Star Trek Deep Space Nine - The Complete First Season
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DVD details
Actor: Avery Brooks, Nana VisitorBrand: BROOKS,AVERY
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language)
Format: Box set, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 908 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2003-02-25
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Paramount
DVD Reviews of Star Trek Deep Space Nine - The Complete First Season
DVD Review: This isn't that great a show...
Summary: 3 Stars
The product quality itself is very good - complete episodes, extras, cool packaging (although a bit weird). Although the disc holders were very frustrating for a long time, I finally did eventually figure out how the discs are supposed to be removed. (It isn't at all obvious!) Normal removal attempts used to result in lots of bending and stressful efforts. Eventually I found that the secret is: while holding down the center tab, and after prying up one edge of the disc with one hand, with your other hand, run a finger along the perimeter of the rest of the disc, pulling it up a bit as you go. The discs tend to pop out neatly once this ritual is performed, but until I figured that out, the darn things often seemed near impossible to remove without bending the disc or breaking the tabs (as so many other reviewers have reported).
Anyway, happy though I am with the product, its the show itself that is problematic. It's decent enough compared with the average tv show, but is so much weaker than all previous Star Trek shows that the bulk of my review must dwell on that inferiority. First, the claim that the series was an attempt to pre-empt the forthcoming (at the time) "Babylon 5" seems to have a lot of merit. I was at a Trek convention (East Lansing, 1992, guests Majel Barrett Roddenberry and John DeLancie) when this show was announced, with the claim that it would satisfy fans who wanted a "darker" mood with more tension and conflict between crew members. My friend and I looked at each other in confusion - who the heck asked for that? It turns out that that was apparently part of the original Babylon 5 pitch to Paramount. Well, sorry dudes, but neither series had a strong 1st season. Deep Space 9's first 20 episodes were more consistent in quality than B5, but both were far inferior to Star Trek: The Next Generation.
Dealing only with DS9 problems:
#1 Ferengi!! I have never personally met anyone who was a fan of Ferengi characters or Ferengi episodes. Some of the treatment they receive is simply childish. Thus, there were many times when DS9 felt like a children's show. Sorry again, people, but the intended commentary about capitalism through Ferengi culture is pretty shallow. Yet, a Ferengi character is apparently used through all 7 season's cast lineups. A clear strike against the show if ever there was one. (I'm now watching season 2 and one Ferengi episode truly feels like watching Fraggle Rock, with Moppet voices that simply can't be taken seriously; even while other actors are actually doing a very good job at their roles, the overall tone simply feels childish.)
#2 Limited scenario - In season one, the characters rarely went very far; the series tended to lack the sense of exploration and unknowns that Star Trek had always tried to revel in. The season did a good job of doing what it could, but DS9 felt much smaller than B5, as a station, and many first season episodes really didn't offer Commander Sisko a chance to do very much at all in a command role. From what I recall, this problem would be fixed later on. According to the Star Trek Next Gen Companion book, the producer thought it would be ridiculous to have two shows with ships exploring the galaxy at the same time. I have no clue what would be so ridiculous about that!! And eventually, it happened anyway. Rather, it seems to make sense that they actually *were* trying to make their own Babylon 5 rip-off, instead of just a Trek spin-off. I don't think they should have cared, or bothered. Deep Space Nine, season one, makes for generally tolerable but unexceptional viewing. I therefore disagree with the numerous positive reviews posted on this site. And I'm coming from the background of having watched every episode and movie of Star Trek up to the point of DS9's initial broadcast. Next Gen Season 6 was so much better than DS9 season 1 on every count. (Only a handful of episodes from first season were even comparable.)
#3 Dr. Bashir's character in this season often feels simply out of place and not really adding to the claimed "darkness" or "grittiness" or "drama" or "crew conflict" but simply inappropriately goofy.
#4 Uninspired scripts and scenario - The first season had only two episodes that are truly worthy contributions to Star Trek, and they were the final two episodes of the season! Very good quality, but everything before that was either mediocre, decent, or, at best, pretty good. The feature-length pilot episode was fairly well regarded according to IMDB reviews, but was in my book probably the least-compelling two-parter up to that time. They thought they were being really clever with all the visions that Sisko had, I'm sure, but really I felt that instead of impressing in any way, it simply interfered with the tone of the pilot, making it feel more disjointed and less effective at building a true sense of climax. Also, their notion to make things different from Trek was misguided. The show really doesn't feel gritty or dark at all, and the "crew tension" really adds very little to the show, while it *does* detract from the authority and image of Commander Sisko, who feels far smaller and more passive than any of the other Star Trek Captains. When given a chance by the writers, he's fine. But they spent a lot more time on other characters who didn't deserve so much attention.
#5 No standout non-human character - Let's face it, Spock and vulcan philosophy was critical for the success of Star Trek. And Data and his android explorations (plus Picard's philosophy) were vital to the success of Next Gen. Next Gen also had some really strong acting talent!! DS9, by contrast, doesn't have any standout character, nor any particular venue for Trek philosophizing. And the cast's talent in DS9 isn't so readily apparent in DS9 as it was in the first season of Next Gen. Is there an "I Hate Nog" group for DS9 like there (undeservedly) was for Wesley Crusher in Next Gen? The Ferengi certainly deserved it more, but probably no one really cared, because other Star Trek could be turned to, instead. The real heir to Next Gen was Star Trek: Voyager. DS9 simply ran simultaneously and was an obvious spin-off rather than a true sequel. And in its original airings it was not well-served by its ongoing story aspects - endless references to Cardassians and The Dominion and such. On DVD, such continuity is at least not a problem anymore, and while I actively disliked the first season of DS9 when originally aired with commercials (and the inevitable episodes that were missed sometimes in their original broadcast), I must admit that the series isn't *that bad* - none of the episodes are outright totally bad (as a few B5 episodes were in its first season) but there were definitely a number that were only fair, with significant problems that kept them from being very effective. Thus, overall, on average, the first season is middle-of-the-road fare; the vast majority of it not particularly memorable, and with only two standout episodes at its very end (and one earlier one, Captive Pursuit, that I would say was pretty good, along with another handful not too far behind, but each episode generally feels like a gamble between "pretty good" or "decent" or "mediocre" - with nothing outstanding until the very end (and the start of season two was no better in quality - the show didn't sustain what it had built up to by the end of season 1; not sure about later seasons yet).
Description of Star Trek Deep Space Nine - The Complete First Season
Provides all nineteen episodes of the first season of the popular Star trek television program about a Federation space station guarding a wormhole that leads to the other side of the galaxy.Genre: Television
Rating: NR
Release Date: 25-FEB-2003
Media Type: DVD
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