@@01Eldar I guess other than the fact they were dealing with Rogue founders and the Cardassians were part of the war with the founders and the Dominion, the Cardassians really had nothing to do with Star Trek picard, but with all the people like even Roe Larend coming back, I kind of wanted them to come across him somehow and him in his own special Garek way do something to help them out. I remember seeing in the comments of one of the Garak Clips on RUclips a guy mentioned he never watched Star Trek but for some reason he watched the clip with Garak and the story of the boy who cried wolf and he went down the rabbit hole. He was fascinated with the character and really impressed with the writing and said he might actually watch DS9 just to get the entire story. He joked that this Garak fellow seems like he could save the entire universe single-handedly. When somebody who's not a Star Trek fan says they might watch it just because of how well written they think a character is, that's as good of an endorsement as you can get.
He stole that line from Robert Anton Wilson who wrote on conspiracy theory in a way others have not matched. The line is from his book Illuminatus published as a trilogy with titles like The Eye in The Triangle. The JFK assassin Lee Harvey O. has the higher vantage point and sees the second gunman… also a 3rd, 4th, & 5th. So it’s a serious and unserious treatment of the ideology of conspiracy theorists. Deep Space Nine dips into a few conspiracies in it’s story so the homage or lift is appropriate. Alan Moore mentions Wilson by name at the end of Promethea. Terry Prachett has read Wilson and hides easter eggs… I for got the point. The original exchange of dialogue is like: “Is (something) true?” “Everything is true.” “Even false things?” “False things are true.” “How does that work!?” “I don’t know, man, I didn’t do it.” This between a student and Sage/Master. What the joke is… or if it’s true and the humor is we-aren’t-supposed-to-admit-that.
As someone that's been in war, seen death up close, and lost friends "The Way of the Warrior" is the episode that hits me the hardest. It's by far the closest ST ever got to portraying what war does to people and what it feels like.
This is what bugs me about people who say, "It's just fiction". In the best works of fiction we are able to live in those created worlds as if they are real. The emotions we feel when we are living in that space ARE real, even if the space itself is not.
An important role if fiction is as escapism.. a point to go through outside of the petty daily struggle. That would hardly be an option if you couldn't immerse yourself in the imagined world so much that you can believe you're in there...
Humans are the story-telling animal. More than anything else, our narratives, for good or for ill, are what separate us from other animals. That's what makes fiction so powerful. Fiction is the choose-your-own-adventure book for society. Who do we want to be? What values will we uphold and how will we uphold them? Fiction allows us to consider our options.
Actually i think one of the best is "It's only a paper moon". Nog losses his leg in a previous episode and has to come to terms with the trauma and hardships of war. This shows not just PTSD, but overcoming loss, dealing with the stresses of war, and accepting that your not always in control of everything. During the 2000s when war became a reality for a lot of people. I feel that this episode that showed what became a major character in his own right depth and complexity he rarely got the opportunity in many episodes. that or For the uniform is one of if not the best.
If anything I would list "In The Pale Moonlight" and "Far Beyond The Stars" as 1a and 1b in terms of best overall DS9 episodes. "In The Pale Moonlight" explores the lengths Ben Sisko would go to meet the existential threat that the Dominion presented to the United Federation of Planets and Starfleet. And while ultimately he comes to the conclusion that while he himself can't do what NEEDS to be done in order for the Dominion to be defeated, he can live with the consequences of allowing it to be done as he went to the one person he knew could do what needed to be done. "Far Beyond The Stars" however paints the struggle to do what's right against all odds more in a historical context. It serves as a reminder to Sisko that many others have wondered if they'd made a difference, if the fight had really been worth it, if it's even worth fighting for. The conclusion, of course, being that there will always be a struggle to fight for what's right but the fight is always worth it even if the outcome is uncertain. Both episodes, I believe, are the best examples of external and internal struggles we face.
I think Far Beyond the Stars sets up Sisko to understand what it means if the Dominion wins. It's a little clunky but taken together his "I can live with it" ending to In the Pale Moonlight shows us that he understands that failing to do what needs to be done risks going back to what Benny Russell lived through.
Far Beyond the Stars is the best Science Fiction Episode of DS9 and In the Pale Moon Light is the best critique of TNG in DS9. The Visitor is the best Star Trek episode of DS9. Far Beyond the Stars didn’t need the trappings of Star Trek to function, it could just be a stand alone piece of fiction. In the Pale Moon Light is the pinnacle of DS9 theme critiquing TNG. The Federation is going to do bad things, because sometimes bad things must be done for the greater good. TOS had this theme, “Edith Keeler must die”, stealing the Enterpise in STIII, Commodore Decker in TOS, stealing the cloaking device from the Romulans, etc. TNG really pushed the “Federation is perfect and mankind has evolved to enlightenment.” Where TOS and DS9 push the idea that the importance of the Federation is the mankind is committed to perusing their better angels and accepting that sometimes they fall short. The Visitor is the best episode of Star Trek, because it requires the trapping of Star Trek to make the story work, it has technobabble to save the day, but still comes down to a very relatable human condition, the love of a child for a parent and the lengths to which a child could go to a parent. The baseball episode was basically a love letter to the characters on the show. I think all of these episodes do different things with Star Trek which makes picking a best episode in DS9 difficult, because the show had dimensions. The only flaw I find in DS9 today, is killing Sisko. I think that was a mistake. I will also admit at the time, I didn’t understand what DS9 was doing.
Damn, I got goosebumps now. 😳🥰 I am German, so I just watched some DS9 dubbed in German as a 16-year-old. You gotta know, German dubbing takes away ALL of the voice acting most of the times. So I wasn't particularly impressed with the show. Now, as a grown-up, mature guy who understands English and who loves complex, artistic expression with a message, DS9 looks like a MUST! Thank you for pointing it out to me! 😃
While the sprint to the end of the final season is hit-or-miss for a lot of people for a lot of good reasons, the part that will always stick with me is Garak's homecoming in the last episode, after the fighting stops, played perfectly (as always) by Andrew Robinson. He was such an amazing actor. He fully conveyed Garak's honest happiness to be home buried underneath the heartbreak and devastation and pain of knowing that the home he had so wanted to return to was utterly ruined, culturally demolished, and would probably never be the same as it was ever again... _and all the while doing that,_ still managed to put on his Federation-friendly mask when he parted ways with Bashir. It's something every actor-to-be, every director, every fan of entertainment needs to witness in context at least once. It is, to me, the pinnacle of what acting can be.
As a long time Babylon 5 fan, I celebrate Paramount's homage to JMS's storytelling. That being said, this was indeed the best DS9 episode and right up there with 'The City on the Edge of Forever' Funny how the best Trek episodes strip down and remove the Science from Science Fiction and just tell a good, heartfelt story. I love episodes like this as they make you feel and think.
@chemitoRodriguez - Well said, DS9 decision to do long term storytelling and prolonged space battles came because of Babylon 5 (Greatest Sci-Fi show ever!) - it really influenced television and made people change the way they view a show - it can be felt even beyond Sci-Fi and I think is what sparked the new golden age of television (The Sopranos, Breaking Bad).
After Babylon 5 was pitched to Paramount and they insisted making it in the Star Trek universe. The creator said no, so Paramount stole and reworked the idea.
I always felt that DS9 was the best Star Trek show... because it shows us the Federation at it's lowest point. Instead of being at peace, they are at war. Even before the Dominion was found, they showed us Bajor, a strip mined world where life is hard and the people traumatized. And of course, we also get episodes like this that examines what it means to be human.
DS9 is my favourite entry in the Star Trek universe by far. To this day I regret not watching it when it first aired. DS9 took everything great about StarTrek and amped it up to 11.
Unfortunately they learned the wrong lesson from DS9. Serialized storytelling was necessary and worked very well because of the setting for DS9. Episodic storytelling wouldn't work well for a cast of characters on a space station. It would have been bizarre for an inciting incident to constantly happen at a remote space station. It works for spaceships, because they are going out in search for something new. On a space station stories need to be character driven. Every Star Trek show since DS9 has tried to do serialized storytelling and it's been a disaster. Enterprise was such a letdown. Instead of a series of first contacts, seeing some familiar races, depicted as they were before the Federation, we got an incoherent, universe ending conspiracy that for some reason no one in the future talks about. What they did with the vulcans and andorians should have been the show. Go and see new races and places, familiar, yet different than we had seen in the previous shows. All of the races eventually become what we know in the era of the Federation, but they didn't start that way and those are stories worth telling. Everything since Enterprise isn't worth discussing. It's too bad Star Trek is dead and there are no good writers left in Hollywood.
It's hard to pick that ONE episode as the best, but you mentioned several episodes that would qualify for this top spot. My personal Star Trek heart tends a little more to ""Duet" and "The Visitor", but "Far Beyond the Stars" is also one of the great ones, and you explained that very well. Thank you for this video!
