I'll always love TOS because like you I watched it at a young age and it still holds up for me. But DS9 is just awesome. Just the character interaction alone is tremendous. Add that in with all the great continuing stories that develop over the series and what you get is sheer greatness.

I'm 30, grew up watching TNG and never gave DS9 or VOY a chance. But recently I have. Currently close to finishing 2nd Season of DS9 and I really do like the characters. And from what people tell me, the show gets better.

It really does get better with each season. In my opinion. I watched the entire voyager series once. I thought it was solid but not even in the same universe as ds9 or tng. I can't see myself ever revisiting that series again

In Summer last year I stupidly tried to watched ENT, DS9 and VOY all at the same time. After I finished first seasons of each show I decided to do the rest one at a time. So I first completed ENT as that had less episodes. Like I said now onto continuing DS9 and once I'm done with this I'll finish VOY. I love Quark. He's become one of my favorite ST characters.

I agree with you there. I don't think I could do all at the same time either. Quark is great. As you can see by now, there's not only great stories on there, but there's also a lot of great comedy and light hearted moments as well. Quark is really good comedy but has depth to his character also.

The thing that always stopped me from watching it (apart from my love for TNG) was the fact it was a Space Station and I didn't understand how they could have great adventures like TOS or TNG. But it's something original and makes it stand out from other ST shows. I liked ENT but about from the doctor there was no character I truly loved. On DS9 there's some really good characters. Odo makes me laugh too.

I just rewatched most of the series on the Heroes & Icons channel. Some good episodes and storylines but a few clunkers too. (I just saw the "Move Along Home" episode from S1. Wow. Apparently, Ronald Moore watched it before he had joined the production team and wondered if the writers had lost their minds.)

I watched many of the episodes from the perspective of a comparison with "Battlestar Galactica", Ronald Moore's later show. I have to say that after watching BSG, it was kind of difficult to see the "bumpy-headed aliens" of Star Trek again. While I sort of accepted all the different aliens when I first watched all the ST series, I now find it jarring to see after BSG. This is just a statement of my personal reaction. It's not intended to be a general criticism of the inclusion of aliens. I understand that the alien races are often used to explore issues of racism and bigotry in the ST series. It's just that BSG had such a different approach that I'm finding it difficult to transition back to seeing the make-up-heavy characters on ST.

I also noticed that BSG could almost be seen as a remake or semi-spinoff of DS9 and even Voyager. DS9 involved a space-based war (like Star Wars) with heavy doses of politics, intrigue, espionage, war-time morality and religion. All of this became very important in BSG. Like Voyager, BSG involved the journey of a group of spacefaring people seeking home. (In the case of Voyager, they merely sought to return to their home in the Alpha Quadrant. In BSG, the group was searching for a mythical planet called Earth. In their universe, they weren't sure if "Earth" even existed.)

While DS9 had more extended-storylines than other ST series, it still largely focused on self-contained episodes other than the 9-episode series finale. This is another difference between DS9 and BSG. Neither is necessary better or worse. Just different.

Like BSG, DS9 hit on many important issues relevant in our modern politics. In one of the mid-series episodes, Gul Dukat tells Sisko that he acted to "Make Cardassia Strong Again". (Sound familiar?) In another episode, Odo and Kira look at the Pah Wraith worshippers and lament the fact that so many people are taken in by fear and paranoia. (Sound familiar?)

I've never really compared DS9 to BSG. A lot of TNG fans used to say DS9 was too dark and gloomy. But my god, compared to BSG, DS9 was practically like watching Saturday night live. Talk about dark. I'd like to see BSG rebooted again but done differently.

A major reason for comparing the two is Ronald Moore. He worked on DS9 for 5 seasons, the last two as co-executive producer, when the series became darker and more focused on war-time issues. I think he carried on those elements, plus the religious and political issues, into BSG, but in a much more raw and intense manner.

