Civil Defense (DS9)

[J!!]

the choice to re-purpose the station seems more pragmatic than anything else; following the occupation, its doubtful that bajor can afford the cost of building a station of their own. and given the efficacy of the provisional government, it's questionable whether it would ever get done if they could.

a starfleet station built with federation tech would've given the federation a massive degree of political leverage over bajor, required a much larger starfleet presence to build and maintain it, and made them much harder to get rid of if they turned out to be another oppressor. and that's even assuming the federation would even agree to make such a massive investment in a world that might or might not even want to apply for membership.

in either case, building such a thing would've taken years.

[MadAmosMalone]

I don't mean to belabor the point but there is absolutely no way the US military would ever operate a captured enemy base using captured enemy computers and just hope everything turns out fine. I can't speak for every military but I do know from having worked in IT at a military base for 14 years that the US military is not at all a "trusting" group. If that had been the US military taking over that station, it would be shut down and all the computers would be removed and shipped off to the intelligence division for analysis. New computers would be installed even if the technicians had to wear space suits for the duration of the operation. If it turned out to cost a lot, well our military is laden with waste, fraud and abuse so that would be just about par.

I guess maybe you're right, though. This being Starfleet and not the modern Army maybe they would just "move in" and hope for the best. This is, after all, the same outfit we learn from the TNG episode "Contagion" that they don't have a lot of experience with anti malware detection.

[Dînadan]

Considering Starfleet are optimists, I can see them being trusting and only doing an analysis/wipe as much as needed to keep it running (possibly with Section 31 secretly routing around for intel).

But again, remember it's not a Starfleet station so they couldn't arbitrarily rip out/replace/wipe/etc whatever they wanted. Don't think of it so much as the US Army taking over a Russian base but rather the US Army being contracted by an Eastern European country to help run things after the Russians have pulled out of the country; of course even that's not a perfect analogy.

Also, remember Starfleet struggles to get its own tech to work together (*cough*holodecks*coughcough*) - what chance do you think they'd have getting Federation computers to interface with Cardassian power grids?

[MadAmosMalone]

Fair points. I'll give ya those. In that context it makes more sense.

[Rocketboy1313]

I don't mean to belabor the point but there is absolutely no way the US military would ever operate a captured enemy base using captured enemy computers and just hope everything turns out fine. I can't speak for every military but I do know from having worked in IT at a military base for 14 years that the US military is not at all a "trusting" group.

There is a whole episode of "Stargate SG-1" about an alien attack fighter attempting to fly back to its base (outside of our solar system) because they left the old alien computer in it for the test flight. It was going to doom the pilots to death in space.

[MadAmosMalone]

And I liked that episode as much as this one. It's just that part of my enjoyment of both comes from picking them apart.

[CareerKnight]

Something that bugged me in later seasons after the former mining station was upgraded to the point it could take on fleets was there was no visual change to the station besides some new hatches for guns to stick out of. I always thought it would have been interesting (and more believable) if stuff was added on to it so that the station started looking more impressive and an odd mix of Cardassian and Federation architecture. Outside of the new parts justifying the impressive new capabilities of the station there could have been expanded habitation areas which would make sense with the station's increased importance, both as the gateway to the Gamma Quadrant and a major installation in the war effort.

[Dînadan]

Good points. They could also have had various weapons platforms (i.e. smaller stagions that are basically just clusters of guns/warhead launchers with a bridge slapped on) stationed nearby considering how vital it was. And for that matter, considering how many ships were stationed there, there probably should have been several repair/dry docks built nearby too.

[Fixer]

It often surprises me how often the Federation seems to be at the mercy of computer systems running evil programs. You'd think someone would put a manual power-off somewhere.

I'd personally add a giant old fashioned toggle switch just outside the main computer core.

[Dînadan]

I'd personally add a giant old fashioned toggle switch just outside the main computer core.

That just gives me the image of Data giving a big technobabble explanation and Picard going "..,You mean have we tried tuning it off and on again?" and Data replying "That's what I said sir."