Star Trek: Deep Space Nine secretly set up the Dominion as the antithesis of the Federation long before their first on-screen appearance. One of the greatest threats to face the Federation in a century, the existence of the Dominion was seeded by DS9‘s writers early in season 2. Having established Star Trek: Deep Space Nine‘s characters in season 1, attention turned to establishing and defining what was beyond the Bajoran wormhole in season 2. Keen not to let the Gamma Quadrant become an ill-defined region of space, plans were made to establish a tangible location, and the Dominion was key to this.
Commander Benjamin Sisko (Avery Brooks) would come face to face with the Dominion in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine‘s season 2 finale. However, their existence was seeded much earlier than this, in the most surprising of places. In DS9 season 2, episode 7, “Rules of Acquisition”, Armin Shimerman’s Quark is sent to the Gamma Quadrant on an important business trip. While there, the Ferengi was informed about the Karemma, and their membership in a powerful force in the Gamma Quadrant, known as the Dominion.
Star Trek: The Dominion War Timeline, Explained
The Dominion War was the bloodiest conflict in Star Trek history, and its complicated timeline was filled with shocking twists and turns.
Why DS9 Secretly Set Up The Dominion In A Ferengi Comedy Episode
While on a trade mission for Grand Nagus Zek (Wallace Shawn), Quark and Pel were told that if the Ferengi want to do business in the Gamma Quadrant they “have to do business with the Dominion.” The end of “Rules of Acquisition” revealed that this was the real reason for Zek sending Quark to the Gamma Quadrant, because he wanted to open trade negotiations with the Dominion and their commercial arm, the Karemma. This revelation was deliberately seeded in a Star Trek comedy episode because the audience wouldn’t expect such a hugely important revelation to come out during one of Quark’s capers.
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine showrunner Ira Steven Behr had resisted adapting Hilary Bader’s Ferengi storyline because he didn’t want to become the “Ferengi guy”. However, he later told Mark A. Altman and Edward Gross’ Captain’s Log Supplemental – The Unauthorized Guide to the New Trek Voyages that;
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The thing that sold the show to me was coming up with the Dominion.
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Sending Quark to the Gamma Quadrant helped to tease the Dominion’s importance in the Gamma Quadrant, and also established their credentials as the antithesis of Star Trek‘s Federation.
DS9 Set Up The Dominion As Anti-Federation
Although they’re merely associates of the Dominion, the Dosi in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine season 2, episode 7, “Rules of Acquisition” establish that Alpha Quadrant species have darker counterparts in the Gamma Quadrant. Like the Ferengi, the Dosi were profit-oriented, but they had a more violent approach to trade negotiations, which could often result in fatalities. This clear difference between the Dosi and Ferengi is played for laughs in “Rules of Acquisition”, but it reflects the DS9 writers’ approach to developing the Gamma Quadrant and the Dominion.
In The Birth of the Dominion and Beyond, a documentary special feature in the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine season 3 boxed set, Robert Hewitt-Wolfe describes how the writers’ room conceived the Dominon as a dictatorial version of the Federation. Like the Federation, the Dominion represented a coalition of different alien species. However, rather than being unified under common ideologies, the Dominion was in thrall to the will of their Changeling Founders. The similarities between the Federation and the Dominion were exactly why the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine villains posed such an existential threat to the Alpha Quadrant.
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, also known as DS9, is the fourth series in the long-running Sci-Fi franchise, Star Trek. DS9 was created by Rick Berman and Michael Piller, and stars Avery Brooks, René Auberjonois, Terry Farrell, and Cirroc Lofton. This particular series follows a group of individuals in a space station near a planet called Bajor.