The end of the episode literally changed the velocity and direction of my life. It *is* the best episode of Star Trek and one of the best episodes of television history.
So true. Star Trek as a whole changed the direction of my life. I wouldn’t be the person that I am… I wouldn’t have the core values I hold dear, if it weren’t for Star Trek.
In the Pale Moon Light, is always going to be my favourite. For the same reason I think DS9 is the far superior Star Trek series. While I love and respect Gene Roddenberry's dream of the future, when you get down to it, life is not just a string of rainbows and lollipops series like TNG would have us believe. Sometimes people need to get their hands dirty and so something vile and grotesque for the greater good. If we look at Sisco through the TNG lens, he would be in jail as a war criminal for what he did to the Marquis colonies. This is why I like DS9, because it's not afraid to get it hands dirty. Probably explains why Garak was also my favourite character on DS9
Props for shouting out The Visitor. After that originally aired, I sought it out and bought the VHS tape of the episode from Planet Music in Virginia Beach, and it still resides on my movie shelves surrounded by DVDs and Blu-rays. I cried every time I watched it. It's been years, and I may watch it with my kids this week. I know it will hit much harder now being a dad, and with the recent loss of the great Tony Todd.
That’s usually the one I think of first, when asked to name a favorite DS9 episode. There are many to choose from, but that one makes me cry every time.
DS9 is one of those gems that shines brighter than most. Was every episode great? Nope! Not even close. But there are so many episode, like Far Beyond The Stars, that shows what this series was capable of. And now it's time for me to start it over from the beginning again.
Nah. Past Prologue, Duet, In the Hands of the Prophets, Homecoming, The Circle, The Siege, Cardassians, The Wire, The Collaborator, Tribunal, The Search, Past Tense, The Die is Cast and Shakaar are all great. Most of the rest are at least pretty good. I never skip the early seasons, just the mirror universe stuff and Move Along Home.
I totally agree! Excellent choice. Although it stands outside the main series' stories, it was both written and acted superbly. I would bet in a poll it ranks in the top three fan favorites (although it should be Number 1.) And THANK YOU for mentioning _What We Left Behind._ I am going to have to get that DVD.
DS9 is become my favorite Star Trek series as I have gotten older and wiser. The ensemble cast is perfect and the acting superb; not just the main cast but the guest stars and frequent guest stars. It’s just brilliant!
I have loved DS9 since the airing of the very first episode. I loved watching Sisko dress down Picard and knew at that early point DS9 was going to be different and special. I don’t know if I have a favorite episode. Far Beyond The Stars, Pale Moonlight, and any episode Garak was prominent are contenders. I definitely have favorite scene- Odo and Luaxana trapped in the lift ended so beautifully; Garak reluctantly torturing Odo was a master class; Garak with Tain on his deathbed; And so many others. DS9 is still top of my Star Trek list.
I truly forgot the love of Star Trek DS9! Thanks for the great analysis and breakdown. Not to mention finally seeing Quark without the makeup! Those few clips made my day again after all these years
I am surprised the content creator did not mention we briefly see the writer again in the series finale. A scene where he is locked up in a soft padded room. He writes on the wall "open it" and then we see the captain open the object.
When DS9 finally came to streaming I logged in and watched "The Visitor" while on lunch at work, all the way through. It will always be my favorite episode of my favorite Star Trek series. It, as a whole, was such a major step up in storytelling after TNG, which was no slouch as a series. It made me appreciate it's major competitor, Babylon 5, even more for its long form storytelling, and also made the debut of Voyager all the more disappointing in comparison.
Superb episode and superb analysis. But personally, I feel that In The Pale Moonlight isn't just the best episode of Trek - it's the best episode of anything, ever.
@Kilgore6549 yup, Sisko' s corporeal form is gone but he does exist with the Prophets with-in the wormhole.... fascinating! Imagine the story arc for a trilogy....the return of Sisko? Cheers 🥂
What Roddenberry wrote back in the sixties was a beautiful dream and certainly a huge leap as could be expected for that time. And it did indeed give rise to a huge amount of our world today. But the most important thing IMHO is to remember is that it is a dream. And those need something critically important to make them real - faith in the idea that it can be done. I think in the past few decades we've seen a major crisis of faith in the root of our society. The Rule of Law. That Justice should be equally applied. That war and terrorism are insanely rare occurrences. I don't have to tell you - you've all seen the news. So what does that leave us with? Fight the good fight. And maybe, just maybe, that's enough?
I remember watching this episode, and then going back to watch regular DS-9 episodes and being struck by how, even centuries in the future, black humans only were romantically involved with black humans. And while O'brien had an asian wife, that was from TNG and she quickly got erased from the show. It became pretty clear for all the statement on racism made by this episode, the series itself did not accept miscegenation. Oh for sure aliens, like Worf and Dax were okay, but no humans. This was particularly jarring as not only did it not reflect TNG, but it didn't even reflect my own 20th century (non American) reality. The episode sticks in my mind not so much as a condemnation of current American racism, but how it is so pervasive in thought that even people who are speaking against it are utterly blind to their own racism.
If you think about it, Jake is the real hero of the series, total story arc-wise. Without his dedication and love and sacrifice to bring his father back in The Visitor, the Pah-Wraiths may have prevailed and totally change the Dominion war outcome.....
Okay, first of all: The Best Sci-Fi TV Episode Of The 90s Is "Severed Dreams" and that's not up for debabe. Secondly, I see your points and agree pretty much with everything. For me personally the top DS9 episodes are ranked like this 1) Duet, 2) In the Pale Moonlight, 3) the Visitor and then 4) Far Beyond the Stars. But that is just my personal preference. For objective Nr. 1 see my opening statement. (I joke, but it is also true.)
I agree with you completely, "Far Beyond the Stars" is the best Star Trek episode hands down. Benny's breakdown hits me even harder all these years later. Anytime I get into a serious discussion about Trek, "Far Beyond the Stars" and "In the Pale Moonlight" the first to come to mind.
Far Beyond the Stars is, in my opinion, the finest piece of Star Trek writing and acting ever. It hits home on so many levels for so many different people and its an episode you can't easily forget. DS9 is only second to TNG as my favorite Star Trek series because it was daring in its writing and the willingness to put those well written ideas in front of the camera!
I agree that DS9 was one of the best series, THE best for me. I never would have thought of this episode if you had asked me to name my favorite, but now that you mention it, _absolutely_ . I loved almost every episode of DS9. The metaplot was great, and nearly all of the single story episodes were really good. One of my fav episodes is the humorous one you didn't mention, "Little Green Men", and I also loved the ones with the Ferengi side trips, although I think "Trials and Tribbleations" has to be the best. Garek, Rom, Nog, and O'Brian were some of the most engaging characters ever, and major props to Armin Shimerman for holding the whole thing together as the social core for all the strange goings on.
easily the best star trek series in my opinion. best episode for me is "in pale moonlight" as it makes the distinction of grey area of morality and garak who is one of my fave characters.
Excellent analysis. While I am in the fanboy crowd that considers "In The Pale Moonlight" to be their top episode, it's a bit unfair to make it a competition between those two episodes and the other masterpiece of writing, "The Visitor." They are very different stories with different goals in mind. But they are all connected by a moral core that challenges us with this question: In these situations, what would you do? It's not clear in any case what the "right" course of action is. And that is the case for much of life, whether it is inside or outside of a Star Trek episode.
It’s one of my all time favorite Star Trek episodes, but it has the biggest flaw, as the editor of the magazine could have easily left out the mention of the race of the Captain: problem solved.
Nobody would believe a black captain... Samuel L Gravely Jr. the U.S. Navy’s first African-American commander, captain, rear admiral, and vice admiral. Black officers in the US Army were much earlier, such as Henry Ossian Flipper in the late 1800's. For the US Air Force there were Daniel "Chappie" James Jr. and other officers of the Tuskegee Airmen, who went on to have distinguished military careers.
DS9 is hands down my favorite Trek, and it isn't close. "Take Me Out to the Holosuite" is one of my LEAST favorite episodes, though. I'd have to say "The Way of the Warrior" is my favorite. We get to see how much of a badass that station can be... and when Sisko says "battle stations" it really highlights the differences between he and other captains. Great video, thank you!
Far Beyond the Stars is one of the best episodes of tv - period…however it doesn’t have enough “Trek” as the episode mostly takes place in 1950s Earth. The best DS9 episode is In The Pale Moonlight as it contains many trek tropes that are cooked up to mouth watering perfection. The fact that Sisko is out-smarted by Garek is the cherry on the cake. And the episode is told as a long flashback from the perspective of a Captain’s Log is a unique story telling tool for ST.
