The Best of Trek- Deep Space Nine

[Borgholio]

And I just love how far Worf had come since "Sins of the Father" by the time we go into his final confrontation with Gowron.

My jaw actually dropped when I saw that scene. I mean Gowron was far from being a main character was he was a major one, especially in DS9. It's not often they kill off someone like that.

[JME2]

It's ironic considering they had planned to kill Gowron in "Apocalypse Rising", but then made Martok the Founder instead.

They didn't want to piss off the TNG fans.

Of course, that worked out well given Gowron's death came 2 years later at the hand of the writer who'd created him -- and led to the introduction of the real Martok.

[Skylon]

I also like how they admitted that the difference between the smooth-forehead Klingons and modern Klingons is not simply a matter of makeup budget.

Yeah, but I wish that they just left what happened with the Klingons there, and stayed with "we don't talk about it" instead of feeling the need to give it a full explanation later on ENT.

To second JME's comment about DS9 having some of the best comedy of Trek, I feel like DS9 did the best job at taking some tropes from TNG and making them really fun - my favorite holodeck episode of Star Trek is "Our Man Bashier".

[JME2]

It's tied with "Badda Bing, Badda Bang" in that regard.

At the very least, it's one of my favorites from Season 4.

You can tell just how much fun Avery Brooks and Nana Visitor were having as their holo-characters. You could all, but taste the large ham in their performances.

And I just love Garak, as a real-life spy, giving snarky commentary from the sidelines about how inaccurate and wrong all this is.

[JME2]

Going back to the DS9 well, I'm going to throw "Inter Arma Enim Silent Leges" into the ring.

My favorite episode of Season 7 and easily in my DS9 Top 10 List.

Romulans + espionage + political intrigue + Ron Moore = Awesome.

One of my favorite parts is the foreshadowing early on with Sloan's confidence that the Dominion War's end is imminent.

Upon first viewing, it can be chalked up to him being aware of Odo's discovery earlier in the season, that the Great Link was dying.

But re-watch the series and it can also be seen as a subtle hint of Section 31's connection to the disease. Sloan damm well knows the end is nigh because Section 31's plan is on schedule.

That or I'm just reading into too much.

[Havok]

And I just love Garak, as a real-life spy, giving snarky commentary from the sidelines about how inaccurate and wrong all this is.

HAHAHA! I forgot about that.

[JME2]

Indeed.

One my favorite Garak lines comes from that episode:

"Kiss the girl, get the key. They never taught me that in the Obsidian Order."

[Eternal_Freedom]

I'm particularly fond of Garak and Bashir discussing the Boy who Cried Wolf, and Garak's conclusion that the real moral is "you should never tell the same lie twice."

[JME2]

I'm particularly fond of Garak and Bashir discussing the Boy who Cried Wolf, and Garak's conclusion that the real moral is "you should never tell the same lie twice."

The best part was that Garak's conclusion was so perfectly in line with the character's belief system -- and I always think of the Tailor now everytime someone mentions that story.

[Prometheus Unbound]

Bashir: The point is if you lie all the time, nobody's going to believe you even when you are telling the truth.

Garak: Are you sure that's the point, Doctor?

Bashir: [taken aback] ... of course! What else could it be?

Garak: [dead-pan] That you should never tell the same lie twice. [walks away smiling]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i1pIGub6R6g

[Havok]

They should insert Garek and Dukat into all TV shows like Sienfeld-Vision from 30 Rock.

[JME2]

They should insert Garek and Dukat into all TV shows like Sienfeld-Vision from 30 Rock.

Heh, I'd be for it. Garak would makes great a life coach.

As it is, there's still a part of me that would love a Quark/Odo spin-off.

That remains one of DS9's best pairings; Auberjonois and Shimmerman just played off each other so well.

[FaxModem1]

I think a great episode is "Business as Usual", we get to see what exactly Quark's line in the sand is when it comes to gaining profit, and that profit, though grand, makes him lose what he loves besides it, his friends and self-respect, even though in earlier seasons, he said that was worth nothing but an empty sack.

Has the great speech of Quark's cousin:

"Look out there. Millions and millions of stars. Millions upon millions of worlds. And right now, half of them are fanatically dedicated to destroying the other half. Now, do you think, if one of those twinkling little lights suddenly went out, anybody would notice? ... Suppose I offered you ten million bars of gold-pressed latinum to help turn out one of those lights. Would you really tell me to keep my money?"

- Gaila

We also see just how scary Sisko and Kira are about this:

"You'd better hope there isn't a next time, mister. I have cut you a lot of slack in the past. I even looked away once or twice when I could have come down hard on you, but those days are over. Now we may not get you for selling weapons, but you so much as litter on the Promenade and I will nail you to the wall!"
"Something to look forward to."

- Benjamin Sisko and Kira, to Quark before letting him go

[JME2]

Yeah, none of the other Captains quite managed to pull off the tranquil fury act like Sisko.

I also love how Kira didn't even try to top Sisko's threat to Quark. It's like she knew there was no way to one-up the Emissary.

[Terralthra]

A lot of other things get press about how DS9 has real people who act like real people, but something that not many mention, and I think deserves more recognition, is the relationship between Bashir and O'Brian. The off-screen implied shenigans in the holosuite, the various adventures they end up on from time to time, sure, whatever, but the little bits and pieces here and there show such a realistic friendship. They don't get along all the time, but they are friends, in a way the poker games on TNG never showed in a way that was believable to me.

The scene of a Bashir and O'Brian drunkenly singing "Jerusalem" in "Explorers" is a perfect example of this. Not very Star Trekky, I guess, but the friendship between those two is worth the whole series, with O'Brian dancing his drunken way around admitted he loves Julian (in a philia sort of way.