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Re: DS9 S7: The Siege of AR-558

Please.

I've read many authors that have a dim view of humanity, like Aldous Huxley (and George Orwell). I'm not saying that Gene Roddenberry's views are necessarily true to life, but they formed the nerve center of what Star Trek was: a Kennedy-esque new frontier humanistic space opera filled with optimism that was infectious and at times inspiring. It was the nucleus of thoughtful escapist entertainment.

Then came Deep Space Nine's post-modern take on Trek. It was basically: "Hey, Santa Claus isn't real! Give me my Emmy!" Well that never happened--and fans and other viewers left by the droves. I don't think it was the dark, grittiness that hurt the show's popularity ultimately. It was it's iconoclasm with nothing to replace the fallen icon. Ever wonder why Joss Whedon's 13-episode series "Firefly" got it's own theatrical motion picture and DS9 (which ran 7 YEARS) didn't?

As I said, Deep Space Nine was a fine show, but I have yet to hear anyone say how it inspired them in real life the way TOS and TNG has for many people. Many, people like myself simply were put off with Ira Steven Behr pissing in Gene Roddenberry's pool, so to speak.

Re: DS9 S7: The Siege of AR-558

This episode galvanizes my love/hate relationship with Deep Space Nine. My love of the program is in its overall quality of writing, directing, production values and acting. With those I've had no problem with this series. My issue has always been with its undercutting tone towards Gene Roddenberry's vision of the future. In the Original Star Trek, Kirk would admit that his species has had a savage past and still had the capacity for savagery--but they also had the capacity for improvement. On TNG, Picard said they've moved past our bloody past and are working to better themselves still. (And for the record: he nor anybody from the Enterprise-D claimed humanity was "perfect")

Now we come to DS9 and this episode in particular: Quark's speech to Nog about human nature being benevolent as long as their technologies and social structure are intact now reminds me now of Heath Ledger's Joker in "The Dark Knight". Specifically, I'm reminded of Joker in the interrogation room with Batman and him saying: "When the chips are down, these so-called, civilized people will eat each other. You'll see."

But while "The Dark Knight" had the scene with the two ferries not blowing each other up and proving The Joker wrong; Deep Space Nine never offered any similar counterpoint to Quark's claim. Sadly, there was ultimately only one point of view on Deep Space Nine that they ran with for 7 seasons: the whoredom of the human soul is adamantine and they'll never be improvement--ever.

This show was great drama, but its philosophy was pathetic.

Re: DS9 S3: Defiant

This episode is for DS9 what "Conspiracy" was to TNG: an interesting idea for a follow-up story that never came to pass.

I always wanted to think that Tom Riker was rescued by a Maquis team led by Ro Laren with he and Ro becoming lovers the way that was never possible between her and Will Riker.

Re: DS9 S7: What You Leave Behind

Its sad that the last time Deep Space Nine (the station) is ever mentioned in the official Trek canon is in Voyager's episode "Pathfinder" (back in 1999). It's just a throwaway mention of the station.

I think that the last mention to anything connected to DS9 was the mention of The Dominion War in Star Trek Nemesis in 2002. Again another throwaway.

And that's all they wrote.