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1[[AC:FridgeBrilliance]]
2* 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]].
3* The Jem'Hadar are considered expendable, and cannot understand why the Federation dismisses the idea of expendability. The Jem'Hadar consider Sisko cowardly for not executing Worf for disobedience. However, the Jem'Hadar are lucky to make it to 20- they're combat ready soon after birth- replacing one is simple. There's no fanfare in creating Jem'Hadar, they are merely cloned. However, other solids take years to reach any kind of expertise. Even if they shared Jem'Hadar outlook, it would still be impractical to execute someone over a mistake- that's 30 years of training, down the drain rather than 1, perhaps 70 to 100 years of contribution ended by their death, rather than 10 to 20.
4** In the episode in question Sisko questions a Jem'Hadar unit leader's devotion to his men, given his willingness to kill one for a breach of discipline, and the offended leader replies he had served with this second for three years. Long enough in any context, but when you take relative lifespan into account Jem'Hadar serving together for three years is like humans serving together for a decade - much more meaningful.
5** This difference in time investment also likely explains why they bother to clone and transfer memories to Vorta instead of just cloning tons of them like the Jem'Hadar - the Vorta likely take longer to train. You get your diplomat Vorta all oiled up for negotiations, your doctor Vorta all trained for medicine and research, or whatever other training they require depending on their purpose, and the cloning and memory transfer allows you to skip that step in the next incarnation.
6* In "[[Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS06E06SacrificeOfAngels 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.
7* WordOfGod says that although the Federation was not aware of the existence of the Dominion until after the discovery of the Worm Hole, the Dominion was aware of the Federation and the rest of the Alpha Quadrant civilizations long beforehand, and were planning how to handle them when they inevitably reached the Gamma Quadrant in two hundred years. The Federation's discovery of the Worm Hole forced the Founders to put their contingency plans into action ahead of schedule, throwing them off their game. This turns into FridgeHorror when one considers that they still came damn close to winning the war with the Alpha Quadrant powers. Had they fought the war on their own terms and time table, it seems questionable if the Founders would have lost the war.
8** They probably would have avoided the war altogether; their attempts to trick the Alpha Quadrant powers into destroying each other were only barely averted as it was, and that was because the hastily thrown together infiltration meant there were threads to spot.
9** The Dominion war came before ''Voyager'' returned from the Delta Quadrant with weapons and defenses that made the Borg cry, a few years after that comes the red matter weaponry capable of creating black holes, and about a century after that comes the Federation timeships according to Berlinghoff Rasmussen in ''A Matter of Time''. Ironically, the Dominion waiting for 200 years may have been a huge mistake. The only remaining problem is the destruction of Romulus which potentially could weaken the combined Alpha Quadrant powers.
10** As seen during [[Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine the Dominion War,]] the Founders came [[NearVillainVictory close to winning the war.]] Even without relying on their main weapon of subterfuge and sabotage. Also seen on [[Series/StarTrekPicard Star Trek Picard]] there was no apparent evidence of future anti-borg or red matter technology in use by the Federation. Possibly the technology was deemed too dangerous to be used and was locked away as a precaution. In any case the Founders do not generally pit themselves against an opponent head on. Despite being able to do so quite efficiently. If they had gone with their original plan, armed with two hundred years of preparation. The Founders easily would have infiltrated an unsuspecting Alpha Quadrant and lay it to ruin by pitting [[CivilWar one power against another.]] The only reason the Federation had a chance initially is that their existence was exposed, leading them to improvise against an aware enemy before they were ready. Thanks to an [[OutsideContextProblem unexpected wormhole connecting the Dominion to the Alpha Quadrant before they were ready.]] As well as Odo's search for his people lead to the Federation not only becoming aware of the existence of the Founders, but also of their ‘’modus operandi’’. Allowing the Federation able to get ready for them. As for the Federation timeships as a form of defense. As seen in Star Trek Enterprise, [[TimeyWimeyBall time is fluid and in always in motion. ]] It is possible for the Founders to wipe [[Recap/StarTrekEnterpriseS01E26S02E01Shockwave the Federation from existence entirely. ]]
11* In an early episode, Garak is criticizing Shakespeare's Julius Caesar for being entirely too predictable and unrealistic, much to the annoyance of Bashir:
12-->'''Garak:''' "''I'' knew Brutus was going to kill Caesar ''in the first act!'' But Caesar didn't figure it out until the knife was in his back."
13-->'''Bashir:''' "But that's what makes it a tragedy. Caesar couldn't conceive that his best friend would plot to kill him."
14-->'''Garak:''' "'Tragedy' is not the word I'd use. 'Farce' would be more appropriate. Supposedly, this man is supposed to be a leader of a great empire, a brilliant military tactician and yet he can't see what's going on ''under his own nose!''"
15** In the next episode Garak's old mentor Enabrin Tain had no idea that [[spoiler: his [[TheDragon Dragon]] Colonel Lovok was a Changeling spy]] until it was much too late.
16** Garak himself didn't realize the person trying to kill him was Tain until Tain told him.
17** He pretty much acknowledges Shakespeare had it right when he recites a line from him later and tells Tain this was something he picked up from Bashir.
18*** In the following episode, a replacement for the runabout that was destroyed is dropped off at the station. [[HistoricalInJoke Its name]]? USS ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caesar%27s_Civil_War#Crossing_the_Rubicon Rubicon]]''.
19** Then, ''many'' episodes later, [[spoiler: Gul Dukat's daughter, Ziyal, helps free LaResistance, who then disable the station's weapons array which allows Sisko to retake the station. Her betrayal of her father had been a long time coming and Dukat had been warned repeatedly in the episodes before then, but he refused to believe it until it was far too late and the damage had already been done.]] It should be noted that Garak and Dukat are sworn enemies.
20*** In that context it doubles as a moment of similarity: 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.
21* Speaking of Ziyal, why does Garak, who's usually a pretty distant person, bond with Ziyal so easily? It's not just, as he claims, because he's lonely and she's the only other Cardassian on the station; it's that he identifies with Ziyal because, unbeknownst to anyone else at this point, he's also the illegitimate child of a powerful Cardassian officer.
22* "In The Pale Moonlight" yields one more level of ingenuity to Garak and Sisko's scheme to bring the Romulans into the war against the Dominion. Sisko started off wanting to get the Romulans to see that taking on the Dominion was in their own best interest, as the Dominion was sure to conquer them next once the Klingons and Federation were overthrown. In the end, not only did he and Garak successfully bring them into the war, but they got the Romulans to perceive that the Dominion surely would target them for takeover sooner or later. Moreover, once the Romulans attacked the Dominion, they were committed to the war: even if they did find out about the deception later, they wouldn't exactly be in any position to apologize and ask the Dominion if they could get their non-aggression pact reinstated, would they?
23* 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 Changeling 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?
24** The only evidence we have about their attitude toward the Vorta in the first place is the Female Changeling's comments when either Weyoun was disrespecting Odo or the war was going very badly. That and their attitude toward solids in general, in which comments they never make it a point to exclude Vorta and Jem'Hadar, except that the Female Changeling interestingly referred to Weyoun specifically as the only solid she's ever trusted. But of course, trust is not the same as respect or caring. But in any case, their habit of cloning the Vorta, and giving the new ones the memories of the old, could be due to any combination of concern for their development and for their services to the Dominion.
25** In some ways, what we know about the Founders' relationship with the Vorta actually serves as an example of how the Dominion is basically the opposite of the Federation. Whereas the Federation has certain standards of moral development other species and civilizations have to meet before they can be allowed to join, it never imposes these on any of its members by force. With the Vorta, however, we get to see how the Dominion insists on shaping and manipulating all of its members to serve its purposes. From Weyoun 6 (the defector), we learn that the Vorta being genetically manipulated to be the Dominion's managerial species is actually the Dominion's ''reward'' to them for having hidden and protected one of the Founders from enemies long ago. In other words, the Dominion's idea of kindness to a species is the direct opposite of the Federation's Prime Directive; do the Dominion a favor, and the Founders will perfect your species by any means available, including genetic manipulation.
26** The Founders don't care about the Vorta, but rather what they Vorta can do for the Founders. Cloning a new one with the old one's memories just makes them better servants. You don't get to live to learn from your mistakes, but the next generation might.
27* In both the series premiere and the Season 2 opener, O'Brien makes reference to how Cardassians treat their prisoners. 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.
28* 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 symbiont, has ''two brains!'' That probably threw the effects off kilter.
29** I took it be that they were playing the roles of some previous power struggle, and Dax just got saddled with someone completely oblivious. After all, Sisko didn't become aggressive either, he just got AttentionDeficitOohShiny.
30** An alternate explanation is that Odo was unaffected because Paranoia is a default state of mind for him. He's suspicious of everyone already.
31** Dax actually seemed to me a bit like a stereotypical grandma: sweet as sugar, but tells long, irrelevant stories and forgets and repeats herself in conversation... which makes sense, because Dax the symbiote is a couple hundred years old.
32* The Loves of Quark. He claims to hold traditional Ferengi values of gender and stuff, but none of the women he has fallen in love matches the ideal of a Ferengi Female. Dax; Grilka, the Klingon woman; Natima Lang, the Cardassian dissident; and Pel, Quark's only Ferengi love interest; are all strong, independent women. Similar to his mother, one might say
33** Quark and Rom also demonstrate that in one way or another, they've each inherited the opposite traits from their parents: Quark inherited his father's values and mother's business sense, while Rom inherited his mother's values and father's business sense. That's why Quark is generally the more financially successful of the two, while Rom ultimately proves to be more politically successful; Quark has mastered the Ferengi tradition which has worked well for them for centuries, while Rom with his quirky point of view has a rare talent for social and political innovation.
34* In "Trials and Tribble-ations," the Defiant crew is taken back in time to Kirk's time period. Odo, Worf, O'Brien, and Bashir witness Scotty starting a brawl with a Klingon captain after the captain insults the ''Enterprise''. Worf and O'Brien immediately start fighting the Klingons. Why? They also served on the ''Enterprise.''
35* In "For the Cause" Eddington compares the Federation to the Borg to Sisko's face (okay via communicator but still...). Cue "For the Uniform": Eddington has been playing with Sisko, taunting him. The man compared the Federation and the Treaty with Cardassia to the alien menace that didn't even let Sisko give his wife a proper funeral. The Sisko is '''pissed.'''
