Changelings and Progenitors

marty123

I know that they are played by the same woman, but in universe i have a theory that the changelings based their humanoid appearance on the progenitors which is why they look so similar.

brian334

Rene Aberjonois wanted a makeup style through which he could emote.

Sorry, had to pause to laugh. Butseriously...

If they thought that far ahead, (which my understanding is they originally wanted the founders to be a big mystery for the whole run of DS9,) they couldn't guarantee Ms. Jens would want the role between the years of Odo's creation and her first appearance.

You may be correct in that Odo's appearance is a reuse of the makeup for the Progenitors, but the reuse of the actress is more likely a case of, 'We need someone, she's available, what does she want in pay and play to accept the role?'

brian334

Odo claimed his appearance was the result of copying the appearance of Dr.Mora before he was skilled enough to do his facial features properly, and the female changeling and Laas both copied his appearance.

There is no evidence anywhere that the form was peculiar to changelings or preferred by them in any way.It was only ever used by changelings who wanted to talk to Odo.

marty123

> @brian334 said:
> Odo claimed his appearance was the result of copying the appearance of Dr.Mora before he was skilled enough to do his facial features properly, and the female changeling and Laas both copied his appearance.
>
> There is no evidence anywhere that the form was peculiar to changelings or preferred by them in any way.It was only ever used by changelings who wanted to talk to Odo.

In STO the female changeling used that appearance for thousands of years

starswordc

I have a different theory, part of which I based a fan fiction around. The changelings are the ancient humanoids (who in STO are also the same species as the Preservers), or at least an offshoot population of them.

It goes back to my version of the Borg origin story. The Preserver civilization was at its zenith when one of their experiments went wrong and created the Borg, which rampaged across the galaxy and wiped out most life (including nearly all non-humanoids). The remnants of the Preservers took various paths to survive: some turned themselves into changelings so they could hide, some put themselves in stasis as on Lae'nas III. They did this hoping that the Borg would burn themselves out with no more bodies to assimilate, and left behind their genetic program so that new intelligent life would grow to replace what was lost.

But the Borg didn't burn themselves out, not entirely at least. They were able to adapt and go dormant in their core space for a while, only to emerge billions of years later when new races to assimilate became available.

brian334

Good theory, but I don't believe the only Preserver Archive was on Lae'nas III. The Preservers would have been smart enough to know that a rogue star might one day slam into their archive, and they would have been prudent enough to build more than one. Everything about the Preservers screams 'backup plan.'

I think STO uses the female changeling image in the past because it is familiar to the players, not because it is a default form for changelings, or even their original form. Odo's explanation is Trek canon.

Now, that said, you are free to headcanon any way you like. I can't 'prove' I'm right and, even if I could, it wouldn't invalidate what you imagine things to be. I mean, I've screwed with the Pakled canon pretty hard recently and nobody's called me out on it, So, have fun!