Deep Space 9; The Best Trek

When Deep Space Nine first aired, because it was Star Trek, I gave it a look.
It didn't engage me. I watched it with half an eye for the first season or so then ceased.

 Recently  I received a full set of Season 1 - 7.
 I began to view at Season Four with the arrival of Worf. 
I soon became  a fanatic.

At the conclusion of the 7th season, I was hyped. It had been the best Trek,  possibly the best sci-fi series I had ever seen.

 I needed to comprehend how  it had slipped beneath my radar when it first aired.

Before I begin going season by season to show where the 'shift' from any old episodic television show to excellent six hour movies, a few general detractions.

Firstly, American idioms.

Why do the writers persist in putting American idioms in the mouths of non-Terrans?
If one is not an American, certain of the phrases require a universal translator.

Yes, I know it is an American show made in America staring mostly Americans. But once one is imagining some kind of humanoid from some other planet, maybe, just maybe they could take a listen to a language other than American English. 

With squads of writers, why hadn't any of them noticed that the slang used by many of the characters, (take out the Ferangi) is so California circa 1990?

(Take a listen to Firefly if you need an audio aid)

Secondly, it's a bit too easy to change appearances; make Sisko into a Klingon or Kira into a Cardassian. This ease virtually shouts; "Don't we got a great make-up team?"

We, sitting home, know that there's a guy named Michael Dorn who has a forehead not unlike Uncle George's.  But we know he's playing a Klingon who has a forehead like that. 

Sure, maybe it was fun for the cast to dress up as Klingons as if they were going to a Con; but it really cheapens the whole production.

Thirdly, the Holosuites go a little too far. Let us not forget if they are a room five meters by five meters, although they might look like the view from the Grand Canyon, if you walk five meters you hit the wall.

There are a number of other bits and pieces, but these are rather glaring.

The term 'story arc' is used by writers to infer that there is an overriding continual story being told.  There may be a few side plots, a few one shot characters, but the story is told in consecutive sequences.

In the first few seasons this obvious idea was not so obvious.  There were two part or three part episodes but they were 'completed' and followed/proceeded by the 45 minute complete in itself no particular sequence episodes.

If one is flying aimlessly in a space ship unaware of where they are going or what they will meet anything is okay.  This week a character can fall hopelessly in love at minute 7 and never see the beloved after minute 42 and thus ends the potpourri of emotions, attitudes, action. 

If one is stuck on a space station seeing the same people every time they enter a corridor it doesn't make any sense to have disjointed episodes.

Once the writers figured this out, one could not miss an episode, and they matched so perfectly one to another as if they were shot as one continuous action.

This is where DS-9 excelled and it seems that any subsequent Trek or any sci-fi made after 1999 should hold to this grid.

It is far more engaging.  If one cares about a character, it does matter whether or not this happens or that doesn't happen.