36** Speaking of Eddington, why did Sisko take the whole thing so personally? Because he forgave an earlier betrayal by Eddington, when Eddington sabotaged the ''Defiant'' in "The Die Is Cast" (this time under orders from Starfleet). When Eddington betrays him ''again'', in a far more personal way, it's that much more of a blow because he had already given Eddington a second chance once. What's more, after the first betrayal, Sisko specifically told Eddington, "I make it a policy to never question the word of anyone who wears that uniform. Don't make me change that policy." Eddington's second betrayal contained the one critical element the first one hadn't; he directly lied to Sisko.
37** Also in "For the Uniform", how was Eddington able to easily plant a cascade virus to disable the Defiant, with similar viruses hidden in [=DS9=]? In "Our Man Bashir", he had to erase the memory banks of the station and the Defiant to store the transporter patterns of five crew members. This allows him access during the memory restoration.
38** You know what also doesn't help Eddington's case and gets Sisko so specifically pissed at him? The Borg killed Jennifer... and then at this point, Sisko also believes that the Maquis have cost him Kasidy, because of her smuggling them humanitarian aid - Sisko had to leave her behind to get back to the station, which means that he expects to never see the Xhosa and her crew again. Which means that Eddington bringing up the Borg to Sisko only compares the organization who has taken his current love to the invader who took his first in Sisko's mind.
39* In the episode where Worf [[spoiler:kills Gowron]], the Klingons are meeting in a conference room on the station. Then they grab ''bat'leth''s 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.
40** It should also be noted that [[spoiler:Gowron]] came to power because Worf killed his rival Duras in the TNG episode "Reunion". So Worf was directly responsible for [[spoiler:Gowron]]'s rise and fall.
41** And on that note, why does Worf immediately abdicate the Chancellorship in favor of Martok? Aside from the respect he obviously has for his [[SwornBrothers 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.
42** There's also what happened at the beginning of Gowron's rule. Gowron was an outsider, and thus not fully trusted, a fact which nearly allowed the Duras sisters to plunge the Klingon Empire into civil war. Worf is even more of an outsider than Gowron was, so he's likely to face the same type of distrust. Given that they're in the middle of a war, they can't afford that kind of distraction, and Worf knows it, so he hands it off to Martok, probably the most popular man in the Empire at the moment.
43** Bear in mind also, Worf was raised by Humans and suffered discommendation. His qualifications for Chancellorship would be in serious question. It's also possible Worf realizes Martok's reputation is unimpeachable. It's very possible he realizes Martok is just the better leader. (Or the writers don't want to lose Worf as a member of the cast.)
44* 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 [[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]].
45* Julian Bashir's best friend back home is a holoprogrammer named Felix. Felix created a program for Bashir based on the story of James Bond, whose best (only?) friend is also named Felix (Leiter).
46* Odo has a strained relationship with Dr. Mora, the man who...well, not raised him, so much as experimented 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.
47** In the first season episode with Lwaxana Troi, Odo tells her that he modeled his appearance on Dr Mora.
48* In the pilot, it's obvious that Sisko is still very badly affected by his wife's death, years after she's died. The wound is still very fresh, and very raw, as his conversation with Picard and his experience with the Prophets attests, more so than it might be for some. It's stated in Star Trek, from time to time (though the degree to which it's applied tends to vary on the show in question), that in the future, humans don't grieve when their loved ones die. This would imply that, among humans, not showing excessive grief (excessive being a relative term) at the death of a loved one is the norm in social behavior, which would also imply that showing "excessive" grief isn't considered normal, or socially acceptable. Perhaps that's why Sisko still has such a hard time with Jennifer's death years later, despite the fact that he has access to counseling and seems to otherwise have moved on with his life--he really doesn't have a healthy outlet for his grief.
49** It may have also had to do with the circumstances; he didn't have a chance to fully process her death because he had to run for his life. The moment with the Prophets gives him the thing he was denied in real life: a chance to actually absorb and feel the magnitude of what had just happened.
50* In "Babel", Odo figures out Quark is up to something because he lies about Rom fixing the replicator, when Rom "couldn't repair a straw if it were bent", but later episodes establish that Rom is actually a gifted engineer. It seems like a ContinuitySnarl, but consider that Odo has only ever observed Rom around Quark. Rom is intimidated by Quark, and this lack of self-confidence means he comes off as incompetent and stupid. Maybe Odo just drew the right conclusion for the wrong reason.
51** It also makes more sense this way from another angle. Even caught off guard the way he was, Quark is too smart to tell such an obvious lie. But if Quark knew that Rom ''was'' capable of fixing the replicator, then he didn't think the lie was obvious. (Unfortunately, he didn't count on Odo's ''perception'' of Rom's abilities.)
52* In "Statistical Probabilities" the crew make a big deal over the reason that Augments aren't allowed to work freely in society in a productive manner is because it would be unfair to everyone else and parents would feel pressured to upgrade their children so they could compete. Odo even cites this as the reason why the law against [=DNA=]-resequencing was put in place in the first place. However, a quick look at the issue makes it obvious that with a harsh penalty for the parents if they do perform genetic upgrades on the child, and the child being labeled a genetic augment - and hence being made an intellectual outcast by nature and not allowed to compete in straight-up competitions - would be enough to deter that sort of behavior. No, the ''real'' reason why the law's in place is to prevent new superhuman supervillains like Kahn trying to take over. However, by having people concerned with the philosophical debate of whether it is fair or not to allow genetic augments to be productive members of society, no one is discussing the real threat of Augments - and the real reason why they aren't allowed positions of power or authority - and so anyone who ''is'' thinking of genetically engineering their child would be encouraged to think about making their child more intelligent so they can have an advantage over other children and get jobs and positions in society that are competitively vied over, rather than engineering their child to become the next Kahn.
53** Discussed by Bashir and Jack. Jack (who is impatient and aggressive) rambles on that normal people are afraid augments would try to take over. [[spoiler:Bashir reminds him "we did try to take over."]] Jack treats it like a Godwin's Law reference.
54** It also makes sense from a different angle. By imposing conseuqences on the child, it acts as a disincentive to parents from having their child genetically engineered. If the consequence was only towards the parent, a lot more parents would probably take that risk if it meant giving the child a better life, but a lot fewer are going to take that risk if the consequence would also pretty well negate the benefit to the child. There will, of course, still be ''some'', like Bashir's parents, who gamble on the hope that they won't be found out, but it's almost certainly a smaller number, and would probably be limited mostly to children who have significant disabilities, as Bashir did; it would be a ''huge'' gamble for parents of a typically-developing child to have their kid enhanced to give them an advantage if the discovery of said enhancement would negate that advantage anyway (which isn't to say there are ''no'' parents who would do it anyway, but probably a lot fewer).
55* Also from "Statistical Probabilities": Bashir predicts that the Romulans will vote to abandon their nonaggression pact with the Dominion at the next year's plenary session, and considers the likelihood of an anti-Dominion coup on Cardassia to be unlikely. He turns out to be wrong on both accounts: the Romulans do join the war earlier than expected, and as a response to the assassination of Senator Vreenak, and the Cardassian coup does indeed occur at the end of the war. Both of these events were precipitated by one agent acting out of character - Sisko and Damar - just like Sarina ended up doing.
56* In the episode ''Defiant'', Sisko's discussions with the Cardassians imply that the Defiant's use of a Romulan cloaking device is a heavily guarded secret. But in the same episode, the Maquis clearly chose the Defiant to steal ''because'' of the cloak. It seems odd that the Maquis would know, and even invokes the possibility that [[FridgeHorror Command itself might be compromised]]...until you realize:[[spoiler: which security officer was brought aboard ''specifically'' to protect the cloaking device?]]. Just how long was [[spoiler:Eddington]] in league with the Maquis, anyway?
57** Also, the Defiant's cloaking device was supposed to be secret from the Cardassians as well--Gul Dukat at least was shocked when Sisko admitted it. But the Obsidian Order observer already knew... because the cloaking device was on loan from the Romulans, and the Romulan Tal Shiar was already in league with the Obsidian Order.
58** 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 Gamma quadrant".
59* Sisko is the only Trek captain across the entire franchise to punch Q's lights out. Q avoids [=DS9=] from that point on. As of that episode, we don't know that Sisko [[spoiler: is the progeny of one of the Prophets]]; he's just a Starfleet captain--a badass by any reasonable measure but not to the level of physically assaulting an omnipotent being and getting away with it. His status as Emissary derives from the Prophets communicating with him, but doesn't confer any special powers beyond political and religious clout amongst the Bajorans. [[spoiler: At least, not yet. Perhaps Q knew of Sisko's true relationship to the Prophets--who certainly would be in the same league as Q, or close to it--before Sisko himself did?]]
60** I always took it as more of Sisko not playing the games Q likes to play and therefore being no fun.
61** Why not both? Q is TheGadfly and SufficientlyAdvancedAlien - he may have looked into why Sisko is "no fun" and had an OhCrap moment.
62** And that's why a turf war between the Q Continuum and the Prophets has never happened, as it would spell total annihilation for all beings. Not just linear beings, ALL beings period. Perhaps that's for a good thing...
63* In "Soldiers of the Empire", the writers and JG Hertzler do a good job of tracking Martok's process of [[HesBack getting his groove back]]. Listen to the ways he concludes his orders to the ''Rotarran'''s helmsman. The first time, he gives a desultory "''mak'cha''", which probably means "Forward", "Advance", or something else [[ProudWarriorRaceGuy suitably martial]]. The second time, when he's at the nadir of his HeroicBSOD, he uses the neutral (and English) "Engage". The third time, after he beats Worf and goes forth to kick ass, he uses an enthusiastic "''mak'cha''!", and looks ready to throw down again. Very subtle, and very good.
64* In "The Emperor's New Cloak," a mirror Vic Fontaine appears, and he's actually human instead of a hologram. In the prime universe, it could be that there's a human singer named Vic Fontaine, and Felix used his likeness for the holoprogram.
65** It's also possible, considering the ContinuitySnarl in that episode (Klingons in the MirrorUniverse had perfectly good cloaking devices in earlier episodes) that Vic was based on an actual Vic Fontaine from back in the 1930s, and that he was brought forward through time by some of the Terran rebellion's temporal manipulations in their efforts to cripple the Klingon & Cardassian Alliance.
