The first reviews for the region 1 release of Deep Space Nine season one on DVD have been published online.

Bill Hunt at Digital Bits, felt the strength lied more in the extras more than the episodes. "[It] was a very uneven, and mostly uninteresting, first year for the series," wrote Hunt. "The season opener, 'Emissary', was at least slightly better than average, as were the finale, 'In the Hands of the Prophets', and 'The Nagus', infamous for its deeper look at Ferengi culture. The sole stand-out episode of the season, the one that really hinted at the dramatic potential of the series, was 'Duet', in which Kira is forced to confront her hatred for the Cardassians."

Hunt felt the remixed sound was particularly good. "The audio is also very good, re-mixed in full Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound. However, the sound maybe isn't quite as dynamic and immersive as you'd expect. Much of the reason for this lies in the fact that there's less on-screen action on Deep Space Nine of the kind that really takes advantage of 5.1 sound - at least in season one. I can't wait to see (and hear) some of the space battles of later seasons on DVD! But make no mistake, this audio is much improved over the original broadcasts"

In his full review that can be found here, he rated the episodes C+, audio and visual quality B, and extras B-.

Steve Krutzler was the inverse, seeming to be more impressed with the episodes than the extras, in particular praising the pilot episode. "'Emissary' is likely the superior Star Trek pilot," said Krutzler, "presenting more back story for all its characters in an hour and a half than most Trek series do in an entire season. Sisko grows more in this one episode than some of our captains did in the lives of their characters."

However, he wasn't very pleased with the extras. "Unfortunately, the bonus materials on this freshman effort don't quite do the ambitious storytelling justice," said Krutzler. "What's good, however, is the show itself. If there's anything that can raise the quality of this set beyond the mediocre extras, it's the quality of the series pilot and the rest of the season. More different than any Trek before or after it, DS9 brought a type of grittiness and character drama that you just don't get anywhere else in the Trek universe."

In his full review that can be found here, he rated the box set 3/5.

Full details on the box set's extras can be found here, the UK and German release dates here and menu shots here in previous TrekToday articles.

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