Why Ds9 was the best trek
Its unfortunate that as i talk to many fellow star trek fans among MY sto fleet and in zone in sto, i have come to realise that not ever fan has watched every series of star trek,and this includes my beloved DS9. Many fans have argued that the Dominion war was the antitheses of Gene Roddenberry's vision, I would argue that although that is technically true, it's because of that ironically,that makes the Dominion war work so well for the series and for star trek in general.
TOS was about hope for the future, that man would overcome its own fears and prejudice and come together as one world to then go out there and represent the best of that united world, and make friends with other worlds spreading our enlightened -cough cough push democracy- ways upon the less civilized worlds out there as well as allow them the wonderful benefit and opportunity to join our ranks and be like us.(hmm...)
TNG represented our golden age of arrogance and self righteous preaching just at the dawn of wolf359, which ironically as critic sfdebris very interestingly pointed out in his review of "Best of Both Worlds",had the same reaction in the fictional world of trek that the real USA did after post 911 long before the actual 911 happened. (life imitating art or visionary thinking?). That is actually the juice of my point- wolf 359 represented the idea that the complacency the federation enjoyed was now at risk of being destroyed, and that sometimes you can't solve every problem diplomatically. 39 ships lost was a sad moment..but earth alone took over 8 million losses to a Breen orbital bombardment in Ds9 near the end of the Dominion war, and that was just one of many losses.
Ds9 was Trek at its darkest,and again,it cannot be argued that that it was the counter proposition of what Roddenberry wanted in Trek, but rather than pretend it was,they used that as the exact nature of what we stood to lose,rather than glorify the war as an awesome "adventure"with lots of explosions as star wars does. No..Ds9 did not glorify the war,it used it as a platform to tell stories that showed the federation at its best,when it had the most to lose and stood on the brink of collapse.No more preaching about the prime directive,no more "oh no my telepathic mother is back on board" being the darkest thing to look forward to dealing with,the Best of Both worlds, while epic to this day,was a short lived threat. The Dominion war arc spanned 2 seasons before concluding with victory for the Federation and its allies.
So to any who have not seen it yet,or fully, WTF is wrong with you? go on youtube..it has most of it.
