"The Visitor": No Dominion War?

Not to spoil a twenty year old episode, but in this show, Ben Sisko is lost in time and as a result, an alternate future progresses from the one that passed. The loss of the Emissary sends the Bajorans into a defense pact with Cardassia. The season 4 situation with the Klingons escalates and Starfleet hands Deep Space Nine over to them, and everyone departs. In the future, Nog is a Starfleet captain, and the Klingons are letting Starfleet go through the wormhole again to see how the Dominion reacts to their presence in the Gamma Quadrant. It is all very much the status quo of season 3/4 projected into the future, including the TNG uniform staying around well passed when it was phased out in the corrected history.

However, what stands out is this episode in relation to the series as it unfolded. There is every indication that there was no Dominion War. However, it was later revealed that the Dominion had already begun to replace leaders and major figures throughout the Alpha Quadrant with changelings, to to work on destabilizing the region. Among them was Martok, and the Dominion was behind the aggression and eventual war of the Klingons against the Federation; a war that seems not to have occurred. The alternate future of this episode is all very status quo. So my question is, how can that be explained?

 

The same reason that none of the future from All Good Things came true.

 

Because history was changed by present timeline Picard knowing that future. But here, events were already in motion before the episode that were revealed later. Entire motivations were behind the scenes already that were revealed later. The Dominion was behind the very Klingon aggression that here got them the station, and yet it does not play out into a Federation-Klingon War, which was the point of that aggression, or a Dominion War.

 

Butterfly flaps its wings, timeline plays out very differently.

 

But things follow a natural progression. A causes B causes C. This isn't starting off with A. This episode, as revealed later, was already at point B. And the entire point of A causing B was to cause the C of the Dominion subjugation of the Alpha Quadrant. If everything happened afterward, it would be different. But events were already in motion prior to the episode. The entire Klingon aggression, which was a key point of this future, was caused and controlled by the Dominion to keep on going and weaken two powers so they could come in.

 

My best theory would be that the Dominion has slowly infested the Alpha Quadrant with changelings. They seem to be acting in a way to keep known space powers out of the Gamma Quadrant. However, that is undercut by the fact that the Klingon takeover of DS9 was not the goal, and their goal was to have the Federation and Klingons at war to weaken the powers that could oppose them so they could roll through the Alpha Quadrant unopposed. But here they did not try, even though they had already set up discord and put plans into motion for that very reason.

 

The producers didn't want to play their hand. The Klingons were the new imminent threat and it would weaken the season if they admitted that the real problem was war with the Dominion. I think you should accept this as an essential aspect of television storytelling.

Eta: You also need to account for the fact that the war never happened then in Jake's lifetime. It could have taken place later if the Klingon Empire fell under Dominion influence.

 

The Dominion was there to get Odo.

With Sisko gone, Odo doesn't hook up with Kira, so he goes home.

Odo as part of the link creates a truce that both sides can live with.

Peace in our times.

 

Also recall the Dominion was playing a long game, they had intended to meet the federation a hundred or two hundred years down the line. The visitor timeline simply pushes back the timetable.

 

Aren't there already a couple threads about this?

 

Martok runs the empire. Wars happen that we don't see.

 

If Sisko dies, there is a good chance Darvin succeeds at assassinating Kirk, and a war will break out between the Klingons and Federation in the late 23rd century.

 

However, the Defiant is not sent to take the Orb of Time from Cardassia, or to escort Darvin off the planet.

 

I always found that in retrospect, the weirdest part of the episode was Jadzia being alive. But as those have stated above, everything changes with Sisko vanishing.

 

There would still be war with the dominion in about another 200 years or so which the federation would then lose.

 

Most likely reason is that the Klingons somehow made the wormhole impassable before the Dominion had a chance to get a large fleet over.

 

Even if the wormhole was sealed the dominion and the federation we're expanding towards one another, Sisko's death would have delayed the conflict for perhaps 200 years but the Founders are/were patient and as Ron Moore said were already aware of the federation and were preparing.