While everyone was focused on the 25th anniversary of The Next Generation last year, 2013 marks an anniversary for another Trek series. Star Trek: Deep Space Nine premiered in the first week of January in 1993 which makes this week its 20th anniversary. The show began during the middle of The Next Generation’s pretty solid sixth season, and the two shows shared the airwaves for a season and a half and crossed over a couple of times. I remember in my syndication market, TNG would air Saturday nights at 7:00 while the new episodes of DS9 would air on Sunday nights. DS9 would take TNG’s place after Picard and crew moved to the big screen.

Many fans consider DS9 to be the best of the modern Trek series thanks to the serial story they ran in the last four seasons. While fans would really hate Berman if he had his way (he was rumored to want the Dominion War to last only four episodes), thanks to Voyager stealing all the attention of the meddling higher-ups; the DS9 team was able to craft an epic and deep war story in the Trek universe. The entire Dominion War, and the nine episodes it took to wrap up all of the various plot lines, remains a high mark that may never be matched when it comes to televised Star Trek. Only Ron Moore’s Battlestar was able to match, and exceed, what they began on Deep Space Nine.

You can see our picks for the best Deep Space Nine episodes right here.