For me it took until about the end of season 2 to become truly compelling. By then they actually had most of the characters figured out. Well, except Bashir. Season 1 did have a couple of good episodes, though. I liked the one near the end about the Cardassian Labor Camp leader guy. One of my favorites.
Wasn't sure where the line in the sand was drawn since X-Files was basically about aliens from outerspace. Oh well. I voted TNG although it took a couple of seasons to grow on me after years of watching original Star Trek re-runs in the 70's. I really enjoyed most of those series posted. Firefly was by far the biggest surprise to me, I did not expect it to be that good and it turned out to be really great. HBO needs to get a good Sci-Fi series. The've had everything else including fantasy, mobsters etc...
I have been a big star trek fan since I was a kid but this is why I just could not get into DS9. I enjoyed all the rest but not DS9.
"Way too many boring episodic offerings?" Funny, because DS9 is the least episodic of all of them. TOS and TNG basically don't have any continuity at all. Voyager obviously has a through plot, but they still have the excuse of flying to lots of bizarre worlds so basically anything can happen. Honestly, I think you just haven't given it long enough. I mean, I didn't even like the first season of TNG that well. It takes some time before DS9 starts doing more through-plot stuff. IMO it starts taking off toward the end of season 2, and gets even better when Worf comes on at the start of 4. I'm not saying that it's not legitimate to like the other shows better, but if the reason is "too many boring episodic offerings," I find that to be a pretty strange reason...
I see nobody's mentioned Star Trek : Enterprise. Can anybody tell me something about this one? I've never watched an episode of it and don't know how it was received. Where would you rank it among the Star Trek series? The good, the bad, the ugly?
BSG (new) was great for 2 seasons and then took a huge nose dive with the political/religious lecturing. I went Firefly.
Star Trek in general was a very episodic show in every creation. I mentioned that earlier as being my biggest problem with the series. I actually skip episodes as I am going through the series right now because of that. I agree with the other poster though that finds it strange that someone would say that about DS9 yet proclaim to like the other ST series offerings. I'm almost through season 2 now. I forgot how awesome Gul Dukat was.
I just found Enterprise meh.. It didn't annoy me like Voyager often did or the first season of TNG but didn't really grab me. One problem with it was that it seemed like Star Trek had kind of played itself out and it felt a bit stale. The plots and characters just struck me as referential to things that had been done already by the rest of the Trek franchise. To me the highest and lowest point of the show came near the end with the two part alternate Mirror universe episode being the most entertaining episodes and the lowest being the last episode which just felt half-assed.
It was the worst of the Star Trek's by far. Bad and ugly pretty much describe it. It had one borderline decent character Spoiler , an attractive female vulcan, that they eventually ruined by turning into an insecure sex kitten. There was one good story arc Spoiler The Expanse with the Xindi in Season 3. Enterprise was a disgrace to Star Trek and don't waste your time watching it unless (like me) you want to be able to say you've seen every episode of every series.
This is a HUGE part of what set DS9 apart in my opinion... great villains. To me, there are two primary ways you make a villain compelling. You either make them so charismatic that part of you wishes they'd win, or you make them so very evil that you wish you could walk through the screen and punch them in the face. Dukat is a great example of the charismatic villain, while Kai Winn is perfect as a "love-to-hate-her" character. You loathe her so much that you're motivated to keep watching until she gets what's coming to her. To anyone who begins watching DS9 and doesn't find it compelling, just wait until you get into more Dukat episodes, and when Winn starts to have a more influential role. It's impossible not to become hooked at that point. Also, on an unrelated note... he doesn't get a lot of mentions because he's only there near the very end, but I loved everything to do with Vic Fontaine. I really enjoyed the casino heist episode in particular.
It was bad enough that after repeated viewings, I still couldn't get into it. And that pretty strong about anything Star Trek, coming from me, anyway.
Man, hope you guys are right, because that first season of DS9 was a snoozer. So much so that I think I'm going to shelve season 2 for the time being and finish up some other stuff I had planned to before it.
Agreed. The short leash on Sci Fi shows is hard to take because they have to set the rules of their universe 1st No Ordinary Family comes to mind. Just when the side kick was getting some power and the conspiracy was beginning to be exposed BOOM Its gone Rocket River
Or when a show hits it's stride (Farscape) and it gets cut down in its prime...to keep Andromeda on the air...stupid SciFi channel...
That's an oldie but goodie show. I doubt most people have watched enough episodes to even qualify it. That being said, I wouldn't put it in the class of some of these shows (just my opinion). I had a big ol' crush on Angela Cartwright, though. lol.
If you liked it then great, no prob but I hated some of the Characters (Qwark in particular) some of the shows after Warf left TNG and joined DS9 were better but still lacking to my taste. I never could take the Cheif of security (I forget his name) seriously because I always saw the weasely lawyer from Benson in my head and Sisko was beyond boring to me. The most underrated of all the Star Treks IMO was 'Enterprise". I hated Cpt Janeway but really enjoyed 'Voyager' other than that. TNG was still the best in my book though. But none of them had the great Charecters that the original Star Trek had with Kirk, Bones and Spock.
I really enjoyed it and thought it was way underrated. I thought Scott Bakula as Cpt Archer (the original enterprise Cpt) was really good. Definitely worth watching IMO. I know a lot of people don't like it but I put it way over DS9 and on par with Voyager but not as good as TNG or the original. But that's just my taste.
-Watching that buck rogers offing scene as a kid is burned into my mind too. One of those "where were you" landmarks that you remember every contextual detail: space shuttle explosion, 9/11, the offing etc. -Whoever said they can't figure out the hate for voyager, I really tried. It was neelix, that made it unwatchable for me. Pretty sure I've never hated a character as much. I might try again later. -BSG & firefly are high quality, & would rank higher for me if I wasn't so aware of their political messages. -Both the original & new Dr. Who should be up there. ^Lexx is my all time favorite too. It too had a character I hated for most of the show, but I could still get past him (unlike Neelix). It was pretty terrible as far as acting & production quality, even by sci fi standards, but beyond that Lexx was by far the most original & hard core space show I've ever seen. Got better as it went on, & the end was not a let down either. Great music & super hot women too. Just so much awesome conceptual stuff. Fascinating show.