ITPML is my favorite episode of DS9 and the one that defines the series as a whole to me. That said; FBTS is one of the best episodes of television ever. I also love the fact that it ends with us questioning whether Star Trek is “real” or if it is all the creation of Benny. This would, of course, completely explain the discrepancies between nu-Trek and Star Trek; someone else started writing it…. Which is actually true…
I believe it is impossible to truly finger one episode as being the greatest. Star Trek throughout its existence from the beginning to present has always brought controversy swirled with moral impurities while leaving great impacts on the ethics of society. I would say the accumulation of the Star Trek episodes and spin-offs are the best and let's not forget to include some of the spoofs that were made about the franchise.
Great analysis for one of the best episodes. I do like in the pale moonlight better, because I like cloak and dagger theatrics. But the bottom line is, I don’t have a favorite DS9 episode. There’s so many. I love the whole series and have dedicated a lot of time analyzing it with my brother and few friends that are actual trekkers. They just don’t make em like they used too. DS9 and Sisko will always remain my favorite. That I can tell you.
The difference between TNG/DS9 and Nu Trek is that TNG/DS9 took risks. The Next Generation's risk was being set 60 years after The Original Series more specifically after the events of Star Trek IV The Voyage Home and 50 years after Star Trek VI The Undiscovered Country set in the future with an unfamiliar ship and an unfamiliar crew. Deep Space Nine risk was creating a more dark and gritty Star Trek reexamined through the lens of reality. You need the men who are like our man Julian Bashir as much as you need the men like Section 31's Luther Sloan. It is easy to be a saint in paradise if you have not tasted desperation. It’s easy to cling to your principles when you’re standing on a vessel with its bulkheads intact, manned by a crew that’s not starving. Understanding what as well as why others do what they do will help you to empathize. To tell you the truth there can be no saints in paradise because those who think that they are but have not gone through suffering will never know what makes a righteous man. Real saints are born in the fires of hell where one is forged in the fires of hell because that is the greatest test of our limits. How much easier is it to cling to your righteous ideals to your self-sanctimonious preaching about how you should be in order to be human if you are existing or even living when you have not had to survive for once in your goddamn life? It is funny that these people who have not tasted suffering or at least at its absolute worst have the right to judge people as they look down on them from their Ivory Towers. It’s all a paper fantasy. It’s all treaties and documents and none of it means anything, zero, zip, zilch, nada. Money that is not backed up by gold is nothing more than play money. All that matters in the end is the blood of your foes and the blood of your allies, the tough decisions. Whose blood are you willing to be stained with and whose blood are you not willing to be stained with. The sad reality in times of war and hardship is that we are stained with the blood of friend and foe. And even more so the fear that you will become the very thing that you have sworn not to become. The best solution is to empathize with those who make these hard decisions. Be not afraid of the shadow. That is one of the most important things that I can say. After all, there are no saints in paradise especially since good men from time to time have to do the dirty work which protects utopia. Things of which go against the very idealism of the United Federation of Planets. A very hard truth that is very hard to grasp for many people. People nowadays not even did I realize how controversial Star Trek The Next Generation and especially Deep Space Nine was. Star Trek Voyager on the other hand was the complete opposite of DS9. I said that I wanted to give Star Trek Discovery a try so I watched both Star Trek Prodigy, Star Trek Strange New Worlds, and Star Trek Picard and liked Prodigy and SNW but not Picard as much.
I 100% agree with this. I hated this episode when it came out and its still very hard to watch today, but mainly because that was my family back in those days. When I was a kid it was "where are the spaceships" and "I don't want to watch another show about racism." Today its, that's my great aunt, my grandfather, my grandmothers, that's the bull they went through. Now that you know the family stories, this episode hits harder. DS9 was always my favorite Trek series because it was willing to flip the script. It was willing to be what I think DISCO, PICARD and SNWs were trying to be, to portray Earth as a utopia that has become oblivious and out of touch to how things work even at its own borders. It didn't need to rewrite Trek history to get this ether, it literally took everything TOS and TNG had done before and said and embraced it, but also showed that, there is also something more, that not everyone lives that way. So many people like to think that a utopia cannot make for compelling TV, they all need to be these sad sack dystopias like you see on Battlestar, but this show showed how you can bring that idea forward and showed how it can be compelling if you are willing to truly show why its so hard for this sort of society to exist. And also, why you (and the characters) need to fight to protect it. There is one thing I don't agree on though, Star Trek VI beats Trek II. Just saying.
Personally "duet" always sticks out in my mind. Unfortunately it sticks out because it's an episode that simply will never be made again. No executive would ever approve. If fiction can't grapple with the horrors of real life can and ask impossible questions they might never be asked because many people don't want an answer. (Not to mention it's in the first series people were not prepared for this episode.) Also the general complex character development kira from informal militia, freedom fighter, terrorist transitioning to a military position under formal government. Saying the ends justify the means is considered far too dangerous even if it's only in fiction, in the modern age.
DS9 contains a Murderer's Row of great episodes to the point that it's splitting hairs to differentiate the top. There are so many, including this one, that on any given day that I would put at the top of my own ranking
As a non American who is fed with people banging on about racism I usually skip this episode when I rewatch DS9. As to my personal favourite while In The Pale Moonlight is awesome my mind went to For The Uniform.
That's your right, but for many of us, we can't 'skip' that aspect of reality in our daily lives. RIP Those who fought the good fight finished the course and kept the faith. "We may not be related, but 'we' are still family."-A Ojibee quote of wisdom.
@@charleslennon1Absolutely, especially for those of us who live this EVERY DAY. Skipping this episode seems, no offence to the original poster but, kind of cowardly.
Far Beyond the Stars is a *great* pick for best DS9 episode! I wish it was less relevant in today’s society, but, sadly that’s not the case. I have a hard time picking a single favorite DS9 episode because so many of them are so meaningful to me. Other contenders include: It’s Only a Paper Moon - An incredible exploration into the effects PTSD with incredible performances from Aron Eisenberg & James Darren. The Visitor - Such a powerful story about the loving bond between after & son. Duet, In the Pale Moonlight, Trials & Tribble-ations, Waltz. Damnit I need to go rewatch all these episodes righy now 😅
Often, but not always, it is the format bending episodes of any show that are the best. My favorite STNG episode is The Inner Light, where (as most people watching this know) Picard lives an entire life as an ordinary man on a dying world. My favorite Family Ties episode is A, My Name is Alex, where Alex (played by Michael J. Fox) goes to therapy on a set that makes Spectre of the Gun look like it was filmed in the the actual Dodge City. (While I enjoyed Spectre of the Gun, it isn't my favorite original Star Trek episode. Maybe it takes more than format bending or maybe they didn't bend it far enough.)
I'm not going to argue with you, exactly, but I think a Past Tense (I'm just going to refer to both episodes collectively) edges it out. Not because Far Beyond the Stars isn't incredible--it *totally* is--but because Past Tense completely nailed the gestalt of today. What Avery Brooks is saying about Far Beyond the Stars--"You have a man who essentially was conceiving of something far beyond what people around him has ever imagined, and therefore they thought he was crazy"--applies, inversely, to Past Tense. Past Tense brutally confronts us with our own lack of humanity by showing it to us through the eyes of someone from the hypothetical best version of our own potential. A civilized person from a civilized society can't believe that a culture with so many resources would abandon its most vulnerable citizens to misery. THAT seems crazy to Bashir, who lives in a society beyond the dreams of those living in 2024. I think Past Tense is Start Trek at its most real. (Again, HUGE fan of Far Beyond the Stars, too. Not mad at those who prefer Far Beyond the Stars).
I call it DeepSleep 9. The series was the first spinoff in the franchise that wasn't about a ship called Enterprise. I really tried to like it. I really did. But, it just did not impress me like TOS did. I finally gave up on it about halfway through the first season. Except for the Tribbles episode. The tech they used in meshing the current characters into a TOS episode was epic. But... an exploding Tribble? Come on! And don't get me started on Voyager and Enterprise. Both had promise, and I was looking forward to watching them, but they just didn't deliver.
If you could get past the first three seasons of TNG, there's no reason you couldn't get at least that far for DS9. The only "bad" season for DS9 is the first one. Things pick up after that... unlike TNG. DS9 has some of the best writing in television, period... not just the best writing in Trek.
I watched DS9 regularly when it first aired. I either caught it on air or set the VCR if I wasn't going to be home. This was definitely not my favorite script/plot for a DS9 episode, but the acting and direction were notably superb. The brow-beating "racism is bad" message does nothing for me, and I agree with Denzel Washington and Morgan Freeman on the topic. Seeing everyone out of their usual makeup and prosthetics for an episode was certainly a nice twist, though.
Babylon 5 is okay, DS9 is vastly superior. There's some suggestion they are both rooted in the same conversation in the same meeting - but even if they are both variants of the same idea, DS9 is still the better one.
"what do you want reality to be?" according to new star trek, we dont want the optimistic reality anymore. we are content with the cyberpunk dystopia, so much so that we have now translated it into star trek as well. rodenberry's original utopian vision is completely gone. there's your answer. star trek itself has answered it.
