Deep Space Nine Episodes Fans Always Skip On A Rewatch

There's a "Star Trek"-related phenomenon called "Riker's Beard," which defines the moment when a show starts getting good. The "rule," in Gene Roddenberry's universe, isn't limited to "Star Trek: The Next Generation," though. For "Deep Space Nine," that happened in the 3rd season, when actor Avery Brooks, who played Captain Ben Sisko, debuted a new look that featured a shaved head and a goatee.

The first season, and some of the second, focused on character and world development, and the ongoing narrative arc that dominated much of the later seasons didn't come about for some time; the Dominion, made up of an aggressive collection of races from the Gamma Quadrant, isn't even mentioned until the Season 2 episode "Rules of Acquisition." But, like many new series, "Deep Space Nine" struggled to find its footing initially.

This has led many fans to write off the entire first season, and some of the second, entirely. "I would recommend that anyone wanting to watch DS9 begin with season three," wrote u/OsakaWilson. And u/Brad3000 referenced the Riker's Beard phenomenon: "A good rule of thumb is this — Does Avery Brooks have hair? If the answer is yes, you can probably skip it," the user said. However, others noted that the seeds for these well-liked later seasons are planted in the 2nd season and thus it's worth viewing as well.