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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mallus" data-source="post: 2368946" data-attributes="member: 3887">Why is that? Its a time-honored tradition in the adventure genres, pitting the protagonists against 'overwhelming odds', and in SF that usually translates into 'a race w/better gadgets than yours'. I dislike when an uber-powerful race is introduced, challenges the heroes for 45 minutes or so, then gets resolved away by the hours end, without so much as a two-parter...That's certainly true. But the Dominion did offer the writers something new; mystery. While they could pile new details onto the Klingons and the Romulans (and to their credit, they did), neither race offered what the Dominion did; the dramatic tension inherent in a long, slow reveal...Sure. But it isn't all about human cleverness. Sometimes the aliens just catch a cold and die <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />  I'm really starting to think that deus ex machina is virtually unavoidable in SF (the end of new the Dr. Who really got me thinking). The SF audience wants galaxy-spanning (and history spanning) threats, super-high tech whizz-bangery, foes with intellects as vast and cold as space (but not nearly as empty). But by the end, they want simple human love, valor and compassion (with perhaps a dash of smarts) to win the day. How does that happen without a little DEM? My new position is: so long as the drama is high and the emotions feel right, then that's all that matters.</blockquote>

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