Summary
- Deep Space Nine's season 2 finale showcased the Jem'Hadar as a formidable threat by destroying a Galaxy-class starship.
- The decision to blow up a model of the USS Enterprise-D symbolized DS9's break from The Next Generation.
- Executive story editor Robert Hewitt Wolfe doubted whether Captain Picard and the Enterprise could have survived the Jem'Hadar.
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine blew up a USS Enterprise-style starship to prove a point in its season 2 finale. DS9 had struggled to break away from the shadow of its parent show, Star Trek: The Next Generation, but the season 2 finale, "The Jem'Hadar" afforded Deep Space NIne a perfect chance to establish its unique identity. DS9's season 2 finale aired three weeks after TNG came to an end with "All Good Things", meaning that when it returned for season 3 after the summer break, Deep Space Nine would be the only Star Trek TV show being broadcast for the rest of 1994.
With no Star Trek: The Next Generation to compare with, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine was free to embrace its more serialized approach to storytelling. Star Trek: Deep Space Nine season 2, episode 26, "The Jem'Hadar" was the first important step on the road to DS9's Dominion War, which would define the show for the next five years. It introduced the Jem'Hadar and the Vorta, and established the Dominion as the greatest threat to the Federation since the Borg Collective. To prove just how dangerous the Dominion were, DS9 took a bold step with a leftover model of TNG's USS Enterprise-D.
Star Trek: DS9 Blew Up An Enterprise Starship To Make A Point About The Dominion
In Star Trek: Deep Space Nine season 2, episode 26, "The Jem'Hadar", a camping trip for Commander Benjamin Sisko (Avery Brooks) and his son Jake (Cirroc Lofton) becomes a major diplomatic incident when he and Quark (Armin Shimerman) are captured by the Jem'Hadar. In response, Starfleet dispatches the Galaxy-class starship, the USS Odyssey, to the Gamma Quadrant to investigate the situation. Unfortunately, the Odyssey was unprepared for a battle with the Jem'Hadar, who destroyed the Galaxy-class starship by flying their ships directly into the secondary hull. This caused a devastating explosion from which there were no survivors.
The USS Odyssey was the name of the starship in Gene Roddenberry and Greg Strangis' first Star Trek: The Next Generation pitch to Paramount.
The Galaxy-class vessel was deliberately chosen by the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine production team. It was felt that, depicting the destruction of a starship which was the same class as the Star Trek: The Next Generation version of the starship Enterprise would establish the Jem'Hadar, and by extension the Dominion, as a credible threat to the Federation. In fact, one of the USS Odysseys used for DS9 was a repurposed model of the USS Enterprise-D from the TNG episode "Cause and Effect", in which the Enterprise repeatedly exploded while caught in a time loop.
Other models involved in depicting the destruction of the USS Odyssey in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine included the damaged USS Enterprise from Star Trek III: The Search for Spock .
Could Captain Picard’s Enterprise Have Defeated DS9’s Jem’Hadar?
The shocking destruction of the USS Odyssey in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine season 2, episode 26, "The Jem'Hadar" raises the question of how Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) would handle the Jem'Hadar. Discussing DS9's season 2 finale in the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion, executive story editor Robert Hewitt Wolfe cast doubt on Picard's ability to beat the Jem'Hadar. Hewitt Wolfe said:
We wanted to show the long-term fans how dangerous these guys were. And it's my belief that if that had been the Enterprise and not the Odyssey , and Picard rather than Keogh in command, it still wouldn't have survived.
Thankfully, fans didn't have to watch the USS Enterprise-D being destroyed in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, though it would later crash on Veridian III in Star Trek Generations. Reportedly, some viewers believed that the Enterprise would be destroyed in DS9's season 2 finale when they saw footage of the USS Odyssey exploding in the trailer. It's up to fans to speculate how the Enterprise would have fared against the Jem'Hadar. However, with such a strong crew of tacticians, engineers, and pilots, the USS Enterprise-D may have been battered by the Jem'Hadar, but it would have lived to fight another day.