The biggest issue I had with ST:DS9 was that a space station like DS9 would be commanded by a flag officer so that no visiting captain could override his orders. Cisco should have been at least a senior Captain, or better yet a Rear Admiral, from the very start.
Maybe, after Bajor joins the Federation. But, at first, it was still a Bajorian Station with a Federation Command. Remember Kira even said so at the end of Season 5,.
It’s because DS9 was originally unimportant. The Federation really didn’t care that much about bringing Bayjor in. It was simply their way of having a presence on the border with the Cardassians, and it only became important when the wormhole was discovered and even became more important once the dominion war started. you could make an argument that once the wormhole was discovered that they either should’ve brought in a higher ranking officer or promoted Sisco at that point. (Though due to the Bajorans new connection to Sisco because of the profits they really couldn’t replace him) But it it’s because the original set up was that the station wasn’t important.
Your right, it should of been a flag officer, Commodore or above, but it also doesn't work the way you said, a senior Capt cannot go onto someone else's base and take over. It's like on an aircraft, U might have a Lt in the pilot seat, and a Capt in the co-pilot seat, the Lt is still in charge and the Capt would be expected to follow the orders of the Lt as if he were a higher rank than him.
A visiting officer can't overrule a Commanding Officer, regardless of rank, outside of very narrow circumstances. The authority of a Commanding Officer is delegated by the highest authority, which is Starfleet in this case. Only a senior officer in the chain of command could overrule a Commanding Officer or if there's some sort of situation in which the Commanding Officer is unfit or incapacitated. In such a case even a junior officer is compelled to take temporary command. Some starship captain visiting DS9 would actually be compelled to follow the orders of Sisko regarding conduct of the station and surrounding space. Sisko would be required to show them proper respect, but he's in charge of the station. Being commissioned as a Commanding Officer isn't just an assignment of where they work. It means they embody the executive power of the authority they serve at the command that they have been given. Sisko isn't just a Commander and then later a Captain. He is Starfleet at DS9. Just as Picard was Starfleet aboard the Enterprise. A flag officer wouldn't be stationed at DS9 at the time the command was established because it was an insignificant posting, with no subordinate stations or ships and the command staff was very small. Admirals are in charge of large organizations. After it became a strategic, commercial and scientific hub due to the wormhole it could be justified to assign a more senior officer along with additional staff and resources, but ultimately the station was sovereign territory of a foreign power and the Federation was an invited guest. Sisko couldn't be replaced because he had become an icon for the people of that foreign power. Sisko had to stay in command, but a more senior officer could be assigned to command the region if that wouldn't have been seen as a new occupation. In real world navies, an Admiral can command a fleet from a ship, but a captain is in command of that ship. They actually did that in DS9 during the war when they had senior commanders of the allied forces stationed at DS9 to command the fleet. Sisko was still in command of the station, until they had to leave.
@@internetgas2020 That's not quite right. For a multi-crew aircraft there is an assigned Aircraft Commander for that sortie and sometimes a Mission Commander. Each role has specific duties. A non-pilot officer, like a navigator, could be assigned as Mission Commander, while a pilot is Aircraft Commander. They both do their jobs and give orders to each other. They don't treat each other as if one had a higher rank. They treat each other as officers assigned with duties. The Aircraft Commander is monitoring the aircraft and making discissions based upon conditions. The Mission Commander is monitoring the overall mission. Rank has meaning in broad and general terms, but in specifics it actually comes down to who was assigned to perform a duty by the command authority. If an LT is in charge despite a Capt also being assigned to the flight, it's because the Squadron or Wing Commander assigned that duty for whatever reason. Just like a lowly Private can give orders to Majors if that private is acting under orders from the Colonel in command of the Regiment. Rank is a tiebreaker in the absence of specific instructions.
Couldn't agree more. This is by far my favorite episode of all Star Trek. Even as much as I love Wrath of Khan, this holds a higher place...by a lot. (This isn't a fully formed thought) IMO, Prejudice, Racism, and Tribalism exist on a genetic level, they aren't just social constructs. We needed them for survival, survival of self and the group. But it's time to evolve and we can't do that until we face these issues. Avery is right, it isn't just about skin color, in fact I would argue it never was. It's about fear and insecurity. The insecurity comes from an individual or group excelling at life better than you. The fear comes being replaced in the hierarchy. We are all human, no one is superior to someone else. Sure some people are more athletic, more intelligent, more creative, but those are traits of the individual not of the group. Humans as a whole are strongest when we work together as one unit. Which leads me back to insecurity and fear. The source of our problems, division. We are deliberately divided by the ruling class, because we can't challenge them if we are fighting each other. And that's their fear, that we will unite and remove them from power. I'm talking about the types of people who have always been in charge, from the very beginning of civilization. This concept of I'm the King or Lord. You are my subject. You exist to serve my needs. I eat first and you can eat what remains. Throughout recorded history groups of people have tried to stand against them, and they've had some successes. But those successes are always short lived. For instance America's founding fathers came together to stand against a King and his power and control over their lives. They envisioned a country based on Freedom and Equality, but can you honestly tell me that's what we have today? The erosion of that idea started almost immediately. The Constitution has to be accepted by a majority and to accomplish that the framers made concessions so that it would be acceptable to all, like an end to slavery. Along the way those ideals were by in large chipped away. Again there were successes that made it over the wall, Slavery's end, the Civil Rights Act. But overall nothing has changed. And it never will so long as we allow ourselves to be united. We are all human, let's ACT like it.
I bought this series and watch it from time to time as well as Babylon 5. I thought they were both that good and was worried they would not be available.
I'm not a massive fan of this episode. ST usually was more subtle in the broad strokes for its aesops but this one just reminded everyone that the US was more backward than the rest of the West despite having most of the power.
![Noob To Max With DRAGON REWORK In Blox Fruits [FULL MOVIE]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/LnBMOinoOvA/mqdefault.jpg)
Garek is one of the best written and multi-layered characters in TV history.
I thought a spin off with Garek, Rom, maybe even Jake, Quark of course, would have been well received; even if we only got a season or two.
I'd love to see Garek's back story. He could probably pull off a series
He was great in Dirty Harry.
One could not possibly have a Greatest Episode without Garek in it
@@01Eldar I guess other than the fact they were dealing with Rogue founders and the Cardassians were part of the war with the founders and the Dominion, the Cardassians really had nothing to do with Star Trek picard, but with all the people like even Roe Larend coming back, I kind of wanted them to come across him somehow and him in his own special Garek way do something to help them out.
I remember seeing in the comments of one of the Garak Clips on RUclips a guy mentioned he never watched Star Trek but for some reason he watched the clip with Garak and the story of the boy who cried wolf and he went down the rabbit hole. He was fascinated with the character and really impressed with the writing and said he might actually watch DS9 just to get the entire story. He joked that this Garak fellow seems like he could save the entire universe single-handedly.
When somebody who's not a Star Trek fan says they might watch it just because of how well written they think a character is, that's as good of an endorsement as you can get.
“Especially the lies” is the best line from any Star Trek!
Agree
It said everything about Garak that we needed to know. That line made Garak one of my favourite charakters.
He stole that line from Robert Anton Wilson who wrote on conspiracy theory in a way others have not matched. The line is from his book Illuminatus published as a trilogy with titles like The Eye in The Triangle. The JFK assassin Lee Harvey O. has the higher vantage point and sees the second gunman… also a 3rd, 4th, & 5th. So it’s a serious and unserious treatment of the ideology of conspiracy theorists. Deep Space Nine dips into a few conspiracies in it’s story so the homage or lift is appropriate.
Alan Moore mentions Wilson by name at the end of Promethea. Terry Prachett has read Wilson and hides easter eggs… I for got the point.
The original exchange of dialogue is like:
“Is (something) true?”
“Everything is true.”
“Even false things?”
“False things are true.”
“How does that work!?”
“I don’t know, man, I didn’t do it.”
This between a student and Sage/Master. What the joke is… or if it’s true and the humor is we-aren’t-supposed-to-admit-that.
@ Thanks, that’s very cool to know 👍
@@ScaryMasonI'm not sure it is intentionally an Illuminatus reference... Eris works in mysterious ways ;)
As someone that's been in war, seen death up close, and lost friends "The Way of the Warrior" is the episode that hits me the hardest. It's by far the closest ST ever got to portraying what war does to people and what it feels like.
This is what bugs me about people who say, "It's just fiction". In the best works of fiction we are able to live in those created worlds as if they are real. The emotions we feel when we are living in that space ARE real, even if the space itself is not.
Yesterday's impossibilities are tomorrow's realities based on what we do today.
An important role if fiction is as escapism.. a point to go through outside of the petty daily struggle. That would hardly be an option if you couldn't immerse yourself in the imagined world so much that you can believe you're in there...
Humans are the story-telling animal. More than anything else, our narratives, for good or for ill, are what separate us from other animals.
