Why didn't Starfleet replace the Cardassian tech on DS9?

[Shawnster]

It never made much sense as a mining station.
Command and Control, that makes more sense.

That was one of the points made in the Nitpicker's Guide, I believe. It made no sense to mine raw ore on a planet, then transport all that ore to a space station to refine. Talk about a waste of resources. No wonder the Cardassian economy collapses with that kind of mentality .

Or "ore processing station" was just a cover story.

 

[publiusr]

I have no problem with a mining station--especially if there is no asteroid belt in that system. An asteroid mining platform might look like this:
https://zappa.brainiac.com/spaceship/DLD/shipyard-repair.html

But a mining station should really look a bit like a Borg Cube--ugly

 

[Bad Thoughts]

It wouldn't have been the first time many different ideas made for an overdesigned orbiter.

 

[kkt]

That was one of the points made in the Nitpicker's Guide, I believe. It made no sense to mine raw ore on a planet, then transport all that ore to a space station to refine. Talk about a waste of resources. No wonder the Cardassian economy collapses with that kind of mentality .

Or "ore processing station" was just a cover story.

Yes, the benefit of putting the Prefect and his senior staff on a space station should have been to reduce risk, by reducing the number of Bajorans to a very small number of carefully screened individuals, like Basso. Not random laborers, barkeepers, and drug addicts, and other bad security risks. Isn't Dukat tired of assassination attempts every couple of months?

During the European colonial era, the European sections of occupied cities was often walled off with security checks from the rest of the population, not just chain link fences.

 

[Jayson1]

Dukat wanted the Bajoran people to love him. I bet he saw himself as a sort of, man of the people, who can walk among them and by doing that show how much he cares, all with little security.

Jason

 

[Timo]

That was one of the points made in the Nitpicker's Guide, I believe. It made no sense to mine raw ore on a planet, then transport all that ore to a space station to refine. Talk about a waste of resources. No wonder the Cardassian economy collapses with that kind of mentality.

Seems prudent to me, placing the expensive refining gear in orbit and out of reach of the native riffraff and their stupid resistance fighters and all. Whether it really cost extra to haul the worthless rock to orbit would depend on how the hauling was done; with transporters, it mightn't be all that expensive after all.

But the part where they allowed Bajoran paid workers and slaves to come aboard the station seemed like improvisation after the fact: relying on collaborators for your barbery and culinary and sartorial needs would come after a few years of complacent occupation, while bringing aboard the refining labor required actual physical modifications to the station, including chicken wire fences right in the middle of the pretty Promenade!

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Bad Thoughts]

But the part where they allowed Bajoran paid workers and slaves to come aboard the station seemed like improvisation after the fact: relying on collaborators for your barbery and culinary and sartorial needs would come after a few years of complacent occupation, while bringing aboard the refining labor required actual physical modifications to the station, including chicken wire fences right in the middle of the pretty Promenade!

Seems like the Cardassians thought their was utility in humiliating those whom they enslaved.

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

I don't know about Discovery, but we should have seen more repurposed space stations in Federation Space. It would have been nice to see a couple starbases that were once built by Vulcans or Denobulans prior to Cochrane's warp flight...

Their situation is a lot more stable - Starfleet/The Federation isn't having to come in and take over, they're allowed in.

 

[Finn]

Huh? That doesn't really address my comment

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

I mean that the nature of their presence in Bajoran space is different from that of their presence in Vulcan space. Humans are latecomers to the party, but then, of course, they quickly become dominant, especially because of their role in founding the Federation.

Most people would want their own installation if they're planning on being there any length of time. If you're just camping out for a few nights (relatively speaking), who cares who owns the tent and what it looks like, as long as it's safe, warm, and dry? (again, relatively speaking)

 

[Finn]

Whut? I think you aren't seeing what I'm saying. Surely there were established bases in places where Starflert might use as a starbase. They aren't gonna ignore a perfectly good centuries old Denobulan space station in a sector that requires a starbase.

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

They might, but I don't know how Human they'd bother to make it look.

 

[Lynx]

I often wondered that too.
It wouldn't have been any problem to replaxce all Cardassian technology with Federation technology.

 

[Jedman67]

1) Would have to completely gut the station to effect a replacement.

2) The station would have been effectively useless for weeks and months.

3) Starfleet might not have wanted to spend the money on such a extensive project, and there was no room for it in the existing budget anyway.

There's no money in the federation!!
They did replace the computer system and a lot of the hardware was replaced or updated with federation systems; all needed simply to make the place run effectively. Of course, all the stuff that was visibly of federation manufacture was behind the scenes so as to present the spartan cardassian appearance to the audience.

sn't Dukat tired of assassination attempts every couple of months?

That's how he knows he's loved. A cardassian who does not face assassination attemps is no cardassian, a romulan who never assassinates is no romulan.
Klingons, of course, do not believe in assassination at all. Typically, challenges are offered in plain sight, often to the death, and sanctioned by law.

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

There's no money in the federation!!

Non-Federation suppliers may still use currency, so they have to pay them somehow or it's no deal.

The Federation may also budget other non-money things, which are finite, such as time, resources, workers, etc.

 

[Finn]

Are you pedantic on purpose?

 

[Jedman67]

Are you pedantic on purpose?

I generally prefer to call it "sarcasm." But yes.

Whut? I think you aren't seeing what I'm saying. Surely there were established bases in places where Starflert might use as a starbase. They aren't gonna ignore a perfectly good centuries old Denobulan space station in a sector that requires a starbase.

Most starbases seen throughout TNG are planet-based outposts. Very few space stations are seen, offhand, McKinley station in Earth orbit after BoBW; a redress of Spacedock in the first season 101101010000, and DS9 about a month after Emissary. There's also the fancy radiation station which Riker is accused of trying to blow up in S4 or S5, the Baryon station, and another one with the MicroComps. And the Starbase from Measure of A Man.
So 6, perhaps as many as 10 throughout the whole shows run, and only three of them explicitly federation-built.
The designs on the others were meant to subtly indicate that they were not starfleet designed.

So TNG suggests the existence of other space stations that are run or operated by the Federation, but not built by the Federation (or at least not by Starfleet). Fact is, outside of DS9 the creators had no reason to delve into the backstory of a random starbase seen for a single episode.

 

[Shamrock Holmes]

They did replace the computer system and a lot of the hardware was replaced or updated with federation systems; all needed simply to make the place run effectively. Of course, all the stuff that was visibly of federation manufacture was behind the scenes so as to present the spartan cardassian appearance to the audience.

They replaced most the portable systems - tricorders, "laptops", some PADDs - but the main computers appear to have been the Cardassian originals through the series, given that non-Starfleet "LCARS" never change.

 

[Jedman67]

The computer was replaced - or at least heavily upgraded - by starfleet. you can headcanon it that starfleet had to reverse engineer a cardassian computer for physical compatibility; while updating software standards to Starfleet regulation. Either way, the LCARS was a specific design choice IRL.

 

[Shamrock Holmes]

There was a reference to upgrades to tactical computer modules in the episode Shakaar, but I can't find any references to general computer upgrades or replacements. Certainly Judi Durand provided the voice for the entire run, although that's perhaps not as diffinitive as it could be, given that she did substitute for Majel in SFS and in several licensed games.