The worst thing after the Dominion War was the sharp decline in writing quality in the Star Trek universe.

I feel like the Dominion basically won the war. All of their power in their own quadrant remained and all they lost were their gains in the Alpha quadrant and a number of soldiers they didnt care about anyway, while the alpha quadrant was left in ruins

The Dominion war was definitely the most significant event in Star Trek history. They came the closest of any Federation enemies to beating them and Gul Dukat was just one Sisko visit to the wormhole Prophets away from pulling off the ultimate victory. Sisko saved the Federation with multiple well time actions from the initial help he got from the Prophets to working with Garak to trick the Romulans into joining the Federation and Klingon alliance.

We do know from recent Picard episodes that some of the founders have indeed split off and are trying to restart the war.

Finally done dominion war clarification. Perfect timing since Picard is referenced it

A note about Laas. He is likely dead. Odo was used as the original vector for the disease by Section 31 and they linked at times while Odo was unknowingly infected. The disease progresses proportionally to how much shapeshifting and Changeling does.

I was kind of hoping that the Changeling in Picard was in charge of the fleet that the Prophets removed, but then realized that there's not really any way a fleet that size could sneak into the quadrant quietly.

The subtle change in the diplomatic situations in all the mentioned quadrants would be worth further exploration. The Breen were lucky that harsher terms were not placed on them.

I've read that Cardassia would with a lot of help from The Federation to rebuild their planet might look something like Japan's change in culture, and booming economy after the U.S. guided it during, and after occupation. The outcome of The Dominion War kind of seems more similar to what happened after The Korean War because North Korea was left intact, the pre-war borders were restored, but neither side really gained anything except stronger, more streamlined militaries.

That splinter faction is exactly what we seem to be getting in this season of Picard

Easy, they all lived in peace and harmony, meeting twice a month to hold hands and dance around an exotic meadow under a six moon sky. And then...

There was only one loser in the Dominion War, the Cardassians. The Dominion got the Feddies out of their territory. The Klingons got more territory. The Federation got a moral victory. The Romulans got to look good. The Breen kept their isolation.

The issue with Laas is that since Odo was the unaware carrier of the virus that infected the great link before he met Laas, he was also unaware that he passed it onto Laas. So any link that Laas would have created with the other lost changelings would've been infected as well and eventually die.

I am so glad the Dominion has become relevant again in recent Trek media.

Given that this event is sort of the end of the story for the old Trek shows chronologically, I enjoy getting to learn more about where things might've gone from there. Thank you very much for these videos. I love some good Trek lore. God be with you out there everybody. ✝️ :)

Thought Laas would have been unknowingly infected by Odo with the virus and died somewhere else.

What about the Romulan anti Founder technology? The device that prevented Odo from being able to shapeshift and thus caused "issues" when it was bucket time … If that could be extrapolated into a large area field then Founder infiltration would be very difficult.

Yeeeesss! And now IDW is releasing an official sequel series with Benjamin Sisko! Great content as always!

I really like the progression we see in STO. I may wish that we got more than fighting but those battles do lead to a large portion of the major powers of the entire galaxy working together. I mean while watching ds9 who would have thought that we would have seen the Romulans, Klingons, and the dominion all working together with the federation to save sol. I do feel the game gets the ideals of mutual cooperation right.

Great choice Rick as usual. I was wondering what had happened after that. I get a few hints from your online gaming vids but thanks for the actual info.

Thanks for the great video. I always wondered what happened after the Dominion War. I find that very exciting. That the Dominion had to withdraw completely from the Alpha Quadrant is clear. But was the Federation allowed to fly through the wormhole into the Gamma Quadrant? After all, that is Dominion territory. I also find the topic with Laas very exciting. There are just so many issues with the development after the war. The open theme with the missing Dominion fleet (2800 vessels, wow!) in the wormhole is also great. Man, I love all topics with DS9 and the Dominion.

Thanks again Rick for the informitive video. Really enjoyed it.

Watching this after Picard S03E05 makes it more awesome.

