If you could do things differently.....

[at Quark's]

There aren't a whole lot of things I would change. Maybe a few.
1) Go with writers original idea to have the Dominion be like a totalitarian Federation. Many different races, not just three.

Exactly how am I supposed to picture that? It's totalitarian in that the Founders have absolute control and subjugate other races, yet "federated" in that every member of every subjugate race still has an equal opportunity to reach a high office?

I agree seeing an "anti-federation" would have been cool, but it would have required inventing a lot of new races, including costumes and makeups, most of which would have been on screen only for a very limited amount of time, and even in our Federation, there seem to be way more humans in Starfleet than you'd realistically expect for a true team effort ....

 

[Bad Thoughts]

While I think there are decent explanations as to why Sisko is CO of the Defiant and it shares its main staff with the station, I admit that it is more probably that the Defiant would have its own staff.

However, it serves the story better for Sisko to be CO. The four Enterprises, Voyager, and Discovery were all starships built to represent Starfleet in numerous roles, and whose command were given over to talented officers. The Defiant, both as a starship and as a literary device, was built around Sisko's personality. It is the starship Sisko builds to avenge his wife's death, his "badass pimphand." It is purpose-built, utilitarian, volatile. It shakes its fists at the universe. Like Sisko, it is defiant. Sisko commands the Defiant like he puts on a suit of armor. Having someone else do it feels weird because it is as if they were wearing someone else's clothes.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

Exactly how am I supposed to picture that? It's totalitarian in that the Founders have absolute control and subjugate other races, yet "federated" in that every member of every subjugate race still has an equal opportunity to reach a high office?

I agree seeing an "anti-federation" would have been cool, but it would have required inventing a lot of new races, including costumes and makeups, most of which would have been on screen only for a very limited amount of time, and even in our Federation, there seem to be way more humans in Starfleet than you'd realistically expect for a true team effort ....

Why not? All the Federated races would be loyal in fear of retribution against their planet and were probably raised to see the Founders as Gods, how exactly would that not work?

And maybe it’d increase the cost a little but how would that be bad for the viewers? They have lots of random unique races just walking around in the background. Gem Hadar were so inherently one dimensional it’s a miracle they made them as interesting as they did.

 

[Kor]

I think #2 has more to do with branding/marketing than assumptions about the audience.

Kor

 

[Galactic Alignment]

While I think there are decent explanations as to why Sisko is CO of the Defiant and it shares its main staff with the station, I admit that it is more probably that the Defiant would have its own staff.

However, it serves the story better for Sisko to be CO. The four Enterprises, Voyager, and Discovery were all starships built to represent Starfleet in numerous roles, and whose command were given over to talented officers. The Defiant, both as a starship and as a literary device, was built around Sisko's personality. It is the starship Sisko builds to avenge his wife's death, his "badass pimphand." It is purpose-built, utilitarian, volatile. It shakes its fists at the universe. Like Sisko, it is defiant. Sisko commands the Defiant like he puts on a suit of armor. Having someone else do it feels weird because it is as if they were wearing someone else's clothes.

Oh, I agree.

It’s not as ‘realistic’ (believable?) for station staff to double as the Defiant ship crew, and tellingly even as early as The Search they had to come up with narrative justifications for non-Starfleet main characters to be aboard. But for the audience at large, it’s fine. We all know the Defiant is Sisko’s Batmobile, and we wouldn’t want it any other way.

 

[STEPhon IT]

Yes, and I'm sure Starfleet would prefer a Starfleet officer commanding one of their starships. Petty, maybe, but the Defiant is a 100% Federation funded and Starfleet owned ship. There should be no doubt about the authority of its commander to use force on behalf of the Federation.

On behalf to Bajor. The Defiant was re-commissioned to be in Bajoran space to prevent hostilities from a superpower where Bajor could be in harms way. 100% Federation but as soon as the Borg threat fizzled it's mission was to help protect Bajorans.

