Reddit reviews Deep Space Nine Companion (Star Trek Deep Space Nine)

>Will Deep Space Nine be a let down?

No! Absolutely not!

I actually just finished watching every episode of TNG a few months ago, and it was pretty, pretty good! I enjoyed it greatly.

The first two seasons were pretty much crap. The Enterprise crew were incredibly self-righteous, like they were spreading "enlightened Federation ideals" to all the corners of the Galaxy. They looked down their noses on every civilization they met ("you have a completely crime free society, but an arbitrary death penalty you haven't used in hundreds of years? You barbarians!" Too bad they never let those guys execute Wesley.)

Wesley was crap. There's one episode where he goes into sickbay where Troi and Crusher are talking and tells them something. They leave quickly and Wesley says "You're welcome ladies. Heh... Adults."

The final episode of season two was a freaking clip show! ("Shades of Gray") It was undoubtedly the worst episode of Star Trek ever. I'd rather watch Spock's Brain.

But, in season three TNG really took off, "Yesterday's Enterprise" is probably one of my very favourite episodes of Star Trek ever. They did such an excellent job. "Best of Both Worlds" part one was so awesome, part two was a bit of a letdown.

You can really tell where DS9 came from when you watch the last season of TNG, season 7 started to get more serialized in the same way DS9 was (though DS9 was serialized in a much bigger way.) There were some good episodes, "All Good Things" is a very solid episode, and a good series finale, I also really liked "Lower Decks," and there were a few dumb episodes, like "Masks" for example.

As for Deep Space Nine, despite my love for TNG, DS9 has always been, and will always be, my very favourite Star Trek series. It didn't do "pure science fiction" stories nearly as good as TNG, but on the storyline front and character development front DS9 blows TNG out of the water (Worf is actually an interesting character on DS9, he was background on TNG.) The pilot "Emissary" is very good, a solid opening (unlike "Encounter at Farpoint",) and the first two seasons stand up far better than TNGs first two seasons. The first season episode "Duet" is probably my very favourite episode of Star Trek ever. The season finale "In the Hands of the Prophets" is also very solid.

Of course there are a few stinkers in DS9's first two seasons, I loathe "Move Along Home" and refuse to watch it, "If Wishes Were Horses" is generally regarded as a stupid episode (though it's the genesis of an extremely famous DS9 set piece,) "The Storyteller" is also a dumb episode (though it has the genesis of the wonderful O'Brien/Bashir friendship.)

The final episode of season two, "The Jem'Hadar" is an amazing episode, there is humour, keen insight into the human condition, tragedy, and an awesome space battle (one of the best Star Trek space battles ever for one single reason, I won't spoil why though.) If we compared TNG and DS9 solely on their second season finales, it would make TNG look like amateur hour. But that would be unfair, so we won't.

The later shows get far more story arc based and serialized. Some people don't like that at all, but I think that's only a positive. DS9 has a war with Klingons in season 4, an all out war with the Dominion in seasons 6 and 7, so there are a lot more massive space battles and such on DS9 than any other Star Trek series.

The series finale "What You Leave Behind" is incredibly solid, and just as good as TNGs series finale in my opinion. In fact, it felt more like a definitive ending than TNGs did (which is good I guess, because it looks like Niners (DS9 fans) will get screwed out of ever getting DS9 movies.)

What I like to do is after watching an episode of DS9, I'll pop by Memory Alpha to read up background information on the episode I just watched. DS9 is probably the best documented of all the Star Trek series /(mainly because of the in-depth and wonderful Deep Space Nine Companion/) so you can learn a lot of good stuff on the making of the TV series. I also started a Deep Space Nine subreddit, and anyone is welcome to join to discuss DS9.

You could try getting him the DS9 companion book. If he’s really into DS9 there is a lot of cool stuff in it he would probably enjoy.

https://www.amazon.com/Deep-Space-Nine-Companion-Star/dp/0671501062/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1549302846&sr=8-1&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_QL65&keywords=ds9+companion&dpPl=1&dpID=51YhIU%2BPkTL&ref=plSrch


If he’s in to collecting action figures, there are also some of those from the shows original run on Amazon.


Here are some DS9 coffee mugs

https://www.amazon.com/CafePress-Vote-Garak-Unique-Coffee/dp/B078T4S6HC/ref=mp_s_a_1_13?ie=UTF8&qid=1549302985&sr=8-13&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_QL65&keywords=ds9+coffee+cups

https://www.amazon.com/CafePress-STAR-TREK-Unique-Coffee/dp/B07GQFX31P/ref=mp_s_a_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1549303049&sr=8-6&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_QL65&keywords=ds9+coffee+cups&dpPl=1&dpID=511-waiiYcL&ref=plSrch


Do you know who his favorite character is? It would probably be easier to look for stuff if you did.

Some more ideas

https://www.anovos.com/collections/star-trek/products/star-trek-deep-space-nine-niners-baseball-cap-2018-reservation

https://www.anovos.com/collections/star-trek/products/star-trek-deep-space-nine-25th-anniversary-commemorative-baseball-2018-reservation

That’s second one is out of stock but it may return in time, I don’t know.

I would say only season 1 is weak. The middle 14 or 15 episodes are meh, but wrapped around solid episodes, especially at the end. Not sure why people are hating on season 2. Season 2 has some great O'Brien "torture" episodes, good Bajoran and Cardassian episodes, and several fun "TNG-like" episodes (things happen but has no real effect on overall story arc).

I highly recommend this book to go along with watching DS9. It provides a summary of each episode followed by background production thoughts that give interesting insights to the episodes.

It was published in 2000's Deep Space Nine Companion. OP mentioned it in his post and it's also mentioned in the linked The Atlantic piece.