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Recap / Star Trek: The Next Generation S5E21 "The Perfect Mate"

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Original air date: April 27, 1992

The warring planets of Krios and Valt Minor, once two halves of one civilization, have finally decided to bury the hatchet and reunite. The Enterprise is to serve as the site for the historic peace treaty signing and reunification ceremony. Kriosian Ambassador Briam boards the ship along with a good bit of cargo, among them a strange glowing egg-like thing. Not too long after, the Enterprise takes on two unexpected guests, a pair of Ferengi rescued from a damaged shuttlecraft.

The two Ferengi don't waste any time making nuisances of themselves; one ambushes Briam just to annoy him and Picard while the other one pokes around the Kriosian cargo. He manages to break open the big egg, and the cargo inside awakens: it's a beautiful young Kriosian woman named Kamala, and she was meant to be in suspended animation until the ceremony began. Oops.

Briam explains the situation to Picard and Company. Kamala is an "empathic metamorph," a naturally-occurring, albeit rare, mutation from the Kriosian genetic norm. Metamorphs have the ability to sense the emotional needs of a potential mate and change themselves to suit those needs. She was intended to be a gift to the Valtese Chancellor Alrik as a token of good faith. It seems the original rift between Krios and Valt was caused by a metamorph so many centuries ago—two brothers fighting over a girl—and the gift of a metamorph is a symbolic gesture to heal the rift.

Picard and Beverly Crusher have a lively debate over the ethics of this arrangement. Beverly is furious, calling the arrangement little more than slavery. Picard hides behind the Prime Directive : this is how an alien culture does things , and a massive civil war hangs in the balance. Besides, Kamala is a mature, intelligent person who knows what she's getting into, so they really don't have any ground to stand on.

Unfortunately things are a little more complicated than that: Kamala is at a very delicate stage in her development, which is why she was kept in stasis. For a metamorph, sexual maturity means emotionally imprinting on a single mate, pair-bonding permanently with them (this was meant to be Alrik). A side-effect of this is that Kamala is awash with pheromones right now , driving any man who comes near her wild with desire. This includes Riker, Worf, and the group of rowdy space miners that have taken over Ten Forward. Realizing the seriousness of this situation, Picard assigns Kamala a chaperone: Data, the one man aboard the Enterprise immune to her charms.

The situation, however, soon escalates: the Ferengi offer to buy Kamala from Briam, but when he refuses, the argument turns physical, and Briam winds up in a coma—leaving Picard with no choice but to take over administering the ceremony himself, with Kamala guiding him through the nuances of Kriosian culture. Working together so closely means trouble, of course. Picard struggles to maintain his Stoic façade and diplomatic detachment while becoming genuinely attracted to Kamala. Kamala, meanwhile, finds herself fascinated by Picard, mainly because he's probably the first man ever to treat her like a person and not a living sex toy.

The day of the ceremony arrives, and Chancellor Alrik meets with the crew. Alrik, it turns out, is a humorless bureaucrat who's more interested in finalizing the details of the treaty than he is in the reunification ceremony. He views the ceremony, including his marriage to Kamala, as a tired formality. He has no interest in her as a person; she's just part of the peace offering. Picard is troubled by this, but then Kamala drops the big one: she has reached sexual maturity, and she has pair-bonded. With Picard.

Not to worry, though. Kamala retains her empathic abilities. She'll still be able to sense Alrik's needs and meet them. He'll never know that she hasn't really bonded with him. Picard tries to stop the whole thing, but she refuses to let him. You see, one of Picard's most attractive qualities to her was his sense of duty and willingness to sacrifice for others. It's what she learned from him as part of the bonding, and it's why she can't back out of the ceremony now. The peace is more important than their happiness.

Tropes found in "The Perfect Mate" include:

• When a Ferengi forcibly introduces himself to Ambassador Briam and Captain Picard intervenes, the Ferengi asks if Picard is the man who schedules the Ambassador's appointments.
• Kamala initially assumes Picard is Chancellor Alrik due to his air of authority.
• Altar Diplomacy : Kamala is there as a prized gift to seal the deal with Chancellor Alrik. It turns out that he's not all that interested, though he does seem impressed when he finally meets her.
• Armor-Piercing Question : When Kamala tells Picard that she can become the perfect companion to anyone she's with, Picard asks her who she is when she's alone. Her response is bewilderment; she's never thought of herself as anything more than what others require her to be.
• Aroused by Their Voice : Kamala finds Picard's voice very sexy.
• Becoming the Mask : In a way. Spending so much time in Picard's company means Kamala spends a lot of time embodying what he values in an ideal mate. And she actually likes being that person, enough to want to permanently become her. However she also takes on Picard's sense of Duty, so leaves him to become the wife of a man she doesn't love to ensure peace . Kamala : I only hope he likes Shakespeare.
• Blatant Lies : The (bald) Ferengi caught attempting to steal the metamorph claims he was there by accident while looking for a barber.
• Bodyguard Crush : Assigning Data as Kamala's chaperone is a deliberate plan to subvert this trope. It works, but doesn't prevent all her other admirers from crowding in.
• Bribe Backfire : Briam isn't even slightly tempted by the Ferengi's offer. They assume at first that he feels insulted by them offering a Comically Small Bribe and assure him that it's just a down payment on a much larger bribe, which doesn't help at all.
• The main source of conflict between Picard and Crusher. Arranged marriages for political purposes seem to be perfectly acceptable for the Kriosians. Picard isn't enthused about it, but won't interfere with their cultural practices, as long as all parties agree. Crusher explicitly equates it to slavery.
• And then there's the issue of Kamala herself. She gains fulfillment by becoming what men want her to be, a concept that Picard can't quite accept.
• The Ferengi don't quite understand Briam's " Screw the Money, I Have Rules! " attitude.
• Devoted to You : Kamala is already quite attractive, but she's putting out pheromones that entice every man on the ship that she comes into contact with. Also, because her stasis was interrupted, she can't help but adopt whatever traits a given man finds appealing, which just increases their interest in her.
• Distracted by the Sexy : Every guy near Kamala falls under her spell (save, of course, for Data). Our Starfleet heroes have enough discipline to resist; the miners, on the other hand, don't bother doing so.
• The Kriosian body markings were later repurposed as the markings of Trill, who didn't have them in their first appearance.
• The Ferengi are still using gold as currency rather than gold-pressed latinum.
• Gratuitous French : Dr. Crusher drops the common French phrase "coup de grace," though she makes the common mistake of mispronouncing the final word "grah."
• He Knows Too Much : When the Ferengi tell Briam that they have a ship coming for them, he tries to leave so he can report it to Picard; their subsequent attempt to detain him ends up seriously injuring him.
• Head-Turning Beauty : Everyone notices whenever Kamala enters the room.
• I'll Be in My Bunk : Riker, after a close encounter with Kamala, tells the Bridge he'll be spending some time in Holodeck Four. Considering Kamala's effect on people, Holodeck Four's gonna be awfully crowded that week.
• Imprinting : Kamala seems to have initially done this on Picard, thus wanting to be the perfect mate for him. Unfortunately, he has to fight his feelings for her in the name of interstellar diplomacy.
• Beverly is disgusted that the ambassador ordered Kamala to stay in her room, and Picard agrees that it's unacceptable. After one trip out in public, it becomes very clear how much chaos her very presence could cause on the ship.
• Alrik is seen as unreasonably cold because he's less interested in Kamala than he is in trade agreements and border concessions. Given his position, caring about about the details of a peace treaty that will end decades of war seems pretty damn responsible. Since the marriage primarily impacts him, and he's keeping his focus on the things that will impact his people , he should be seen more as a selfless leader than a cold-hearted jerk.
• Living Aphrodisiac : Kamala is this to just about every male on the Enterprise . Oddly, Picard is this to her ; he's so unlike any other man she's met that his uniqueness is intoxicating to her.
• Manic Pixie Dream Girl : Deconstructed. Kamala exists to please her mate and derives all of her satisfaction out of doing so, yet over the course of the episode, she discovers her own needs.
• Meaningful Name : Kamala is based on the Arabic word for "perfection", and her power is to become the perfect mate for the man she will marry.
• Mythology Gag : When the Ferengi meet Briam for the first time and try to forcibly make their acquaintance with him, Geordi drags them away to "see the dolphins", which are canonically stated to have a room on the Enterprise . This room, which is also present on other Galaxy - and California -class starships, is called the Cetacean Ops and it's where they assist with the ship's navigation, but the actual room isn't shown until Star Trek: Lower Decks .
• No Bisexuals : It's not clear if Kriosian culture even has the concepts of bisexuality or homosexuality, but the people that Kamala works her mojo on are exclusively male. For what it's worth, when considering a chaperone for Kamala, Picard apparently never even considers a woman for the job. Only Data will do.
• Picard learns this about himself. He's not even sure if he's genuinely attracted to Kamala or if it's just her pheromones working on him... which in itself gives him pause.
• Kamala's enough to make even Worf turn flirtatious, though he's clearly embarrassed about it a moment later.
• Ambassador Briam admits as much at the end of the episode. He says he was selected to accompany Kamala because it was believed that his advanced age would lessen her effect on him. And it did, but he'd be lying if he said he didn't feel anything at all. And he's quite impressed with Picard's self-control...
• The miners in Ten Forward don't see Data as a threat (even though he could probably take them all on if necessary), but then Worf walks up and they immediately back down.
• The Ferengi are horrified when they accidentally injure Briam, probably not out of concern for him as much as realizing how badly they've screwed themselves.
• Picard is shocked when Kamala reveals that she's bonded with him instead of Alrik.
• Older Than They Look : Ambassador Briam appears to be in his 60s or 70s in human years, but is actually over 200 years old.
• Pygmalion Plot : Unintentionally on Picard's part. He doesn't deliberately shape Kamala into something appealing to him; it's just part of her abilities to do so. And Kamala finds that she likes being Picard's ideal woman: Picard's an intelligent, enlightened male, who doesn't want or need a woman who will cater to his every desire. His ideal woman is his intellectual and emotional equal, and being the equal partner in a relationship like that is something very appealing to Kamala.
• Relationship Sue : Played straight and deconstructed In-Universe . Kamala's superpower is to become this to any man. Which is what draws her to Picard, the first man she's ever met who doesn't want a Relationship Sue .
• The Smurfette Principle : Briam says that a large number of males of his species are metamorphs that automatically shape themselves to the females they interact with, but female metamorphs are exceedingly rare.
• Snipe Hunt : One of the miners tries to get Data away from Kamala by telling him that the replicator's malfunctioning. Data is just about to check it out before realizing that it's a trick and decides to stay put.
• Statuesque Stunner : Played by Famke Janssen , the beautiful Kamala is taller than most of the male cast.
• Styrofoam Rocks : A Ferengi 'struggles' to lift a plastic cargo container that is clearly empty.
• Swiss-Cheese Security : Despite having cargo that's explicitly described as "quite fragile and quite irreplaceable", Worf doesn't seem to have taken the slightest security measures, like posting guards or even locking the door. Which is particularly egregious since there are a number of civilians on board who he has no reason to trust (including two Ferengi who, it turns out, are there specifically to steal it).
• Unexplained Accent : Famke Janssen 's Dutch accent is completely different from the two other members of her species we see. To be fair it's reasonable to imagine that interplanetary civilizations might have different accents.
• Star Trek: The Next Generation S5E20 "Cost of Living"
• Recap/Star Trek: The Next Generation
• Star Trek: The Next Generation S5E22 "Imaginary Friend"

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Screen Rant

Why ds9 completely changed one alien race from tng.

