Discuss DS9's Final Season

[Durandal_1707]

I just wouldn't say they ran out of ideas just because Sisko became a Space Jesus. They were doing more with Sisko before Season 7 that involved more than Sisko just being an Emissary to the Prophets. He was starting to become a Prophet for the Prophets.

Maybe they jumped the shark with making Sisko being a Space Jesus but I just don't see it as running out of ideas. I think making Dukat the Space Devil/Anti-Christ was more about trying to keep Dukat relevant to the end the series between him and Sisko. While accidently ending his series arc in The Walz.

They had plenty of storylines. Damar's rebellion. The Breen weapon. Klingon stories. The lead up with the Pah Wraiths. The Founder illness and Section 31. All of these are plenty to work with. Maybe some don't like it, but to me it doesn't sound like they ran out of ideas.

I don't know, turning Dukat from the franchise's most interesting villain to a pantomime villain smacks of desperation.

Pantomime villain is correct. The obvious course of action to keep Dukat relevant would be a redemption arc whereby he dies trying to free Cardassia. I said before that this man wants power and adulation. But he also does care dearly for Cardassia - or at least, the romantic version of it inside his head. I do not believe that Dukat would have allowed the Dominion to target Cardassian cities. I also do not think that he would have been all that impressed by Weyoun giving over Cardassian territory to the Breen either.

Dukat should have stayed in the Federation prison / mental institution. No way they would have let him escape that easily. Seriously, a BS shuttle^H^H^H^H^H^H^Hrunabout crash while being guarded by only one guy? He should have been under maximum security at all times.

Dukat's arc ended with "Sacrifice of Angels." I understand why the writers didn't want to do a redemption arc for him, but what they did was not better. If you had to bring Dukat back, I would have just had some shots of him having a breakdown in prison while hearing the news of what happened to Cardassia because of his actions. Or, alternatively, you could have him keep delusionally writing letters trying to convince people that actually, he was Bajor's biggest friend all along, like Robert de Niro at the end of Killers of the Flower Moon, and with no one buying any of it.

I think my version of season 7 would also improve Jadzia's death who, lets be honest about this, joins Tasha Yar and Trip Tucker on the bullshit main character death scale. ''Devil Dukat teleports in and kills her in five seconds flat'' is really, really, lame. Dukat can still be the one to kill her (although that would have truly made him irredeemable in the eyes of the audience so Weyoun would have been a better choice), but after an epic firefight, maybe even on-board the ship that Ezri is on so that we can actually see the choice that she had to make between her old life and that of the next host to the Dax symbiont.

There was a literal war on. There were a thousand ways to have Jadzia die that would have made perfect sense, and would also reduce the sense of invincibility around the main characters who always get through all these harrowing situations completely unscathed. Why they decided to do the Tasha Yar thing instead is completely incomprehensible to me.

[Nealithi]

There was a literal war on. There were a thousand ways to have Jadzia die that would have made perfect sense, and would also reduce the sense of invincibility around the main characters who always get through all these harrowing situations completely unscathed. Why they decided to do the Tasha Yar thing instead is completely incomprehensible to me.

I think the reason is producers are out of touch managers. When I read your question I went to other sources and Farrell had a falling out with Rick Berman. She wanted some cut backs to her schedule and he said no. Similar to two things done to Wil Wheaton. First telling him he could not appear in a movie because he was 'integral' to an episode, then was written out of it. And when negotiating salaries they offered to make his character a lieutenant. Like a fictional promotion would pay the rent.

So they killed her off instead of acquiescing to her demands, and killing her off casually is a form of punishment. Like they were throwing away the character.


Then again, Hollywood is not good at main character deaths. Looking at Kirk, Data, and Han Solo deaths.

[BridgeConsoleMasher]

Yeah I've seen the show 3 times by now and the war is mostly what I remember from the last season. The underlying theme is that while Sisko targets the enemy, Kiera is finding solace with her people. Not only that but she embraces working with Cardassians to overtake the Dominion.

I get that Space Jesus is a marquee symbol easily substantiated by a few semblances of what that character would actually mean, but Sisko is undoubtedly digging his own grave throughout the course of the show. Take his handling of the Maquis spy when he threatened the entire planet.

[clearspira]

OK, here's another bit of BS from season 7: Rom being made Grand Nagus. Although admittedly, given some of the presidents, prime ministers business leaders we've seen irl since, slightly less unbelievable now than it was then that someone so ridiculously unqualified could rise to this position.

Contrast this to Babylon 5. It was made clear very early on that Londo was going to be the ruler of the Centauri. The fun bit was watching how and why he got there. Obviously the Ferengi are a joke, but the idea that this guy, who can barely talk, can barely think straight half the time, was given this job? It absolutely stretches credulity. And why is it that the Grand Nagus - the man who runs an interstellar quasi-empire - only seems to know Quark and Rom? No one else in the Alpha Quadrant qualified for this job?

I will always maintain my belief that in any realistic universe the FCA would have done a Julius Caesar to Rom within short order. They are cutthroat, they are ambitious, they are absolutely not above murder, and they will have a large pool of candidates to choose from once Rom starts his radical reforms. The Ferengi are Taliban-level misogynists and we all know what happened there.

[Durandal_1707]

I will always maintain my belief that in any realistic universe the FCA would have done a Julius Caesar to Rom within short order. They are cutthroat, they are ambitious, they are absolutely not above murder, and they will have a large pool of candidates to choose from once Rom starts his radical reforms. The Ferengi are Taliban-level misogynists and we all know what happened there.

Quark even said as much in an earlier episode, the ones where the Prophets rewired Zek's brain to make him nice. He was convinced that the Ferengi were going to throw him off the tower of commerce.

[hammerofglass]

I will always maintain my belief that in any realistic universe the FCA would have done a Julius Caesar to Rom within short order. They are cutthroat, they are ambitious, they are absolutely not above murder, and they will have a large pool of candidates to choose from once Rom starts his radical reforms. The Ferengi are Taliban-level misogynists and we all know what happened there.

Quark even said as much in an earlier episode, the ones where the Prophets rewired Zek's brain to make him nice. He was convinced that the Ferengi were going to throw him off the tower of commerce.

Hell when Quark was briefly Nagus there were multiple attempts, including one by Rom himself!

[J!!]

I've always assumed that Rom was meant to be a public figurehead, with his mother actually running things from behind the throne.

[stryke]

Lower Decks did show that him and Leeta were a pretty effective team, and Rom had clearly learnt by then that playing down to his reputation as an idiot people will underestimate him.

But yeah it's on my list of really dumb stuff from s7 that made the universe feel significantly smaller.

[McAvoy]

I forgot about Rom. Yeah I didn't like that at all. Rom is let's say a dumb genius. His more natural endpoint as a character would be the chief of engineering for DS9 taking over for O'Brien.

Some B Plot where O'Brien has that realization that Rom really could take over his position is the reason why he took thd job back at Earth. It follows Nog's statement on his father when he breaks down in front of Sisko on why he wants to join Starfleet.

I wouldn't even make Quark the Grand Nagus either. In fact, I would keep Quark's position on the progressive attitudes at the homeworld the same. No need for Zek to retire at the end of the series or involve one of three main Ferengis of the show.

[Durandal_1707]

How about doing whatever the hell they want with the Ferengi, but not polluting a critical episode in the Cardassian arc with that crap so that we can just properly skip the episode?