Sci said:
Also, bear in mind that we don't have a full grasp of the political situation of the 32nd Century yet.
This is one of the many frustrating aspects of STD.
Okay, so, I think the best comparison for this is to look at the premiere seasons of earlier shows.
Episode 5 of TOS was "The Man Trap." By this point in TOS, neither the Klingons nor the Romulans had been introduced or mentioned; neither had the United Federation of Planets (the
Enterprise was referred to as a United Earth starship before they retconned the UFP into being the
Enterprise's state).
Episode 5 of TNG was "The Last Outpost." This was the first episode to feature the Ferengi. By this point in TNG, the Klingons had not been reintroduced except for Worf; the Romulans had not been reintroduced; the Cardassians were not even created until Season 4; the Bajorans had not been introduced; Guinan had not yet been created; and the Borg had not been introduced.
Episode 5 of DS9 was "Babel." DS9 did have a more clearly-defined political situation than the others by necessity, but large portions of the situation still had not been established -- the existence of the Cardassian dissident movement had not been established; Garak had only just been introduced and his full background not yet established; the full extent of Cardassian atrocities on Bajor had not yet been established; the existence of a Bajoran nationalist movement had not yet been established; the relationship between the Klingons and Cardassians had not yet been established; the relatively close proximity of Ferenginar had not yet been established, nor the existence of the Grand Nagus, the Ferengi Commerce Authority, nor the characters of Zek, Ishka, or Brunt; the Maquis had not yet been established; the Dominion had not yet been introduced; Winn Adami had not yet been introduced, nor Damar, Weyoun, Kassidy Yates, Bill Ross, Michael Eddington, or the Female Shapeshifter.
Episode 5 of ENT was "Unexpected." By this point in ENT, the Andorians had not yet been reintroduced, nor the Tellarites, nor the Romulans; the internal conflict on Vulcan between Syrannites and Vulcan imperialist forces led by V'Las had not yet been established; the Xindi had not been introduced, nor the Sphere Builders; "Crewman Daniels" had not been introduced; the conflict between Vulcan and Andor had not yet been established, nor the full extent of Vulcan's neo-imperialist role; the Tandarans had not been introduced, nor the role of non-Cabal Suliban.
Simply put, we have
never fully understood the political situation of a prior series by Episode 5.
This season has 13 episodes. We are 4 episodes in and after the biggest status quo change in the history of Star Trek, nobody in the show is talking about the current state of the galaxy besides "Starfleet/Federation is gone".
Because the fall and restoration of the Federation is the story. DIS has more narrative focus than prior stories; we'll learn about the rest of the political situation in the 32nd Century either if it is appropriate to the story being told, or we'll learn about it next season if the narrative focus shifts away from the Federation and its (former) territories.
Who are the major powers in the A/B quadrant? Who filled the power vacuum after the Fed was gone?
So far, I would say "That Hope Is You, Part I" and "Far From Home" seem to imply that there
are no major powers and no one has filled the power vacuum. Local space appears to have no great powers. I would compare it to Europe after the Roman withdrawal but before the rise of Charlemagne.
Are there new superpowers or are warlords/pirates/crime syndicates/courier organizations in charge?
I would say the first four episodes strongly imply that the more-developed planets like Earth and Trill essentially only control either their immediate orbital space or their home star systems, and that the rest of interstellar space is divided by petty warlords.
