History Fridge / StarTrekDeepSpaceNine

*** This also jives very well with both the Female Shapeshifter's description of individuality for Changelings ("drop becomes the ocean, ocean becomes the drop" and "How do you differentiate yourself? I don't".) and what happened to Odo vis-a-vis the young changeling. After that moment Odo was an entirely different Changeling! He kept his memories, personality, etc. by virtue of being a solid at the time, but in effect, he was totally different "Changeling genetic material" after that point. So any failsafes to "protect Odo" from the virus no longer applied.

* In "Destiny", a Cardassian scientist reveals to Chief O'Brien that when a Cardassian acts irritably, it can be a sign that they want to pursue a physical relationship. Now consider Kira Nerys' attitude towards Dukat - on many occasions, when they are forced to interact, Kira is abrasive, sarcastic, and hostile. One of the many reasons that Dukat is convinced that Kira wants to be with him might be that from his perspective, she's flirting with him, and playing very hard to get.

* Odo's [[BigDamnHeroes Big Damn Heroes]] moment in [[Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS06E06SacrificeOfAngels Sacrifice of Angels]] stops being a Crowning Moment of Awesome when you realize that, as a Founder, he could have simply ordered the Jem'hadar to stop shooting and lay down on the floor. Did he ''want'' to murder them all?

* A bit of meta: in one episode, a Bajoran musician has a holo-recording of himself playing a "traditional" Bajoran folk tune. It's just the Deep Space Nine theme music recycled for the scene. Then it hit me. The theme ''would'' be a traditional "Bajoran" piece. Sisko is the emissary and he became a part of their spiritual life, so of course his leitmotif would be a traditional Bajoran song!

* 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 Latinum tooth sharpener, while Quark had a simple wooden chew stick. 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.

*** That would make sense if it was real, but since it is actually a simulation, it's more likely that it ''was'' drawn from the Earth version -- none of the principal characters know Ferengi history well enough to actually draw something that specific from that.

* ''Homefront'': in the scene where [[spoiler:Odo discovers a changeling posing as admiral Leyton]], the scene starts with Odo landing on a rock in the form of a seagull and shapeshifting into his humanoid form. Commander Benteen comments that while not being able to mimic a humanoid [[spoiler:(a Bajoran, Dr. Mora to be exact)]], Odo made a convincing seagull, to which Odo replies "I'm not sure the gulls would agree" and this is where a minor fridge logic sets in: this underlines that Odo is bad at shape-shifting! He can not convince the seagulls that he is one of them any more than he can convince us (humanoids) that he is one of us.

* In both the series premiere and the Season 2 opener, O'Brien makes reference to how Cardassians treat their prisoners, but it's quite . Some of this might be from his experiences during the war, but also consider: the [=DS9=] series premiere takes place just ''days'' after the TNG episode "Chain of Command"[[note]]the given stardates for each episode actually place "Emissary" only a week after Picard is first captured, which is pretty much impossibly tight given that the ''Enterprise'' is said to have been at Deep Space Nine for two days already at the start of "Emissary", but one can assume it's close even if the dates don't quite make sense[[/note]]. One of O'Brien's last experiences on the ''Enterprise'' had been seeing one of the people he respects most in the world horribly tortured by the Cardassians. No wonder he's so upset at even the suggestion.

** In the Next Generation crossover episode, "Birthright, Part 1", Bashir is fascinated with Commander Data. Ultimately it is not Data's extraordinary abilities that impress him the most, but the modifications that make him seem more human, and how personable he is. Bashir sees Data as [[spoiler:an equal - one "engineered" by his parents with superior qualities who seeks to emulate regular humans to fit in.]]

** In "Our Man Bashir," 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 good [[spoiler:due to being an Augment]], it turns out he was bluffing the entire time. Julian also 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. How much of this is part of the program and how much is just [[spoiler: Bashir being himself]]? A program where Bashir plays a [[TheAce hilariously OP]] superspy might be one of the few times he can [[spoiler:indulge himself with his Augment abilities and not hold back.]]
** 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 not so different from Bashir, as they both spend a lot of time hiding the truth about themselves.

** Admiral Leyton seems like an InsaneAdmiral, the Vulcan SerialKiller in ''Field of Fire'' out of left field, Section 31 a StateSec turned up to eleven. But think about it: Starfleet was a "peaceful exploration" corps that was tested 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]].

** Discussed by Bashir and Jack. Jack (who is impatient and aggressive) rambles on that normal people are afraid augments would try to take over. Bashir reminds him "we did try to take over." Jack treats it like a Godwin's Law reference.

** It's worse. The Dominion is infamous for genetic manipulation, giving their Jem'hadar cloaking abilities, creating Vorta with telekinetic powers, and altering their own people on molecular levels (Odo being turned solid). So why did they keep Julian? He's an [[{{Designer Babies}} augment]]. He's significantly smarter and has better hand-eye coordination than most humans, and as the show repeatedly gets across, compared to other augments from centuries ago, he's '''underpowered'''. Of course the Founders would recognize and try to capitalize on that.

