Duras & The Dominion War

[PorthosShadow]

I was recently watching the TNG episode "Reunion" where Duras poised to become the next leader of The Klingon Empire and obviously he never made it that far. So it got me thinking how would The Dominion War have gone for The Federation had Duras been in charge.

Given that he was far more stubborn than Gowron and that his family were basically traitors with Romulan ties the political situation in DS9's part of the universe could have been very interesting. Anyway, I was curious to find out what other's here might think of how DS9 would have changed if Duras was in charge and not Gowron.

 

[InklingStar]

I'm sure a Duras-led Empire would have gone to war with the Federation much sooner than Gowron's did. With the Klingons and Romulans allied against them, who would the Federation turn to for help? The Cardassians, perhaps? Would the Cardassians have abandoned Bajor at that point? It's possible the wormhole might never have been discovered. Even if it was, the Dominion would have found the Alpha Quadrant much easier to conquer, with the major powers already engaged in a long conflict.

 

[Jono]

I don't think anything would have really changed. Duras can be convinced into war as Gowron was. I believe he would back off at the end of "The Way of the Warrior" as Gowron did. I don't believe there would be a Klingon-Romulan alliance against the Federation purely because the Klingons despise the Romulans with a passion. Duras used them in his bid for power but if that got out he would be in trouble with his allies and opponents. I guess I believe that the Romulans to Duras were simply a means to an ends: the chancellorship. Once they lived out their purpose Duras would discard them and just be as hostile towards them as anyone else.

The writers can pretty much lay it out pretty much the same from that point onwards, even up to the point of having Worf kill Duras at the end to put Martok as the new Chancellor.

Oh, and maybe we wouldn't have had the terrible "Sword of Kahless" episode since Toral would probably still be a nobody or even be dead, killed by Duras to protect his position.

The only changes that I see would need to be done is in regards to the Kurn episode. If Duras is the chancellor the House of Mogh never reclaims its honour, so they can't lose it again in WotW. Maybe they could work Kurn into the show by having him side with Duras, maybe couple that with having Duras offer Worf a place in the war against Cardassia as Gowron did Duras adds that he will give the House of Mogh some of its honour back. That way the episode could deal with the brothers dealing with each other's betrayal of the other. Or maybe just never have Kurn appear.

 

[Silvercrest]

Don't forget, there is no way Worf would take Duras' ascension lying down. Or if he did, there is no way Duras would let Worf live.

One way or another, Worf would probably be removed from the equation. If Worf goes after Duras, Worf either dies or goes to prison, and it might plunge the Empire into immediate war with the Federation, even if someone else is in charge. And if Duras has him assassinated, we're left with an unstable Empire.

As InklingStar wrote, the Empire would have gone to war with the Federation much sooner than it did, no matter who was in charge. Even if nothing else changed, the Federation wouldn't have Worf to act as liaison. (This is aside from the question of the wormhole, or whether DS9 would play the role it did.)

 

[Quinton O'Connor]

Would Duras' survival have put the sisters in a better or worse predicament? I forget the intricacies of their introduction. What was their relationship with their brother? I seem to remember it being amicable enough.

If such a continued coexistence between family members would be possible, then perhaps the sisters never would have lost their lives in Generations. They could stir up trouble of their own.

 

[InklingStar]

Would Duras' survival have put the sisters in a better or worse predicament? I forget the intricacies of their introduction. What was their relationship with their brother? I seem to remember it being amicable enough.

Duras and his sisters were never in any episodes together. The sisters were introduced in the season four finale Redemption after Duras was killed in season four's Reunion.

 

[Praxius]

I don't think the hypothetical of Duras being the leader of the Klingon Empire was at all likely.

He killed Worf's "Mate", so Worf slaughtered his sorry ass..... end of story.

If he didn't kill K'Ehleyr, she would have exposed his cowardly actions of covering up his father's dishonor, thus either he would lose his chances of leading the Empire, or a civil war would have broken out (which happened anyways, later) and after the Federation detected the Romulan shipments supplying his family, rather then his illegitimate son's life in Worf's hands, it would have been Duras's life in Worf's hands, which Worf would have had more incentive to act on his Klingon heritage and kill Duras for the dishonor he placed on his father, himself and his family (Where his son didn't directly do anything to him)

Basically in any scenario, in order for Duras to take over the Empire, he'd have to get past Worf first..... and since Worf kicked just about everybody's arse that crossed his path and he already proven he could dice up Duras pretty easily..... chances of him being the leader was highly unlikely....

but even by some remote chance he did, I'd go with InklingStar's view

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Duras poisoned K'mpec, killed K'Ehleyr, and conspired with Romulans, so he is clearly not trustworthy. He probably hated the Federation and would have gone to war with it as soon as he could.

 

[Jono]

I'm going to go the route less travelled and say that Duras was a misunderstood guy. There was no proof he poisoned K'mpec, Gowron could have easily done it as he had as much to gain as Duras did.

We know that Ja'rod, Lursa and B'Etor had dealings with the Romulans but did Duras? The only link I can remember is that there was a bombing that used a well known Romulan detonator during the succession rites. Now, that seems like a pretty stupid thing for Duras to do. His family has a history of involvement with the Romulans, surely he wouldn't be so silly as to use a Romulan device that could only throw suspicion onto him? In fact, it makes more sense that it was Gowron who staged the bombing as it throws suspicion on the front runner Duras and increasing the odds of Gowron, the outsider, of becoming chancellor. So like a good Rembrandt, Duras was framed.

