Star Trek: Deep Space 9 Main Cast poll

I was mostly thinking about how theatrically hammy Avery Brooks could be, and then realized that Nana Visitor had her moments, too, and then, why not poll the entire cast(s).

Can't not vote for armin. Dax 1 really grew on my by her third or fourth season and actually became one of my v favorite characters. The same never happened with Lt K. Her and Miles were the only ones who never stopped irritating me. Gul Dukat could compete with the rest of these ppl for sheer distinctiveness IMO.

How can you NOT vote for Brooks?

Watch me! (Love to the Sisko tho)

I'm the opposite of you, Jon -- I always found TF weirdly affected, though that may have been the way Dax was written (I couldn't handle Jadzian sass at the time, I guess), while Kira was usually more palatable to me.

I liked Dax the more rikerishly rakish she got.

lol "Rikerishly rakish," by the seashore.

That rikerishly rakish rogue

Odo! I loved that scene (can't remember which episode) where he gives Sisko a long, detailed breakdown of his investigation and how he found the relevant info, and when Sisko asks why he didn't just give him a straight answer, he replies "Sometimes I have to remind you how good I am!"

Tempted by Quark but it's been so long since I watched this.

barely ever watched this and it wasn't his fault but brooks was so badass and riveting in 'spenser for hire' that this seemed lame

Colm meaney only one showing any teeth. Maybe everyone else forgot to brush that day?

Oops, didn't realize the other image broke:

http://i.imgur.com/VMb10Qe.jpg

impulsively voted quark but idk i may have been thinking of buffy. sisko's totally alien inflections probably deserve it.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

lol Jake got a vote?

Felt kind of bad for not throwing mine to Nana Visitor.

She was wonderful, but just barely outshined by the star

I just started rewatching from the beginning, and maybe I'm exaggerating because of DS9's rep for DARK and WAR, but the performances from Visitor, Brook, Shimerman (sorry for misspelling!), and Auberjonois are all deliciously campy at times! (Not a patch on TOS, of course.) And notably IMO, Terry Farrell, whose mannerisms put me off big time later on, has been surprisingly muted in season 1.

DS9 was very dark for the era... and it still took a few years to chop off a leg

Quark getting it with a the lady Klingon just won me over.

I missed this poll, otherwise I would've voted for Nana Visitor. ST in general had not been very good with its female characters until DS9 and Major Kira hit the screens. Dax was interesting too, but more superficial as a character, and Terry Farrell wasn't quite as versatile as Visitor either (she was very good at doing the devil-may-care rogue, though).

The episodes dealing with the occupation of Bajor Kira's terrorist past were among the best in the show, it's hard to imagine a post-9/11 series having a character as morally complex as her among its heroes. Brooks was good too, but he had a habit of going weirdly off-tone every once in a while, whereas Visitor was always strong, always affecting. (Plus Sisko's character arc was kinda damaged by all the Prophet/Pah-Wraith silliness towards the end of the series, whereas Kira had a more satisfying arc.)

Did anyone ever do a poll on the recurring guest stars because c'mon, THE NAGUS.

The Nagus was fun, but the title of the best recurring guest would clearly go to Garak, one of the most interesting characters in all of Star Trek.

We're weirdly sympatico, Tuomas, except I don't necessarily agree that Kira's terrorism was dealt with in a very complex manner. IMO it gets brushed aside as "it was a bad time and I needed to do bad things, now let's move forward" -- not unlike how most people involved with Iraq II or Abu Ghraib or extreme renditions or etc. have been re-absorbed into "normal" life, and how the bad stuff gets compartmentalized into "the past."

Garak is so great, though.

Can't stand Kira and her past and pretty much the whole Bajor aspect of the show irritated me. YES I SEE WHAT YOU THE WRITERS DID. Love Dax. Love Garak. Pretty much everyone except Kira and the bajoran priests. And Miles. But I love to hate him so that counts as a win.

kai wynn: nurse ratchet in space was great but yeah the other bajorans were mostly dips.

I remember many of episodes with Kira having to deal with the conflicts of her current role and her terrorist activities in the past - true to the character, she justifies herself the way you described, but I don't think the show's take itself was so clear-cut.

Yeah, even if Kira herself justifies her actions with "hard times called for hard measures", the show doesn't always absolve her that easily - this is most notable in the episode where one of victims of her guerilla cells attacks kidnaps her, which end on a rather bleak and ambiguous note.