DS9 was probably the most interesting of the shows of that time though. It broke several of Roddenberry’s rules:
- plenty of characters had long-running interpersonal gripes and grievances. In TNG everything was returned to status quo after any given episode or two parter. No one really argued with each other, everyone just learned a life lesson and everything was back to normal the next episode. Voyager started with some tension on the ship between the Maquis and the federation crew but that basically stopped after like 5 episodes and it was back to TNG camaraderie.
- it wasn’t on a ship that went travelled about.
- it had long running storylines that lasted several seasons. TNG had a few two parters and that season 1 conspiracy thread with the creepy crawlies taking over the federation but not much beyond that. Voyager had Species 8472 and the Borg and Kazon and whatnot but it was pretty straight adventure of the week stuff most of the time.
- it showed the federation being less than perfect. The federation of DS9 was flawed and made poor decisions at times. Sisko did something so bad once that they dedicated a whole episode to a log entry where he convinces himself he can live with the amoral decision he made to protect the federation, and Section 31 was a whole unit purpose made for dirty work.
- it had Garak. Dude would just straight up murder people, and he was one of the good guys.
- they played baseball. Not blurgball or space-baseball, just straight baseball. It was a shit show of a game, mind you, but they didn’t invent some futuristic sport just because they had to. They just did a baseball.
I think DS9 is the most interesting Trek series of them all.
It’s difficult for me to answer in an unbiased way because I grew up watching the shows during their original run and I generally watch one or two of the series runs each year. I watched TOS earlier this year and am presently part way through VOY. Did TNG last Christmas, might do DS9 this Christmas. I’ve got history with these here shows.
It might be better to watch TNG first to see what Roddenberry was going for and see how he set the Star Trek “rules” so to speak before you see how they were broken in DS9 as that might have more impact. TNG might seem a little quaint after watching DS9.
As for Voyager… VOY is effectively an alt-TNG and not really distinguishable but also not offensive if you throw out the space salamanders and similarly horrid episodes. VOY started with the premise of being a series about a ship on its own trying to get home and having to deal with limited resources and always scrambling for fuel and water or whatever, but that sense of desperation lasted about 3 episodes before it reverted to TNG Part 2. It could have really been something but they didn’t have the guts to push any boundaries. Battlestar Galactica 2004 feels like that concept done correctly before it kind of went off the rails when they forgot what show they started with, but I digress.
I think you’d appreciate DS9 more by letting TNG set the stage. DS9 also primarily occurs chronologically after TNG for the most part, with some overlap in the early seasons, although that barely makes a difference in the narrative. Watch TNG for the vision, watch DS9 for the vision rearranged, and bear in mind that these are 30 year old shows before CGI was common place. There will be some racism and sexism in the early TNG episodes and the VFX will be spotty, but these are classics for a reason.
