But a cozen episodes is almost too *few* to really encapsulate a war which is described over 52 episodes, which itself only covers the adventures of a group of twenty or so people in a war that had millions of players. Not to mention the three years of buildup to the war itself that we saw. I'd recommend looking at the Dominion War with that sort of epic scale, since there's no way the DW was completely portrayed in the show.

Anyway, were I to recommend a dozen episodes, I'd probably choose the following. The first five episodes actually occur BEFORE the war, and portray points inthe buildup to it. I've also included interesting points covered in these episodes not actually SEEN in the show, but mentioned.

Also, for a pretty review of the show and another person's opinions of the war as a whole, I recommend going to Jammer's DS9 reviews site at http://www.st-hypertext.com/ . The exhaustive reviews there may help you get a better overall view of the War. I further suggest reading the related chapters of the "Deep Space Nine Companion" book for lots of behind the scenes stuff, conceptual art, and lots of ideas.

1) "The Jem'Haddar" (Season 2 Finale) - Details the real introduction of the Dominion after a year of rumours. We hear of the destruction of New Bajor, the first Bajoran colony in the Gamma Quadrant. We do see the destruction of the Galaxy-class USS Oddysey, in a spectacular battle.

2) "The Die is Cast" (Mid 3rd Seson) - The Romulans and Cardassians get together to destroy the Founders' Homeworld, and get clobbered. This is the second part of a two-parter, which leads to a number of threads involving captured Alpha Quadrant races stuck in a POW camp in the Gamma Quadrant.

3) "Paradise Lost" (Mid 4th Season) - Earth is brought under Martial Law as paranoia over shape-shifters infiltrating the Federation hits a peak. Also the seond part of another two-parter, it deatils what Earth is sorta like in a crisis, or at least New Orleans and San Fransico anyway.

4) "The Quickening" (Late 4th Season) - Dr. Bashir tries to save a planet whose people were purposely inflicted with a terrible disease by the Dominion. Not in the War per se, but it really shows the human(oid) side of people suffering at the hands of the Dominion.

5) "Nor the Battle to the Strong" (Early 5th Season) - Jake, seeking to find out about "courage under fire", goes with Bashir to a medial ourpost under attack by Klingons. This is not a key episode, but it really shows the whole "War is Hell" stuff without showing much fighting.

6) "The Sacrifice of Angels" (Early 6th Season) - Duh.

7) "In the Pale Moonlight" (Mid 6th Season) - Sisko and Garak conspire to bring the Romulans into the War, at the expense of the typical Federation morals we love so much. This is a fairly low-brow character epsiode that is mostly "behind the scenes", but it's a key turning point in the war. We never really saw much of the Romulans fighting in the War alone, but we know they made numerous actions without the help of the Klingons or the Federation.

8) "Shadows and Symbols" (Early 7th Season) - While a soul-searching Sisko travels with his family to the Desert planet Tyree to find an orb and reopen the wormhole, Kira leads a bunch of Bajoran ships in a standoff against the superior Romulan fleet who've armed an "unarmed" hospital moon in Bajoran space. Cool stuff, especially with the standoff.

9) "The Siege of AR-558" (Mid 7th Season) - Sisko and crew defend a captured Dominion communications array, helping out the Federation garrison that's been under constant attack for five months. Some real character drama there, plus the very rarely seen Federation ground combat we've really been missing.

10) "Inter Arma Einem Silent Leges" (Mid 7th Season) - Bashir is recuited by the shady Section 31 to spy on the Romulans at a medical conference on their homeworld. Yummy cloak & dagger fun, plus a real look into the Romulan side of the war.

11) "The Changing Face of Evil" (Late 7th Season) - After the Breen allies of the Dominion lauch a sneak attack on Earth, the Federation-led Alliance returns the favour in the Chin'toka system, only to have their butts kicked by Breen distruption technology. Plenty of cool space battles are seen here, including the destruction of the Defiant. Note to Mojo: WE REALLY WANT TO SEE THE BREEN ATTACKING EARTH, AND/OR THE AFTERMATH THEREOF.

12) "That You Leave Behind" (Series Finale) - The Dominion War climaxes with a ginormous battle, followed by a standoff in Cardassian orbit while Odo goes down to end it once and for all. There's unseen action everywhere in the finale, from Cardassians fighting in the streets, to the space battles, to the Founders nuking whole Cardie cities in retaliation. Plus there's the final showdown between Dukat and Sisko on Bajor.

There you have it. Also, I'll throw in a list of cool "Original Series & Movies" moments that could be described in the book:

-The first signing of the Khitomer Accords ("Star Trek VI") - We see what Khitomer looks like close up, insdie and out of its main hall.
-The alien probe in orbit of Earth ("Star Trek IV") - Probe over earth, powerless Spacedock and Excelsior. Beautiful.
-The almost beginning of Klingon-Federation war over Organia ("Errand of Mercy" - Late 1st season TOS) - We never say a fleet of old Connies (and support ships) almost go to war against a bunch of old Klingon ships. We would love to.
-The TOS Enterprise and damaged USS Constellation vs. the planet eater ("The Doomsday Machine" - Early 2nd season TOS) - Damaged Connies vs a giant ice cream cone. What more do you need?

Thanks for letting us help out, Mojo!

Mark

[ November 27, 2001: Message edited by: Mark Nguyen ]

Personally I'd like to see a little bit of the aftermath of the war and some of the missions that were mentioned but never seen.

