What are your controversial Star Trek opinions?

Was the gamma quadrant terminus of the Bajoran wormhole actually in Dominion territory though? I always got the impression it was located just outside their borders, which is why it took two years for them to make their presence felt. The officially licensed Star Trek star charts also support this idea.

 

Either that, or actual Dominion forces are spread pretty sparsely, even within Dominion territory. After all, troop concentration needs only to be dense enough to ensure the territory can be held under control (i.e. counter an uprising with a concentration of Dominion forces within a 'reasonable' timeframe). If the region has traditionally been quiet, that density could be quite low, also making the odds of a random Starfleet /Jem'Hadar meeting quite low.

The Dominion, on the other hand, probably simply took its time (gathering intel about Starfleet) before making its own presence known. At least, that's what I might have done in their shoes; sending changelings over to gather intel quietly before those AQ species even learn about our existence. They could have had as much as a two year lead on us in terms of intel.

 

Considering Talak'talan in "THE JEM'HADAR" knew a fair amount about the Alpha Quadrant when talking to Sisko, the Dominion very likely had their spies in very early in season 1. Maybe even as early as "CAPTIVE PURSUIT", when the Tosk hunters returned to the Gamma Quadrant.

 

That's what I figured they did, the first ship they could they sent Changlings over. They most likely arrived on non Starfleet or civilian ships where security would be more lax. DS9 would have been their first stop. They'd avoid Odo and maybe even have been in Sisco's office reading reports as they came in. From there they had access to The Klingon Empire, the Romulan Empire, and every other stellar or interstellar government in the AQ.

 

I wrote a long answer which got lost. So here is a shorter one.

There were three mentons of the Domninion in the second season, before the last episode of the season "The Jem'Hadar." And there were several other episodes in that season with contact with Gamma Quadrant natives who didn't mention the Dominion..

Previously, in the the first season, there were several contacts with Gamma Quadrant people without any mention of the Dominion. So it seems ot me that if the Gamma Quadrant peoples who lived closest to the wormhole mouth werer part of the Dominion, or were afraid the Dominion was about to invade them, or knew that the Dominon claimed the volume of space where the wormhole mouth was, they would tell their Alpha Quadrant contacts about that important fact. Therefore, such an important fact probably didn't exist.

And even as late as the beginning of the third season,and probably at least well into the fourth season, the Dominion didn't rule the volume of space where the wormhole mouth was. Because none of the trips into the Gamma Quadrant showed or mantioned andyDominion force fields or other defenses outside the Gamma quadrant mouth of the wormhole. You would expect that the Dominion would make it their first business after annexing that volume of space to build battle stations at the wormhole mouth, battle stations at least as powerful as the Vegan Orbital Fortress or the Death Star.

So apparently the Federation was not trepassing tinto the territory of a realm which forbid them entry. Instead the wormhole mouth would have been within the territory of a state which granted them permission to transit, or else in free space claimed by nobody.. Until maybe the Federation or Bajor claimed the region and the Dominion didn't recognize it..

So it wasn't illegal or unethical for the Federation to continue to enter the Gamma Quadrant if the Dominion had no more right to forbid the use of the Gamma Quadrant mouth of the wormhole, than the Klingons, or Romulans,or Gorn, or Tholians had to forbid use of the Alpha Quadrant mouth.

But it does seem rather foolish to keep on antagonizing a major power like the Dominion with no stronger justification than a desire to keep on exploring and making contacts in the Gamma Quadrant.

Nodoby on the Federation side ever claimed that they had signed mutual defense treaties with some Gamma Quadrant states requiring the Federation to help defend them if attacked by a third party, before they ever heard of the Domnion, and so were honor bound to maintain a presence in the Gamma Quadrant.

Instead they always talked like continuing to travel to the Gamma Quadrant was something the Federation wanted to do, not something they were legally obligated to do. And a mere desire to expand into the Gamma Quardran seems like a weak reason to keep on annoying the Dominion and risking war.

And of course, when Sisko returned after "The Search" and reveal that the Founders of the Dominion were shape shifters like Odo, ideal for inflitration, The Federation had a strong reason to close the wormhole mouth.

 

The worst thing about fighting the Dominion is that you lose people. The Dominion loses flesh and blood automatons that exist only to fight.

 

And this is why the UFP needs a Droid Army mixed in with their "Flesh & Blood" personnel.

Expand their fighting force and each Organic Officer becomes the leader of a small BiPedal Droid Squad and becomes a HUGE "Force Multiplier".

 

DOT Patrol!

 

Or combat exoskeletons. Something three meters tall that can jump fifteen, and with a gatling phaser on the end of one arm and an Elite Force photon burst on the end of the other. That'll make the Jem'Hadar crap a brick!

 

DOT series are more for maintenance, I'd use a brand new Droid series built from the ground up for being a Soldier Bot.

I already had Exo-Skeletons / Power Armor included for the Organic Flesh & Blood soliders in my Head Canon.

 

I'd just use holograms. ESH.

 

Holograms don't work in certain environments due to dampening fields or whatever radiation.

Droids would work in those situations since most droid are designed to be hardened to radiation where as the Holographic Projector might not work in a similar situation.

 

Or redesign the holographic project to protect it against radiation.

 

There are just some environments that need solid bodies, I'm going to leave it at that.

 

Perhaps somebody could manufacture a clone army or something.

Kor

 

"Now don't touch the subroutines of that holoprogram."

 

If you can harden a droid I would well imagine you can harden a projector. Any deployed team should be appropriate to the environment. So, holograms, to drones to probes, each have use.

 

That's why I like to Mix/Match my teams.

Organic Bi-PaB crew members.

Bi-PaB Droids.

Holograms.

Non-BiPaB Droids.

etc.

 

Yup. Diversity makes more missions possible.

 

I've always been a fan of Non Bi-PaB droids ever since I saw Star Wars as a kid.

So while it's nice and practical to have Bi-PaB droids that actors can act in, having non standard Bi-PaB droids is important to me.

Who doesn't like BB-8 & BD-1?

One of the droids I want created is a "Centaur Droid" with a robotic Snake Tail that coils up like a telephone cord for compact space savings, but can extend to be super long like the longest snakes on Earth.

Having the body of a Centaur allows the functionality of a Bi-PaB, with extra stability & mobility of a horse & the versatility of a Snake Tail =D