In all the maps Bajor is inside the front despite the fact that it is allied territory in each instance.
Relevant point! (How's that for Understatement of the Year 2007?)
I prefer to plead "3D in 2D" in that respect. The plane of the
Star Charts maps is intended to be the plane of Sol, some 50 ly above the galactic centerplane, with the Homesun for Romulus and Remus (the fictional 128 Tri within the factual asterism Triangulum Australe) lying a bit higher up, and the Klingon Homeworld and general Klingon space being below (and also reaching below the Romulan ovoid). Yet all the national borders are shown in intersections on the Sol plane, and might extend either more or less if shown in intersections on some other plane.
Similar convention could apply to the war maps, so that Cardassian/Dominion conquests are given at Sol plane which also happens to be the plane of their maximal extent, but Bajor actually lies so much above or below that plane that it is also above or below the conquered volume. Pretty much like Ardana is well above Klingon space in 3D despite seemingly within in 2D.
The timeline of Betazed's fall is another salient point. Before "In the Pale Moonlight", we don't actually see the right half of the war map, or the area where Betazed would lie. Also, before the fall of Betazed in that episode, we don't hear of the Dominion actually threatening Vulcan or other core worlds, but the ability to establish a supply line through space formerly secured by Betazed is said to change that.
I can actually buy it that Dominion forces would originally sneak into Romulan space despite not having a clear corridor of Dominion space for reaching the Romulans. All the Jem'Hadar ever manage to do in that direction is repeated raids on individual Starfleet ships across the RNZ anyway - no threat of conquest is said to come from that direction, and indeed if one truly existed, Starfleet would probably be at war with Romulus already. After "Moonlight", the wider war map premieres, and correctly shows that the Dominion is now in conflict with the Bird of Prey symbol to the upper right (this is the first map reprinted on p.48). A conquest campaign against the Federation core is now made possible because instead of just sneaking a few raiders into Romulus, a proper supply line can be established.
It would certainly be better if some minor details of the dialogue could be tweaked for consistency. But tweaking the map so that Betazed lies away from the main path of Dominion conquest spree is IMHO not a good idea, because the heroes are immediately aware and in agreement that the loss of Betazed opens up an attack route to the Federation core, however unexpected. The planet must lie in the middle of some prominent war map feature associated with Dominion expansion.
Incidentally,
this "Moonlight" map is how our heroes speculate the Dominion would proceed after taking Betazed, but I postulate they made an even bolder curve to the right (I assume it's galactic antispinward in this map, too) as a response to the Romulan declaration of war.
This is how Sisko in his fake recording suggested the Dominion would proceed against the Romulans, again in the theme of "from the lower left to upper right". Not perfect matches to
Star Charts graphics or war map details, but IMHO close enough to the spirit.
In first contact he took the Defiant to the other side of the Federation just to get into a fight with the Borg. Either that of Sisko tried to send him as far away as possible at least once a year to get some respite from mopey Worf.
Good possibilities both. But it could also be argued that the
Defiant, one of the few dedicated anti-Borg gadgets of Starfleet, would be sent to counter this sort of threat even if it came from the other side of the Federation altogether.
Timo Saloniemi