As for K'Ehleyr, she was guilty of espionage. She was rifling through classified Klingon Council files. What she was after was purposely kept secret by the council to prevent civil unrest, so the exposure of that material would only harm the empire, even Worf agreed with that. So Duras had to execute her for her crimes because he is a loyal son of Kahless and protecting the empire is what he does.

SO the poor guy was misunderstood and caught on the wrong side of history...the future...the future history...whatever...

 

[DS9 Gal AZ]

Well, all I know is, if Duras had been the leader of the Klingon Empire, at least I wouldn't have been constantly freaked out by Gowron's big bulgy eyes ... seriously, he scared me. "Glory to you," eye bulge, "and your house." Seriously, there were times when I thought they were going to pop out of his head! Dude!

 

[DGCatAniSiri]

I'm going to go the route less travelled and say that Duras was a misunderstood guy. There was no proof he poisoned K'mpec, Gowron could have easily done it as he had as much to gain as Duras did.

I've kinda thought about the same - Even with Gowron being ultimately proven a politician to the end... How often has he himself killed up front? We've seen him fight on screen... what, two opponents? One is Worf who nearly killed him once and finished him off the second time, and the other was that warrior in Redemption II, where Worf got between them, allowing an opportunistic Gowron to gut the guy. Gowron may be a average to subpar fighter, and avoided most battles himself through other means - which could easily include poison.

Something to think about...

 

[Ryan8bit]

Yeah, I think you'd have to define the circumstances under which Duras rises to power in order to predict something as far away as the Dominion War.

For the sake of discussion, let's say the turning point is Worf dying during the Borg invasion in "Best of Both Worlds." Perhaps injured on his shuttle flight away from the Borg cube with Locutus. Assuming the rest of the events of BoBW then turn out the same way, we can take it from there.

"Family" would take on a whole different tone as the Rozhenkos would be there to mourn Worf at his funeral instead of trying to cheer him up. It's hard to say how Worf's death would affect his colleagues, but I'm guessing that they'd all stay in the same place (since we'd seen several instances like Data's "death" or when Tasha died).

I'm assuming the events leading up to "Reunion" would more or less be the same. But the problem with Duras is that he was always hurting himself by his deceptive acts. Whether it was poisoning K'mpec (assuming it really was him) or trying to assassinate Gowron with a suicide bomber, he may have had a difficult time achieving the leadership position because Picard and co. would have figured him out.

So help me find a plausible scenario where Duras comes to power, and from there we can decide on the ifs.

 

[Sykonee]

I've kinda thought about the same - Even with Gowron being ultimately proven a politician to the end... How often has he himself killed up front? We've seen him fight on screen... what, two opponents? One is Worf who nearly killed him once and finished him off the second time, and the other was that warrior in Redemption II, where Worf got between them, allowing an opportunistic Gowron to gut the guy. Gowron may be a average to subpar fighter, and avoided most battles himself through other means - which could easily include poison.

Something to think about...

He also fought the Kahless-Klone in Rightful Heir, and won.

 

[Praxius]

Well, all I know is, if Duras had been the leader of the Klingon Empire, at least I wouldn't have been constantly freaked out by Gowron's big bulgy eyes ... seriously, he scared me. "Glory to you," eye bulge, "and your house." Seriously, there were times when I thought they were going to pop out of his head! Dude!

^ What, those baby blues?

 

[DS9 Gal AZ]

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

*runs out of thread screaming in terror*

 

[DevilEyes]

Duras poisoned K'mpec, killed K'Ehleyr, and conspired with Romulans, so he is clearly not trustworthy. He probably hated the Federation and would have gone to war with it as soon as he could.

You think so? Is there any evidence that he was responsible? It could have been Gowron.

Well, all I know is, if Duras had been the leader of the Klingon Empire, at least I wouldn't have been constantly freaked out by Gowron's big bulgy eyes ... seriously, he scared me.

Nooo! Come on, Gowron's bulgy eyes are one of the most gloooorious things Klingons have given to Star Trek. Duras was boring compared to Gowron and his eyes. They are creepy in a hilarious and wonderful way.

"Glory to you," eye bulge, "and your house." Seriously, there were times when I thought they were going to pop out of his head! Dude!

 

[Ryan8bit]

Duras poisoned K'mpec, killed K'Ehleyr, and conspired with Romulans, so he is clearly not trustworthy. He probably hated the Federation and would have gone to war with it as soon as he could.

You think so? Is there any evidence that he was responsible? It could have been Gowron.

I think there was enough reason to suspect that it was Duras. Aside from the fact that the writers of TNG weren't interested in such shades of gray, there were a lot of clues in the story that point towards it being Duras. For instance, Duras has the most to gain by killing K'mpec. He has a lot of power and influence, whereas Gowron is a total outsider. Duras also has the proximity to K'mpec to do such a thing.

Now, you could probably argue that Gowron could have poisoned K'mpec knowing that the finger would have been pointed at Duras, but I don't think Gowron was that smart or devious.

 

[indolover]

It's possible that Gowron could have done it. We saw in DS9 that Gowron was not as honourable as made out earlier, and at least let power get to his head (which to me is the real reason he sent Martok on those insurmountable missions).

 

[MNM]

For some reason, I always thought Gowron was the one who poisoned K'mpec.

 

[MikeS]

I definitely got the impression watching "Reunion" that it was Gowron that had poisoned K'MPec. I think there was a scene with Crusher, Picard and Gowron. I only watched it again last year so it's pretty clear in my mind.