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The Borg are a major threat in Star Trek: TNG and Star Trek: Voyager (I haven't watched the latter, but looking at this it seems they are).

Those two series happen at roughly the same time as DS9, but the Borg were barely mentioned in DS9. In fact, the only mention I remember was in the first episode, and only to explain the death of Sisko's wife and his hatred of Captain Picard. After that we never heard that Federation had to deal with the Borg at all.

Is there any in-universe explanation of this?

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    Probably because they have more local concerns to worry about, like the Cardassians and Dominion, which are both essentially right next door. Voyager has to deal with the Borg threat because Voyager has to fly through Borg-controlled space.
    – Ellesedil
    Commented Jan 5, 2016 at 20:01
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    Because all the fancy new props from the First Contact film (along with the TNG Borg props) were given to the production team for Voyager in return for all the DS9 uniforms and props.
    – Valorum
    Commented Jan 5, 2016 at 20:01
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    @Richard: That's interesting. Do you have a citation for that? (Or is it a joke? Hard to tell sometimes.)
    – Mason Wheeler
    Commented Jan 6, 2016 at 2:59
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    Out-of-universe, the Borg informally belong to the Voyager writers, see 2nd question.
    – Sean Fahey
    Commented Jan 6, 2016 at 14:45
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    Also, VOY had a main character who was a Borg. That's like asking why DS9 had so many Bejorans and Ferengis, or why TNG had so many Klingons and Betazoids, or why TOS and ENT had so many Vulcans.
    – Darrel Hoffman
    Commented Jan 6, 2016 at 16:56

7 Answers 7

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DS9 is in a different quadrant to both Borg space and the main Federation worlds:

  • Most of the Federation is in the Alpha quadrant, including DS9. The rest of the Federation is in the Beta quadrant.
  • The Gamma quadrant contained the Dominion space and the other end of the Bajoran wormhole.
  • The Delta quadrant contained the Borg homeworld and is where most of the Voyager series was set.

See this answer for more details on the quadrants.

Hence, given the huge distances, it was never likely that the Borg would encounter DS9, either directly or via the Bajoran wormhole.

An image of the four quadrants of the galaxy.

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    But the Borg made it to Federation space, and I see no reason they couldn't make it from there to DS9—relatively speaking it's right next door, compared to the distance the Borg had to travel to get to the Federation. Your answer explains why the Borg play a bigger role in Voyager, but not why they wouldn't show up at all in DS9. It seems to me that this is better answered out-of-universe rather than in-universe: why did the show's producers decide to downplay the Borg? Probably because they wanted to introduce new threats for DS9 to keep things interesting.
    – Chris Page
    Commented Jan 6, 2016 at 3:44
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    @ChrisPage: "Your answer explains why the Borg play a bigger role in Voyager, but not why they wouldn't show up at all in DS9." That is probably deserving of a separate question on it's own. What you'd need to ask is "What reason would the Borg have to attack DS9 while the Federation is still whole?" The only attractive resource is the wormhole, which may or may not work for the Borg considering the beings who live in it. And the Borg would still need to deal with the Federation, and now the Dominion on top of it. So, the Borg would need some strong justification to attack DS9.
    – Ellesedil
    Commented Jan 6, 2016 at 4:06
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    I was under the impression that the Borg consider all sentient life forms a target—at least in the long run—and don't need more specific reasons to attack specific ones. Also, this question didn't ask about the Borg attacking the DS9 station in particular, but rather asked why they didn't play a role in the DS9 series. Why wouldn't the Borg attack the space surrounding DS9?
    – Chris Page
    Commented Jan 6, 2016 at 4:11
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    @ChrisPage "at least in the long run" There's your answer in a nutshell. Just because everyone's your enemy doesn't mean you attack haphazardly and without a plan. The Borg are like North Korea, if North Korea had 22nd century weapons in a 20th century world. They also have a lot of patience and time. Their strength is also hard to estimate (why send 1 cube to assimilate Federation HQ when you have thousands?). In short, DS9 is not a priority. The wormhole was there ages ago and they already have Transwarp Relays, so too little gain for too much exposure. Why attack now and not later?
    – mechalynx
    Commented Jan 6, 2016 at 8:59
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    @ChrisPage The out-of-universe explanation is more satisfying. I do however insist that in-universe, it isn't necessarily out of character for the Borg to not attack DS9 or the surrounding areas. In VOY we learn that the Borg are busy in the Delta quadrant making a mess and overall the Borg are rarely seen outside their quadrant throughout the series. By their very definition the Borg would be expected to assimilate the galaxy within months, but they haven't for years or centuries for that matter. Whatever would explain that possibly explains their inactivity during DS9.
    – mechalynx
    Commented Jan 7, 2016 at 13:39
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TNG only has a few episodes involving Borg after the launch of DS9, and they never face another Borg invasion/attack until the First Contact movie. The First Contact attack is again a single Borg vessel, against which the Federation is ultimately successful.

