Reconsidering Deep Space Nine

I was raised on Star Trek... Well it felt that way... We watched it every night on KDNL 30 before it became a network affiliate. It probably helped plow the minds fields for Star Wars, Cosmos, and everything they led to interests in. That's a lot to say for 79 episodes until I was in junior high. Next Gen took me from junior high to starting college. By it's final season, I was not catching every episode, just out of so many things going on, girlfriend, finishing school, starting a business. There was more Trek on than ever.

Next Gen was the perfect successor to the original... more epic larger than life adventures of the Enterprise crew, and it was a good crew... especially when the kinks got sorted out and Geordi became the Chief Engineer and Worf was on Security... Tasha was better dead than alive. And Riker needed the beard. After it's second season, it was a shoo-in for my favorite show on the air.

In my senior year of High School, Deep Space Nine debuted. I gave it a chance, I was open to it... and it was... stagnant. Star Trek had been epic adventures... : "Strange new worlds" and they gave us a truck stop by one of the galaxies ass zits where a race, BASED on one of Next Gen best characters, whined about their silly ass religion. It was shit. Sisko was the best character, until he boxed with Q... Quark was the most immediately alienating character. I couldn't get past the fuzz-clad Ferengi with whips saying Huuuuuuu-MaaaaaNNNNzz from when they first appeared. More shit. I liked Odo, he was the guy from the show Benson.

I couldn't get in to it. At some point, I did give Voyager a shot as well... that's another story. But I wasn't a Trekkie anymore. There was more I didn't care about than did. The Scars of the last 10 years of hit and often miss Trek have left their mark. I only own 7 out of 10 of the movies. In school, That's a D. But, DVD ownership doesn't say everything... I buy less DVD's than I used too... I blame the wife. The James Bond series by that standard would be kicked out of school and sent to Juvenile Hall, if not for poor grades then for killing and smoking Cigars in class. But wouldn't Bond get straight A's from banging his teachers and betting his grades over Baccarat games in the teachers lounge? How can I get this entry on track? "Our Man Bashir" was all of that.

Thanks to Spike TV and my DVR, I've been watching DS9 now, and refuse to miss an episode until I see it out... I may even give a fresh viewing to the first two seasons.

Why? I said it was shit.

When Next Generation was still going on... gee. Pick one. and the later seasons of DS9 that you rave about DON'T COUNT! (they weren't directly competing with TNG) After the way TNG went out... little Trek is better than it's closer. A small handful.

Wait... did I say DS9 and TNG were competing? Oh yea! Isn't that the stupidity that killed Trek? Overlapping shows? Divided fan bases?

Well, I'm becoming a fan of DS9. "Flip-flop!!" Yup. I'm enjoying it. There are many reasons;

#1: 4400 and Galactica. I love both of these current show. An IMDB search on DS9 and those shows would show why.

#2: Post Enterprise, I needed some Trek. Trek was never about the "Trek Universe" to me. It was characters and stories. Adventure of the week. After Enterprise, I actually like the Trek universe more. DS9 feels like an RPG sourcebook, immersed into the fine details of one place, it's settled. Settling is what you do when the expedition is over.

#3: I may still feel the same way about the earlier seasons after all.

To wrap this up. I'm glad I had no real interest in DS9. When I did, Trek was alive. Now that it's gone for awhile... It's good to have some that's new to me.