That's what makes fiction so powerful. Fiction is the choose-your-own-adventure book for society. Who do we want to be? What values will we uphold and how will we uphold them? Fiction allows us to consider our options.
Actually i think one of the best is "It's only a paper moon". Nog losses his leg in a previous episode and has to come to terms with the trauma and hardships of war. This shows not just PTSD, but overcoming loss, dealing with the stresses of war, and accepting that your not always in control of everything. During the 2000s when war became a reality for a lot of people. I feel that this episode that showed what became a major character in his own right depth and complexity he rarely got the opportunity in many episodes. that or For the uniform is one of if not the best.
Yes. That is far more entertaining and meaningful than Far Beyond the Stars.
I agree that it is one if the best episodes of DS9.
Absolutely. Rom and Nog both started out as one dimensional characters, but developed into some of the best ones in the show by the end.
"It's Only a Paper Moon" is an amazing performance of 2 secondary characters.
It’s Only a Paper Moon is incredible. It holds so much meaning for me.
If anything I would list "In The Pale Moonlight" and "Far Beyond The Stars" as 1a and 1b in terms of best overall DS9 episodes. "In The Pale Moonlight" explores the lengths Ben Sisko would go to meet the existential threat that the Dominion presented to the United Federation of Planets and Starfleet. And while ultimately he comes to the conclusion that while he himself can't do what NEEDS to be done in order for the Dominion to be defeated, he can live with the consequences of allowing it to be done as he went to the one person he knew could do what needed to be done.
"Far Beyond The Stars" however paints the struggle to do what's right against all odds more in a historical context. It serves as a reminder to Sisko that many others have wondered if they'd made a difference, if the fight had really been worth it, if it's even worth fighting for. The conclusion, of course, being that there will always be a struggle to fight for what's right but the fight is always worth it even if the outcome is uncertain.
Both episodes, I believe, are the best examples of external and internal struggles we face.
I think Far Beyond the Stars sets up Sisko to understand what it means if the Dominion wins. It's a little clunky but taken together his "I can live with it" ending to In the Pale Moonlight shows us that he understands that failing to do what needs to be done risks going back to what Benny Russell lived through.
Far Beyond the Stars is the best Science Fiction Episode of DS9 and In the Pale Moon Light is the best critique of TNG in DS9. The Visitor is the best Star Trek episode of DS9.
Far Beyond the Stars didn’t need the trappings of Star Trek to function, it could just be a stand alone piece of fiction.
In the Pale Moon Light is the pinnacle of DS9 theme critiquing TNG. The Federation is going to do bad things, because sometimes bad things must be done for the greater good. TOS had this theme, “Edith Keeler must die”, stealing the Enterpise in STIII, Commodore Decker in TOS, stealing the cloaking device from the Romulans, etc. TNG really pushed the “Federation is perfect and mankind has evolved to enlightenment.” Where TOS and DS9 push the idea that the importance of the Federation is the mankind is committed to perusing their better angels and accepting that sometimes they fall short.
The Visitor is the best episode of Star Trek, because it requires the trapping of Star Trek to make the story work, it has technobabble to save the day, but still comes down to a very relatable human condition, the love of a child for a parent and the lengths to which a child could go to a parent.
The baseball episode was basically a love letter to the characters on the show.
I think all of these episodes do different things with Star Trek which makes picking a best episode in DS9 difficult, because the show had dimensions. The only flaw I find in DS9 today, is killing Sisko. I think that was a mistake. I will also admit at the time, I didn’t understand what DS9 was doing.
Damn, I got goosebumps now. 😳🥰
I am German, so I just watched some DS9 dubbed in German as a 16-year-old. You gotta know, German dubbing takes away ALL of the voice acting most of the times. So I wasn't particularly impressed with the show.
Now, as a grown-up, mature guy who understands English and who loves complex, artistic expression with a message, DS9 looks like a MUST!
Thank you for pointing it out to me! 😃
While the sprint to the end of the final season is hit-or-miss for a lot of people for a lot of good reasons, the part that will always stick with me is Garak's homecoming in the last episode, after the fighting stops, played perfectly (as always) by Andrew Robinson. He was such an amazing actor. He fully conveyed Garak's honest happiness to be home buried underneath the heartbreak and devastation and pain of knowing that the home he had so wanted to return to was utterly ruined, culturally demolished, and would probably never be the same as it was ever again... _and all the while doing that,_ still managed to put on his Federation-friendly mask when he parted ways with Bashir. It's something every actor-to-be, every director, every fan of entertainment needs to witness in context at least once. It is, to me, the pinnacle of what acting can be.
As a long time Babylon 5 fan, I celebrate Paramount's homage to JMS's storytelling.
That being said, this was indeed the best DS9 episode and right up there with 'The City on the Edge of Forever'
Funny how the best Trek episodes strip down and remove the Science from Science Fiction and just tell a good, heartfelt story.
I love episodes like this as they make you feel and think.
B5 rox!
@chemitoRodriguez - Well said, DS9 decision to do long term storytelling and prolonged space battles came because of Babylon 5 (Greatest Sci-Fi show ever!) - it really influenced television and made people change the way they view a show - it can be felt even beyond Sci-Fi and I think is what sparked the new golden age of television (The Sopranos, Breaking Bad).
After Babylon 5 was pitched to Paramount and they insisted making it in the Star Trek universe. The creator said no, so Paramount stole and reworked the idea.
I always felt that DS9 was the best Star Trek show... because it shows us the Federation at it's lowest point. Instead of being at peace, they are at war. Even before the Dominion was found, they showed us Bajor, a strip mined world where life is hard and the people traumatized.
And of course, we also get episodes like this that examines what it means to be human.
DS9 is my favourite entry in the Star Trek universe by far. To this day I regret not watching it when it first aired. DS9 took everything great about StarTrek and amped it up to 11.
Unfortunately they learned the wrong lesson from DS9. Serialized storytelling was necessary and worked very well because of the setting for DS9. Episodic storytelling wouldn't work well for a cast of characters on a space station. It would have been bizarre for an inciting incident to constantly happen at a remote space station. It works for spaceships, because they are going out in search for something new. On a space station stories need to be character driven. Every Star Trek show since DS9 has tried to do serialized storytelling and it's been a disaster. Enterprise was such a letdown. Instead of a series of first contacts, seeing some familiar races, depicted as they were before the Federation, we got an incoherent, universe ending conspiracy that for some reason no one in the future talks about. What they did with the vulcans and andorians should have been the show. Go and see new races and places, familiar, yet different than we had seen in the previous shows. All of the races eventually become what we know in the era of the Federation, but they didn't start that way and those are stories worth telling. Everything since Enterprise isn't worth discussing. It's too bad Star Trek is dead and there are no good writers left in Hollywood.
one thing i liked about ds9 is it had story arc but still maintained self contained episodes.
Great video and diagnosis. And holy sheep, that clip of Nana Visitor... she is absolutely stunning
I like when her and ezrie dax kiss in an alternate dimension episode
Oh she's so bad! Ferrell is bad to the bone too.
It's hard to pick that ONE episode as the best, but you mentioned several episodes that would qualify for this top spot. My personal Star Trek heart tends a little more to ""Duet" and "The Visitor", but "Far Beyond the Stars" is also one of the great ones, and you explained that very well. Thank you for this video!
Would you call "The Visitor", Tony Todd's magnum opus? I thought Jeffery Combs was the most underrated actor, but I'm leaning towards Tony Todd.
The end of the episode literally changed the velocity and direction of my life. It *is* the best episode of Star Trek and one of the best episodes of television history.
So true. Star Trek as a whole changed the direction of my life. I wouldn’t be the person that I am… I wouldn’t have the core values I hold dear, if it weren’t for Star Trek.
In the Pale Moon Light, is always going to be my favourite. For the same reason I think DS9 is the far superior Star Trek series. While I love and respect Gene Roddenberry's dream of the future, when you get down to it, life is not just a string of rainbows and lollipops series like TNG would have us believe. Sometimes people need to get their hands dirty and so something vile and grotesque for the greater good. If we look at Sisco through the TNG lens, he would be in jail as a war criminal for what he did to the Marquis colonies. This is why I like DS9, because it's not afraid to get it hands dirty. Probably explains why Garak was also my favourite character on DS9
Props for shouting out The Visitor. After that originally aired, I sought it out and bought the VHS tape of the episode from Planet Music in Virginia Beach, and it still resides on my movie shelves surrounded by DVDs and Blu-rays. I cried every time I watched it. It's been years, and I may watch it with my kids this week. I know it will hit much harder now being a dad, and with the recent loss of the great Tony Todd.
That’s usually the one I think of first, when asked to name a favorite DS9 episode. There are many to choose from, but that one makes me cry every time.
DS9 is one of those gems that shines brighter than most. Was every episode great? Nope! Not even close. But there are so many episode, like Far Beyond The Stars, that shows what this series was capable of. And now it's time for me to start it over from the beginning again.
