The Big 3's takeover of GQ

[NewHeavensNewEarth]

No, not referring to the magazine. Of course it's the Gamma Quadrant.

When DS9 began, a modest attempt was made by the show's writers to develop new species in the Gamma Quadrant for us to get to know, but then something happened. As soon as the Dominion became an important story arc, all meaningful attempts at species development stopped (from the writing perspective). It became about the Big 3: the Founders, the Vorta, and the Jem-Hadar. How many GQ species can you name (without looking it up) outside of those 3, and how much attention did they receive?

I understand why that was more or less inevitable with the war, but it's an unfulfilled promise from the premise of the show: to *explore* another part of the galaxy. If anyone could provide me with a breakdown of what percentage of DS9 took place in the Alpha Quadrant versus the Gamma Quadrant, I'd be forever grateful.

Again, I know - the war. But it makes me wonder whether "the Gamma Quadrant" was ever a necessary part of the storyline to begin with. The Dominion could've been an AQ species, the wormhole could've led to their part of the Quadrant. It would've required tweaking of the plotlines, but with the same end results.

Instead, by making the Dominion the dominant factor in the GQ, we came away with the sense that we already knew the Gamma Quadrant, because the Dominion WAS the Gamma Quadrant, reigning supreme, unopposed, unchallenged. In another forum here, we've been talking about the over-familiarity with the galaxy that ST rushed to explore in the '90s and early 2000s, leaving few stones unturned between Alpha, Gamma and Delta Quadrants all getting their moments in the spotlight.

Obviously there was tons of potential to move beyond that perception, but part of me wishes the DS9 producers never would've bothered with the GQ part of the show because it was ultimately underdeveloped in a big way. They could've come back to it differently, whether in DS9 or something else that would've allowed for a worthwhile exploration of a new part of the galaxy that encompassed a lot more than the Big 3.

I liked the Big 3, but there's a big universe to explore. Beta Quadrant, anyone?

 

[Bad Thoughts]

Exploration was not meant to be a major story mode for the series. At best, the station would be a meeting point for cultures on the other side of the wormhole. Indeed, looking at the list of episodes, there are very few in the first two seasons where contact is initiated by someone traveling into the Gamma Quadrant: Battle Lines, Rules of Acquisition, Shadowplay an Jem'hadar. Conversely, the last episode that could be described as "exploring the Gamma Quadrant" is Children of Time, which is late in season 5.

Even so, the show was built around the concept that the crew would be doing something other than what TOS and TNG promised to do, exploring other aspects of the Trek universe, particularly exploring diversity as represented by people interacting within a community.

 

[NewHeavensNewEarth]

Exploration was not meant to be a major story mode for the series. At best, the station would be a meeting point for cultures on the other side of the wormhole. Indeed, looking at the list of episodes, there are very few in the first two seasons where contact is initiated by someone traveling into the Gamma Quadrant: Battle Lines, Rules of Acquisition, Shadowplay an Jem'hadar. Conversely, the last episode that could be described as "exploring the Gamma Quadrant" is Children of Time, which is late in season 5.

Even so, the show was built around the concept that the crew would be doing something other than what TOS and TNG promised to do, exploring other aspects of the Trek universe, particularly exploring diversity as represented by people interacting within a community.

That's exactly why I feel like the entire use of the Gamma Quadrant was a waste as a writing tool. It all could've taken place in the AQ, rather than giving the sense that we knew another 1/4 of the galaxy by virtue of knowing the Dominion. Even though the real-world galaxy is a big place, the ST galaxy only had so much to go around, as Alpha, Delta and Gamma became weekly viewing. Leave a little mystery, I say.

 

[kkt]

Using another quadrant was just a way of explaining why we never heard of the Dominion since way back in TOS or TNG.

 

[NewHeavensNewEarth]

Yep, I think everyone agrees it was simply a writing tool to make certain things easier to explain. But in 6 years of DS9, how many species did we really get to know from the Gamma Quadrant, representing 1/4 of the galaxy? Just 1 big alliance + its 3 major internal players.