The Trill underwent a major change after their first appearance on Star Trek: The Next Generation for some surprisingly shallow reasons.

Star Trek 's alien race the Trill were physically altered after their first appearance in Star Trek: The Next Generation for a surprisingly shallow reason. The Trill were introduced in the TNG episode "The Host," where it was revealed they are a symbiotic species; they consist of both a humanoid host and a small, slug-like life form that resides in the host body's abdomen. Most of the personality and consciousness is controlled by the symbiont being, and when the host body dies the symbiont is transferred to a new body, retaining its former hosts' memories.

It was decided that a Trill would be a main character on the spinoff Star Trek: Deep Space Nine , this time in the form of Lieutenant Jadzia Dax , played by former model Terry Farrell. While the Trills' initial appearance on Star Trek: The Next Generation featured pronounced foreheads ridges on the host, that look was given a massive overhaul before Deep Space Nine began production. Executive Producer Rick Berman deemed Farrell too attractive to cover her face in heavy prosthetics, so a completely new look for the Trill was conceived, one that has endured ever since.

Related: Star Trek: Every Time Picard's TNG Enterprise Beat The Borg (& How)

How DS9 Casting Terry Farrell As Dax Changed The Trill

While Terry Farrell had a successful modeling career and some small acting roles prior to Star Trek: Deep Space Nine , her venture into the final frontier was her first regular leading role on television. Admittedly cast for her conventional beauty, Farrell's Jadzia Dax would go on to become a much-beloved member of the Star Trek family and the defining member of the Trill race. And while Rick Berman's reasoning for altering the look of the Trill may be suspect, it's hard to argue with the eventual results.

During the development of Deep Space Nine , the Trill head ridges were ditched in favor of two rows of dark spots running down both sides of their bodies. This design was actually borrowed from the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "The Perfect Mate," where it was featured on the Kriosian metamorph known as Kamala, played by future X-Men star Famke Janssen. This design was the best of both worlds; while it still clearly indicated these were aliens, it allowed the actors greater freedom to emote without the hindrance of heavy facial makeup.

Every Trill In Star Trek Besides Jadzia Dax

While the Trill are largely associated with Star Trek: Deep Space Nine , they've had a fairly consistent presence across the franchise. Ambassador Odan was the original Trill character on Star Trek: The Next Generation , though he has little in common with the Trill characters that would follow. Apart from Jadzia, the most prominent Trill character in the franchise is Ezri Dax, who took over the Dax symbiont after Jadzia Dax's death in DS9 , murdered by the crazed Cardassian Gul Dukat.

More modern Star Trek has included the Trill in both conventional and innovative ways. Star Trek: Lower Decks and Star Trek Prodigy feature the fairly traditional Trill characters Barnes and Asencia, respectively, both young female Starfleet officers much like Dax. Star Trek: Discovery 's third season introduced Gray Tal, a young male Trill who passed on his symbiont to his partner, the human Adira, after a seemingly fatal accident. The story of Gray and Adira has opened up the mythology of the Trill in some surprising ways, and the race's future in Star Trek could go virtually anywhere from here.

Next: The 4 Captains Who Fixed Star Trek's Saddest Trope

• Apr 25, 1992

Summary "Space... The final frontier... These are the voyages of the Starship Enterprise. Its continuing mission: To explore strange new worlds... To seek out new life; new civilisations... To boldly go where no one has gone before!" Monologue of Captain Jean-Luc Picard in the opening credits Star Trek: The Next Generation is a science fic ... Read More

Directed By : Cliff Bole

Written By : Gene Roddenberry, Reuben Leder, Michael Piller, René Echevarria, Brannon Braga

Where to Watch

Created By : Gene Roddenberry

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Patrick Stewart

Captain jean-luc picard, locutus of borg, michael williams.

Brent Spiner

Lieutenant commander data, lore, dr. noonien soong.

Jonathan Frakes

Commander william thomas 'will' riker, lieutenant thomas riker.

LeVar Burton

Lieutenant commander geordi la forge, lieutenant geordi la forge.

Marina Sirtis

Counselor deanna troi.

Michael Dorn

Lieutenant worf, commander worf, risa tourist.

Gates McFadden

Doctor beverly crusher, dr. beverly crusher.

Majel Barrett

Enterprise computer, lwaxana troi, narrator.

Wil Wheaton

Wesley crusher, acting ensign wesley crusher, ensign wesley crusher.

Colm Meaney

Chief miles o'brien, transporter chief, battle bridge conn, james g. becker, youngblood, ten forward crew.

Denise Crosby

Lieutenant natasha 'tasha' yar, sela.

Whoopi Goldberg

Diana Muldaur

Doctor katherine pulaski, doctor pulaski.

Patti Yasutake

Nurse alyssa ogawa, doctor alyssa ogawa, dennis madalone, ansata terrorist, borg, cardassian, fajo's henchman 1, guard, holodeck warrior, holographic warrior, ramos, science division crewman, transporter technician.

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Brian Bonsall

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Star Trek's Writers Worried Famke Janssen's Guest Spot Would Spark A Controversy

Before they were Professor Charles Xavier and Jean Grey in "X-Men," Patrick Stewart and Famke Janssen shared the screen on an episode of "Star Trek: The Next Generation." Stewart was, of course, the series lead, Enterprise-D Captain Jean-Luc Picard, while Janssen played Kamala, one of the many beautiful alien women on "Star Trek." Captain Kirk may be the famed womanizer, but Picard had his dalliances over the show's seven seasons — Kamala included.

The episode is "The Perfect Mate," the 21st installment of the fifth season. Kamala is a Kriosian "metamorph," an empathetic being who can read their partners' feelings and adjust themselves to them. She's been betrothed to an ambassador from the neighboring world Valt, in hopes this will help end a conflict between the planets. As she travels on the Enterprise-D and works alongside Picard, they grow closer and closer.

Aired in 1992, this was Janssen's first role on television. She wasn't even Bond girl/villain Xenia Onatopp yet, let alone the awesomely powerful X-Man Phoenix . As detailed in the behind-the-scenes book "The Captain's Logs" by Edward Gross and Mark A. Altman, the episode's writers felt the need to get Kamala right and avoid sexist pitfalls that might displease the audience.

Just how progressive is Star Trek?

"Star Trek" has a reputation for trailblazing progressivism. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. even convinced Nichelle Nichols (Lt. Uhura) to stay on the show . A competent Black woman in a position of some authority on a TV series? That was radical for the 1960s. That's not to say it had a flawless track record. "Turnabout Intruder," for instance, suggested that somehow, sexism endured in this 23rd-century utopia and women weren't allowed to be starship captains.

Showrunner Michael Piller (who revised "The Perfect Mate") was concerned about the episode becoming one of these controversial ones:

"[Kamala] is an empathic metamorph and has the ability to be whatever a man wants her to be. For all those people who thought we were so sexually open-minded with the other shows, they're going to start sending in their letters and saying what's wrong with you guys on this one? This is the [most] adolescent male fantasy of all time."

As Piller notes in "The Star Trek: The Next Generation Companion" by Larry Nemecek, the compromise was to have Dr. Crusher voice these concerns and then have Picard dismiss them on noninterventionist Prime Directive grounds. Likewise, Piller says in "The Captain's Logs" that the solution was to make the episode a character piece about Picard; "If Picard is confronted with his perfect mate, could he resist her?" 

To that end, the episode had to sell Kamala as alluring as the script described her: "If there's no magnetic electricity between [Picard and Kamala] and it doesn't happen for me as a man watching her, then the audience will not accept for one second that Picard would even give her a second thought."

These days, "The Perfect Mate" is mostly remembered as a trivia note by "X-Men" fans, it being Stewart and Janssen's first time acting together. Clearly, someone bought their onscreen chemistry together.

Star Trek: The Next Generation : "The Perfect Mate"/"Imaginary Friend"

Related content.

"The Perfect Mate"

Let's get this out of the way first: there are Ferengi in this episode. They're on screen for less than ten minutes total, and they're really only here as a clumsy way to move the plot, but they're still as awful as ever. On a show that goes out of its way to treat different cultures with dignity and respect, the Ferengi remain a sore spot, a group of cringingly unfunny schemers who haven't developed much beyond their debut appearance in the first season's "The Last Outpost." Elmer Fudd is better defined than these morons, and far, far more entertaining to watch. I suppose the point is to show that greed for wealth is comically pathetic, unlike greed for power, which is scary and, let's be honest here, kind of cool. But it represents an irritating and persistent laziness on the writers, as the show keeps bringing them back for no good reason. It's like if Gargamel did guest spots on  The Wire,  only, y'know, awful.

But apart from that, this is actually a very interesting ep, one that takes on a plot with all kinds of potential for heavy-handedness or wish-fulfillment, and tries to deal with it with the seriousness and tact it deserves. (Again, apart from the Ferengi.) Even better, while there are definite ways to connect this to real life, the metaphor here is never all that specific. We're not dealing with rape or homosexuality or any of the other serious issues that  Trek  shows sometimes try and lecture on. This is more about characters and relationships through the filter of science fiction, and, for the most part, it lets us draw our own conclusions.