I am surprised someone didn't go after the Breen. In my follow-up series, I had a rogue Federation fleet defect and start a war and they targeted the Breen for their attack on Earth and for being "traitors".

I like to think that the Vorta that Odo traveled with were Weyoun, Kivan, and Yogrin and that Odo came back to the Alpha Quadrant to bid on Quarks body after Quark's death. Odo then used Quark's remains to clone Quark and uses these clones to fulfill his desires by throwing the clones in prison and/or killing them. We know from that one episode of Star Trek: Voyager that killing holograms on the Holodeck is not the same thing as killing a real flesh and blood being.

Another great vid

I think if the Borg survive their encounter with Species 8472, some day there will be a war between them and the Dominion. If not between Species 8472 and the Dominion.

Fantastic summary of events since the war. I didn't particularly like DS 9 but I still hung on every word.

I would love to see a series set in this era

A day doesnt seem long enough for a complete withdrawal. Did the writers think that one through?

Amazing stuff

Interesting timing given Picard session 3 recently dropped.

Good timing with its reference in Picard S3

The sad thing about Laas is that although he was a xenophobe, he did leave Odo to search for other Changelings. If Laas is infected with the virus, he may pass that onto any of the other 100 Infant Changelings out there that Laas meets, despite the fact that they had nothing to the War or the genocide. Though Laas was a lost cause as far as his ability to trust or care for any solids because he was so prejudiced.

This helps to fill in some of the Star Trek universe.

I really enjoy your content. Peace! \o/

I’m not sure if it was really necessary to the overall point, but the fact that the Karemma delegation in Lower Decks was the first trade talks with the Dominion since the war backs up the idea that diplomacy has been icy. Also it’s funny how many comments are talking like you don’t know Picard S3 is happening, when I figure you just wrote it that way to acknowledge it without spoiling anyone who hasn’t seen it yet lol

I really enjoyed how things with the Dominion played out in STO!

Why does no one address the fact that Odo linked with Laas after he had been infected by section 31, which means either Laas died from the disease alone, or if he did form his own mini-link that that would have suffered the disease.

That was my favorite part of STO, the diminion ships coming back and then the new missions into the Gamma quadrant. Very fun! Very replayable! I was actually invested un the game, rather than skip skip skip, spacebar space bar space bar, pick loot, repeat.

there is a fan 'Y/T Audio drama' that supposes that a Dominion outpost remained on Turkana IV, Tasha Yar's home planet. The residents were happy that the Jem'Hadar put down the violent gangs and preserved order on the planet. It's been unfinished for quite a while but makes for an interesting listen.

The Dominion would have likely never came to the Alpha Quadrant had The Federation stopped using the wormhole to explore the Gamma Quadrant. They weren't like the Borg. But once they did invade, they hammered the Federation to near submission. Had it not been for the "Evil" Section 31, the Federation would have been brought to heel. Once you subject your people to the horror of war, you have two options. You can surrender, ask for the best terms to save lives. Or you can go full bore until you bring your opponent to surrender. That's not gonna happen without death, destruction, and crossing multiple moral lines. You either die a hero, or you live long enough to see yourself become the villian. Remember history is written by the victors. Both sides have children, and are just looking to survive.

I had this on my watch later from when this dropped, and in the meantime all of the card season 3 played, and it would like a word

Everyone made friends and all lived happily ever after!

Was good to see Rene contribute to Star Trek:Online content before his passing.

Im just finally happy that we are now finally having follow ups to the dominion war. This was one of the major beefs i had with modern trek, how could you proceed with the series going forward without mentioning the biggest event that effected the powersin the alpha and beta quadrant ever? They just treated it like it never happend yet we know that it must have had major effects on it i mean heck Wolf 359 effects are still being felt decades later and that was far smaller in scale than that as it effected not just one power but everything in 3 quadrants of the galaxy. Now we learn that a splinter faction has formed within the Dominion and are hell bent on revenge and this has probably the biggest interesting story i have had in modern trek since the 90's trek era.

I personally prefer bajor staying independent but a federation ally. It would also make more sense being only a few years since the occupation.

