h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

This entry was obviously written from a non DS9 fan. The reason Enterprise was cancelled is because it was a bad show that turned away hardcore fans of the original series and general sci-fi fans who could see better sci-fi on other channels, leaving just 3 million fans left. Voyager not pushing the envelope like DS9 was the first fault, and with Star Trek Magazine having a poll where fans voted DS9 the best series it shows that DS9 stands the test of time and was really ahead of it's time.

Actually I'm a huge DS9 fan, best of the franchise by far in my anything but humble opinion, but even I am forced to accept that the show drove away more viewers than it attracted. This is a list of average ratings for Star Trek from when TNG began to when DS9 ended:

Fall 1987 - Spring 1988: 8.55 Million
Fall 1988 - Spring 1989: 9.14 Million
Fall 1989 - Spring 1990: 9.77 Million
Fall 1990 - Spring 1991: 10.58 Million
Fall 1991 - Spring 1992: 11.50 Million
Fall 1992 - Spring 1993: 10.83 Million
Fall 1993 - Spring 1994: 9.78 Million
Fall 1994 - Spring 1995: 7.05 Million
Fall 1995 - Spring 1996: 6.42 Million
Fall 1996 - Spring 1997: 5.03 Million
Fall 1997 - Spring 1998: 4.53 Million
Fall 1998 - Spring 1999: 4.00 Million

As soon as TNG ended then Star Trek was on borrowed time. I don't think it mattered if DS9 had been the greatest show ever made rather than just the greatest Trek show, people just weren't interested and I doubt that they ever will be again in the same way that they were for TNG. Star Trek will be back in about 5-10 years, but its glory days are firmly behind it. It's not DS9's fault as such, it's just the way things are.

i think Voyager had a lot more to do with Star Trek's downfall then Deep Space Nine considering how overlooked Deep Space Nine was. Voyager was full of missed opportunities and them grabbing at ratings when castings Seven of Nine (not that it was a bad decision), and the last few seasons really were the Janeway, Seven & Doctor show.

Deep Space Nine probably did alienate viewers through some of the things it did but it took chances and was truly ahead of it's time, something which i think is shown by how people rejected Enterprise. I couldn't believe when the producers said they had trouble maintaining a one season arc for Enterprise when something like Deep Space Nine successfully had numerous multi-year arcs woven together.

I agree, I think Voyager was terrible in the most part, Enterprise was terrible around 40-60% of the time, and they ruined lots of the good work DS9 did. I mean the Dominion War was brilliant. Maybe if the final season of Enterprise had concentrated on the Romulan War as opposed to half-arsed stories culminating in Jonathan Frakes trying to squeeze back into a 15 year old uniform that was tight on him to begin with...

I think DS90 was the best Star Trek series as there was a lot of development of the characters eg Garak, Odo etc...