One of the questions I often return to is who are the most terrifying villains in all of Star Trek. The Borg are an obvious possible answer. As robot zombies, their very existence existence They are terrifying. They are also relentless and virtually unstoppable, even in the face of Starfleet's advanced technology. However, it could be argued that the Dominion are the most terrifying villains because they are created as an evil mirror image of the Federation. What could a powerful group like the Federation do without morality? Conquer a quarter of the galaxy, of course!
We saw this in the series «Deep Space Nine» , which spent two and a half seasons building tension before the final two seasons focused on the all-out war between Starfleet and the Dominion. This sinister organization was first mentioned in the second season episode "Rules of Acquisition," when the writers had no idea who or what the Dominion was. To spare fans endless speculation about this new group or how important it would be, the producers decided to hide these villains in plain sight. That's why they were first mentioned in one of the most ridiculous episodes ever!
Meet the most terrifying villains from Star Trek.
«"Rules of Acquisition" is one of the most controversial episodes of "» Deep Space Nine» : a Ferengi episode. These episodes were typically intended as crude comedies, which displeased some fans. Sometimes they even irritated the writers and producers, who believed Star Trek should stick to relatively serious science fiction plots. In any case, in "Rules of Acquisition," Grand Nagus Zek, a Ferengi, sought to establish business relations in the Gamma Quadrant. Upon learning that this meant collaborating with the Dominion, the alien attempted (and failed) to learn everything he could about this mysterious empire.
«Dominion was created only because the creators «Deep Space Nine» wanted to explore the Gamma Quadrant for the first time, which became even more important because the spin-off «Voyager» was going to constantly explore the Delta Quadrant. As reported in «Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Sourcebook» , future showrunner DS9 Ira Steven Behr understood that exploring the Gamma Quadrant would also differentiate his series from previous Star Trek series. "The existence of the Gamma Quadrant alongside «Deep Space 9» "It wouldn't do the show any good if it just remained an unexplored space," he said. "They spent three years on it. original series and seven years in «"Next generation »"We needed to define this space.".
Hidden in plain sight
There was just one problem. When "Rules of Acquisition" was being written, the writers nothing knew nothing about the Dominion other than its name. If they'd made the Dominion a big deal, fans would have been endlessly speculating, and we all know how that ends: the reveal of the villain's identity would have been a disappointment compared to what everyone had imagined. So the writers did a clever thing: they hid the first mention of the Dominion in a comedic episode about the Ferengi. After all, it's hard to guess that this mysterious group would define the entire series when there's a storyline about Quark and his attention-seeking, cross-dressing employee!
The plan worked, and almost no one watching the first episode of "Rules of Acquisition" realized how important the Dominion's role would be. This gave the writers and producers time to fully flesh out these iconic villains before their first on-screen appearance in the season two finale, "Jem'Hadar." Even then, it was difficult to predict how these villains would change the series and help transform «Deep Space Nine» in the best Star Trek series. Luckily, their first mention was hidden in the most unexpected place: in the episode where Quark nearly goes to jail for treating a woman as anything other than a naked servant.