History Fridge / StarTrekDeepSpaceNine

* The Bajorans. No matter how much the Prophets visited Bajor for how long, and no matter how much their population dwindled due to the Occupation, there's just no way an entire ''species'' belongs to the same religion, or its counter-cultures (the religion of the Pah Wraiths and Ro's atheism came about in response to the Prophet religion). There have to be other belief systems and cultures on Bajor, however small...and they're all living under a theocracy run by the Prophet worshipers. Maybe not FridgeHorror per se, but at least "Fride-Not-As-Great-As-It-Seems." Consider how many Bajorans we see in Starfleet, the Maquis, or random colonies who ''don't'' wear the earring or mention Prophets. Put two and two together. Many off-world Bajorans are likely Bajorans who either belong to minority religions, or who practice different denominations of the main one, and left Bajor due to some amount of religious persecution.

** This is also quite the plot point for "In The Pale Moonlight" if you think about it. Note that when Sisko first comes to Garak asking him to help him get his hands on proof that the Dominion is planning a sneak attack on the Romulans, Garak doesn't question the ''existence'' of any such war plans, only the feasibility of obtaining them. That's because he ''knows'' those plans exist, thanks to what the female changeling told him. This surely made his (first) backup plan to feed a forgery of those records to Vreenak that much easier to justify to Sisko as well: "fake but accurate" could never have been a more applicable description, even if their forgery was only an imprecise approximation of what took place at the ''actual'' meeting.

* The Founders ''always'' intended to exterminate the Cardassians once they didn't need them. The female Changeling's order at the end of the series seems like she's just really frustrated and pissed off about losing ([[spoiler:and the Cardassians rebelling]]), but remember what she told Garak earlier when he asked if there were any survivors from the Tal Shiar/Obsidian Order attack on the Founders' homeworld?

** Admiral Leyton seems like an InsaneAdmiral, the Vulcan SerialKiller in ''Field of Fire'' out of left field, Section 31 a StateSec turned UpToEleven. But think about it: Starfleet was a "peaceful exploration" corps that was test and almost ''beaten'' at Wolf 359. In comes the Dominion: shape shifting founders and their evil psychics commanding SuperSoldiers. To paraphrase WebSite/SFDebris, this is what happens when MarySuetopia '''breaks'''. Paradise was in danger of being destroyed, so the peace loving Federation passes the MoralEventHorizon because [[GoMadFromTheRevelation the Dominion finally broke some of them]].

** Furthermore, this explains how Quark manages to survive his off-screen sex with Grilka in ''Looking For Par'Mach In All The Wrong Places'' and, it's implied, actually managed to pleasure her in the bargain -- her certainly doesn't ''act'' like the DestructoNookie was unsatisfying, after all. Quark's actually strong enough to make a very spirited attempt at keeping up with a Klingon female in the throes of passion; it's just not something that comes up normally since he's a NonActionGuy.

** Looking at the above, it becomes clear exactly why Dukat hates the Bajorans. At first glance, an obvious reason reveals itself: revenge. As the head of the failed Occupation, it is evident in "Cardassians" and "The Maquis Part 2" that Dukat is being scapegoated for the failure of the Occupation, jeopardizing his career. Moreover, in "Sacrifice of Angels" and "Waltz", we see that Dukat craved not just the Bajorans' cooperation, but their adoration. The fact that they hated him instead is yet a further cause for resentment. However, when we look at the fact that Sisko is viewed the way Dukat sought to be viewed, we see yet another reason for Dukat's hatred: jealousy. Dukat saw himself in messianic terms, as a father figure to the Bajorans, and expected their adoration, incurring their fear and hatred instead. The very things that were denied Dukat were handed to Sisko in his role as Emissary. Dukat's snarking to Sisko about the pretentiousness of his title in "Ties of Blood and Water" has yet another dimension, then, as he is secretly jealous of the adoration Sisko receives.

