I loved DS9, and feel I should follow your lead and re-watch it; in the meantime, I am thoroughly enjoying your commentary.
There's a theme you haven't explicitly mentioned yet, which I felt ran strongly through this series and contributed a lot of its substance, and that's identity. Throughout this series, many if not most of the characters are more than one thing. There's the obvious joined Trill, and the shapeshifter Odo with unknown origins. There's Keiko: unemployed botanist and struggling wife/mother. Sisko, commander and Prophet. Kira, token Bajoran government rep...and freedom fighter. Julian Bashir, we discover is not what we thought. Garak, tailor and possible Obsidian order. Gul Dukat, evil occupying leader and tender father with, it turns out, odd loyalties to Bajor. The sands shift, but not in a continuity problem way. These characters are complex, as people are, and that gave the series life and unpredictability. You sort of always knew how Picard or Riker or Troi would be aligned, or how they would respond. DS9 had ambiguity.
It also had Cardassians. I always felt slightly dirty about it, but couldn't help my fascination with them - particularly Garak and Dukat.
no subject
There's a theme you haven't explicitly mentioned yet, which I felt ran strongly through this series and contributed a lot of its substance, and that's identity. Throughout this series, many if not most of the characters are more than one thing. There's the obvious joined Trill, and the shapeshifter Odo with unknown origins. There's Keiko: unemployed botanist and struggling wife/mother. Sisko, commander and Prophet. Kira, token Bajoran government rep...and freedom fighter. Julian Bashir, we discover is not what we thought. Garak, tailor and possible Obsidian order. Gul Dukat, evil occupying leader and tender father with, it turns out, odd loyalties to Bajor. The sands shift, but not in a continuity problem way. These characters are complex, as people are, and that gave the series life and unpredictability. You sort of always knew how Picard or Riker or Troi would be aligned, or how they would respond. DS9 had ambiguity.
It also had Cardassians. I always felt slightly dirty about it, but couldn't help my fascination with them - particularly Garak and Dukat.