Among the wide range of star trek TV shows and movies, for many people the two highest rated shows are The next generation and Deep Space 9. There are of course a plethora of diehard fans who adore the original series, and a handful of people who favor Traveler, but the fearless adventures of Captain Picard and Commander Sisko hold a special place in the hearts of many fans. What people seemed to like about both is that they captured the two different sides of StarTrek. GNT was the utopian pinnacle of humanity, succeeding The original seriesthe mission to sneak back like and explore the galaxy; during this time, DS9 focused on the political underbelly of the Federation, as well as the grim reality of war for those fighting on the front lines.
The two series crossed from time to time, with the memorable meeting of the two captains in the pilot episode of DS9, but other than that, they were pretty separate. However, this raises a question. In the destructive war between the Dominion and the Federation, millions of Federation ships were destroyed, and most of them were nearly wiped out. So where were Picard and the Enterprise E at that time?
The Dominion War is one of the most catastrophic conflicts in Federation history and is seen as the end of the once utopian Federation. During the war itself, there were plenty of references to other ships fighting the good fight, embarking on often suicidal missions to hold off the inevitable Dominion forces. The main DS9 spacecraft, the USS Defiant, has seen much use, but there is no mention of what the Enterprise E does. When built, Picard’s iteration of the Enterprise namesake was at the forefront of Federation technology. It was primarily a vessel for scientific exploration, but it also packed high-tech firepower – in fact, it had some of the most powerful weaponry Starfleet has to offer. It was and still was the case when DS9 was fixed, the flagship of Starfleet. With their firepower, advanced shield technology and proven leadership, they should have played a major role in the war, so why didn’t they?
As for non-universal reasons, it mostly came down to money. Whereas star trek had a pretty decent budget at this point, bringing GNT in the series would have greatly exceeded their limit. Although it might seem like the biggest cost in all of this was getting the crew together and paying them all in addition to the main DS9 crew, it was actually the iconic ship that would have cost the most. It is important to remember that the Enterprise seen during GNT no longer exists, having been destroyed during the Star Trek: Generations film. Picard, meanwhile, commands the Enterprise E, coincidentally even more advanced than its predecessor. This version of the ship was technically owned by Paramount, as they owned the rights to the movies, while CBS owned and produced DS9. To include the new Enterprise in a way that canonically works, CBS would have had to pay Paramount a potentially ridiculous amount.
Of course, that doesn’t cover the in-universe logic as to why the Enterprise didn’t participate in the war. As previously mentioned, the Enterprise and its crew were the pinnacle of technological advancement for the Federation and Starfleet. This applies not only to the ship, but also to the crew, being the shining beacons of their domains: they were the brightest and the best (with the exception of Miles O’Brien, of course). Although it produced a deadly combination, the consequences of their fighting a bloody war were too great for the Federation to risk. They were much better used for patrolling Federation space, performing diplomatic missions to maintain morale, and recruiting others to aid them. Although it may seem like a waste of their potential, the consequences of destroying them on the front line would have been disastrous. Imagine the morale of the Federation after learning that the best it had to offer, both in terms of technology and spirit, had been mercilessly destroyed.
It is also suggested in the (technically non-canonical) novels that Sovereign-class ships such as the Enterprise were powerful enough to stand up to the Dominion, at least for a while, without needing full fleet support. . This would explain why, if the Enterprise had clashed with Dominion forces, it was not mentioned or shown during the DS9 series. They could have shipped them on their own without involving anyone else. More like lone wolves, they were able to act autonomously without the need for personal direction from people like the morally ambiguous Sisko, and could be relatively left out. DS9 stories.
What sets DS9 apart from the other star trek iterations that it primarily focuses on the socio-political atmosphere of a people on the brink of destruction – from the Dominion, but also before that, from various other outside pressures, with little support from the Heaven Saints of Starfleet. For this reason, it seemed very different from the stories told in TNG, that’s why characters like Q really didn’t work when paired with Sisko rather than Picard or Janeway. If the Enterprise had played a greater role during the war and the DS9 series, not only would it have been a bad decision tactically and economically, it wouldn’t have made sense thematically.
