Watched "Call of Arms" this morning. Now, I've seen it once before, but this time around, something caught my attention.
Starfleet didn't send any reinforcements, though Sisko was not at liberty to discuss why and offered only the cryptic comment that they had other things to do or something along those lines.
My first thought was, "First Contact", knowing well DS9's prediliction for off handed cross over comments. Perhaps this episode aired a few weeks or a month or so before "First Contact" was due to be released and was meant to take place a few days or so before the events of the movie. Alas, though the dates don't quite match up; '97 and '96 for the episode and movie respectively (First Contact is 96, right? I'm almost positive on that regard, but I could be mistaken).
So the ultimate question is, why were no reinforcements sent to DS9? Is this answered in the episode and I simply missed it? It would seem that a drastic reason is needed to explain their absence. At the end of the episode, the Defiant and Rotarren are seen joining the combined Fed/Klingon fleet, which seems at least as substantial as the Dominion/Cardassian taskforce that assaulted the station.
Considering that the Federation is essentially giving the Dominion the single most strategic location of the war, just what is the bloody purpose behind it?
Even if the Fed/Klingon fleet couldn't have outright defended the station from conquest, they could at least have aided in the evacuation process, and chiefly removing the dramatic tension behind the establishing of the minefield.
Or is that it? Simply a plot device to add more tension to that aspect? If so, than that's a pretty poor reason, as that particular aspect of the episode wasn't a very tense element in an otherwise very good episode.
Posted by Shik (Member # 343) on :
He said why they weren't available in his Macarthuresque "I shall return" speech on the Promenade: while they held the line at DS9, a combined Starfleet & Klingon fleet (the one we see at the end) crossed the border & destroyed the primary Dominion shipyard at Torros III.
Given that Sisko had urged the Vedek Assembly to sign the nonaggression pact with the Dominion/Cardassia, their security was safe & Starfleet could temporarily retreat from the post while the mines were up & the like. Why waste the main bulk of your forces defending a place you know you're leaving anyway when the reason for being there is being guarded a different way. No, the strike was right.
Posted by Cartman (Member # 256) on :
The Borg attack was intended to take place more or less around the time of "In Purgatory's Shadow" and "By Inferno's Light", though a stardate cock-up places those episodes before First Contact.
[ June 21, 2002, 08:45: Message edited by: Cartman ]
Posted by David Templar (Member # 580) on :
![[Big Grin]](biggrin.gif)