66** Another possibility is that the mirror Vic was not human at all, but an android. We don't clearly see any blood when he's shot, just smoke rising from the wound. Perhaps mirror Felix is a cyberneticist instead of a holoprogrammer.
67** Or perhaps Mirror Vic is a clone or an Augment of some kind.
68* ''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.
69* "Who Mourns For Morn?" brings out a minor, but clever example in explaining Morn's apparent OneHourWorkWeek. As Mark Allen Shepherd, who played Morn, pointed out in an interview, "No wonder I sit all day at Quark's and do nothing. [[IdleRich I'm rich!]]"
70* "Take Me Out To the Holosuite": It rather underlines Solok's racism that he comes from a 100% Vulcan ship and team. Despite all his taunts about "humans", Sisko's team has humans as the ''minority.'' There's 5 humans - The Siskos, Yates, Bashir and O'Brien, but 7 nonhumans - Trill ("[[SugarWiki/FunnyMoments Did I forget to wear my spots today?]]"), 2 Bajorans, 3 Ferengi and a Klingon, 2 of whom are "first in Starfleet" for their respective races.
71** There's also the {{Irony}} that Solok's very-''not''-diverse team uses the [=IDIC=] (Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations) as their logo. Ten Vulcan males and one Vulcan female? Yeah ''really'' [[SarcasmMode diverse there]].
72** And yet Solok's team makes ''logical'' sense: on average males are physically stronger than females of equal level of fitness, it only makes sense that most of his team, drawn from a ship with an all-Vulcan crew, would contain mostly males, among the volunteers they're (physically) the best.
73* Hey, remember when the Female Changeling told Weyoun that getting Odo back to the Link was more important to her than the entire Alpha Quadrant? [[spoiler:She was being completely honest. Sure, she would have ''rather'' manipulated him into coming back while still conquering the place, but what happens in the end? She gives up on conquering the Alpha Quadrant and submits to their justice in exchange for Odo returning to the Link]].
74* Merriam-Webster's Dictionary defines [[http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/profit profit]] as "the advantage or benefit that is gained from doing something; a valuable return." Nog and Rom are the first Ferengi we see who understand that profit is more than latinum: it's also the respect of your peers, and friends who'll watch your back. Quark, meanwhile, is busting his lobes scheming and swindling, trying to live up to traditional Ferengi values and earn the respect of his fellow Ferengi businessmen, most of whom have nothing but contempt for a "loser" like Quark. Rom and Nog are ''smarter than Quark.''
75** Quark even gets taught an object lesson in profit as understood by Rom and Nog at the end of "Body Parts" when the Ferengi Commerce Authority takes away everything he owns...and the other members of the station crew rebuild his bar with donated fixtures and equipment.
76** This is also demonstrated in Nog's ChainOfDeals episodes ("In the Cards" and "Treachery, Faith, and the Great River"). He doesn't outright ''say'' it, but he clearly considers things like happiness, entertainment, and morale as a type of "profit" that can be valued and bartered like any other. Which also ties into how he becomes the first Federation Ferengi; in a post-scarcity world like most of the Federation, you can't make a profit selling material goods unless they're luxuries or illegal, but it ''is'' possible to carve out a niche as a dealer in ephemera, which requires a keen understanding of how people put value on intangible feelings and opportunities.
77*** Interestingly, Nog probably learned about this kind of "enlightened capitalism" from Jake. Their first attempt at financial enterprise started with getting their hands on a case of Yamok sauce and making a series of trades until they had a piece of Bajoran land. Nog was getting frustrated that they kept bartering instead of making a sale, but Jake assured him that everything has value to ''somebody'' - it's just a matter of figuring out who. By the end, they had both a tidy profit and a string of satisfied customers.
78* 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 earlobes (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.
79* Gul Dukat is an arrogant, selfish, self-righteous man who places his personal ambitions above Cardassia, and by doing so causes both Cardassia’s and his own destruction. Enabran Tain is an arrogant, selfish, self-righteous man who places his personal ambitions above Cardassia- and by doing so, causes the destruction of the Obsidian Order, which paves the way for Dukat’s own schemes. It’s interesting how Garak’s most hated enemy and Garak’s beloved mentor resemble each other so much, isn’t it?
80* In "Valiant," Red Squad is quickly shown as talented but inexperienced when they waste four torpedoes on a Dominion attack ship that was already exploding. Later in the episode they decide to take on the prototype Dominion battleship by using a special torpedo that will attack a specific weakness of the design, but when they fire it [[TheWorfBarrage the Dominion ship shrugs it off]]. There are three explanations for this: the Red Team either failed to properly put together the torpedo, the weakness wasn't actually a weakness (possibly because the design called for shielding it to work, and the designers, being experienced, did just that), or ''the battleship's shields were still up and blocked the attack''. Whatever happened, they failed because they were inexperienced, and anyone with some experience could have told them it was a bad idea... As Jake did (Nog was too busy gushing on the supposed elite cadets to think about it).
81** There's a fairly strong hint early on that their technical skills are subpar. This entire time they haven't been able to get warp drive online despite Nog being able to jury rig a fix within a few hours. They may be honor graduates but Red Squad is nowhere near knowledgeable enough to identify a structural weakness like that or exploit one if the opportunity presented itself.
82** And speaking of how cocky they are, their belief that they could pull off a stupid impossible stunt is Starfleet's fault, and not just because of whatever "best of the best" pep talks these kids probably got. It's because [[Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS04E11Homefront the last time]] [[Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS04E12ParadiseLost they pulled off a crazy stunt]], they had at least one InsaneAdmiral covering for them. No wonder it went to their heads.
83** It's also just possible that the writers, always ready to take a subversive jab at TNG, nastily sentenced Red Squad to death for the crime of ''not being a Star Trek series' main cast''. "Valiant" can be seen as lampshading the absurd regularity with which [[AppliedPhlebotinum Magic Technobabble]] miracles save the day for the ''Enterprise'' (and even more egregiously, the ''Voyager'') by illustrating that a MillionToOneChance actually fails 99.9999% of the time for crews unblessed by the UnspokenPlanGuarantee of a multi-season contract.
84*** Alternatively, this discrepancy shows that a lot of the seemingly-incredible luck that the TNG crew experienced in those situations is in large part the result of skill and experience with just a little luck for good measure. It's just like a lot of things in the real world: an expert can make a difficult thing look easy, but if a relative novice tries to imitate what they saw the expert do, they'll quickly realize it's not easy at all. Red Squad assumed they could do the things that the full-fledged ships with experienced officers (like the ''Enterprise'') were doing because the part that was visible to them ''seemed'' easy, completely failing to recognize all the pieces that actually went into those ships' success.
85** It could also be a TakeThat to ''Franchise/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".
86* Lieutenant Primmin is assigned to [=DS9=] in Season 1 to be in charge of the Starfleet Security detachment, giving Starfleet someone who will answer directly to them and going above Odo's head since they don't entirely trust him. However, he disappears after "Move Along Home." Why? Because Starfleet realized he was immensely stupid. His reaction to none of the senior staff showing up in Ops the next day was to laugh it off, thinking they were all hungover without even bothering to check the computer. When Sisko filed his report on the incident, along with Odo's lengthy report on Primmin's actions, Starfleet decided to take him off and shipped him to another distant sector where he could do less damage.
87* Captain Sisko, at the end of the last episode of ''Deep Space Nine'', [[spoiler: left his treasured baseball in his old office at the station. He never leaves the station permanently unless he takes his baseball with him. Oh yeah. He'll be back someday. ;)]]
88* "In the Hands of the Prophets" was always {{Anvilicious}}. What made it anvilicious most of all was that the religious zealot (Winn) almost immediately [[JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope jumped to terrorism]] to solve the problem. This became brilliant when I realized something: it's really just the hammer and nail problem. For 50 years, the Bajorans had been solving ''all'' of their problems with terrorism; that's all entire generations of them ''knew''. And it ''worked''; the Cardassians left. So peace breaks out, and how do they propose to fix a relatively minor dispute? Terrorism. It also explains why the coup attempt seems to come at the end of the season seemed to come off so well. - Tropers/{{Korval}}
89* You don't really need the apocrypha of ''[[Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine Deep Space Nine]]'' to know that Mila is Garak's mother; if anything, their first interactions on-screen confirm it. Considering Tain never acknowledged Garak as his own son until he was dying, it's the only explanation for why Garak grew up in Tain's house... technically, Garak could just be a child of another household servant, but Mila is the only one he has ever displayed fondness for.
90** If Garak was publicly known to be an illegitimate child what would his status be? He was already in the situation of being publicly unacknowledged by his father and, if Mila was his mother (and even Odo implies he suspects it with the "I can believe there's one [person who would regard Garak with affection]" which obviously alludes to the idea that the only person who could ever love some people would be their mother), then he'd be publicly unacknowledged by his mother as well. That's very close to making him an orphan (two parents who can't publicly acknowledge him). Now watch the episode "Cardassians" where we learn orphans have no status in Cardassian society (the implication being they're actually treated better in Bajoran orphanages than they ever would be on Cardassia). Look at Garak's reaction when he spots the Cardassian orphans watching him. He looks like he's just been punched in the stomach and then he all but flees the place, even his attitude towards the Bajoran in charge of the centre has changed. He's utterly shaken. When Bashir later stops the runabout to confront him, Garak automatically thinks the plight of the orphans is haunting Bashir. As it turns out, that's not on Bashir's mind at all...but it must have been on Garak's still for him to jump to that conclusion. Given his parentage and the secrets surrounding it, it's a miracle he wasn't an abandoned child with the according "orphan" status. With hindsight there's an almost "there but for the grace of God..." sense to this. At the very least, the subject of the orphans did seem to hit a nerve for him.
91* In the episode, "The Assignment" it would seem strange that the prophets would not have expected the Pah-wraiths' return and surprise attack - them being timeless, able to see anywhen at once, would have surely seen it coming from the beginning of time and taken precautions against it. But of course because [[spoiler:the attack failed]], it's possible they never did or never will find out about it - if they were looking out of the wormhole it would just look like [=DS9=] [[spoiler:zapping a shuttlecraft with something]] - so it's possible they simply don't know about the [[spoiler: attempt.]]
92** Alternatively, not being stuck in linear time, the ones living in the wormhole were entirely aware of how the episode would end, and [[spoiler:didn't feel any intervention was necessary]].