That leads back to the other discussion I referenced about the shrinking ST universe, and why I think it's a waste to throw in 1/4 of the unexplored galaxy for the purpose of setting the stage for a conflict. The unexplored real estate of the galaxy and new frontiers becomes harder to come by, and I don't want ST in general to go the way of the Stargate series, hopping from 1 galaxy to another (and to another) to keep up the appearances of being new and innovative for the sake of audience interest. Creativity is all it takes, and now if they want to introduce a new conflict on the level of the Dominion War, where will they turn to?

I thoroughly enjoyed DS9, but for the long-term prospects of ST exploration, this was a wasted opportunity that should have either cut out the GQ entirely, or really been explored thoroughly in a way that wasn't so simplistic as to say, "Well, what's there to explore? It's the Dominion everywhere you go."

 

[Kor]

... How many GQ species can you name (without looking it up) outside of those 3, and how much attention did they receive?
...

The gamers from "Move Along Home," those red people trading behind the Dominion's back, the people on the plague planet, the people with the flaky skin who wanted to live on Bajor, and Tosk. Then there was that guy with the holographic village.

Well... I guess, I can't actually name any of them off the top of my head besides Tosk.

Kor

 

[marlboro]

It's a big galaxy. I never really thought that the Dominion controlled the entire GQ or that the Borg controlled all of the DQ.

 

[Bad Thoughts]

it's a waste to throw in 1/4 of the unexplored galaxy for the purpose of setting the stage for a conflict.

DS9 is not about "exploration." Don't box it in with the other series. Let it be its own thing.

 

[NewHeavensNewEarth]

DS9 is not about "exploration." Don't box it in with the other series. Let it be its own thing.

Kinda missing the point. *Because it's not about exploration,* don't lump in 1/4 of the unexplored galaxy just to make a new bad guy/power that the Federation has to tangle with. There's no point, it's overkill, and it takes away a whole new frontier that could've been explored in a series that was about exploration.

 

[Bad Thoughts]

Kinda missing the point. *Because it's not about exploration,* don't lump in 1/4 of the unexplored galaxy just to make a new bad guy/power that the Federation has to tangle with. There's no point, it's overkill, and it takes away a whole new frontier that could've been explored in a series that was about exploration.

On what basis are you measuring this? Because you think there are possible the same number of stories in the GQ. They could have said that the quadrant lacked life, perhaps being nothing but stars, nebulae and lifeless rocks. Done.

Conversely, the earlier planet of the week method meant that every race was reduced to a monoculture. Surely there were others stories that could have been told, exploring other sides of the planet, going into communities, meeting each minority. By such a measure, all the other series have as much, if not more, potential that was wasted. What happened to Timicin's people? Don't know, don't care. What a waste.

 

[NewHeavensNewEarth]

On what basis are you measuring this? Because you think there are possible the same number of stories in the GQ. They could have said that the quadrant lacked life, perhaps being nothing but stars, nebulae and lifeless rocks. Done.

Conversely, the earlier planet of the week method meant that every race was reduced to a monoculture. Surely there were others stories that could have been told, exploring other sides of the planet, going into communities, meeting each minority. By such a measure, all the other series have as much, if not more, potential that was wasted. What happened to Timicin's people? Don't know, don't care. What a waste.

Measurements being a quadrant = 1/4. Every indication (using what was stated within DS9) was that the GQ was just as vibrant and diverse as the AQ, but we never got to explore that. I agree - in the old rush to get to the planet of the week, we were left with some stories that begged for elaboration and growth. It paid off each time that they did stop to develop a planet's story and people, which is.....exactly how we got Deep Space 9, from some in-depth development that started in TNG with the Bajorans and Cardassians.

So BECAUSE of that pay-off in development, it's unfortunate that the GQ side of things was never developed more. Instead we got 1 big power, and when that conflict was over, there was no momentum at all to explore the Gamma Quadrant of the galaxy at all - within that series or as a spin-off or as a follow-up.