The  Enterprise  is once again doing chauffeur service, this time ferrying Ambassador Briam from Krios to a meeting with Chancellor Alrik of Valt Minor, for a negotiation of peace accords which will hopefully finally bring an end to a lot of fighting. Briam has a special gift for Alrik which he keeps stored in the  Enterprise 's cargo bay, even going so far as to request that Picard make that bay off limits to everyone else on the ship—and for good reason. After the Ferengi trick their way on board the ship (the sabotage their own craft to make it look like they're in need of rescue), one of them breaks into the cargo bay, and starts fiddling with the "gift," which looks sort of like a glowing amber egg. He knocks the egg over by accident, and just as Picard and Briam arrive to survey the damage, the egg flashes out of existence, leaving behind a stunningly beautiful woman. Who immediately says to Picard, "I am for you, Alrik of Valt," which is about as good a reason for changing your name as I've ever heard.

The woman is Kamala, played by a young Famke Janssen, and it's on her that the episode hinges. She's the metamorph I mentioned above, and she's culturally and genetically hardwired to please whatever man she's closest to, by sensing his feelings and desires and then tailoring her personality to suit them. Which is a tricky notion, to say the least, but even trickier is the fact that she's on the ship so that she can marry Alrik as part of the peace accords, to seal the deal, so to speak. When she bonds with someone for life, she sets herself in whatever personality that mate prefers the most, which makes this, from a certain light, a pervasive and inescapable form of slavery. Picard does his best to play the non-interference card (most likely because he's as attracted to Kamala as anyone, and can't trust his own impartiality), but Beverly tells him that the whole set-up is wrong, and that he needs to do something about it. Which is he doesn't—but does—but doesn't. It's complicated.

What do we want in romantic partners? And, more importantly for this episode, what do we want our romantic partners to want out of us? There's a lot of conversation here about Kamala's needs, about just how much she can truly be expected to make her own decisions (she says that she has no problems with marrying Alrik, believing that this was what she's essentially "made" for), and just how susceptible the men of the  Enterprise  are to her charms. Riker, unsurprisingly, gets a couple of kisses; around him, Kamala is aggressive, playful, and, ahem, educated. Around some miners the  Enterprise  rescued, she's rowdy, and nearly starts a fight. Around Worf, she growls. And around Picard, she's… intrigued. Unlike the others, Picard is largely resistant to her seductions, which of course rouses her interest, and she starts trying to spend more time with him. Picard keeps resisting, but this becomes even more difficult when the Ferengi inadvertently injure Briam, and Picard is forced to handle the upcoming ceremonies himself.

There's obviously a certain amount of fantasy in here, and just how much fantasy is left up to the individual viewer to decide. Everyone at some point or another has imagined themselves with the perfect lover, with someone who would sense your innermost yearnings, the ones you could barely articulate yourself, and then act on them in ways that left you satisfied like no one else ever could hope to satisfy you. This is called "being 15." Although maybe younger for girls? Anyway, it's a teenage fantasy, is my point, because when you're a teenager, when you're just figured out that your genitals are like biological transformers, and the thing you've been using as a "car" for your whole life is also a totally bitchin' robot. So you don't really know what you want, and you dream of someone who'll come in and know all there is to know about you, all the things you don't really understand yet, and even better, they recognize your  real  self, that self nobody else gets, the self that in your deepest darkest heart, you worry may not really be there. Which isn't to say that older people don't occasionally pine for this very specific concept of perfection, but as you get more mature, and come into your own, you realize how silly the whole idea is, how a relationship based on one person subsuming themselves entirely to the other's needs is deeply unhealthy for both parties. Or maybe you just realize it's impossible, and so the fantasy becomes an occasional idle daydream.

The point being, this isn't something that could actually happen in any sustainable way, outside a fantasy or science-fiction context. Kamala is a construct, created specifically to give Picard a moral problem to solve, and because of that, she runs the risk of being more idea than character, which, when you combine that with the fact that one of the crucial aspects of what little character she does seem to have is her ability to change herself at will to reflect someone else, makes for a potentially troubling situation in deed. Kamala could've simply ended up a male power trip, and watching Picard resist her charms is sort of like a sensitive male's power trip. (See, he's too good to give in, but she keeps pushing him, and as in all grand romances, eventually, the pushed will fall, and whose fault would that be?) Then there's the fact that we get a few jokes about having men assigned to Kamala specifically because they're resistant to her charms (Briam is too old, and Data is, well, Data), but we never see Kamala hanging out with a woman. This is Dude's Only, ladies. Sorry! (Although apparently, Krios is jammed full of male empathic metamorphs, so now you have a good idea where you should head on your next vacation.)

I think "Mate" works on the whole, though, for a couple key reasons. The first is that Janssen, in addition to being, let's not kid ourselves here, really rather lovely, does a fairly good job of showing how much Kamala enjoys flirting with men. This gives her a certain degree of autonomy; sure, she's hardwired to get pleasure from making others happy, but so is most everybody, and there's nothing malicious or mindless about her, not really. She nearly starts a bar fight in Ten Forward, but it's not that much of a "nearly." The ep could've gone the way of her walking around the  Enterprise  screwing with every guy's head, throwing everything into chaos. Which would've been fairly painful, I'm guessing. But it doesn't go that way. Instead, we're given a sense of someone coming into their own as a sexually aware, potentially powerful individual.

Which makes the ending (the other reason why I think this works) all the more intriguing. As the episode goes on, and Picard is forced by circumstance (and his own desire) to be closer to Kamala, the question becomes whether or not he'll give in to the temptation, and, more importantly, whether or not he should or can help the lady out of her situation. Now, anyone watching this who thinks Picard will succumb to Kamala's charms hasn't been paying attention. If James "The T is for Libido" Kirk could resist a similar seduction in "Elaan of Troyius" , there's no question Picard will do the same, and for much the same reason. But the more he comes to care for her, and the more we see her as a person, the more her proposed marriage to Alrik seems like a bad idea. It's necessary, to ensure the lives of millions, and there really isn't anything else that  could  happen, but if the episode were to simply end with her doing her duty, and Picard looking pensive, well, that wouldn't be enough.

Although she  does  do her duty, and we  do  get a shot of Picard looking pensive (two, in fact), there's a twist here I wasn't expecting. Remember that "permanent bonding" I mentioned earlier, where Kamala sets herself with one person for the rest of her life? It's a dangerous idea, in a way, because it creates an inherent power imbalance—once's she's busted her VHS recording tab (kids, ask your parents), she can't change her mind if the relationship goes sour, even though her partner will have no problems doing so. I thought this was just part of the fantasy, and it sort of is, but it also allows for Kamala to make a decision near the end of the episode that allows her to preserve who she is, while still following her obligations. She bonds with Picard. She's supposed to bond with Alrik, and she still marries him, but Picard is the one she imprints on.

You could read this in different ways. You could say it's a horrible example of a woman needing a man to make her "complete," or that Kamala's choice to bond with Picard wasn't actually  her  deicision, just the choice that her Picard-focused self made. Those interpretations don't seem entirely unreasonable to me, but I choose to think of it in a more positive light. The perfect fantasy mate is so often a reflection of our own desires because we want to find someone who can show us who we are, who can bring out what's best in ourselves and believe in us in a way that we can't always manage on our own. Kamala does this for others, but I think with Picard, she finds someone who's equally good at reflecting. Picard's job as captain, after all, is to inspire his crew, to drive them to be their greatest selves. The title of this episode, I'd say, has two meanings; it's hard to imagine Kamala finding anything quite like what she experiences with Picard with anyone else. And while the ending isn't a happy one, it's at least one that gives her the respect of making her own decisions.

Stray Observations:

• Another reason this works: it's Patrick Stewart. The age difference is a little icky, and Picard is basically treated as the ideal man here, but, c'mon. It doesn't really seem implausible, does it?
• "I'm just curious to know what lies beneath." "Nothing. Nothing lies beneath. I'm really quite dull."
• This episode cribs a surprising amount from the  TOS  ep "Elaan" mentioned above. (Also, I think those early  Trek  reviews of mine aren't half bad, although I'm amazed at how much more I write these days.)
• Beverly and Picard's chats together are really very charming. And it also gives us this line: "Beverly, may I take off the uniform for a moment?"
• Oh, and Alrik is unsurprisingly something of a bore. He even views his marriage to Kamala as the least interesting part of the negotiations. But he's not actively evil, so hopefully Kamala won't have too unpleasant a life ahead of her.

"Imaginary Friend"

Or The One Where We Meet A Little Blond Snufflapagus And She Is Pissed

There's a Ray Bradbury short story called "Zero Hour" that I kept thinking of while I watched this episode. The story is in  The Illustrated Man , which is a good collection if you're interested in tracking it down, and it's a creepy story to be sure. (I find Bradbury the most enjoyable when he's trying to scare the hell out of me; there's a contrast between his ebullient corniness and horror that hits me very hard.) A bunch of kids start playing with imaginary friends, and the parents don't believe in them, and, well, I won't spoil it or anything, but it's not a very long story, and if you remember "Imaginary Friend" at all, you probably see where I'm coming from here. The problem being that "Friend" isn't five or ten pages long, it's a full forty-five minutes, and while it has some effective scenes, it doesn't really entirely work. The whole thing is pretty ramshackle and clumsily sown together, which is something that tends to happen with shows once they get a little long in the tooth, I've found. Maybe it's because it gets harder to tell new stories, so people just cram a bunch of old ideas together and hope for the best.

The one original idea here is Clara, and her imaginary chum Isabella. Clara has been moving from ship to starbase to ship with her father, Ensign Sutter, and that's not easy on a little kid. So she's seeing Troi now. Apparently her dad is so far in over his head he'll latch on to any potential mother figure for his child; which makes me think of Worf and Alexander (who shows up briefly here, by the way, but is largely unobjectionable), and also makes me wonder how much of Troi's time is spent providing counsel for single fathers. Maybe someone's looking for a replacement mommy. At least that would be a reason for the therapy appointment, because from what we see here, Isabella is a perfectly pleasant little girl, friendly, polite, and, of course, creative. There's a strangely over-protective vibe that runs through all of  TNG 's episodes about parenting, maybe (although I can't immediately back that up, this is just an impression). Anyway, Clara seems like a cool kid, and as Troi tells Sutter, there's no reason to be concerned that she has an imaginary friend.

