I have recent found I was wrong in my interpretation of superior positions so I'm going to make sure I have this right.
With Dangerous territory it says put a token on each obstacle. The first ship to overlap the obstacle gets the victory token. I assume that ships take normal collision damage at that time. The card then says craft who later overlap this obstacle have no effect. To me that means that obstacle only acts to obstruct after the token is taken.
I can see how this would be interesting if I have it right. If you send a fast, little ship to get token it dies after the 2nd or 3rd token from collisions. Likewise ships in pursuit don't have to dodge the obstacles