Picard may pick up on some of this. Spoiler alert, it's definitely being "hinted at"...... i think there definitely could be an update on this video soon.

I have a dealing the “LAAS Link” is what is fighting the Federation in Picard season 3!!

Interesting with what you suggested going into Picard Season 3.

i think S3 Picard is going to add.. or change alot of what you said about what they are doing now.

Sounds like you haven't seen the latest episodes of Picard, as their is a splinter group of changlings that are trying to re-start the war in the show.

I hope they add a wildcard factor to ST Picard as otherwise as Ric' points out they are immortals if you know you have more time ahead of you than you have behind (millenia) then you'd be very risk averse and only the collective consciousness aspect of the great link would keep you in moral check. For rogue Changelings I can see a promise of being welcomed back to the great link is a reason they would risk their life for as living without it is a prison sentence not a life... unless they learn to "adapt". which is likely possible as Odo did.

i wonder what would happen if ARMUS were to be taken from vagra II by section 31 and poured into the laas link? personally i think would make for an interesting ark in STO. think about it: you and your away team transport to the surface of Orias, only to find that all plant life is corrupted/destroyed, and in the place of the laas link, a jet black lake, and from the center of that lake a humanoid figure slowly rises and walks directly towards you. the figure has an appearance of a inky black human silhouette, nothing can be seen on its face save for a wide sharp toothed grin (think venom but no eyes or spider emblem) and to your horror, you find out that all vorta and jem'hadar formally controlled by the laas link have been transformed into armus infused zombies. armus reveals to you that his ultimate goal is to go to the great link and absorb it, thus transforming himself into a dark god of destruction and chaos. what are your thoughts on my "armus ark" idea?

this is all well and good but what about quark's short term quarterly gains after the war?!?

The other question is what happened to the Cardassians (in their territory)? The Cardassian "Empire" is broken and vulnerable, their best option would be to become a Federation 'vassal' and try to eventually join the Federation. That would provide them protection and much needed help in rebuilding. To stand by themselves, right next to the Kligons, would not be a smart move. And with most of their military and government wiped out by the Dominion in the last hours of the war, they would have had a major internal shift in their power structure - it had just been systematically eliminated!!

Do you have a video on the lost 2800 Dominion warships in your Star Trek Online playlist?

It does stand to reason that post Voyager's return from the Delta Quadrant in Star Trek's canon; the Romulan Star Empire swept into the Delta Quadrant and took the Borg completely out of action; as it seems as though that's where they got the resources to set up the scams in the early "Picard" series for one example- plus the Rihannsu Imperium is one *extremely opportunistic* society, as well as incredibly predatory, and the Borg were really on the ropes very soon after Janeway disabled the Borg Transwarp network. *Added* to that, there's "Hugh" and his line about the Borg now being basically slaves to be warehoused, used, or eradicated as their neighbors deem necessary., and the Romulans are quite well known to enslave those they subdue. Plus, we've got the legacy of Commander Shinzon's campaigns, both in the Dominion front *and* apparently his devastation of the Borg Collective as well- prior to his use of a radiological weapon to subjugate the Romulans, a campaign shown clearly canonically in the movie "Nemesis" where his operations go badly off-kilter and he ends up dying due to his operations.

I wonder if The Dominion actually want a peaceful relationship with The UFP or the Alpha Quadrant..... Everyone knows the old saying, "Keep your friends close. Keep your enemies closer."

in the final episode sisko gives his approval as the emmisary for bajor to join UFP

There should be a new DS9 series picking up 20 years after the previous series ended. Bring back a few of the old crew (Kira would be a MUST). There are an endless number of storylines.

Skrreea race wasn't mentioned. I think that was an oversight. The Sanctuary episode was important about how the Federation treats refugees. It was a shame this was one shot and no follow up and what happened to them.

I wouldn't mind seeing a story where the young alpha quadrant link starts a war and the UFP reaches out to the dominion to help stop it to avoid hurting or killing any changlings. It could be a nice development in the story showing the dominion that solids can care about peace with them.

