[quote name='RedvsBlue']You know, I think its kind of funny that the beginning of DS9 was absolutely horrible. I mean the first season or two are downright horrible. Somehow though it ended up being as good as TNG. I think it was all the action the Dominion War provided.[/quote]
The Dominion War helped, but it was the decision in season 2 to take their head out of the sand and actually create something interesting.
For two seasons, DS9 was plagued by awful, pointless stories. Some of this was setup, which is inevitable for any series. But some of it was because they were trying to treat DS9 like Trek as usual.
But DS9 being a station limited this. You can't do "something weird happens to the station" every week. They hadn't even clocked one season when it started getting ridiculous taking trips to "nearby" planets.
So they had to make the story come to the station, and not with the typical alien civilization/medical disaster/wacky phenomena of the week. To do this, they really had to develop the political situation on Bajor, on Cardassia, and through the wormhole.
This is where I think Voyager (especially) and Enterprise fell down, and why I hope they really think about what they want to accomplish before beginning a new series. Voyager was probably a reaction to plot-heavy DS9, but it went too far. Enterprise didn't go far enough away from Voyager's model, and by the time they realized this, it was too late.