Long time trek fan, never could get past the first season of DS9. I finally listened to the Internet and pushed through. And boy was the Internet spot on! Everything you all were saying about it was 100% true. From mid S2 it just kept getting better and better! I understand what you were saying about the joy of watching it for the first time. I felt like a member of a special family when the credits rolled on that last episode.
So now I’m doing a 2nd watch through some of my fave episodes. I have a question, or maybe more of an opinion, about Dukat. I know that the writers said they didn’t expect him to be as popular as he was. But it seems to me they didn’t really know or care where his character arc was headed. In the beginning, I got this really strong (long game) antihero vibe. Especially with the daughter thing. Then they leaned into the power hungry, must lead at all costs trope. And they waffled horribly on the dad redemption arc. Plus at all times, they kept doubling down on the Bajoran sexual predator thing. Obviously, he finished as the complete psycho madman.
The thing is, it never mattered to me what he was doing. No matter what he did on the screen, it was tremendous fun to watch. I would’ve watched him read the phone book. But I really had no idea where they were trying to take that character at any given time.