Line #30 Literature/StarTrekMillennium


1	[[quoteright:303:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/millennium_8312.jpg]]
2	A trilogy of novels in the Franchise/StarTrekExpandedUniverse, an epic time-travel adventure featuring the characters of ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine''. It doesn't fit entirely into the modern continuity, but given the themes of myriad alternate realities and interlinking timelines, that isn't a problem either way. The three books are ''The Fall of Terok Nor'', ''The War of the Prophets'' and ''Inferno'', and the plot involves a full-scale religious war erupting in an alternate future timeline, the result of an attempt by factions of the Wormhole Aliens to reunite their splintered civilization. Unfortunately, success will mean the end of the universe.
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4	The trilogy shares a great many plot points with the Deep Space Nine computer game, ''The Fallen''.
5	----
6	!!This series contains examples of:
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8	* ActionGirl: She's a bit older than most, but Vash counts. Her Andorian rivals, Satr and Leen, are [[DarkActionGirl Dark Action Girls]].
9	* AffablyEvil: Weyoun, most of the time.
10	* AfterTheEnd: Book Three, ''Inferno'', takes place [[spoiler: after the end of the entire universe]]. It's complicated...
11	* AlienArtsAreAppreciated: What Dukat thought he was doing with "the Admiral". If Rom is correct, he might be a little wrong.
12	* AlternativeCalendar: A reasonably important plot point concerns a possibly non-coincidental similarity between multiple cultures' otherwise distinct calendars.
13	* AnyoneCanDie: Once we're in the alternate future, any character encountered (no matter how familiar or otherwise protected by ContractualImmortality) can die. In fact, most do.
14	* AssassinOutclassin: The first time we see Admiral Picard in the future, he's killed a handful of Romulan assassins who tried to get him while he was in the shower. Not bad for a man who often can't remember who he's talking to.
15	* AssholeVictim: Weyoun mentions that one of the first people killed in the BadFuture was Kai Winn, by hanging.
16	* BadassPreacher: Obanak Keelen.
17	* BadFuture: What the ''Defiant'' witnesses after being flung into the future.
18	* BigBad: At first it looks to be Weyoun. Then...things get complicated.
19	* BigBadWannabe: Leej Terrell may be a Cardassian Doctor Mengele, but in terms of actual threat level she's only a problem because the characters have other problems distracting her. She's apparently killed at the end of book 1 and barely thought about thereafter, while Weyoun of the alternate future proves to be a ''much'' bigger threat.
20	* BizarreAlienBiology: The Grigari appear to be a mechanical-organic construct. No-one is sure whether they should be categorized as living beings or an artificial intelligence. They leak a substance that might be blood, or might be cooling fluid.
21	* BlatantLies: When Dr. Bashir asks Garak to aid him in identifying two recently-discovered bodies, Garak responds: “Oh, Doctor, I'm afraid that in matters of mysterious deaths, I am entirely bereft of experience”. No-one is amused.
22	* BlessedWithSuck: Anyone corrupted by Grigari nanites; they give the host superior strength, regenerative abilities and other powers, but also reconfigure their brain, making them compliant servants of the Pah-wraiths.
23	* BodyHorror: Bions - the lobotomized, bio-augmented slave soldiers used by the future Romulan Empire. It's suspected they are former prisoners mutated using Grigari technology.
24	* BrainFood: The Medusans, apparently. Quark has certain recipes programmed into the food replicators (quite illegally), should he ever get a visit from a Medusan delegation.
25	* {{Brainwashed}}: Weyoun, having been freed from his genetically mandated loyalty to the Founders, doesn't realize he has simply been transferred to a new master in the Grigari.
26	* CallForward: A very tragic one at the end of the ''Inferno''. [[spoiler: Jadzia shoots and kills the 2399 Dukat, who's possessed by the Pah-wraiths and who survived the destruction of the BadFuture. As this novel takes place in-between "The Sound of Her Voice" and "Tears of the Prophets", readers know this scenario will shortly become reversed and that Jadzia will be killed by the Present Day Dukat (who will also become possessed by the Pah-wraiths).]]
27	* TheCameo: ''Voyager'''s Doctor and Seven of Nine make a brief appearance in the second book.