Which would be the end of it, except the  Enterprise  is investigating a nebula, which means of course that something strange happens. (I wonder if Picard allows time for "Weird Shit" whenever he does the  Enteprise 's weekly schedule.) A red light pops into the ship and starts whizzing around, before finding Clara, hearing her talk to Isabella, and then manifesting as Isabella in the flesh, which kind of freaks Clara out. But hey, when I was little, I talked to Popeye a lot, and if he'd suddenly appeared, I'd've eventually gone along with it. When you're little, you don't realize how many impossible things there are. So Clara shows Isabella around the ship—and of course starts getting in trouble because she's going places she shouldn't be going. The  Enterprise  starts having engine problems, and Isabella keeps glaring and demanding things, and Clara keeps telling people that it's Isabella's fault, and nobody believes her. Ugh.

I hate this kind of story. I hate watching people refuse to believe someone, and then accusing that (basically innocent) someone of causing all the trouble. It calls up a lot of deeply uncomfortable associations in me; we can idolize our youth all we want, but the truth is, being a kid means being powerless in the face of a whole lot of grown-ups. They're supposed to be the responsible ones, they're supposed to be in charge, but really, they're just bigger and they have cooler cars. We're brought up to believe that if we tell the truth, we're doing the right thing, and things will be okay, especially if we haven't done anything wrong. To watch this girl tell the grown-ups the absolute fact, and see her lectured and ignored anyway, is just off-putting as hell. It violates one of the sacred covenants of childhood: the Grown-ups Are Always Right. Which isn't a bad sort of story to tell, inherently, because the grown-ups  aren't  always right, and one of the ways we join their ranks is by realizing their fallibility. But Clara is too young and alone for that kind of maturity, so we just see her running into the same problem, and not being able to do anything about it.

This is also because, despite the title and the main story hook, this episode isn't really  about  Clara. We do spend a lot of time with her, but there's this weird shifting sensation about two-thirds of the way through, once it becomes obvious to everyone that Clara hasn't been lying after all. (This is after Isabella takes Troi down, and thankfully, nobody tries to blame the little blond girl with force-lightning powers on Clara.) Picard basically takes over, and its his decisions that resolve the big conflict. It turns out (I swear to god, I try not to use that phrase in every review, but it's so damnably  convenient  during plot summaries) Isabella was sent over by a group of life forms out in the nebulae who were trying to decide if they should kill everyone on board the  Enterprise  or not. So Picard makes an impassioned speech about how the importance of proper childrearing techniques (seriously), then fires an energy beam into the cloud of life forms to give them some food to munch on.

What's strange is that this sort of story really should've been told largely through Clara's perspective. She's the one with the special knowledge (although she doesn't understand it) about what's really going on, and she's the one the aliens choose to interact with. She's the one who has our sympathy through most of the episode, and there really should be some sort of cathartic HA! moment when she finally manages to turn the tables and stand up for herself. But there's no moment like that. Picard does all the heavy lifting for her, and the only reason anyone else on the ship realizes what's going on before it's too late is that Isabella decides to reveal herself to Troi. Arguably, this is more realistic, because, hey, Clara really is a little girl, and little girls aren't necessarily going to have a lot of defensive power against strange life forms. By having Picard step in when he does, we avoid having another Wesley situation, where another kid saves the whole ship through a lot of contrivance and exaggerated ability. (It's not that I have a hard time believing Wesley was smart. I just don't believe he was perfectly smart all the time, or that, at fourteen or whatever, he was the biggest genius on a ship full of smart people.)

And yet whether or not this is more realistic, it still leaves us with an episode without a center. Clara is sweet enough, but we've never seen her before, so we don't have all that much invested in her. Her father, Sutter, is a more traditional  TNG  character, but he's ill-defined here, just sort of generally worried and impatient and bland. (At one point, he touches Picard on the shoulder to get the captain's attention, and I really wanted Picard to snap at him to back the hell off.) And of our main characters, only Troi and Picard get enough screen-time to qualify; Troi is mostly on hand to help introduce us to the Sutter family, to put Clara in situations where Isabella can act up, and then to get zapped. (And again, I have to question Troi's empath abilities. Even if she can't sense if someone is lying, she at least should've been able to tell that Clara was terrified and  something  more than met the eye was going on.) Picard is hardly even in the episode till the final ten minutes or so. And it's an odd ten minutes.

The whole ep, Isabella has been set up as creepy as all hell. The actress, Shay Astar (who would go on to play Joseph Gordon-Levitt's girlfriend on  3rd Rock From The Sun , among other things), isn't going to set the world on fire, but she is effectively unsettling; there's a definite  Bad Seed  sullenness going on there. But when Picard confronts her, she explains how it's all some kind of test, and she rails about how awful the adults are to Clara, which means of course everyone deserves to die. Instead of finding a way to defeat Isabella and her sparkly friends, Picard explains why it's necessary to create boundaries for children, and Isabella accepts this, leaving only to return briefly at the end of the episode to apologize to Clara for causing so many problems. The whole finale feels grafted on, because it's not like anyone was questioning the basic role of parents in a child's life, or even that Clara was ever treated  that  badly. Clara is pushed to the side for most of the end, and really, it's like they got the "imaginary friend" idea, and then tried to through in some science crap to justify it (which I imagine happens with at least half the stories on this show), but couldn't come up with a good way to end it. As is, this is little bit of good idea, some effectively unsettling scenes, and lot of shoulder-shrugging.

• Oh right, Guinan was in this. And her presence made things even more confusing, because I guess she was trying to teach a lesson about the importance of imaginary friends? Or something? It was bizarre. (My roommate also objected strenuously to Guinan lecturing Data about finding shapes in the clouds, because it was "the same old bullshit" about "how science is boring and you need to make up crap to make it beautiful." And he's right, it was dumb.)
• I didn't hate Alexander in this. Although his voice still grates.

Next week:  The Borg are back in the appropriately titled, "I, Borg," and Geordi and Ro have adventures in "The Next Phase."

Star Trek: The Next Generation

The Perfect Mate

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Star Trek: The Next Generation: 10 Famous Guest Stars You Forgot

With some big names like Kirsten Dunst and Stephen Hawking, there are also a few surprising guest stars in Star Trek: The Next Generation.

Star Trek: The Next Generation went off the air in 1994, well before today's crop of famous faces made their mark on television. But as old as the series may feel today, there are some cameos that still feel fresh. Here are ten guest stars that took part in that brave, new mission that fans might be surprised to rediscover.

Ashley Judd

The Next Generation provided Ashley Judd with her first on-screen experience. The star and activist earned her stripes playing Ensign Robin Lefler in two Season 5 episodes, "Darmok" and "The Game." Though her role in "Darmok" is small, the episode is a memetic fave that untangles a linguistic riddle through Picard's Shakespearean flair. But Judd gets a taste of the spotlight in her second appearance, where Lefler and Wesley Crusher struggle to resist the lure of a dangerously addictive video game. Wil Wheaton gives Judd her first on-screen kiss by the end of the episode, a charming beginning to her healthy career.

Tony Todd adds a feverish intensity wherever he appears. His starring role in the cult horror classic Candyman  is an example of him at his best. It's a talent that also made him one of the greatest recurring Klingons in The Next Generation , appearing as Worf's ferocious brother Kurn. Kurn first arrives on the Enterprise as part of a practice exercise, quickly going toe to toe with the crew. But his goal is to get close to Worf. Kurn was raised by another family, his lineage a secret due to the cloud over their dishonorable father, Mogh. Kurn appeared three times in The  Next Generation  and returned once in Deep Space 9 's "Sons of Mogh." Todd also played an aging Jake Sisko and, once in Voyager , unrecognizable as a mysterious Alpha-Hirogen hunter.

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Diedrich Bader

Diedrich Bader is still known to many as one of Drew Carey's close buddies in The Drew Carey Show , although his turn as the invasive neighbor Lawrence in Office Space is arguably his most enduring moment. Today he's a popular voice, slated to appear as King Randor in Kevin Smith's take on Masters of the Universe . But 1989's "The Emissary" was his first television role, giving him a little background time on a standout episode that dug deep into Worf's heart. It's not a big role, and Bader's credited only as a Tactical Crewman. But it's still a great bit to have in the resume, as appearing in Star Trek is still a bucket list wish for many actors today.

Stephen Hawking

Stephen Hawking was one of the modern giants of physics, reshaping the scientific understanding of general relativity and becoming a bestselling author with his layperson-approachable text A Brief History of Time . Hawking was also, like many in his high-tech fields, a big fan of science fiction. According to Stephen Hawking: A Life Well Lived by Kitty Ferguson, it was Leonard Nimoy who discovered that Hawking wanted to guest star on Star Trek , and Nimoy reached out to make it happen. Hawking is the only person to play himself, appearing in the sixth season episode "Descent" as a member of Lt. Cmdr Data's poker game against some of history's greatest scientific minds.

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Famke Jannsen

Famke Jannsen became a hot topic as a Bond Girl in 1995's GoldenEye  and later endeared herself to X-Men fans as the face of Jean Grey in the 2000 film franchise. But Jean and Professor Xavier actually had their first encounter three years before her breakout moment, when Jannsen played the empathetic Kamala in "The Perfect Mate." As a Kriosian metamorph, her destiny was to marry for diplomatic and political purposes. But Kamala falls in love with Jean-Luc Picard. She imprints her personality on his desires instead, though she still marries her arranged partner. It's a terrific episode. Although seeing Jannsen in a gentle, mentoring relationship with Patrick Stewart almost a decade later can be surprising for Star Trek fans.

Mick Fleetwood

Fleetwood Mac's eponymous frontman famously loves two things: his beard and Star Trek . Fleetwood was willing to do anything  to earn a cameo on  The   Next Generation , so long as whatever character he played got to take a jaunt on the transporter. In the second season episode "Manhunt," Mick got his wish. Playing a fishlike Antedian ambassador in prosthetics that required Fleetwood to temporarily sacrifice his beard, his diplomatic contingent beams aboard the Enterprise. The Antedians face-off with Lwaxana Troi, who, in between her vivacious hunt for her latest mate, foils their plans to bomb a diplomatic conference.

