Why Startrek is Dead (Opinion Thread)

[Pants]

I don't think you need spoiler tags for a show that ended 6 years ago.

Just being cautious.

 

[Greylock]

You've totally ruined Deep Space Nine for me.

*sigh*

 

[Staffan]

As the series got further and further along, the Dominion War came to more and more the focus of the show. I'll agree that when the Dominion was first introduced, there would be long strings of 'Defiant discovers weird new planet in the Gamma Quadrant' type episodes before going back to the Dominion.

Actually, the 'war' really didn't begin until Season 5 or so.

I think that was one of its strengths. They took the time to properly introduce the Dominion before running off to war with it. Compare with the Xindi, who came from nowhere.

 

[John Crichton]

I think one of the greatest parts of DS9 is Gul Dukat. There are points in the show where he almost, ALMOST seems like he might be somewhat of a decent guy and then he does something horrible like

Spoiler

sell Cardassia out ot the Dominion

. And that episode where

Spoiler

Damar murders his daughter and the station is retaken by the Federation and Dukat just cracks

. That's a great episode there.

I always appreciated Dukat. He was a wonderful character in the overall scheme of the show. He could go from eeeeeeevil to sympathetic and back in the course of one ep. That's hard to do. Besides Scorpius from Farscape he's probably my favorite recurring TV bad guy.

My favorite Cardassian was Garrak. His character really defined the series as Grey Trek vs Black/White Trek. He wasn't a badass, but he was an assassin of words and morals. Twisted and controlled at the same time - whenever he was onscreen ya just knew something cool would happen.

 

[John Crichton]

I think that was one of its strengths. They took the time to properly introduce the Dominion before running off to war with it. Compare with the Xindi, who came from nowhere.

Heh, there is no comparison.

The seeds of war were growning for a couple seasons before the fecal matter hit the dilithium chamber. As much as I love Farscape, no TV sci-fi war has touched the Dominion War as of yet. The only thing that slightly diminishes it is the finale. Bleh. That was the only area where TNG had it beat. Next Gen went out with a bang and DS9 jogged across the finish line. Knowing that they could have continued the show a couple more seasons does soften the blow a bit, tho...

 

[Ranger REG]

The war picked up dramatically later, but at the time, it seemed like the war was just a 'jumping the shark' plot moment, allowing them to convienently forget that a war was going on whenever they wanted to.

That's okay. Can't always focus heavily on the war. We too need a breather every now and then, like the lighthearted "Take Me Out to the Holosuite" episode, or the wedding of Worf and Dax.

A big problem Trek always presented was that the universe always seemed to return to a 'Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farms' situation when all was done. They may have changed this later, but when the Dominion first showed up, and then everything seemed hunky-dory but the end of the first episode of season 3...I started to mentally tune out. Especially in light of the no-holds-barred wars that were happening simultaneously on B5.

Meh. I was lucky to have a local TV station that aired both back-to-back. I enjoyed both B5 and DS9. I never had to pick one or the other because I have two Sunday evening hours of sci-fi entertainment.

But both B5 and DS9 spoiled me in a way that I can never look at Braga's VOY and Enterprise with sheer delight. Even the best VOY episode can't beat the worse DS9 episode.

 

[Ranger REG]

Personally, I place a lot of the blame for the failure of Enterprise on UPN. I hate just about every show on the network except for Enterprise (it's fixation on "urban" programming, which is a euphimism.) They schedule Enterprise for constantly changing, inconvenient times and treat it like a burden and obligation instead of the Crown Jewel it was presumably supposed to be. TOS became a big hit in syndication, TNG and DS9 became big in syndication, and at least Voyager was syndicated out in the later seasons so first-run went to UPN but back seasons went to other channels.

I really cannot blame UPN. If the franchise hadn't bargained away 50% off their usual price per episode, we would not have seen the fourth season, and I personally would not have witnessed a complete turnaround of the series, courtesy of Manny Coto.

But let's face it, Wednesday nights belong to JJ Abrams's Lost.

 

[Darth K'Trava]

But both B5 and DS9 spoiled me in a way that I can never look at Braga's VOY and Enterprise with sheer delight. Even the best VOY episode can't beat the worse DS9 episode.

I enjoyed both shows. I don't recall how "back-to-back" they were. I know that DS9 and Voyager were back-to-back because that's how I have them on tape. My bf at the time didn't want to swap tapes in between.... :\

 

[Orius]

I don't think that DS9 changed its premise so much as it evolved it. Ok, I'll grant that the Dominion seems to have been invented because people weren't really captivated by the Caradassians as opponents, or various Bajoran extremists as well. But it reflects the storylines as well. In the final season of TNG/second season of DS9, the Federation and Cardassia sign a peace treaty, which helped to defuse some tensions there. In the third season, Cardassia and Bajor sign a treaty as well. Bajoran society gradually comes together as well, as the various factions put aside their differences under the guidance of strong and respected leaders. And like Staffan said, the Dominion didn't just pop up out of nowhere, like the Xndi, or even the Suliban. There were occasional hints planted throughout the second season about them, until they're finally revealed at the end of the season. And even then, the war doesn't break out immediately; there's several years of paranoia and suspicion before Dukat decides to ally with them and the Federations and Klingons take a stand. Finally, connecting Odo and the Dominion was a great touch that lead to a number of great stories.

 

[Vigilance]

I agree that the Dominion was not a huge change in gears for DS9, it was hinted at steadily in the 2nd season, until there is finally the big showdown at the end of season 2 and the final revelation that the founders are Odo's people in the first episode of season 3.

However this is not to say that NOTHING changed. One of the things I liked about DS9 is that they were *ruthless* from a writing standpoint. When things didn't work they were discarded and/or reworked.

Anyone remember the Vorta's telekinetic powers? The Klingon-Federation conflict? The Cardassians as Klingon victims? Gul Dukat as a daring pirate and resistance fighter in his captured Bird of Prey?

Imo this is a feature not a bug. Id much rather have a show occasionally shift gears than cling to something that is clearly NOT working and does not click with the fans *cough*temporalcoldwar*cough*

Chuck