The wormhole was just as open as ever, but it never even gets peeked in again by any ST series or film. Because the GQ concept was just used for creating a new superpower threat, its purpose was used up and discarded when that conflict ended. The lack of development beyond that meant that it was essentially a dead end that closed the book on an entire quadrant of the galaxy. If I'm wrong, please point out even one tidbit of something that's *exclusive* to the Gamma Quadrant that was followed up on later by a series or film.

 

[kkt]

The gamers from "Move Along Home," those red people trading behind the Dominion's back, the people on the plague planet, the people with the flaky skin who wanted to live on Bajor, and Tosk. Then there was that guy with the holographic village.

Well... I guess, I can't actually name any of them off the top of my head besides Tosk.

Kor

The other (that is, non-red) people that Quark was trading with, in "Starship Down".
The people that Kai Opaka stayed with.

 

[NewHeavensNewEarth]

The gamers from "Move Along Home," those red people trading behind the Dominion's back, the people on the plague planet, the people with the flaky skin who wanted to live on Bajor, and Tosk. Then there was that guy with the holographic village.

Well... I guess, I can't actually name any of them off the top of my head besides Tosk.

Kor

Nice! And how many of those folks were in more than 1 or 2 episodes? This very show, DS9, was the result of 2 new & peripheral species in TNG (Bajorans & Cardassians) getting some attention by the writers of TNG, leading to this show. They were minor players in comparison to the Klingons, Romulans, etc., and there was nothing inevitable about the creation of this storyline, but good writing made a way.

It's unfortunate that DS9 was written in such a dead-end way about 1 conflict, that no one ever bothers with the wormhole or the GQ part of the galaxy ever again in any series or film. It was still an incredible show that I come back to often, but using 1/4 of the galaxy just to create a new bad guy/power/adversary was a mistake.

 

[HugeLobes]

They should have just made another show about exploration in a new quadrant. Maybe voyaging through it or something.

 

[HugeLobes]

(Bad) joking aside, they’d just done seven years of 'strange new worlds' with TNG and would go on to do the same during VOY. The concept was already growing stale during the tail end of TNG, and VOY has it's fair share of detractors.

Thing is, there's no reason for new aliens to come from the other side of the galaxy. From a storytelling perspective, is there any reason why aliens from the GQ should be approached differently than those from the fringes of the AQ? The most interesting thing you could do is what they did. They set up a whole new kind of empire built around the godlike founders, and it made sense for them to use the wormhole since it would act as a cool plot device.

The Dominion could've been an AQ species, the wormhole could've led to their part of the Quadrant.

Then the wormhole would have been practically irrelevant, as would DS9. Most relevant plot points revolve around the idea that the wormhole is the only way to make it from Dominion space to the AQ.

As for 'only' getting the Jem Hadar, Vorta, and Founders .... sounds good to me. They're some of the coolest alien ideas in all of Trek!

 

[Farscape One]

From the top of my head, besides the Vorta, Jem'Hadar, and Changelings...

Tosk and Hunters of Tosk ("CAPTIVE PURSUIT")
Those races Vash mentioned in "Q-LESS"
Wadi ("MOVE ALONG HONE")
Rakhari (Kroden's race from "VORTEX", spelling might be off.)
Ennis and Nol-Ennis ("BATTLE LINES")
Imagination aliens from "IF WISHES WERE HORSES"
'Pup' probe from "THE FORSAKEN"
Sultahna ("DRAMATIS PERSONAE", at least mentioned.)
Dozi ("RULES OF ACQUISITION")
Karemma ("RULES OF ACQUISITION", "THE SEARCH, PART I", and "STARSHIP DOWN")
Skreeans ("SANCTUARY")
Tarogorans (People who conquered the Skreeans, probably spelled wrong.)
Paradans ("WHISPERS")
Yaderans ("SHADOWPLAY" guy said he came from Yadera Prime, so I call them that.)
"MERIDIAN" people
Teplans ("THE QUICKENING")

There may be more, but that's the best I can come up with on the fly.