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Stephen Root

Stephen Root is the beloved character actor behind O ffice Space 's infamous Milton. He's also the voice behind dozens of today's cartoon characters, heard everywhere from Gravity Falls to Amphibia . He's an unlikely figure to think of when talking about Klingons, but he plays the hostile yet good-natured Klingon captain K'Vada in one of The  Next Generation 's most acclaimed two-parters, "Unification." He's integral to getting Picard and Data behind Romulan lines to search for Ambassador Spock. He even allows Data to access his ship's database to fox the Romulan spies seeking to disrupt their mission.

James Cromwell

James Cromwell is an actor and activist with an extensive film career. For at least one generation, he's the human heart of Babe , and for Next Generation fans, he's Zefram Cochrane, the engineer at the heart of 1996's Star Trek: First Contact . But Cromwell was a Star Trek veteran long before his big-screen hours with the Enterprise crew , first appearing in Season 3's "The Hunted" and returning several seasons later, unrecognizable as a wrinkled Yridian named Jaglom Shrek, in "Birthright." Polite and private, it's unknown how big a science fiction fan Cromwell actually is. However, with dozens of appearances in the genre, it's clear he's put his heart into the work.

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Bebe Neuwirth

Bebe Neuwirth is an Emmy-winning actor best known for playing Frasier Crane's spouse, Dr. Lilith Sternin, on both Cheers and Frasier . She's also a Broadway staple and a reliable fixture on Madam Secretary . But in 1991, she took a quick break from Cheers to appear in the fourth season episode, "First Contact." A huge fan of the franchise, she plays Lanel, a nurse and xenophile who offers to help the transfigured Commander Riker escape hospital imprisonment -- for a sexy price.

Kirsten Dunst

Kirsten Dunst became a sensation at age 12 as the too-young vampire Claudia in 1994's Interview with the Vampire  and later built her career on taking chances on films like Lars von Trier's Melancholia . She's best known to many as the Raimi Spiderverse's Mary Jane Watson , long-time true love of Peter Parker. But just one year before her breakout role, Dunst guest-starred on Star Trek in the season seven episode "Dark Page." She plays an alien girl named Hedril, a telepath and one of the first of her species to learn to speak aloud. Her tutor, Lwaxana Troi, has unconsciously connected the girl with her deceased first daughter, Kestra. The experience leads to a traumatic shock for Lwaxana, and eventually, the first steps toward healing.

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Star Trek Just Doubled Down on Its Wildest Body-Switching Concept

Welcome back to Trill.

Body switching is a classic sci-fi trope. From Freaky Friday to Farscape , and of course, most of Quantum Leap, the idea of the consciousness from one person inhabiting the body of a different person will never stop being the fuel for speculative stories that are both hilarious and profound. But, when Star Trek invented the “joined” species of the Trill in 1991, it took the body-switching/body-surfing trope to a new level. While a specific Trill symbiont might live for several hundreds of years, this slug-like creature generally inhabited a humanoid host. This “joining” often created a new hybrid personality each time, sort of like Time Lord regeneration from Doctor Who mashed up with internal alien parasites from Alien; a chest-burster that never burst, but just stayed in you forever.

And if all of that wasn’t wild enough, on June 12, in the episode “Facets,” 1995, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine added a new wrinkle to Trill canon. Not only were the memories of all the previous hosts alive and well in the current symbiont, but, through a process called “zhian’tara,” a specific host’s personality could leave the symbiont and enter into the body of... anyone! Basically, this was Trill joining via spacey magic, and now, 29 years after “Facets,” Star Trek: Discovery is doubling down (tripling down?) on this very specific form of consciousness transfer in the Season 5 episode “Jinaal.” Spoilers ahead.

The Trill host trick

Dax and Odo discuss sharing memories in “Facets.”

Although the Trill were established in The Next Generation episode “The Host,” the vast majority of Trill canon comes from Deep Space Nine , thanks to the presence of Jadzia Dax, who later, in Season 7, switched hosts and became Ezri Dax. But, in the memorable Season 3 episode “Facets,” Jadzia’s previous host, Curzon, left her body through the zhian’tara process and settled in the body of the station’s resident shapeshifter, Odo. From that point, Odo’s entire personality was merged with Curzon’s, which put everyone on the station in a deeply uncomfortable position.

As a stand-alone episode of DS9 , “Facets” remains a fantastic story about memory, regret, and what one generation owes the next. But, the legacy of “Facets” is easily the concept of zhian’tara, which was used to save Gray Tal’s consciousness in Discovery Season 4, and now, in Season 5, is being employed again to unravel an 800-year-old mystery.

Discovery’s return to Trill

Cubler (Wilson Cruz) takes on an ancient Trill tradition in Discovery Season 5.

The planet Trill was first seen in DS9 in the episode “Equilibrium,” but Discovery has actually visited the planet more times, starting in the Season 3 episode “Forget Me Not,” and now again, in “Jinaal.” This time the need to transfer the memories of one previous Trill host into someone else is all connected to the secrets Jinaal Bix has about researcher of the Progenitors in the 24th century.

After transferring Jinaal’s consciousness into Culber, the entire personality of our stalwart Starfleet doctor changes, and, just like “Facets,” he suddenly becomes cockier, and more evasive. If you watch “Facets” right after watching “Jinaal,” the parallels are clear. While Curzon’s secret was connected to something personal, Jinaal’s secret has broader implications. Turns out, Federation scientists were working on cracking the Progenitor tech during the era of the Dominion War, and so they decided to bury any knowledge of the technology to prevent any planet or government from weaponizing their research.

Interestingly, this detail dovetails with Picard Season 3 a bit, in which we learned that Section 31 was pushing different Federation scientists to weaponize the organic nature of Changelings. Basically, the Dominion War created a lot of corrupt scientific research within the Federation, making the top-secret Daystrom labs that Riker, Raffi, and Worf raided perhaps just a small sample of the horrible top-secret weapons the Federation has developed.

What Discovery does is make it clear that Jinaal did the right thing at the time by hiding the research — even if that doesn’t help our heroes at the moment.

A classic Original Series nod

Sargon enters Kirk’s body in “Return to Tomorrow.”

Of course, within the canon of Trek, the Trill weren’t the first time the franchise explored the concept of sharing consciousness. Spock transferred his katra to Bones in The Wrath of Khan , and Kirk switched bodies with Janice Lester in the controversial final TOS episode “Turnabout Intruder.”

But, one wonderful 1968 episode from TOS Season 2 — “Return to Tomorrow” — featured ancient beings borrowing the bodies of Kirk, Spock, and Dr. Ann Mulhall in order to build more permanent, android bodies. When the ancient being of Sargon enters Kirk’s body, one of the first things he says is: “Your captain has an excellent body.”

Now, 56 years later, when Jinaal finds himself in Culber’s body, he says something similar: “Wow, this guy really works out!”

Across decades of internal canon, Star Trek can make the same body-switching joke, and make it work, in any century.

Star Trek: Discovery Season 5 drops new episodes on Fridays on Paramount+.

• Science Fiction

‘Star Trek: Deep Space Nine’s Best Crossover Character Changed the Show Forever

It also results in some of the best relationships within the Star Trek universe.

The Big Picture

• Worf's arrival on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine deepened the exploration of Klingon culture and his personal identity.
• Worf's relationship with Jadzia adds depth to his character and highlights his humanity.
• Worf's struggles adjusting to life on DS9 test his loyalty, friendship, and honor.

Worf, son of Mogh ( Michael Dorn ), is a beloved character initially introduced to audiences in Star Trek: The Next Generation , known for his battle-hardened stoicism and the comedic relief that his upright and rigid demeanor brings. Worf crossed over to Deep Space Nine in the fourth season, much to the delight of Star Trek fans. Initially, his arrival on DS9 allowed the show to explore the Klingon Empire in-depth by extrapolating his inner conflict between his roles as a dutiful Federation Officer and a fierce Warrior of The Klingon Empire.

However, Worf's presence on DS9 would also forever change the series , allowing a deep exploration of the machinations of the Empire through its saga with Gowron ( Robert O'Reilly ). His relationship with Jadzia ( Terry Farrell ), a Trill learned in the ways of the Klingon, would help highlight Worf's humanity, act as a romantic counterpoint to his rigidity, and provide context for the curious observer. Jadzia and Worf are similar in some respects, as they both have multiple identities to reconcile. Jadzia would be the first non-Klingon woman that Worf could be with in the traditional sense, giving a vulnerability to the character that would carry on throughout the series and provide a deep richness to DS9 that helped cement it as a critical series in the Star Trek universe.

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

In the vicinity of the liberated planet of Bajor, the Federation space station Deep Space Nine guards the opening of a stable wormhole to the far side of the galaxy.

What Is 'Deep Space Nine' About?

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine is the fourth series in the Star Trek universe, created by Rick Berman and Michael Piller . Deep Space Nine ran from January 3, 1993, to June 2, 1999, for 176 episodes over seven seasons. It was the first Star Trek series to be created without the involvement of series founder Gene Roddenberry , the first to be set on a space station, and the first to boast a Black captain in Benjamin Sisko ( Avery Brooks ). The series follows the exploits of a hybrid crew of Starfleet and Bajoran officers on the titular space station, in orbit above Bajor and adjacent to a wormhole leading to the distant and mysterious Gamma Quadrant. Starfleet has come to oversee the transfer of power from the oppressive Cardassian Empire to the Bajoran civilian government, which has been under the heel of the Cardassians for some time.

The series is much darker than its predecessors . At one point, Major Kira Nerys ( Nana Visitor ), the first officer of Deep Space Nine, is a Cardassian prisoner of war, and even Sisko himself saw his wife killed during a Borg raid on a space station. The currents of trauma that run through the ensemble invoke feelings of loneliness, desperation, and fear, which the characters must overcome in typical Starfleet fashion. The well-roundedness of the characters makes them very compelling and adds a layer of sophistication to the series, which, while present in its predecessors, came into its own during DS9 and became a recurring theme on the show.

One particular theme that runs through Deep Space Nine is the duty to one's station and the duty one has towards one's individuality. This exploration of where duty and individuality meet is present in many characters. Take Odo ( René Auberjonois ) , for example, a Founder separated from his people and planted firmly in the camp of the Alpha Quadrant. In contrast, his people wage war on the planets of the Federation. Odo must choose between his people, Starfleet, and his cultural identity and individuality. So, too, must Kira, whose hatred for the Cardassian is a defining feature of her character, and who has to learn to overcome this so that it does not interfere with her duties to Starfleet. This war between the Founders, their allies, and Starfleet is the primary conflict in the series . They are a formidable race of shapeshifters backed by the Jem'Hadar, a warrior race of beings whose soul existence is to crush opposition. They are a tough, genocidal race, terrifying in their methods and fearsome enough to give the Klingon Empire a run for its money.