28	* ChekhovsGun: Leej Terrell's ship disappears after the ''Defiant'' time-travels to the future. We don't find out what's happened to it until after the climax of the third book. [[spoiler:Shortly after the ''Defiant'' time-traveled to the future, Terrell's ship entered the red wormhole, where it collided with a ship from the BadFuture; the collision instantly collapsed the wormhole, preventing the bad future from happening.]]
29	* TheChessmaster: Obanak Keelen is possibly the finest example in the ''Franchise/StarTrek'' universe. He sets into motion a plan that involves muliple timelines, several realities, and the end of the universe, manipulating not only the heroes and villains both but also his own gods.
30	* ChurchMilitant: Pretty much everyone in the alternate future. They even have a warship named the ''Opaka'' (which ''really'' alerts the time-displaced heroes that something is wrong, because Opaka was a woman of peace and preached a non-aggressive, tolerant faith).
31	* ContinuityNod: Admiral Picard's choice of motto for the ''Phoenix'' is "Sokath, his eyes unclosed."
32	* CoolShip: In the alternate future, the Timeship ''Phoenix''. Also from that future, the ''Enterprise-F'', though it ended up being [[AnyoneCanDie obliterated in the first eight minutes]] of the battle to save Earth from the Grigari.
33	* TheCorruption: Grigari nanites.
34	* CosmicKeystone: The Red Orbs of Jalbador. When all three are brought together in one place, they open [[spoiler: the second Bajoran wormhole]], which, along with the better known one, are the two sides of [[spoiler: the dimension wound which 'reality' sits on top of, meaning if they ever touch, the result will be...nothing. Literally, nothing will exist, and nothing will ever ''have'' existed. There will never have been even a place for the universe to have happened ''in''. This, of course, proceeds to happen at the end of the second book.]]
35	* CrapsackWorld: In the alternate future, Earth has been destroyed by the Grigari, its colonies wiped out by nanoplagues, humans, Klingons and Cardassians are all nearly extinct, what's left of the crumbling Federation is at war with the Bajoran Ascendancy, which worships the Pah-wraiths and is led by [[spoiler: Kai Weyoun]], and ''his'' ultimate goal is to destroy the universe.
36	* CruelAndUnusualDeath: The two Cardassians found fused to the station's hull, in vacuum. We later see how it happened: [[spoiler:after they were accidentally brought six years forward, they watched as the Quark, Odo, and Garak from their time were sent back to the past. They then tried to dash into the portal, but it was collapsing, and they ended up falling through several parts of the station before they finally rematerialized--in the spot where they were eventually found.]]
37	* CulturalPosturing: A Bajoran mentions how her people were architects and artists when "Cardassians were still swimming through swamps catching fish in their mouths".
38	* DeusExMachina: At the end of the third book. While the [[spoiler:closing of the red wormhole]] was caused by the interaction of two different timelines, divine intervention was needed to [[spoiler:restore Deep Space Nine and prevent the ''Defiant'' from being destroyed]].
39	* DistractedByTheSexy: Even in the midst of a brawl between several criminals who, once they win, will inevitably try to kill him, Quark still can't help but be a little turned on by the violent females.
40	* DysonSphere: In the alternate future, O'Brien is trapped in one of these for what seems like years, as the FateWorseThanDeath meted to him by the Pah-wraiths.
41	* EarthIsTheCenterOfTheUniverse: Averted. This being ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'', Bajor seems to be the center of the universe instead.
42	* EarthShatteringKaboom: [[spoiler: Bajor is vapourized in the alternate future - all part of Kai Weyoun's plan. Earth met the same fate some years prior]].
43	* EnemyMine: The Grigari are so terrifying that the Borg and the remnant Federation are allies in this timeline. It doesn't even seem to be TeethClenchedTeamwork; they're engaged in peaceful technological exchange.
44	* EvilIsOneBigHappyFamily: Averted. It's shown that Dukat and Weyoun, representing ''different'' sects of the Pah-wraiths, are at cross purposes a good deal of the time.
45	* ExactWords: Obanak Keelen believes in the Emissary, and he believes in the Sisko. He just doesn't believe ''Ben'' Sisko is the Emissary. [[spoiler:Rather, it's implied Ben's daughter with Cassidy Yates is the ''true'' Emissary.]]
