anything.

 

Admittedly, part of the reason the arcs irk me so much is because I watched the series by renting via Blockbuster and Netflix, and quite often would get the DVDs out of sequential order. Maybe someday when I can actually afford Trek on DVD, I'll be able to watch it in a more suitable manner.

 

 

With my luck though, by the time THAT happens, DVDs will be obsolete. :congrats:

 

As for the colors... yeah, it's Cardassian, but how did it get to be Cardassian? The writers and designers had to decide at some point that the darker tones of earthy hues would be the color scheme. I'm not asking for campy bright, but I don't like having to raise the brightness on my TV to pick up details I might otherwise have missed.

 

I think I, and other "Niners" may be the minority on this one but it's all cool. The colors I believe were actually set during TNG.

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From a visual perspective, I got sick of looking at darker tones of yellow, green, brown, and all the black shadows. We get it... this is the darkest Trek series from a psychological perspective. Don't overdo it.

 

It was necessary to show the audience a different aesthetic from the "clean" Starfleet look that they had grown accustomed to during seven seasons of TNG. That's why the Cardassian designs of the station's exterior and interior were dark and harsher and more "industrial" looking.

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I loved the story arc aspect of DS9, the grittier tone, the better acting (because of better scripts), and all the wonderfully indepth character development for all the ensemble. Even secondary characters were given great treatment by the writers and producers of the show. On TNG, we have Picard/Worf/Data, on TOS, we have Kirk/Spock/McCoy, on DS9 we have Sisko, Kira, Odo, Bashir, Dax, Quark, Garak, Jake, Worf, Martok, etc. etc. Just fabulous television.

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Yeah... totally loved the Dominion War. As a kid I was always really eager for things to escalate in TNG but they never did, then DS9 came along and fufuilled that need when I was a teenager. What I didn't kind of like and will always make me sad was that they left the ending kind of... unfinished... shall we say? True it was followed up in books, but that wasn't quite the same. No chance of a movie covering the return of Sisko, but if I ever came in to an obscene amount of money I'd stop working, read all the books and try to combine them to make a fan movie. Never mind... it was good overall, but the opening credits theme was better in season one episode one than the slightly altered music they were using by the time the final episode of season seven aired. Intro was better once CGI came along though.

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From a visual perspective, I got sick of looking at darker tones of yellow, green, brown, and all the black shadows.

 

Colours did get a little dull in the later seasons. Neither Cardassians nor Romulans or Klingons nor the Dominion are or were known for their variation in uniform, and for the most part the same applies to their ships and cities.

 

But what I don't understand is why they also turned the federation uniforms grey. I hated that. The coloured shoulders gave them more precense and distinction.

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According to an article in the now-defunct STAR TREK : THE MAGAZINE, the producers had always intended to end it with a war. Boy, did they ever. I rather felt then that maybe it went on for quite a long while..but then, in reality, war is, unfortunately, and outside of the neat, if gritty entertainment genre we enjoy, a terrible, bloody, and very hard issue...current conflict very much included. All honor, and gratitude, to every man and woman who has served in Iraq, and Afghanistan-and all those conflicts before. The ep about the siege of that relay station, and particularly its Nog-centered sequel, were strong, and standout DS9 shows...that demonstrated the cost of war. A lesson to ponder.

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