The Dominion War Was Handled Badly

[PhoenixIreland]

As a nit pick I always found it odd they talked about the "alpha quadrent powers", weren't the Klingons and Romulans from the beta quadrant?

Is there nobody on the staff whos sole job is continuity? considering how big the shows got it seems like you'd need a team for that job alone.

 

[smeos]

Voyager had the same problem. They were always talking about getting back to the Alpha Quadrant. Even though they would have reached the Beta Quadrant, and thus the Federation, before that.

 

[Danoz]

Voyager had the same problem. They were always talking about getting back to the Alpha Quadrant. Even though they would have reached the Beta Quadrant, and thus the Federation, before that.

Most of the crew was from Earth, though.

But Voyager had terrible continuity problems. I cringe at the "shedding" of light years from episode to episode off the journey, only to have the entire thing solved by time travel, future technology and Borg magic transports.

 

[RobertScorpio]

The area around the wormhole wasn't Dominion territory, though. On several occasions, it is mentioned that Dominion territory is actually a few light years away from the wormhole.

Either way, the Dominion never made any formal decrees of where their territory began and ended until after they had destroyed a few ships and New Bajor.

The Dominion were just being dicks. If they had approached the first Federation ships and said "This is our space stay out", then there would have been no problems. Instead the just secretly destroyed shipping and kidnapped people. As far as I'm concerned, that's a dick move.

Even the Odyssey was only sent in on a scouting mission, with the possibility of recovering Sisko and co. if it was feasible.

Yep...I totally agree. The Federation had every right to go through that wormhole. And even more of a right to barge into Dominion space after the Odyssey was destroyed for no reason...The Dominion started the war. Sure, the Cardassians and the Romulans may have instigated matters even more, but we now know they were LURED over there to be destroyed. The Dominion were the bad guys all along. Unless, of course, your glasses were made in France

Rob
scorpio

 

[smeos]

Voyager had the same problem. They were always talking about getting back to the Alpha Quadrant. Even though they would have reached the Beta Quadrant, and thus the Federation, before that.

Most of the crew was from Earth, though.

But Voyager had terrible continuity problems. I cringe at the "shedding" of light years from episode to episode off the journey, only to have the entire thing solved by time travel, future technology and Borg magic transports.

A few of the senior staff were, but the rest of crew were never really identified.

 

[Jamee999]

The area around the wormhole wasn't Dominion territory, though. On several occasions, it is mentioned that Dominion territory is actually a few light years away from the wormhole.

Either way, the Dominion never made any formal decrees of where their territory began and ended until after they had destroyed a few ships and New Bajor.

The Dominion were just being dicks. If they had approached the first Federation ships and said "This is our space stay out", then there would have been no problems. Instead the just secretly destroyed shipping and kidnapped people. As far as I'm concerned, that's a dick move.

Even the Odyssey was only sent in on a scouting mission, with the possibility of recovering Sisko and co. if it was feasible.

Yep...I totally agree. The Federation had every right to go through that wormhole. And even more of a right to barge into Dominion space after the Odyssey was destroyed for no reason...The Dominion started the war. Sure, the Cardassians and the Romulans may have instigated matters even more, but we now know they were LURED over there to be destroyed. The Dominion were the bad guys all along. Unless, of course, your glasses were made in France

Rob
scorpio

It takes a bigger man to walk away...

 

[PhoenixIreland]

Didn't I hear somewhere that Earths not to far from the border of the beta quadrant anyway?

 

[Solariabsg25]

I think that one thing a lot of people forget is the Bajorans. They were rebuilding their culture, and relied on the extra business that exploration of the Gamma Quadrant granted them. Although curtailed before the start of the Dominion War, had the Feds said "Sorry, these guys who destroyed your colony and several starships say we can't go there so we're closing the wormhole permanently", then the more militant aspects of the Bajoran government would found a calling to gain control, and have simply kicked the Feds out, meaning either joining the Dominion as a full ally, or being re-invaded by the Cardassians.

Besides, after "The Search", it didn't appear that the Dominion was enforcing a total ban, more of a "We'll be watching you", or they would have simply stationed hundreds of ships on their side and blasted anyone who dared went through, or even mined their side.

 

[smeos]

@ Phoenix - I've heard varying ideas, going so far as to put Sol system right beside the border between Alpha and Beta Quadrants. Either way, for a show that's supposed to be multicultural, they should have said "The Federation" rather than Earth. Hell, for all we know, by the 24th Century, most of the humans in the Federation may have been born off-world, anyhow.

^^^^^^^^^

I hadn't even thought about that. The Prime Directive all but assured that it was the Bajorans who controlled the Wormhole, not Starfleet. Several times through the series, it's mentioned that the Bajorans have the final say . . . up until the Dominion War when Starfleet would have been suicidal to listen to any such claims.

 

[RaymondJames]

To me, the Dominion War was a badly handled missed opportunity on DS9.