93* The entire concept of Bashir [[spoiler: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 nowhere, they came up with a backstory that fit so perfectly that it seems like it was being intentionally {{foreshadow|ing}}ed all along.
94** In "Rivals," he casually reveals to O'Brien that he once faced a Vulcan in a Racquetball final - and won. [[spoiler: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 [[spoiler:Bashir's enhanced stamina; O'Brien may still be perfectly fit.]]
95** Also, in the Mirror Universe, he dresses and acts more like [[spoiler:Khan]] than Bashir. There were a few mirror episodes before the one that revealed [[spoiler:he was genetically modified.]]
96** "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 (or so it seems at the time) over coming in second. But it makes perfect sense when you realize [[spoiler:what he had to lose if he was found out.]] He inserted a mistake because he [[spoiler:was afraid he'd draw attention to himself if he seemed too perfect.]] In this context, his angst over not being first in his class isn't an inferiority complex at all, but rather about the fact that [[spoiler:he was more or less ''forced'' to give up his chance to be valedictorian, and all the benefits that would come with it (most significantly getting first choice of assignment after graduation), because it was that or risk losing his career completely.]]
97** 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 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.]]
98** Bashir's secret may also factor into why he became friends with Garak, who’s 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.
99** In one episode, Bashir is having trouble balancing something on his hand. Maybe he was doing it on purpose.
100** In "Way of the Warrior", Bashir attempts to replicate a trick that O'Brien has mastered involving launching a Gramellian Sand Pea into his mouth from his wrist, but fails. Perhaps he fumbled this trick on purpose to make O'Brien feel like an expert. On the flip side, during a the battle with the Klingons aboard [=DS9=], he impresses Odo with his marksmanship by shooting a Klingon in the back from several meters away. In a life-or-death situation, Bashir would be less inclined to conceal his abilities, especially if it meant saving one of his friends from harm.
101** 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. [[spoiler: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.]]
102** In the Next Generation crossover episode, "Birthright, Part 1", Bashir is fascinated with Commander Data -- not so much with Data's extraordinary abilities, but with the characteristics that make him seem more human, and how personable he is. Bashir sees Data as [[spoiler:an equal - another person "engineered" to have superior qualities who seeks to emulate regular humans to fit in.]]
103** 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. [[spoiler:Maybe he forgot to throw the game?]]
104* 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... Until you realize: 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.
105** And this begs the question: how many shipyards and other facilities got destroyed by Romulan raiders appearing from nowhere and firing plasma torpedoes (that, in spite of the name, are more like ''{{Wave Motion Gun}}s''), on the day the Romulans entered the war?
106** Also, close in to a star you get a lot of free energy. Sure. energy must be cheap if you have something like warp drive. But there's no reason to turn down free energy if you have the opportunity.
107* Of all the infiltrators in 'Apocalypse Rising' Sisko takes the role by far the best, not really surprising considering his mentor was Curzon Dax, who was greatly respected as an Ambassador to the Klingons.
108** Also because Sisko naturally has a take-charge alpha-male personality, something that dovetails nicely with Klingon behavior.
109* A bit of meta: in the episode ''Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS02E10Sanctuary'' , a Bajoran musician plays a "traditional" Bajoran folk tune. DiegeticSoundtrackUsage - 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!
110* In "The Way of the Warrior," General Martok insists on himself, Sisko, and Kira proving they aren't changelings by cutting themselves and seeing whether their shed blood reverts back to changeling-stuff - a soon-to-be-standard blood testing. Sisko's father famously points out the biggest flaw in this test later in the series, but the first hint of it is actually in the very same episode, only a couple of scenes afterward: Odo shows that he's learned to mimic drinking by making a cup and liquid attached to his hand, "drinking" the liquid, and even refilling the cup if he wants. It's not the exact same situation as faking the blood test, but it strongly suggests that a changeling could store foreign liquid in their bodies and discharge it at will.
111** Likewise, we later learn that by this point in time, Martok has ''already'' been replaced by a Changeling. It's only the second episode where the concept appears, and it's already been foiled.
112** And that's not even getting into the fact that bloodletting is a major part of various Klingon rituals and ceremonies, and the higher in rank you are, the probability of getting involved in a bloodletting ritual/ceremony increases. For the Martok Changeling to have survived unnoticed for ''over a year'' means that they probably already ''had'' a system in place for this, which happened to serve the blood screening purpose as well.
113** The idea that the Changelings almost immediately had a way to beat blood screenings makes perfect sense if you consider that, over the 2,000-year history of the Dominion, they've probably infiltrated other species in their native quadrant. It's easy to figure that some other species came up with crude blood screenings a long time ago, and the Changelings took that bit of experience and used it to better prepare themselves for the Alpha Quadrant.
114** Sisko gets framed for a changeling at one point by this test, and later asks the admiral who framed him whether he's going to tell him how he did that. The admiral asks whether it really matters, Sisko admits that no, it doesn't really, and they never speak of it again. How did they do it, then? Simple: that device they were supposedly using to draw his blood was actually a miniature holo-generator programmed to produce a convincing hologram showing blood being drawn in a tube turning into changeling goo. The admiral never actually drew so much as a ''drop'' of Sisko's blood. ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'' demonstrated on several occasions that the Federation's holo-technology was getting quite sophisticated, so the only way to discover that the sample was fake was to be expecting such treachery and looking for such a simple holographic trick, which no one was because they were looking only for Changelings; no one expected an actual Federation human to pull that trick.
115** Another possibility? There's a part of the device that's opaque between where the blood is actually drawn and the vial where it can be observed. The Admiral preemptively prepared a sample of Changeling matter (or some semblance of it) and hid it in the device, so that when he activated it, that would be drawn into the vial and then he could show them the apparent "result".
116* The Dominion's decision to take Betazed wasn't random. Betazoids are telepaths, and that's one test the Dominion can't beat. By taking Betazed, they limit the number of telepaths that Starfleet has access to. (There are other telepathic species, but the Betazoids are the ones who have the most capabilities; other forms of telepathy require specific effort applied to the task, or only work on other telepaths.)
117** Also, when they're discussing the invasion, it's noted that now that they have Betazed, the Dominion are now a threat to several other Federation planets, including Vulcan. If they were looking to take control of planets that house telepathic species, taking Betazed not only achieves that objective but also puts them in a position to potentially strike at another prime target.
118* At the end of ''Inquisition'', the crew discuss how Section 31 has stayed under the radar for the last two centuries, unlike the Tal Shiar or the Obsidian Order. But there's the difference: Those two ''want'' their people to know about them, so that they'll stay in line like good, loyal and frightened Romulans / Cardassians, while Section 31 doesn't.
119* In ''The Wire'', Bashir and Garak discuss a genre of Cardassian literature known as the Repetitive Epic. Your characters live selfless lives, in service to the state, grow old, and die, "and then [[Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration the next generation]] comes along and does it all over again!" Is Doctor Bashir describing ''The Never Ending Sacrifice'', or ''Franchise/StarTrek''? Each installment has [[HighConcept largely the same premise]], a group of bold intellectual explorers trekking across the unknown, seeking out new life and new civilizations, and each new installment changes the formula slightly by switching the character archetypes and roles around, allowing the producers to effectively pitch the exact same process, but getting a different result with each cycle thanks to the progressive changes. Out of all of the series and the reboot films, [=DS9=] is the one that strays the farthest off the path, and only then because instead of exploring the unknown, our heroes are parked at an interstellar crossroads and dealing with the ever-shifting politics of the setting.
120** The whole discussion becomes quite funny when you realize the Repetitive Epic is a natural progression of [[ContinuityReboot continuity reboots]] and [[SpinOff spinoffs]], {{Sequelitis}} and CapcomSequelStagnation, [[SerialNumbersFiledOff filed-off serial numbers]] and [[{{Expy}} expies]], and [[FollowTheLeader following the leader]], which are all very well-known concepts in ''human'' entertainment and all characterized by repetition. There are many franchises in all forms and formats of entertainment that, when taken as a group, could be considered repetitive epics - ''Franchise/StarTrek'' is just one of many.
121* "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 not so different from the Trill homeworld.
122* Social change among Ferengi seems to happen much faster than any time in human history (where a big part of major changes is usually waiting for the previous generation to die). At first, this seems contrived. Then you realize: Ferengi aren't humans, and value their bottom line much more than their old traditions. Once they realized women's rights was profitable, and didn't really have a rational objection, they changed their views. Could also double as FridgeHorror when you realize that Ferengi are fundamentally more open to rational persuasion than humans.
123* 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 in line with Ferengi principles.
124-->'''Ishka:''' We've got much bigger problems to deal with. Do you want Brunt to become Nagus?
125-->'''Quark:''' Of course not. He was willing to throw our entire economy into chaos just so he could grab power.
126-->'''Ishak:''' Sounds like a true Ferengi to me.
127* Remember the element from Whispers about Keiko suspecting that the replicant isn't really O'Brien because it drinks coffee in the afternoon, which he doesn't, only for the real O'Brien to order coffee in the afternoon at the end of the episode and reveal that he does? This troper just realized that this is a reference to the TNG episode "Datalore," where Wesley suspects Lore isn't Data because he uses contractions, which Data doesn't, only for Data to use a contraction at the end of the episode.
128** The bit about O'Brien not drinking coffee in the afternoon was from "The Armageddon Game", and ended up being a subversion when it turned out O'Brien did in fact like drinking coffee in the afternoon. Which raises some questions about how she'd get that wrong.
129*** More FridgeBrilliance: Keiko got it wrong because it's a relatively new habit. Keiko specifically tells Sisko that Miles doesn't drink coffee in the afternoon because it keeps him up all night. Which is a valid concern under most circumstances, but could become a benefit if one is in a situation where they might be working several days straight without a chance for substantial sleep -- which is exactly the situation O'Brien is implied to have been in during his first months on [=DS9=]. So maybe O'Brien legitimately didn't drink coffee in the afternoon when they were on the ''Enterprise'', but he started doing so after his transfer to keep himself going through the insane shifts he was pulling and got into the habit of it, and Keiko just hadn't picked up on it yet and only remembered him saying that he never did.
130* 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 cost them 900 trillion lives and the whole of Earth.
131* 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 Pah-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.
132** 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: envy. 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 envious of the adoration Sisko receives.
