People watching these things for the first time is about the only thing worth a damn in this thread.
I've been continuing my first time through Deep Space Nine, and was on the fence about posting my reactions, but if Bart says it's okay, then I will.
I just watched the unofficial two-part episode from Season 3: Improbable Cause and The Die Is Cast. Great stuff! I only say "unofficial" because DS9 is clearly becoming more serialized at this point, something I've heard much about but am only now starting to experience, but the episodes themselves weren't "Part 1" and "Part 2". Season 2 had the amazing three-part arc which also had separate episode titles but were basically the Frank Langella trilogy. Anyway, Improbable Cause ended with a twist and a cliffhanger and "To Be Continued..." then the next episode starts with a "Previously on..." and "And now the conclusion..." so yeah.
So this is some serious shit. Disobeying Star Fleet Command (okay that's not exactly new to Star Trek), sabotage, Cardassians, Romulans, Founders, Jem'Hadar, space battles, torture, intrigue, pretty much every scene moved things along. And those that didn't (a minor recurring story about some kind of chocolate) even served a purpose, even if that purpose was only to give us a little breather between the more intense scenes.
I find Garak to be a very interesting character. I like how we've learned more and more about him, but very slowly. He's just a tailor who's chosen to keep operating his shop on DS9 despite the Cardassians leaving it to the Federation. Then there are hints that he's something more; an operative or maybe former operative. Then we find out that he was exiled, but not why. Now we know that Enabran Tain is the one who brought about his exile, but Garak is still completely devoted to him for some reason. Even the short scene with Tain's housekeeper hinted at something more. What the heck is going on? I mean that in a good way. The way they're meting out the story makes me crazy to learn more, but we only get it a little at a time.
Eddington is a dick. Someone should just punch him in the face.
One negative thing I don't see mentioned a lot. Much is said about Odo's appearance, due to his inability to perfectly emulate the intricacies of the human face. When we meet the Founders, they all look basically like him, with somewhat blocky, imperfect faces. There's even the one female Founder who I thought would turn out to be Odo's "mother" (if they even have parents in that way) but no, she's just a Founder and she looks a lot like Odo because of the blocky face. But then there's the episode where Odo and Kira are stuck on a moon or something and Kira is trapped in crystal, but it turns out that Kira wasn't Kira; she was the Founder lady. How was she able to emulate Kira perfectly if they can't do faces? Same with the Romulan Lovok in this episode. Turns out he's a changeling as well, but he was able to perfectly emulate a Romulan. Can they emulate Bajorans and Romulans perfectly, but not Terrans? That doesn't make sense. I know; the correct answer is "because, you know, plot convenience" but it bugs me that they're introduced specific details, then broke the rules when it made for a good twist and hoped you were so amazed by the twist that you didn't notice the plot hole.