In which I overanalyze my reactions to my first ever full watch-through of Deep Space 9

I have always had a bit of a sideways relationship with Star Trek. I think that Undiscovered Country, not Wrath of Khan, is the best of the O-Trek movies. I don’t mind Generations and Insurrection as much as everyone else seems to. And I tried to get into DS9 when it first aired, but it just did not grab me.

Of course, I found out later that the first two seasons were widely considered the weakest, so I was willing to believe people who called it “the best Trek,” even though I hadn’t seen it. Finally, during quarantine, I settled down and did a marathon watch straight through (with one exception, as noted below) of every episode in all seven seasons.

Those who are familiar with my reactions to media will not be surprised that my take on the show is very different from popular opinion. My favorite parts of the series are not the things most people cite, and I do not share the positive opinions of the aspects most people tout as its highlights.

Let’s dig in. (Massive spoiler warnings for an entire series, of course.)

The Good (and Even Great)

I think the fairest approach would be to talk about my favorite aspects of DS9 before I get into the negatives. I don’t want anyone to think I am panning the series as a whole – I think it has quite a bit of good stuff in it. I just want to explain that I found that good in unusual places, and then point out the problems I found in what many people had told me was good about the show.

Central Theme

For me, Deep Space 9 is at its best when it focuses on the tension between resistance and governance. The series opens in an era when the Bajorans have emerged from two generations of oppression and stand blinking in the sun of freedom, not quite knowing what to do. I have been intrigued by the Bajorans since the first appearance of Ensign Ro Laren on Next Gen, and I would have been happy to have them be even more the focus of DS9 than they were. Major Kira Nerys is probably my favorite character on the show, largely because of her struggles with being an agent of order and authority after a lifetime of seeding chaos.

This theme culminates in some great moments with Kira helping Cardassian freedom fighters as they struggle in exactly the opposite direction that she did. It also provides some character growth for Commander Sisko during the Bell Riots in the two-part “Past Tense” story (which rank among my favorite DS9 episodes).

Unfortunately, the theme is undermined in other places, such as with Gul Dukat’s arc, the treatment of the Maquis, and the “Homefront”/”Paradise Lost” arc. In all three of these cases, the series ALMOST manages to examine and interrogate the need for and uses of resistance, but then ruins the conversation with the Dominion. More about that below.

Episodes

My other two favorite episodes besides “Past Tense” have almost nothing to do with the either this theme or any of the big metaplot arcs in the series. Interestingly enough, they also both feature Jake Sisko, despite the fact that I don’t necessarily find him to be all that compelling by himself.

• “The Visitor” – Hands down the best thing DS9 ever produced, and a wonderful piece of science fiction regardless of its associations with any Star Trek property. The Vonnegut-style premise combines with incredibly powerful writing and acting in the only DS9 episode that actually made me cry. I do not understand why more people don’t talk about this episode. Its Hugo nomination was well-deserved (more so than Tribble-ations, I think).

• “…Nor the Battle to the Strong” – I consider this a very underrated episode, but I can kind of understand why it doesn’t get more attention from fans. It’s basically a M.A.S.H. episode, which makes it a drastic thematic shift in the midst of all the pro-war story arcs of the later seasons. I absolutely love how it shows (and validates) the many different responses people have to trauma, and Jake’s conclusions at the end are not only his most mature thoughts in the entire series, but among the more poignant thoughts the series itself has.

The Bad (or at least Not So Good)

The Dominion

The core of my critique of DS9 revolves around the one thing everyone has always told me is great about it: the Dominion metaplot. The fact that I dislike it probably solidifies this as not my favorite Trek. I could (and may) do a more in-depth discussion just on this, but let’s hit the most important points:

• The Dominion’s empire doesn’t make sense. The Founders/Changelings are a species that do not require sustenance, only rest. They do not want for entertainment or socialization when they are immersed in the Great Link. They have no need for territory, currency, or raw materials, so why do they even have an empire? We’re led to believe it’s because they feared the “solids,” but why then have they spent thousands of years conquering and controlling those other species? It kind of seems like in genetically engineering two entire species, they ended up stuck with the same concerns as everyone else. Really, the show writers seem to want to have it both ways – the Founders are brilliant, ageless manipulators, but also they have no idea how to go off and hide in a pool somewhere.
• The changeling/impostor threat is poorly realized. There are quite a few moments throughout the series where the story wants to suggest that we should worry about changeling infiltration everywhere. But other than the “anyone/anything could be a changeling” fear, there isn’t really a larger point to this threat. An excellent example of this is the Bashir replacement. I have read multiple discussions about how implausible it is, particularly in light of the events that the Changeling Bashir apparently takes part in, but all that points to a larger issue of poor show planning. We discover that Bashir has been replaced at exactly the moment when that information becomes relevant, and that discovery does not explain anything that happened previously. We have had zero foreshadowing, and in fact episodes like “The Begotten” act as kind of anti-foreshadowing, since Bashir remains much more focused on the birth of a human baby than on an at-risk Changeling infant. Given the political sacrifices the Founders make whenever there might be a risk to Odo, the only explanation for Changeling Bashir’s indifference must be that the writers of that episode did know what was going to happen later.
• The war weakens other storylines but also fails to replace them. With the Bajorans, we see very little of what could have been an interesting moral center for the series – the need to rebuild an independent, self-governing society after two generations of oppressive external rule. Instead, the presence of the Dominion and the descent into war constitute an existential threat for Bajor that overrides any self-examination of what makes for a legitimate mandate for government. We see frequently how various Bajorans are just doing what’s best for their people’s survival, which isn’t very different from where they were before. The Maquis story also had a strange impact because of the Dominion – what should have been a complex examination of how the Federation treats internal strife is instead subverted into “these people are in the way of our war.”

