One of the things that annoyed me about Voyager (among many) was the fact that in the pilot episode we never saw Captain Janeway and Commander Sisko meet. In the DS9 Pilot Sisko and Picard had a conversation but in Voyager Harry and Tom saw through Quarks scheme. What was the cause for a Stations Commander not to meet with the Captain of at the time the most advanced starship chasing renegades in a dangerous part of space?
I always imagined that they did meet, but it was a purely cordial and routine meeting that only lasted a minute or two. Otherwise, it probably wasn't really newsworthy and of no real importance if was just brief small talk about their respective commands, IMO.
That meeting probably didn't go too well. Sisko <proudly presenting her with a handmade jambalaya >: 'It's and old family recipe'. Janeway: <after tasting> Not to worry, Commander, my replicator always screws my recipes up, too.
This, though I am sure they could have come up with a reason if they wanted to. Besides DSN is a busy station with lots of traffic I'm sure Sisko has other more important things to do than meet with every starship Captain who arrives at the station.
There's reason to think Janeway and Sisko may have met. Not because Sisko meets with every Captain on the station, but because Janeway's initial mission was going after the Maquis, and they would have wanted to touch base on Maquis intel. But having this meeting would have served no purpose in the narrative. Just like there's no reason to show Riker and Troi do their performance review for every officer on the ship.
Well, this meeting probably would have been in Sisko's third year. Although by that time, DS9 was growing in importance, I don't think it was already the extremely important hub it would become in late DS9. So a visit of a Starfleet captain of a somewhat larger vessel might still have been something of a special occasion at that time and hence worthy of Sisko's attention.
I should think they would have met as a matter of protocol - routine, with Sisko advising Janeway to be careful around Quark's establishment. Unfortunately, this advice would have come too late for Harry Kim, so it's a good thing Tom was there to handle the situation. But as others have said, it wasn't essential to the story, so it wasn't shown. The scene at Quark's establishes Harry as young, impressionable, and fresh out of the Academy. It establishes Tom as not a totally lost cause, as he was willing to try to prevent Quark from swindling Harry.
Would them meeting really be necessary to either the plot or Voyager stopping off before her mission in-universe? The Harry/Tom/Quark scene established Harry as utterly clueless and Tom adopting him as his friend. It set up something that ran through the show.
He could've given Janeway one very helpful hint: "If you ever meet Q, punch him in the face and he'll never bother you again." It would've saved us from several dreary episodes.
A little off topic, but I think it's a bit related. What bugged me, there was never even a mention of Voyager's vanishing on DS9. They didn't have to do a whole episode, although that would have been great. But a brand new ship goes on a Maquis hunt and disappears right away and not a word is said about on DS9, where the Maquis were a fairly important story line.
I actually prefer what they did. Paris rescuing Kim from Quark. These were valuable ways to frame the characters. Janeway and Sisko meeting. Yeah. I suppose they could've cobbled up some backstory between the two. But I'd be more interested in pressing forward with the premiere tbh.