DS9 Episodes to Watch

Jordanis · Post by **Jordanis** » Sun Dec 30, 2007 12:38 pm

I never watched DS9, because I've never been very good at being in front of the TV on time, and it ended when I was 12 anyway. I want to watch it, to get all the neat stuff I know it contains, but that's a lot of stuff to watch.

So here's the question: If I were to restrict myself to, say, the DITL 4 and 5-badge episodes, would I miss anything important? Important to character development, or important to a plot arc, or the like. If so, can you tell me which episodes I would want to add to the list? I'm particularly interested in Garak, but it strikes me that episodes dealing with him would be good by default.

Should I just add all the 3-badge episodes too and be done with it? Someone tell me, please! It seems like the only way I could know on my own is to read plot synopses of all the episodes to determine if there's something important. But I'd rather not spoil myself any worse than my general knowledge of how things play out (which means, please try to restrict your spoilers in this thread. I know things like 'Jadzia dies' and 'The Defiant gets blown up', chronology kind of things).

So anyway, who can help me?

Blackstar the Chakat · Sun Dec 30, 2007 12:57 pm

um...well unlike other Star Trek series DS9 has story arcs and even the stuff started in episode one still comes around in the last episode. I couldn't pick and choose. Why not just Tivo it or get the DVD set like I did? I got the first season with just a preview from the Nemesis DVD to go on and now it's my favorite Star Trek series.

Sionnach Glic · Post by **Sionnach Glic** » Sun Dec 30, 2007 1:14 pm

Be prepared for a very boring first season, that's my advice.
In fact, you could probably just skip straight to the lead-up to the war and not miss much. After all, that's what the series eventualy became about.

Jordanis · Post by **Jordanis** » Sun Dec 30, 2007 1:17 pm

ChakatBlackstar wrote:um...well unlike other Star Trek series DS9 has story arcs and even the stuff started in episode one still comes around in the last episode. I couldn't pick and choose. Why not just Tivo it or get the DVD set like I did? I got the first season with just a preview from the Nemesis DVD to go on and now it's my favorite Star Trek series.

Because I don't want to spend 121 1/3 hours watching DS9, when I could cut out things like, say, 'The Storyteller' or 'Move Along Home'. The only reasons to watch those episodes is out of desperation, or if there's something that comes back up later. So I'm asking.

I know that DS9 has story arcs. That's why I'm asking this instead of just watching random well-rated episodes like I do with TNG. And what does 'why not just buy the DVDs or tivo it' have to do with anything? Acquiring episodes isn't my problem, it's knowing whether I'll regret burning 40 minutes on the episode or not.

Jordanis · Post by **Jordanis** » Sun Dec 30, 2007 1:18 pm

Rochey wrote:Be prepared for a very boring first season, that's my advice.
In fact, you could probably just skip straight to the lead-up to the war and not miss much. After all, that's what the series eventualy became about.

Is there anything that will be important to the war or to someone that comes up in an otherwise cruddy episode? That you can remember, I suppose?

Blackstar the Chakat · Sun Dec 30, 2007 1:24 pm

Well why not watch it and decide for yourself. I never listen to peoples reviews of shows or movies. I for one liked Move Along Home. IMO There are two ways to do something, the right way or the lazy way.

Jordanis · Post by **Jordanis** » Sun Dec 30, 2007 2:07 pm

ChakatBlackstar wrote: Well why not watch it and decide for yourself. I never listen to peoples reviews of shows or movies. I for one liked Move Along Home. IMO There are two ways to do something, the right way or the lazy way.

I'm doing it the lazy and frankly you can bugger right off if you're going to be so ridiculous as to tell me I'm watching a TV series 'wrong'.

Experiments with TNG have shown that I largely agree with Graham's reviews, so that provides a great starting spot. All I need to know is if I'm going to miss something important if I cut out the duds.

Blackstar the Chakat · Sun Dec 30, 2007 2:15 pm

Ya well TNG wasn't that good. Most of the time I only watch it when nothing else is on. Anyway, why would you want to skip episodes? Are you telling me you're that busy?

Sionnach Glic · Post by **Sionnach Glic** » Sun Dec 30, 2007 4:05 pm

Blackstar wrote:Anyway, why would you want to skip episodes? Are you telling me you're that busy?

Why should he waste time watching crap episodes? I know I, for one, wouldn't waste my time watching Threshold again. Along with a bunch of others.
Granted, there is nothing in DS9 that's as bad as Threshold, but some episodes are quite bad, or just plain uninteresting.

Jordanis wrote:Is there anything that will be important to the war or to someone that comes up in an otherwise cruddy episode? That you can remember, I suppose?

I think the whole build up to the war only begins around The Jem'hadar.

Post by **Captain Seafort** » Mon Dec 31, 2007 5:42 pm

Rochey wrote:I think the whole build up to the war only begins around The Jem'hadar.

There were references thrown in before that, mainly as part of B-plots centred on Quark's efforts to expand Ferengi commerce into the GQ, but "The Jem'Hadar" was the first episode to present the Dominion as a definate threat.

As for the plot arc aspect of the later series, most of the time the episodes are watchable on a stand alone basis. The exceptions are the early S6 episodes, which for two major arcs ("A Time to Stand"/"Rocks and Shoals" and "Favor the Bold" to "You Are Cordially Invited...") and the latter half of S7, which is effectively a single continuing story from "Penumbra" onwards. The others form part of the overall arc, but those are the ones you'll have problems understanding if you watch them out of order.

Grundig · Post by **Grundig** » Tue Jan 01, 2008 2:26 am

There are some episodes that might be nice to go back to after you've gotten through the Dominion War arc. For instance, the episode with the stray Jem'hadar child. If you want, you can go on wikipedia for more plot detail than what's on ditl... but there's no spoiler protection there. If you have access to the whole series, I'd say just watch an episode until you can see where the different plot threads are going, then skip it if it doesn't seem relevant (or interesting). Otherwise, the general rule is season 4 and up involves the Dominion war in some way.

Jordanis · Post by **Jordanis** » Tue Jan 01, 2008 2:31 am

Looking at the DITL reviews, I notice that seasons 4-onwards are nearly bereft of 2-badge-and-under episodes. Probably to the point that if I just cut those out I will have a long string of excellent and relevant viewing ahead of me.

Though it looks like the Section 31 business comes up in 2-badge episodes. I might have to watch them just to see Section 31.

Post by **Mikey** » Thu Jan 03, 2008 12:15 pm

Or avoid them to avoid S31...

MHO. Sorry.

Logan Nolag · Post by **Logan Nolag** » Fri Jan 18, 2008 10:22 pm

Honestly you should probably just watch every episode. Its not like its a chore or something

and that way you won't miss anything. DS9 out of all the series in my opinion is the one series you really can't just watch an ep here or there because many eps are hard to understand out of context.

kostmayer · Post by **kostmayer** » Fri Jan 18, 2008 10:56 pm

Improbable Cause is one of the 3 Star (though I want to know why its only a 3

) episodes that you should watch. Its reasonably important to the story arc, and is a great Garak episode.

Course its also half of a 2 episode story and the 2nd episode is a 5 star, so you'd probably watch it anyway