Alex Arrelia

- Sisko is a loving single parent. He tries to pressure his son to join Star Fleet, but accepts that it's not for him and encourages him to pursue his creative goals instead

- Kira is a religious moderate, her views are questioned by other characters in the show but not by the show, and she's always given the opportunity to defend her beliefs. She's a terrorist, she uses that word unambiguously, she has no regrets

- The impact of Miles' job is a constant strain on his relationship with Keiko, she's allowed to be angry that her career ambitions have suffered. They're forced to find creative ways to deal with that strain, including long periods of separation

- The show takes Nana Visitor being pregnant IRL and use it as an opportunity to make Kira a surrogate parent and to discuss unconventional families instead of just hiding her behind a desk for an entire season

- Dax. Just Dax. The entirety of Dax. Her bisexuality treated as a total non issue (unlike the Tril in TNG), her relationship to her gender is a source of personal strength for her, not a burden. In romantic relationships, she demands respect and makes no apologies for her past

- Fucking Nog. Comic relief who, instead of becoming a cheap character foil for Jake, grows into his own, is allowed to change. Struggles with trauma and his mental health even before his combat injury

- They gave General Martok PTSD. They gave General fucking Martok. PTSD.

- The notion that Star Fleet is an entirely morally good entity is questioned repeatedly. There's the coup on Earth, Section 37 committing war crimes, Sisko never comes forward about the assassination of a high ranking Romulan b/c it's politically convenient

- The Ferengi. It would be easy enough to let them all just be a punchline, but instead their culture is held up as a mirror for ours. Other Star Trek shows are content to let socialism be a background element, DS9 makes it a topic of discussion

- Kira and Sisko's relationship is fucking wild. They start off hating and mistrusting one another, they grow to deeply respect and love one another, it's completely platonic and super touching and she has to struggle w the fact that he's also a religious icon

- Bashir and O'Brian have the fucking most endearing, complicated friendship between--afaik--straight dudes. It's beautiful, it makes them uncomfortable, they don't know how to articulate those feelings but they try. It makes me cry

- Garak's fraught relationship with his father is YIKES. His depression is omnipresent and palpable. He has to live with having done horrendous shit trying to get approval from someone who never gave it to him, I don't think even Garak knows what Garak wants from minute-to-minute

- The show takes the opportunity to turn a fun episode about a casino heist in a holodeck program to host a whole ass debate about whether or not lionizing a white-washed past is a good idea b/c the sixties were, in fact, fucking racist as shit

- The show takes the opportunity to turn a fun episode about a baseball game to host a whole ass debate about whether or not logic bro ubermensch Vulcans are REALLY the kind of characters that we should be rooting for as an audience

- Gul Dukat and Kai Winn are fucking evil not because of the races they belong to are two-dimensional stereotypes invented to prove a broad point, but because they're vile, scheming, intelligent authoritarians that reflect real world evil

- Introduces the Maquis, doesn't unilaterally denounce them. Cassidy is a Maquis sympathizer who *goes to prison* and when she gets out, Sisko just starts dating her again and they move on.

- "Rom starts a union" is an episode.

- "Worf's brother wants to commit assisted suicide" is an episode

- Everything in Far Beyond the Stars, Duet, The Siege of AR-558, The Second Skin, and In the Pale Moonlight is fucking superb. That's all. I can't do this all day, but I could, I just need to stop lol

And Trials and Tribbleations is delightful. The funny episodes of DS9 are legitimately very funny