The Prophets

I often have issues with how religion is handled in popular media. Religions – real or otherwise – are often featured as major character or even plot points, but they are displayed superficially or even with glaring sociological and theological flaws. Put simply – religions and religious people in media do not behave the way that real religions and their followers behave.

The Bajoran faith gets a LOT of screen time in DS9, but it still rings hollow to me. It is one of those fictional religions that was clearly written by someone without much real experience with theology. It contains the trappings of religious practice without an examination of the nature or even purpose of faith and doctrine. This is most evident in the often negative portrayals of Winn Adami. Through her, we see the Bajoran “faith” as entirely composed of politics and rules, thus reinforcing the show’s cynical and secular understanding of religion. Winn is an opportunist who falls into apostasy not because of any orthodoxy of belief, but because of simple opportunism. She is in fact shown throughout the series to be basically lying about her devotion, but because she is rarely confronted about this on a theological level, we never really see a contrasting picture of Bajoran beliefs. We can only assume that all religious leaders are similarly false.

The fact that there is a scientific explanation for everything the Bajorans believe is a further dismissing of real faith. All mystery is intentionally removed over the course of the series, leaving us to think of the Bajorans as a naïve people who worship a temporal anomaly. And they don’t even have philosophical discussions beyond what “The Prophets” have told them. The beings themselves are benign but largely uninterested in their followers and any impact they may have on an entire civilization. If I really wanted to stir the pot, I might even say that the being in Star Trek V is more engaged with the universe and therefore more interesting.

The Characters

Of the main cast, I’m generally positive about Kira, Dax, and Sisko. Of those, Kira is the only one that really keeps me coming back. (Sorry folks, but Picard is still my Captain.) I do like Garak, but not nearly as much as other people seem to. And…that’s about it. Here are some of the reasons I’m not enthused about the rest of the cast:

• Dr. Julian Bashir – I dislike Bashir the same way many people dislike Wesley Crusher. I find his personality grating and his hyper-competence completely uninteresting. (The consequences of his genetic modification are so briefly examined as to be irrelevant, and he gets all the benefits with none of the drawbacks.) I do not care about his minimal problems, and I find the season 7 Ezri relationship extremely forced. I think I would like Garak better if he weren’t constantly used to make Bashir appear more interesting.
• Odo – I think René Auberjonois is a brilliant actor, and he brings surprising emotional depth to a character that is buried under makeup. But Odo is poorly used throughout the series – partially because of the inherent problems in the Dominion timeline and partially because he’s a cop who collaborated with fascists more than once. Despite supposedly having a strong sense of justice, he repeatedly makes poor decisions for personal reasons. He’s only saved from having this be his constant downfall by the fact that he’s a changeling and therefore has few personal needs. If this character were played by a lesser actor, I would absolutely detest him. As it is, I just don’t really like him.
• Miles O’Brien – I feel like Miles gets all of the personality flaws that the writers didn’t want to give to the other main characters. Impatient, callous, and complete garbage at pretty much all kinds of relationships. Throughout the entire series, the writers spend more time solidifying his sports and game-focused friendship with Julian than his relationships with his wife and children. Back when he was introduced in Next Gen, he was clearly supposed to be the less organized counterpoint to Geordi, and I get really tired seeing this mess of a character given so much screen time in DS9.
• Gul Dukat – This is another case of stellar performance struggling against abysmal writing. The arc of this character is appalling, and feels very much like a fan-service bait and switch. I could see why people liked him as a recurring villain initially, so while I think his redemption moment is problematic, I can see why the writers would want to do it. But then his return to villainhood throws into question everything that had happened prior. The thing we’re supposed to appreciate about Gul Dukat as a character is that he truly believes in his own principles, regardless of how evil others they may appear to others, and this allows him to grow. But in the end we have to question whether even Dukat has ever really believed anything he says or cared about even the people he claims to. The series manages to reject and destroy everything that might have been interesting about the character.
• Quark – Although I dislike Quark as a character by himself, he’s really part of a larger issue that needs to be addressed in the next section…

The (Conceptually) Ugly

There are, unfortunately, several aspects of Deep Space 9 that I find problematic, offensive, and even downright disgusting.

