I just re watched Emissary and the first eps from the first dvd of DS9 and it is amazing how deep and complex and excellent the story and all the actors are….several scenes even foreshadow the last episodes 7 years later…..How can anyone forget characters like Major Kira, Quark, Odo, and Dax? And Cisko, and his love and pain for his late wife, and how he could not let go of her even though it was a dark painful place until the aliens pointed it out to him…..and he cried…he cried….in the first episode….I have to admit…..DS9 was a much more HUMAN ADVENTURE than TNG ever was….that also explains its focus on WAR later in the series….also alas, all too human….

I do lament the show didn’t have a chance to keep going on under Manny Coto. I keep hoping for a TV movie or direct to DVD release which “untells” the show finale like in the book “The Good that Men Do.”

I don’t generally re-watch the first and second seasons, because I think it was still finding the right gear, but I love revisting the third and especially 4th seasons once in awhile. ENT found a good stride once Manny Coto came aboard to steer the ship. Sadly, too many had abandoned it early or never gotten the opportunity to see it in the first place on that obscure network.

“Twilight”, “Similitude”, and “Terra Prime” are also wonderful episodes.

I also can’t bag on ENT too much. Yes, the show had its problems, but overall I really enjoyed it. Sure, It had continuity issues, but usually (though not always) was at least decent Science Fiction. I was more fond of those characters than of many of the TNG or Voyager characters as well. Frankly, Soval and Admiral Forrest’s conversation in the opening scene of “The Forge” exemplified everything I personally think Star Trek is about. I hope the new film gets that as well…

Here’s mine:

TOS
ENT
DS9
TNG
TAS
VOY

I think that TOS had about 20-25 fantastic episodes. The rest range from okay to just bad. But the thing is–to me–some of the bad ones are so bad—they’re fantastic!

I couldn’t combine TNG and VOY and come up with 25 episodes that I’d go out of my way to watch again—and both of them ran for 7 seasons each.

I really like DS9 alot though. Some good stuff there. I suppose that I surprise alot of people with my second choice, but to each his own, right?

There is really only one TAS episode that I care anything about, and probably not so surprisingly, it is “Yesteryear”. Great story.

No, Sisko was the lead. The title sequence had “Starring Avery Brooks…” and then everyone else was in alphabetical order by the actors’ surnames, which meant Ms. Visitor was actually at the bottom of the cast list.

[In a semi-related thought, I always wondered how come Cirroc Lofton was called a regular, especially in the last few series - I'm pretty sure Garak, f'rinstance, appeared in more eps in the last series than Jake...]