Worf's Arrival Changed 'Deep Space Nine' for the Better

Worf joins the crew of Deep Space Nine during the feature-long premiere episode of Season 4 in "The Way Of The Warrior." At the beginning of the episode, the Klingon Empire, led by Gowron, shows up at the space station to aid them in their fight against the Founders. This is a serious boon for Starfleet and the Alpha Quadrant, as the Klingons are such fearsome and brutal fighters that they may tip the balance of power throughout the war. But they push things too far, illegally searching Bajoran ships and starting a war with the Cardassians, whom they believe to be comprised of the shapeshifting Founders. Worf is brought to gather intelligence by reaching out to the Empire. He is very close with Gowron, who has absolved Worf and his family of their generations-long disgrace. Worf learns of the Klingon plans to invade Cardassia and must choose between fulfilling his duties to Starfleet or joining Gowron in battle. Worf's choice to maintain his honor by remaining in Starfleet is a moral choice that tests his individuality against those of his bloodthirsty cultural traditions.

Throughout the series, Worf meets Deep Space Nine's chief science officer, Jadzia Dax, a Trill and the host of the symbiont that once belonged to Curzon Dax . Due to the Dax symbiont carrying all its previous hosts' memories, Jadzia can tap into Curzon's familiarity with Klingon customs. The characters are exciting foils to one another. Worf is glib, stoic, and utterly humorless, while Jadzia is more irreverent and open, owing to the many past lives she recalls through her symbiont. However, the two also have more in common than one might think ; they are both people who have multiple identities. The critical difference is that Jadzia has reconciled her identities, while Worf remains at odds with his.

Jadzia is the only person aboard Deep Space Nine who can genuinely understand Worf , and it is this factor that blossoms their innocuous meeting into what may be one of the most fantastic love stories ever told in the Star Trek universe. Their connection is marvelous as their conflicting natures are both points of contention that allow for humorous moments where Jadzia's tenderness assuages the beast within Worf. It is delightful to watch Worf babysit chief operations officer Miles O'Brien's ( Colm Meaney ) daughter, paving the way for the couple to conceive a child of their own — which is made all the more tragic by Jadzia's murder and Worf's spiral into despair.

Worf Had a Difficult Time Adjusting To Life On Deep Space Nine

Initially, Worf has his former Enterprise crewmate O'Brien to help ease his transition into life on the space station. The two were close, and their relationship strengthened on The Next Generation , after Worf helped O'Brien's wife Keiko ( Rosalind Chao ) give birth to their daughter. When Worf joins the crew of DS9, O'Brien is among the first to receive him to help him acclimate — introducing him to Doctor Julian Bashir ( Alexander Siddig ), a rival suitor for Jadzia's affections and eventual boyfriend to Ezri ( Nicole de Boer ), who becomes the host of the Dax symbiote after Jadzia's untimely death.

O'Brien is the only person Worf can genuinely confide in after the death of his wife, and he heartbreakingly confesses to his friend that he fears Jadzia's soul may never make it to Klingon heaven because she hadn't eaten the heart of her enemy after a night of too much blood wine. Worf longs to be with his wife in the afterlife, making Ezri's relationship with Bashir a sore point for the commander. But Worf eventually becomes a friend to Ezri, who, in effect, helps Worf to properly grieve Jadzia's death so that he can move on and step up to be the man that the Klingon Empire needs.

It isn't an easy transition for Worf after he accepts the commission of Special Operations Officer on Deep Space Nine — yet Captain Sisko has incredible foresight when he offers Worf the position. He sees Worf as a profoundly knowledgeable and capable military strategist whose intuition and extensive knowledge of warfare, particularly Klingon warfare, would greatly benefit the station and Starfleet. This position puts Worf in direct opposition to his people and weighs heavily on his mind. By siding with Sisko over Gowron, Worf again sees himself as an outsider among his people . His frustrations are palpable, but he can sublimate these into his work and subsequently earn a place of deep respect in Sisko's heart. It is summed up rather nicely between the two with a hearty handshake when Worf accepts the role of Ambassador to the Klingon homeworld.

Until this point, Worf wants to restore his family's honor, and ironically, he loses it again while pursuing what he believes to be honorable. Here is the show's crux: how far someone is willing to go to do what they believe to be correct. Sisko tests the bounds of his morality while making difficult choices about defeating the Founders. Odo turns his back on his people. On the fringes of the known universe, a brave crew of deeply traumatized heroes will learn exactly that. Worf's crossover on Deep Space Nine marks the point where the series descends into a dark rabbit hole spurned on through the fog of war, but it also results in some of the best character relationships within the Star Trek universe.

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The Changelings were shapeshifting lifeforms (in their natural state a liquid ) native to the Gamma Quadrant of the Milky Way Galaxy . They were the creators and rulers of the Dominion , whose subject races knew them as the semi-mythical Founders . Most Changelings existed as an amalgamated mass known as the Great Link .

• 1.1 Modified Changelings
• 5 Mirror universe
• 7.1 Appearances
• 7.2.1 Examining the species
• 7.2.2 Episodic developments
• 7.3 Apocrypha
• 8 External links

Biology [ ]

The natural form of a Changeling was a viscous orange liquid containing a structure known as a morphogenic matrix . ( DS9 : " The Begotten ") They contained morphogenic enzymes responsible for their shapeshifting ability. ( DS9 : " Things Past ")

Changelings (or at least young and inexperienced ones, like Odo ) had to revert to their natural liquid state to regenerate every sixteen to eighteen hours. Preventing them from doing so would cause severe physical distress and their forms to begin to deteriorate and "flake" away. ( DS9 : " The Forsaken ", " The Storyteller ", " The Alternate ", " The Die is Cast ", " In Purgatory's Shadow ")

Changelings could take virtually any corporeal form. ( DS9 : " Chimera ", " The Way of the Warrior ") They, or at least the Founders, also had the ability to closely mimic humanoid personalities to the point where even close friends and family often could not distinguish them from the originals. ( DS9 : " By Inferno's Light ", " Apocalypse Rising ", " Paradise Lost ") They could transform parts of themselves into smaller electrical devices, like a combadge , and make it operational, and were also capable of at least mimicking the shape and operation of a computer. ( DS9 : " Paradise Lost ") Changelings could also mimic the form of fire and clouds. ( DS9 : " Chimera ")

Constable Odo as a drinking glass

Croden's changeling locket

Changeling infant mimics Odo

Starfleet sensors , as of 2371 , failed to recognize Changelings when they mimicked other forms. ( DS9 : " The Adversary ")

The Obsidian Order created a prototype quantum stasis field generator that could prevent a Changeling from shape shifting. ( DS9 : " The Die is Cast ")

Changelings could survive in the vacuum of space, and were highly resistant to disruptor fire. ( DS9 : " Chimera ", " Apocalypse Rising ")

Changelings – or at least Odo – had no sense of smell. ( DS9 : " If Wishes Were Horses ", " Improbable Cause ") Laas stated, however, that if his hands had Klingon blood on them, they would emit a stench, possibly suggesting that after living among solids for years, he was at least familiar with the concept. ( DS9 : " Chimera ")

Even when in humanoid form, Changelings did not need to take in sustenance. Odo noted that he once attempted to eat after assuming humanoid form for the first time, but found the experience not only unsatisfying due to his lack of taste buds , but "messy" for reasons he chose not to elaborate. ( DS9 : " Meridian ") Doctor Bashir once asked Odo for a sample of himself to study its value in possibly creating synthetic organs , which raised the question how he would get that part of himself back, if he never added matter to his body. ( DS9 : " When It Rains... ")

The thoughts and emotions of Changelings could not be read by Betazoids . ( DS9 : " Fascination ") However, memories could be telepathically transferred by a Guardian to one in the Trill Zhian'tara ritual, and they could participate as a past Trill host. ( DS9 : " Facets ") A telepathic energy matrix (which caused the crew of Deep Space 9 to fight for control of that space station ) was rejected by Odo's lack of a humanoid brain . It did have the ability to warp his face and knock him unconscious, though he retained his humanoid shape. ( DS9 : " Dramatis Personae ")

However, on one occasion Odo was knocked out by being struck on the head. ( DS9 : " Vortex ")

There was an apparent telepathic aspect to the Changeling species, evidenced in the fact Odo felt drawn toward the Omarion Nebula , which was once home to the Founders. ( DS9 : " The Search, Part II ") However, it is possible that the instinctive desire to visit the nebula was "hardwired" into him. Changelings had the ability to sense, in most cases, the presence of other Changelings. ( DS9 : " The Search, Part I ", " Homefront ", " Chimera ") The Jem'Hadar may also have the ability to sense Changelings, though this ability might not be telepathic but an imprinted response to a Changeling's gelatinous state, as a child Jem'Hadar who sensed Odo did not respond to him until he temporarily reverted to that state. ( DS9 : " The Abandoned ") Further suggestion of a telepathic trait arose when Odo's remaining morphogenic enzymes were stimulated by a plasma field , creating a miniaturized " Great Link " with Benjamin Sisko , Jadzia Dax , and Elim Garak . ( DS9 : " Things Past ")

At the very least, there exists a "hive mind" among the species when joined with the Great Link. ( DS9 : " The Search, Part II ", " Broken Link ", " Sacrifice of Angels ", " Chimera ") For instance, Odo once commented, " During the Link, I sensed that the other Changelings were trying to hide things from me... faces, names. " ( DS9 : " Broken Link ")

The Founders of the Dominion were Changelings, and made up the majority of the Dominion's leadership. Changelings preferred to think of themselves as a drop (the individual) in the larger ocean (what they called the Great Link). A Changeling, therefore, typically had little sense of individual identity. Being a liquid-based lifeform, in order to link with other Changelings, they simply reverted to this state and the liquid blended together, creating a link between them. ( DS9 : " The Search, Part II ") Centuries before, the Founders had sent the Hundred Changelings throughout the galaxy as a way to gauge other species by the way they treated the weak and vulnerable. ( DS9 : " The Begotten ") There were legends of Changelings having been on the planet Rakhar . ( DS9 : " Vortex ")

