Summary
- Star Trek: DS9 introduced Vorta superpowers but quickly abandoned them in future encounters with the Dominion villains.
- DS9 writers decided not to repeat telekinetic powers for the Vorta, leading to Eris's unique ability being written out in season 3.
- Viewers and fans may have noticed the discrepancy, but it was explained as Eris being a one-of-a-kind Vorta with specific powers for a certain purpose.
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine gave their Vorta villains superpowers, but promptly forgot all about them before their next encounter. The Vorta were a race of genetically engineered humanoids that served the Dominion Founders in a variety of roles. Vorta like Weyoun (Jeffrey Combs) served as a supervisor, diplomat, and administrator to the Dominion. While the Vorta were a clone race, each successive clone had an individual identity, and displayed different personality traits to their predecessors. Arguably, Weyoun was an exception to this rule, as Legate Damar (Casey Biggs) once observed that each version had overconfidence in common.
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine formally introduced its Vorta and Dominion villains in the season 2 finale, "The Jem'Hadar". In the episode, the unlikely pairing of Commander Benjamin Sisko (Avery Brooks) and Quark (Armin Shimerman) make first contact with the Dominion's soldiers, the Jem'Hadar, and also encounter their first Vorta. Eris (Molly Hagan) is obviously notable for being DS9's first Vorta, but her character also had a particular power that was never seen again in Deep Space Nine's future encounters with the Dominion villains.
Star Trek: DS9 Introduced A Vorta Superpower Then Forgot All About It
In Star Trek: Deep Space Nine season 2, episode 26, "The Jem'Hadar", Sisko and Quark are approached by Eris, who claims to be fleeing capture by the titular villains. Startled by seeing Sisko and Quark, she fires a telekinetic pulse which sends Sisko flying. Future encounters with the Vorta don't involve the villains using their telekinetic powers on the DS9 crew, instead favoring the use of political manipulation or the brute strength of the Jem'Hadar. For a Star Trek TV show that often feels meticulously plotted, this feels like a strange oversight.
The Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion reveals that, while working out the role of the Vorta in the Dominion, the DS9 writers felt that telekinetic powers weren't something they wanted to repeat. This is why the Vorta's powers of telekinesis were written out for Star Trek: Deep Space Nine season 3, as the writers developed the aliens in a different direction. It was hoped that viewers wouldn't notice the discrepancy. The fact that Molly Hagan was unable to return as Eris for DS9's season 3 premiere did help to create the impression that she, and her gifts, were a one-off.
Work commitments meant that Molly Hagan was twice unable to return as Eris, first in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine season 3, episode 2, "The Search, Part II" and season 5, episode 2, "The Ship".
How Star Trek: DS9's Vorta Plothole Could Be Explained
In an AOL chat from 1998, Ronald D. Moore explained that the internal logic in the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine writers' room was that Eris was a one-of-a-kind Vorta given telekinetic powers for a specific purpose. It's unclear what this purpose would be beyond knocking over Sisko on their first meeting, but it's a solid explanation. The most obvious explanation for Eris' Vorta plothole is the simplest; she's lying from the minute she first sees Quark and Sisko.
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine's season 2 finale is the first step on the road to DS9's Dominion War, as Eris and her Jem'Hadar soldiers gather intel on Sisko, Starfleet, and the Federation. Therefore, the story Eris tells of her "home planet", Kurill Prime, and her telekinetic gifts are lies to get a sympathetic Sisko on side. Eris could have been augmented with the telekinetic "powers" to better sell the lie, or perhaps the energy burst was a clever bit of misdirection from some hidden tech. Powers or no powers, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine's season 2 finale quickly established the Vorta as calculating and manipulative antagonsits.
