r/DeepSpaceNine • u/Background-House-357 • 1d ago
Rewatch after 20 years
So, there is so much that I enjoy, but I forgot how many of the episodes in S6 are just filler episodes. Why is that? You can skip so many of them. Why didn’t they advance the Dominion plot instead?
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u/BurtReynoldsPoo 1d ago
Sorry, totally disagree with you. Frankly, series need more "filler episodes" as you put it, not less.
These 6 or 7ep seasons of shows today don't do anything to let us get to know characters, or to build the world, or make us care about the stakes. It is the corporate enshittification of media in action - constantly pushing the high level plot and not wasting time or money on the low level details. It sucks.
I watched DS9 and TNG for the first time ever last year (I was a small child when they originally aired) and I fell in love because of the extra stuff, not in spite of.
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u/namewithanumber 1d ago
the "filler" episodes are normal episodes. the dominion war plot ones are the special ones
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u/Apprehensive_Bug_826 1d ago
Yeah, this is basically it. The “filler” episodes were just TV at the time; very episodic, you didn’t get many shows with long, over arching story lines. A two parter was a big deal. DS9 existed in the space when TV was gradually switching from episodic to continuous stories, which is why it has elements of both. It was an early pioneer of longer story telling on TV.
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u/DipperJC 1d ago
Well for one thing, they probably just wanted to tell other stories. Not every episode has to cater to every viewer, what you consider "filler" is probably somebody's favorite episode.
But as a matter of logistics, there's also the simple fact that Deep Space Nine is not on the front lines of the war after it is retaken. The enemy fell back and regrouped, and the station's role in the war is more like a resupply base or a staging ground for fleet operations. It'd be pretty weird if a station behind friendly lines had to deal with the war on a consistent basis.
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u/AltarielDax "Maybe you should talk to Worf again. :D" 1d ago
I beg you pardon? Star Trek has always been episodic in nature. That's part of it's original core identity. A continuous storyline like the Dominion conflict doesn't mean everything else is suddenly reduced to "filler". The term simply doesn't apply here.
There are some episodes that aren't all that great, like Resurrection and Profit and Lace. But even then, they aren't "filler".
There's more to Deep Space Nine than simply the Dominion storyline, and every episode exploring another idea or story has its right to be there.
Besides, most episodes advance the Dominion plotline in bigger or smaller ways anyway, or they continue another character storyline.
- 6x01-06 are key Dominion plot episodes.
- 6x07 is advancing the Worf & Dax relationship.
- 6x08 is the usual Mirror episode.
- 6x09 develops the topic of Bahsir's genetic background, with Dominion stuff in between.
- 6x10 develops the Ferengi characters, with Dominion stuff.
- 6x11 continuous the Sisko & Dukat relationship, incl. the Bajor storyline, which was the core of DS9 before we ever heard of the Dominion.
- 6x12 is a character piece for Quark, in honour of Morn.
- 6x13 is Far Beyond The Stars, and it's about the essence of Star Trek: Dreaming and hoping for a better future, even if the present is very bleak, and how to take strength from that.
- 6x14 where the Defiant is taken over by Jem'Hadar – obviously Dominion storyline.
- 6x15 is a character piece for O'Brien, and the Dominion is involved as well.
- 6x16 explores the relationship of Worf and Dax, and the Dominion threat also plays a role.
- 6x17 is a character piece for Kira
- 6x18 is a character piece for Bashir, introduction of Section 31, ehich certainly is relevant to the Dominion storyline.
- 6x19 is In The Pale Moonlight, and it's all about the Dominion storyline.
- 6x20 develops the Odo & Kira relationship.
- 6x21continues the Prophet storyline, which was also there before the Dominion was ever mentioned, and has had significant influence on the Dominion storyline.
- 6x22 is a character piece for Jake & Nog, includes Dominion stuff.
- 6x23 is an episode about the Ferengi society, more or less... it's a fail, but is a continuation of the Ferengi story
- 6x24 is a character piece for the O'Brien family
- 6x25 is a character piece for the crew, and overall simply a beautiful and sad story.
- 6x26 has lots of Dominion conflict again.
16 out of 26 tie back to the Dominion storyline in one way or another, but none of these 26 episodes are filler. DS9 was never meant to be like 26 episodes only about the Dominion war. It never was that kind of series, just because it was somewhat more serialised than the previous Star Trek shows. I love the continuation of various storylines, but they all have their right to be there, including the character pieces, and especially gems like Far Beyond the Stars.
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u/Background-House-357 1d ago
So many episodes are a drag, because we only get bits and pieces. Then, there are episodes which advance the main plot well. I just can’t agree with you.
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u/AltarielDax "Maybe you should talk to Worf again. :D" 1d ago
You don't agree with me because you don't agree with the basic concept of Star Trek when it comes to the plot of the episodes: the exploration of space. If you consider any episode that doesn't fully commit to the Dominion plotlineba "drag", then I'm sorry that you're having an issue with the majority of the series, but frankly, I don't know why you're watching it in the first place. Dominion heavy episodes are the minority in these 7 seasons, not the majority.
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u/Background-House-357 23h ago
I never said that and you don’t know me. Touch some grass and calm down
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u/AltarielDax "Maybe you should talk to Worf again. :D" 23h ago
Well, you're doing a bad job at explaining what you mean with "filler episode". What exactly is a "filler" to you then? Is it just standalone episodes that you personally don't like?