Why?

1) The Federation was always on the verge of losing the war. About the only time the Federation won was when someone else intervened on their behalf. Including divine intervention.

Now, don't go all "it would not have been exciting if the Federation was winning".

In World War II, the United States was winning in the Pacific Theatre for the last three and a half years of the war. After the Battle of Midway.

But I would wager it was pretty exciting.

2) Jarring inconsistencies in the tone of the series.

We had an episode "The Valiant" where the Jem'hadar were blasting away Starfleet cadets in their escape pods......followed immediately after by an episode featuring Quark wearing a dress.

"Sacrifice of Angels" having Odo and the female changeling getting out of bed after having sex cutting away to Starfleet fighting for its life against the Dominion fleet.

What the hell was that?

3) The dialogue and apparently the tactics shown in the series sound old fashioned even by 21st century standards. Much less the 24th century.
If you are going to write a war into the series, at least give some serious thought to how that war might be conducted.

Why is the Defiant hanging around DS9? After "Sacrifice of Angels" it is clear that the Dominion won't or can't sent extra ships through the wormhole. It is also clear that the Defiant alone couldn't stop them if they did.

So why is one of the Federations most powerful units hanging around a largely worthless old space station for months at a time?

4) Vast numbers of episodes in which the war not only wasn't shown at all (understandable given the expenses of effects) but was NOT EVEN DISCUSSED!!!

It doesn't cost a dime of special effects money to have the characters discuss the battles, the strategy, or bitch about the commanders, whatever.

But the war didn't even cut into anyones holodeck time apparently.

End of rant.

In WWII and WWI The United states sat on their beghinds and didn't get involved until someone slapped them.

oh and The Federation lied and were sneaky in order to get the Romulans into the war on their behalf.

 

[Krieg1981]

I thought it was handled very well! Deep space 9 is almost my favorite.

 

[MeanJoePhaser]

The Changlings are a speciesist race. Odo mattered to them more than all of the Gamma Quadrant, IIRC the female founder even said as much. And anyway, the Dominion had lost at that point...all they could do was to give the allies a pyrrhic victory.

 

[Tralah]

I for one welcomed the lighthearted episodes during the war. They took place when DS9 wasn't on the front line anymore, so it makes sense that their would be periods of downtime and chance for the crew to relax in the holosuites. They built the momentum fine in the final arc leading up to the series finale I thought.

 

[Stephen!]

I think that people who say that Sisko started the war need to watch it again.

Technically, Sisko did start the war though. Atleast officially, since there was no formal declaration of war from the Dominion until Starfleet provoked them by mining the Wormhole.

 

[PhoenixIreland]

I think that people who say that Sisko started the war need to watch it again.

Technically, Sisko did start the war though. Atleast officially, since there was no formal declaration of war from the Dominion until Starfleet provoked them by mining the Wormhole.

The dominion were massing an invasion fleet, and they did fire the first shots

 

[smeos]

I think that people who say that Sisko started the war need to watch it again.

Technically, Sisko did start the war though. Atleast officially, since there was no formal declaration of war from the Dominion until Starfleet provoked them by mining the Wormhole.

That's like saying that the first Japanese bomber pilot at Pearl Harbor or the first German into Poland started WWII.

You could argue that Starfleet started the war, but responsibility rests with those who give the orders, not the person who has to carry them out.

 

[LeadHead]

The Dominion War with DS9 was handled very well and the Dominion dug their own grave.

They learned about the Federation and the ships coming through the wormhole and rather than putting up a no trespassing sign, they massacred a colony and destroyed several ships just to make a point.

Then when The Federation tried to make contact with them in the search they attacked and captured people to perform an psych experiment. When they learned of a plan to attack them, they infiltrated it and set up another massacre, then soon after tried to start a war between the Federation and the Tzenkethi (however that was spelled) then planted and agent in the Klingon heirarchy to move them closer to atacking the federation not to mention leveling the Cardassian Fleet. They comitted a terorist bombing at a diplomatic conference, made an alliance with the cardassians to conquer the Alpha Quadrant, setting up the massacre of the Maquis...


I really could go on, but I think my point has been made. The Dominion had plenty of opportunities to try to simply keep the federation away by negotiation or siply closing their borders and not making moves into the Alpha Quadrant, they chose to try to take over the alpha quadrant instead. They got what was coming to them. Honestly, I hope the Female Changeling got a really small cell and was only allowed to change shape to regenerate.

As for did the Federation start the war? The Domion had regulary attacked federation and Klingon vessels along the Cardassian border in the months leading up to the war. Such attacks honestly were acts of war that the federation didn't cowboy up to. They started bringing countless ships into the apha quadrant to bolster their forces and prepare for invasion. Those ships weren't coming for a pleasure cruise. The war would have started within weeks and would have been impossible to win with the the Dominion forces from both the Alpha and Gamma Quadrants.