Star Trek: 10 Most Hilarious DS9 Memes

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine premiered during the heyday of the Trek revival. It ran on the heels of The Next Generation in 1993 and its success led to the creation of Voyager in 1995. It was a groundbreaking show. Not only was it the first Trek set on a space station instead of a starship, but it also featured the first African-American protagonist. It was a ratings success at the time but it remains an often overlooked and underrated member of the Star Trek family.

In the Star Trek family, Deep Space Nine would be the goth child. It's dark. It's contemplative. It takes to task the institutions framed as infallible in other shows. It's secretly a big softie. It has some of the best storylines in Star Trek history. It also has some of the best memes.

10 The Emissary

This here is the exact premise of Deep Space Nine. Commander (later Captain) Benjamin Sisko (Avery Brooks) arrives at DS9 bitter about his placement at a backwater space station. He recently lost his wife in battle and has a son to raise on his own now.

Before he knows it, however, he's named The Emissary by the Bajoran spiritual leader and discovers a stable wormhole full of aliens that exist outside the confines of time and physical form. The wormhole to a totally new quadrant of "unexplored" space makes DS9 the most strategic location in the galaxy. Suddenly Sisko's position there becomes a lot more interesting and a lot more stressful.

9 Bashir's Dating Life

Julian Bashir (Alexander Siddig) is the doctor on Deep Space Nine. He's fresh out of Starfleet Medical and intentionally chose a frontier position. He's just happy to be here. He's also genetically modified, which is an illegal procedure. He's smarter and stronger than the average human but he also has a huge heart and takes his medical responsibilities very seriously.

Bashir thinks he's the dashing James Bond of Deep Space Nine. In reality, he's more of a sweet little nerd. He starts out the series being overly aggressive in his romantic life, to the point that he's annoying. Eventually, he becomes more comfortable with being alone and becomes a beloved member of the cast.

8 A Wonderful Worm

Jadzia Dax (Terry Farrell) is one of the most interesting Star Trek characters ever created. She is a Trill, a species that has a symbiotic relationship with a kind of worm that lives inside some specially chosen Trills abdomens. The symbionts outlive the Trills meaning that one symbiont can have a string of Trill hosts. Jadzia's symbiont is called Dax and has all the memories of its past hosts, meaning Jadzia does too.

Jadzia has all the confidence of her past hosts as well as their memories. She plays dabo with Quark (Armin Shimerman), the Ferengi bartender. She drinks blood wine with Klingons. She downs raktajinos with Captain Sisko. She can hold her own in any situation while remaining one of the nicest characters on the station.

7 Fatherhood Fail

Deep Space Nine has been praised as a fantastic depiction of black fatherhood. Captain Sisko and his son, Jake (Cirroc Lofton), have one of the best relationships on the show. In a culture where black fathers are often represented as missing, whether by incarceration, death, or any other terrible circumstance, Sisko's continued presence and effort in his son's life is seen as refreshing.

This meme is hilarious in part because it's so off-brand. Jake isn't exactly a failure. He ends up a successful writer. But he is a bit of a mess, especially in the romance department. Sisko generally jumps at the chance to support and protect his son, but he's not above a good joke now and then either.

6 Change Gul Dukat's Mind

The Big Baddie of DS9 is Gul Dukat (Marc Alaimo). He was a leader during the Cardassian occupation of Bajor and is behind various heinous activities during the 7 seasons of DS9. Dukat is the type of villain that is so charming you love to hate him. He's disgusting and awful but also deeply charismatic.

One thing Dukat never gives up on is his support of the Bajoran occupation. Like many oppressors, he's convinced himself that what he did really was in the best interest of the people he oppressed. He argues throughout the series that he improved the Bajorans' lives while in reality, it was one of the more heinous acts in Trek history.

5 Best Friend Banter

Jake Sisko and Nog (Aron Eisenberg) are best friends. They've been through it all. Enemies to friends to roommates to brothers. Deep Space Nine is full of well-developed, well-written relationships. Jake and Nog are no exception. Nog, in particular, is a very unique character. He's Quark's nephew and becomes the first Ferengi member of Starfleet.

Jake and Nog have this exact type of friendly banter. Jake is carefree and totally wouldn't think twice before responding to Nog this way, especially since Cirroc Lofton grew like a bean pole over the course of the series. Nog is the much more serious of the pair. One could just imagine the glare Jake would receive in return.

4 Tired O'Brien

Chief Miles O'Brien moved over to DS9 after being a supporting character on The Next Generation. He is the chief engineer for the entire station. Given that DS9 was originally a Cardassian space station, all the technology is different. Chief O'Brien has his work cut out for him.

Whether he's dealing with a transporter breakdown or an infestation of Cardassian voles, O'Brien is just about always short on sleep. And when he's not on the job, he's straining his shoulder in the holosuite with Julian. But let's be honest, O'Brien wouldn't have it any other way.

3 Odo? In My Meme?

Odo is DS9's chief of security. He served the same position during the occupation. He is a Changeling. That means Odo's natural state is a liquid form. He can shape himself into any object after sufficient practice. He chooses a humanoid appearance wearing a Bajoran security uniform as his everyday look.

Odo is a tough cookie. He prefers gruffness to softness and order to chaos. He runs a tight ship on DS9. He has a longstanding rivalry with Quark. Quark has been known to be a part of smuggling operations on the station and is constantly trying to sneak things in under Odo's nose.

2 The McDonald's Triangle

This classic meme features all our beloved DS9 characters perfectly placed on a graph of the three types of people. There's the people who, as you pass a McDonald's, are the kids yelling to go get some food. There's the parents that say no we have food at home. And there's the trolls who pull through the drive-through, order a coffee, and leave.

The two antagonists of the series are clearly in that black coffee corner while the rest of our friends are dispersed around the other two corners. Odo, being a logical guy, is squarely in the food at home corner. Dax leads the yelling McDonald's crew. Of note is Sisko who is split evenly between the two aforementioned corners. He's a bit silly and a bit serious, depending on the moment.

1 Deep Space ME

Now we get to the best meme of all, the most relatable for Deep Space Nine fans everywhere. We've all been in the position of defending our undying love for DS9 to a classic TNG fan. It may be tiring but the swell of pride we feel as we describe the way DS9 complicates the too-shiny narrative of the Federation never gets old.

Just consider the Masquis storyline or the introduction of Section 31. Or the way the Dominion presents the perfect mirror to the ever-homogenizing Federation. We've all tired a few TNG fans out in our time with these examples. It's an energizing crusade, frankly.

Source: screenrant.com