h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

DS9, as another researcher rightly notes elsewhere, was a mining station named Terrak Nor and fell into the hands of the Bajoran people after their resistance movement contributed to the factors that forced their Cardassian oppressors to pull out. The invitation of the Federation was more complex and political than the entry makes out and many felt that they were exchanging one oppressive reigeme for another.

The Dominion was not a race, but rather an empire consisting of a range of races each fulfilling a specific purpose within the collective entity. The will of the Dominion was enforced by the Jem Hadar, genetically altered reptillian warriors addicted to the drug Keterosel White from birth and sucidally loyal to their masters. The negotiators and "face" of the Dominion was supplied by the Vorta, a race skilled in both diplomacy and political back-stabbing (often colned and replaced with great speed if slain in the line of duty). Finally came the Founders, shadowy leaders of the Dominion and a race of shapeshifters who's fear of persecution by "solids" (i.e. non-shapeshifting species) led them to become a paranoid and quasi-facistic race bent upon dominating all solids lest they be destroyed themselves.

Finally on the point of the Defiant, the ship was built to fight the Borg, not the Dominion.

what did you think of the ds9 ending?

Good correction/addition to the original DS9 post.

I would also like to add:
The Vorta were also a genetically-engineered race. Like the Jem H'dar their DNA was programmed by the Founders so that they would worship Founders as gods & attend to all their needs. The Vorta were not only diplomats who spoke on behalf of the Founders, they were the officers that ordered the Jem H'dar into battle. The Jem H'dar were engineered to be unquestioning stupid grunts, who would willingly blow themselves up if ordered to do so by a Vorta officer or a Founder. The Vorta were not born but cloned. The Jem H'dar were hatched. Their DNA was programmed so they would quickly grow to adulthood in a matter of days, so they could be quickly produced & sent into battle.

With their Jem H'dar/Vorta armies the Founders were able to conquer & rule a very large portion of their quadrant of the galaxy (i.e. the gamma quadrant on the other side of the wormhole). While back on their home world, the Founders lived very serene & idyllic lives - for the most part completely untouched by the wars & brutal repression carried out in their names throughout the quadrant. They didn't like contact with other worlds and despised "solids" in general (because they had been persecuted by them centuries ago). So, in order to ensure total security for their world, yet limit their contact with others as much as possible they developed a system of authoritarian rule over all solids & nearly every world that they came in contact with. But, they let the Vorta be the enforcers. They had had so little contact with others for such a long time, that by the time they came into contact with the Federation, they had a aquired a mythical status by some worlds in their empire. Despite the fact that they ruled all, they were rarely ever seen off their own world, which was hidden from the races of solids that they chad absolute control over.

Odo, the DS9 security chief, is a Founder. Though for the first half of the series he is completely unaware of his origin & species. He was discovered when he was a child (a young blob really) by Bajoran scientists & raised in a laboratory there. No one had any idea what he was.

Another important part of the series that was not mentioned above is the subplot surrounding the "Prophets". They are the Bajoran gods, who were discovered in the wormhole by Cmdr Sisko. They exist on a higher plane outside of time, as they don't live in our universe. They appoint Sisko as their emissary - which causes problems for him with Starfleet (who doesn't like one of their officers being a religious symbol for a whole planet) & political entanglements for him with Bajoran clerics & much consternation for him personally (since he doesn't like being cast in the role of messiah to the Bajorans, though eventually he must accept the role in the end & fulfill his destiny).

Bajor had its society, government & economy all but destroyed (prior to the start of the series) by decades of enslavement by the cruel Cardassian empire. Their universal devotion to their pacifist religion made them easy targets for domination by the the militaristic Cardassians empire. Eventually they rebelled by forming terrorist cells to resist the occupation. So, at the start of the series they are in total chaos. They need Fereration assistance & protection but are mistrustful of all outsiders. One of the few things that kept their culture from complete collapse during the occupation was devotion to their religion. Their religion and culture is very old. In fact, Sisko through a vision given him by the Prophets discovers the ruins of a mythical lost Bajoran city - which turns out to be one of the oldest archeological finds in the galaxy! Their culture is much older than any other, yet they have recently lost their connection to their past by generations of enslavement. But, they do have several ancient magical stones that were said to be given to them by the Prophets untold aeons ago. These stones occasionally give the faithful visions. And, since the prophets live outside of time, they know the future & the past. The Prophets are the self appointed protectors of Bajor.

