Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

I have been watching repeat episodes of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. I am running through the seventh and final season and I have found that some of the strongest episodes came in its final two years. The series finished its run of original episodes in 1999. It ended with one unresolved storyline. Everybody went their merry ways except… 

The main story revolved around a new space station commander and his son. There were hundreds of other characters and plot twists but Benjamin Sisko was the central character. Perhaps as foreshadow of events to come, throughout the series, Sisko’s death, potential or actual was examined more than once. Each time, the bond between son and father could not be severed, emotionally or sub-space physics-ly. Each time the son was not yet capable of, or mature enough to handle Sisko's death.

The series ended with son Jake left to contend with his father’s departure and finally capable of being on his own.

But what happened to the Sisko? We know he went to the Celestial Temple to study with The Prophets but he was supposed to eventually come back. While not a pure cliffhanger, the other story-lines were resolved and we are left with this one big question.

Similar to the series finale of Angel, don’t you want to know what happened to Angel, Illyria and Spike after the battle with the demons?

Due to the failure of the later TNG films it is unlikely we will ever see a conclusion to the DS9 story arc on screen. I am curious as to what a J.J. Abrams re-imagined DS9 would look like.

The show was filled with great characters and some fun stories. Last week I watched the DS9 baseball episode Take Me Out to the Holosuite.

During play on the diamond, Sisko encourages his team – who have never played ball before - to chatter at the opposing batter.

In response to,”Batter, batter, batter…” Worf yells, “Destroy the opposition.”

A later scene has the mystified Ferengi catcher not knowing what to do when the runner misses home plate.

Worf yells, “Find him and kill him!”

Of all the ST series DS9 remains my favourite. TNG was more consistent in terms of plot. It also had the luxury of a young and undeveloped Star Trek universe for the writers to create. The darker edge of DS9 appealed to me more.

Each of the Star Trek series dealt with social issues, DS9 took it a step further and dealt seriously with themes of bigotry, genocide, terrorism, racism, stress of combat and the consequences of war.