TANGENT TIME . . .
And I'm still meaning to see DS9 at some point. All I keep hearing over and over is that it's the best Trek series in the whole franchise, so I really need to mark it off my bucket list.
I'm nearly finished watching
DS9 in reruns. (11 episodes to go.) When it originally aired, the local station stopped carrying it after the fifth season, so I missed the last two seasons. And then it was no where to be found for the longest time. I evidently saw it at some point because, watching now, I remember seeing the episodes, but I think this is the first time I've mostly watched it from beginning to end.
I don't know if it is the "best"
Star Trek series, and if you've seen Babylon 5 you will find a lot of strong similarities, but they did a lot of things right. For one thing, they handled kids (Jake and Nog) better than
TNG (Wesley) in that they were more realistic and not the wonder-kid that saves the day every three episodes. Also, they fixed the Ferengi. The Ferengi were supposed to be the new baddies in
TNG, but they were mostly silly in
TNG. In
DS9, they basically turned them into the modern Cyrano Jones / Harry Mudd characters. Anything for a buck. But they also did humorous episodes without making them seem silly. Also, perhaps most importantly, they treated the original series with respect. In
TNG, they treated Scotty like a washed-up has-been, gave him a shuttlecraft and basically couldn't get rid of him fast enough. I mean, seriously, you couldn't at least drop him off at a starbase or something? But in
DS9, they did a really good job of handling original series characters. Not only did they have the anniversary episode with the tribbles, but they also had three of the original series Klingons back: Kor, Kang and Koloth.