You would think with how hard it is to get into the Academy, how many qualified people they have to turn away, and with the fact that they don't have to pay for pensions in a post-scarcity utopia, that the Federation would have a more rigorous mandatory early retirement policy. Like, how many times do they let an officer be "Inner Lighted" before they tell them, "sorry, we know this isn't fair. This isn't on you. But at this point, your brain has been hijacked and influenced by alien technologies on multiple occasions. We frankly have no idea what those machines did to you. This isn't meant to be a punishment to you, but we simply cannot have someone so potentially compromised working such a dangerous position."

I'm sorry, but from a purely HR and risk perspective, after going through a fraction of what he did, Miles O'Brien should not be working as the Chief Engineer of one of the most strategically important defense facilities in the Quadrant. He could be compromised and not even know it. How do they know that time in the mind prison didn't also condition him into a sleeper agent of some sort?

After a certain amount of trauma, you would think they would just start mandating officers take early medical retirement. Not a judgment, just risk management. Hell, I would think after a single instance of an officer having their mind hijacked by an alien device, that at a minimum the victim would be transferred out of a front-line role, to somewhere where less sensitive.

I remain quite annoyed by how the major driver for resolving both the Borg and Dominion conflicts hinged on a very illegal, extremely immoral thing that someone did.

DS9 had the Morphogenic virus that Section 31 unleashed, and Voyager had the neurolytic pathogen.

It being the thing that won the wars in the Federation's favour ends up implying that it would not have succeeded without either of them, and that all their talk of morality was simply pretence.

It defeats the entire point of the Federation existing, as part of them having those moral stances in the first place was that they could succeed without having to stoop to underhanded means like their peers did. It might be a harder road, but ultimately more rewarding.

Going by those two conflicts, if you're in a war with the Federation, and they don't see you as an organic humanoid, they will happily have someone attempt/commit genocide on your populace to win, allow it to happen by inaction, or reward them for it. There's no real difference between the Romulan Star Empire or the Federation, except that the Federation pretends to be moral.

Many DS9 fans seem to think that the show's shades of grey renders the Roddenberry vision on display in TOS and TNG invalid - dismissing it with "it's easy to be a saint in paradise".

It might be easy to be a saint in paradise, but the Federation is proof that it's possible to begin with. It won't be easy, but that hardly means it's impossible.

It's also one of the things about the DS9 mirror universe episode that ticks me off. "Mirror, Mirror" ended on a nice, optimistic, hopeful note, where for the Terran Empire's flaws and atrocities, being ethical was ultimately a more successful strategy, and that with time and much work, they too, could be like the Federation. DS9 throws all that out the window with "Spock's reforms softened the empire, causing its destruction", and the hopeful ending, that anyone, even the worst civilisation seen thus far, could become like the Federation, was ruined.

As it turns out, you can only be the Federation, if you're human, in this universe, with this perfect set of circumstances. Anyone else would be making a fatal mistake.

Its particularly irritating in both those cases, because there's groundwork in both DS9 and Voyager to end the war through other means. DS9's ending of the war could be done through helping/freeing the Jem'hadar, talking with the Vorta, and convincing the Founders solids aren't actually all that bad. Same for the Borg, where Voyager very clearly states many a time that what the Borg seek is perfection, and they believe assimilation to be a manner of achieving it. It would not be a great stretch for Voyager to repeatedly interact with the Borg, and eventually convince them that cooperation is a superior method, gradually pushing toward the end of the war in so doing.

Instead, what we got took the easy route, where the Dominion were forced to the negotiation table in the face of extinction, and Borg civilisation/the Collective was outright destroyed.

Its just a terribly cynical viewing of the Federation, where they can only succeed by being underhanded, or having people "do the dirty work" for them. If that's the case, why does the Federation even exist to begin with? It may as well be an empire like any other.

I love DS9, but Sisko should have been court martialed.

They were the best, but not on the strength of their social commentaries (which were played laughs far more than being a serious critique). The Ferengi episodes were the best because the characters were the best. Nog had by far the best development arc of any Star Trek character, ever.

There's hope for you yet, doctor.

I just noticed, exactly where did Sisko hit him the first time? It was sporting of Q to be able to feel the punches!

(I didn't make this meme)

I did hear that criticism many times (e.g. they had to add in the Defiant to make the show interesting). But I agree with you.

Q, is that you?

I’m just happy “what’s the best Trek” is as debatable as “what’s the worst Trek”

Not every franchise has that.

Arguably TOS is the best in the plow sense.

(The plow is the greatest invention of all time in that the resulting food surplus enabled all the subsequent inventions).

Which series would you rate the highest? For me, probably TNG, largely on the basis of nostalgia. I haven't really watched any recent Trek, though, so I may lack some basis for comparison.

Like every Star Trek when a main characters hair changes. TNG Rikers beard, Ds9 bald Sisko

So... All of them?

I also LOVE star trek but as someone generally for peace and a decentralized, just world, I can't pretend that Starfleet isn't a thinly disguised military.

I absolutely think the heart of the show shines through, but the Liberal influences can often insert our failings as perfectly normal. Things that would not appear just or equitable in a socialist society like The Federation, are placed in as sort of accepted and normal.

I think Sisko gets misunderstood on this point. It's not unlike Picard in First Contact, when he starts to take the Borg incursion too personal. Or analogous in some way to the "Corrupt Admiral" trope. It's not to Gene's utopia views for sure, but it shows real fallible characters and the story of them.