133** This is similar to Kai Winn's resentment of Sisko. Despite years of service to the Prophets, it was Sisko who established a concrete connection with them. As a result, as Emissary, he easily received the respect and adoration of the Bajorans despite being an outsider. He is viewed the way Winn sought to be viewed as the Bajoran equivalent of the Pope. Between this and a NeverMyFault mentality, it's no surprise that Winn and Dukat would later hook up and team up with the Pah-wraiths.
134* In "To the Death," Weyoun mentions that he's an expert both in telling lies and in spotting them. We see that this is true throughout the show. On rewatch of this show after watching the Daredevil Netflix series, I think I've figured out how, other than facial expressions. In "In the Cards," Jake tells Weyoun the truth, which Weyoun disbelieves, then tells him a really ridiculous story. Rather than believing the second story, as the rules of fiction usually demand, he suddenly believes the first story. Why? In "Favor the Bold" it's established that the Vorta have excellent hearing. He probably heard Jake's heartbeat change while telling the second story and knew what it sounded like when he lied, and realized he wasn't a good enough liar to have pulled off the first story without a change in heart rate if it wasn't true.
135* I was initially quite baffled by the court in ''House of Quark''. It seemed downright bizarre that the Council running the entire Klingon Empire had no means of assessing the validity of Quark's accusation of financial crimes, and no one on call who could (the whole situation came down to his word against D'Ghor). Then I talked with a friend who understood Klingon society better than me, and nearly burst out laughing when I realized that Grilka actually got screwed over precisely because she was of such a high caste: If the same crime had been committed to (or by) a member of a lower caste, they would have gone to a lower court, and an accountant could have been called to assess the case. However, anyone even capable of sitting through Quark's lecture (let alone following it) would be too dishonorable to associate with the High Council, and thus there was no way to resolve the question of D'Ghor's guilt without a duel.
136** Also, at this level of feudal high society, everything gets settled with a duel or backroom politics anyways. Grilka thought the normal course of action for D'Ghor against her should have been open war. Back in TNG, Picard and K'eylar stalled the Klingon Chancellor succession process with perfectly legitimate bureaucratic requirements that the High Council hadn't seen in ages because it just wasn't done anymore. Grilka was incensed that Quark expected her to maintain financial records of any sort. Actually reading contracts and receipts is for the Plebs.
137* After Li Nalis is returned to Bajor he is given the religious/military title of Navarch, with the title meaning he answered directly to the Prophets. His technical commander is Benjamin Sisko, the Emissary, and the one who actively speaks to the Prophets.
138* Keiko and Sisko's ethnicities in "Cardassians" and "Waltz" respectively. In "Cardassians," Miles O'Brien casually remarks about Cardassians, "Any compassion was bred out of those people a long time ago," to which Keiko angrily replies "That was a very ugly statement!" "I just said--" "I don't have to hear it twice!" Keiko is Japanese. Miles was talking about Cardassians the same way Americans were talking about her country during WWII, demonizing an entire population for the actions of their government. In "Waltz," Sisko shakes with rage while trying to remain diplomatic as Dukat tries to justify Cardassia's occupation of Bajor, ranting about how "inferior" the Bajorans were, and how "grateful" they should have been for the Cardassians' "help." This troper spent the entire scene thinking Sisko was simply channeling the reaction of any sane audience member, and only later remembered "Oh my god, Ben's African American! And he just listened to ''that.''"
139* In ''Far Beyond The Stars'', where each character from the series has a corresponding character from 1950s America, it’s Quark (The Ferengi and therefore ultimate capitalist)'s counterpart that gets mightily offended at the accusation of being a communist.
140* In ''Who Mourns For Morn'' in season 6, Quark's ability to just shatter the golden bricks in his bare hands seems pretty inexplicable -- until one remembers that, when they were introduced in ''TNG's'' ''The Last Outpost'', the Ferengi were characterized as {{Pint Sized Powerhouse}}s, with Ferengi warriors being capable of taking on Worf and ''winning''. Furthermore, in another ''[[=DS9=]]'' episode, one Ferengi single handedly throws Sisko several meters in a fit of pique. So, why are they characterized as cowards? Because of DeliberateValuesDissonance! As a ProudMerchantRace, who also happen to know that most beings of comparable strength tend to have the advantage in size and reach, the vast majority of Ferengi don't bother to train in combat because they have no interest in it, and their culture regards fighting as an act of failure. They're strong, they just don't have any reason to show it off or the training to put it to effective use.
141** This is backed up by Quark's reponse when Brunt plots his death. Quark reacts to a threat to his life by trying to bribe the guy, and seems genuinely perplexed that a fellow Ferengi would pursue revenge instead of negotiating.
142-->"Come on, we're not Klingons. We're businessmen."
143** 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 -- she 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.
144* Why did the Founders keep Martok and Bashir alive after replacing them? Wouldn't it make more sense to kill them so that they can't escape and expose the Changelings who replaced them? I suppose I could see why they'd keep Martok around (if his replacement is exposed, he makes a valuable prisoner in case of an exchange), but Bashir isn't important enough to the Federation even for that, and his replacement's assignment was to blow up the solar system he was in.
145** Not only prisoner exchange but information as well.
146** 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). [[spoiler: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.]]
147** Also, if the Federation ever created blood tests that could compare genetic material, they would need supplies of blood from the original to cover it up.
148** This may also be partially explained by Worf and Martok's experiences in the camp (being forced to fight the Jem'Hadar). The various prisoners were sources of information not just in regards to their own stories but also about where they come from. Even if they refused to talk, the Dominion could infer things about them and the organizations they come from just based on how they react to the various situations they might encounter.
149* In "Badda-Bing Badda-Bang," Captain Sisko has to pretend to be a high roller and lay down thousands of dollars at the craps table to draw a crowd. Vic Fontaine bankrolled the scheme with "rainy day" money, but how did he have so much socked away? It's likely a very subtle CallBack to "It's Only a Paper Moon" when Nog's accounting skills revealed Vic had enough money to build a brand-new casino. Vic kicked Nog out before they broke ground and it's never revealed if the new casino they planned was ever built, so he probably saved the money instead.
150* In the alternate future seen in "The Visitor", Jadzia is still Dax's host. This seems like a continuity error but then you realize that in a timeline where Sisko ceased to exist, Dukat would likely have never [[VillainousBreakdown gone off the deep end]] and teamed up with the Pah-wraiths, and [[ForWantOfANail thus never have killed her]].
151** 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 after the Orb, and she just happened to be in the way. In the alternate timeline, Starfleet had lost the station in the wake of Sisko's death, so Jadzia and the other Starfleet officers had cleared out before then; 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.
152* This one's FridgeBrilliance mixed with a little FridgeHorror. Odo is infected with the morphogenic virus in Season 4, and he develops symptoms by Season 7, barely three years later. However, in "Children of Time", an alternate-timeline Odo has survived for 200 years past Season 5 and shows no signs of the disease. How is this possible? Simple: poor Odo was infected ''twice''. He was given the disease by Section 31 and unwittingly passed it to the Founders as planned. But since the virus only infects Changelings, when he was made a "solid", it became incompatible with his body and so he was unwittingly cured without ever knowing about it. When the events of "Children of Time" happened, Odo didn't have the virus, so the alternate-timeline version of Odo never developed it. But then, when the Dominion occupied the station in early Season 6, the female Founder showed up and convinced Odo to link with her. Unbeknownst to her, she was infected with the virus, and transmitted it back to Odo then, and it's that second infection that leads to Odo's illness a season later.
153** This also helps explain why Odo started showing symptoms when Section 31 allegedly never meant for it to happen. The virus may have been coded to exclude Odo, but mutated while infecting the female changeling and the Great Link, until that part of the disease was no longer functioning properly. Alternately, becoming a changeling again made his genetics different enough for the virus to no longer recognize him.
154*** 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., 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.
155* In the Circle arc, the eponymous xenophobic organization might appear to have an UnusuallyUninterestingName at first. However, the name's connotations become sinister when you realize that the Greek word for "circle" is "kyklos", whence comes the name Ku Klux. That's right, in naming a xenophobic organization "the Circle", the writers were alluding to a RealLife organization which, among other things, is known for xenophobia -- the Klan.
156* In "Emissary," Sisko says that his father "was a gourmet chef," seemingly referring to him in the past tense and inferring his father is no longer alive. While we meet Joseph Sisko years later, it's possible that Joseph ''was'' a gourmet chef before moving home to New Orleans and opening a creole restaurant.
157** Who says creole can't be gourmet? Perhaps his father entered another line of work for a while, such as a restaurant management job with no actual cooking duties? Or maybe his first restaurant went under (not an unlikely occurrence, given the nature of the business). Or maybe the elder Sisko decided to retire, but got bored and opened a new restaurant by the time we finally meet him in person?
158** In the Federation, ''all'' chefs are gourmet chefs, since any cook who wasn't brilliant would get put out of a job by the replicator!
159* [[CoolShip The Defiant]] came into play because the producers realized that after introducing The Dominion in season two, it made no sense that the only defense Deep Space Nine would have was itself and three runabouts, even before the first open conflict at the ending of season two.
160** This was also the point when Starfleet began to quietly upgrade [=DS9=] into a station that could fend off a Klingon fleet of more than fifty ships in ''Way of the Warrior.'' This from a station that was overwhelmed by just three Cardassian warships in the pilot.
161* In ''Trials And Tribble-ations'', why does Sisko make a point of saying that he doesn't want to have issues with Temporal Investigations? He was probably put through the wringer by them after what happened in ''Past Tense''.
162* Also in ''Trials And Tribble-ations'', of all the topics Sisko was tempted to bring up when potentially meeting Kirk, he brings up [[Recap/StarTrekS1E18Arena fighting the Gorn on Cestus III]]. Not V'Ger. Not Khan. Not Khitomer. It makes sense given the {{CerebusRetcon}} the Gorn received in Series/StarTrekStrangeNewWorlds. Sisko has a hobby of boxing, so of course he would be curious about how James T. Kirk went 1-on-1 against a vicious man-eating reptile ''and lived''.
163** He also has an interest in Cestus III, since that's where his girlfriend Kassidy's brother lives and, perhaps even more importantly to Sisko, the colonists play ''baseball''.
164* Early in "The Collaborator", Winn (still a Vedek) tells a bunch of children, "Honor the Prophets, and they will always love you." Bareil then comes up and reminds her that the Prophets' love is unconditional, annoying her. It seems like just another example of them not getting along, but when you think about it, their differing views on the Prophets is actually a reflection of themselves. Winn is nice to people as long as they do what she wants, whereas Bareil is a NiceGuy no matter what.
