Star Trek Has Some Truly Evil Forces, But I Can Prove Why the Dominion Is the Worst

The Dominion is responsible for a great deal of misery in the Star Trek universe, and I hate what they did to the Jem’Hadar. The Dominion’s storm troopers, the Jem'Hadar violently enforce the will of the Founders. They are a formidable fighting force, but as seen in 1997’s Star Trek: Voyager #11, they were not always this way, and it drives home how evil the Dominion truly is.

In Star Trek: Voyager #11, written by Laurie S. Sutton and drawn by Jesus Redondo, the ship is drawn into the Leviathan, an entity from beyond our galaxy who has brought species from across it to study. Beaming into a jungle-like habitat, the away team is besieged by Jem’Hadar, but these are very different. They do not talk and instead act primitive, wearing animal skins and using simple weapons.

Fans come to learn the horrifying truth: these are descendants of Jem’Hadar brought to Leviathan years before the Dominion modified them to be killing machines.

The Jem'Hadar, the Dominion's Storm Troopers, Explained

The Brutal Jem'Hadar Scares Everyone in the Alpha Quadrant

Few species can strike fear into the hearts of Alpha Quadrant citizens than the Jem’Hadar. Introduced in the second season Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode of the same name, the Jem’Hadar made their presence known in a major way. First, they took Ben Sisko and his son Jake, as well as Quark and Nog hostage. The Federation sent reinforcements: a Galaxy-class starship called the Odyssey, and when the tide turned in Starfleet’s favor, a Jem’Hadar ship made a suicide run for the vessel, destroying it and setting off years of tension that boiled over into a major war.

Although the Federation has numerous enemies, few of them could compare to the Jem’Hadar. From birth, the Jem’Hadar undergo extreme mental and physical conditioning, to make them tools of oppression for the Founders. Every Jem’Hadar is unwaveringly loyal to the Founders and the Dominion, and would gladly throw their lives away for them. The Dominion ensures loyalty among the Jem’Hadar by hooking them to a highly addictive substance named Ketracel-White. If a Jem’Hadar goes without Ketracel-White for too long, they will die a horrible death.

The Dominion Made the Jem'Hadar What They Were--Against Their Will

The Vorta Were Also Victims of the Dominion's Manipulations.

The tragedy of the Jem’Hadar is they were not always violent and drug-addled. The Dominion made them that way. While Star Trek has not revealed exactly how long the Dominion has been genetically manipulating the Jem’Hadar, it can be assumed to be eons. When the Jem’Hadar came under the thumb of the Dominion, the Founders began breeding the Jem’Hadar for their purposes. As seen in Star Trek: Voyager #11, the Jem’Hadar encountered on Leviathan were not too intelligent. Indeed, they were just as savage as their counterparts in the Gamma Quadrant.

The Jem’Hadar were not the only species in the Gamma Quadrant the Founders genetically altered. The Vorta, who were introduced in the same episode as the Jem’Hadar, handle the administrative side of the Dominion. Most subjects of the Dominion do not interact with the Founders. Instead, the Vorta act as intermediaries. The Vorta are also cloned, and a person may interact with various iterations of a Vorta in their lifetime. Like the Jem’Hadar, the Vorta were not always docile slaves of the Dominion–they too were victims of the Founders' manipulations.

The Dominion Was a Dark Mirror of the Federation

Did the Dominion Genetically Alter Other Species As Well?

Star Trek pulled no punches in depicting just how evil the Dominion really was. The Dominion had no issues conducting suicide runs on starships or starbases. During the war, the Dominion made massive strides in the Alpha Quadrant, temporarily occupying Betazed. The Federation and the Klingons regularly tasted defeat, until the Romulans entered the conflict. But even after that, the Dominion proved hard to defeat, and if not for the Cardassian Damar, they may have won. Furthermore, an underhanded tactic by Section 31 got the peace process underway. The Federation had to sacrifice some of itself to stop the Dominion.

During Star Trek: Deep Space Nine’s seven seasons, fans met just a few other species living under the yoke of the Dominion. In terms of physical space, the Dominion was just as large as the Federation, meaning many other races potentially lived there. If the Dominion genetically altered the Jem’Hadar and the Vorta for their own purposes, then it stands to reason they did the same with other Gamma Quadrant species, but fans just never saw them. The true extent of the Dominion’s evil may never be revealed.

 

What Ever Happened to the Jem'Hadar? Star Trek Needs to Reveal This Bit of Information

The Founders Must Liberate the Jem'Hadar and the Vorta

In the wake of the Dominion’s defeat, the fates of the Jem’Hadar and the Vorta remain unknown. In Deep Space Nine’s finale, Odo convinced the Founders to abandon their war and embrace a better way of living. No Star Trek show has checked in on the Dominion since Deep Space Nine went off the air. Picard’s third season featured a gaggle of rogue Changelings, but did not say if the Dominion had freed the Vorta and the Jem’Hadar. I hate what the Dominion did to the Jem’Hadar and freeing them would be the perfect way for the Founders to atone.