He briefly worked on Voyager but left after just a few weeks. His complaints were noteworthy. He was concerned that the writers didn't really focus on the difficulty of finding resources. The Voyager crew was stranded on the far side of the galaxy and yet they usually had a nice, clean ship and only minor worries about supplies (save for an episode here and there). It seems that Moore kept those story concerns in mind when he helped start up BSG. There was a much more realistic focus on how difficult it would be for a stranded/persecuted crew to find water, food, fuel and other supplies.

TNG is OK. I didn't watch it that much when it originally aired. (I didn't watch much TV at all during those years.) Later on, I saw many of the episodes on various channels, including BBC America. ST is much more of a cultural phenomenon than BSG but BSG made more of an impact on me.

DS9 was darker than TNG but even they still had many lighter episodes, especially the Ferengi ones (some of which I actually liked quite a bit).

I don't think the BSG approach is the best one for television in general, in practical terms, because extended storylines, graphic violence and politics are more difficult to work with when trying to build a large audience. But I'm glad that it existed. I think it will remain my favorite sci-fi show, but I can still enjoy most of the ST series. I saw many of the DS9 and VOY episodes over the past few months on H&I. Before that, I hadn't seen any episodes from those two shows in well over a decade. Enterprise hasn't really engaged me. It's interesting to see now and then, but I haven't bothered to see many of those episodes on H&I.

(In case, people aren't aware, the new Heroes & Icons channel has been airing all five live-action Star Trek series, six days a week, from Sundays through Fridays. They started their "All Star Trek" line-up last year. The channel has only been around for a couple years. They also show ST: The Animated Series on Sundays. They are running all of the series in order and starting over after airing the series finales. The Original Series airs uncut. The channel is a digital broadcast subchannel, so it is usually available with just an antenna in cities with a participating station. It's also available on most of the cable/satellite systems in areas with an H&I station. A network affiliate or an independent station broadcasts H&I as a subchannel.)

I have read about some of the things you mentioned. For me personally, DS9 is the perfect tone. Serious, but lighthearted at the same time. They found the right balance. Voyager I thought was solid, but it's definitely not a series I would watch twice. I don't remember ever coming away from a voyager episode saying "that was a great episode". that just never happened for me throughout my entire viewing experience. TNG I thought was a great series. I just like the idea of a continuing story arch which is why DS9 is one of my favorites. I liked Enterprise though. I wouldn't say it blew me away, but I enjoyed it.

BSG I was a fan of the original. It was a little on the campy side but overall a good series. The updated one just wasn't for me. I know a lot of people that loved it and raved about it. I just felt it was way too dark and depressing with very few characters that I liked. The concept is great though which is why I'd love to see somebody take another crack at it in the future.

Thank you for mentioning the airings of the st series. I did not know about that and I don't know if I have that channel. When I first got a tivo in 2006 my goal was to get every star trek series tivo'd and saved to disc. But I like the fact that tos is shown uncut. So I may go with the dvd's so I can get the new cgi stuff that was added in later on.

@Jayhn1111 said: BSG I was a fan of the original. It was a little on the campy side but overall a good series. The updated one just wasn't for me. I know a lot of people that loved it and raved about it. I just felt it was way too dark and depressing with very few characters that I liked. The concept is great though which is why I'd love to see somebody take another crack at it in the future.

Same here, fan of the original BSG series, just seeing the Cylons as hot babes killed any interest, I have lots of friends who liked the show for some time, and got bored at about half and found the "mystical" developments boring. And Starbuck being a girl? even worse, Katee Sackoff?

I can't imagine a less likable character than Katee Sackoff's version of Starbuck. ANd seeing her hook up with Apollo, ughh.

@TheTenth : I always loved Deep Space Nine. In the first season, Avery Brooks seemed too uptight and uncomfortable as Cmdr. Sisko, but from the second season on he was fantastic! Besides, DS9 had one of the coolest James Bond spoofs ever!

Fasten your seatbelts, it's going to be a bumpy night.

Sisko was a likable captain. But I really liked the whole cast.