It was suggested that Changelings were biologically immortal and therefore never died of old age ( DS9 : " Children of Time ", " Behind the Lines ") Laas was over 200 years old. ( DS9 : " Chimera ") However, it was possible to kill Changelings by a number of means. Severe cases of radiation poisoning could prove fatal. ( DS9 : " The Adversary ", " The Begotten ") Changelings were also killed by phaser or disruptor fire, at sufficiently high settings. ( DS9 : " Crossover ", " Apocalypse Rising ") A Changeling was observed succumbing to trauma following the impact of a ship crashing into a planetary surface (a crash in which the ship's inertial dampers had failed). ( DS9 : " The Ship ") The Admiral Leyton/Miles O'Brien Changeling laughingly remarked to Sisko that, including himself, there were only four Changeling agents in the Alpha Quadrant. ( DS9 : " Homefront ", " Paradise Lost ") Of the four three were dead:

• The Krajensky Changeling in 2371 ( DS9 : " The Adversary ")
• The General Martok Changeling was killed by the Klingons in 2373 ( DS9 : " Apocalypse Rising ")
• The Dr. Julian Bashir Changeling was killed in the destruction of the USS Yukon in 2373 ( DS9 : " By Inferno's Light ")

Changelings could assume the forms of both male and female humanoids. ( DS9 : " Tacking Into the Wind ") The majority of Changelings appeared to favor either a male or female form, even when impersonating individual solids . ( DS9 : " The Search, Part I ", " Heart of Stone ", " The Adversary ") It was unknown if this indicated a true biological gender or gender identity, or was simply a matter of personal preference. Changelings could experience feelings of physical attraction and love towards solids, and were capable of sexual intercourse with them, and with each other while in humanoid form. However, a Changeling could not have children with a solid. ( DS9 : " Crossfire ", " A Simple Investigation ", " Favor the Bold ", " Chimera ")

Changelings began their lives in an "infant" state, as a small quantity of seemingly inanimate liquid. In this state they were capable of limited shapeshifting, usually into simple geometric shapes, and responding to external stimuli such as moving away from an electrical charge. Over time they developed into maturity, increasing in mass and gaining greater understanding of their surroundings and control over their shapeshifting abilities, eventually becoming capable of verbal communication and assuming complex forms. ( DS9 : " The Alternate ", " The Begotten ") Dr. Bashir once jokingly suggested that Changelings may experience an equivalent to puberty or menopause ( DS9 : " Broken Link ").

Despite the existence of infants, it was unknown how Changelings reproduced. Garak expressed doubt over whether or not Changelings have mothers . ( DS9 : " The Way of the Warrior ") Changelings regarded all other members of their species as their "family", although it is unclear if this indicated a genetic relationship, or merely a social one. ( DS9 : " The Search, Part II ")

A Changeling could also be transformed by the Great Link into a solid permanently. ( DS9 : " Broken Link ") Also, an infant Changeling once transformed Odo into a Changeling again by absorbing itself into his body, but it had also been dying at the time, so it is unknown how this would have normally affected the 'giver'. ( DS9 : " The Begotten ")

Modified Changelings [ ]

The liquid form of a modified Changeling

During the Dominion War, Section 31 conducted secret experiments on Changeling prisoners of war on Daystrom Station . Termed Project Proteus , these torturous procedures were designed to create better infiltrators. One known chemical compound used in the experiments as a stabilizing agent was thelomium-847 . One of the test subjects, later called Vadic , escaped and killed the lead scientist before freeing her fellow prisoners. Vadic discovered that they could transmit their new abilities to regular Changelings by linking with them. In the process, the modified Changelings also lost their orange liquid appearance for a reddish and more gelatinous natural form.

Those new Changelings were able to mimic the internal organs, fluids, and cellular biology of the solids without DNA , being able to pass the detection tests inherited from the Dominion War. Even after being killed, they kept their disguises, only returning to their natural state after being cut into small pieces.

Their modified biology, however, also made Vadic's followers vulnerable to the same weaknesses as the solid whose forms they mimicked, such as blades or even the coldness of space. Choosing to become modified also meant sacrificing their longevity for a much shortened life span , and to experience constant pain for the rest of their life. They, or at least younger and inexperienced ones, still needed to return to their natural form after some time, or else their disguise would wobble from exhaustion. Also, contrary to regular Changelings, Betazoids could feel evolved Changelings' emotions and sense that something wasn't right when approached by an impostor. ( PIC : " Seventeen Seconds ", " No Win Scenario ", " Imposters ", " Dominion ", " Surrender ")

As minute amounts of thelomium-847 remained within the experimented Changelings and were spread to any Changeling that chose to be modified, this could be used to track them using sensors . ( PIC : " Dominion ")

Culture [ ]

Changeling culture revolved around the Great Link and shapeshifting. While in the Link, a Changeling had little sense of time or its individual self, and saw itself as a part in a larger whole. Changelings hated to be separated from their people, and would seek out the company of other Changelings with whom they had personal conflicts rather than remain alone. ( DS9 : " Behind the Lines ") Changelings considered linking with one another the ultimate form of intimacy, and many found spoken language and other expressions of intimacy such as sex limited. ( DS9 : " Favor the Bold ") Being in the Link was described as "paradise" for a Changeling, and even Odo, who bitterly opposed the goals of the Founders dreamed of returning to it. ( DS9 : " The Die is Cast ", " Sacrifice of Angels ")

Most Changelings, including Odo, displayed a marked preference for order, efficiency, and following rules, which Odo interpreted through the lens of justice but other Changelings viewed through the lens of control. ( DS9 : " Necessary Evil ", " The Search, Part II ") Odo once commented to Worf that "My people have an innate need for order", suggesting the compulsion may be biological in origin. ( DS9 : " Crossfire ")

Throughout their entire history, no Changeling had ever harmed another. ( DS9 : " Broken Link ") Above all else, the Changelings wanted their people to all be united in the Great Link, and renegades such as Odo were given ample opportunities to return home with all transgressions forgiven. Weyoun 4 informed Odo that the Founders wanted him back after he first rejected them. ( DS9 : " To the Death ") The Changeling who impersonated Colonel Lovok allowed Odo to leave the Battle of the Omarion Nebula unharmed, and the impostor Krajensky attempted to convince him to escape the self-destructing Defiant with it. ( DS9 : " The Die is Cast ", " The Adversary ") The Female Changeling prioritized returning Odo, who was previously banished, back to the Link over the outcome of the Dominion War . ( DS9 : " Favor the Bold ")

Shapeshifting gave Changelings physical empathy with other lifeforms, allowing them to gain knowledge of them, though they spent most of their existence in the Great Link. ( DS9 : " The Search, Part II ", " Chimera ")

The modified Changeling faction led by Vadic was known to have abandoned the notion of not harming their own kind. Possibly regarding their goal of revenge against the Federation to ultimately be more important, they were willing to execute any member that spoke up against Vadic's decisions. ( PIC : " The Bounty ")

History [ ]

• See : Founder - History  and Dominion history

In 2380 , when Beckett Mariner was suspicious about Brad Boimler 's relationship with Barbara Brinson , she included Changelings in her list of what Barbara might be. ( LD : " Cupid's Errant Arrow ")

In contrast, in the same year conspiracy theorist Steve Levy claimed that Changelings were not real, and that " the Dominion War didn't happen. " ( LD : " No Small Parts ")

At some point between the end of the Dominion War and 2401 , a group of Changelings, still bitter over losing the Dominion War, broke off from the Great Link to seek revenge. To that end, one Changeling took the form of a Human under the name Titus Rikka in 2401 and procured a quantum tunneling device from Daystrom Station , using it to destroy the Starfleet recruitment center in District Seven at M'talas Prime . ( PIC : " The Next Generation "). Another Changeling infiltrated the USS Titan -A and replaced a member of the crew, Ensign Eli Foster . ( PIC : " Seventeen Seconds ") Vadic and her crew were defeated by the Titan -A and their ship, the Shrike , was destroyed. ( PIC : " Surrender ") It was subsequently revealed that Vadic's faction were working with the Borg , infiltrating the Federation to set up a Borg takeover as revenge for their defeat in the Dominion War. ( PIC : " Võx ") Following the destruction of the Borg, Admiral Beverly Crusher was able to devise a way to privately scan for irregularities, allowing Starfleet to detect Changeling infiltrators and Vadic's cohorts were rounded up and arrested. As they were in constant need for information, the Changelings kept but did not kill many of their targets whom Starfleet was able to find and rescue, including Tuvok . ( PIC : " The Last Generation ")

Mirror universe [ ]

In the mirror universe , the Bajoran wormhole remained undiscovered as of 2375 . Therefore, Changelings and other species native to the Gamma Quadrant remained unknown to the peoples of the Alpha Quadrant . The only exception was Odo , who was killed on Terok Nor during a workers' revolt in 2370 . ( DS9 : " Crossover ")

• Odo ( mirror universe )
• Titus Rikka
• Changeling who took Julian Bashir's form
• Changeling who took Eli Foster's form
• Changeling who took Krajensky's form
• Changeling who took Leyton's form
• Changeling who took Lovok's form
• Changeling who took Martok's form
• Changeling who took Miles O'Brien's form
• Changeling who took William T. Riker's form
• Changeling who took Tuvok's form

Appendices [ ]

Appearances [ ].

A list of all appearances of Changelings (excluding the regular appearances of Odo):

• " The Search, Part I " ( Season 3 )
• " The Search, Part II "
• " Heart of Stone "
• " Improbable Cause "
• " The Die is Cast "
• " The Adversary "
• " Homefront " ( Season 4 )
• " Paradise Lost "
• " Broken Link "
• " Apocalypse Rising " ( Season 5 )
• " The Ship "
• " Things Past "
• " The Begotten "
• " In Purgatory's Shadow "
• " By Inferno's Light "
• " Behind the Lines " ( Season 6 )
• " Favor the Bold "
• " Sacrifice of Angels "
• " Treachery, Faith and the Great River " ( Season 7 )
• " Chimera "
• " Penumbra "
• " 'Til Death Do Us Part "
• " Strange Bedfellows "
• " The Changing Face of Evil "
• " Tacking Into the Wind "
• " The Dogs of War "
• " What You Leave Behind "
• DIS : " All In " ( Season 4 )
• " The Next Generation " ( Season 3 )
• " Disengage "
• " Seventeen Seconds "
• " No Win Scenario "
• " Imposters "
• " The Bounty "
• " Dominion "
• " Surrender "
• " The Last Generation "
• PRO : " Kobayashi " ( hologram ) ( Season 1 )

Background information [ ]

Examining the species [ ].

