Published Jun 16, 2026, 12:02 PM EDT
Ambrose Tardive is an editor on ScreenRant's Comics team. Over the past two years, he has developed into the internet's foremost authority on The Far Side. Outside of his work for ScreenRant, Ambrose works as an Adjunct English Instructor.
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This year marks the 60th anniversary of Star Trek. Next year, Star Wars turns 50. For the past half-century, the two franchises have been the heavyweights of popular science fiction, duking it out decade after decade. The 2020s aren't over yet, but many fans are ready to call this round, thanks to Andor, the stunning two-season Star Wars TV series. But let's go back to the 1990s, when Trek dominated, thanks largely to a series that walked so Andor could run 30+ years later.
That show, of course, is Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. DS9 is revered as one of the high points of the Trek franchise. The show was also at the vanguard of modern television. By the mid-point of DS9's seven-season run, it had evolved from the episodic formula of its predecessors, The Original Series and The Next Generation, to become a more serialized, ongoing story.
And it was a war story. Though Star Trek was founded on creator Gene Roddenberry's vision of a better future, the galaxy in the 24th century was far from conflict free, and Deep Space Nine confronted the idea of the Federation at war, with the eponymous space station on the frontline of the conflict.
Deep Space Nine is a spiritual predecessor to Andor, Tony Gilroy's Star Wars masterpiece. Both series present more grounded iterations of what their respective franchises can be; both made effective drama out of the grim logistics of war in space. Especially when viewed in comparison to one another, Deep Space Nine is a pioneering work of TV sci-fi that holds up as the best of Trek.
"Star Trek: Deep Space Nine," The Franchise's Boundary-Pushing 1990s Masterpiece, Is Still Must-Watch Today
DS9 Aired Between 1993 And 1999
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine has a curious reputation. It's beloved by serious Trek fans, but the more casual a viewer gets, the less likely it becomes they've watched DS9, or gotten deep enough into the show to where it really starts to cook. DS9 has a general pop culture reputation as the "grittier" Trek show from the 1990s. Yet it isn't the show's grittiness that earns it "masterpiece" status; it's the show's gravity.
Not the artificial gravity of the space station, but the legitimate gravity of Deep Space Nine's "Dominion War" storyline. In the show's later seasons, war wasn't just action, and it wasn't just drama. War was hell. The same can be said of Andor, which like DS9 before it, is praised for taking Star Wars more seriously. Except while Andor had precedents in decades worth of Star Wars books and comics, Deep Space Nine really broke new ground for Star Trek.
"Deep Space Nine" Was Pioneering Modern TV & Still Holds Up As Top-Tier Trek
Why DS9 Is The Perfect Trek Companion Piece To Andor
The marvelous thing about Deep Space Nine's "Dominion War," which dominated its later seasons, is that it wasn't some big epic the writers conceived of between seasons. It grew organically out of the show's ongoing developments, and its evolving storytelling sensibility. The placement of DS9 next to a wormhole leading to the Gamma Quadrant promised new discoveries as part of the show's premise. And the consequences of that proved dire for the Federation.
That's what makes Deep Space Nine's later season highlights, including "The Way of the Warrior," Season 4's two-part premiere, Season 5 premiere "Apocalypse Rising," and the unequivocally brilliant Season 6 episode "In the Pale Moonlight," feel so earned. Viewers go on adventures with Trek shows like The Original Series, The Next Generation, and later era shows like Discovery. But viewers go through the ringer with Deep Space Nine and its characters.
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Modern Star Trek Pretty Much Admits Deep Space Nine Is Still The Franchise's Outcast 32 Years Later
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine is still popular 30 years after its premiere, but several factors make it difficult for DS9 to compete wi modern Star Trek.
Deep Space Nine was a product of its time in some ways, and ahead of its time in others. If it could have done some of the things Andor did 30 years later, by the conventions of '90s TV, it would have. And there are ways Andor plays by the DS9 playbook. If Andor is the apex of Star Wars, it's fair to say Deep Space Nine is still the pinnacle of Star Trek.
What do you think, readers? Does Deep Space Nine hold up as a masterpiece? Andor fans, are you willing to give DS9 a try?
Release Date 1993 - 1999-00-00
Network Syndication
Showrunner Michael Piller, Ira Steven Behr
Writers Ronald D. Moore, Michael Taylor, Bill Dial, Morgan Gendel, Cindy Marcus, Evan Somers, Flip Kobler, Gordon T. Dawson, Jane Espenson, Jim Trombetta, Joe Menosky, John Whelpley, Katharyn Powers, Mike Krohn, Sam Rolfe, Jill Donner, Steve Warnek, D. Thomas Maio, Martin A. Winer, Lisa Klink
English (US) ·