10 Star Trek Production Secrets Behind These Cliffhangers
7. The Jem'Hadar
The second season of Deep Space Nine featured the introduction of the Jem'Hadar, the foot soldiers of the Dominion. The Vorta also make their debut in the form of Eris, though her abilities were not in line with what the species would become. The big shock of the episode was the rapid destruction of the USS Odyssey.
The Galaxy-class ship was introduced for one reason: the writers needed the audience to understand the threat of the new villains in Star Trek. The design of the ship was so familiar thanks to the Enterprise-D. At one point, the episode was due to feature the Next Generation crew joining forces with the station to fend off the threat, though this was quickly dropped.
Robert Hewitt Wolfe, a long-term writer on the series, believed that the name on the ship didn't matter. The visual shock of seeing the main ship of the Next Generation explode was enough to prove to the audience that the Dominion was just as scary as the Borg.
The episode, after the crew returns to the Alpha Quadrant, closes on Sisko's pledge to be ready for the first battle with the Dominion. This was a mission statement and it had also been intended to close the first season of the show.