Who are the Son'a?
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 5 ก.พ. 2025
- Today we take an in depth look at the Son'a Solidarity. prior to the Dominion War this Enigmatic race of nomads were of little significance. However during the War they have rose to prominence as manufacturers of high end pharmacuticals and medical technology. used to treat the wounded of the federation, and supply the Dominion with critical supplies of Ketracel White...
This war could well transform the Son'a from a race of scavenging nomads. to a major astropolitical power, or see their race in the fires of war...
Music:
• Tak
• Decline
• On The Hunt - บันเทิง
Damn only 2-4 of those big battleships, if that’s correct it really underscores Ruafo’s fury at the Enterprise destroying one and wrecking another. That’s pretty devastating blow to their fleet in just one incident combined with alienating the Federation and the Dominions defeat soon after. That’s going to be hard to recover from, I guess they’re lucky the Federation tends to be pretty forgiving.
I thought the health issues the Son'a were experiencing was having been kick out of paradise they've "been exiled to die slowly" (perhaps not immediately but over time it began to weigh on their minds)so faced with their own mortality for the first time they took desperate steps to either imitate the effects of the Baku homeworld or just give them extended lifespan genetic manipulation was mentioned as well as the flesh stretching treatments so i think side effects of the various procedures combined with old age was taking its toll.
Possibly the Son'a had an idea that if the Dominion had won the war they could have asked for the Briar patch as a reward for the aid provided
Maybe that's what they were hoping for, we know from ST Enterprise that it is inside Klingon space which would have been a problem for them.
This might be one of your best videos. Turning a cackling evil from a movie into an interesting cultural power.
Crazy how their ships are essentially based on Dominion warship design.
That is because they are rejected Dominion battlecruiser designs recycled.
@@merafirewing6591 yeah weird coincidence...
That's becouse they built and designed ships for the Dominion 😊
@@Rick79LUFC well other way around… 👀
I always saw their ships being built by the Miradorn, like their Theta class Raider, sona battle cruiser, command ship, and I would add the shrike also. All being of the same design philosophy. Also it didn’t look like the Miradorn had issues with sells to third parties.
Very cool, concise & entertaining presentation of a rather shady race in Star Trek 🖖😎☕
The Son'a may be less than a century away from becoming the first cybermen...
We... must... survive
Or (based on the state of their skin) Daleks.
Faster if they stumble into borg
@TheTb2364 could possibly be we don't really know who the origional borg species was not even the collective itself dose not truly rember there origin so they could possibly be and they got thrown back in time
After reading your thumbnail I can’t stop imaging the Son’a as thug life street criminals. Releasing their mixtape “Ketracel White Fire” as they work with the CI- I mean Dominion.
Also the Dominion would totally use subspace weapons as a last restore on the alpha quadrant (or maybe the whole galaxy if they touch Voyager’s lore…) for the morphogenic virus if they had a stockpile or the infrastructure since well that was at the very end of the war.
I never fail to laugh at how the command chair on the Son'a ship is a sofa. He looks like he's watching a game of sportsball rather than overseeing the destruction of a world and genociding it's inhabitants.
So I remember that there was this one episode of DS9 with a body snatching serial killer who had developed the technology to transfer his mind to new bodies, and Dr Bashir was his latest victim. There was also a Voyager episode with a similar plot involving a planetary dictator and Kes.
I can't help but feel that this technology was what the Son'a really needed/wanted, if they could have cloned new young and healthy bodies for themselves they wouldn't have needed a convoluted scheme to harvest their old homeworld for its special exotic radiation fountain of youth. They probably still would have done something to 'punish' their estranged kin and claimed the world for themselves out of spite anyway, but they wouldn't have needed to try and con the Federation into doing their dirty work if they had the luxury of time.
The Shrike from Picard S3 makes sense to me now, I thought that was a Son'a ship when I first saw it but if the Son'a bought their ships then maybe all of them came from the same manufacturer.
@@Chicken-x6q6d apart from its symmetry I'd say shrike was actually breen built
@@venomgeekmedia9886 Good eye, I wonder if that's our ship builder.
Miradorn
Would make sense that given they are a privateer/raider insular state. For breen to maximise profits by building similar type of ships for equally equivalent medium and minor powers.
I never thought much about them; beyond "Well they needed a badguy species for the movie :)" - But, I really like this take! Now, they seem like a much more interesting player.
