When it debuted in 1993, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine seemed like an odd proposition. After all, Star Trek: The Next Generation was still going strong, so the idea of a second series set in the same time period seemed superfluous, and the revelation that it wouldn't be set on a starship, but instead a space station, felt ludicrous. How good could a Star Trek be if the characters weren't boldly going anywhere?

The answer turned out to be "pretty good, actually." Deep Space Nine (or DS9 for short) wasn't the same kind of Star Trek that audiences had enjoyed before, but instead something that took the ideas behind the earlier series in different directions. It remained true to the ideals behind the franchise while breaking new ground, and in the process, setting the stage for the great sci-fi that followed (looking at you, Battlestar Galactica remake).

Despite that, it remains a show that a lot of people haven't managed to discover just yet. If you're one of those people, cancel all your evening plans for the next few months. It's time to visit the Gamma Quadrant.

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

Number of Seasons: 7 (176 episodes)

Time Requirements: Prepare yourself for a three-month stay on board the Federation space station, with a base intake of two episodes a day. Of course, chances are you'll race through the series even faster, especially as the show picks up speed.

Where to Get Your Fix: Netflix, Amazon Prime, Google Play, iTunes

Best Character to Follow: While DS9 has an embarrassment of riches when it comes to enjoyable characters worth paying attention to—Snarky Ferengi bartender Quark (Armin Shimerman)! Conflicted war veteran turned reluctant peacekeeper Kira Nerys (Nana Visitor)! Featureless authoritarian Odo (Rene Auberjonois)! Cheerfully harassed engineer Miles O'Brien (Colm Meaney)! etc.—the series revolves around Benjamin Sisko (Avery Brooks), as complicated and compelling a lead as Star Trek has ever came up with. Even if you don't buy into the quasi-spiritual savior role that he's thrust into in the show's pilot, the character's arc across the entire series from traumatized survivor of a war that killed his wife to a confident leader of two separate but equal communities is something that should pull in any viewer. The clear joy with which Brooks delivers some of Sisko's dialogue helps a lot, as well.

Seasons/Episodes You Can Skip:

Unlike other Star Trek series, Deep Space Nine embraces long-form storytelling, with arcs and plots that thread through a number of episodes at a time. As a result, it's difficult to convincingly argue for skipping episodes in the same way that can be done for, say, Star Trek: The Next Generation. (It helps that even *DS9'*s worst episode has a level of quality that's above the worst of TNG or other Star Treks.) That said, if you're really pressed for time, you could consider avoiding the following:

Season 1: Episode 10, "Move Along Home" The crew of the space station become pawns in a cosmic game they don't understand in this clumsy, but not unenjoyable episode. And, yes, that "pawns in a game" thing is literal; they're forced to take part in a game where the penalty is... death! Because, of course they are.

Season 4: Episode 21, "The Muse" Where do ideas come from? In this episode that appears to be allergic to subtlety, the answer is "from an alien who'll help turn you into a masterful writer while killing you in the process." Don't you understand, viewers? It's so hard to come up with good ideas and you're just sitting there and watching passively!

Season 5: Episode 7, "Let He Who Is Without Sin..." Continuing a proud tradition of Star Trek episodes that try to show how evolved and, like, with it future humanity is when it comes to morality, but only succeeds in showing how very much those responsible for said episodes are products of their time, "Let He..." doubles down with the revelation that, hey, did you know that events in your childhood can shape the person you become as an adult? It's true!

Season 6: Episode 23, "Profit and Lace" You might have thought that Tootsie, a movie from 1982, put an end to the tradition that men dressed up as women were inherently funny, but this 1998 episode (that genuinely is trying to offer a feminist message at its core) proves otherwise.

Season 6: Episode 24, "Time's Orphan" Every parent goes through what O'Brien has to deal with in this episode: the feeling that his child is growing up too quickly. Fewer parents have to watch as a sci-fi MacGuffin immediately ages said child into a feral adult.

Seasons/Episodes You Can't Skip:

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine is an impressively strong show from its very start, lacking the shaky beginnings that both The Next Generation and Voyager suffer from, meaning that you're guaranteed a pretty good ride right from the beginning. If possible, consider everything from the pilot recommended (well, with the few exceptions listed above), but here are some episodes that you can call essential.

Season 1: Episode 1, "Emissary" The series starts off with a bang with an opening that takes place during one of the best stories from Star Trek: The Next Generation. But things only get better as the crew of the space station get introduced to the audience and each other—and that's before Sisko meets some aliens who are going to change everything for the next seven years and beyond...

Season 1: Episode 19, "Duet" Kira becomes convinced that one of the visitors to the station is actually a war criminal responsible for an infamous slaughter of prisoners at a labor camp, and sets out to break him in order to find the truth. Tense and unwilling to take the easy route, "Duet" was an early hint at the future direction of the series.

Season 2: Episode 23, "Crossover" The choice to bring back the Mirror Universe of the original Trek was one that could easily have backfired, but thanks to a quick-moving story—and the decision to turn one of the show's regular characters into a semi-dominatrix villainess in the alternate timeline—"Crossover" turned out to be successful enough to turn Mirror Universe episodes into a regular occurrence for the rest of the show's run.

