posted 06-05-99 09:52 PM ET        

But moving on to questions/complaints (the fun part): Was Gul Dukat the same guy who commanded DS9 when the Dominion took it over and got captured? How did he know that he wouldn't die, and he would be "chosen" by the Pah-Wraithes? And why did he know so little (or feign he knew so little) to the Adami (Kai Winn, is it?)? If he knew he was the one, couldn't he have simply killed her and taken the book? If he can teleport the book out of the whiny Adami's hands, then why couldn't he teleport himself and the book out of the flames when Sisko took 'em both over the waterfall, a la Sherlock Holmes & Moriarty (great scene, by the way)? Why was the Adami so big on the Pah-Wraithes and against the Prophets? Don't the Bajornans worship the Prophets? Why did Dukat forget to keep Sisko immobilized when he was busy making a crispy critter of the Adami? Even if he can only do one thing at once with his new powers, he could at least split the angle between Sisko and the Adami so he could keep an eye on both, and change his focus if needed. And why didn't the Adami just silently throw the book in, instead of saying "Hey, I'm going to foil your plans" and triumphantly holding the book high over her head (where it will take longer to drop)? And for that matter, why did she start worshipping the Pah-Wraiths in the first place? And wouldn't that get her kicked out of her position on Bajor? What happened to the Cardassian occupying force there, anyway? Plus, I don't buy the "chant magic words and bad things happen." ST has usually offered a weak, semi-plausible explanation for magic-like events, but I'd be delighted to hear how they explain the Pah-Wraithes, who respond only to special words spoken in the right language and need sacrifices to work properly. Is Sisko a Prophet now or not? It would be simple if he just said "I ascended to heaven, Star-Trek style," but he claims that he's still the Emissary and still has work to do. That seems odd. Concerning Cardassia... why send ground troops to kill the Cardassians (which provides the plot device for how a ragtag band of Cardassians and major Kira can take over Dominion HQ)? THat would be a bloody and tough affair, and would result in serious losses. Why not simply destroy the cities with artillery from space (like they seemed to do) and then hunt down stragglers in the country later? And why weren't there any automated defense systems inside to prevent this? And why were they so monumentally stupid to leave such a small force, anyway? Whatever happened to the Breen? How come so few seem to be left- why did they invade the Federation if they weren't in for the long hall? And what happened to that energy weapon of theirs? Why weren't the commanders at the battle-site independent enough to notice that their center was weak? How come Odo didn't simply get re-infected when he linked with the Founder? As far as I know, disease spreads, but healthiness doesn't. How come the Cardassians waited until the battle was halfway over to betray themselves? Shooting at your soon-to-be allies isn't going to help. And another fundamental question that a non-ST fanatic misses- why do the Shapeshifters want to conquer the Alpha Quadrant? They seemed to be happy on their little water-world. Aside from they fact they're dying from that nasty virus, of course.

posted 06-06-99 12:01 PM ET            

"Was Gul Dukat the same guy who commanded DS9 when the Dominion took it over and got captured?"

Well... he was the guy who commanded it during the Occupation when it was Terok Nor, and he also commanded it in between the time the Dominion took it over and the Federation liberated it.

"Why was the Adami so big on the Pah-Wraithes and against the Prophets?"

Well, a few episodes back, Dukat came to the Kai as a Bajoran. She'd gotten a vision from the Prophets that she would soon get a Guide, and figured that that Guide was Dukat. However, unbeknownst to her, Dukat was in league with the Pah-Wraiths, and they, well... shagged. This pissed off the Prophets and they wouldn't talk to her anymore. Then she actually found oot Dukat was working for the Pah-Wraiths, so she got angry at the Prophets because she'd done so much for her and they'd just abandoned her like that.

"Why did Dukat forget to keep Sisko immobilized when he was busy making a crispy critter of the Adami?"

Because of that picky rule which says villains who have telekinetic powers can only do one thing at a time.

"What happened to the Cardassian occupying force there, anyway?"

They went away about seven years ago when the Bajoran resistance started costing them too much.

"Concerning Cardassia... why send ground troops to kill the Cardassians (which provides the plot device for how a ragtag band of Cardassians and major Kira can take over Dominion HQ)? THat would be a bloody and tough affair, and would result in serious losses. Why not simply destroy the cities with artillery from space (like they seemed to do) and then hunt down stragglers in the country later?"

Because their long-range communications were oot and they couldn't talk to the Breen and Jem'Hadar in orbit. That's also why they couldn't warn the Jem'Hadar aboot the weakness in their lines. Besides, who cares if you lose Jem'Hadar? You can always clone more.

"Whatever happened to the Breen? How come so few seem to be left- why did they invade the Federation if they weren't in for the long hall?"

A lot of their numbers got decimated-- they were in for the long haul, but they were under the Dominion's authority, so when the Dominion surrendered (which I consider as a monumentally cheap going-oot-of-character cheating me oot of a cool space battle), the Breen surrendered as well.

"And what happened to that energy weapon of theirs?"

Kira and a bunch of Cardassian rebels liberated a Breen ship with an example of that weapon a couple of episodes before. My guess is that they reverse-engineered it pretty quick and figured oot how to defend against it.

"Why weren't the commanders at the battle-site independent enough to notice that their center was weak?"

Because Jem'Hadar aren't trained to notice pithy little things like that. They're just trained to blow up the enemy.

"And another fundamental question that a non-ST fanatic misses- why do the Shapeshifters want to conquer the Alpha Quadrant?"

I believe it's because they don't like solids. A healthy dose of megalomania wouldn't hurt, either.