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Though Deep Space Nine was the fourth Star Trek series to hit the airwaves, it is number one in the hearts of many Trekkies.

The series was grittier and more serialized than any Trek that came before. Over seven seasons and 176 episodes, fans were delighted by the work of stars Avery Brooks (Sisko), Rene Auberjonois (Odo), Terry Farrell (Dax) Cirroc Lofton (Jake Sisko) Colm Meaney (O'Brien) Armin Shimerman (Quark), Alexander Siddig (Bashir), Nana Visitor (Kira) Michael Dorn (Worf) and Nicole de Boerwhich.

To mark the 50th anniversary of Star Trek this month, The Hollywood Reporter counted down the top 100 episodes of Star Trek across all six TV series. Every day through Friday, we're breaking that list down even further — ranking the episodes by individual series.

Here, you'll find the cast and crew of DS9 sharing what makes these episodes among the best of what they did from 1993-99. For more, check out the top episodes from the original series and Next Generation.