36 best science fiction TV series, ranked worst to first

Image: Paramount Television

18. Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

The one thing that made Star Trek: Deep Space Nine great was that it was a show in the franchise that seemed entrenched in reality. Honestly, Deep Space Nine was not a show where the Star Trek crew would head to a planet, face a new threat each week, beat the threat and move on to the next episode.

The show was steeped in much darker plots, including intense social themes, complex plots and religious symbolism. It is also not a surprise, saying all that, that Star Trek chose this series to create their first black captain in Benjamin Sisko, who started out as a Commander and then became the Captain in season 3.

He is a widower and a single father and it is Sisko who leads his crew into political conflicts between the Federation and everyone from the Cardassians and Klingons to Romulans and eventually the big bad for Deep Space Nine — the Dominion.

It is also a unique version of Star Trek, as it mostly took place on a space station instead of a starship. To boost the ratings, the show even brought in The Next Generation’s Michael Dorn to reprise his role as Worf.

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine lasted for seven seasons and a total of 176 episodes from 1993 through 1999. It was not overly loved by fans but it was adored by critics, picking up an Emmy nomination every year it aired.

The one thing that soured many long-time Star Trek fans was the moral ambiguity of the series — but at the end of the day, that is what made Deep Space Nine as great as it was.