It is rather interesting that you left out the info on the Son'a from Star Trek Insurrection. I presume you are saving that for a future episode. A rather intriguing manner of exploring the Son'a as a faction, it appears as if it was done from an in-universe perspective.
yes no talk about art or wine or song but he did talk about them being a cultural force. I always think they represent the darker side of the artist and then of course their parents are "space hippie artists" (check your privilege). Would have been nice to have seen them featured in a stand alone episode.
Yes quite possibly more... we'll see
Admittedly, I rather liked the Son'a. They were villains... But not some over the top threat to the galaxy. They are much more... Realistic.
@@archades115 yeah a decent minor villain especially since the scale of threat in trek shows has increased to absurd levels
Basically a bunch of criminals out on the moor who make a living making drugs and bullying neighbors.
Agreed, honestly as over top the Son’a are played I feel far more sorry for them then the Bakk’u. The Dominion might be evil but can you blame the Son’a? Their race is literally failing apart. And then these squatters and their bald bleeding heart terrorist leader just fuck up your entire plan to save your race from extinction. All over said leader’s misunderstanding of the prime directive, stopping groundbreaking medicine the Son’a was going to SHARE with the Federation and The Rest of the Alpha Quadrant. With a price tag? Sure, still pretty generous since the Federation’s economy runs on anti-economicinium. Doubling lifespans and healing organic beings such as LeForge’s previously incurable (unless you pull the Bashir Gamer Move) condition. The Son’a had every right to be absolutely pissed. Riker and that cheap ass joystick.
I agree
I do wonder how the Son’a fare after the war, with such a tiny population and fleet, the losses they have suffered was surely catastrophic to them.
Well, that kinda answers my musing comment about if the federation was buying/bidding up ketracel.
Indentured servants are not paid. They are slaves for the term of indentured service.
Oh damn that is a TINY TINY fleet-
And an even TINIER population-
Like I understand that they’ve been dying off but only 1,000 Son’a IN TOTAL?!
99% of their entire infrastructure, military, and all other operations must be done by their labor races then if they have so few of them-
I would’ve expected 50,000 at the least-
And that would still be a minuscule population for a planetary power-
Also does that mean the Enterprise E literally cut the combat-capabilities of the entire Son’a solidarity in half in Star Trek Insurrection? Would they ever be able to recover from that?
Don't forget there was only 600 Baku
@@thestanleys3657 You gotta be kidding 💀
@@geekiusmaximus1882 "Jean-Luc were only moving 600 people"
"How many does it take Admiral before it becomes wrong? 1k,50k a million how many people does it take Admiral?!!" - Picard and Doughty
@@thestanleys3657 "Don´t know,you accepted the whole "native american stand ins on a cardassian planet" thing really well,Jean-Luc"
@@NashmanNash true it's also possible that Picard's experience during those events (not sure if it's mentioned on-screen weather the Dominion wiped them out like they did with the Marquis) and their assumed poor treatment affected Picard which was why he put up such a staunch resistance to the Baku's forced relocation.
Also a noticeable difference between the two events was the Baku were not consulted about the relocation it was supposed to be done without them even knowing it even happened, whereas the "native American" knew about the borders moving and chose to relinquish federation membership
Interesting about the tech development and buying technology. I think that's an area that's not explained often enough in Trek, though a few tidbits are thrown in, like Nog saying "the Ferengi had to buy warp drive technology from the..." before getting cut off by Quark. It would be an interesting exploration of how some of the first races in this area of the Alpha Quadrant discover FTL did. Perhaps that's what the Orinons did in ancient history; traded it to other races in exchange for significant wealth? Maybe that's how the Klingons got it?
I will cover the ancient history of the orions and the rigellians before them
The Klingons got warp tech from the Hurq, a species that invaded Qo'Nos in the past.
B i g p h a r m a
I always saw their ships being built by the Miradorn, like their Theta class Raider, sona battle cruiser, command ship, and I would add the shrike also. All being of the same design philosophy. Also it didn’t look like the Miradorn had issues with sells to third parties.
Good point although I wonder if the miradorn can go quite that big
Good information
How did you commented 5 days ago if this was posted today?
Best plastic surgeons in the galaxy.
Don't forget Vidiians from Delta quadrant.
I’m always confused by this film, has nobody thought of just establishing a colony on the opposite side of the planet? And allowing people to reap the benefits of the deaging while not disrupting the current inhabitants.
Yeah serious logic gap, Baku only 600 people. Literally rest of the planet could be used and wouldn’t even know about them.
They discused that in the movie, the sona would die before they would regenerate naturally.
@@marckrieger3277 Well, that sucks with all that technology they couldn’t have used some logic and healed themselves years ago instead of letting themselves go this far. One would think Starfleet could have also used a little logic and told the Son’a to leave the current inhabitants alone, while Starfleet investigates the healing ability of the planet, away from the one village.