Odo's _"...you're going to hit them with a box?"_ line was one of the biggest laughs I got from the show.
Absolutely beautiful and thoughtful commentary dude. I never saw this episode but I sure will watch it now
💯 absolutely THE BEST Star Trek production. Waiting for The Emissary to return.
To dream not in what we are, but what we could be; more than yesterday for every today, and tomorrow.
I believe, and know I'm not alone.
It's simple. If Sisco has hair it sucks. If he has a shaved head, it good.
Nah. Past Prologue, Duet, In the Hands of the Prophets, Homecoming, The Circle, The Siege, Cardassians, The Wire, The Collaborator, Tribunal, The Search, Past Tense, The Die is Cast and Shakaar are all great. Most of the rest are at least pretty good.
I never skip the early seasons, just the mirror universe stuff and Move Along Home.
😂 I disagree, but your point is well made, and hilarious.
I totally agree! Excellent choice. Although it stands outside the main series' stories, it was both written and acted superbly. I would bet in a poll it ranks in the top three fan favorites (although it should be Number 1.) And THANK YOU for mentioning _What We Left Behind._ I am going to have to get that DVD.
Thank you for this Drew! Great insight into an episode that I couldn’t stop thinking about for a very long time. Long live DS9❤
This isn’t a Star Trek episode; it’s an August Wilson play… and it’s glorious.
I've watched Far Beyond The Stars more times than any other TV episode.
He wasn’t acting in this episode when he breaks down. I believe Nana Visitor stated that.
DS9 is become my favorite Star Trek series as I have gotten older and wiser. The ensemble cast is perfect and the acting superb; not just the main cast but the guest stars and frequent guest stars. It’s just brilliant!
The best DS9 episode was, without doubt, "The Magnificent Ferengi."
Weekend at Bernies - IN SPACE!
I have loved DS9 since the airing of the very first episode. I loved watching Sisko dress down Picard and knew at that early point DS9 was going to be different and special.
I don’t know if I have a favorite episode. Far Beyond The Stars, Pale Moonlight, and any episode Garak was prominent are contenders. I definitely have favorite scene- Odo and Luaxana trapped in the lift ended so beautifully; Garak reluctantly torturing Odo was a master class; Garak with Tain on his deathbed; And so many others.
DS9 is still top of my Star Trek list.
I truly forgot the love of Star Trek DS9! Thanks for the great analysis and breakdown.
Not to mention finally seeing Quark without the makeup! Those few clips made my day again after all these years
I'd argue it's one of the best episodes of Star Trek - any television show - Period.
I always love the comedic Ferengi episodes, twists like Morn's death, lots of fun stuff.
Who mourns for Morn!
I am surprised the content creator did not mention we briefly see the writer again in the series finale. A scene where he is locked up in a soft padded room. He writes on the wall "open it" and then we see the captain open the object.
When DS9 finally came to streaming I logged in and watched "The Visitor" while on lunch at work, all the way through. It will always be my favorite episode of my favorite Star Trek series.
It, as a whole, was such a major step up in storytelling after TNG, which was no slouch as a series. It made me appreciate it's major competitor, Babylon 5, even more for its long form storytelling, and also made the debut of Voyager all the more disappointing in comparison.
Superb episode and superb analysis. But personally, I feel that In The Pale Moonlight isn't just the best episode of Trek - it's the best episode of anything, ever.
The one tv series that deserved a trilogy of Movies..... cheers 🥂
I think so too, except that Sisko dies, and therefore could no longer be the show runner.
@Kilgore6549 yup, Sisko' s corporeal form is gone but he does exist with the Prophets with-in the wormhole.... fascinating!
Imagine the story arc for a trilogy....the return of Sisko?
Cheers 🥂
This is one of the finest hours of television. Avery Brooks finest performance.
"The Visitor" breaks me every time. It hits harder ever since my dad died.
Thank you for this. I really don't hear people talk about Far beyond...and it is the best
Having DS9 be just a dream is like having TNG and the Enterprise-D be just a program running inside a box.
Nah, it lacks the creative freedom and stretch of "Spock's Brain." Though that wasn't from the 90s I suppose.
Brain and brain! What is brain?
What Roddenberry wrote back in the sixties was a beautiful dream and certainly a huge leap as could be expected for that time. And it did indeed give rise to a huge amount of our world today. But the most important thing IMHO is to remember is that it is a dream. And those need something critically important to make them real - faith in the idea that it can be done. I think in the past few decades we've seen a major crisis of faith in the root of our society. The Rule of Law. That Justice should be equally applied. That war and terrorism are insanely rare occurrences. I don't have to tell you - you've all seen the news.
So what does that leave us with?
Fight the good fight. And maybe, just maybe, that's enough?
I remember watching this episode, and then going back to watch regular DS-9 episodes and being struck by how, even centuries in the future, black humans only were romantically involved with black humans. And while O'brien had an asian wife, that was from TNG and she quickly got erased from the show. It became pretty clear for all the statement on racism made by this episode, the series itself did not accept miscegenation. Oh for sure aliens, like Worf and Dax were okay, but no humans. This was particularly jarring as not only did it not reflect TNG, but it didn't even reflect my own 20th century (non American) reality. The episode sticks in my mind not so much as a condemnation of current American racism, but how it is so pervasive in thought that even people who are speaking against it are utterly blind to their own racism.
NOW, more than ever, we are going to survive by living in Star Trek's "fiction"... because, sadly, our reality is nothing like that wonderful fiction.
That kinda of extreme pessimism is not really what Trek is about.
Deep Space 9 is the best Star Trek.
It’s about family, and families, and how they love, support and disappoint each other.
If you think about it, Jake is the real hero of the series, total story arc-wise. Without his dedication and love and sacrifice to bring his father back in The Visitor, the Pah-Wraiths may have prevailed and totally change the Dominion war outcome.....
I thought Nog had a better story arc.
This was a really good commentary and episode.
Okay, first of all: The Best Sci-Fi TV Episode Of The 90s Is "Severed Dreams" and that's not up for debabe. Secondly, I see your points and agree pretty much with everything. For me personally the top DS9 episodes are ranked like this 1) Duet, 2) In the Pale Moonlight, 3) the Visitor and then 4) Far Beyond the Stars. But that is just my personal preference. For objective Nr. 1 see my opening statement. (I joke, but it is also true.)
I keep meaning to get back to B5, but caught an ep here or there
But you are debating it
Great analysis. I forgot how impactful it was to see that episode when it first aired. It broke my heart.
It truly was, it was very impactful, thank you for sharing.
I got emotional just watching that short clip. The best episode? Absolutely!!
Great video! I completely agree. This was Star Trek at its best.
I agree with you completely, "Far Beyond the Stars" is the best Star Trek episode hands down. Benny's breakdown hits me even harder all these years later. Anytime I get into a serious discussion about Trek, "Far Beyond the Stars" and "In the Pale Moonlight" the first to come to mind.
"The sound of her voice" will always be the best one for me
Far Beyond the Stars is, in my opinion, the finest piece of Star Trek writing and acting ever. It hits home on so many levels for so many different people and its an episode you can't easily forget. DS9 is only second to TNG as my favorite Star Trek series because it was daring in its writing and the willingness to put those well written ideas in front of the camera!
The high points of Deep Space 9 were very high and more frequent
I agree that DS9 was one of the best series, THE best for me. I never would have thought of this episode if you had asked me to name my favorite, but now that you mention it, _absolutely_ .
I loved almost every episode of DS9. The metaplot was great, and nearly all of the single story episodes were really good. One of my fav episodes is the humorous one you didn't mention, "Little Green Men", and I also loved the ones with the Ferengi side trips, although I think "Trials and Tribbleations" has to be the best. Garek, Rom, Nog, and O'Brian were some of the most engaging characters ever, and major props to Armin Shimerman for holding the whole thing together as the social core for all the strange goings on.
The death of Jadsia Dax is the saddest thing I have ever witnessed in fiction. It broke my heart.
easily the best star trek series in my opinion. best episode for me is "in pale moonlight" as it makes the distinction of grey area of morality and garak who is one of my fave characters.
Excellent analysis. While I am in the fanboy crowd that considers "In The Pale Moonlight" to be their top episode, it's a bit unfair to make it a competition between those two episodes and the other masterpiece of writing, "The Visitor." They are very different stories with different goals in mind. But they are all connected by a moral core that challenges us with this question: In these situations, what would you do? It's not clear in any case what the "right" course of action is. And that is the case for much of life, whether it is inside or outside of a Star Trek episode.
It’s one of my all time favorite Star Trek episodes, but it has the biggest flaw, as the editor of the magazine could have easily left out the mention of the race of the Captain: problem solved.
