Warning: SPOILERS for Star Trek: Prodigy Episode 6 – “Kobayashi”.
The USS Protostar has arrived in the Gamma Quadrant and Star Trek: Prodigy teases the return of the Dominion, the greatest villains from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. The ragtag crew of alien teenagers led by tutored by Hologram Janeway (Kate Mulgrew) discovered that the Protostar’s third engine is powered by a baby star. To escape the villainous Diviner, the Protostar activated its Proto Drive, which rocketed Starfleet’s fastest ship out of the Delta Quadrant and into the Gamma Quadrant in minutes.
The Gamma Quadrant was the purview of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine after the Bajoran Wormhole was discovered to be a direct portal to that region of the galaxy mostly unexplored by the United Federation of Planets. Instead, the Gamma Quadrant was ruled by the Dominion, a fascistic order created by the Founders, the race of shapeshifters who count Odo (Rene Auberjonois) as part of their liquid-based race. The Founders genetically engineered the Vorta as their administrators and the mighty Jem’Hadar as their unstoppable army. The latter seasons of DS9 centered on the Dominion War, when the Gamma Quadrant’s invaders joined with the Cardassians and nearly conquered the Alpha Quadrant, despite the alliance between the Federation and the Klingons. Although Gul Dukat (Marc Alaimo) was the arch-enemy of DS9‘s Captain Benjamin Sisko (Avery Brooks), the Dominion rivaled the Borg as the greatest threat the Federation faced in the 24th century.
Hologram Janeway was shocked when the USS Protostar traveled 4,000 lightyears from the Delta Quadrant in Star Trek: Prodigy episode 6, “Kobayashi.” But what the Protostar’s training program didn’t tell Dal R’El (Brett Gray), Gwyn (Ella Purnell), and their crewmates is that the Protostar landing in the Gamma Quadrant could put them on a collision course with the Dominion. Star Trek: Deep Space Nine season 7 was set in 2375, which is the year the Dominion War ended with the Female Changeling formally signing the Dominion’s surrender in front of Captain Sisko aboard his space station. The Dominion retreated to the Gamma Quadrant and they haven’t been seen since DS9 went off the air in 1999.
Star Trek: Prodigy is set in 2383 so it’s been 8 canonical years since the end of the Dominion War, a conflict the USS Protostar’s new young crew haven’t heard of since they all grew up in the Delta Quadrant. 8 years could be enough time for the Dominion to rebuild their war machine and return to full power. Regardless of their failure to subjugate the Alpha Quadrant, the Dominion’s hold over the Gamma Quadrant was never threatened. As such, the Protostar could have inadvertently arrived in the most hostile territory within the Milky Way’s Galactic Barrier. A lone Federation starship entering the Gamma Quadrant could be easily seen as an incursion by the Dominion, who undoubtedly will never forget their humiliation at the hands of the Federation and their allies. The Protostar could soon find itself attacked by the Jem’Hadar and the Founders would be very interested in the Starfleet ship’s Proto Drive technology.
The fact that Dal met a hologram of Odo in Star Trek: Prodigy episode 6 is also likely no coincidence. Thanks to his dozens of attempts to beat the Kobayashi Maru no-win scenario in the Protostar’s holodeck, Dal got to know DS9‘s changeling, whom he called “Jellyman.” His time with Odo’s hologram gives Dal a crucial heads up about the Founders if Star Trek: Prodigy’s heroes encounter the Dominion. But after not seeing or hearing from the Dominion for 23 years, it would be illogical for Star Trek: Prodigy to send the Protostar into the Gamma Quadrant and not come across the Founders, the Vorta, and the Jem’Hadar. If the USS Protostar’s crew does meet the Dominion, it will be fascinating to finally get a long-awaited update on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine‘s greatest villains.
Star Trek: Prodigy streams Thursdays on Paramount+.
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