Star Trek: DS9 Foreshadowed Voyager’s Fate A Year Earlier

Summary DS9 set the stage for Voyager's fate, including the introduction of the Maquis and the crucial Badlands location.

Commander Sisko's pursuit of the Maquis in DS9 foreshadowed Voyager's disappearance in the Badlands.

The Badlands played a significant role in Voyager's pilot episode, setting the stage for the crew's journey to the Delta Quadrant.

The fate of the USS Voyager was foreshadowed by Commander Benjamin Sisko (Avery Brooks) in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine season 2. With Star Trek: Voyager slated to premiere in January 1995, DS9 season 2 and Star Trek: The Next Generation season 7 laid some of the groundwork for the new show. The biggest way that DS9 and TNG set up Voyager was the introduction of the Maquis, the terrorist organization that would provide the rogue element in Voyager's cast of characters. The TNG episode "Journey's End" set up the political situation from which they originated, while DS9's two-parter "The Maquis" formally introduced them to the Star Trek universe.

Several Maquis members, including Commander Chakotay (Robert Beltran) and Lt. B'Elanna Torres (Roxann Dawson) would later be forced to join the crew of the USS Voyager. However, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine's Maquis two-parter set up the plot of Star Trek: Voyager in other ways, too. Halfway through "The Maquis", Gul Dukat (Marc Alaimo) is captured by terrorists, forcing Sisko to give pursuit. Tracking the Maquis freighter, Sisko, Major Kira Nerys (Nana Visitor), and Dr. Julian Bashir (Alexander Siddig) enters the Badlands, a region of space that would play a crucial role in Voyager's pilot episode, "Caretaker".

Related Star Trek: Voyager & DS9 Crossed Over In The Mirror Universe Despite being stuck in the Delta Quadrant, a Star Trek: Voyager crew member briefly crossed over into the Mirror Universe to join the DS9 cast.

DS9 Foreshadowed USS Voyager's Disappearance In The Badlands

The Maquis' use of the Badlands as a hiding place and strategic location was seeded through DS9 seasons 2 and 3.

Briefing Dr. Julian Bashir, Kira reveals that the Badlands is beset by plasma storms, making it an incredibly dangerous region of space. To which Sisko adds that "a few ships have been lost there over the past year or two", foreshadowing the loss of the USS Voyager a year later. DS9 would also later establish that the Badlands was a key strategic location for the Maquis in their resistance efforts against Cardassian occupation, further setting up the Star Trek: Voyager pilot. Not only was the Badlands a crucial hiding place for the Maquis, the region was also used as a staging ground for larger military operations.

The Badlands were likened to the Bermuda Triangle in an early outline of Star Trek: Voyager dated 17th August 1993.

In DS9 season 3, episode 9, "Defiant", Thomas Riker (Jonathan Frakes) hijacked the USS Defiant and took it into the Badlands to rendezvous with a fleet of Maquis raiders. "Defiant" aired a few months before Star Trek: Voyager's pilot, in which Captain Kathryn Janeway (Kate Mulgrew) and the crew of the USS Voyager departed from Deep Space Nine to track down a missing Maquis ship in the Badlands. It was a fateful mission that ultimately resulted in the Intrepid-class Voyager being stranded thousands of lightyears from home, another starship "lost over there" in the Badlands.

While devising Star Trek: Voyager in August 1993, Jeri Taylor wrote that the Badlands were "a turbulent area of space where some ships have been lost (some of them might crop up during the series)"

Other Star Trek Starships Lost In The Badlands

"A few ships have been lost over there..." - Commander Sisko

The USS Voyager was initially sent to track down the missing Maquis freighter, the Val Jean, aboard which Lt. Tuvok (Tim Russ) was undercover for Starfleet. The Val Jean was lost in the Badlands after being pursued by Gul Evek (Richard Poe), who was overseer of the Demilitarized Zone in place between the Cardassian and Federation territories. However, rather than being destroyed by the plasma storms that plagued the region, the Val Jean was actually captured by the Caretaker's coherent tetryon beam and brought to the Delta Quadrant. The Caretaker had also taken a Cardassian Galor-class warship, and a Cardassian Dreadnought missile.

In the Star Trek: Voyager episode "The Voyager Conspiracy" it is suggested that it was Gul Evek's ship that was captured by the Caretaker, however this is later debunked.

The most notable starship taken by the Caretaker was the USS Equinox, which was encountered by Captain Janeway and the crew in Star Trek: Voyager's season 5 finale. However, given that the Equinox was stranded in a different region of space, it seems that they weren't lost in the Badlands like Voyager was. The Badlands continued to be a key position during the Dominion War in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, until the Maquis were rooted out by the combined forces of the Cardassians and the Jem'Hadar, a devastating loss for Voyager's Maquis crew members.

All episodes of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Star Trek: Voyager are available to stream on Paramount+.