Palmer’s Trek, the unwatched frontier. These are the voyages of Agent Palmer. On his continuing mission: to explore Star Trek. To seek out its numerous series and movies. To boldly go where many fans have gone before!
After spending so much time exploring the decks of the various Enterprises for Star Trek, Star Trek: The Animated Series, Star Trek: The Next Generations, and all of their associated movies, settling down for some time on a space station seemed like a very interesting changeup. That said, I loved Deep Space Nice.
After just 26 episodes, which encompasses a slightly shorter Season 1 and six episodes of Season 2, I wrote in my notebook that this was West Wing in Space. The remainder of Season 2 and the following five additional seasons made that statement more true than I could have thought.
It’s an ensemble cast with a shared proximity because of work or mission, centered around the military, politics, religion, and the many myriad of opinions, feelings, thoughts, beliefs, wisdom, and knowledge that accompany such topics.
For those who are unfamiliar, or who require a refresher, Benjamin Sisko is sent to Deep Space Nine to help the Bajorans on behalf of the United Federation of Planets. He does so with the help of those senior officers who help him run the station: Miles O’Brien Chief of Engineering, who’s been transferred from Picard’s crew of The Enterprise; Julian Bashir, Chief Medical Officer; Jadzia Dax, Chief Science Officer; Kira Nerys, a Bajoran Major; Odo, the Station’s Security Officer; and Quark, who owns the station’s bar.
With the help of those characters and more, later joined by Work who is now a former member of Picard’s Next Generation crew, Sisko leads the Bajorans and the Alpha Quadrant through turbulent times, both diplomatically and militarily.
While many of the Trek shows that came before feature some characters more than others, the sheer volume of “main” characters in this show really makes it a true ensemble cast. The series gives each and every character their own arcs throughout the seven season run. That’s just one of the reasons I’m not going to call out the best, because they’re all good. You just gravitate towards your own favorite characters, whom you come to like to varying degrees as their arcs play out.
This ensemble feel is only part of the reason that I compare it to The West Wing. The other reason, especially since I can do this in hindsight as The West Wing wasn’t around when Deep Space Nine aired, is the subject matter.
Deep Space Nine is about politics and religion, belief and conviction, and friendship and adversaries on scales as large as an entire quadrant or as small as within the station itself.
The Deep Space Nine station was built by the Cardassians during their occupation of Bajor. It’s being run by The Federation. Bajor has its own government and religion, which makes it both easier and harder to deal with them matter-of-factly on many subjects. Bajor’s nemesis is the Cardassians, and that remains fairly linear throughout, though it does blur during season seven when there is war with the Dominion. Then there’s the added alliances within or near The Federation itself, such as the Klingons, Vulcans, Romulans, and more who all have their own part to play in all of the events that unfold.
All of this is to say that this is a much heavier show, as well as a much darker show, than any Trek that has come before it.
Additionally, because it does deal with war on every scale imaginable, from soldiers and hand-to-hand combat to squadrons and fleets, it also deals with death and duty. There were a few episodes that I noted were very reminiscent of M.A.S.H. in space.
The point is this show is more than just flying ships, aliens, and new planets. It is an example of just how complex and thorough science fiction can be in not only telling stories, but reflecting our world back at us.
As an exercise about halfway, or just over halfway through my viewing of the series, I took the time to rank my personal favorite characters, so that I could see how it changed at the end of the series.
The initial list is as follows:
Top 10 characters from beginning through S4E18
- Bashir
- Garak
- Rom
- Odo
- Dax
- Quark
- O’Brien
- Gul Dukat
- Sisko
- Kira
I made myself a few notes as an addendum to this list that Worf has only been around a little bit. Rom would have been lower at the beginning of season four, but he’s grown a backbone of late and quit the bar!
Revised Top 10 Characters List
- Bashir
- Garak
- (Grand Nagus) Rom
- Odo
- Gul Dukat
- Quark
- Sisko
- O’Brien
- Dax (Jadzia and Ezri)
- Worf
The revised list after the end of the season has some similarities, but it’s interesting to me how some characters gained rank in my book.
As a note, characters that I really enjoyed that didn’t make the list include the self-aware holosuite 1960s lounge singer Vic Fontaine, Bajoran religious leader Kai Winn who I just enjoyed disliking, and the two “Wesley Crushers” of the show, Nog and Jake.
Favorite episodes by season by the numbers makes it appear that Season 1 and 6 were my favorite, but the James Bond holosuite episode “Our Man Bashir,” which is the tenth episode of Season 4, was by far my favorite episode of the series.
Starred Episodes by Season
Season 1 – 9
Season 2 – 1
Season 3 – 3
Season 4 – 4
Season 5 – 4
Season 6 – 7
Season 7 – 1
On the whole, I can’t move this series above The Original Series or The Animated Series, but it does vault ahead of The Next Generation, The Original Series Movies, and The Next Generation Movies.
Next up, we’re going back to exploring with Star Trek: Voyager.