165* 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 apparently 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 explanation 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.
166* 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.
167** If "Quark" is intentionally ripping off the speech, it's also an early sign that things may not be what they seem.
168** Or, alternatively, he was quoting Ferenginar's own history. While the Ferengi aren't exactly well-known for their progressivism, later episodes show that their cultural values can change quickly if enough profit and opportunity is involved. Given that Ferengi have been proud merchants for the entire time we've seen them, trading with other races across space, it can be inferred that one such process led to the total abolition of racism from their society.
169*** That would make sense if it was real, but since it’s 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.
170* 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’s 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.
171** The fact that Ishka had the latinum tooth sharpener Rom used as a child tells us something important about Rom as well. While Rom could have sold it and gotten some decent cash, he decided to give it to Ishka instead. While this gesture would mean a lot to his mother, it would only reinforce the notion Quark had that his brother was incompetent.
172*** On the other hand, Ishka may have actually bought the tooth sharpener back from Rom, which might have still seemed like favoritism to Quark.
173* Maritza's ploy in "Duet" makes ''so'' much more sense once we learn how the Cardassian justice system works. Yes, a thorough investigation would reveal, well, exactly what it revealed, but Cardassian "justice" is more about efficiency and harsh punishment than about getting to the truth. Presumably he figured that at most, they'd investigate long enough to "discover" that he was Darhe'el and that would be the end of it. He never expected that they'd go to the lengths that they did such that his story would unravel. (And to be fair, if the Bajorans had been running the show solo rather than having Odo and Starfleet involved, he probably would've been right.)
174* Why is Odo so punctual? Part of it might be because he needs to keep an eye on time because he turns into a liquid every sixteen hours, and likely wants to know how long it is before he'll start to lose his shape.
175* TheFederation and the [[TheEmpire Dominion]] are perfect {{Foil}}s for each other, right down to their logos. [[https://img.favpng.com/6/3/5/united-federation-of-planets-star-trek-starfleet-logo-klingon-png-favpng-xgBZ8RG6SV3pv58uH0AaNw6bp.jpg The Federation logo]] is a field of [[LightIsGood white stars]] inside a [[BlueIsHeroic blue circle]], while the [[https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/memoryalpha/images/7/74/Dominion_logo.png/revision/latest?cb=20140329182331&path-prefix=en Dominion symbol]] is a single [[SecondaryColorNemesis purple star]] inside a [[DarkIsEvil black diamond]].
176* During the Battle of Wolf 359, the Saratoga appeared to be the only ship that wasn't immediately destroyed by the Borg, allowing survivors to escape. It fits with the Borg mentality for efficiency. Its one shot instantly destabilized the ship's warp core, making the Saratoga good as dead with its explosion a formality. Survivors? They were not a threat and therefore irrelevant to the battle.
177* Normally in Star Trek the more technologically advanced and combat oriented ships are typically the much larger ones like the Galaxy class or the Sovereign class starship. So when I was younger I could never understand why the defiant class was so small compared to the rest and then upon re-watching deep space nine it now makes perfect sense. The defiant is only 170 m length and five decks in height so first of all Starfleet could build a Defiant class starship much faster than they could a Galaxy class or Sovereign class starship. In addition to that the crew complement of a defiant class ship is only about 50 crewmembers so you don’t need a massive crew to be able to use one of them and in the episode Defiant you can get away with a skeleton crew of only 10 or so crewmembers to pilot the ship since it’s pretty well automated compared to its larger counterparts. Another thing is is that the profile of the ship is very thin and if you watch the show it was very hard for either the Klingons or the Jem’hadar to get a good target lock on the ship because of its profile. So Starfleet has a ship that it can build very quickly, has an enormous amount of fire power and doesn’t require a large crew to man it. This is exactly the type of vessel that you would want in a combat situation.
178** In addition to that, it's important consider the primary purpose of Galaxy/Sovereign class ships compared to the Defiant class. Galaxy/Sovereign class ships are first and foremost deep space exploration ships. And considering the sheer size of space, this means these vessels will be expected to be on their own for potentially weeks, months, or even years at a time. This means they'll need that extra space not only for the supplies needed to sustain such long trips, to make it more comfortable for the crew that's on these long missions. Meanwhile the defiant class ships? They were originally conceived to defend Federation space from the Borg or any other threats- keyword on defense. This means the Defiant class ships either not going to leave Federation space or stay away from Federation space for very long, and thus it doesn't need that extra space.
179* "The Wire" begins with Bashir moaning about the Cardassian novel, "The Never-Ending Sacrifice", which Garak told him was their best novel, but he finds dull as dishwater. Okay, yes, there's a bit of cultural kerfuffle going on, but given what we see over the years of his taste in holodeck programs - The Battle of Britain, Not-James Bond, the Battle of the Alamo, Thermopylae - it's not just that. Julian asked for an epic, and was expecting something with a bit more sex, violence and derrin' do. It ''is'' an epic novel, it's just doesn't match Julian's taste in literature. ... either that, or it actually ''is'' dull as dishwater, and Garak chose it to mess with Julian, knowing he'd complain, and give Garak a chance to tout superior Cardassian literature to his naive human companion.
180* In "Sons of Mogh", Worf is interrupted while performing a Klingon ritual to honorably kill his disgraced brother Kurn, and Sisko gives him a blistering "WhatTheHellHero" speech. Three years later, when Chancellor Gowron's efforts to disgrace General Martok endanger the war effort against the Dominion, Sisko has no problems with Worf pulling a KlingonPromotion on Gowron (committing what the Federation would consider a political assassination). Why the change in attitude? Aside from the much higher stakes, this is also a year after "In the Pale Moonlight", in which Sisko did terrible things (and allowed others to do terible things) to bring the Romulans into the war, and afterwards admitted that he could live with what he did. No doubt this knocked him off his moral high horse; since he used IDidWhatIHadToDo as justification for his actions, he's far more willing to give Worf leeway to do the same.
181* In "Babel", after a customer complains and Odo shoos him away, the latter says, "Another satisfied customer". This could just be verbal irony, but perhaps it has another meaning in that the ''real'' satisfied customer is ''himself'' (since Odo finds satisfaction in teasing Quark).
182* "Heart of Stone" has another [[OutOfCharacterAlert hint]] that Kira is an impostor besides saying she loves Odo. Directly after she claims so, Odo says that he's studied ''human'' nature and Kira never gave any indication of loving him, to which impostor Kira just keeps insisting she loves Odo. The real Kira, however, probably would have pointed out that she's a Bajoran, not a human.
183* 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 [[MistakenForFlirting from his perspective, she's flirting with him]], and playing very hard to get.
184* In one episode, Kira is possessed by a Prophet, while Jake is possessed by a Pah-wraith. This leaves both of them injured, but by the end of the episode, Kira has fully recovered, while Jake still needs a few more days of treatment. This could be for one, or a combination, of several reasons:
185** Prophets, while they're quite cryptic, generally want what's best for humanoids (as seen when they don't want Sisko to "end the game", i.e. sacrifice himself). Pah-wraiths, on the other hand, have no problem with injuring or killing humanoids (as seen when one possesses Keiko and injures her once and threatens to kill her many times). Therefore, the Pah-wraith was likely harder on Jake than the Prophet was on Kira.
186** Jake is younger than Kira, meaning that he's probably physically weaker.
187** Kira has dealt with a lot of bad things living through the Occupation, and she's also had experience with being possessed by noncorporeal entities before. Jake, while he has had his share of bad luck, hasn't had as many misfortunes as Kira. Therefore, Kira is probably more resilient than Jake.
188** Kira has been shown to have some degree of resistance to diseases and suchlike before (in "Babel", she was the only one to not become lethargic when she got the aphasia virus for instance).
189** Kira is a Bajoran and both Prophets and Pah-wraits have centuries of experience of taking over their bodies. Jake is human (and so is Keiko) and would literally be an alien for Pah-wraits. It's a difference between driving a car and driving a boat, while there are some similarities, they don't handle the same.
190* In "To The Death", we are told that Jem'Hadar don't need to eat, as ketracel-white provides for all their physical needs. However, two previous episodes had referenced them eating. This initially looks like EarlyInstallmentWeirdness, but it actually makes sense when you consider the circumstances: the Jem'Hadar in "The Abandoned" was a child, rapidly maturing into an adult, meaning he needed more than simple sustenance (all that extra body mass had to come from somewhere, after all), while in "Hippocratic Oath", Goran'Agar had had to survive without the white, so he probably had to turn to getting nutrition the old-fashioned way. When he brought his men to the moon in the hope of freeing them from their addiction, he had them do all the same things he did, which obviously included eating. Put simply, Jem'Hadar ''can'' eat, they just don't (usually) need to once they're fully grown.
191* Keiko has been occasionally seen taking fungus samples. At first, this seems like the FungiArePlants trope, since she's a botanist not a mycologist, but it actually makes sense because, while fungi are not plants, they do help plants grow (at least some of them do), so maybe that's why Keiko takes them.
192* In "Waltz", Dukat claims that Sisko threw up because of his injury. However, injuries don't generally cause vomiting... which could be {{Foreshadowing}} that Dukat was lying (he might not know how human biology worked).
193[[AC:FridgeHorror]]
194* Odo's BigDamnHeroes 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?
195** Odo is naturally cautious and lives in an environment rife with schemers and plotters, so he knows to be a few steps ahead of any potential problems. He probably didn't want to take the chance that the Jem'hadar had been specifically instructed by the Female Changeling to ignore any orders that came from him, which would have been a logical order for her to give them.
196* Has anyone given thought to Dax's average life? In "You Are Cordially Invited", Sisko states that the symbiont is 356. That was in early season 6, meaning Dax was AT MOST 357 when Jadzia died. This means that it went through 8 lifetimes in that time, making the life expectancy of a Dax host less than 45 years.
197** A couple of points to be made:
198*** The host lives at least 20 years before being joined; that wouldn't count towards the age of the ''symbiont'' (who during that time would still be living in a previous host)
199*** Torias and Joran were joined for less than a year each before dying and having Dax taken away respectively
200*** 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'', or at least 85 total, for those five. Then keep in mind that Trill aren't usually joined as soon as they're eligible -- they have to wait to be matched to an available symbiont -- so it's probably even more than that, and ''that's'' assuming they all became eligible right at 20, which might not even be the case.
