You have already rewatched VOY, DS9 and TNG more than seven times, right?
this post was submitted on 21 Nov 2023
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Lower Decks, Enterprise, Picard, TOS, The Animated Series, The Orville? So many treks to watch!
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I started watching DS9 for the first time couple of months ago. It is very good but visuals are quite dated (just finished season 1).
Woah slow down there, a season a year is pushing it but a season every few months? You're crazy!
Not in that particular order, no
Somewhat. I've never completed a full watch through of DS9 but I've seen the other two countless times.
Right, hand over your fan card. DS9 is unmissable
Not the first person to say that lol
Well, DS9 it is then. I know it's hard to survive the first two seasons, but it'll be worth it.
Those first two seasons really aren't that bad. There are some episodes that are downright excellent in there. Duet is a masterpiece.
Start mid-S2 if it’s really rubbing you. Armageddon Game is a great intro to one of the best relationships on the show, and a good story in its own right. By the time you reach the Maquis you’ll be hooked.
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I’m convinced that many people don’t appreciate DS9 until their 30s.
Cool that the 90s shows each seem to appeal to different demographics even though they were all in theory designed for mass audiences ( unlike in the current streaming era).
The problem seems to be that a lot of younger fans that get into Voyager & TNG, just cringe at DS9 or find it boring. Once they’ve had that experience they’re hard to convince to give it a fresh shot when they’re older.
I think many of us feel that DS9 is one of those shows where each season is an improvement on the one before it. So it starts out pretty mundane at best with some terrible episodes, but by the final season it's pretty incredible.
My issue with the show extends throughout all seasons, unfortunately. There's a few reasons as to why I am not interested but they're all personal opinion. No serious complaints about the shows quality overall.
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Serious question; have you watched For All Mankind?
Nah. I can't watch alternate period pieces like that, Man in the High Castle and even Inglorious Bastards. My brain cannot cope with history being different for some reason and I start getting really uncomfortable and stressed out/anxious. The sensory issues that I've gotten from my autism are the dumbest things possible.
However I haven't seen the final season of the Expanse. So considering starting that up again... That being said I also have never seen Stargate, Babylon 5 or Battlestar Galactica. So not like I have a shortage of sci-fi at the moment.
My two-cent hot-takes on that list of shows:
- Stargate: For the time, it did the Trek format incredibly well if not better. First season was rough, but oddly found its feet when SciFi took over (weird, right?) Good characters, great villains, fantastic arcs. The show "ends" multiple times, with the last few seasons being less than fan favorites. That said, if you love the characters by the end you may find yourself putting up with late season plot devices. Atlantis is good too, but shorter with slightly less compelling plot hooks. The short-lived SGU sequel/spinoff is has this man-v-man flavor not unlike DSC season 1, but doesn't stand on its own lore-wise.
- Babylon 5: The even more grounded DS9. But like the oft-compared Trek series, the production values are a 1990's time-capsule, which (today) has a kind of charm to it. The story arcs center around diplomacy, subterfuge, spycraft, and interstellar war, all told in a universe that is delightfully consistent and charts its own territory. Characters play off each other incredibly well once the series gets going.
- Galactica: I'm going to assume you mean the reboot*. This is a gripping serial epic with very few filler and bottle episodes. Characters grow and evolve, allegiances change, motivations shift, ethics are challenged, and whole personalities get re-written. You can slap "space opera" on the box and be correct, but you can't describe more than two character arcs without filling your mouth with crazy nonsense. Yet somehow, it all works brilliantly and draws you in over and over again. It stands apart from the source material, but has lots of nods and references to the original so that the old farts in the audience are enthused.
(* The original BSG is a hot mess of amazing-for-the-time effects, cool characters, great concepts, and bad studio interference. Best enjoyed using mind-altering substances because that's clearly what the writers were doing)
Original Galactica: Somehow makes TOS feel mature and grounded.
Reimagined Galactica: The original grimdark reboot. It's one of the few works that did "grimdark reboot" well because at the time "it had the virtue of having never been tried."
This is what Ronald D. Moore did in response to being replaced on Star Trek Voyager for trying to make it the exact same kind of show but was told to make it light-hearted and episodic like TOS or walk. So he walked.
Fuck you, Rick Berman.
Galactica 1980: We don't talk about Galactica 1980.
The Galactica take got me rolling for some reason.
Babylon 5 and Galactica are the ones people have pushed me the hardest to watch. I've been meaning to but haven't gotten around to it. Babylon 5 probably pushed harder on me because I don't like DS9 and everyone keeps saying that B5 is DS9 but better. Just keep rewatching the same few things over and over again. Eventually I'll get to it and hate myself for not having started it sooner.
Personally, I think the problem with Galactica nowadays is that the world is generally far more depressing than it was when the show came out. I can take dark and gritty, but it was more fun then. Now, I prefer something more lighthearted.
Like the flashback episode of SNW, where we saw Chapel and M'Benga during the Klingon War. My first though was "this is awesome, I could watch a whole show like that", but shortly afterwards, I realised "nope, that would be way too much, bring back Captain Daddy making jokes about how flipping the communicator open is better than tapping a commbadge.