* 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 seems like it was being intentionally {{foreshadow|ing}}ed all along.
** In "Rivals," 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.
** Also, in the Mirror Universe, he dresses and acts more like Khan than Bashir. There were a few mirror episodes before the one that revealed he was genetically modified.
** "Distant Voices" establishes that Bashir intentionally made the "mistake" that cost him the top spot in his class. At the time, it doesn't make a lot of sense, especially given that just a few episodes later, he tells Dax that he practically developed an inferiority complex over coming in second. But it makes perfect sense when you realize what he had to lose if he was found out. He inserted a mistake because he was afraid he'd draw attention to himself if he seemed too perfect.
** In "Our Man Bashir," 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. Julian also 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. How much of this is part of the program and how much is just [[spoiler: Bashir being himself]]? 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.

** In "Prophet Motive", 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, leading to his dismissal from Starfleet Medical (and probably the revocation of the Carrington Award entirely). 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, "Birthright, Part 1", Bashir is fascinated with Commander Data. Ultimately it is not Data's extraordinary abilities that impress him the most, but 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.
** One episode involves O'Brien being very good at darts, and described as being "in the zone". At the end of the episode, Bashir gets a bullseye and O'Brien says, "Welcome to the zone", whereupon Bashir looks awkward. Maybe he forgot to throw the game?
* The Monac IV shipyards were in quite a strange location, so close to a star. It seemed dangerous, given the chance of a solar eruption... And then I realized: cloaked ships are ''unshielded'', and thus unable to come close enough to the shipyards placed near the star and blow them up, while solar flares, on the other hand, could be seen forming, and the slipways could be moved out of their path. Until O'Brien figured out how to cause artificial solar flares, that position was the best defense against both Klingon and Romulan raiders.

** 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 tested 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]].

* In ''Far Beyond The Stars'', where each character from the series has a corresponding character from 1950s America, it is Quark (The Ferengi and therefore ultimate capitalist)'s counterpart that gets mightily offended at the accusation of being a communist.

* The entire series, from beginning to end, is about the conflict between Sisko and Dukat. First, both characters make their debut in the first episode, where Dukat was the former commander of the station and Sisko is the incoming commander. Both of them hold similar ranks throughout the series: Sisko starts out as a commander who is promoted to captain, while Dukat (even when he is running Cardassia), retains the rank of Gul (stated in the TNG episode "The Wounded" to be equivalent to Captain) through the entire series (with a brief stint as Legate). Both Dukat and Sisko are family men who are devoted to their children, and we see Jake and (to a lesser extent) Ziyal on screen. Now, the differences that divide the two: Sisko serves the Federation, a free, peaceful society while Dukat serves the oppressive, warlike Cardassian regime. Whereas Sisko sees his task as overseeing the reconstruction of Bajor in the hope that they will take their place as an equal member of the Federation, Dukat, in "Indiscretion" and "Waltz", deluded himself into thinking that he would improve the lot of the Bajorans, but refused to respect them as equals and became their greatest oppressor. It should be noted that, of the ten million people who died in the fifty-year Occupation (cf. "Cardassians"), half of them did so during the ten years Dukat was in charge (cf. "Waltz"). The opposition becomes even more clear when Dukat leads Cardassia into the Dominion, which has been noted on this page, and confirmed by WordOfGod, to be the anti-Federation. Additionally, Sisko becomes the Emissary of Bajor, a role he endures reluctantly, at least until "Accession" when the Prophets teach him a lesson, showing how even a well-meaning alternative could prove disastrous to Bajor. Gul Dukat, on the other hand, evinces messianic delusions throughout the series, particularly in his conversations with Kira in "Indiscretion" and with Sisko in "Waltz". After the latter episode, Dukat joins the Pah Wraths, eventually becoming ''their'' Emissary to reinforce his position as Sisko's equal and opposite counterpart. In a conversation in "Ties of Blood and Water", Dukat indicates that, despite being the ruler of Cardassia, he has retained the title Gul rather than a pretentious title such as Emissary. Here, we see that he is the inverse of Sisko: whereas Dukat has a modest title, he pursues absolute power, sees himself in messianic terms, and craves adoration; Sisko, meanwhile, despite his exalted title, has the comparatively modest ambition of the admiralty, sees himself only as a very good Starfleet officer, and is uncomfortable with the reverence and adoration the Bajorans give him. Another example of their differences is found in the Season 4 episode "To the Death", when Weyoun offers Sisko a chance to be absolute ruler of the Federation, answerable to no one. Sisko, of course, declines, but this is a foreshadowing of the offer that Dukat will accept, to become the absolute ruler of Cardassia under the Dominion. The episode "Covenant" brings the point home. In this episode, Dukat has taken over Empok Nor, a Cardassian space station in Dominion space which is almost the twin of Deep Space Nine (Formerly Terok Nor). Here, parodying Sisko's role as commander of [[=DS9=]] and Emissary, he has set himself up as the Emissary of the Cult of the Pagh Wraiths, surrounded by devoted Bajorans, including one of Kira's former teachers. As leader of the cult, he has even arrogated to himself the power to determine whether couples are allowed to have sex and have children, in a parody of Sisko's duty as Emissary (seen in "Accession" and "Call to Arms"), which includes blessing marriages and performing wedding ceremonies. The end of the episode, in which Dukat is prepared to sacrifice the cultists to save himself, prefigures and inverts the end of the series, in which Sisko sacrifices himself to save Bajor from the Pah Wraiths.

