So the EMH Never Heard of the Dominion

Discussion in 'Star Trek: Deep Space Nine' started by Photon, Jul 14, 2013.

  1. Shatna

    Shatna Grand Lord Admiral Admiral

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    While this is a clever turn of phrase on its own, it's also insulting and completely uncalled for. It ain't gonna fly with the new sheriff (that's me). Tone it down please.
     
  2. JirinPanthosa

    JirinPanthosa Admiral Admiral

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    The wormhole was a portal to the Gamma Quadrant. Everybody in the Federation would have been excited about a completely new frontier. Barring section 31 the Federation is not a secretive organization. The destruction of the Odyssey may have been classified, but if you recall DS9 at the beginning of season 3, people were leaving DS9 because it was so dangerous. If civilians knew about it, then a starship that stopped at DS9 right before being sent to the DQ would know that the Dominion exists and it is dangerous.

    They just weren't '#1 threat to the Federation' at the time, so Voyager might shove them into the back of their present anxieties.
     
  3. Captain Clark Terrell

    Captain Clark Terrell Commodore Commodore

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    Not necessarily. The civilians who left DS9 were people who lived on the space station, so they were most likely aware of the Dominion because of the events of both "The Jem'Hadar" and "The Search." Sisko was concerned about possibility of a Dominion attack on the station if a fleet tried to enter the Alpha Quadrant and almost certainly would have offered civilians the chance to leave the station for their own safety.

    Voyager was nowhere near DS9 until she was trying to track down the Maquis. Janeway probably read Sisko's reports on the region to gain insight into the Maquis and their conflict with the Cardassians. That Janeway had experience with the Cardassians herself would have helped matters, but there's no way to know how up-to-date her knowledge was. It's not clear if Janeway and Sisko ever spoke to each other because the latter doesn't appear in "Caretaker." He might have told her about the Dominion, but we can't know for sure.

    --Sran
     
  4. Pavonis

    Pavonis Commodore Commodore

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    If Janeway and Sisko spoke, and there's no reason to think they didn't, why would the Dominion come up? Janeway was on a search-and-rescue mission for Tuvok, with capturing Chakotay et al. a secondary concern. The relevant intelligence debriefing would be on known Maquis activity and bases in the Badlands. When and why would the Dominion be a topic necessary to discuss?
     
  5. JirinPanthosa

    JirinPanthosa Admiral Admiral

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    It's likely Sisko formally welcomed Janeway to the station but unlikely they talked about the Dominion.

    But there's no reason not to think the Dominion threat was common knowledge in the Federation. The GQ would have been the hot topic everybody is space-tweeting about since the wormhole was discovered. Of course everyone knew.
     
  6. Christopher

    Christopher Writer Admiral

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    But that doesn't mean the Doctor would've known. He was "born" in the DQ with a limited set of knowledge and expanded it selectively based on what he found interesting and useful to know. There could've been enormous gaps in his knowledge. Heck, we all have gaps in our knowledge compared to other people. For instance, I live in the United States, but I couldn't tell you much of anything about contemporary American pop music or sports, because I don't pay attention to those things.
     
  7. Bad Thoughts

    Bad Thoughts Vice Admiral Admiral

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    Voyager's disappearance also had little, if any, impact on DS9, even though the station would be a likely place from which to spearhead a search for the ship. Along with the ignorance of the Dominion among Voyager's crew, this reveals how little interest there was in tying the two series to one another.
     
  8. Pavonis

    Pavonis Commodore Commodore

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    It's a big universe, and each crew had their own problems to focus on. How much interacting between DS9 and VOY could be expected?
     
  9. Bad Thoughts

    Bad Thoughts Vice Admiral Admiral

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    I don't believe I raised interaction as an issue. I'm merely pointing out that there was little effort by the production staffs of both shows to keep them in the same narrative universe. Of course, the same could be said of the use of the Defiant and Worf in First Contact and the limited impact it had on DS9.
     
  10. Pavonis

    Pavonis Commodore Commodore

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    Same narrative universe? I'm afraid I don't understand what you mean by that. I think it was very clear both shows were Trek.
     
  11. Melakon

    Melakon Admiral In Memoriam

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    Was there ever even a throwaway line on DS9, about Voyager disappearing somewhere in the nearby Badlands? Seems like there should have been a search or recon probe.
     
  12. Pavonis

    Pavonis Commodore Commodore

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    No, no mention of Voyager's disappearance on DS9. But would a lost starship be DS9 and Sisko's problem? Wouldn't Starfleet Command be in charge of the search? Sisko's authority was limited to the station; he wasn't in charge of Starfleet activity outside the station. Was he?
     
  13. Bad Thoughts

    Bad Thoughts Vice Admiral Admiral

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    Every retrace your footsteps? The station was the last Federation outpost Voyager visited and was nearest to the location where it disappeared. It would be logical that DS9 would be an organization point for a search and rescue, regardless of who would command that mission.
     
  14. Pavonis

    Pavonis Commodore Commodore

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    ^True, but it wouldn't be Sisko's responsibility to organize the search, would it? Starfleet probably has a whole department devoted to keeping track of which ships are "missing" and how long they've been "missing". How long does Starfleet wait until deciding to search for a missing starship? Days, or months?
     
  15. Bad Thoughts

    Bad Thoughts Vice Admiral Admiral

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    I never claimed it would.
     
  16. Pavonis

    Pavonis Commodore Commodore

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    No you didn't. But if there were a search, months later, would Sisko even be questioned about his interaction with Janeway? Would Command even bother stopping at DS9? I think not. The ship was last known to be in the Badlands, so the search would start there, not DS9.
     
  17. Christopher

    Christopher Writer Admiral

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    Well, that's not surprising, since one was in syndication and the other was on UPN. There was no guarantee that viewers in any given market would be able to see both shows. So each show had to be able to stand on its own with minimal reference to the other. Recall how Buffy and Angel crossed over heavily when they were on the same network, but the crossovers mostly ended when Buffy switched to a different network.
     
  18. Lance

    Lance Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    I think the trouble is that in alot of ways Voyager is a step or two behind DS9 in its take on those events, even though cosmetic details (like the comm badges) indicate otherwise. In terms of its writing, "Caretaker" seems to take place within spitting distance of TNG season seven, what with all the build up about the Maquis and everything. It follows quite naturally from the events depicted in TNG "Premptive Strike", which makes sense as VOY was in development during that period. But DS9 "The Jem'Hadar" and DS9 "The Search" really do blow the flood gate open in terms of expanding the Alpha Universe mythology in a whole new direction, and VOY unfortunately starts out from a point which feels several steps behind those galaxy-shattering events. It's all a bit of a muddle.
     
  19. Captain Clark Terrell

    Captain Clark Terrell Commodore Commodore

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    As the ranking officer in the Bajoran sector, he had authority over any matter pertaining to Starfleet that happened within said region. I doubt his authority would have extended to the Badlands, but he certainly could have been involved in a search for a missing ship, similar to how neighboring police departments might collaborate to solve a crime or find a missing person. Also recall that he was asked by Starfleet to deal with the Maquis threat when it first emerged, so he clearly had authority over more than just the station.

    --Sran
     
  20. Bad Thoughts

    Bad Thoughts Vice Admiral Admiral

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    Though unsatisfactory, this is probably true. Although Quark and the station appear in the pilot, it did seem at the time that Voyager was positioned more as a successor to TNG rather than a spin-off of DS9. Certainly, "The Defiant" helped bridge the Maquis story between series, but it took more than a season for it to be taken up again on DS9 in any significant manner, whereas it was everpresent on Voyager.