The State of the Star Trek Universe

Failing any maor continuity changes as the results of Nemesis (which, I assume, many folks here have already seen the script for), what is the state of things in the Star Trek universe?

What is the story with the Cardassians? The Borg? The Dominion?

Are there new Federation member races?

Are there new Starfleet (or other) ships and/or technologies?

I'm just curious as I've finally begun gearing up for a new Series with the Decipher materials and am planning on using the current TNG/DS9/Voy timeline for the series.

Please give me some hints; I've spent too much time posting about unimportant worldly issues lately and need to get back into the important (Trek-related) stuff.

mactavish out.

I don't know if VOY alters any of what I'm about to say, since I didn't watch much of it after the first season.

By the end of DS9's run, the Cardassians had been beaten pretty severely by the Dominion, to the tune of some 800 million casualties on Cardassia Prime.

The Dominion signed a treaty that keeps them on their side of the wormhole. Sisko is with the Prophets now, and would likely be able to prevent the Dominion from returning if he wanted to.

Starfleet tech is as seen by the end of DS9 and in First Contact. Saber-class, Akira-class, and others are in use.

I assume the Borg are beaten for now, since the Queen was killed in First Contact.

The Romulan Tal Shiar and the Cardassian Obsidian Order got pounded, so at least the Tal Shiar could rebuild. Not sure if the Cardies would pick up the pieces enough to try to rebuild the Obsidian Order.

Bajor is not a member of the Federation, but with Kira in command of DS9, that could change someday.

I think that's it in a nutshell. It's a start - I'm sure I missed stuff.

IMO the Borg are still alive. Maybe no longer a political force as strong as they were before but still there. The fact that the Queen died doesn't change anything, she also died in VOY's finale. So I'm guessing whenever one dies a new one takes the place.

Cardassians are beaten and defeated, I'd see some worlds petition for entry into the Federation.

The Dominion may be on the other side of the wormhole but that doesn't mean their not a force to be reckoned with. If Starfleet intends to explore the other side of the wormhole then that could start another war.

The newer ships replace the old ship like Nebula's and Miranda's though the older models stay around as work horses of the fleets. The really old Excelsior's are retired.

Besides the Sovereign-class, what are some of the other new Starfleet ships seen roaming the galaxy?

I saw my fellow Michiganian's take on the Nova-class and was roundly impressed (go Publius!), and that led me to wonder if there are others that appeared around the same time.

Besides the Sovereign and the Galaxy-class ships, what other big vessels is the Starfleet using?

mactavish out.

Prometheus.. Although not big physically the guns on it make it "bigger than the galaxy

Speaking as someone who actually watched Voyager (except for some 1st & 2nd season episodes), and actually enjoyed it on a fairly regular basis (I know, I know...), I should point out that Voyager returns to the Alpha Quadrant with 7 years-worth of totally new data and experience from the Delta Quadrant, including some new technologies and adaptations of Federation technology which were developed because of experiences unique to the Delta Quadrant.
One could expect some upgrades and new technologies in Starfleets ships and ship designs.
Oh, and Voyager will also have s#!tloads of new insights on the Borg...

Mac: do you want to include "approved" materials from the book-form continuations of DS9 and Voyager?

If so, then Cardassia is rebuilding with help from the Federation and Bajor.
Kira now commands DS9. Ro is security officer.
Bajor is on the verge of becoming a Federation member.
Odo is "in charge" back at the Great Link and has sent a Jem'Hadar observer to DS9. He's also permitting the Feds to explore the GQ, so long as they keep clear of Dominion space.

If you want, I can point you towards some "relevant" books.

"The newer ships replace the old ship like Nebula's and Miranda's though the older models stay around as work horses of the fleets. The really old Excelsior's are retired."

The Nebulas aren't old, they are the same technology as the Galaxy Class - the oldest are maybe approaching twenty years old. As for the Excelsiors, the Miranda Class is older - Reliant was operational when the original Excelsior was still an untried experimental ship.

Although the Prometheus appears to have entered service, I doubt it will be very common - just too complex and crew-hungry. I suspect that the Prometheus seen in Endgame was the NX proptotype pressed into service because a Borg transwarp corridor was opening up in the Sol system.

Well, it all depends on what you call canon and non-canon...

If we go strictly by on-screen canon the Cardassians were shattered after the Dominion War and had to struggle survive, and a lot of former Cardassian/Dominion worlds are probably "protectorates" of the Federation, Klingons, and Romulans. The Romulans might exploit that option since the Cardassians cannot fight back, the Klingons have too few resources left, and the Federation won't take hostile action...

The Dominion is staying on it's side of the wormhole as per the treaty. The Klingons spends several years recovering from the war (we were told this would happen in any event in a DS9 episode).

The Borg are definitely still active. The Voyager has several confrontations with the Borg Queen after her apparent death in First Contact.

Two years after the Dominion War ended, the Voyager returned home in the middle of what appeared to be another Borg offensive. At the end of this we saw the Queen die on screen for the third time! Voyager was equipped with extremely sophisticated anti-Borg technology that a future Janeway had brought to the past. This might have an effect, but I suspect this will simply be ignored in future Trek. If anything you may argue its use would be a violation of the temporal prime directive and so it was dismantled.

I'd let you in on the more 'semi-canon' stuff from the subsequent DS9 novels and the computer games Armada I and II and Bridge Commander, but it would contain major spoilers for those games and would be redundant if you insist on remaining true to canon only. Feel free to ask, though, if you're interested. I actually find what has been done pretty good in general.