46	* FateWorseThanDeath: Dukat and Kosst Amojan trap the heroes (and Weyoun) in recurring personal nightmares in order to gain their co-operation, or at least to keep them occupied. Basically, they trap them in personal hells, sometimes along the lines of AndIMustScream. Unfortunately for Dukat, it doesn't work on Dax; her multiple lives confuse the Kosst Amojan, which tries creating multiple hells that then just blend together confusingly and lose their horror, allowing her to break free. And Garak isn't impressed by the technique - his hell certainly works on him, but Dukat is frustrated to see that he isn't actually afraid - exhausted, drained, horrified, yes; but nowhere near ''afraid''.
47	* FromBadToWorse: Deep Space Nine is destroyed and the heroes are flung decades into the future - that's the end of the first book. In the second book, they discover that this future is a CrapsackWorld where Starfleet is a ChurchMilitant organization fighting an interstellar doomsday cult, led by [[spoiler: Kai Weyoun of Bajor]]. Then they discover this doomsday is ''real''...and that the enemy is planning to destroy the universe. [[spoiler: Then the enemy...succeeds.]]
48	* GambitRoulette: Everything that happens in the trilogy unfolded according to Obanak Keelen's plan. ThePlan involved blowing up the universe and then helping the universe [[UnexplainedRecovery recover]]. It also involved using the gods themselves as pawns. [[note]] The Wormhole Aliens are only gods to the Bajorans- but Obanak ''is'' a Bajoran.[[/note]]
49	* TheGodsMustBeLazy: The Pah-wraiths are ''far'' more proactive than the Prophets. This is actually justified - the Prophets' best bet for protecting the universe is to keep their distance and remain apart from the mortal/temporal realm, while the Pah-wraiths want to bridge the distance and reunite with their brethren, even though it means destroying creation.
50	* GodzillaThreshold: Not only has the Federation made allies of the Borg, they're engaged in multiple attempts to alter the timeline despite several reasons to think this is a bad idea and have suspended the Prime Directive to allow an invasion of the Mirror Universe in hopes of creating a safe haven there.
51	* TheGreys: Implicitly, the Reticulii.
52	* HeroicSacrifice: At the end of the third book, Jake [[spoiler:attempts to blow up the ''Defiant'' in order to save the station and the rest of the crew]]. For some reason (probably the [[DeusExMachina intervention of the Prophets]]), it doesn't happen; something else happens to resolve the issues.
53	* HiddenDepths: The story of "The Admiral" gets quite strange when Rom turned out to have a surprising (and given the circumstances, slightly ''alarmingly'' in-depth) knowledge of certain parts of Tellarite anatomy and the depictions thereof in certain less-than-reputable places.
54	* IBelieveICanFly: Weyoun can levitate, thanks to the Wormhole Aliens.
55	* ImpossiblyCoolWeapon: The electric mini-''bat'leth'' wielded by [[TheNapoleon Base]].
56	* InSpiteOfANail: The book's timeline diverges shortly after "The Sound of Her Voice" but before "Tears of the Prophets". Dukat's part in the later still happened in the alternate timeline, and needless to say he was a little annoyed to find his work there going all for naught.
57	* {{Interquel}}: The Present Day segments of the Trilogy are set during the tail end of Season Six (specially in-between "The Sound of Her Voice" and "Tears of the Prophets").
58	* LargeHam: We can't actually hear him, of course, but there's ''no way'' Kosst Dukat isn't this.
59	* LossOfIdentity: To Jean-Luc Picard, of all people. By 2400, his Irumodic Syndrome has progressed to the point where he has lost almost all contact with reality, forever having imaginary conversations with his long-dead friends from the ''Enterprise-D''. [[CrapsackWorld And he's basically in charge of Starfleet.]]
60	* MissingTime: Neither Odo, Quark or Garak can recall what happened the night of the Cardassian withdrawal from Terok Nor. Quark is the only one who will admit it, though. His attempt to find answers irritates Odo and Garak, who refuse to discuss or acknowledge that they're in the same situation.
61	** LaserGuidedAmnesia: It's revealed that Odo and Quark at least were memory-wiped with a treatment [[spoiler:administered by Dr. Bashir six years in the future]]. The same treatment was ''tried'' on Garak, but it's hinted it wouldn't work, and that the past Garak would have to take a different treatment to make sure that his memory was wiped properly.
62	-->'''Sisko:''' And did you?\
63	'''Garak:''' ''[smiles]'' Really, captain, I can't remember.