Nobody would believe a black captain... Samuel L Gravely Jr. the U.S. Navy’s first African-American commander, captain, rear admiral, and vice admiral. Black officers in the US Army were much earlier, such as Henry Ossian Flipper in the late 1800's. For the US Air Force there were Daniel "Chappie" James Jr. and other officers of the Tuskegee Airmen, who went on to have distinguished military careers.
I cried genuine tears watching this. We should be far beyond racism and sexism after all these years! Yet, it still exists...
DS9 is hands down my favorite Trek, and it isn't close. "Take Me Out to the Holosuite" is one of my LEAST favorite episodes, though. I'd have to say "The Way of the Warrior" is my favorite. We get to see how much of a badass that station can be... and when Sisko says "battle stations" it really highlights the differences between he and other captains. Great video, thank you!
Great analysis of a great episode!
I don't know if I'd call this episode the best in DS9... But it's definitely one of the ones I tell people they need to watch.
Far Beyond the Stars is one of the best episodes of tv - period…however it doesn’t have enough “Trek” as the episode mostly takes place in 1950s Earth.
The best DS9 episode is In The Pale Moonlight as it contains many trek tropes that are cooked up to mouth watering perfection. The fact that Sisko is out-smarted by Garek is the cherry on the cake. And the episode is told as a long flashback from the perspective of a Captain’s Log is a unique story telling tool for ST.
ITPML is my favorite episode of DS9 and the one that defines the series as a whole to me. That said; FBTS is one of the best episodes of television ever. I also love the fact that it ends with us questioning whether Star Trek is “real” or if it is all the creation of Benny. This would, of course, completely explain the discrepancies between nu-Trek and Star Trek; someone else started writing it…. Which is actually true…
I believe it is impossible to truly finger one episode as being the greatest. Star Trek throughout its existence from the beginning to present has always brought controversy swirled with moral impurities while leaving great impacts on the ethics of society. I would say the accumulation of the Star Trek episodes and spin-offs are the best and let's not forget to include some of the spoofs that were made about the franchise.
Great analysis for one of the best episodes. I do like in the pale moonlight better, because I like cloak and dagger theatrics. But the bottom line is, I don’t have a favorite DS9 episode. There’s so many. I love the whole series and have dedicated a lot of time analyzing it with my brother and few friends that are actual trekkers. They just don’t make em like they used too. DS9 and Sisko will always remain my favorite. That I can tell you.
It’s hard to consider the least sci-fi episode of Star Trek as among the best but, in this case, it is.
The difference between TNG/DS9 and Nu Trek is that TNG/DS9 took risks. The Next Generation's risk was being set 60 years after The Original Series more specifically after the events of Star Trek IV The Voyage Home and 50 years after Star Trek VI The Undiscovered Country set in the future with an unfamiliar ship and an unfamiliar crew. Deep Space Nine risk was creating a more dark and gritty Star Trek reexamined through the lens of reality. You need the men who are like our man Julian Bashir as much as you need the men like Section 31's Luther Sloan.
It is easy to be a saint in paradise if you have not tasted desperation. It’s easy to cling to your principles when you’re standing on a vessel with its bulkheads intact, manned by a crew that’s not starving. Understanding what as well as why others do what they do will help you to empathize. To tell you the truth there can be no saints in paradise because those who think that they are but have not gone through suffering will never know what makes a righteous man. Real saints are born in the fires of hell where one is forged in the fires of hell because that is the greatest test of our limits. How much easier is it to cling to your righteous ideals to your self-sanctimonious preaching about how you should be in order to be human if you are existing or even living when you have not had to survive for once in your goddamn life?
It is funny that these people who have not tasted suffering or at least at its absolute worst have the right to judge people as they look down on them from their Ivory Towers. It’s all a paper fantasy. It’s all treaties and documents and none of it means anything, zero, zip, zilch, nada. Money that is not backed up by gold is nothing more than play money. All that matters in the end is the blood of your foes and the blood of your allies, the tough decisions.
Whose blood are you willing to be stained with and whose blood are you not willing to be stained with. The sad reality in times of war and hardship is that we are stained with the blood of friend and foe. And even more so the fear that you will become the very thing that you have sworn not to become. The best solution is to empathize with those who make these hard decisions. Be not afraid of the shadow. That is one of the most important things that I can say.
After all, there are no saints in paradise especially since good men from time to time have to do the dirty work which protects utopia. Things of which go against the very idealism of the United Federation of Planets. A very hard truth that is very hard to grasp for many people. People nowadays not even did I realize how controversial Star Trek The Next Generation and especially Deep Space Nine was. Star Trek Voyager on the other hand was the complete opposite of DS9. I said that I wanted to give Star Trek Discovery a try so I watched both Star Trek Prodigy, Star Trek Strange New Worlds, and Star Trek Picard and liked Prodigy and SNW but not Picard as much.
I believe this episode was referenced only twice later in the series.
@@kerryedavis It was also referenced in that "Badda Bing" episode.
I 100% agree with this. I hated this episode when it came out and its still very hard to watch today, but mainly because that was my family back in those days. When I was a kid it was "where are the spaceships" and "I don't want to watch another show about racism." Today its, that's my great aunt, my grandfather, my grandmothers, that's the bull they went through. Now that you know the family stories, this episode hits harder. DS9 was always my favorite Trek series because it was willing to flip the script. It was willing to be what I think DISCO, PICARD and SNWs were trying to be, to portray Earth as a utopia that has become oblivious and out of touch to how things work even at its own borders. It didn't need to rewrite Trek history to get this ether, it literally took everything TOS and TNG had done before and said and embraced it, but also showed that, there is also something more, that not everyone lives that way. So many people like to think that a utopia cannot make for compelling TV, they all need to be these sad sack dystopias like you see on Battlestar, but this show showed how you can bring that idea forward and showed how it can be compelling if you are willing to truly show why its so hard for this sort of society to exist. And also, why you (and the characters) need to fight to protect it. There is one thing I don't agree on though, Star Trek VI beats Trek II. Just saying.
Personally "duet" always sticks out in my mind. Unfortunately it sticks out because it's an episode that simply will never be made again. No executive would ever approve. If fiction can't grapple with the horrors of real life can and ask impossible questions they might never be asked because many people don't want an answer. (Not to mention it's in the first series people were not prepared for this episode.) Also the general complex character development kira from informal militia, freedom fighter, terrorist transitioning to a military position under formal government. Saying the ends justify the means is considered far too dangerous even if it's only in fiction, in the modern age.
Excellent video
Excellent video on an excellent episode
DS9 contains a Murderer's Row of great episodes to the point that it's splitting hairs to differentiate the top. There are so many, including this one, that on any given day that I would put at the top of my own ranking
DS9 always felt like 2 shows in one. There were Sisko centric episode and there were DS9 episodes.
As a non American who is fed with people banging on about racism I usually skip this episode when I rewatch DS9. As to my personal favourite while In The Pale Moonlight is awesome my mind went to For The Uniform.
That's your right, but for many of us, we can't 'skip' that aspect of reality in our daily lives.
RIP
Those who fought the good fight finished the course and kept the faith.
"We may not be related, but 'we' are still family."-A Ojibee quote of wisdom.
Ah yes what happened to us in the 1920s who dossnt like well written guilt pron? @@charleslennon1
I agree, but i understand why they did it. Plus, it was kinda cool to see all the actors without their makeup.
@@charleslennon1Absolutely, especially for those of us who live this EVERY DAY. Skipping this episode seems, no offence to the original poster but, kind of cowardly.
@@Grimloxz I would have said dismissive, but I hear you. It kind of misses the point of the series, to 'boldly go' where Star Trek won't venture.
Far Beyond the Stars is a *great* pick for best DS9 episode! I wish it was less relevant in today’s society, but, sadly that’s not the case.
I have a hard time picking a single favorite DS9 episode because so many of them are so meaningful to me. Other contenders include:
It’s Only a Paper Moon - An incredible exploration into the effects PTSD with incredible performances from Aron Eisenberg & James Darren.
The Visitor - Such a powerful story about the loving bond between after & son.
Duet, In the Pale Moonlight, Trials & Tribble-ations, Waltz.
Damnit I need to go rewatch all these episodes righy now 😅
Often, but not always, it is the format bending episodes of any show that are the best. My favorite STNG episode is The Inner Light, where (as most people watching this know) Picard lives an entire life as an ordinary man on a dying world. My favorite Family Ties episode is A, My Name is Alex, where Alex (played by Michael J. Fox) goes to therapy on a set that makes Spectre of the Gun look like it was filmed in the the actual Dodge City. (While I enjoyed Spectre of the Gun, it isn't my favorite original Star Trek episode. Maybe it takes more than format bending or maybe they didn't bend it far enough.)
I wanna live what we can be not just dream it. Somewhere Benny Russell is living his dream.
No shit, I literally watched "Far Beyond The Stars" last night just cuz I was in the mood for something heavy.
