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I haven’t been posting so much lately. Been busy with work, teaching, hobbies, and graduate school applications. I’ll post the results of one of those hobbies this afternoon. And then back to regularly scheduled tumbling.
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Today we take high quality serialized television drama for granted with shows like Mad Men, The Wire, Breaking Bad, Lost, Fringe, Game of Thrones, The Sopranos, The Walking Dead, Battlestar Galactica, and so on. Fifteen years ago if you wanted a televised drama with an on-going story, stakes, consequences, and character arcs you had few choices. Among them was Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.
Now I’m not saying that DS9, the second Star Trek spin-off, was original in this respect. It had influences from other shows like Twin Peaks, Hill Street Blues, The Prisoner, Babylon 5, and so on. What DS9 did was to mix that story-arc format and dark tone with the previously episodic and family-friendly Star Trek universe. What the writers, actors, and directors created was a show that alternated between epic and personal, comic and tragic, brilliant and stupid.
DS9 is the best Star Trek series. Period. Yeah. I said it. Better than the original. In fact, it ruins Gene Roddenberry’s whole utopian vision of humanity’s future in the best way possible. It’s Star Trek with risks and consequences populated by fallible “human” characters who grow and change.
But, like any 26-episode per season series, there is a lot of crap and the show doesn’t really take off until the third season. In an effort to make it more palatable to a modern audience I boiled each season down to 8-15 essential episodes. This puts the show in line with contemporary cable dramas. Unfortunately this leaves some real gems out so I included those as bonuses if you want to explore the universe further. I also gave the must-watch episodes asterisks. If nothing else, check those out.
If you like Star Trek and sic-fi, even just a little, watch this show. This condensed episode list can guide you through all the best DS9 has to offer. It’s all on Netflix Instant.
Also Ronald Moore, the Battlestar Galactica show runner, and some others were core members of the DS9 writing staff. You can clearly see the pedigree when you watch DS9.
The Next Generation Episodes you can watch before DS9:
The Wounded (S4E12)
Ensign Ro (S5E3)
Chain of Command 1+2 (S6E10-11)
Deep Space Nine
S1:
Emissary *
Past Prologue
Captive Pursuit
Dax
The Nagus
Vortex
Battle Lines
Duet **
In the Hands of the Prophets
Bonus: Move Along Home
***
TNG Primer for Season 2:
Journey’s End (S7E20)
S2:
The Homecoming
The Circle
The Siege
Cardassians
Rules of Acquisition
Necessary Evil
The Maquis 1+2
The Wire *
Blood Oath
The Collaborator
Tribunal
The Jem Hadar
Ferengi: Profit and Loss
Bonus: Whispers
Mirror: Crossover
***
TNG Primer for Season 3
Preemptive Strike (S7E24)
S3:
The Search 1+2
Second Skin
The Abandoned
Civil Defense
Defiant *
Life Support
Heart Of Stone
Destiny
Distant Voices
Improbable Cause *
The Die Is Cast **
Shakaar
The Adversary
Ferengi: House of Quark*, Prophet Motive
Bonus: Past Tense 1+2, Equilibrium
Mirror: Through The Looking Glass
***
S4:
The Way of the Warrior **
The Visitor *
Hippocratic Oath
Indiscretion
Our Man Bashir
Homefront
Paradise Lost *
Crossfire
Return to Grace
Accession
Rules of Engagement
For the Cause
To The Death
Broken Link
Bonus: Hard Time, The Quickening, Rejoined
Ferengi: Little Green Men*, Body Parts, Bar Association
Worf: The Sword of the Kahless, Sons of Mogh
Mirror: Shattered Mirror
***
S5:
Apocalypse Rising
The Ship
Looking for Par’Mach in all the Wrong Places
Nor the Battle to the Strong
Trials and Tribbleations **
Things Past
Rapture
For the Uniform
In Purgatory’s Shadow *
By Infernos Light *
Soldiers of the Empire
Blaze of Glory *
In the Cards
Call to Arms *
Bonus: Ties of Blood and Water, The Assignment, Doctor Bashir I Presume
Ferengi: Business As Usual, The Ascent
***
S6:
A Time To Stand *
Rocks and Shoals
Sons and Daughters
Behind the Lines
Favor the Bold
Sacrifice of Angels *
You Are Cordially Invited
The Magnificent Ferengi *
Waltz
Far Beyond the Stars **
Inquisition
In The Pale Moonlight ***
The Reckoning
Valiant
Tears of the Prophets *
Mirror: Resurrection
Bonus: Statistical Probabilities, His Way
Ferengi: Who Mourns For Morn *
***
S7:
Image In The Sand
Shadows and Symbols
Afterimage
Take Me Out To The Holosuite *
Treachery, Faith, and the Great River
The Siege of AR 558
Covenant
Chimera
It’s Only a Paper Moon *
Inter Arma Enim Silent Leges *
Penumbra
Till Death Do Us Part
Strange Bedfellows
The Changing Face of Evil
When it Rains
Tacking Into The Wind **
Extreme Measures
The Dogs of War
What You Leave Behind **
Mirror/Ferengi: The Emperor’s New Cloak *
Bonus: Chrysalis, Field of Fire
Worf: Once More Unto the Breach
Today at work I ran into this picture car from Grown Ups 2. Custom airbrush Star Wars van.
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Back to the future III
New York City car park form 1920. They definitely had a vertical obsession back then.