DS9 is much tonally darker. It still feels fairly modern in presentation. The show pushes and prods at the utopian Star Trek ideals. There is character growth among the main characters, and overarching stories especially in the last few seasons.
It’s not fully grimdark, and has some of the best interactions and humor in Trek, but the setting is a post-military occupation planet. It doesn’t handwave away the lingering issues.
The cast and characters are great. Easily the best reoccurring show villains in DS9.
This is such a great description, and captures why I love DS9 so much. I think the fact that it doesn’t really take place in the Federation, and that the overarching plot is moved along by external forces from an entirely different quadrant, gives it the space to thoughtfully explore the depths of a well-intentioned yet exclusionary post-scarcity utopia from a darker perspective. Especially how the Federation’s ideals interact with the aftermath of a very familiar military occupation on Bajor at the same time as it stokes an external threat from an unfamiliar ‘other’ through the Dominion/Founders. And all of that is accomplished through some of the best character development of any show I’ve seen.
My guess is yes. Many consider it the best Star Trek. I think I agree and I’m not even to the best parts yet.
The general look & feel of it is closest to TNG, if you’ve seen much of that. It’s not as campy as the original, but you get a few moments of “look at that actor on that obvious sound stage set pretending to be an alien, lol” moments. But DS9 has more long plot arcs. I am loving the cast of characters more than I remember too.