well it really doesn't pick up until around season 3. I skipped through most of season 1/2 honestly. I would say you should only really watch the first few episodes from season 1, the Maquis two-parter from season 2, whatever the mirror universe episode is (only cause it's a recurring storyline) and the season finale of season 2 before going into season 3, cause most of the shyt from those earlier seasons is a bunch of Bajor/Cardassian religious nonsense that has no bearing on any future episodes
when the Dominion war storyline begins shyt really gets rolling. It becomes less whimsical space fantasy and more about the reality of war and the toll it takes on the characters. It's definitely the darkest Star Trek series which is why a lot of hardcore fans don't like it.
I personally like it the best because of the writing. The original series cast is classic but they're really just one-note characters throughout the show and don't really show much depth except for the movies. I always thought the TNG cast was boring as fukk, yeah Picard and Data are dope but everyone else is written pretty shallow and I never really gave a shyt about them. DS9's characters are very well written, they even take inconsequential characters from TNG and make them dope (O'Brien, Dr. Bashir, Worf). Gul Du'kat and Garak are two of the best characters in the entire franchise IMO, every scene with them is gold
Also I think it's one of the best portrayals of black characters ever in a TV show. Sisko's relationship with his son is touching and feels real. Most nerds don't want racial topics in their sci-fi, but DS9 doesn't shy away from them and handles it well. One of the best episodes is one where Sisko is a sci-fi writer in an alternate 1950s reality and his story gets rejected cause the captain is written as a black man. That shyt was etherous to 90% of the sci-fi fan community
Anyway I don't know if I did a great job selling it but it really is a great series and deserves more love. A nikka like me never gave a fukk about Star Trek growing up and always thought it was some goofy nerd shyt but this show is better than 95% of what's on TV now sci-fi or otherwise
