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Surok

More And More Depressing?

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When they stopped airing TNG on a station I get, they began with DS9. I liked it from the beginning, but captain Sisko just seems to be getting more and more depressed and the episodes seem to be getting generally depressing.

I mean, all it talks about is the war, sometimes some other things, but rarely something 'happy' happens.

Maybe I'm just over-sensitive, but that's how I feel.

 

Any other opinions?

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I understand how you feel! It took me a long time to get into DS9 because it was so dark compared to the other Treks. Now that I'm older, I really appreciate the show more.

 

It might grow on you, but if it doesn't just watch something else and come back to DS9 later. You might find that it seems different the second time around!

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There is an episode from season 5 called "In the Cards" when everyone is depressed about the war, and so Jake Sisko decides to cheer up his father by giving him a Willie mays baseball card...if he can only get it! In the effort to obtain the card, he and Nog end up doing different things for different people, lifting the spirits of all those they became involved with.

 

I think it is interesting that the writers chose to deal so openly with this depression in one of the episodes.

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I suggest "Take Me Out to the Holosuite."

 

Very light episode considering they are still in the war but still a very good one.

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I agree that DS9 is very dark compared to other series. I suggest watching the Ferengi episodes, they are always fun.

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There is an episode from season 5 called "In the Cards" when everyone is depressed about the war, and so Jake Sisko decides to cheer up his father by giving him a Willie mays baseball card...if he can only get it! In the effort to obtain the card, he and Nog end up doing different things for different people, lifting the spirits of all those they became involved with.

 

I think it is interesting that the writers chose to deal so openly with this depression in one of the episodes.

Yep, Jake and Nog handily dealt with the "soulless (sp?) minions of orthodoxy" and made everybody feel a lot better. "In the Cards" is a great episode.

 

I would suggest you watch "The Magnificent Ferengi" if you want a good laugh.

 

I don't mind the "depressing" nature of DS9 ... it seemed much more realistic to me than the other Treks (which are all good!). I just enjoyed the extended story arcs and the entire war thing in general on DS9.

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I've seen it. It did lighten up the mood to some extend.

Sure, they still make jokes in the shows that are funny, but it's overall dark. Well, I'm glad I'm not the only one who noticed this ><

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I think that's why DS9 is my favorite because of how dark it is...

I especially love the brooding Cardassian design...

I also enjoyed the frailty of trusts among the Federation, Bajorans, Klingons and Cardassians...

All the stories were so deep and thought provoking...Even the recurring guest stars really set the mood and made it more interesting...

Ira Steven Behr and Michael Pillar did excellent work with this series...I'm so glad they handled DS9 for the most part.

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I don't understand the argument that DS9 was dark and depressing. For one, the atmosphere wasn't all that dark at all. The promenade was very colorful, and the station most of the time seemed very lively. As for the episodes, there so many funny episodes, and episodes that would make you feel good. Some of these include: House of Quark, Trials and Tribble-ations, Looking for Par'Mach in all the wrong places, and one of my favorites that never gets talked about, In the Cards. I never get depressed by watching DS9, and when I do, it adds to the drama.

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I think the most dark and depressing episode was "The Seige of AR-588". It is also one of my favourite episodes. One of my fave scenes in that was when Quark suddenly jumps and shoots the invisible Jem'Hadar behind him.

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Speaking of depressing, I just remembered a very sad episode..."The Begotten"...My heart wrenched for Odo when his 'baby' Changeling died...

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DS9 was not really depressing as shows go ( even in sci-fi ) but it was a great deal more depressive, dark and pesimistic than the rest Star Trek. DS9 was a lot more complex than TNG and compared to TOS it was like it was talking for another subject.

 

After giving substantial thought to this matter, i came up with some ideas to why this happened. Of course, these are just ideas. So here they are:

 

1. TNG was a success but the producers could have believed that the public would not accept another show that was too similar to that. So, they preferred to create a different kind of show.

 

2. Gene Rodenberry who produced TOS and TNG did not have much to do with DS9 and thus it would be possible that the producers did not want to create something that would be compared to the brilliant work of Gene ( Forever alive Gene )

 

3. Babylon 5 ( nice job stealing ideas from Star Trek, Star Wars and all mythologies Straczynski ), ad a great success and it was as depressive as it gets. Hell, I like B5 myself. The thing is that DS9 << had >> to become more depressive to rival B5. I mean as B5 advances, year after year DS9 becomes even darker.

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It took me a long time to get into DS9, but once I was in I was hooked, line and sinker. I have a hard time saying which is my favorite show since I like them all. DS9 ranks pretty highly. Its dark side reminds me of real life. DS9 was a very deeply involved character oriented show. I miss it so!

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I don't see DS9 as "Dark and Depressing" at all. I see it as more realistic, more representative of what real life is like. You have police (Odo), part time 'criminals' (Quark, Rom, Nog and many other Ferengi), you have a virtual "melting pot" of many different races and cultures coming together and sometimes conflicting but most times working together in harmony.

 

You have an entire planet that looks upon Sisko as a religious icon and Sisko being extremely uncomfortable with that and resisting it for the first few seasons and then finally embracing it.

 

You have a down and dirty bad guy (Dukat) that goes from hated, to not so bad to sympathetic and back to hated again. Then there's the master spy (Garak) who no one's sure what to make of. He might stab you in the back (literally) or he might be the best friend you ever had.

 

O'Brien started out "hating" Bashir but they wound up being inseparable best friends that are always on one adventure or another. As was the case with Nog and Jake, and just look at the journey that Nog took during those 7 years. He went from petty thief to Starfleet hero in 7 seasons, an incredible character development for a character that didn't deem to have a lot of redeeming qualities in Episode 1.

 

There were great love stories. Ben and Cassidy, Worf and Jadzia, Rom and Leeta, Kira and Odo, Miles and Keiko, Julian and Ezri and the most unlikely of all love stories Quark and Grilka.

 

DS9 wasn't "Dark" it was Complex, after season 3 it didn't have only simple to solve 1 episode problems. DS9 had complex issues to deal with, you don't solve a war in one or two episodes. That takes a couple of years to resolve, yes war isn't a "light" subject but it is a "real" subject. and I think they dealt with it brilliantly.

 

There is so much more to DS9 then what you might see on the surface if you just glance at it. Dig into it and you'll find so much there that will lift your spirit. Watch the entire series beginning to end and I think you'll find that DS9 has become your favorite Trek series, I did.

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DS9, whiloe not my favorite was the darkest of all the series I think. I can appreciate that. I have several episodes that I call "classic" because of just that aspect.

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