Or maybe I'm just more of a miserable bastard than I was 20 years ago. IDK.
But hey, for any sci-fi fan, I'd certainly recommend at least watching the miniseries that kicks it all off. Get a feel for the characters and the universe they're in.
I've never watched Babylon 5. Everyone always raves about it, but I don't know if I could get past the extremely dated looking effects.
Plus there's so much new content coming out. I can't criticise anyone who doesn't want to watch older stuff, because who has the time to watch it all?
That being said... you have seen Firefly, right?
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There's a lot of fighting between DS9 and B5. The story goes that B5 series creator J. Michael Straczynski had shopped the series bible around, including to Paramount. They weren't interested, but when they heard it got picked up by WB, they rushed their own space station based Star Trek series forward. With people coming over from TNG, they get a pilot ready faster than JMS can create a series from scratch.
Since they had the B5 series bible, there's long been allegations that DS9 is a ripoff of B5. Indeed, there do seem to be some elements stolen out of it. For example, the pilot of B5 has a "changeling net" technology that lets people impersonate each other, which had apparently evolved out of an early draft of a changeling species, which DS9 copies outright.
What Paramount studio execs did was definitely underhanded. They were deliberately pushing out a show to make sure B5 wouldn't get to the same level of popularity as Star Trek. They probably did steal elements from the B5 bible and pushed Berman and Piller to use them.
However, fans make more of the similarities than are really there. Berman and Piller were almost certainly unaware of why the studio was pushing certain ideas and where they got them from (and JMS said as much at the time). Most of the stolen elements are ultimately superficial. The way the central conflict unfolds is very different, the characters are very different, and the technology is all different. B5 doesn't center around a planet coming out of a long term colonial authoritarian government, and DS9 doesn't have humanity crawling out of a war that nearly destroyed it and which ended for mysterious reasons. B5 doesn't have an excellent father-son relationship, and DS9 doesn't have a wisecracking ambassador who's very likeable despite doing some incredibly fucked up things.
They are both excellent shows, and well worth your time.
So - I swear I tried to google this yesterday and came up empty. I have a weird question.
Was there a third Sci-fi series that aired around the same time as Babylon 5 and DS9? It may have had a plot thread that involved genetically engineered space spies? Like telepathic central intelligence officers? Or am I thinking of B5?
I was in college at the time (mid 90s) and didn't have the free time to watch much TV. I caught an episode here or there and would occasionally talk about shows with my friend Spencer. I'm definitely not thinking about DS9 because I've seen that in its entirety fairly recently.
Babylon 5 had the Psi Corps, a branch of the military that was made up of people with telepathic powers. I'm guessing that's what you're remembering.
That must be it. Thanks
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My brother in Christ...
WATCH STARGATE!
It is probably the most well-rounded sci-fi ever made. Very good characters, very funny, and the budget kept getting bigger with each season. (Probably should've stopped after season 8, the whole Ori plot feels tacked on - it's still pretty solid, though.)
There are a lot of familiar actors throughout the series, including some from Trek.
- You don't need to watch the original MGM movie, it's technically set in a different universe. But it is fun. And the events of this movie are explained in the series as needed.
- Do make sure you watch the R-rated version of the series pilot (Stargate started off on HBO)
- And don't forget to watch the two TV movies set after the end of the series. One is okay, the other is excellent.
....When you're done with that, then you can watch Stargate Atlantis which has even better characters!
Okay I lied a little. I saw two Stargate movies and I've seen a handful of Atlantis episodes. Stargate proper looks okay but not as in line with my tastes as Atlantis seems to be. Also cute dude with glasses on Atlantis. That helps. Then again SG1 has that silver fox so who knows...
I'll get to it when I get to it!
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I really liked Babylon 5, I'll say it gets REALLY good around season four. Season five is a little bit less good but it isn't bad
For the final season of the Expanse, I'll try not to spoil anything but I'll say that Covid has once again given me a reason to despise it for what it did to the ending
COVID fucked over so much. I dunno how much of a surprise this is but I liked Supernatural and the ending that they went with was garbage. Although the producers have said that COVID didn't impact the ending that heavily. I hope to fuck they're lying because if that was a conscious decision then fuck 'em all.
yeah, I'm pretty sure the Expanse was supposed to have more episodes in the last season until Covid killed it so it ends... oddly
It's great up until that point though
Definitely watch Stargate, then. Start with the '94 movie.
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I was like this when Stargate was in it's hay day
Me with lower decks... Lol.
This is a big part of why I don't start watching a show until it's complete.
This meme really says how I feel.
I was just continuing my risa-inspired rewatch of DS9 last night, and it made me think of you all here.
I think its been a really long time since my last watch through, and the upside is that a lot of it feels fresh again, even though I know the characters and the general trajectory of the plot. I think I like this show even more already.
I’m in season 2 and just a few episodes back was “Cardassians,” wherein a Cardassian orphan living on the planet as a Bajoran sets the scene for Garak to flex all over the fucking place.
You forgot Enterprise Season 5?
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