* At first, the Ferengi seem a little weird, compared to actual capitalists: if anything they're a highly regulated economy with tons of redtape and inefficiencies. The Ferengi are tied to a bunch of old traditions that have become law, like making women go naked and not handle money, even when actual capitalists would have long ago realized there's profit to be made in bucking those. Ferengi have to pay an absurd number of bureaucratic fees to the Commerce Authority to do essentially anything (also part of their tradition), when actual capitalists would have pushed to eliminate most of those centuries ago. Ferengi would never do business with a blacklisted Ferengi, even though there would be plenty of profit in dealing with someone nobody else would sell to, especially considering blacklisted Ferengi aren't necessarily unreliable or dishonest. It makes sense, though, when you realize that the Ferengi ''government'' is also made up of profit-hungry businessmen. Who benefits from contracts being nigh unbreakable? The Nagus -- he'd be able to buy out anybody whose contract he didn't like (or throw them in jail on phony charges), but nobody could break one with ''him''. Who benefits from all those burdensome fees? The Nagus -- he runs the Commerce Authority, and also indirectly benefits by the competition being pushed down. Who benefits from society staying stagnant and rigidly following old taboos? Rich Ferengi (like the Nagus et al.) who own large, stable businesses that profit off the status quo, and whose market share would be threatened by disruptive innovation. Who profits from strict adherence to blacklists? The people who have the power to set those blacklists -- the Nagus and the rest of the government. All the weird Ferengi traditions and taboos are due to the Ferengi government making themselves profitable at the expense of everyone else. They're not just the government of a capitalist country, like say the American government or the Canadian government, they're a rent-seeking profit-earning entity unto themselves, and thus the whole of society being poorer due to their inefficient regulations is irrelevant to them (after all, the whole of society includes the competition). This comes in one episode where Quark is shocked that one high-ranking government official (Brunt) would crash the Alliance's economy just to personally enrich himself, but his mother points out that him doing so is technically entirely inline with Ferengi principles.

* During "Sacrifice of Angels", Dukat and Weyoun talk about what they would do once the Federation is conquered, and agree that a rebellion will start on Earth. Weyoun's solution would be to wipe out the entire population. Dukat tells him he "can't", because "true victory is to make your enemy realize they were wrong to oppose you in the first place". Weyoun gives him a look that clearly says "this guy's insane". From the episode "Statistic Probabilities", we know Weyoun's right: a rebellion is predicted to start on Earth and eventually overthrow the Dominion. It seems like the scene wants to invoke Fridge Horror, but it doesn't. While Dukat's [[FatalFlaw Fatal Flaw]] is his desire to make others realize how great he is, even though he isn't; the Dominion's flaw is its believe that they can solve any problem just by stomping on it until it goes away. In the very same episode, the Female Changeling has a similar problem: Odo just won't return with her to the Great Link because he still has feelings for Kira, so her solution is simple: kill Kira and problem solved. Of course, merely telling her plan to Odo causes him to leave her and go help Kira, resulting in the Dominion loss of [=DS9=] and eventually the war. If the Dominion conquered the Federation and if they wiped out the entire population of Earth, it would still not be enough to subjugate the Federation, other planets would rebel instead. Both Dukat's and the Dominions outlook are wrong, and the Federation would prevail eventually anyway, even if it lost 900 trillion lives and the whole of Earth.

** That has always been the true FridgeHorror of the Federation. The only thing holding them back is that they do love peace, freedom and democracy. But we are also talking about a superpower that has effectively seen off every other superpower in the galaxy because once you piss them off enough they don't seem to accept surrender as an option no matter how high their losses are. And even their ''peaceful'' ships can glass whole planets and have access to some of the best doctors, engineers and scientists that exist which gives them a high level of adaptability. The Defiant is scary but picking on the Feds has always been a case of BullyingTheDragon.

* During the early episode [[Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS01E17TheForsaken The Forsaken]], Lwaxana has Quark in quite the grip and promises she knows 'exactly' where his ears would hurt the most if she doesn't get her way. The Brilliance here is that she likely learned this in an effort to defend herself, after suffering an AbhorrentAdmirer in the form of the Ferengi DaiMon Bok [[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS3E24MenageATroi a few years earlier]].

