My wife and I finished watching Star Trek: Deep Space 9 this weekend after working through it and Next Generation over the past five years or so. I’d seen all of Star Trek before we met, but it was new to her, so it was really interesting to work through the show as a rewatch for me and something totally new for her.
Having seen most shadows of it three times and all of them at least two, I’m confident in reaffirming that DS9 is my favorite Star Trek series. I think it’s got a great cast of characters, like most Trek shows, but those characters shine more than the rest because of how much the series lets them grow through its ongoing story arcs.
I love Star Trek in general, but I also really love long term character development and continuity, and (until Discovery) DS9 is the series that holds those values up the most, especially in the finale.
Spoilers below!
The finale of Star Trek: Deep Space 9 is a ten episode long story that introduces a few new story elements and wraps up an insane number of ongoing plots, including a few love stories, a guerrilla resistance, a spacefaring war between at least six distinct political entities, a plot by a rogue faction to commit genocide, and the appointment of new heads of state for two different cultures.
It’s nearly perfect… not all the episodes hit the same highest highs, but none of them are sleepers, either. In fact, there is only one thing I would change to make it a perfect end to the show.
Jadzia Dax should have been in every single one of Worf’s flashback moments.
I understand that the actress had left the show the season before, but from a storytelling perspective, it is absolutely criminal that in his final emotional beat Worf apparently forgot about meeting, marrying, and losing Jadzia.
It’s dishonest for the character, it’s disappointing for fans who followed the show, and it ignores the continuity that makes Deep Space 9 stand out so much more than the rest of Star Trek.
But… it’s still my favorite!
TroytlePower 
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