Lets have a thought experiment. If the Cardassians were in TOS, what would it be like?
Cardassians in TOS
- Thread starter Snowdrop82
- Start date
Too much like the Klingons.
They'd fit right in! Even in the "more enlightened" context of TNG and DS9, they ended up as pretty much completely redemption-free villains.
They would only show up once because their makeup would be to cost prohibitive.
I would argue that the Cardassians were redeemed in DS9, when they rebelled from the Dominion but in the context of TOS it would be interesting to see more primitive ships. Plus, they wouldn't have had Bajor under their control so it would be possible the Federation might have cold, but not 100% hostile relations?
I wonder how they'd look? Just grey-skinned humans, I suppose.
Sure; that's fair. (I've had this discussion before on, interestingly, the Trek Voyager forums.) My response is that they only rebelled because they no longer liked their deal. And so, for me, the Dominion, the Borg and the Cardassians are the only (major) unredeemed Trek villains. And even the Borg had their splinter groups and "produced" (more properly, regurgitated?) great people like Seven, Hugh, and Icheb. The Cardassians are just terrible. And that's just the way I like them.
Nah, they'd just look like humans.
Sure; that's fair. (I've had this discussion before on, interestingly, the Trek Voyager forums.) My response is that they only rebelled because they no longer liked their deal. And so, for me, the Dominion, the Borg and the Cardassians are the only (major) unredeemed Trek villains. And even the Borg had their splinter groups and "produced" (more properly, regurgitated?) great people like Seven, Hugh, and Icheb. The Cardassians are just terrible. And that's just the way I like them.
This is more or less how I view the Dominion. The Dominion, the Borg are the unredeemed villains. The Cardassians however, would be very interesting to see in TOS as an aggressive race - but in a different context than the Klingons and Romulans. Perhaps it would have been interesting to have a time where the Federation and Cardassians had a brief alliance with the Cardassians against the Romulans and Klingons.
First Republic
The First Republic existed as of the early-23rd century and was known for its serialist poetry. This included the works of serialist poet Iloja of Prim, who was ultimately exiled on Vulcan. (DS9: "Destiny")
By 2257, Starfleet Captain Christopher Pike had been awarded the Legate's Crest of Valor and the Proficient Service Medallion, both prestigious Cardassian commendations. (DIS: "Brother")
The Union may have been in decline at tgat point as resources dwindled. 62 years after Pike received this commendation the Cardassians invaded and occupied Bajor.
Due to the planet's scarcity in natural resources, the Cardassian people eventually impoverished, suffering from famine and disease, leading to millions of deaths. The frail population then turned to a militaristic ideology and relied heavily on the military's expansion into the galaxy to obtain the natural resources they needed. In order to sustain the population, the military colonized numerous worlds and in return had complete power over the people as a totalitarian military dictatorship. This mutually beneficial arrangement reached an impasse, however, and in order to battle recurring famines on Cardassia, the military occupied additional nearby planets and subjugated their native people to work as forced laborers
So, a TOS Cardassia would be favorable toward the Federation, but that favor would be in decline and crumbling. Perhaps the Federation's refusal to help Cardassia with their increasing resource demands, along with the growing military policy, led to the tension and border wars described in TNG.
The First Republic existed as of the early-23rd century and was known for its serialist poetry. This included the works of serialist poet Iloja of Prim, who was ultimately exiled on Vulcan. (DS9: "Destiny")
By 2257, Starfleet Captain Christopher Pike had been awarded the Legate's Crest of Valor and the Proficient Service Medallion, both prestigious Cardassian commendations. (DIS: "Brother")
The Union may have been in decline at tgat point as resources dwindled. 62 years after Pike received this commendation the Cardassians invaded and occupied Bajor.
Due to the planet's scarcity in natural resources, the Cardassian people eventually impoverished, suffering from famine and disease, leading to millions of deaths. The frail population then turned to a militaristic ideology and relied heavily on the military's expansion into the galaxy to obtain the natural resources they needed. In order to sustain the population, the military colonized numerous worlds and in return had complete power over the people as a totalitarian military dictatorship. This mutually beneficial arrangement reached an impasse, however, and in order to battle recurring famines on Cardassia, the military occupied additional nearby planets and subjugated their native people to work as forced laborers
So, a TOS Cardassia would be favorable toward the Federation, but that favor would be in decline and crumbling. Perhaps the Federation's refusal to help Cardassia with their increasing resource demands, along with the growing military policy, led to the tension and border wars described in TNG.
As another person said, they would have pretty much just been standard "barbarian" Klingon type baddies for Kirk to beat up. Don't think we're really missing anything from them not being on TOS.
That's just due to the Dominion starting to treat them badly, though, not any kind of altruism on their part. Kind of like how some people give Stalin "credit" for fighting the Nazis when it was only because Germany attacked them to start with.
Since a Cardassian was living in exile on Vulcan during the early 23rd century, DS9 continuity is they were at least known by Kirk's era.
Plus in the Kelvin timeline Uhura orders a Cardassian Sunrise at the bar.
The Ferengi though, yeah, no indication they were known prior to the Battle of Maxia. I did not like their appearance in ENT nor New Voyages/Continues (can't remember which)
Plus in the Kelvin timeline Uhura orders a Cardassian Sunrise at the bar.
The Ferengi though, yeah, no indication they were known prior to the Battle of Maxia. I did not like their appearance in ENT nor New Voyages/Continues (can't remember which)
Hard to pin down in my opinion.
The Ferengi ship in the Battle of Maxia was attributed to an unknown race until Bok revealed it was Ferengi decades later.
Picard knows the name "Ferengi" and uses it as threat in "Encounter At Farpoint."
And Starfleet has data on them in "The Last Outpost"
So not unknown prior to TNG, just never knowingly seen.
So the Ferengi were to 24th century Starfleet what Romulans were to 22nd century Starfleet :
I think FASA got some advance knowledge of at least the Ferengi as a threat.
There were two new powers coreward and rimward that were hinted at in some of the manuals, so I guessed that those were the Cardassians and Ferengi, with Zakdorn and others coming later.
The Klingons and Romulans bumped into new powers of some kind—as per FASA.
There were two new powers coreward and rimward that were hinted at in some of the manuals, so I guessed that those were the Cardassians and Ferengi, with Zakdorn and others coming later.
The Klingons and Romulans bumped into new powers of some kind—as per FASA.
I'm imagining grey stage makeup with some shiny 'scales' glued on along the shoulders and around the eyes to make them look like lizard men from space.
This would be my preference, and the earlier TNG map (the 3D one with the boxes) had both far away from the Federation core, which would support that view.
Unfortunately, in DS9, presumably to justify the rapid travel times between DS9/Earth/Cardassia/Feringar, both homeworlds got moved considerably closer to Earth, so it makes a later discovery harder to justify. It's probably more egregious for the Ferengi, as Feringar was probably way too close to Earth to justify not knowing what Ferengi even looked like until the 2360s.
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