** Bashir is strangely concerned about the possibility of receiving the Carrington Award, ostensibly because he feels like he's too young to be nominated for it. But such a prestigious award would draw additional attention to him and his life that might reveal his status as genetically enhanced. While he would be okay with this if he were at the end of his career anyway, he's not eager to have it happen so quickly.
** In the Next Generation crossover episode, where Bashir sneaks aboard to use the Enterprise's computer to scan a device from the Gamma Quadrant, he is very fascinated by Commander Data. He's not as impressed by Data's extraordinary abilities as he is by the modifications that make him seem more human, and how personable he is. Bashir sees Data as an equal - one "engineered" by his parents with superior qualities who seeks to emulate regular humans to fit in.

* In the episode where Worf [[spoiler:kills Gowron]], the Klingons are meeting in a conference room on the station. Then they grab bat'leths off of the wall, which are probably not a standard feature of Federation decor. Conclusion? The Klingons have ''specifically equipped'' their war room with bat'leths just in case there's a KlingonPromotion situation. That is kind of hilarious.

** And on that note, why does Worf immediately abdicate the Chancellorship in favor of Martok? Aside from the respect he obviously has for his [[BloodBrothers blood brother]], he may also remember what happened back in "The Sword of Kahless." To wit: he and Kor discover the legendary bat'leth wielded by Kahless himself, and the idea of using the sword to claim leadership of the Klingon Empire drives Worf and Kor to try to kill each other. Having felt the temptation of power and being driven to attempted murder because of it, Worf may have decided that he's not truly worthy of leading the Empire, or simply didn't trust himself with the position, so he yields to someone whom he considers incorruptible.

* In "Distant Voices" Bashir claims to be hearing voices in the distance, to the confusion of Garak, who guesses that humans may have more acute hearing than Cardassians. Years later, it turns out that [[spoiler: Bashir is genetically enhanced, including superior hearing. The reveal that the episode takes place in Bashir's mind provides an early hint of his nature via his own subconscious]].

* Odo has a strained relationship with Dr. Mora, the man who...well, not raised him, so much as experiment on him until Odo was so fed up that he struck out on his own. In the episode ''The Begotten'', Odo gets a chance to resolve some of his issues with Mora, as he learns that some of what the doctor did was in Odo's best interest; and they even start to bond over trying to do the same for an infant Changeling. It's in these moments, when the two are standing close to each other that we start to notice some interesting things about the two: Mora and Odo share a similar height, build, face-shape, hair color, eye color, and even sport ''exactly'' the same hairstyle. Odo quite obviously modeled his appearance on that of Dr. Mora.

* Picture you're a high-ranking member of one of the other interstellar nations that's in the vicinity of the Federation. For as long as you've known, the Federation has built tons of explorer vessels, but nothing that's a real warship. You've been able to posture and browbeat them because they want peace, and your actual warships purpose built craft... and then they unveil the Defiant. A proper warship, something that might be small but is the most powerful thing in the whole quadrant, pound for pound. They could build a fleet of them if they ever really wanted. And all the other powers in the area keep punching them, getting them angry...

* It makes a sick kind of sense, but it's truly disturbing that MirrorUniverse Kira is essentially ''Gul Dukat'' -- a decadent, brutal overseer for a tyrannical regime.

** It could also be a TakeThat to StarWars insofar as the attempt to destroy the much bigger, stronger ship by attacking its weak point is a thinly-veiled allusion to the climactic scene of "A New Hope".

* Quark's issue with his mother are understandable. He spent a lot of his young life feeling as if he was the unfavorite as his mother apparently doted on his brother Rom. In particular Quark brought up that their mother got Rom a fancy golden Teething Stick, while Quark's was simply made of wood. This level of apparent favoritism would certainly sting, but it's actually worse than it originally sounds. As established when Rom's son Nog comes of age, it is tradition that when a Ferengi enters adulthood part of the festivities is that they sell all of their childhood possessions and use the resulting profit to fund their future endeavors. By giving him such a cheap item, their mother was essentially hamstringing Quark at the start of his adulthood. Realizing that Quark's issue with his mother goes deeper than simple jealousy that his brother got the fancier toy certainly casts a new light on Quark's maternal issues.

** There's also the possibility that the cloaking device is more of an open secret, like Israel's nuclear program. The other powers know the ship has it, but it's ok because it's "only for use in the gama quadrant".

