Deep Space Nine was the best star Trek show.

I will concede what my opponent said about the Kirk and Uhura kiss being a major breakthrough. As for Admiral Cartwright (who FYI was played by the same actor who played Sisko"s father) he may be a higher rank but is not as close to the viewers as the Captain is the one they tend to see as the guy in charge. It appears my opponent concedes the point about DS9 relying more on story arcs than stand alone episodes. My opponent claims the DS9 characters were not as memorable, I beg to differ: Using my opponent"s own source of ranker he is incorrect there are plenty of DS9 characters that appear high even before Sisko, as ranker is subject to change these are the rankings at the time of this writing. Worf is #4, yes he is TNG character but is also a DS9 character. Jadzia Dax is #14. Quark is #21, Odo is #25, Garak is #29 and now it appears Sisko has been pushed down to 32 but by another DS9 character Dukat. While by the sheer numbers looking at the votes some of these ranks are confusing but according to ranker there are other criteria. Odo and Sisko are controversial as people rank them either very high or very low. Garak is a niche meaning he has a dedicated fan base even if it is small. If you want to talk about inter character relationships. On DS9 you have Jake and Nog, Dr. Bashir and Garak, Dr. Bashir and O"Brian, Odo and Kira, Odo and Quark Worf and Dax etc. Ranker however is overall fairly subjective. DS9 was also more of an ensemble cast so you saw episodes focus on everyone from Sisko as well as other leading characters like O"Brian or Dr. Bashir all the way down to supporting characters such as Nog. In fact some episodes dealt almost exclusively with aliens, there were a few Ferengi centric episodes [1] [2] and some Klingon centric ones where humans didn"t play much of a role. In terms of the Ferengi episodes in particular and all we see of their civilization on the show, it showed that they were far more interesting than TNG gave them credit for. My opponent says its dystopian nature is irrelevant. This is untrue it is part of what sets it apart. While it is true many people use science fiction as an escape and so a more Utopian future may appeal to them, this gives them a little does of reality. DS9 even took the bold move of showing a ship full of young cadets getting blown up. That was truly disturbing but showed the ruthlessness of the Dominion. [2] It is true Kirk was unconventional and rebellious and even got demoted for blowing up a ship and stealing another. However he never resorted to the guerrilla tactics of the Maquis or the blatant violations of Section 31. I"m not even saying the first mutiny, but they seem to be the most organized. In terms of comparing the 3 captains Kirk was rebellious and did things his way while Picard was by the book while still acknowledging that "There comes a time when men of good conscience can no longer blindly follow orders". Sisko was sort of half way between both of these. He had an additional characteristic that none of the other Captains had and that was that he was revered as a religious leader. He took a while to come to terms with it and this was part of his character development. As for the enemies, the Borg were a formidable foe and quite comparable to the Dominion. Both were superpowers with large control of a different quadrant of the Galaxy that tried to take over the Alpha quadrant. The Bog and the Founders both had a sort of collective consciousness (when linked in the founder"s case) and had a ruthless female leader. The Borg had a huge impact on Sisko"s life even though they didn"t play a part in the story after the first episode. The Borg however didn"t have the advantage that the dominion did, since the founders could pretend to be anyone, they could much more easily infiltrate Earth covertly while the Borg would have to do so by force. The bad guys that were seen in DS9 were more diverse. The original series did have a plethora of bad guys but most made only one appearance. DS9 had Dukat, Kai Winn, The Female changeling, Weyoun, and in a certain sense Brunt. It also dealt with the conflict between the Prophets and Pah Wraiths adding more complexity to the story. There is another key difference in the show; it is the only one to take place on a Space station, and a non-Federation one at that. The most prominent ship is also significantly different, as opposed to the other key ships with a saucer section and external warp nacelles, it has no saucer section and it"s warp nacelles are secured at its side, it also has a cloaking device. So in that way the show is at least unique (although the Voyage Home takes place on Klingon Bird of Prey with a cloaking device, this is one movie in the cannon of the original series). The one major shortcoming in terms of storyline was that the writers weren"t able to wrap up everything they wanted but that was due to the network"s limit of episodes. I thank my opponent and look forward to the next round. 1 . http://en.memory-alpha.org...(episode) 2 . http://en.memory-alpha.org...(episode) 3 . http://en.memory-alpha.org...(episode)