* 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 their belief 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.

* On one occasion, in the episode "In The Cards," Kai Winn and Weyoun meet and interact. Weyoun comments about how he believes that he feels they are so much alike. Winn proceeds to touch his earlobe (the Bajoran way of sensing one's pagh, or spirit), then says that they are nothing alike. She's right, but not in the way that you think - he's a true believer in the Founders, his Gods. Winn, however, turns her back on the Prophets come the final season, siding with the Pai-Wraiths. He is a true believer, and she is a heretic.

** Discussed by Bashir and Jack. Jack (who is impatient and aggressive) rambles on that normal people are afraid augments would try to take over. Bashir reminds him "we did try to take over." Jack treated it like a Godwin's Law reference.

* In ''Dramatis Personae'', the crew gets affected by a telepathic HatePlague that turns them into a bunch of paranoiacs. Odo isn't affected because his brain is distributed, rather than centralized. Dax ''is'' affected, but instead of being paranoid, she acts [[IntoxicationEnsues stoned]], telling rambling stories and forgetting things. Why was it different for her? Because a joined Trill, between the host and symbionts, has ''two brains!'' That probably threw the effects off kilter.

* The Founders appear to be callous and uncaring towards the Vorta, uncaring if they die and killing them for their failures, but considering what we hear from the Weyoun that defects to Odo and some comments by the female Founder and I realized that the Founders view assuming a new form to grant them new insight so by killing a Vorta they're actually helping that Vorta gain a new perspective that may aid it where the previous version failed. After all, why continue to clone servants you have no personal investment in who keep failing you unless you really do care and don't view death as that big a deal?

* In "Duet" [[spoiler: Maritza seems to be doing a fairly typical EvilIsHammy act, playing the CardCarryingVillain in order to make his perfidy too obvious to be ignored. The horror comes when you realize that he's pretending to be someone he actually KNEW, and who was (albeit distantly) his commanding officer. And that behavior would not only not be frowned on for a Cardassian officer, it would be ''encouraged''. So there's a good possibility that the real Gul Darheel was ''exactly'' as horrible as Maritza portrayed him.]]

* When you think about it, the fact that we learn in ''Profit and Lace'' that in the 24th century you can give someone a sex change in a day and apparantly without any kind of transition period is probably the in-universe reason why we have never had an openly transgender character in Trek. You can be anything you want to be, and given the Federation's liberal ideals, probably without any judgement at all to the point that no one feels the ''need'' to draw any attention to it. This is also a good explenation for the lack of other LGBT characters too. They're there, they are just now so completely accepted that you no longer need to wave a flag. Its just that our principal leads who get 99% of the screen time just happen to be hetero.

* In "The Search", Quark (or rather, a holographic recreation of Quark) blatantly rips off Martin Luther King Jr. ("You see, I have a dream that one day all people, human, Jem'Hadar, Ferengi, Cardassians, will stand together in peace -- around my dabo tables"), and while it's in character for Quark to mangle a phrase like that, it seems a bit far-fetched that he would know the original at all, given that he has little knowledge of or interest in human history. But the simulation is being fed by the crew's minds, and ''Sisko'' does have an interest in human history and Black history in particular. The simulation drew on Sisko's memories and knowledge for that moment.

* In The first season episode "The Nagus", Quark, a mere bar owner on a space station was named the Grand Nagus' pick to replace him. This resulted in the Nagus' own son to plot to kill Quark after he took the role. Now imagine what Rom had to go through when he was named Grand Nagus in the final season's "The Dogs of War". Rom was also a nobody, didn't have the lobes for profit, and who was the employee of his brother in a bar (though to be fair, he was also by this point the step-son of the Grand Nagus) and he was named to make massive economic and societal changes in ferengi culture. This troper assumes his life was constantly at risk.

*** Actually, we know for a fact that they do. Various Bajorans are shown having radically different interpretations over the Prophets, their motives, and their interpreted responses to current events. Differing interpretations over the same religious texts is what separates Catholics and Protestants (as an exmaple) out here in the real world.

** Obviously that doesn't mean they don't follow the religion of the Prophets, not every religious person will flaunt their religion. But the lack of earrings and Prophet mentions cff Bajor certainly opens the door to a lot of other possibilities.