@@boneyold seriously with how low-tech the Baku lived there could have been entire cities on another continent without them knowing as long a strict massive no-fly zone was maintained over their area.
Fly to close to the sun? No the Sona flew to close to the Enterprise that's what ended their whole career! Many others had the same misfortune as shown in TOS, TNG, and Enterprise!
Thanks a lot for that video, i found the sona and their involvement in the domnion war a topic that is sadly not much explored. I am espacially a fan of the battlecruiser design.
It makes sense that the sona are experts in biotech and so would be perfect for producing withe for the dominion but it still surprises me that a xenophobic and paronid society like the founders would give away the formula to produce it. They were giving away a big carot on a stick for their genatically engineered killing machines.
Sona are basically the trade federation of Star Trek. As Like the federation, they used their galactic monopoly on one particular industry to turn themselves from nothing into a powerful industrial conglomerate on a galactic scale.
Whom had used said power to gain a seat at the same table with the big boys of the quadrant supplying their medical needs. As well as using credits gained to build up a decent size fleet for their needs.
If I recall Damar was not a fan of the Sona. He thought they were weirdos.
Well he would since the cardassians have little need to the Sona themselves
A thought occurred to me towards the end of this video, and feel free to use it if you want.
Could the Son'a have done what Japan requested of Great Britain with the Japanese Kongo class battle cruisers.
Contract the design and construction of one or two vessels from another power's shipyard, then to build those ships domestically once their own infrastructure is ready?
Good idea trouble with the sona is their nomadic nature. Perhaps with the smaller ships
thats was very intresting
I kinda wiped Insurrection from my mind and now always get these guys mixed up with the Vidiians from Voyager
I actually really like the design of their ships.
🖖
😂 Lmao @ the Thumbnail
Why?
I thought they were just old, and they kept using genetic modification and physical modification to keep going after they were banished from the planet that sustained them beyond their natural lifetime
"Ferengi loans"?
I shudder to think what the interest rates are.
After the war "Now it is time to repay the loans." Jellico turns up at the Ferengi homeworld with a fleet of Defiants and Sovereigns. "Sorry grand Nagus I didn't quite catch that would you like to repeat the question?"
I suspect Zek named Rom Nagus precisely because Rom is smart enough to know there are things more important than Latinum. Money isn't worth much if the winner of the last great war decides to park its ships over your capital.
The thing is the Federation before the war would never do such a thing and the Federation after the war would claim it would never do such a thing but Zek must know from how the Federation acts during the war that those loans are never getting repaid.
@@farshnuke Maybe the Grand Negus Zek knew in reality that the Dominion is bad for business in the long term and that it was better to just support the Federation and help them win. But he can't openly do it, so he calls Ferengi aid "loans"...
@@ChairmanMo I suspect so. Plus it does make it harder for the inherently anticapitalist federation to attack the Ferengi. We know the prime directive is super important but we also know captains compromise it all the time. So would Zek. Nice bit of insurance to have literally helped them save the alpha quadrant.
I Am curoius if sona may have been involved in work with those captured changlings. They have expertise on bio tech and may have more versatility to find ways to investigate the captured changlings and the methods use clearly align with their morality and timing works out
Any thought?
I don't know. The Son'a seemed more focused on dealing with the their own code. The Precursor seeding being a fortunate happen stance. That doesn't necessarily translate to dealing with a Changeling's genetics or Matrix. Jem'hadar would probably be understood.
@@gmradio2436 I was more thinking that they werrr consultants on then more “unethical” methods of this type of research.
Remeber for nearly 100 years federation was in golden age so their researchers would be less prepared for such research ….. similar to how pulots trained during peace time aren’t as effective those trained durjng war when their life depends in if.
The fact that the federation was already “in bed” with them by the time of resurrection always seemed funny to me and I always figured their MUSt have been some “alliance” previously that created this air of trust to do shady stuff.
Again, it just a thought but would help explain how sona were close to federation enough to domore than just trade deals
@@gmradio2436 I see it more like they would be good consultants in the darker researcher methods to examine those chsnglings.
I always found it odd how the federation worked with the sona during insurrection and perhaps because they already did shady stuff prior in terms of collaborating on shady research.
I’m sure the sona charged for their services.
It actually makes sense that section 31 got their help developing the bioweapon against the founders by threatening to reveal that they know the Sona's dispute with the Baku is an internal issue.
@@farshnuke love that idea.