201* In ''Trials and Tribble-ations'' Sisko accidentally brought the Tribbles into his time. Remember that these creatures bred fast enough and ate enough that the Klingon Empire was forced to order the entire population wiped out. Either Sisko just started a new Alpha Quadrant-wide ecological disaster or they killed every Tribble on the station. Either way it's a grim realization for a light hearted episode.
202** It's not quite that bad. [=McCoy=] in the original episode figured out that the only reason that the tribbles were breeding so rapidly is because they had unlimited access to food via the food slots and everyone feeding their new pet tribble. All they need to do is find a way to control how much food the tribbles get, and the breeding can be kept under control.
203*** [=McCoy=] noted it had to be the smallest morsel, and that doesn't do anything about the very large population already in existence without any controls and obviously eating more than morsels. If a single Tribble found its way to the Bajoran wilderness Bajor would have to implement widespread destruction just to keep the population under control.
204*** Or this would be a great solution to Bajor's famine. Thing about it: the tribbles will eat practically anything and reproduce very fast, and they probably taste great with yamok sauce.
205*** You can bet the Klingons have a few recipes.
206*** Bob Barker reminding you to help control the tribble population. Have your tribbles spayed or neutered.
207*** That's only a problem in an artificial environment with no predators. Much like mice, locusts, and other creatures that can ecological terrors, there's a food chain keep their populations in check. In fact the tribbles appear to have evolved to reproduce quickly because they're ''absolutely defenseless''. No teeth, claws, spikes, or armor. They can't run, jump, fly or burrow. Any carnivore would eat them up like popcorn. If they were released into an area with something that could keep the population in check, the tribbles wouldn't be nearly as big a hazard.
208*** [=McCoy=] actually pointed this out in the episode. He stated that the tribbles came from a planet with a predator filled environment that kept them in check. And that the tribbles reproduced the way they did because outbreeding the carnivores was the only way they could survive.
209*** It's also a problem in any natural environment that doesn't have the ''right'' predators, either. Look at the classic actual analogue of Australia: [[DeathWorld notionally carrying plenty of predators]], but you wouldn't know it from the [[ExplosiveBreeder rabbit problem]]. Even if they were kept in check on their original homeworld by predation (a logical notion, and one backed up by the ExpandedUniverse), introducing any predators vicious or simply active enough to keep something as...prolific as tribbles in check to Bajor would just cause new problems, like cats across the world (a significant contributor to the endangered status of many birds and the extinction of many others in once-isolated ecosystems like islands) or mongeese (mongooses?) on Pacific islands. If native Bajoran predators don't recognize them as edible, don't get some important nutrient from eating them instead of their usual prey, do get some toxic byproduct due to the two species being from ecosystems that [[NoBiochemicalBarriers evolved separately on completely different worlds]], or simply can't kill them fast enough...
210*** On a possibly related note, was it ever established what the station's vole infestation ate?
211** The Klingon have already exterminated the species once. Just call them, they know what to do.
212** Fortunately, the creatures are contained on the ''Defiant'' and [=DS9=], so it shouldn't be too hard to mass-transporter them into containment, the way it was handled in the original episode. One of the novels also offhandedly mentioned that tribbles can be sterilized (and Odo insists on verifying that one has been before he lets it on the station).
213* 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 Darhe'el was ''exactly'' as horrible as Maritza portrayed him.]]
214** Is that a surprise? One would expect Guls who ran camps like that to be horrible.
215** While the attitudes are probably correct, [[spoiler:Maritza may also be playing it up a bit specifically to push the Bajorans' buttons so that they'll be that much less likely to actually consider the situation rationally or investigate further. Note in particular how he ramps it up anytime anyone starts to doubt or question him; it seems like he's trying to make them so angry they'll forget whatever doubts or questions they had.]]
216* BewareTheNiceOnes:
217** 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 {{Utopia}} '''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]].
218* Sisko's parentage. We learn [[spoiler:that his "mom" was not his actual biological mother; instead, Joseph Sisko was first married to a woman named Sarah who had been possessed by a Prophet solely to give birth to Ben. Once Ben was one year old, the prophet left and Sarah immediately went to Australia, because the entirety of the romance and marriage was the Prophet's doing. Think about this for a moment--Sarah was raped. It's not Joseph's fault because apparently the Prophet was good enough at acting to convince him that there was an actual romance happening, and a likely case of BlueAndOrangeMorality (non-corporeal beings probably don't have a concept of physical rape) but it's still really fucking creepy. And of course they never address the creepy implications in the show; instead they bring back the Prophet, using Sarah's appearance, as a mother figure. It's made worse by the fact that poor Sarah was killed in some accident later on.]].
219** Poor Joseph Sisko was a victim as well, giving his heart to a woman who never truly loved him and left him heartbroken as soon as the Prophets released her from their control.
220* In "The Alternate", Odo, Mora Pol, Jadzia Dax, and Weld Ram discover a monolith on the planet L-S VI, nearly identical to the monolith seen on the Changeling Founder's homeworld in "The Search". This suggests that L-S VI may have been an abandoned Changeling colony. While exploring L-S VI, Odo is exposed to a volcanic gas that later induces his psychosis and [[InvoluntaryShapeshifting transformation]] into a [[SuperpoweredEvilSide monstrous form]]. What if L-S VI was abandoned after volcanic gases triggered a mass psychotic rampage among the Changeling inhabitants?
221* When Laas departs from Deep Space Nine, he embarks on a mission to find other Changelings sent out as infants like himself. Thus, it's conceivable that Laas and the Changelings he tracks down could someday form a second Great Link. Given Laas' [[FantasticRacism utter contempt]] for non-Changeling races, he would likely form a circle with like-minded Changelings rather than Changelings who happily integrated into their adopted cultures. Over centuries, the bigotry of Laas and like-minded Changelings could blossom into outright aggression toward solids. In the distant future, one can see Laas' second Great Link forming the basis of [[MeetTheNewBoss another Dominion]].
222** Laas and two other Changelings actually create the New Link in Star Trek Online and ally themselves with Jem'Hadar that are still in the Alpha Quadrant.
223** FridgeHorror: Laas and any Changlings he found should/would have been infected unwittingly by Odo with the disease that almost killed the Founders. Laas, unlike Odo, used his shapeshifting freely, which accelerates the disease. So it is entirely possible that Laas died alone in the cold vastness of space. (Maybe even before the series concluded.)
224* Vic Fontaine's treatment by his creator Felix. We know that Vic was designed to be a self-aware hologram. But in "Badda Bing, Badda Bang," it's discovered that Felix installed a "jack in the box" in the holoprogram, putting Vic in serious danger, and causing him to get beat up by other holograms, purely for the amusement of humans playing the holoprogram. Vic even exclaims, "How could Felix do this to me?" It's another hologram-abuse case for [[Series/StarTrekVoyager The Doctor]].
225** In a larger sense, the creation of a ''sentient program'' designed entirely for entertainment is very troubling issue, which is really never addressed in the series. The ethical ramifications of dealing with sentient androids is a recurring issue in TNG, and dealing with The Doctor's sentience is a significant part of Voyager's series arc. But Vic Fontaine, who's evidently fully conscious and self-aware is just taken in stride. Apparently the Federation, at some point, went from agonizing over the god-like power of creating intelligent life to casually granting holograms sentience so they can be better ''lounge singers''!
226** It ''is'' possible that being a lounge singer really is Vic's highest ambition (stranger things have happened); alternatively, maybe he isn't really self-aware, Felix was just ''very'' clever in writing his responses.
227* The Romulans. Think about it: their warships can invisible to sensors and ''the naked eye'' with ease, their fleet is powerful enough it turned the tide against the Dominion, at least some of their ships have friggin' ''{{Wave Motion Gun}}s''... And they have a rather tyrannical government and an expansionist agenda. Have you ever wondered why Kirk was terrified of getting a second war against the Romulans and the Federation and the Klingon went beyond their bad blood so easily? Here's the answer.
228* Had Darvin's revenge in "Trials and Tribble-ations" succeeded, he would have ''doomed'' the Klingon Empire. A devastating war with the Federation would have ensued, and all would have been lost for Qo'noS when Praxis blew up.
229** And this is set not long after the Organians promised to end both sides if they went to war.
230* 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?
231--> '''Female Changeling''': They're dead. ''You're'' dead. ''Cardassia'' is dead. Your people were doomed the moment they attacked us.
232** Remember not only that this is the same Changeling, but that they share all their thoughts within the Link; she's not just talking out of her gelatinous hindparts here. The Founders didn't just take advantage of Cardassia's weakness; they created that weakness and tricked them into joining the Dominion with the full intention of enslaving [[FinalSolution and then exterminating them]]. [[DisproportionateRetribution All in revenge for a preemptive strike most Cardassians didn't know was happening.]] By extension, this probably means the Founders were going to wipe out the Romulans as well, as soon as they beat the Federation and the Klingons.
233** 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.
234* The Klingons love doing the blood test for Changelings. Yet General Martok's Changeling replacement remains undetected for months. How? Joe Sisko gave us a possible answer in "Homefront." A Changeling kills a person and absorbs all their blood, and lets some of it eek out when they're cut or have blood drawn. So...it seems extremely likely some poor bastard got killed by Changeling!Martok for his blood.
235** In "By Inferno's Light", Changeling!Bashir cheerfully proposes a fresh round of blood screenings moments after it's established that a random engineer has gone missing. The implication is clear: the Changeling killed the engineer for their blood in anticipation of the screening.
236* Martok was replaced by a Changeling for nearly two years, during which they no doubt had to keep up the pretence with Martok's family; it must have been awful for them when they found out the truth. Maybe it's a good thing that Sirella shares her bed with her husband very infrequently...
237* There is a lot of moral debate over Section 31's plan for Changeling genocide - but here's another thing to think about. Would it even have worked? We know that the Dominion was functioning very well with minimal interference from the Founders, and some of the Female Changeling's decisions are actively detrimental to their cause (antagonizing the Cardassians by giving away their territory, ordering the elimination of the Cardassian populace during a crucial moment). And here's where the Fridge Horror sets in - when the Cardassians and Romulans attempted a preemptive strike, everyone hurried to stop them because they knew they'd be dealing with angry Jem'Hadar flooding through the wormhole if they succeeded. We also know that Weyoun already wanted to take out Earth's population because they were most likely to lead a rebellion. [[OhCrap Now imagine what Weyoun would have done if he survived the war but the Founders didn't, and the Vorta scientists figured out the virus came from Earth?]] All of that considered, it's very lucky the virus didn't work faster than it did.