DS9 was clearly the best of all the Star Trek series to date. The characters & plots were far deeper than any of the other series. In addition to getting to know the Bajorans & their mystical devotion to their religion, we also learned about the society & capitalistic religion of the Ferengi (The Ferengi were just disagreeable trolls in Next Gen without any particular motivation other than general nastiness.) DS9 also developed the religion & culture of the Klingons far more than all the other series combined. We also learned more about the Cardassians & Romulans & many other races.

The different races of DS9 were all very complex in their cultural traits & interactions. And, the characters were not 2 dimensional as was all too often the case for many characters in the other 4 series. We never learned much personal info about important regular characters such as Sulu or Dr.Crusher or Tuvok. But, on DS9 all the characters got their own stories fleshed out in many individual episodes. We learned that all the DS9 characters had lives & many interests outside of Starfleet (e.g. baseball, gambling, holodeck adventures). They all had divided loyalties to Starfleet as well, not just soldiers (e.g. Sisko's dual role as Emissary & Cmdr of DS9, Kira's role a Bajoran cmdr & former terrorist who must assume the role of authority figure & Starfleet liason, Odo a Founder who's in love with a solid, etc.)

Perhaps most importantly, the DS9 series succeeded in its ability to comment on modern day realities of: war/terrorism, colonialism/ developing cultures, freedom/security, religion & pracitical needs of life, capitalism, the future of genetic engineering, etc.

I thought everything about the DS9 series was great - EXCEPT THE ENDING. IT SUCKED. The ending was very rushed they spent 7 years developing complex plot lines & character motivations (see my post above), but then tried to wrap it all up in a few episodes. The last episode in particular was very choppy & rushed. The final episode was a disappointment - unworthy of the high standard of writing they had set for themselves in previous seasons. They should have stretched the wrapping up of various plot line over more episodes. It really seems like they just wanted to get it all over with quickly. They could have easily gotten another whole season out of the material, if they wanted to. (They could have done much more with the new Dax & with Bashir secret spy cells within Starfleet, etc.)

The ratings were good throughout the whole series (and the cast was happy to do more I think). It was very strange the way they rushed the ending. Didn't understand why they killed off Sisko either. (They left it open that he MIGHT come back... but, it didn't make much sense. (They should have just had him resign from Starfleet to go become a Bajoran Holy Man & meditate in a cave or live with the prophets or something. I was looking forward to him becoming an old mystical sage & strange Starfleet myth - the direction he seemed to be heading at the end.) The whole plot surrounding his death lasts all of about 10 minutes. The final episode looks like several episode plots spliced together - as if they suddenly ran out of money or time or something.

Another thing that is strange is the way that DS9 has sort of become the "forgotten Star Trek series". It doesn't seem to be on anywhere in re-runs - UNLIKE ALL THE OTHERS. As far as I know, there doesn't seem to be any interest in making DS9 movies as they did as soon as Next Gen ended - which is a shame since it was definitely the best written series. (It was very odd the way in the last season they kept switching the time & night that the series was on, as if they wanted ratings to drop. Maybe Rick Berman wanted the show to end quick to boost the ratings of his awful Voyager series?) Anyone heard anything about any of the characters coming back in future ST movies?? That would be nice to see, but they'd have to come up with some way to connect them to the characters of Next Gen - so I doubt it. If they were planning on bringing any of them back - I think they would re-run the series more.

...It was a bit pants!

To all Pedants:-

Colonel Kira Nerys, the show ended with her been a colonel so she is a colonel she also holds the equivalent Starfleet commission, to make diplomacy a little easier for those races who don't get along with Bajorans.

She is also acting Commander of DS9 until the return of Benjamin Sisko (which we'll never see because Mr R Berman esq of Paramount is more interested in making a Voyager or Enterprise movie than a DS9 one which is such a shame after all the work on characters and story lines (we had a little tete a tete at the Nemesis premiere).

there are rumours about of a new series focusing on Riker and Troi (Hmm am i interested, NO) if they can keep Scott Bakula in Enterprise for another 5 years then fine continue to produce the series but lets not have another Star Trek : Whatever Federation vessel we can think of.

Time to focus on an alien race, do the Klingons, we like them!