Season 4: Episode 3, "The Visitor" An accident sends Sisko out of phase with his regular timeline, but instead of following him as he leaps into the future without any control, the episode sticks with his son as he comes to terms with becoming an orphan even though his father is still, technically, alive. Sentimental in all the best ways, and more than a little touching as a result.

Season 4: Episode 9, "Our Man Bashir" The Next Generation had Sherlock Holmes and Dixon Hill as regular Holodeck fantasies, but Deep Space Nine was more interested in the Swinging Sixties, leading to this James Bond parody in which the station's doctor, Julian Bashir (Alexander Siddig), gets to live out his secret agent fantasies. Even more fun than the retro-parody is watching Bashir slowly realize that his friend Garak (Andrew Robinson) is a far better spy than he ever imagined.

Season 5: Episode 6, "Trials and Tribble-ations" Speaking of the show's love of the 1960s, the 30th anniversary of *Star Trek'*s debut gave the show a chance to go back in time literally, with the crew of the station traveling back to the era of James T. Kirk and (thanks to some inventive camerawork and some faithful recreations of sets, costumes, and props of the time) appear in the background of an episode of the original series. It's silly, it's shameless fan-service, and it's amazingly fun.

Season 5: Episode 26 and Season 6: Episodes 1-6, "Call to Arms," "A Time to Stand," "Rocks and Shoals," "Sons and Daughters," "Behind the Lines," "Favor the Bold," and "Sacrifice of Angels" A seven-episode sequence that bridges the end of the show's fifth year and the start of its sixth, war is declared throughout the galaxy as Sisko takes it upon himself to save the station from being overrun by a collective of aliens known as the Dominion... and fails. Well, at least, he does to begin with. The story took seven episodes, after all.

Season 6: Episode 13, "Far Beyond the Stars" Probably the best episode of Deep Space Nine, and definitely the best example of the "What if all of the series is a hallucination and this is the truth?" trope that's popped up on countless series throughout the years, the audience is introduced to Benny Russell, a sci-fi writer in 1950s New York who has to deal with racism, censorship, and police brutality. That he and his colleagues all look like the crew of Deep Space Nine isn't a coincidence.

Season 7: Episode 10, "It's Only a Paper Moon" In a series that centers around a man coming to terms with losing his wife as the result of an alien attack, it's surprising that its most clear commentary on post-traumatic stress comes in relation to another character altogether, but no less surprising than the fact that said commentary includes the presence of a faux Rat Pack-er in a virtual Las Vegas from the middle of the 20th century. Deep Space Nine didn't always take the obvious route, as you might be realizing by now.

Season 7: Episode 25, "What You Leave Behind" Everything from the past seven years comes to a head in a series finale that brings the show to a satisfying close, if not necessarily a happy ending. Be warned.

Why You Should Binge:

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine is, in many ways, a midway point between the sincerity and procedural nature of Star Trek: The Next Generation and the messier, more ambitious Battlestar Galactica. (Ronald D. Moore, a writer and producer on DS9, got his start on ST:TNG and created and served as showrunner on BSG.) As a result, it's able to pull strengths from both, while having an appeal all of its own. Much of the show's DNA is true to the more cerebral, philosophical elements of earlier Treks, but there's also an embrace of ideas and concepts that the franchise had previously shied away from—including spirituality, race, and Starfleet being a quasi-military organization. Thinking of it as the "dark side" of Star Trek is too reductive—not least because it's a show that flirts with darkness but purposefully doesn't embrace it—but maybe "the Star Trek that's not uncomfortable feeling weird" would fit, instead. It's the Star Trek for people who don't think they like Star Trek, and the Star Trek for people who do, as well.

Best Scene—"Just Like the Federation"

As much as we're tempted to suggest that the sight of Avery Brooks in full-on monologue mode "celebrating" something that, as he says, might be the turning point in the Dominion War that dominates the majority of the second half of the series, there's another scene that deserves the honor of being declared *Deep Space Nine'*s best. But before we get to that one, let's enjoy Brooks' fourth-wall-breaking performance, shall we?

With that out of the way, the best scene from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine comes from the show's fourth season opener, "The Way of the Warrior," in which Quark and Garak talk politics and put the appeal of the Federation in a whole new light:

The Takeaway:

After 30 years, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine showed that there were new places left for the franchise to boldly go, and it did so for seven years with style. That there are also lots of bad guys to hiss at from the safety of your own sofa amongst the social and political metacommentary in the series just shows how well the whole thing was put together.

If You Liked Star Trek: Deep Space Nine You'll Love:

Both the reboot of Battlestar Galactica and J. Michael Straczynski's Babylon 5 spring to mind as further viewing options for those who love Deep Space Nine, in addition to the obvious suggestions of Star Trek: The Next Generation, which shares characters and sets up concepts that blossom in DS9, and Star Trek: Voyager. (Spoilers: There are those who prefer Babylon 5 to Deep Space Nine. Those people are wrong.)

The best suggestion, however, isn't another TV show at all; for those who fall for the mix of politics, science fiction, and derring-do that Deep Space Nine serves up, the ideal follow-up is actually the Star Trek: Vanguard series of novels, which pretty much takes the DS9 approach and applies it to the original series' era with just a little bit more of a bloodthirsty edge. Highly recommended.