238* Ezri Dax gets a lot of heat for being meek, confused, and ineffectual until the ExpandedUniverse. However, look at it this way; she ''never completed Host training.'' Either she washed out or dropped out, [[DefectorFromDecadence possibly after realizing how sick the whole setup was]], and probably took Starfleet as a way to get off the Trill worlds, which are nastily repressive. She must have been relieved to leave it behind...until her ship took on an injured Symbiont and she had all of 15 minutes to make the decision to save it at the cost of her identity. So an untrained Host, a renegade Symbiont with about nine lives' worth of experiences (I'm counting Verad), and remember what happened the ''last'' time before that Dax had an "unauthorized" Host? Ten to one, the Trill homeworld would have quietly breathed a sigh of relief if she had let Dax die, so I'm betting they were of no help at all. It's a small miracle and a testament to Ezri Tegan that she's even halfway ''sane''.
239** The implication (at least for me) seemed to be that Ezri Tigan had no desire to be joined prior to happening to be the only Trill on board the Destiny at the time Dax took a turn for the worst and needed to be joined to a host or die. The Trill government has made their society believe that only a small percentage of its population is capable of being joined, it's entirely possible that she'd never even wanted to be joined but agreed to joining with Dax to save the symbiote's life.
240** I believe there is an expanded universe novel that explicitly STATES that she didn't want to be joined at all (let alone to a symbiote with that much life experience) and hadn't done ANY host training whatsoever. Even worse, she didn't want to be joined even when the Dax Symbiote HAD to be joined to a host. She only agreed because she felt she had no choice between Trill cultural values and peer pressure from the crew of the Destiny.
241** You don't need the EU to tell you this. Ezri herself said so just a few minutes after she introduced herself to Sisko. And regarding her barely maintaining her sanity, imagine what would've happened if [[AxCrazy Joran]] had decided to take over. (And in "Field of Fire", he almost does.)
242* The effect Jadzia Dax's death would've had on her stepson Alexander. The show focused heavily on Worf grieving his wife, but nothing about the teenage boy who, having seen his own mother (Ke'leyr) murdered when he was a child, finally got a fun, bubbly stepmother (Jadzia), and then she dies ''the exact same way his first mother did'', murdered out of the blue in cold blood. ''He'' could use some help from Counselor Dax...which would've made for a [[TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot pretty interesting relationship.]]
243* 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 "Fridge-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.
244** Before anyone says it, yes, Starfleet bans jewelry on the job; but we don't see [[Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration Wesley Crusher's]] Bajoran classmate or any of the Bajorans on [[Series/StarTrekVoyager Voyager]] wearing earrings off-work either.
245** 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 off Bajor certainly opens the door to a lot of other possibilities.
246** The Prophets religion has been around for at least 30,000 years by this point(possibly longer). That's enough time that any other religion that may have sprung up has probably adopted aspects of it the same way faiths like Yazidism borrow heavily from Islam.
247** And even for those who do wear the earring or exclaim "thank the Prophets!", Jewish humans may exclaim "Jesus Christ!" when shocked, and minority cultures usually take on some of the fashion and customs of the dominant one. Memory Alpha also states that the Bajoran earring is as much a symbol of Bajoran planetary pride and defiance against Cardassians as it is a religious symbol. (Think of when the U.S. inserted "Under God" into the Pledge during the 1950s to distinguish it from the Communists.)
248*** Long story short, evidence and common sense suggests that ''some amount'' of Bajorans we see do not follow the beliefs that Kai Winn preaches, and that to some extent or another, that sucks for them.
249** FridgeBrilliance: The reason Bajor still has a hugely dominant single religion is because the Prophets are real entities who have left perceptible signs of their existence (i.e. the Orbs). It's a lot easier to sustain belief when you have some modicum of proof to back it up.
250*** It's probable there are many sects that take different interpretations and practice the prophet religion in different ways. We just only happen to see the most basic/generic forms of it because Star Trek writers aren't great at dealing with religion.
251*** 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 example) out here in the real world.
252*** And this ties in super nicely with the one-world religion. Unlike most Earth religions where, having no "direct proof" of their religion, they get into arguments, schisms, wars, etc. over these differences in philosophy and interpretation, on Bajor all these differences are included in the same religion, because the core tenets of the religion are unquistionable. Remember how much of a difference Bareil and Winn had in opinions during The Circle ark: would any real-world religion tolerate such vastly different belifs and motivations? Probably not. But on Bajor, they're unified in that they cannot doubt that the Prophets exist, send orbs, that the orbs give (most, not Winn) visions, etc. Thus the Vedic Assembly is less like the modern Catholic Church heirarchy and more like the Council of Nicea, never ending, without all the schisiming.
253* In the episode "Children of Time" the colony's Odo [[spoiler: alters the Defiant's computer to prevent the ship from going back in time]]. And four episodes later, the Dominion War begins. Had the other Odo not done what he did, nobody would've put up the minefield to stop the Dominion from sending convoys through the wormhole, or gotten the Prophets to eliminate the giant Dominion fleet in "Sacrifice of Angels" or any of the other things [=DS9=] officers did to win the war. He may have [[spoiler: caused Gaia to never exist]], but in so doing inadvertently saved the Alpha Quadrant.
254* In "The Visitor", the Klingons have been "making angry noises" but don't appear to have attacked and the Bajorans and Cardassians have entered into a defense pact. The Dominion war didn't happen, the Pah-wraiths stayed locked in the fire caves, Jadzia is alive, and even Jake had it pretty good (and honestly could have done better if not for his obsession). It would have been better for everyone else if Ben Sisko had stayed lost in subspace.
255** Not necessarily; what we see is based on Jake giving an interview to a young woman who is asking him about ''his'' experiences, so he's only focusing on the key details of his life that probably aren't that well-known as opposed to discussing wider historical context that the woman would probably be aware of already.
256* In "The Forsaken", Sisko describes to Bashir how, as a young officer, he was disciplined for using violence to prevent a Federation VIP from coercing another young officer into sex and warns Bashir that if Bashir does the same thing that he will be disciplined harshly. Later, Odo complains to Sisko that Lwaxana Troi, a Federation VIP, is attempting to coerce him into sex. Sisko laughs in his face and suggests that Odo just give in. What exactly is the Federation/Starfleet teaching their people about consent
257** The first one, in context, seems more like an attempt to keep Bashir from thinking that hitting an ambassador would be a good way to get himself out of future escort assignments -- Bashir had just asked Sisko how he got out of such assignments, and when Sisko related the story, Bashir got a look on his face of "now ''there's'' an idea", so Sisko wanted to make sure he didn't take that thought any further (specifically, he tells Bashir, "Don't hit one of [the ambassadors]", as if concerned that Bashir might just randomly hit one of them with no justification solely to get out of escort duty, rather than actually for a good reason as was the case for Sisko). If it actually came down to a situation where Bashir was protecting another member of the crew, Sisko would in all likelihood stand up for him.
258** A lot of this is the era in which the show was made as Lwaxana has been sexually harassing men for audience laughs ever since her first appearance. The 1980s and 1990s were a different time.
259* Something worth considering at the end of the series: Elim Garak is very nearly the only Cardassian left with the qualifications to govern Cardassia. All his colleagues in the Obsidian Order were assassinated or wiped out in Tain's attack on the Dominion (and any who weren't killed then were taken out during "In the Pale Moonlight"), Gul Dukat has gone to Bajoran Hell in the Fire Caves, the Dominion purged the last of the Cardassian High Command from its ranks (and took Damar's successor out to be shot even as he protested that he was still loyal), and Damar didn't make it through the final raid on the Dominion's Alpha Quadrant headquarters. That pretty much leaves Elim Garak in the same position as Vladimir Putin after the collapse of the Soviet Union... if his colleagues in the KGB, Politburo, and Duma had all been wiped out. Of course, considering what a wreck Cardassia was by the end, being put in charge by the survivors would be quite a mixed blessing for him, at best. No wonder he spends a whole scene griping to Julian Bashir about how badly ruined Cardassia is.
260** However, in the relaunch novels, we see that Garak had changed for the better since the Dominion War. He preached the merits of democracy and openness, as opposed to the remnants of the military preaching for xenophobia and nationalism. He cleans up, becomes Cardassia's ambassador to the United Federation of Planets, and eventually is elected the Castellan of the Cardassian Union. Even Picard was impressed by how much he had changed.
261** Garak also convinces the remaining members of the Obsidian Order to help the Union against those wanting return to the old militaristic ways, reforming the Order as he himself has been.
262** We don't even have to get to the relaunch novels to see Garak's change of heart; in "Tacking Into the Wind" and "What You Leave Behind", he recognizes the need to build a new Cardassia that is quite different from the old one.
263* It's repeatedly pointed out that Odo isn't great at shapeshifting-he can't convincingly imitate a humanoid, let alone a specific person, and even says of his animal forms that the other animals probably don't recognize him, while the Founders, can imitate a specific person so perfectly that it takes a blood screening to tell the difference. But of ''course'' Odo's not as proficient as the Founders-- they have the benefit of hundreds of thousands of years of experience shared through the Great Link. Any of them has hundreds of millions of hours of experience to draw on, whereas Odo rarely practices in the early seasons.
264** More than that, Odo was never truly taught how to shapeshift. He figured out the basics because to some degree it was probably instinctive (in the same way that human children will usually figure out how to crawl and walk even without direct guidance), but he never had anyone to instruct him in the finer points of shapeshifting, whereas Changelings who were raised in the Link were presumably educated by their elders.
265* 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.
266* The way the Jack Pack are dealt with is terrifying. Neurological differences, including savantism, are naturally occurring within human populations. Either being too weird or too smart will get you locked up on suspicion of being genetically-enhanced because of Kahn, or lifelong institutionalization is just how they deal with special-needs adults PERIOD. Julian (and Sarina, after her "cure") are in danger of lifetime imprisonment if they start acting too abnormal - and everyone else might be too!
267* 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.
268* 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...
269** 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.

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