The fact star fleet was workkng either then by insurrection tells me some other shady stuff happened to lewd up to it
Not all Star Trek stories have to be huge and epic, where the entire universe have to be saved. But the problem with Insurrection is it feels more like just aothern episode of a series than a movie, and a very drawn-out (like skin of the Son'a) episode at that.
**quietly hums the theme from "Brazil"**
Their ships remind me of Breen ships
Coincidence...?
Wouldn't it be awesome if the whole movie was effectively a sequel to In The Pale Moonlight, just like the writer of that episode, Michael Pillar, would've wanted? Also did you know Michael Pillar wrote the original script for Insurrection and was responsible for the title? And did you know the "brown and beige" version of the movie we ultimately got was rewritten, uncredited, by Rick "Just go Google Rick Berman and Terry Farwell and also DO NOT TRUST ANYONE NAMED BERMAN REMEMBER BERMAN IS LITERALLY THE KLINGON WORD FOR DISHONORABLE MUTINY" Berman?
Yeah it could have worked better as a more intellectual film rather than a silly action movie
Could imagine if Picard discovered Sisko’s ITPML scheme and how he’s going to deal with it and his more diplomatic utopian worldview. That would been an amazing film done right. And could have given DS9 more of a spotlight. Lord could you imagine Sisko and Picard yelling at each other. Like Bashir’s and admiral Ross’s section 31 argument but on whole new level.
The Son'a are originally those from the Bak'u - and you're right to point out their deficiency. Their civilization was on diminishing grounds.
so that's how you spell it. I always thought it was Sonar lol
Makes sense they would buy ships from anyone willing to sell them.
Its a really great vid. However, through no fault of Mr Venomgeek the canon numbers just dont add up.
Just FAR too few Sona. Even the fleet size is MUCH too big for that population. A single ship thats 1km long can be easily hold the whole Sona pop, even with their partner races. (Of which supposedly there arent many of either).
For example volume wise that 1.2km long medical ship is equivalent to 50+ 21st century cruise ships, which would have capacity to hold over 250k people along with all the amenities. Thats ONE medical ship!
So with those additional ships you're looking at, what, 150 odd Sona on each huge ship. They better like being really really lonely. Like spend the whole day not seing another Sona lonely.
In general I think sci fi always underestimates the volumetric implications for starships. Something that scales 4 x longer in length has 4 x4 x 4 = 64 times the internal volume.
With that they haven't scaled the Sona civilization nearly enough to justify the fleet, already tiny as it is.
1000 Son'a? The movie novelization states that there were only 80.
Yes but that's even more implausible
@@venomgeekmedia9886 Looks like the writers never made the Son'a consistent.
You would think they just got Dominion cloning tech and just keep closing themselves like the vorta 🤷🏿♂️
Perhaps that was in the offering from the dominion since memories can be carried over to a new clone
For that deal to work, the Son'a would have to pay by only working exclusively with the Dominion. Also knowing the Founders, they probably do something to tamper with the cloning technology to secretly enslave the Son'a. Lastly the Son'a experienced a special kind of immortality as a result of the special healing radiation from Baku such as some of the special abilities with slowing time and so on; the Son'a were obsessed with it and they wanted that back.
If they just wanted to live forever they could have already figured out some kind of cloning for themselves long ago.
It's possible that they don't see clones as the same person and would just consider that dieing
@ if that were the case, they wouldn’t use transporters also
@@SlashDotDash121 Except that in reality the transporter doesn't clone you. Because you remain completely conscious throughout transport as was shown with the episode where Barkley grabs the worm people during transport. The whole "death machine" thing is explicitly not cannon and demonstrably false a
Shadow?
What I never understood about Star Trek Insurrection is the Sona could have gone back to the planet that would restore their health and either kill their pacifist elders or just live on the other side of the planet hidden from them... It is just not very good writing. On the other hand the previous movie First Contact is the best movie of the series!
I think doughtery says the radiation takes time to have an effect and they would die before that would happen
@@venomgeekmedia9886 Except they spend a hundred years building themselves up into a micro power. Real Procrastinators the Sona.
I'm so confused how a race of less than 1000 people behave like this. No one seems to be interested in talking about how two factions from the same world amount to basically one Starship and one Village... why haven't the romulans just killed them all? It wouldn't even be close to a record number of people murdered that Starfleet kind of shrugged at.
I understand there's a secret tiny group of people in the Federation that want to have the elixir of life but it almost seems like the story was half-assed.. but that couldn't be the case for a major movie could it?!?
Very good video, but I personally disagree on the population numbers. It sounds like after their immediate exile they may have engaged in a lot of hedonism, and that is going to bump up your population.