* In "Sacrifice of Angels", when Sisko is about to [[spoiler:Engage the Dominion Fleet in the wormhole, the Prophets give him a vision to stop him.]] Sisko's life is referred to as "The Game", which seems to imply that The Prophets consider him somewhat akin to a distraction, until you remember that Sisko initially explained linear time as being like a game of baseball

** There are a ''lot'' of factors that had to come together at the exact right (or rather wrong) moment for Jadzia to die the way she did. Dukat's VillainousBreakdown (or lack thereof) notwithstanding, killing Jadzia was never his objective; he was in after the Orb, and she just happened to be in the way. Alternate timeline Jadzia wasn't even ''on'' the station at the point in time where she died in the main timeline, since Starfleet had lost the station in the wake of Sisko's death; even if Dukat went after the Orb in this timeline too (and it seems unlikely), Jadzia simply wasn't there to be killed in the process.

*** In that context it doubles as a NotSoDifferent moment: Despite both being paranoid ultra-survivors, Garak and Dukat were both blindsided because the betrayal came from someone they loved. Which was exactly the case with Caesar, except that Garak didn't have the empathy or experience (of being betrayed by a loved one) to see it from Caesar's perspective.

** Bashir's secret may also factor into why he became friends with Garak, who is in many ways his polar opposite. At some point, he must have realized that Garak's evasiveness about his past makes him NotSoDifferent from Bashir, as they both spend a lot of time hiding the truth about themselves.

* "Past Tense" - Little wonder both Dax and Bashir were able to play their roles so well in the heavily class-stratified Earth. Bashir is a de facto exile, having to live a lie and stay quiet about what he really is ''all the time.'' And why was Jadzia Dax able to play the part of an upper-class human? Think about what we learn about Trill society being just as nastily stratified along the lines of Joined and Unjoined. As a Joined, she is already an upper-crust member of her society, and Sanctuary District Earth is unfortunately NotSoDifferent from the Trill homeworld.

*** When the comment is made, Jadzia had been joined for 7 years. Factoring for just the remaining five hosts, even if ''Dax'' was also 20 at the time of first joining (it's never explained how that works), that's still an average lifespan of over 65 years ''post-joining'' for those five.
*** We know they complete the training to become eligible for joining at 20, and then have to wait for a symbiote to become available. We also know the trille value the symbiotes life over the hosts and will very happily die to save the host. So if we go with the 65-year average age that puts everyone well at 85 minimum and probably into their 90s. As they get old, knowing they will live on in the host, its probably not a tough decision to pass on the symbiote while they are still strong enough to ensure it will survive the operation.

* The entire concept of Bashir being genetically engineered is this when you consider that it was something the writers of "Dr. Bashir, I Presume" came up with at the last minute; it wasn't even in the first draft of their script for the episode. Out of pretty much nowehere, they came up with a backstory that fit so perfectly that it seemes like it was being intentionally {{foreshadow|ing}}ed all along.
** One example is as early as season 2 episode 11 "Rivals" where he casually reveals to O'Brien that he once faced a Vulcan in a Racquetball final - and won. Keep in mind Vulcans are at least three times as strong and fast as a human and suddenly that excuse that he more or less had a lucky shot suddenly seems ever so slightly suspect.
*** In the same episode, O'Brien spends a lot of time complaining that he's slower and tires more easily than Bashir when they play sports together. Keiko chalks it up to getting older, but Dax points out that O'Brien is only about 38 years old. Perhaps the real reason is Bashir's enhanced stamina; O'Brien may still be perfectly fit.

** There's another hint in "Our Man Bashir" when Julian shoots Garak in the neck. He implies that he was really trying to kill Garak and that his aim was off - giving Garak the confidence that Julian has the willpower to make the hard call for survival if it is necessary - but knowing that his hand-eye coordination is insanely enhanced [[spoiler:due to being an Augment]], it turns out he was bluffing the entire time.
*** Besides the ImprobableAimingSkills, there are also other hints in that episode. Julian knocks a huge assassin off his feet during a fight, shoots a guy with a champagne cork, can pass as an expert geologist, which all things found in Bond parodies. I give full credit to ''Website/SFDebris'' here for this observation: How much of this is part of the program and how much is just [[spoiler: Bashir being himself]]?
*** On the same note, a program where Bashir plays a [[TheAce hilariously OP]] superspy might be one of the few times he can indulge himself with his Augment abilities and not hold back.