Unless the Borg cube flew directly by Deep Space 9, they would have had no ability to affect it, so it wasn't really mentioned. Though Sisko does mention that the Defiant was specifically designed to fight Borg vessels after Wolf 359, and the USS Defiant itself reported to the second invasion commanded by Worf.

Voyager spends much of its series flying through Borg controlled space, and thus they interact with the Borg a great deal.

Ultimately, there was very little Borg threat to the Federation during DS9's run, and any threat there was would have been pre-empted in the area around DS9 by the Dominion threat.

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This is simply a matter of geography of the galaxy and specifically the Alpha Quadrant in relation to the Delta Quadrant, which is where Borg space is principally located.

The Romulan Empire is closest to the Borg, hence that's why our first encounter with the Borg in Alpha Quadrant space is along the Neutral Zone.

Next is the Federation which controls a huge portion of the Alpha Quadrant.

Bajor, and therefore DS9, is on the opposite end of Federation space near the edge of the galaxy and is the farthest region of the galaxy from the Borg. The Borg have to get somewhere before they can build a transwarp conduit, so they really have no means of getting to DS9 without traveling the entire breadth of Federation space.

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  • The closing scene of Endgame would seem to contradict your final sentence. Then again, it also contradicted almost every other Borg/Federation conflict we've ever seen, so...
    – Lightness Races in Orbit
    Commented Jan 6, 2016 at 12:13
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Most of the contact the Federation has with the Borg happens before DS9. And Voyager has tons of Borg contact because it’s in the Borg-controlled quadrant of our galaxy, while Deep Space 9 resides far from active Borg space.

In late 2366, a Borg cube invaded Federation space and assimilated Jean-Luc Picard, whose tactical information contributed, along with the Borg's own vastly superior power, to Starfleet's disastrously one-sided engagement with the cube, the Battle of Wolf 359. A fleet of forty starships assembled to combat the cube. All but one of these ships were destroyed, while the cube remained intact, damaged but healing rapidly. The Enterprise-D recovered Picard and used his connection to the hive-mind to disable the cube before it could attack Earth. (TNG: "The Best of Both Worlds", "The Best of Both Worlds, Part II")

We witness some of this event in DS9: this battle is where Sisko's wife dies.

During the next few years the Borg face major set backs in the Delta quadrant; this is witnessed by the Voyager crew.

The next major incursion by the Borg into Federation space happens in 2373 (in the TNG movie First Contact) — the same year the Dominion War happens, a major plot theme in Deep Space 9. And as Richard states, this Borg attack is centered directly on earth, far from the Dominion War and Deep Space 9.

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  • Is there a ceasefire before DS9? Why does the contact stop?
    – user69715
    Commented Jan 5, 2016 at 20:13
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    There's no "ceasefire" with the borg, they just don't turn up again for another few years. When they do arrive (in the film First Contact) they immediately start trying to assimilate Earth.
    – Valorum
    Commented Jan 5, 2016 at 20:16
  • One does not simply negotiate with the borg
    – Ellesedil
    Commented Jan 5, 2016 at 20:17
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    @Ellesedil - Janeway does. Repeatedly.
    – Valorum
    Commented Jan 5, 2016 at 20:21
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    "this is witnessed by the Voyager crew" To be fair, this is in large part caused by the Voyager crew.
    – Lightness Races in Orbit
    Commented Jan 6, 2016 at 12:14
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The easiest and simplest answer is DS9 is in the far backyard of the Federation, and the Borg when attacking come by the front door. If you draw a fairly strait line from Borg space to DS9, you would have them go first through Romulan space, then like 7,000 light years of Federation space, then the Sol system, another stretch of Federation space (the area between Earth and Cardassian space), then a small chunk of Cardassian space, then finally Bajoran space (and Deep Space 9). Given that Earth is the headquarters and center of Federation power, the Borg won’t travel that far to deal with an old space station, when assimilating Earth will do the trick.

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As far as I remember, there is an episode when Sisko ask for Federation reinforcements, but it is denied because they were busy after Borg incursion to Earth. I am assuming was the one showed in First Contact movie.

So, as the others mentioned the Borg never arrived to DS9. Federation stopped them before they can arrive to the station.

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The Borg did attack once during DS9, First Contact film. Then were never heard from again. Which makes perfect sense, even in TNG they really weren't around that much. Writers claimed they made them too powerful and often times it was difficult to write a satisfying end to a Borg episode. So showing up one time during the DS9 run makes sense... then VOY they run through their space and the Borg end up in 20 episodes.

I always imagined the Alpha quadrant was like the wild west to the Borg. Far away and hard to get there.

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    While the Defiant was definitely involved in the initial Borg fight in First Contact, the fight was specifically mentioned as taking place near Earth. Worf had simply taken the Defiant out to join the fleet, or was otherwise present there and able to join.
    – Robert Columbia
    Commented Oct 24, 2018 at 17:37

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