Together, DS9 and Babylon 5 are rightfully credited with innovating the long form series. What the kids today might call "binge worthy."
Their story arcs were known from the outset. Each (main) character has their own hero's journey and side quests. Both had satisfying endings.
Also, officially, Capt Sisko is the GOAT. With Capt Janeway placing a strong 2nd. Though Capt Pike (Strange New Worlds) is quite promising, but only time will tell.
Whereas Voyager has most of my most favorite episodes, esp wrt Ensign Kim, DS9's characters are legend, esp Quark. I couldn't pick a favorite DS9 character (or story), even on pain of death, because I cherish them all equally.
DS9 was both darker and more serialized than the other Trek shows. Like TNG (although perhaps not as extremely so) it also didn't really have the strongest start. Personally I think it's in the top one or two Trek series overall but it is distinct from the others.
For anyone who hasn't seen it, before you get confused: First contact with the Dominion is made at the end of Season 2, though they are mentioned earlier than that. It's mostly character and setting building until then. Relations are tense for a few seasons, and hot war doesn't actually break out until Season 5 or 6. Series ran for 7 seasons.
And yes, this is the same Dominion War that was referenced in the last season of the Picard series.
I am the only Star Trek fan I know who was not a big fan of the dominion war arc. I really liked some of the later season episodes, but the arc itself was a bit of a letdown.
OTOH, DS9 is the only Star Trek that my wife will willingly watch with me; she finds the others too campy. As another data-point she likes the dominion war arc as much or more than B5, which was her favorite sci-fi series previously.
Now that episode I loved, but the parts I liked would have worked just fine in a TOS-style episode where the same 4 characters are captured by <some random species we've never heard of>.
It makes a lot of sense to realize that DS9 was direct competition to B5, which was being produced and aired at the same time. That’s why DS9 is so different from other Trek. It was trying to be or beat what Babylon 5 achieved.
Even saying that though, I don’t think you can say one is better than the other. I can see why your wife likes them both though.
> It makes a lot of sense to realize that DS9 was direct competition to B5, which was being produced and aired at the same time
I know; they were even aired in the same timeslot (IIRC Wednesdays at 7) where I lived, and I had a prior engagement on Wednesday nights and only one VCR, so I had to pick which one to record. I settled on B5.
I didn't watch all of DS9 until it was on Netflix.
Brooks turned in a stellar performance in that episode, and everybody else (including my wife), seems to love it, but it would not rank among my 10 personal favorite DS9 episodes.
You're not alone, though maybe not for my reasons. The Next Generation's writers and directors protested the utopia that Gene Roddenberry had built in his mind, but I really appreciated the camaraderie and collaboration present within the characters. Deep Space Nine seemed to me to be a betrayal of the universe that TNG had prepared. I thought DS9 seemed very interesting as its own series, but it wasn't what I wanted as a fan of Star Trek.
