Mark, I don't know if you're interested in digging into the behind-the-scenes material on DS9, but I would highly recommend finding a copy of the "Deep Space Nine Companion," which features extensive interviews with cast and crew about every single episode.

The DS9 writers are really great about not being precious about their show, and they talk about all the things that they feel like they did wrong and right with the show and/or individual characters.

One interesting nugget about the final arc is that Ron Moore's wife got really sick right at end and he had to leave for a while, forcing showrunner Ira Steven Behr and his writing partner, Hans Beimler, to pitch in to rewrite episodes at the end of the arc.

So, while Behr had planned on him and Beimler really taking their time writing the finale, they ended up having to write it in almost no time at all. There were reports they didn't even have the second half of the finale written when they started filming it. If it doesn't seem as polished as some of the other episodes in the arc (and the really strange way the Winn/Dukat/Sisko plot is structured inside the episode), that is probably a reason why.

Questions:

What was your favorite season of the show? Favorite episodes?

A lot of fans are split on the final season, some loving it, some really disliking a lot of it. (A lot of complaints about all the focus Ezri gets over the other regulars, and even Vic Fontaine.) Where do you come down on how it fits in with the rest of the series?

Krenim, institute the new timeline immediately!

Includes vague impressions of the rest of the series:

Lbh xabj, V yvxr n ybg bs gur hcpbzvat rcvfbqrf va gur erfg bs guvf frnfba naq gur arkg, ohg guvf frira-rcvfbqr nep (vapyhqvat "Pnyy gb Nezf") zvtug or gur crnx bs gur fubj sbe zr. Vg pbagnvaf cerggl zhpu rirelguvat gung vf terng nobhg QF9, juvyr qbvat fbzrguvat Gerx unf arire rira pbzr pybfr gb nggrzcgvat orsber, naq, rira jvgu fbzr synjf urer naq gurer, chyyf vg bss va zbfgyl fcrpgnphyne snfuvba. Yvxr gur frevrf nf n jubyr, guvf nep vf terngre guna gur fhz bs vgf irel njrfbzr cnegf.

Naq vg vf fgvyy fb vagrafryl punenpgre-sbphfrq, rira nf vg'f gryyvat n fgbel ba gur tenaqrfg fpnyr. Fhpu na npuvrirzrag.

"4. Nog will graduate from Starfleet. What is happening??? I feel victorious."

He actually did not. He's just on his "year abroad" of field duty, so to speak. That's why he's still got the cadet uniform on.

"6. We’ll see the Mirror Universe characters once. YES."

No, we didn't? :)

I would guess Worf's thinking was that Kurn could essentially "rebuild" his honor in a different identity.

How that would play out based on the tenets of the Klingon religion, I have no idea.

Like Mark, I also remember being pretty horrified at the idea of memory wiping Kurn without his consent.

On a rewatch, I do better understand what Ron Moore was going for. The episode does its best to convince us that Kurn is already dead in all but body. Worf has tried to find reasonable alternatives for him, and they have all failed. (No Klingon is going to go into therapy, I suppose.) The only thing that is going to result in short order is that Kurn is going to kill himself.

Worf tries to find an alternative to that that will perhaps, from his point of view, allow Kurn to enter Sto’Vo’Kor, rather than Klingon hell. From Worf’s point of view, it’s justified (though there’s very little reason to buy that Julian would perform the procedure), even if most of us may find it morally repugnant.

(Of course, taking Klingon heaven as a real thing, that's going to be an awfully confusing admissions process for Kurn when he arrives at the gates.)

Oh, nice!

Gung fubhyq or dhvgr n fhecevfr, hayrff ur'f fbzrubj orra fcbvyrq ba vg. Gung Jbes riraghnyyl wbvaf QF9 vf fbzrguvat rira zbfg crbcyr jub unir arire jngpurq gur fubj nyernql xabj.

If Mark hasn’t already gotten around to watching DS9 4x01, I wonder if he might be better served by not actually viewing the DS9 title sequence. It’s one of the few times in Trek history that the opening titles actually spoil something in the episode itself, in this case:

Fvapr Zvpunry Qbea vf perqvgrq nf Jbes va gur bcravat gvgyrf, vg fgebatyl fhttrfgf ur jvyy abg bayl or va gur rcvfbqr, ohg gung ur orpbzrf n erthyne pnfg zrzore. Gur ynggre vf abg fbzrguvat gung orpbzrf nccnerag hagvy gur irel raq bs gur gjb-ubhe frnfba sbhe cerzvrer.

There is another example later where they just kind of throw their hands in the air and give up: Funxnne. V guvax gurl whfg qvqa'g pner sbe gur npgbe naq svtherq gurl jbhyq zbir ba.

I think what they do with Nog here demonstrates one of the strengths of DS9. If a character isn't quite working, regular or recurring, they will keep tinkering with them, evolving them until they do.

Bashir. Dax. Nog. Rom. They're all very different at the start of the series, not all that successful, but the writers keep working at it until they figure out how to write the characters in a way the plays to the strengths of the individual actors portraying them.

They generally don't discard characters because they're not quite clicking (Bareil might be an exception). They just write them better.