A Star Trek Dominion Race Just Returned With A Vengeance
Today's new episode of Star Trek: Lower Decks sees the return of the Karemma, who try to kidnap Quark into the Gamma Quadrant.
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It’s been a while since we’ve seen the people of Star Trek’s Dominion back in any significant appearances, but that changed with this week’s episode of Star Trek: Lower Decks. “Hear All, Trust Nothing” not only brings the crew of the Cerritos to Deep Space Nine, but sees the return of the Dominion race the Karemma. And the aliens do more than just make a background cameo; they try to kidnap Quark (voiced by Armin Shimerman) to the Gamma Quadrant.
It is, in fact, the return of the Karemma that brings the Cerritos to DS9. The Federation is negotiating a new trade agreement with them and the Cerritos’s Captain Freeman (voiced by Dawnn Lewis)–initially meant just to support the USS Vancouver–is put in charge of the deal. Things are going well until Quark refuses to lend a hand, citing Star Trek: Deep Space Nine‘s epic Dominion War as the reason.
Of course, while some years have passed–in both real life and between the events DS9 and Lower Decks–Quark hasn’t changed all that much. We eventually learn Quark’s real reason for begging off has to do with him cheating the Karemma and not wanting them to find out, like they did in the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Season 4 episode “Starship Down” when the Karemma’s accusations against Quark are interrupted by a devastating Dominion assault.
As recalled by Memory Alpha, The Karemma are first mentioned in Season 2 of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine when the series was still only whispering little hints about the Dominion. The first actual member of the species we meet is Orinthar (played by Trek frequent flyer John Fleck) in Season 3’s “The Search, Part 1” when Captain Sisko (Avery Brooks) leads the Defiant on a search for the Dominion Founders in hopes of forging peace. But we get a much better chance to get to know Karemma Trade Minister Hanok–played by the future Zefram Cochrane actor James Cromwell–in “Starship Down.”
Early in “Starship Down” we learn that Quark has been using his position as middle man between the Karemma and the Federation to create fake charges in the dealings between the two and pocket the difference for himself. While Hanok’s initial intention is to expose Quark, circumstances forge a bond between them. When Star Trek’s Dominion learns the Karemma are dealing with the Federation, they send a ship to kill the Karemma and the Defiant.
Both the Defiant and the Karemma ship survive, but along with a long list of dangers, Quark and Hanok are left to disarm an undetonated torpedo lodged in the bulkhead. Hanok comes out of the incident with a new respect for Quark and his ways, though apparently the latter has yet to learn to stop trying to screw over Gamma Quadrant aliens.
Hanok doesn’t appear in “Hear All, Trust Nothing” sadly, though James Cromwell did recently lend his voice to Star Trek: Lower Decks for a non-Dominion role. In the Season 3 premiere he voiced an animatronic version of his recurring Trek character Zefram Cochrane.
