How Star Trek Hid Its Scariest Villains In Plain Sight

By Chris Snellgrove
| Published 23 seconds ago

One of the questions I frequently find myself coming back to is who the scariest villains in all of Star Trek are. The Borg are an obvious possible answer. As robot zombies, their very existence is kind of spooky. Plus, they are relentless and nearly unstoppable, even in the face of advanced Starfleet technology. However, you could make a case that the Dominion are truly the most frightening bad guys because they are designed as an evil mirror image of the Federation. What could a group as powerful as the Feds do without morals? Why, conquer a quarter of the galaxy, of course!

We saw that play out in Deep Space Ninea show which spent two and a half seasons ramping up the tension before the final two seasons focused on a massive war between Starfleet and the Dominion. This evil organization was first mentioned in the Season 2 episode “Rules of Acquisition,” during which the writers had no idea exactly who or what the Dominion would be. In order to keep fans from endlessly speculating about this new group or guessing how important they would be, producers decided to hide these villains in plain sight. That’s the real reason why they were first mentioned in one of the silliest episodes ever made!

Meet Star Trek’s Creepiest Bad Guys

“Rules of Acquisition” was one of the most divisive kinds of Deep Space Nine stories: a Ferengi episode. These episodes tended to be designed as broad comedies, which rubs some fans the wrong way. Sometimes, these episodes even annoyed writers and producers who thought that Star Trek should stick to telling relatively serious sci-fi stories. At any rate, “Rules of Acquisition” was a story in which the Ferengi Grand Nagus Zek wanted to open business relations in the Gamma Quadrant. Once he learns that means doing business with the Dominion, the alien tries (and fails) to learn everything he can about this mysterious empire.

The Dominion was only created because Deep Space Nine wanted to explore the Gamma Quadrant for the first time, something that became more important because the spinoff Voyager was going to constantly explore the Delta Quadrant. As reported by the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companionfuture DS9 showrunner Ira Steven Behr understood that exploring the Gamma Quadrant would also differentiate his show from previous Trek series. “The existence of the Gamma Quadrant next door to Deep Space Nine would not help the series if it remained just unexplored space,” he said. “They did three years of that on The Original Seriesand seven years on The Next Generation. We needed to define that space.”

Hidden In Plain Sight

There was just one problem. The writers knew nothing about the Dominion except for the name when “Rules of Acquisition” was written. If they made a big deal about the Dominion, then fans would begin endlessly speculating, and we all know how that goes: the eventual villain reveal would be disappointing compared to what everyone whipped up in their heads. Therefore, the writers did something very clever: they hid the first mention of the Dominion in a comedic Ferengi episode. After all, it’s hard to clock that this mystery group is going to define the entire series when there’s a will they/won’t they subplot about Quark and his thirsty, crossdressing employee!

The plan worked, and almost nobody watching the first broadcast of “Rules of Acquisition” understood how important the Dominion was going to be. This gave the writers and producers time to fully flesh out these iconic villains before they made their first onscreen appearance in the Season 2 finale “The Jem’Hadar.” Even then, it was hard to guess how these baddies were going to reshape the show and help transform Deep Space Nine into the best Star Trek series. Fortunately, their earliest mention was hidden in the last place you’d expect to find something important: an episode where Quark nearly gets imprisoned for treating a woman as anything but a naked bang maid.