The writers of DS9 believed there was a common "rigidity" among both the Founders and Odo. Robert Hewitt Wolfe described this characteristic as basically being "an obsessive-compulsive control freak." ( Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion  (p. 300))

DS9 : " Chimera " and DS9 : " Children of Time " confirms that Changelings have a life span of at least two hundred years, though Laas and Odo, being part of the Hundred, were not expected to reach the Great Link for another three hundred years in the late 27th century, indicating Changelings could live for at least five hundred years. It has also been suggested that Changelings might be immortal, with the Female Changeling remarking (in " Favor the Bold "), " You are a Changeling, you are timeless " – a logical assumption, given that the cellular structure of Changelings appears to be so fundamentally unique that it is incapable of decay.

Though Odo and Laas have been described as male and the Female Changeling as female, it is unclear what anatomical differences, if any, exist between male and female Changelings. Odo was able to assume the form of the Female Changeling, in " Tacking Into the Wind ".

Also, although an infant Changeling appears in DS9 : " The Begotten ", it is never made clear exactly how Changelings reproduce. Odo did display romantic affection for some female humanoids, most notably Kira Nerys , and was capable of sexual intercourse with humanoid species. He even had a sexual encounter with the Female Changeling, suggesting that two Changelings can mate in humanoid form, though the Female Changeling considered this version of intimacy unnecessary for their race, and pale compared to the Great Link . ( DS9 : " A Simple Investigation ", " Favor the Bold ") Ronald D. Moore opined that Odo could not reproduce with solids as he did not have the "authentic... gear" to fertilize an egg. ( AOL chat , 1997 )

The Changelings frequently assumed a form similar to that of Odo; however, Odo's unique appearance was the product of his difficulty with assuming convincing humanoid forms, not mandated by his racial makeup. Other Changelings have no difficulty with assuming convincing humanoid forms. The first time this was established was in " Heart of Stone ". " Not only do they look like you, but they copy your brain and know what you know. That's very dangerous, " said René Echevarria . ( Captains' Logs Supplemental - The Unauthorized Guide to the New Trek Voyages , p. 91) As the Changelings other than Odo are capable of looking identical to humanoids, they must therefore assume an Odo-like form out of choice. This may be because, before meeting Odo and the races of the Alpha Quadrant , they had no need to reveal themselves individually to outsiders, and thus had no need for a unique humanoid form to differentiate themselves from other species. Odo would have provided them with a useful template. Ronald D. Moore commented, " Odo modeled his look after Dr. Mora and the Founders then modeled their look after Odo. They did this initially as a compliment and way of reaching out to their long-lost Changeling, and later they kept doing it as a dig and reminder to him of his own limitations. " ( AOL chat , 1997 ) Although much older than Odo, Laas also seemed to have similar facial features, probably because of the same reason. Having been found by the Varalans , it can be assumed that the unique bumps on his forehead are typical Valaran features. (However, Odo doesn't have the Bajoran facial features of Mora Pol and other Bajorans; he comments in DS9 : " Past Prologue " that he always had trouble with their noses.)

The Female Changeling appears to be left-handed in " What You Leave Behind ". However, Odo seems to be right-handed during the course of the series. It is unclear whether a Changeling has a dominant hand when assuming humanoid form, or simply chooses which hand to use for different tasks.

Odo assumes the shape of a computer in " Paradise Lost ", but it is unknown whether he could simply mimic the computer's form or whether he could actually perform the complex calculations a computer makes.

Changelings do grow physically, to a point; as Changelings don't eat or drink, it is unclear exactly where the 'new' mass and energy come from. In " When It Rains... ", Julian Bashir asks Odo for a sample of his liquid form, and Odo only agrees on the condition that he will get it back after Bashir's tests are complete.

The articulated goo of the Changelings was probably one of the most challenging special effects to create for Star Trek: Deep Space Nine . The standard process of creating the effect and inserting it into scenes typically involved action plates, background plates, blue-screen photography, and CGI , all integrated together, as seamlessly as possible. The Changeling goo (also known as "Odo goo") was specially designed computer animation. There was also a generic wire-frame CGI model that could be animated for representing the beginning of a Changeling transforming from its liquid state into its humanoid form. ( Cinefantastique , Vol. 27, No. 4/5, p. 104)

Episodic developments [ ]

Apart from Odo, Changelings were first mentioned in DS9 : " Vortex ". In DS9 : " The Alternate ", it is suggested that a malevolent Changeling (who turns out to be Odo) is responsible for several attacks on space station Deep Space 9 , although Ira Steven Behr was unimpressed with this plot point. " The red herring didn't quite work for me all that much, " Behr commented, " but it's window dressing [....] It doesn't annoy you because you're buying the package. " ( Captains' Logs Supplemental - The Unauthorized Guide to the New Trek Voyages , p. 68) Changelings other than Odo were referred to again in DS9 : " Shadowplay ", which Robert Hewitt Wolfe noted was one of the first mentions of the Changelings having a mythology and being mythological lifeforms. " [It] was a really nice bit. It's just one of those things; it's like that little seed that you start rolling down the hill, and it just gets bigger and bigger. " (" Section 31 : Hidden File 02", DS9 Season 2 DVD special features)

The Changelings were thereafter introduced in DS9 : " The Search, Part I ". In that episode and " The Search, Part II ", Michael Westmore was required to create the makeup for the Founders as well as Odo. For the non-speaking Founders, Westmore simply used foam latex appliances from the exact same molds as were used for Odo. The makeup designer specifically requested casting, for these parts, actors whose faces were similar in size to Odo actor Rene Auberjonois . For each of the Founders with dialogue, a mold was taken of their face then an Odo-like mask was sculpted over it. Explained Westmore, " It's all one solid piece that glues down around the mouth and eyes. The problem with that face is it has to line up perfectly with the mouth and eyes. " ( Cinefantastique , Vol. 27, No. 4/5, p. 113) Another issue with the Changeling makeup during the making of the "The Search" two-parter was that each mask could be accidentally broken by its wearer laughing. ( Starlog , issue #222, p. 30) Although the makeup department attempted to use the Odo mask for other Changelings as they started appearing, some of the faces of the performers portraying main Changeling characters were so unique and different that Auberjonois' mask couldn't be a one-size-fits-all prosthetic appliance. Consequently, the makeup department ultimately had to craft new masks for principal Changelings. A typical example of such makeup (Odo's) usually took two hours to apply. ( Star Trek: Aliens & Artifacts , pp. 137 & 139)

The sophistication of the average morphing shot was increased tenfold for DS9 : " The Adversary ". Visual Effects Supervisor Glenn Neufeld was hugely surprised by the complexity of that footage, which the visual effects team had only six weeks to do. ( Cinefantastique , Vol. 27, No. 4/5, p. 105) Morphs performed by Changelings in "The Adversary" were actually designed by Glenn Neufeld and executed with CGI by VisionArt Design & Animation . ( Cinefantastique , Vol. 27, No. 4/5, p. 114) " We had a ton of morphs, " said David Livingston . " You're never going to see more morphs in forty-three minutes than you will on this show. " The extreme amount of morphs in "The Adversary" resulted in the episode having an unusually long production period. ( Captains' Logs Supplemental - The Unauthorized Guide to the New Trek Voyages , p. 99) Michael Eddington actor Kenneth Marshall witnessed, first hand, the shooting of some of the footage required for the morphs. " It's fascinating how they do the morph sequences, " he commented. " I haven't actually seen them do the special FX, but they shoot it three different ways on the set. In the last shot, everyone tiptoes off the set so as not to disturb anything even a fraction of an inch. " ( The Official Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Magazine  issue 15 , p. 53)

Due to the Founders infiltrating the Alpha Quadrant, there was much conjecture about which of the characters might be a Changeling. " Many people have gone down many different paths with [speculating] who is a changeling and who isn't, " observed Ira Steven Behr. " There's some great theories. " ( Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion  (p. 43))

More Changeling sequences were created in CGI for "The Begotten", involving Odo and the Changeling infant in separate shots. For one scene in which Odo watches the baby Changeling shape-shift into a rough approximation of his face, the two Changeling characters were filmed on either side of a split-screen shot. Also, both footage of Odo transforming into a hawk in "The Begotten" as well as a shot showing the demise of a slowly dying Founder in " The Ship " were created with CGI done by VisionArt. ( Cinefantastique , Vol. 29, Nos. 6/7, pp. 41 & 42)

Several shots of Changelings were also created with visual effects for DS9 : " Chimera ". In that case, the footage included Laas in the form of a fish-like creature, flying through space, and Odo representing shimmering lights. Both shape-shifting sequences were worked on by Visual Effects Supervisor David Stipes , Visual Effects Coordinator Adam Buckner , and CGI effects company Digital Muse , where Matt Merkovich participated in rendering the footage as CGI with the computer program LightWave 3D. Stipes was impressed by both of the two sequences. ( Cinefantastique , Vol. 32, Nos. 4/5, pp. 64, 65 & 66)

Robert Hewitt Wolfe remarked that the figurative seed he imagined being rolled down a hill with the advent of Changeling mythology in "Shadowplay" was, by the conclusion of the series, "just huge." ("Section 31: Hidden File 02", DS9 Season 2 DVD special features)

Morphs done by Changelings in DS9 series finalé " What You Leave Behind " were created by Digital Muse and were intended to be as similar as possible to the other morphs in the series. " David Lombardi is doing some of them, and Brad Hayes , " noted David Stipes. ( Cinefantastique , Vol. 32, Nos. 4/5, p. 90)

Apocrypha [ ]

In the Worlds of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine novella Olympus Descending , Odo learns from an elder Changeling that there are no "infant" Changelings, but just Changelings that are kept separate from the rest of the Great Link, as Changelings cannot reproduce since the departure of the ancient Progenitor centuries ago; Odo, Laas and the rest of the Hundred were sent out to find the Progenitor. During the novel, Odo discovers what appears to be the corpse of the Progenitor, prompting the rest of the Link to disperse, leaving Odo and Laas as the only two Changelings left to manage the Dominion.

External links [ ]

• Changeling at Memory Beta , the wiki for licensed Star Trek works
• Changeling at StarTrek.com
• 1 Abdullah bin al-Hussein