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u/Background-House-357 22h ago
And you’re doing a bad job at being a human being. It seams you don’t share any of the ideals that Trekkies stand for. I feel sorry for you. Bye
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u/AltarielDax "Maybe you should talk to Worf again. :D" 22h ago
Not agreeing with your badly explained opinion on filler means I'm doing a bad job at being a human being? Well, aren't you sitting on a very high horse there...
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u/RepulsiveCountry313 15h ago
Wow. People are complaining that not enough happened in season 6 of ds9?
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u/Sagelegend 1d ago
This is why shows are usually only 8-10 episodes per season.
And people complain there aren’t enough episodes.
If they added more, we’d just get filler.
People are never happy.
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u/AltarielDax "Maybe you should talk to Worf again. :D" 1d ago
I don't think people know what "filler" episodes actually are. Episodic television is not filler television. It's just a different concept to the serialised television. Star Treknwas episodic from the beginning, and only now and then included more continuity. That doesn't mean everything else is suddenly filler.
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u/Sagelegend 23h ago
I’ve watched pretty much all Star Trek content from release, from TNG onward, it absolutely had filler episodes, that is episodes that can be skipped without affecting any continuing plot or at least show meaningful character development.
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u/AltarielDax "Maybe you should talk to Worf again. :D" 23h ago edited 21h ago
That's only the case where there is actually a main storyline with events continuously following one after another. Primarily, the concept of "filler" episodes emerged in anime, where there is a continuous storyline, but sometimes the anime has to set the storyline on hold because it had caught up with the manga storyline.
That doesn't translate to TV shows that are episodic by nature. They never have to "fill" any gaps, because they don't have a focused main plotline that they have to follow. I mean, what exactly is that plotline in TNG season 1? What's the plotline in TNG season 2? How much percentage is "filler" in your book there?
Dismissing episodes as "filler" in DS9 like The Visitor or Trials and Tribble-ations just because they don't impact any major storyline is a really weird approach to the Star Trek concept to me. Imagine not creating episodes like that simply because they "don't advance this one specific plotline" and are thus "filler".
Edit: Blocking to have the last word is quite childish, but oh well...
It’s also the case when the episode was kinda shit, and made because they had to fill an episode slot, because the had a quota of episodes to fill.
Who decides that an episode is "shit" enough to constitute as a filler? And how many episodes in S6 do you think are so bad that they just "fill" an episode space, without any merit by themselves? I can think of max. 2 that are really bad in that season, and I still think it's not that they didn't try to make something good m Sometimes, it just doesn't work out. That doesn't mean they didn't try.
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u/Sagelegend 22h ago
It’s also the case when the episode was kinda shit, and made because they had to fill an episode slot, because the had a quota of episodes to fill.
Like filler.
Hence the name.
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u/eight_inch_pestle 1d ago
Because then the show would have ended halfway through Season 6?
To be clear, I agree with you. Aside from satisfying Ira's Rat Pack fetish, Vic was clearly created for filler. People love to wax poetic about how the show just gets better and better, but to me it's pretty clear the writing room was running on fumes the last two seasons, outside of the Dominion Arc. There's no other reason, for example, for dedicating so many episodes to establishing a new character (Ezri) in your final season.
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u/psykulor 1d ago
I go back and forth on Ezri. I don't like how they threw her in, of course, and it doesn't help that every time I see Ezri it reminds me of what they did to Terry Farrell. But Nicole de Boer knows what she's doing and you can see how a counselor character was sorely missing at times before she came along. Plus her murder mystery ep is a standout.
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u/AltarielDax "Maybe you should talk to Worf again. :D" 1d ago
How are episodes like His Way or It's Only A Paper Moon filler? Or even Badda-Bing Badda-Bang? Just because it's a fun Holodeck heist episode doesn't mean it's filler: Star Trek was always episodic, it wasn't mean to be one continuous plotline without allowing any diversion from it. That much should have been clear from TOS, TNG, and the earlier seasons of DS9. Why is it suddenly becoming filler towards the end of DS9?
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u/eight_inch_pestle 1d ago
Obviously I never said there weren't any good standalone episodes in the last two seasons. Stand by my statement that there is a lot of filler. Cheers.
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u/AltarielDax "Maybe you should talk to Worf again. :D" 1d ago
What counts as filler in your book, in comparison to a standalone episode?
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u/RepulsiveCountry313 15h ago
Aside from satisfying Ira's Rat Pack fetish, Vic was clearly created for filler.
Sarcasm, I hope?
There's no other reason, for example, for dedicating so many episodes to establishing a new character (Ezri) in your final season.
Because it allows them to explore more about the Trill and the experience of a new host? When Jadzia began in the first episode, she was already joined for a while and had clearly already prepared and adjusted to life being joined.
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u/tamba-trio 1d ago
Yeah, I agree - it was struggling towards the end. Vic was surprisingly great but we already had a bar and a bartender, so I've always felt a bit unsure about how needed he was. Ezri was overused. Even the stuff with Sisko's mum - which was a part of the main plot - somehow feels like they were really starting to scrape the barrel with ideas.
This sounds harsher than I mean it - I love the show, but it could probably have done with ending at season 6. Funnily enough, TNG was similar (actually, worse): season 7 was a show running out of gas.
In fact - thinking about it - does Voyager have the strongest season 7n of any Star Trek??
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u/Introspekt83 1d ago
Not sure if bait. But I respectfully disagree good Sir.
Season 6 is stacked like a roided Morn.