One thing I did mention in other threads is how the Gamma Quadrant races really are different from other quadrants by their VERY advanced technology and genetic engineering... a stark contrast to the early seasons of the Delta Quadrant. They didn't even encounter anyone with transporter technology until season 3, with the exception of the Sikarans, and that was only used on their world. Until they got past the Nekrit Expanse, Voyager pretty easily handled what came their way. (Without being very outnumbered, anyway.)

I always found that fascinating, and wish we got to see more Gamma races and what other wonders they had. However, I don't look back on it badly because we got so much from the Dominion.

I look at it this way... in the Alpha Quadrant, the Federation is basically the technological and societal big organization, and seeing what they can do gives a good view on what most others in the Alpha Quadrant are capable of. I think of the Dominion in the same way, only for the Gamma side.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

I agree there should have been more GQ races. I heard their original idea was to have the Dominion be like the Federation only totalitarian, with lots of different races, I wish they went with that.

The story reason we didn't see them is that after season two they forbade any of their subjects from crossing the wormhole.

 

[NewHeavensNewEarth]

They should have just made another show about exploration in a new quadrant. Maybe voyaging through it or something.

I like it! But they pretty much closed the book on the GQ when they wrapped up the series. It's a little inconsistent to applaud the TNG development of peripheral species (Bajorans & Cardassians) that led to DS9, then shrug off doing the same thing in DS9. I think we all agree that species-of-the-week was getting old and stale, so why not do what TNG did with the development of the 2 species who are at the center of the very show we're talking about? There's a certain irony here. Yes, it's GREAT that we got to know the Big 3 very well, but again it became a dead end that left no follow-up for any series or film, using writing tools that were overkill for the creation of a new adversary.

There were some good lists of GQ species posted by you and others, but those were pretty much all species-of-the-week. Many folks feel that the Dominion War storyline should've been ended sooner than it was, and that would've allowed for much more in-depth development like that kind that made DS9 possible as a series. That might have been one of the best solutions within the bounds of what was established.

 

[Crewman6]

You're acting like the show was planned out and they should have just made changes before it aired to avoid the "pointless" Gamma Quadrant angle.

The Dominion didn't exist in the minds of the creators when DS9 was being written. It was a late addition that grew out organically as the show developed. Yes, the Gamma Quadrant was certainly supposed to be a new frontier that could be explored just as TOS and TNG had gone to new worlds.

But DS9 was always going to be much more than that. But some of those planned story threads that were of great importance in the early seasons, like the Bajoran political situation, weren't a huge hit with fans and weren't terribly effective, so they needed to think on their feet and come up with a new angle.

It's debatable how much of DS9 was ever going to be about pure exploration. Heck, even TNG basically abandoned that concept 90% of the time.

 

[NewHeavensNewEarth]

You're acting like the show was planned out

haha Yes, I guess that is a bit much to ask. I suppose there's an overall frustration that the Trek universe doesn't have to stay so insulated in terms of its fan base, but the writing depth is so inconsistent to be able to expand the base. We were chatting in a Voyager forum about how excellently 1 episode would be (well planned, well executed), only to be followed by 5 episodes that seemed lazily slapped together. The quality of the work was all over the place.

And I know it's probably not worth bringing up ST movies like "Into Darkness," but pretty much every minute, I was spotting plot holes that had nothing to do with canon, just common sense stuff that was meant to be covered over by the action. I mention "Into Darkness" because those 3 films were an opportunity to expand the fan base in a very public & blockbuster way, but it fizzled out for obvious reasons. Now it's an uphill battle again.

If people want to see ST continue to take off with new adventures and new ideas, the fan base has to be expanded. Studios will not throw money at something that doesn't have broad appeal, and looking back on dead-end plotlines amidst the dramatic decline of ST in the early 2000s, one has to do some dissection. Soooooo much was done RIGHT and excellently, and I honestly loved DS9, but for the long-term there was too much lazy writing and a lack of vision that plagued DS9, VOY and Enterprise.