I can see what you mean, LH, abot it being a bit 'soap-opera'm though I found it did get a little better later on, perhaps as the chars were more solidly established to base that 'melodrama' on.

Maybe thats purely MY perception though, as it took me a while to gt into DS9, I think because over here, they started showing Babylon 5 at around the same time (not that I mean LITERALLY the same time, in that the 'schedulings' clashed) & 2 space station-based sci-fi...
well...

'Next Gen' was a VERY hard act to follow though, as the Orig. series had been (though for different reasons) they couldnt cast another 'Captain' in the mould that Picard had formed, & had to do something different. Also there was a growing female audience for sci-fi, & film & TV media seem to believe that that soap-opera style is what women want, I think.