I'm not going to argue with you, exactly, but I think a Past Tense (I'm just going to refer to both episodes collectively) edges it out. Not because Far Beyond the Stars isn't incredible--it *totally* is--but because Past Tense completely nailed the gestalt of today.
What Avery Brooks is saying about Far Beyond the Stars--"You have a man who essentially was conceiving of something far beyond what people around him has ever imagined, and therefore they thought he was crazy"--applies, inversely, to Past Tense. Past Tense brutally confronts us with our own lack of humanity by showing it to us through the eyes of someone from the hypothetical best version of our own potential. A civilized person from a civilized society can't believe that a culture with so many resources would abandon its most vulnerable citizens to misery. THAT seems crazy to Bashir, who lives in a society beyond the dreams of those living in 2024.
I think Past Tense is Start Trek at its most real. (Again, HUGE fan of Far Beyond the Stars, too. Not mad at those who prefer Far Beyond the Stars).
I call it DeepSleep 9. The series was the first spinoff in the franchise that wasn't about a ship called Enterprise. I really tried to like it. I really did. But, it just did not impress me like TOS did. I finally gave up on it about halfway through the first season. Except for the Tribbles episode. The tech they used in meshing the current characters into a TOS episode was epic. But... an exploding Tribble? Come on! And don't get me started on Voyager and Enterprise. Both had promise, and I was looking forward to watching them, but they just didn't deliver.
If you could get past the first three seasons of TNG, there's no reason you couldn't get at least that far for DS9. The only "bad" season for DS9 is the first one. Things pick up after that... unlike TNG. DS9 has some of the best writing in television, period... not just the best writing in Trek.
I watched DS9 regularly when it first aired. I either caught it on air or set the VCR if I wasn't going to be home. This was definitely not my favorite script/plot for a DS9 episode, but the acting and direction were notably superb. The brow-beating "racism is bad" message does nothing for me, and I agree with Denzel Washington and Morgan Freeman on the topic. Seeing everyone out of their usual makeup and prosthetics for an episode was certainly a nice twist, though.
Maybe if ypu were a black man or woman in America you might not be so dismissive of racism.
Star Trek: Babylon 5
Exactly!!
Nope. Deep Space Nine aired first.
As much as I love B5, it isn't even in the same league as DS9.
Correction... B5 is more coherent... DS9 has a greater breadth of both episodic content and main plot arc...
Babylon 5 is okay, DS9 is vastly superior. There's some suggestion they are both rooted in the same conversation in the same meeting - but even if they are both variants of the same idea, DS9 is still the better one.
I'm in the middle of reading A Stitch in Time by Andrew Robinson (aka Garak). I'm so happy to get more Garak content and backstory!
Treachery, Faith, and the Great River is my favourite.
Great show. Great episode.
"what do you want reality to be?"
according to new star trek, we dont want the optimistic reality anymore. we are content with the cyberpunk dystopia, so much so that we have now translated it into star trek as well. rodenberry's original utopian vision is completely gone. there's your answer. star trek itself has answered it.
Sacrifice of Angels is one of my all time favorites.
Eh, I just like the Romulan runabout from Pale Moonlight. I can absolutely see your point from a "fiction as social commentary" perspective, though.
The biggest issue I had with ST:DS9 was that a space station like DS9 would be commanded by a flag officer so that no visiting captain could override his orders. Cisco should have been at least a senior Captain, or better yet a Rear Admiral, from the very start.
Maybe, after Bajor joins the Federation. But, at first, it was still a Bajorian Station with a Federation Command. Remember Kira even said so at the end of Season 5,.
It’s because DS9 was originally unimportant. The Federation really didn’t care that much about bringing Bayjor in. It was simply their way of having a presence on the border with the Cardassians, and it only became important when the wormhole was discovered and even became more important once the dominion war started. you could make an argument that once the wormhole was discovered that they either should’ve brought in a higher ranking officer or promoted Sisco at that point. (Though due to the Bajorans new connection to Sisco because of the profits they really couldn’t replace him) But it it’s because the original set up was that the station wasn’t important.
Your right, it should of been a flag officer, Commodore or above, but it also doesn't work the way you said, a senior Capt cannot go onto someone else's base and take over. It's like on an aircraft, U might have a Lt in the pilot seat, and a Capt in the co-pilot seat, the Lt is still in charge and the Capt would be expected to follow the orders of the Lt as if he were a higher rank than him.
A visiting officer can't overrule a Commanding Officer, regardless of rank, outside of very narrow circumstances. The authority of a Commanding Officer is delegated by the highest authority, which is Starfleet in this case. Only a senior officer in the chain of command could overrule a Commanding Officer or if there's some sort of situation in which the Commanding Officer is unfit or incapacitated. In such a case even a junior officer is compelled to take temporary command. Some starship captain visiting DS9 would actually be compelled to follow the orders of Sisko regarding conduct of the station and surrounding space. Sisko would be required to show them proper respect, but he's in charge of the station. Being commissioned as a Commanding Officer isn't just an assignment of where they work. It means they embody the executive power of the authority they serve at the command that they have been given. Sisko isn't just a Commander and then later a Captain. He is Starfleet at DS9. Just as Picard was Starfleet aboard the Enterprise.
A flag officer wouldn't be stationed at DS9 at the time the command was established because it was an insignificant posting, with no subordinate stations or ships and the command staff was very small. Admirals are in charge of large organizations. After it became a strategic, commercial and scientific hub due to the wormhole it could be justified to assign a more senior officer along with additional staff and resources, but ultimately the station was sovereign territory of a foreign power and the Federation was an invited guest. Sisko couldn't be replaced because he had become an icon for the people of that foreign power. Sisko had to stay in command, but a more senior officer could be assigned to command the region if that wouldn't have been seen as a new occupation. In real world navies, an Admiral can command a fleet from a ship, but a captain is in command of that ship. They actually did that in DS9 during the war when they had senior commanders of the allied forces stationed at DS9 to command the fleet. Sisko was still in command of the station, until they had to leave.
@@internetgas2020 That's not quite right. For a multi-crew aircraft there is an assigned Aircraft Commander for that sortie and sometimes a Mission Commander. Each role has specific duties. A non-pilot officer, like a navigator, could be assigned as Mission Commander, while a pilot is Aircraft Commander. They both do their jobs and give orders to each other. They don't treat each other as if one had a higher rank. They treat each other as officers assigned with duties. The Aircraft Commander is monitoring the aircraft and making discissions based upon conditions. The Mission Commander is monitoring the overall mission. Rank has meaning in broad and general terms, but in specifics it actually comes down to who was assigned to perform a duty by the command authority. If an LT is in charge despite a Capt also being assigned to the flight, it's because the Squadron or Wing Commander assigned that duty for whatever reason. Just like a lowly Private can give orders to Majors if that private is acting under orders from the Colonel in command of the Regiment. Rank is a tiebreaker in the absence of specific instructions.
Avery Brooks is a gem of an actor and human being.
Couldn't agree more. This is by far my favorite episode of all Star Trek. Even as much as I love Wrath of Khan, this holds a higher place...by a lot.
(This isn't a fully formed thought) IMO, Prejudice, Racism, and Tribalism exist on a genetic level, they aren't just social constructs. We needed them for survival, survival of self and the group. But it's time to evolve and we can't do that until we face these issues. Avery is right, it isn't just about skin color, in fact I would argue it never was. It's about fear and insecurity. The insecurity comes from an individual or group excelling at life better than you. The fear comes being replaced in the hierarchy. We are all human, no one is superior to someone else. Sure some people are more athletic, more intelligent, more creative, but those are traits of the individual not of the group. Humans as a whole are strongest when we work together as one unit. Which leads me back to insecurity and fear. The source of our problems, division.
We are deliberately divided by the ruling class, because we can't challenge them if we are fighting each other. And that's their fear, that we will unite and remove them from power. I'm talking about the types of people who have always been in charge, from the very beginning of civilization. This concept of I'm the King or Lord. You are my subject. You exist to serve my needs. I eat first and you can eat what remains. Throughout recorded history groups of people have tried to stand against them, and they've had some successes. But those successes are always short lived. For instance America's founding fathers came together to stand against a King and his power and control over their lives. They envisioned a country based on Freedom and Equality, but can you honestly tell me that's what we have today? The erosion of that idea started almost immediately. The Constitution has to be accepted by a majority and to accomplish that the framers made concessions so that it would be acceptable to all, like an end to slavery. Along the way those ideals were by in large chipped away. Again there were successes that made it over the wall, Slavery's end, the Civil Rights Act. But overall nothing has changed. And it never will so long as we allow ourselves to be united.
We are all human, let's ACT like it.
We all know you not wrong, but 'Trials and Tribble-ations' ;)
I bought this series and watch it from time to time as well as Babylon 5. I thought they were both that good and was worried they would not be available.
I'm not a massive fan of this episode.
ST usually was more subtle in the broad strokes for its aesops but this one just reminded everyone that the US was more backward than the rest of the West despite having most of the power.