Section 31 was reviled, but the end to the Dominion War came about not because the combined Klingon/UFP/Romulan fleet (with the Cardassians who changed sides) beat their way to Cardassia, since the 'female' changeling had declared that she would make any victory for the opposing forces as bitter as defeat, but because Odo was able to share his experiences/cure for the disease S31 had engineered, and persuade her to end things. (Which I always though was a little anti-climactic). Had S31 NOT given them the disease, it is doubtful that the female would have capitulated simply because Odo had some good (and bad) experiences with the solids. S31 was fulfilling its remit to deal with threats to the UFP, and the Founders purpose for the war was to subjugate the Alpha quadrant, which by the end included the mass extermination of the population of Earth - as well as the mass executions on Cardassia to eradicate ITS population ordered by the Female Changeling. When dealing with an enemy which wants to reduce you to slavery or just kill you it's hard to justify a softly softly approach.

I wonder, did you create this episode because of Picard Season 3 episode 4 as there is changelings in that episode, if not well that’s a interesting coincidence.

Opinion: you should clarify when info comes from the Kurtzverse in the same way you specify K-line and Beta sources

"Well you see son there's this thing called Thalaron Radiation..."

also, I don't know when this video was made but being that it was released today and we found out last Thursday on Picard that there was a splinter group of changelings that did not agree with peace with the federation and alpha quadrant species, that makes the information in this video already out of date because you stated that there could possibly be such a splinter group and it has been confirmed that there was.

You completely left out all of the events of STP:S3 with the renegade Changelings forming a devil's bargain with the surviving Borg. But I agree too, I would like to see the Laas and the 200 story in canon as that never was fully explored.

I actually like the idea that bajor remains independent but has very close ties to the federation, sort of the Sweden or Norway to the EU. With the federation being trading partners and helping with any issues related to the wormhole and cardassians. Maybe they join at some point in the future when it's more necessary but so soon after occupation they want to be independent for a bit and provee themselves before joining the federation.

Welp given the reveal In Picard I’d say the founders are quietly in a Civil War

Are the new changelings part of the 100 that were sent out with Odo

Odo also provides a sort of balance to the whole thing... 🤔

I'd love to sit across from Jean-Luc and politely & Silently watch him explain again how Star Fleet Isn't a "military organization" You're on JLP, have at it. You have my full attention.

Not requiring the Dominion to mostly disarm shows that the Federation learned one of the lessons from the Treaty of Versailles, lol.

I would thought Laas dead from the Section 31 disease implanted in Odo when they linked unless that visit to Starfleet medical was long afterwards?

Notice even Section 31 didn't initiate biological warfare against the Dominion until after the horrors of the Blight had been revealed. Seems to be a kind of poetic justice to me.

When I was doing fan-fics of what I'd do for a post-Dominion War show, I had these ideas: The United Federation of Planets was shaken up. Starfleet became far more militarised and even divided its fleet into three blocks: science vessels, multipurpose vessels, and combat vessels. It would have had to have done so to guarantee that worlds like Betazed and Benzar would remain in the Federation, since they would now be questioning whether to secede and maintain neutrality to guarantee their security if another major war broke out. So the Federation would have to be dealing with potential secessionists on worlds occupied during the war. It's still a utopia, but it's now a utopia with teeth. The Romulan Star Empire would have undergone gradual but wide-reaching change. Remus enthusiastically supported the war (think Shinzon) in the hopes it would gain them more equality (similar to India in WW1 with Britain), but ultimately did not, resulting in simmering resentment. Spock's reunification movement would have gained power as veterans returning from the war with a newfound respect for their Federation and Klingon allies started questioning whether their policy of hostility was really worth it. This would have led to division in Romulan society; with Remans, Spock's reunification movement, and war veterans on one side, and traditionalist elements on the other. The Klingon Empire would have been severely battered. Martok would have led a massive restoration of Klingon society which began to value all classes of society, similar to the Meiji Restoration of Japan. It simply could no longer afford to be warrior-driven. There would now be different castes to society that held equal standing in the Klingon High Council. It would have also had to deal with many internal rebellions from worlds which saw their chance to assert independence in the face of a weakened Klingon fleet. The Cardassian Union would have been the worst hit. They would be occupied after the war _a la_ Germany after WW2. Like Germany, the Allied forces would have poured a lot of resources into rebuilding Cardassia as a reliable ally moving forward, with the Federation & Klingons working to outmanoeuvre the Romulans. Maybe also the Ferengi Alliance would have gained inroads here too, helping to rebuild Cardassia's economy but with Ferengi mercantile influence in their society now. A peaceful civilian government would have taken control, and a treaty with the Federation would have been signed. The Federation would become a mediator between the Cardassians and the Klingons, essentially.

