TNG: Peak Performance

[McAvoy]

There's also the possibility that the wormhole was at the very edges of Dominion territory. So when the folks come through the wormhole talk about the Dominion, whether it's a somewhat distant presence or the force actively running their lives might depend on what direction they approached the wormhole from.

Definitely can be. But remember the Founder's homeworld wasn't that far time wise away from the wormhole. I have said this before, but the time frames for episodes like The Search really doesn't lend itself to being months long. It feels like more like days or a week at most from the wormhole to the planet. Especially if we were to consider that Odo took a shuttlecraft from the Defiant in that episode and did reach the planet.

[Nealithi]

There's also the possibility that the wormhole was at the very edges of Dominion territory. So when the folks come through the wormhole talk about the Dominion, whether it's a somewhat distant presence or the force actively running their lives might depend on what direction they approached the wormhole from.

Definitely can be. But remember the Founder's homeworld wasn't that far time wise away from the wormhole. I have said this before, but the time frames for episodes like The Search really doesn't lend itself to being months long. It feels like more like days or a week at most from the wormhole to the planet. Especially if we were to consider that Odo took a shuttlecraft from the Defiant in that episode and did reach the planet.

One consideration, do they have a proper homeworld? They easily abandoned that world for a trap. So could it just be a local 'nest' they moved to for the purpose of seeing Odo? They did say they were expecting him.

[TGLS]

I'm still a bit fuzzy as to what 100 light years means exactly...

Measure of distance. If you are traveling at 100 times the speed of light, you will be there in a year. 1,000 times the speed of light you will be there in over a month. Which is just under Warp 8.

Well, part of the reason I said I was fuzzy about 100 lightyears is because it doesn't seem that Trek is entirely self-consistent when it comes to what X distance means in Y time.

--

Anyway; let's say a big swirly portal opened somewhere in backwoods, USA. Aliens come out and do the "take me to your leader" bit. If literally no one goes, "Huh, maybe we should bring this up with the federal government or at least mention the federal government rules the area to the aliens", then it would really say something about who's really in charge of the area. Likewise, apparently no one thinks to mention the Alpha Quadrant visitors to the Dominion, or vice versa.

[CrypticMirror]

--

Anyway; let's say a big swirly portal opened somewhere in backwoods, USA. Aliens come out and do the "take me to your leader" bit. If literally no one goes, "Huh, maybe we should bring this up with the federal government or at least mention the federal government rules the area to the aliens", then it would really say something about who's really in charge of the area.

It would say that it was Idaho.

[MaxWylde]

I would have liked to seen how this was supposed to go down without the Ferengi interference and one of Wesley's experiments. None of those were factored originally into this war game. What was Riker supposed to do?

In this situation, what Picard and Riker should've done is tell the Ferengi they can have the ship provided they can beam off the crew, and short of that, surrender. All the while, I'd remind the Ferengi that what they did was an act of war, and that this exercise is being monitored (even if it actually isn't - deception if fair game in this situation).

If they allow a surrender of the Hathaway, and let the Enterprise go, well, the Ferengi now have a war on their hands. If they destroy the Enterprise and take off with the Hathaway, they may still have a war on their hands. Of course, this is all before we know about the Ferengi government and the Grand Nagus, but even if they didn't have such this would be a situation that the Damon there wouldn't want to be blamed on. So, I'm curious as to where Picard's brinksmanship was at? Did he deactivate that too for the exercise?

If, as I said, the Hathaway is taken with the crew, having surrendered to the Ferengi, the Federation has a good bargaining chip to use against the Ferengi if they wish to avoid a conflict: Return the Hathaway and her crew, unharmed, and we won't go to war. It's good to do this with a sizable task force (a big stick) to back up the diplomat's threat.

[McAvoy]

I'm still a bit fuzzy as to what 100 light years means exactly...

Measure of distance. If you are traveling at 100 times the speed of light, you will be there in a year. 1,000 times the speed of light you will be there in over a month. Which is just under Warp 8.

Well, part of the reason I said I was fuzzy about 100 lightyears is because it doesn't seem that Trek is entirely self-consistent when it comes to what X distance means in Y time.

--

Anyway; let's say a big swirly portal opened somewhere in backwoods, USA. Aliens come out and do the "take me to your leader" bit. If literally no one goes, "Huh, maybe we should bring this up with the federal government or at least mention the federal government rules the area to the aliens", then it would really say something about who's really in charge of the area. Likewise, apparently no one thinks to mention the Alpha Quadrant visitors to the Dominion, or vice versa.

That's why I am talking about more about traveling time frames. Doesn't matter if the ships are traveling at whatever speed but the fact that it took them a certain time to get there.

And since we really never had a line or concrete figures for the Gamma Quadrant, we can assume one week of travel is still the same for all ships and not really powered by plot.

We can assume at least the Federation sent out ships to see if there were any local powers. That makes sense.

We can also assume this may not be in the middle or the heart of Dominion space but perhaps on the outskirts or right outside their borders.

But we do know that the Dominion are close to the wormhole. Close enough to have a hundred ships to attack the Romulan Cardassian fleet.

We can also assume that like the Federation, it takes time to travel across their own territory and it took time to mobilize their fleet.

[TGLS]

Honestly, given how intent they were on making Kholrami look like a jerk I don't know why they didn't just have Kholrami arrange the Ferengi to attack.

[MaxWylde]

Honestly, given how intent they were on making Kholrami look like a jerk I don't know why they didn't just have Kholrami arrange the Ferengi to attack.

Yeah, that would be in-keeping with this kind of an episode. They're all playing one-upmanship games, it just seems natural he would do it too.

I can see it now:

Kolrami: Okay, okay. Call it off, Damon. That was quite amusing!

Picard: What the devil? You mean you knew about this?

Kolrami: Of course! I'm behind it, stupid! After all, this shows how much smarter I am than you!

Picard: You're mad!

Kolrami: Oh, am I? I still have the Ferengi out there. How would you like a trip to Ferenginaar?

Picard: I'll report this to Starfleet.

Kolrami: Do so. I already told them I'd do this. You should've seen the looks on your faces!

[McAvoy]

Nah. That isn't keeping with what we saw from him.

[clearspira]

Its also worth noting as this gets immediately forgotten by season 3 is that the Dominion isn't just attack ships off the shoulder of Orion. They are merchants too. Maybe they originally hoped that they could buy their way into the Alpha Quadrant. But it must have become quickly clear that the moneyless Federation and blood-hungry Klingons wouldn't have any of that.