64	* MySpeciesDothProtestTooMuch: Arla Rees. A Bajoran atheist, she is actively and somewhat obsessively opposed to her people's faith, believing the Prophets to be conquering aliens who have stunted Bajoran culture in order to keep them passive and compliant. She bitterly acknowledges how at odds she is with the rest of her people, saying that sometimes she thinks she's the only one who "sees it". [[spoiler:By the end of the series, she becomes religious, just not exactly worshipping the Prophets.]]
65	* {{Nanomachines}}: The Grigari use these; they serve as TheCorruption.
66	* TheNapoleon: Base, the world's smallest and most angrily homicidal Ferengi.
67	* NotSoHarmlessVillain: Future Weyoun is AffablyEvil, and also a little comical. He is not to be underestimated, though, and when he tires of the heroes' interference, he shows just how dangerous he is. He also managed to [[spoiler: destroy the universe]].
68	* OmnicidalManiac: Dukat and Kosst Amojan. They aren't the only people out to destroy creation, but the others have far more sensical motives.
69	* ThePhoenix: The Romulans have a similar myth; in their culture, the flaming bird is Alth'Indor.
70	* PingPongNaievete: Arla Rees goes from pretentiously stuffed shirt who thinks she can tell Ben Sisko how to run his station minutes after walking in to being utterly useless when asked to command a ship, leaving Ben to wonder just how the hell she even got to the rank of commander.
71	* ProphecyTwist: The Bajoran religious prophecies, along with the basic principles of the faith itself, were written [[spoiler: by refugees from the timeship ''Phoenix'' originating in another timeline, who crossed over into our timeline 30,000 years ago]].
72	* RageAgainstTheHeavens: Obanak... maybe? He's definitely at the center of the convoluted plan which, broadly speaking, means making fools of all the various types of Wormhole aliens. The question of whether he considers them gods or aliens is... complex, and the answer seems to change from moment to moment, in keeping with his belief that something can be two mutually exclusive things at the same time -- just like how Sisko is both the Emissary and a Starfleet officer.
73	* ResetButton: At the end of the third book, the station is restored to normal despite being visibly destroyed in the first, and ''most'' of the people who made it to the ''Defiant'' have returned. It's apparent that [[DeusExMachina the Prophets]] [[AWizardDidIt lent a helping hand here]].
74	* RetroactivePrecognition: Many of the more notable Bajoran prophecies, thanks to the Timeship ''Phoenix''.
75	* TheRightOfASuperiorSpecies: Leej Terrell [[FantasticRacism considers the Bajorans little more than cattle]], and refuses to accept that Cardassia was doing anything wrong in enslaving them. Indeed, she tells Sisko that humanity's biggest problem is its refusal to distinguish "truly sapient" races like the Vulcans from "stock" like the Bajorans.
76	* RousingSpeech: Amusingly, Weyoun doesn't feel the need to give one as the day of the final reckoning dawns.
77	* ScaryDogmaticAliens: The Grigari, who are fanatical and deadly enough to scare the Borg. The Bajoran Ascendancy, which is one giant doomsday cult fighting to destroy the universe. The Wormhole Aliens, which are fighting a three-way war that threatens to tear the mortal realm apart. Even the newly Vulcan-dominated Starfleet. And we mustn't forget Kosst Dukat:
78	-->Can I have an Amojan?!!
79	* SealedEvilInACan: Kosst Amojan and his followers (the banished Pah-wraiths cast from the Celestial Temple into the Fire Caves). However, the straightforward Pah-wraith plotline of the TV series, which disappointed some fans in its bog-standard simplicity, is made far more complex here. For one thing, the Fire Cave Pah-wraiths are not the only ones; indeed, they're a minority. They no more represent the Pah-wraiths as a whole than they do the prophets.
80	* SenselessSacrifice: Thomas Riker tries to tackle Kai Weyoun off a cliff; the same Kai Weyoun he's worked with for years, and should know has the ability to float. Garak sees this decision coming and realizes what an idiot he's being.
81	* ServantRace: The Grigari seem to be servants of the Ascendancy, [[spoiler: yet are actually controlling Weyoun. However, they do seem to be genuine servants of the Pah-wraiths]].
82	* SiblingTeam: The Andorian sisters Satr and Leen, in the first book.
83	* SpannerInTheWorks: Leej Terrell manages to imprison most of the command crew in one of Quark's holosuites. It nearly works--but the imprisonment causes problems in Vic's holoprogram, and he crosses into Terrell's program to find out what's happening. As a result, he's able to free the crew from the holosuite.