While I think there are decent explanations as to why Sisko is CO of the Defiant and it shares its main staff with the station, I admit that it is more probably that the Defiant would have its own staff.

However, it serves the story better for Sisko to be CO. The four Enterprises, Voyager, and Discovery were all starships built to represent Starfleet in numerous roles, and whose command were given over to talented officers. The Defiant, both as a starship and as a literary device, was built around Sisko's personality. It is the starship Sisko builds to avenge his wife's death, his "badass pimphand." It is purpose-built, utilitarian, volatile. It shakes its fists at the universe. Like Sisko, it is defiant. Sisko commands the Defiant like he puts on a suit of armor. Having someone else do it feels weird because it is as if they were wearing someone else's clothes.

I too thought it was odd for the entire senior staff would joyride on the Defiant while the B team took over the station; it's a missed opportunity to expand or create smaller staff members for a mission or a story plot. I don't mind Sisko lending the keys out to someone for command, but it's Worf I thought was ill conceived; he's not the character best fit to command the Defiant. He just wasn't, I'd rather had retconned, super brain, Bashir be in command than Worf.

 

[Bad Thoughts]

I don't mind Sisko lending the keys out to someone for command, but it's Worf I thought was ill conceived; he's not the character best fit to command the Defiant. He just wasn't, I'd rather had retconned, super brain, Bashir be in command than Worf.

I'm sure we won't normally agree on whether or not Worf developed during his time over DS9. But when they showed him commanding the Defiant, he definitely went back to a more one-dimensional character, focusing more on combat than other roles the captain might take. (Even in Rejoined, they joked that Worf won't get to do what he loves to do.) OTOH, putting Kira or Dax into the center chair provided more opportunities to highlight their characters. In By Inferno's Light, commanding the Defiant gave Kira a unique place to witness Dukat's betrayal. Dax's brief time as CO showed her to be both mature and personable, but it had the added benefit of underlining how uncomfortable Sisko was becoming with being in Starfleet. In retrospect, it would have been interesting if after the station was retaken, Sisko had remained Ross' adjunct, leaving the Defiant with Dax. Symbolically having to give up the Defiant would have served Sisko's spiritual journey (such as it was) and given the role to a personality with a different dynamic. It seems fitting that he would bequeath it to his former mentor.

 

[Galactic Alignment]

What would I have done different?

1.) keep TNG/VOY crossovers to a bare minimum, I mean, we didn’t need an episode about Clone Riker stealing the Defiant. Let DS9 stand alone (I’d still add Worf in s4 though!).
2.) give the station crew its own adjunct starship from day one, something to complement the space camper vans (“Runabouts”) when it’d make more sense in the plot to have a starship travel somewhere. Something like a 24th century Oberth equivalent that does roughly the role the Nebula-class USS Prometheus does in a season 2 episode.
3.) promote Sisko to captain towards the start of season 3, and allow him to progress to flag officer rank while still commanding the station, as would’ve made more sense to the narrative.
4.) redesign the original uniforms; I like the concept of the station crew/core cast having a different uniform to the Ent-D/TNG guys, but I’d rather something that looked less like a cheap tracksuit or a courier company uniform.

 

[Galactic Alignment]

Oh, and...
5.) have the series “future-proofed” during production for later HD remastering!

 

[NewHeavensNewEarth]

I would've made the Dominion an Alpha Quadrant coalition of the Cardassians, the Breen, and another race comparable to the Jam'Hadar, rather than wasting the underdeveloped Gamma Quadrant idea. ST Beyond, for all its flaws, was an interesting idea of "the frontier pushing back," and that's what the above coalition could've represented.

It was also an ideal time to make the Maquis a bigger presence in the area, including Ensign Ro, but that only got limited traction. Rather than bringing in Section 31, the Maquis could've served that role of operating in the gray area and using questionable tactics as a rule of thumb.

Still loved the show, still one of my favorite ST series.