And this episode passes that test, again and again and again. But the question of how successful a series finale has been is always how well it stands up to subsequent viewings. Until we get a huge revelation at the very end as to why the Prophets have been so interested in Benjamin 'The Sisko' for what it turns out to be, his entire life. When I was watching this for the first time, I was asking myself when is this episode going to end? Because stuff just kept happening, climax after climax. The beginning of lord of the rings is longer than the ending, and in the same way the ending of deep space nine is compressed into one season and 11 episodes in particular, while the final entry crams in as much as possible into a one hour 32 minute series finale. It is interesting when we get to the end of stories, how time gets compressed. Although in ST: TNG we did have some episodes that told a continuing story, it wasn't until season two of deep space nine when they started introducing little hints of something called 'the dominion' and we started having a show that gradually told its tale through five more seasons, and it wasn't until season seven when we saw an arc consisting of about 10 individual episodes which told this final story.

Later when I watched interviews with some of the producers, I believe it was Rick Berman who said 'if we had five more episodes we certainly could have used them' - and I have always agreed with this.

But on the other hand, it is way too short. On one hand, this episode puts a solid lid on the entire show. And I found that to be a totally unique experience in itself, I had been following deep space nine from the start and I only missed about two episodes in the entire run. But On JI watched 'what you leave behind' on my old 32' RCA CRT TV in my back room. At the time I thought the entire time travel/time shifting gag had been used a little bit too much, even though it was used differently in that episode. Although I liked it as well I felt it wasn't really the best story to end the show with, although it was a unique story. On I watched 'All Good Things', the final next generation episode. I can't think of very many shows that had a relevant series finale in those years. But back in 1969 the concept of the grand series finale wasn't really being used that much. Although I loved the episode it was not really a strong episode to be run as a series finale.

On June 3, 1969, I watched 'Turnabout Intruder', the final episode of Star Trek the original series.

Star trek dominion war episodes