And the oldest Son'a, the original exiles, are infertile, but the younger ones may not be. There are probably a few generations, with the oldest ones running the civilization as a sort of "council of elders".
I agree with you that it can't be very large, but I would add an extra 0 to all of the numbers you listed. Otherwise how could Damar ever expect the Son'a to defend anything, much less something as important as Ketracel White manufacturing.
Depends how long it took for the infertility to take effect. Was is the result of them leaving the planet or their genetic modification? If the latter then perhaps there was a Sona baby boom. But it's also possible few survived to adulthood because of their weak immune systems. Adding further resentment towards those who banished them.
Hot alien women in bodysuits is always a win.
It looks like they borrowed them from The Fifth Element.
Sackler family irl.
They produced the white for the Jem Hada and build ships for the Cardassians and the Dominion not a nice lot to be honest lol 😆
Other than a few none replactor minerals why have freighters?? Just take ten industrial replicators with colonist and bam instant colonies. Food cholthing and if your replicator is big enough instant ships or factories.
I think we can all agree that this was the most anti star trek movie ever. Final frontier might have been bad, but this was kinda worse in some way.
still think their main ship are backwards
Technically yes. However if it did fly that way it would be incongruous with the rest of the Sona fleet
Wow so much unknown about the Son'a.
*nudge nudge* *wink wink* *say no more*
Know what I mean?
DRUUUUUGS
Space Sacklers.
I don't see the Son'a getting ships from the Dominion or Cardasians. Both the designs are too specialized and I don't see the Son'a letting others control their access to their fleet power.
I see the Son'a being similar to pre WW2 Japan. A small nation with a large production capacity. Dedicated to being a power and developing their infrastructure. A decisive battle doctrine and designs for superior ships to combat being out numbered.
Damar was very clear he didn't even want to send Dominion or Cardassian ships to protect their installations, much less give them ships. In fact, Damar didn't seem to like them at all.
@@gmradio2436 what makes you think they have a large production capacity? They have a small population and no fixed territory?
@@venomgeekmedia9886They do have the two subjugated races that can build things for them.
@@sodadrinker89 Two relatively primitive species, likely limited to their homeworlds until the Son'a "conquered" them(likely only wiped out some armies from orbit then beamed down to take control and offer them a big carrot to cooperate.) While the Tarlac and Elora do have population, they are probably still fairly limited in numbers(maybe just reaching modern Earth populations on their home worlds) and I think they would be likely to be more focused on bringing up their quality of life rather than maintaining significant ship building infrastructure at the moment.
They could eventually start building more ships, but it's just easier to commission ships from larger, more established groups like the Ferengi(they'd be game as long as you've got latinum) and the Cardassians(despite some disdain, I can see the Detapa Council and Military High Command allowing their shipyards to build ships for the Son'a as a way to bring in money and resources for a canonically poverty stricken empire.)
@@crownprincesebastianjohano7069 I don't think the Cardassians were "giving" the Son'a ships. The Son'a likely bought the ships with some combination of latinum, medicine, raw materials and intel(all things the Cardassian either desperately needed or really wanted, given how the Cardassians are portrayed as so poverty stricken.) The Detapa Council and military would very likely accept the commissions since the only cost to them would be their shipbuilding facilities and personnel(with maybe some raw material cost as well) while they would get a wealth of latinum at the very least and, given the Son'as pharmaceutical bent desperately needed medicines. Also by the point where Damar is in the picture they are in a different situation. The Son'a ships would have been commissioned in peace time, but now the Cardassians and Dominion are at war with some of the biggest powers in the Galaxy, Damar needs every ship possible to fight the Federation rather than protecting a neutral party, and needs every shipyard possible churning out warships for his navy, not anyone else's navy.
"Volunteer for indentured servitude", huh, what idiot would do that? Oh, right that's what most military service literally is, just most at least pay you something.
The Son'a remind me of futuristic Nazis !
"Who are the Son'a?"
A boring, sh*tty race for a main villain, from what MIGHT be the worst Trek theatrical film of all (hey, at least "Star Trek 5" has a few moments of funny here and there, and "Nemesis at least had that Kewl ship crash).
The Son'a make even the KAZON look mildly interesting by comparison.
Pathetic.
The one "Trek" film I avoid watching.
Honestly I like insurrection it really for the most part feels like a 2 part tng episode but more action heavy they were kinda doomed either way nothing was gonna be as good as first contact
42 seconds
Another species that looks just like humans how original 😂😂😂
The Fauci thumbnail is jokes
What do you mean?