The Ferengi

It’s not really my place to say they’re a glaring anti-Semitic stereotype, but I don’t have to. Plenty of people have said it already. But the thing is – even without that massively problematic overtone, they’re STILL a huge narrative issue. They are unique among Star Trek species in that they are consistently played for laughs. Every other species gets moments of dignity, but not the Ferengi. We are meant to be amused by them at best and repulsed by them at worst, both physically and culturally. Rom and Nog are the only exceptions to this, and even for them it is only when they are abandoning their culture, their indigenous beliefs. (More about that in a moment.) Otherwise, Ferengi are meant to be objects of ridicule. Even their most heroic moments (such as in “The Magnificent Ferengi”) are presented as ironic or accidental.

Biological essentialism in fiction is bad no matter what, but biological essentialism for the sake of comedy? Even worse.

Ableism

In considering how disability is presented in DS9, we can certainly look at the episode entitled “Melora.” This is one of those episodes of television that seems to be trying to ask interesting questions, but ends up falling short in a way that causes more issues. More importantly, it raises larger questions about the Star Trek universe that the writers do not seem prepared to answer, like why every planet seems to have Earth-standard gravity? Or if not, why there aren’t more universal systems of accommodation already? Melora runs into obstacles because she’s in a wheelchair, but why do those obstacles exist in the first place? Why is this station built to be so unfriendly to anyone with different mobility needs? (Not even getting into how bad DS9 might be for the visually impaired.)

But this is just a single episode. The most blatant ableism comes into play in relation to Bashir and his genetic enhancement. He has what is essentially a “disability superpower” trope (see especially Neurodiversity is Supernatural), while all the other Augments like him present with behaviors typically associated with Autism. Unfortunately, the show then goes on to suggest that they are sociopathic or at least unempathetic as well and need to be kept apart from society, which is a whole can of worms by itself. Then there’s the whole episode about “curing” an uncommunicative Augment, and I just get really angry.

There’s plenty of sci fi that does a poor job of including disabled people in its vision of the future, but DS9 manages to go beyond lack of representation into actively harmful representation.

Cultural Assimilation/Erasure

Because Deep Space Nine is centered on a single location rather than a group of travelers moving from place to place, it inadvertently highlights one of the dirty secrets of the Star Trek universe: for all its claim of “Prime Directive,” the Federation is all about cultural assimilation. In other series, we may be given to believe that this is due to the fact that we are seeing mostly the military wing. We can believe that starship officers have codes of behavior that are not part of regular society. However, in DS9, we can see that this preference for Federation norms and mores extends to civilians as well.

This is most obvious with Rom and Nog, who are praised and rewarded the more they act like Federation citizens and the less they act like Ferengi. But there is also the larger issue of Bajor, which despite being ever-present physically has little cultural exchange with the Federation except for its religion (see above). Again, this is a civilization that has just emerged from decades of oppression. Historically, one would expect a massive explosion of art, literature, and philosophy. Instead, we are given to believe that the Bajorans just quietly went back to farming after finally achieving their freedom. (Heck, there should have been underground art during the resistance, but we never hear anything about that.) I’d like to blame the Dominion storyline for robbing me of the opportunity to see Bajor in full bloom, but I have to admit that nothing in the earlier seasons suggests the writers were thinking deeply about worldbuilding for Bajor even before that.

Profit and Lace

Yes, my final point is about a single episode. And yes, this is the episode I could not finish. It is just too repulsive. (I have read summaries of the portions I missed, so I know that I’m glad I stopped watching.)

Misogyny and transphobia played for laughs. Sexual harassment. Sexual assault. And let’s not forget that all of this is perpetrated by the Ferengi, so there’s a strong current of anti-Semitism involved as well.

If somehow you have managed to read everything else I’ve written and come up with defenses and rebuttals in your mind, I beg you to avoid that now. Please do not defend this pile of garbage. At least not anywhere I will hear or see.

The Conclusion

There’s a lot that I like in Deep Space Nine. Is it more or less than other series? Hard to say. What I do know is that even if I were to count up the good and find that the overall percentage was higher than what I liked in Next Generation, I would still have a hard time calling it my favorite. When I say I like Next Gen, other people generally agree with me about the good moments versus the forgettable ones. But if I were to say I like DS9, people would start talking to me about Sisko, or Garak, or Gul Dukat, or the Dominion, and I’d have to shrug and say, “No, not those parts.” It’s hard to explain that I see great but ultimately unrealized potential in a series that many consider to be completely satisfying.

And that’s why I have this blog – to record the things that I don’t want to have to explain repeatedly because they just take too long. So if you’ve gotten through this, I hope that perhaps you understand a little more of where I’m coming from. If you still love DS9, warts and all, more power to you. Maybe someday we can share a speculative discussion about trends in post-occupation Bajoran music…