Star Trek Finally Answers Deep Space Nine’s Greatest Mystery
One of the first major victories for the bad guys in the Dominion War was capturing the Federation planet Betazed, but given that most Trekkies associate Betazoids with Deanna Troi—the counselor from Star Trek: The Next Generation—fans have wondered why the peaceful planet was targeted. The franchise has finally delivered the answer: lipstick batons.
The latest episode of Star Trek: Lower Decks shows the Betazed military was a threat to the Dominion.
Thanks to a recent episode of Star Trek: Lower Decks, fans have gotten their first canonical look at Betazed’s military, and now the Dominion’s choice to shut ’em down early makes total sense. One can not overstate how devastating the loss of Betazed was in the minds of Starfleet.
While in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Captain Sisko had already decided to put his personal morals aside in order to trick the Romulan Empire into joining the fight against the Dominion, the news of the capture of Betazed lit a fire under him to get it done.
While the three agents started the episode as nothing but Betazed diplomats looking to party, as soon as the Q hits the fan, the girls turn their lipstick tubes into batons and start kickin’ butt.
Now, thanks to Lower Decks, we finally know why the capture of Betazed had the Federation shook. Despite serving as a largely humorous—albeit still canon—look at the Star Trek universe, Lower Decks can and does occasionally switch into action mode, something it did in the episode “Empathalogical Fallacies” with three Betazoid secret agents forced into battle following a fellow Betazoid going haywire and affecting the emotions of everyone on the USS Cerritos.
While the three agents started the episode as nothing but Betazed diplomats looking to party, as soon as the Q hits the fan, the girls turn their lipstick tubes into batons and start kickin’ butt.
The ferociousness of the Betazoid agents, coupled with the fact that they can use their unique empathic abilities to manipulate their enemies, makes Betazed a particularly valuable asset to the Federation during a war as well as a dangerous opponent to anyone going against the Alpha quadrant.
It now makes total sense that the Dominion would want to take out Betazed early and with extreme prejudice in order to avoid Betazoid agents using their unique espionage skills to infiltrate their ranks.
The capture of Betazed was also said to give the Dominion access to other Federation strongholds such as Vulcan and Trill.
Likewise, given how valuable the Betazed military would be to Starfleet’s forces, it now makes sense that the loss of Betazed would scare Sisko and the rest of the Federation to their very core.
While it’s quite possible that the writers of “In the Pale Moonlight” — the episode of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine that first introduced the Dominion’s subjugation of Betazed — just chose a random planet familiar to Trekkies that would serve to heighten the sense of danger and the stakes of the war, in hindsight the choice of Betazed was an inspired one.
By not going with a planet like Vulcan or Earth—planets where fans are familiar with the respective defense forces—Star Trek: Deep Space Nine gave fans something to think about and debate in the decades since the end of DS9 and the airing of the latest episode of Lower Decks.
