Season 4’s Klingon-Cardassian War was an important conflict in the history of Star Trek: DS9 and the Dominion, but it was predicted two years earlier.

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine predicted a war between the Cardassians and Klingons two years before the conflict broke out in DS9 season 4. The Klingon-Cardassian War was a flashpoint in the conflict between the Federation, their allies, and the Dominion. Instigated by a Changeling infiltrator within the Klingon Empire, the war between the Klingons and Cardassians raged between 2372 and 2373. The bloody conflict was a successful attempt to destabilize the Federation’s relationships with its allies, and was a key moment in the lead up to DS9‘s Dominion War.

The conflict with the Klingons was so severe that it inspired Captain Benjamin Sisko (Avery Brooks) to have Lt. Commander Worf (Michael Dorn) assigned to DS9 full time as both an advisor and tactical officer. The Klingon-Cardassian War, and the addition of Worf to the cast of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine in season 4 was a soft reboot for the show, that led to a significant improvement in public perception of DS9. However, a throwaway line in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine season 2, episode 22, “The Wire”, predicted the whole conflict, even before DS9‘s writers conceived of the Klingon-Cardassian War.

DS9 Predicted Star Trek’s Klingon-Cardassian War 2 Years Earlier

“Who wins?” “Who do you think?”

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine season 2, episode 22, “The Wire” centers on the friendship between Dr. Julian Bashir (Alexander Siddig) and Elim Garak (Andrew Robinson) as DS9’s chief medical officer fights to save the Cardassian tailor’s life. With Garak’s condition stabilized by the end of the episode, Garak and Bashir resume their weekly lunch dates, where they discuss the merits of Federation and Cardassian literature. Garak lends Bashir a novel set in a potential future where the Cardassian Union is at war with the Klingon Empire. When asked by Bashir who wins the war, Garak wryly replies “Who do you think?”

The Cardassian-Klingon war in Garak’s novel was not intended as ominous foreshadowing by writer Robert Hewitt Wolfe. Instead, it was a joke about how Garak saw his taste in literature as more refined than Bashir’s, despite it being jingoistic propaganda about the Cardassians’ superiority over the Klingon Empire. It was only later, when Rick Berman suggested adding Worf to the cast of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, that the idea of a conflict between the Klingons and Cardassians was devised as a way to justify bringing Michael Dorn’s beloved Star Trek: The Next Generation character aboard.

Garak Was Wrong, The Cardassians Lost The Klingon War

“Please, Doctor. Spare me your insufferable Federation optimism. Of course it will survive, but as not the Cardassia I knew.”

The war between the Klingon Empire and the Cardassian Union effectively came to an end when Gul Dukat (Marc Alaimo) negotiated for the Cardassians to join the Dominion. In the short term, this meant that the Cardassians were able to repel the Klingon forces with the help of the Jem’Hadar in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine season 5, episode 15, “By Inferno’s Light”. In the long term, it led to a longer conflict that ultimately decimated Cardassia Prime. The alliance with the Dominion cost the Cardassians dearly, as their autonomy was eroded by the tyrany of the Female Changeling (Salome Jens) and Weyoun (Jeffrey Combs).

Garak and Major Kira Nerys (Nana Visitor) aided the Cardassian military in rising up against the Dominion in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine‘s finale, but their former allies unleashed devastating reprisals against Cardassia Prime. Eight hundred million Cardassians died, a combination of the losses incurred during the Battle of Cardassia, and those incurred by the Dominion’s violent reprisals. Gul Dukat may have secured the Cardassians a momentary victory in the war against the Klingons, but he signed the death warrant for eight hundred million of his fellow Cardassians and erased much of the culture, art, music, and literature that was so beloved by Garak.