Would the Dominion work as a villian?

[Oso Blanco]

I would not want Orc & Kurtzman near the Dominion. Behr, Wolfe, Beimler did a great job developing them over several seasons and along with the Borg have become one of my two favorite Trek adversaries. The Dominion would require more than one film to really develop them and I don't want them turned into a one note villian just for the purpose of action. And the writers don't strike me as the types capable of the kind of complex writing that would be required to do them justice and I don't see them providing a new interesting spin on them or improving on what DS9 did with them.

Finally, a reboot doesn't mean we have to go back to cribbing ideas from other Trek writers who were actually creative and original.

Agreed on all accounts!

Insurrection should have been about the Dominion, but they missed that opportunity.

 

[ProtoAvatar]

The Dominion would be a terrific villain. They strike right at the heart of the Federation's strength, namely that they aren't just another xenophobic, imperialistic pack of vicious morons tearing their way across the galaxy and of course making enemies right and left. The Romulans, Cardies and Klingons are all self-defeating that way. The Dominion isn't.

The Dominion sensibly allows member worlds a certain amount of freedom within their own spheres, encourages trade and the building of wealth, and offers defense. The only stipulation is that member worlds not challenge Dominion authority, but when you're getting what you want, why kick up a fuss?

In short, the Dominion offers the same basic deal the Feds do, but with the bonus of a war machine that is far more efficient and ruthless than Starfleet. The Dominion foot soldiers are all cloned and deliberately engineered to have no interests beyond serving the Founders; how can Starfleet beat that?

"The only stipulation is that member worlds not challenge Dominion authority" - not quite.

The only stipulation is that member worlds do whatever the Dominion wants them to do.
If the dominion asks for your entire industrial production, you either give it and watch your population die of starvation and cold, or you don't give it and watch the jem'hadar kill your population.
If the dominion tells you to jump, you ask how high? If the Dominion tells you to kill someone, you ask whom?

That doesn't sound like freedom to me. It certainly doesn't sound like the deal the Federation offers.

I like the idea of Benjamin Linus as a Vorta, but this is TOS era. The Wormhole isn't going to be discovered until the next CENTURY!

Old Spock can tell the Feds where the wormhole is; they just need spaceships that can get all the way out there.

So - Spock tells Starfleet about the Dominion (and the borg, the Doomsday machine - what an overblown name!, the Nomad probe, etc) and some overconfident admiral sends a ship through the bajoran wormhole, awakening the sleeping giant. And then you need to develop the Dominion.

I can only see that working as part of a series. It's way too much information for an action movie. You need a simpler villan - like the klingons.

 

[All Seeing Eye]

Old Spock can tell the Feds where the wormhole is; they just need spaceships that can get all the way out there.

That's something I mentioned a few weeks ago. Old Spock could tell the Feds about threats so they send a ship out to locate the wormhole and collapse it but they have a change of heart and actually send ships through to investigate the Dominion. The Dominion isn't impressed basically.

I think it would be cool to see the Dominion of the 23rd century.

The only problem I see with this is the fact that the first time a ship enters the wormhole the wormhole aliens are gunna do their mojo again like they did with Sisko.

 

[seigezunt]

[New Trek Demographic Viewer]: Who?

 

[Aike]

Would the Dominion work as a villian?

Proximity to the Bajoran Wormhole made contact with Gamma Quadrant races, societies and political entities plausible in DS9. With stories more or less limited to 23rd-century Federation space and immediately-surrounding regions, and further constrained by the ~two-hour running time of a theatrical film, I'm not sure I see a plausible way for the Dominion to work as a villain, even if the alternate timeline removes the prime-timeline premise that no one in the Federation would have known of the Dominion's existence for more than a hundred years yet. They're just too far away.

There was a changling in Star Trek 6. And one of the aliens in the Klingon prison looked like a Jem Hadar, so they could already be in the Alpha Quadrant.

 

[Aike]

I think it would be an awesome idea. But don´t use the Vorta. They aren´t necessary.

 

[Lumen]

A changeling-like villain would be fine, but I wouldn't want much more than that. If we're going to have a whole alien empire fight the Enterprise, it should be the Klingons.

 

[Lindley]

Actually, forget about the Dominion, Jeffrey Combs could be a good villain for the sequel. Let him play a human and he'd be unrecognizable.

He was plenty recognizable as a human when he appeared on Babylon 5. It's the voice that really gives it away.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

"The only stipulation is that member worlds not challenge Dominion authority" - not quite.

The only stipulation is that member worlds do whatever the Dominion wants them to do.
If the dominion asks for your entire industrial production, you either give it and watch your population die of starvation and cold, or you don't give it and watch the jem'hadar kill your population.
If the dominion tells you to jump, you ask how high? If the Dominion tells you to kill someone, you ask whom?

That doesn't sound like freedom to me. It certainly doesn't sound like the deal the Federation offers.

Heh heh. Well that's the sort of thing people only find out when it's too late.

That's something I mentioned a few weeks ago. Old Spock could tell the Feds about threats so they send a ship out to locate the wormhole and collapse it but they have a change of heart and actually send ships through to investigate the Dominion. The Dominion isn't impressed basically.

Hopefully, the Federation learned something from the whole experience, and Spock is privvy to that learning, namely that if you plan to go exploring thru that particular wormhole, tread lightly in regards to the Dominion. Don't just start establishing colonies; make diplomatic contact with the Founders first.

Two things are possible, either the Feds and Doms could learn to play nicely, each sticking to their own sphere of influence; or the Founders really are just aggressive imperialists, in which case, the Feds should just collapse the wormhole and forget all about the GQ.

DS9 was a little vague on just how to handle the Dominion after all. The ending implied the Feds and Doms could play nicely, but I have my doubts...

 

[Jayson]

I think it would be a bad idea because the mainstream public doesn't know who they are anyway so you might as well use a completely new species where we dont have to work within the confines of an already established mythology surrounding them.

We should sgo for a new species or an undeveloped one.

The fact that the mainstream audience doesn't know them is actually a good thing. For them they will be new aliens. As for the mythology you really don't need to go into that to much. All you really got to do is explain that Jem'Haddar are on drugs and that keep them loyal to the Dominion and there soldiers. The Vorta are there bosses.

I'm completely against the idea of new races, at least in terms of being villians. To much of a cliche to me and I worry it will make the movie feel like a tv episode.

Jason

 

[Stone_Cold_Sisko]

[New Trek Demographic Viewer]: Who?

[Me]: A new group of badass villains.

(what they don't know won't hurt them)

 

[Welshie]

Only of it's a Borgified Dominion lead by an omnipotent Khan from the future, returning, rising, falling, attacking, or otherwise seeking revenge.

You've forgotten to include Evil Robot Lincoln!

 

[Bones2]

There was a changling in Star Trek 6. And one of the aliens in the Klingon prison looked like a Jem Hadar, so they could already be in the Alpha Quadrant.

Well, it was actually a Chameloid in Rura Penthe, rather than a changeling, and the Jem'Hadar-looking guy wasn't very Jem'Hadarish. And that's not taking into account the genitals in his knees.

But yeah, as for the Dominion in the new films, I'm in two minds about it. As a niner, it'd be very nice to see the Dominion on the big screen and getting the recognition such awesomeness deserves. However, there is almost no way a 2 hour film could do justice to them, and certainly not writers like Orci and Kurtzman. And in this way, I'd be nearly as against the Dominion being used as Khan.

So ultimately, it'd be the same "yes, if done properly answer" from me that most people would give.