84	* StableTimeLoop: The War of the Prophets is a stable time loop that transcends a single timeline, and connects multiple realities together. It's hinted in the epilogue that ''all'' timelines are linked, and ultimately part of a larger network, that might one day be explored just as the Federation explores space.
85	** The current timeline actually ''requires'' the BadFuture to have happened as depicted, and yet the current timeline's actual "future" is completely distinct. Conversely, the BadFuture has [[spoiler:the universe completely cease to exist as the Earth calendar rolls over to the year 2400, among other calendar changes happening at the exact same time, yet references are made to events that happened ''after'' that time, such as how the ''Enterprise'' had an encounter with a 26th-century timeship]]. The epilogue describes the result as "circles wheeling within circles".
86	* SugaryMalice: Kai Winn only makes a physical appearance briefly at the end of book 1, but she's on her usual form. Sure, Emissary, she's just ''thrilled'' to be called up whenever he likes. Not like she has ''anything else'' she might be doing with her valuable time, but then if the Emissary says so, who's ''she'' to argue?
87	* TemporalMutability: Discussed to a degree when Vash tries to argue that they can go back in time by taking the Orb of Prophecy from Bajor; according to the laws of temporal physics, once someone has travelled in time to another period of history, they are subtly out of sequence with the wider universe, making it impossible for them to travel in time by any means other than the method they already used to come to this time period in the first place. This may explain why [[spoiler:Sisko, Kira, and Odo are (at first) out of phase with respect to the living beings on the station when they return to it in the third book]].
88	* TrickedOutTime: The goal of Admiral Picard's ''Phoenix'' project. [[spoiler:It works -- and then the Ascendancy tricks out time right back.]]
89	* UnstuckInTime: In the third book, the heroes become this by default when they visit the stations inside the wormhole; they keep shifting back and forth through time with the temporal displacement waves that wash across them. Weyoun and Dukat are ''not'' affected in the same way, however...and both of them can force people to be "in phase" unless they're holding on to someone who isn't (Dukat does so with Quark, and Weyoun does so with Sisko, Kira, Bashir, and possibly Garak). At first, the characters are ''so'' out of phase with the current time that they can't be seen, heard, or felt by any ''people'' native to the time they visit, but they ''can'' interact with the station itself. This particular quirk clears up quickly, however.
90	* TheVoiceless: Played with but ultimately reaffirmed for Morn. Just as Morn never speaks on screen, so the novels never give him dialogue (despite mentioning how he's actually a chatterbox). In the first book of this trilogy, it briefly looks like Morn has been given dialogue. Turns out it's actually Odo taking Morn's form.
91	* WeComeInPeaceShootToKill: This is used as a cover story by the Grigari in the alternate future. They "mistook Earth's intense sensor scans" for an attack, then "fired a warning shot" that they "didn't realize would overwhelm the planetary defenses". Result: EarthShatteringKaboom.
92	* WeaponOfMassDestruction: Quite a few in the CrapsackWorld future, including a nova bomb, nanoplagues and planet-destroying "deep time" bombs.
93	* WellDoneSonGuy: For all he no longer has slavish devotion to the Founders, Weyoun still desperately craves approval from Odo.
94	* WellIntentionedExtremist: Sisko wonders if Leej Terrell is this. At first she seems nothing more than a megalomaniac, but Sisko begins to consider if she's actually serious about her proposed "pax Cardassia". The golden age she says she's working for might be a genuine dream - not that it excuses her actions.
95	* WoundedGazelleGambit: Vash appears to have been hit by a toxic dart in an assassination attempt, and is rushed to the infirmary, unconscious. The poison is an Andorian neurotoxin, implicating the Andorians Satr and Leen, who are rivals to Vash (and particularly shady characters). It is not in fact fatal to Humans, though, and Vash fully recovers. She later mentions the toxin by name in a throw-away comment, alerting Bashir that she planned the whole thing - [[INeverSaidItWasPoison because he never mentioned the name, and there are dozens of neurotoxins it could have been]]. It turns out Vash injected herself with the dart.
96	* YouAlreadyChangedThePast: The reason Project Phoenix fails in its primary intent; remains of significant parts of the ship are found in the past before the mission is even launched.
97	* YouWillBeBeethoven: Implied with the crew of the ''Phoenix'' that actually travelled to the past; they likely became [[spoiler:the mystics Shabren, Eilin, and Naradim]].

Context Literature / StarTrekMillennium