10 Biggest Star Trek What Ifs

10. What If Picard Was Given Command Of Deep Space 9?

When Star Trek: Deep Space 9 launched in 1993, the pilot episode featured a scene where Captain Picard met with then-Commander Benjamin Sisko. The meeting was filled with angst, which was entirely due to the fact that Picard, while assimilated as Locutus of Borg, killed Sisko's wife at Wolf 359.

It wasn't an easy scene for either of the officers, but it introduced Sisko in a way that showed he was a driven man with a past. It all worked out well in the end, as Sisko became instrumental in the Dominion War, and his command of DS9 proved extraordinary... but what if he never took that post?

If Sisko wasn't given command, and it instead fell to Picard, everything would have played out differently. One of the reasons Sisko was so successful had to do with being named the Emissary, and the Bajoran people were more willing to accept him because of this. No such label would have been provided to Picard.

One of the biggest issues with a Picard command of DS9 would be the relationship he would establish with Odo. It's unlikely he would have been as accommodating of the shapeshifter, and seeing as Odo became the most important character in dealing with the Dominion, this would have spelled trouble for the oncoming Dominion War.

Additionally, Gul Dukat and Picard wouldn't have had anything but an antagonistic relationship. It's an interesting musing, but things worked out well enough with Sisko at the helm, and Picard had other fish to fry on the Enterprise-D.