By Owen Quinn author of the Time Warriors and Zombie Blues
With the discovery of the wormhole into the Gamma Quadrant it at first seemed a great opportunity for exploration and to expand the charter of the Federation. However in season three, it would become a gateway for a new and terrible threat that would change the landscape of Deep Space 9 forever.
Through season two of the show we heard rumour of the Dominion and it would be a simple camping trip that would introduce us to the lethal foot soldiers of the Dominion, the Jem’hadar.
When a quarrelling Ben Sisko and nature hating Quark accompany Jake and Nog to a planet for a school project, they meet a mysterious woman, Eris, being hunted by the Jem’Hadar. They are captured while Jake and Nog escape to the runabout and try unsuccessfully to get back to the Alpha Quadrant.
The Jem’hadar reveal the Dominion will no longer tolerate Federation intrusion into Dominion territory. They can walk through forcefields, move undetected and deliver the message directly to Kira and the rest of the crew. A rescue mission is launched, which includes the Odyssey; a galaxy class starship identical to the much beloved Enterprise.
The Odyssey along with the runabouts go through the wormhole. O’Brien rescues a frightened Nog and Jake in their damaged runabout before rescuing Quark, Sisko and Eris. The Jem’hadar attack and in the course of that battle they prove just how determined and ruthless that are in combat.
As the heavily damaged Odyssey turns to retreat back to the wormhole, a lone Jem’hadar ship commits a suicide run smashing into the ship. It explodes killing everyone on board. The shocked DS9 crew cannot believe the aliens just destroyed a reteating ship. This tells them about the new enemy; they are prepared to sacrifice themselves in order to take down the Federation. They have no compassion or regard for the rules of combat. Thankfully the Odyssey was empty of families or they would have persihed too. Such is their determination to keep the Federation on their side of the hole, the Jem’hadar are prepared to go to any lengths to ensure that happens. We would learn why in the season three premier The Search.
They would also find that Eris is in fact part of the Dominion and almost succeeded in becoming a part of the station residents who would be spying for the Dominion. Sisko vows to be ready for the impending attack.
What is most shocking about this scene is that the brutality of the Jem’hadar and how single minded they are. It sets the tone for literally the rest of the entire run as the war from season four begins. It will be long and bloody impacting our characters in ways they never thought and far from the optimistic Starfleet charters. This would be seen in The Valiant, Only a Paper Moon, The sound of her Voice and In the Pale Moonlight to name but a few. Those stories are as hard hitting as the scene of the Odyssey’s destruction.
It was a clever move to make her look exactly like the Enterprise so the moment we see her destroyed, we cannot help but think of our beloved Enterprise crew going up in flames. As Sisko says it is a message to them as to how far they are willing to go to keep the Federation where they are. Everything changes drastically from this moment forward as Deep Space 9 changes the face of Star Trek forever and endures today as the best of the spin offs.
The Dominion is here and nothing will ever be the same again.
The Time Warriors and Beyond 