An alpha + gamma quadrant teamup Vs the Borg would be kinda nifty.

Great video, but I have one question. Lars linked with Odo so why didn't he get sick and spread it to the other changelings that he linked with?

This fantastic lore makes STD’s pollution/desecration of the far future Federation even more egregious.

What game are these graphics from?

What if the rebel faction of the changelings have joined forces with the pah wraiths (the rebel faction of the wormhole aliens)

I didn't like DS9 until Worf joined, now I consider it the best Star Trek

The dominion seemed to come out of the war on top. They only lost their alpha quadrant gains, military resources that were manufactured primarily in the alpha quadrant, and only had one leader surrender herself to be tried. Their original territory was left in tact, they suffered no loss to their infrastructure, and their political structure remained. The alpha quadrant powers suffered huge losses in life, and resources. The entire political landscape of every political power was altered, the cardassians were reduced from a powerful empire to a single world whose population was drastically reduced. Even the federation was destabilized to an extent.

Can you do a video on what happened to the other races (Klingon, romulan and the borg) after the burn?

Would have loved to see Admiral Marcus' ship 'Vengance' jump into the scrum. 😁👍

Did you read much of the Star Trek relaunches, including Star Trek: Coda? Or did you play STO?

"They had made many enemies and it wasn't like they could just turn the other cheek and disband their military." Star trek still makin that subtle social commentary.

Two questions fo you - would Laas not have caught the virus from Odo as it was after Odo was infected but before we knew about it's existence Also, did the founders only send 100 infants out to learn about other aces, how can there be 200 unless laas and a few others had made offspring? Finally, might it be worth updating the video based on Star Trek Picard season 3 with the changelings subverted attach on the Alpha Quadrant?

I honestly wonder what the foundrrs would think of a species like the cybertronians (transformers) their solid but their defining Attribute is transforming, not having a Single form

What happened after the dominion war? The writers realized that there was pretty much nothing left to explore and no new worlds left to discover, all 'unexplored' territory was now almost certainly hostile territory. Star Trek was supposed to be about exploration and discovery, not out and out warfare - therefore there were no new stories of exploration to tell. The franchise therefore hit a brick wall and progressive content ended, leaving only going back into the past as a viable option for new material.

Think of Cardassia as Japan doing WWII. Probably was the same after Dominion War.

On a random topic, Rick is so consistent with his work, that when Tim occasionally fills in, I’m like what madness is this?? Not that Tim does a bad job at all, just that hearing his voice instead of Rick’s, throws me off.

What happened after is that the writing and competent studios gave up on Star Trek.

should have launched Genesis devices on Cardassia Prime, The Breen Home World, and the founders home world.

What about Romulan Ale?? Was it made legal? As admiral Ross and co was drinking it when Romulas signed the pact to join the Dominion war, i dont think the treaty made it legal to drink at that point in time.

What about the ones that were in Picard season 3 the changelings there where anti the federation effect they were pretty much working as allies to the Borg

Something that never comes up in the Picard-related material (like PIC S1 and Last Best Hope) is that the Federation was *just* coming out of the Cardassian Marshall Plan when all of that stuff with the Romulans started happening. They'd just got done with one ground-up reconstruction of a heretofore hostile foreign power, and now they're being asked to do it again? On top of this potentially eating into resources to rebuild core Federation worlds like Betazed? It's little wonder that the UFP voters kinda hated it after not all that long.

Something I would be interested in learning is the basis for star dates. When/why did they start using them and what was the very first point in time? Anyone who knows please fill me in??