Relif ships arriving at Cardassia.

The transfer of starfleet hospital ships to the Romulans (Possibly Olympic-Class)

The Defiant destroying the Dominion sensor platform on the other side of the argus cluster.

The Cairo being attacked near the Neutral zone.

The bits of "Opperation Return" that we never saw..."The Magellan & The Venture are in too tight..." Images of the Venture and the Centaur (a Captain Reynolds was mentioned in the battle) breaking through the Dominion lines...

[ November 27, 2001: Message edited by: Sol System ]

quote:

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and don't hate me for this - I haven't seen every DS9 episode a dozen times.

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Hey don't worry about it. We're all glad your doing it. (Of course the Dominion War could be it's own book. Just imagine it, lots of ship shots, big chapters on battles with those little maps with the numbers indicating what happened where. ok i;ll get back to the point)

I agree with mark some of the episodes that you should watch are from before the war

1 "The Jem'hadar"
2 "Improbable cuase/The die is Cast" two parter
3 "The Ship" Sisko and crew recover a crashed Jem'Hadar attack ship and find out what happens to Jem'hadar who fail their gods.
4 "By Infernos Light" mostly for Gul Dukhat joining the Dominion.
5 "Call to Arms" The War finally begins
6 "The Sacrfice of Angels"
7 "In the Pale Moonlight" Really good episode.
8 "Tears of the Prophets" StarFleet Stirkes back!
9 "Image in the Sand"
10 "The Siege of Ar-558"
11 "Penumbra"
12 "THe changing face of Evil"
13 "What you leave behind"
preety much all the epsiodes form penumbra to waht you leave behind would be good.

As to battles the Destruction of the shipyards from "A Call to Arms".

The destruction of the 7th fleet.

The Dominion capturing Beatzed.

The Romulan "liberation" of Benzar

The Recapturing of the Kalandra sector(The Destiny and the 7th Fleet? are preparing to attack it in afterimage then in Once More Unot the Breach, an ep you could see if you wanted to see the Klingon view of the war, in which its suggest as a meeting place

The Battle of Earth

The Cardassian Resistances attack on the Rondac III cloning facilities

The Destruucation of the Cardassian Resistance

The Battle of Carassia prime.

I've of late been watching Season 1 and 2 better than season 6 and 7 in some instances...

Remember that there were some ties to the Dominion story line early on in the series...

this is just info to get discussion flowing/thoughts jumping - prollay not stuff for the book... or maybe!?!

Season 1
"Captive Pursuit" - Tosk and Hunters of Tosk, look VERY Dominion/Jem'Hadar-esque. At one time Ron Moore and/or Ira Behr were contemplating letting us see a Tosk as a Dominion pilot.

"Vortex" we see the first evidence of Odo's people in the form of a shape-shifting Key...

[we never see it again - I wonder if it returned to the link!?!]

Season 2

"Rules of Aquisition"

Quark and Pel find out about a 'power' in the Gamma Quadrant - who the Grand Nagus already has sketchy details on, called the Dominion. The Karemma are members of the Dominion.

"Sanctuary"

The Skreeans, a refugee race looking to settle on Bajor tell how their opressors were removed by the Dominion - who had attacked them (the opressors)

"The Alternate"

Again in the Gamma Quadrant the trail to Odo's race is travelled a little further with presence of a Changeling race's ruins and evidence of shape-shifting material.

"Shadowplay"

We find out that the creator of a Holographic community had come from a planet which had been taken over by the Dominion!

"The Jem'Hadar"

We finally meet the Jem'Hadar!

Do we know ANYTHING about the Klingons during the 150 year period between Archer and Kirk?

Has anything ever been said in the show? Does anyone know if any novels or other non-canon material have covered this?

I'm probably going to have very specific questions during the next few days as I hammer out the outline for the book. I'd love to be able to consider you guys my official 'help' button :-)

As for Klingon stuff between Archer & Kirk, there's surprisingly little stuff. McCoy once said that first contact with the Klingons led to hideously disasterous results and decades of agression - though the events of "Broken Bow" seem to counter this statement. Mind you, first contact with the Klingons may have yet to lead to this aggression.

However, if there's anything to say about trying to map out Klingon history in that era, if there's one thing to stay away from is the forehead explanation thing. I've got a sneaky suspicion that this will be something that the Enterprise producers will address..

The important thing is that hostillities with the Federation will start in 2223 or thereabouts. This date was established by both "Day of the Dove" (TOS) and "Star Trek VI". You might want to keep in mind that most fandom sources prior to "Broken Bow" assumed that this was when the Klingons first met with humans. The hostillities will never escalate into a full war. However, that *almost* happened in "Errand of Mercy" (TOS) before the Organians intervened and artificially imposed a peace treaty.

Other than that, the events of TOS probably give us a good idea of the kind of hostillities that went on. In "Once More Unto the Breach" (DS9), we learn of the attack on the Federation outpost on Caleb IV, executed by Kor and Kang on the old, cloak-capable D-5 cruisers (supposedly the animated series version of the Klingon battlecruiser from TOS). This may be the period of TOS, or slightly before.

Feel free to make up stuff. Watch "Errand of Mercy", "Day of the Dove", "Trouble with Tribbles" of TOS, and "Blood Oath", "The Sword of Kahless", "Once More Unto the Breach" (DS9) for inspiration about Klingons of the TOS and pre-TOS era. The animated series might also be good to review if you have it.

[ December 04, 2001: Message edited by: Phelps ]