Precisely why I love Ds9.
It’s the only post TOS trek show that actually went to test the values of the good guys to the limit.
As great as TNG was, it was much safer in comparison. I don’t mean peril because the enterprise crew were in danger all the time, but them actually pushing their beliefs to the limit. Which did happen, but rarely.
Q, for example, was one of the few people that actually put Picard out of his comfort zone, and even made him beg for his life.
Incidentally this was also an issue with Voyager, but I digress.
Perhaps Sisko wasn’t the wise guy Picard was. But, unlike Picard, he was pushed into many situations where there just weren’t any easy answers. Picard is very much a peace time captain. And his role was, usually, preaching federation values over the obviously evil or misguided aliens.
The dominion, the bajorans, the cardassians, and the Maqui, actually forced the federation and Sisko to make hard moral choices.
This is why I was very disappointed with the Picard Tv show. When they said they would “humble“ Picard I wanted them to make him deal with what Sisko deal with.
Instead the best the hacks could think of was ”HuMILliate the PRiVIleGEd WhiTHE MAle”.
Sisko is every bit the good guy Picard Is, if not more so, in my book.
Picard is the kind of person that would rather sleep with a clean conscience even if that may cost his own life. Which, don’t get me wrong, is admirable.
But, Sisko is the kind of person that would rather sacrifice his self respect and even his own soul for the good of others.
Picard would have never done what Sisko did. He would have remained the ideal Starfleet captain. But he might have doomed the alpha quadrant in the process.
That is what sets apart Ds9 over Voyager, and TNG.