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Star Trek is beloved by legions of people from all ages, walks of life, and origins. But for the unfamiliar, starting on Star Trek for the first time can be overwhelming with 700+ hours of TV, over a dozen movies, and novels and comics to boot. Wondering where you should get started? If you’re looking to kick things off by watching Deep Space Nine, here are some pointers.

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Aired 1993-1999—7 Seasons, 176 Episodes
Starring Avery Brooks, Rene Auberjonois, Nana Visitor, Terry Farrell, Cirroc Lofton, Colm Meaney, Alexander Siddig, Armin Shimerman, Michael Dorn

In a bold and initially confusing move, Deep Space Nine began while The Next Generation (1987) was still on the air. It distinguished itself from both of its predecessors by boldly going nowhere—instead localizing its stories to the happenings of a remote space station as opposed to on-board an exploratory vessel. It also boasted markedly different storytelling styles, with tonally darker content and a more prominent focus on serialization than than those before it, making watching intermittent episodes a bit more challenging than its older brethren. Even more positive is the fact that what DS9 truly lacked was any stretch of barren storytelling downtime in its seven-season run. It started off strong with its first episode and got better as the years passed, making for an all-around excellent series with great episodes to be found each year. Sure, it had bad episodes, but it didn’t have entire seasons where the majority of the episodes were weak (here’s looking at you, early-TNG!)

DS9’s cast also became the most diverse. Championed by Trek’s first black commander, Benjamin Sisko (Avery Brooks), his comrades include the feisty Bajoran ex-revolutionary and Sisko’s second-in-command Kira Nerys (Nana Visitor), a shapeshifting authoritarian head of security named Odo (Rene Auberjonois), the Ferengi bartender, antagonist, and comic relief Quark (Armin Shimerman), The Next Generation’s engineer Miles O’Brien (Colm Meaney), and a young female symbiant on her seventh cycle of life, Jadzia Dax (Terry Farrell). In Dax’s previous life cycle, before the events of DS9, she was friends with Commander Sisko—back then, she was an old man. Now, she’s quite the opposite.

Additionally, Sisko is the only captain with a family, opening a new angle for exploration in Trek lore. DS9 tackled themes like the duality of terrorism, the complexity of religion, and the occupation of countries with less metaphor and more direct focus than previous Trek installments. Its quality cannot be questioned, and anyone exploring Star Trek should give it ample attention.

Crucial Episodes:

Emissary (Season 1, Episode 1)
Unlike the two Star Trek installments before it, DS9’s pilot is a damn good piece of television. The story takes place during a familiar tale from The Next Generation, and through that fun we learn about a wonderful cast of characters and discover a new, looming threat.

Duet (Season 1, Episode 19)
This episode delivers the tone of Deep Space Nine, telling a story about a man who claims he is a victim but may actually be a notorious war criminal—and analyzes whether or not the two are mutually exclusive.

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - In The Hands of the Prophets

In The Hands of the Prophets (Season 1, Episode 20)
Bajoran religious leader by the name Vedek Winn (Louise Fletcher) objects to the secular education on the station. He has an issue with what the Federation teaches children about the wormhole. As a Federation official, Sisko has to handle an uprising of sorts.

Crossover (Season 2, Episode 23)
Drawing on the “mirror universe” from The Original Series (1966), this episode revisits the concept and sets it up for future use on Trek television.

The Maquis (Season 2, Episodes 20 and 21)
This two-part episode introduces The Maquis and begins a storyline that will continue across the next few seasons. As such, it is essential viewing. Similarly, Episode 26, The Jem’Hadar, is necessary for the same reason.

The Visitor (Season 3, Episode 9)
Sentimental, touching, and heartbreaking, The Visitor is a perfect example of what makes Sisko being a parent special to Star Trek storytelling. It is an enchanting story of loss and grief that can’t be missed.

Little Green Men (Season 4, Episode 8)
Quark, Rom, Nog and Odo are sent back to Area 51 in a humorous one-off episode that doesn’t move the story along, but is a fun and entertaining plot.

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - Homefront

Homefront & Paradise Lost (Season 4, Episodes 11 and 12)
This two-part story follows Sisko after he is recalled to San Francisco when a terrorist bombing reveals that Changelings have reached Earth. There, he unravels a huge conspiracy involving a Starfleet admiral with devious plans.

Rocks and Shoals (Season 6, Episode 2)
Sisko’s crew crash land their Jem’Hadar ship into the waters of an alien ocean on a world where a group of Jem’Hadar have also crash landed with only one vial of ketracel-white remaining. Meanwhile, Kira has personal issues about working side by side with the Dominion.

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - Far Beyond the Stars

Far Beyond the Stars (Season 6, Episode 13)
Arguably the best DS9 episode, this experimental departure from the story finds Sisko experiencing a vision from the Bajoran prophets. In it, Sisko sees himself as Benny Russell, a science-fiction writer in the 1950s, who struggles with civil rights and inequality when he writes the story of Captain Benjamin Sisko, a black commander of a futuristic space station.

In the Pale Moonlight (Season 6, Episode 19)
The Dominion-Federation battle isn’t going so well, and Sisko employs the help of Garak (Andrew Robinson) to persuade the Romulans to join the Federation/Klingon alliance to win the war. In doing so, he battles with the principles of Starfleet in his decisions.

It’s Only a Paper Moon (Season 7, Episode 10)
After being disabled on AR-558, Nog (Aron Eisenberg) returns to Deep Space 9, but finds he cannot go on living his uncertain life and seeks shelter within the fictional world of Vic Fontaine and Las Vegas, 1962.

Notable Mentions include Whispers (Season 1, Episode 14), wherein O’Brien thinks all his friends are being replaced with copies of themselves and he is the only person; Past Tense (Season 3, Episodes 11 and 12), Sisko, Bashir and Dax find they have been sent back to the mid 21st century in a story that doesn’t advance the overall plot, but is entertaining to watch; Trials and Tribble-ations (Season 5, Episode 6) for its wonderful fan-service, transporting the DS9 crew back to The Original Series for some fun Tribble mayhem and special effects; Our Man Bashir (Season 4, Episode 10) in which Bashir more or less gets to be James Bond for an hour; The Wire (Season 2, Episode 22), an important episode for developing the complex and intriguing relationship between Bashir and Garak; and The Way of the Warrior (Season 4, Episode 1), where Worf (Michael Dorn) is recruited to investigate the Klingons, joins the DS9 crew, and sees an awesome space battle.

DS9 is a massive television show, so there are a great many wonderful episodes to share with others. What are your favorite episodes for introducing newbies to the series?

(Looking for a similar guide for The Original Series, The Next Generation, Voyager, or Enterprise? Look no further.)