I wish people were more honest. The whole "keep your politics out of x" argument really means, "Keep everything aligned to *my* political views or don't even mention it.". Personally, I came to your channel for the Star Trek and I've stayed because of the politics.

"You ever reach for a gag? ... I think you know how I meant it." Steve getting freaky with daddy Odo tonight, bois.

Re: DC Fontana, 12% of Star Trek makes her pretty much second only to Roddenberry in forming the Trek universe.

I always assumed that the changelings took Odo's imperfect face in order to reach out to him, to be closer to him.

Nobody: Steve: "Future Odo is a daddy" Also Steve: "Why are you booing me, I'm right!"

I'm straight, but Odo is one handsome chap, and if someone can't handle that, then that person has some life to live first.

Are comment responses the bottom of the creative barrel? Yes. Do we appreciate the responses? Yes.

Forget future Odo, Odo-Curzon is the really daddy.

I suppose it says something about me that I read that title and thought, "Oh, wait, did Future Odo in that episode have kids?"

The USS Actually is a Nova-class, but outfitted for intercepting and analysing media from the planets it's observing.

I always assumed the changelings mimicked Odo when he first met them to make him comfortable, but then eventually it morphed into a form of mockery of Odo.

14:20 I didn't expect my posting to be read and addressed on this installment! I was aware of the controversy attached to "Yesteryear" and the courage expressed in Gene's "Trust Dorothy" response to Filmation's hesitancy in airing it. I was 14 years old when I saw it and 17 when I lost Prince so I'd like to think of myself as one "young person" that wasn't marred by this excellent "cartoon" episode. Thank you very much for posting and addressing my comment and your kind words regarding my loss.

The weird thing about Cardassia as an eternally fascist state is that in one of the other very, very prominent Cardassian episodes, Chain of Command, Gul David Warner describes growing up before Central Command came to power, and how it took hold after a time of famine and strife on Cardassia. All the deep-seated tendencies to torture and oppression are just the result of some very effective restructuring of Cardassian society. Later writers played with the idea of the Cardassians just being built differently, being biologically built to more likely accept fascism so that the horrors of Cardassian life are more of an alien curiosity than a mirror of what humanity can do, but that episode understood that fascism doesn't need long to set itself up, and after it sets itself up, it tends to try rewriting history to insert itself deeper. If you want to really be spooked, look up the Third Wave, where a teacher as an experiment wound up creating a fascist movement that started going out of control in just a week.

I’ve been witnessed! Thought you’d like the MASH reference :D

it is kind ironic and sad, that someone who had to use a mans name to get work in the 60s, is being slagged off by men in 2019, and by Star Trek fans no less. Its like they dont even understand the message of the show they claim to be fans of.

He was never the only vulcan in starfleet. He was the _first_ vulcan to goto starfleet academy.

"Future Odo is a Daddy" is a take I never expected from a Straight guy, but, damn, you right.

I learned the term "leading your shot" from video games. SO many dead Nazis and aliens and zombies and alien Nazi zombies.

One might also assume that forming and maintaining any sort of complex appearance requires more concentration and effort for a changeling. So if they don't *have* to mimic a particular solid, a simplified appearance might be preferred. Though that said I always thought it was a missed opportunity that future Odo wasn't just Rene Auberjonois without any make-up at all.

You know.... I have to be honest, I find that episode nearly *insanely sad.* Because, when you think about it, there are themes of hope, rejuvenation, purpose and honest sacrifice ranging in a dozen different formats throughout that episode, from Dax being a different person, to Quark becoming a teaching program for children, to Miles O'Brien eventually falling in love again...... And again, if Starfleet's most *DANGEROUS GODDAMN ENGINEER IMAGINABLE* can't fix the problem, I suspect no one can, and he found love and children again..... And Odo *grew* as a person. Became more complete. You're dead on the money, he became sadder. He wasn't diminished by his sadness, it enhanced him, and he had centuries to learn from his mistakes. And he committed suicide and murdered *THOUSANDS* of people to save his soul-mate. To merely give her a chance, he killed himself and committed genocide. ............ And I *UNDERSTAND!* And that's horrible, but I *UNDERSTAND!* I know what it is to love, lose your love, and suffer for it. And I *UNDERSTAND* that, if I were given the opportunity to commit atrocities to ensure that my love survived, even if I didn't......... I'd do it, too. Even knowing it's evil. Sorry to be a fucking *snowflake* here, but I'm actually crying as I write this because goddamn Star Trek pulled that out of me. Twenty years in the past, and the mere concept of that morally complex episode pulls at my soul on levels I'm not comfortable with.

Back when I was in college some friends and I debated, "why do changelings choose to look like Odo" and came up with pretty much the same answer you did. One thing we thought was funny though was that Odo copied his hair style from Mora Pol, the Bajorian scientist who studied him as a child. So Mora Pol's hairstyle choice was inadvertently transferred to an entire species-- at least when they were in their solid form. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I admit it, I'm partly here to watch Steve smack down those idiotic comments about "politics".

Steve! Man, I haven't seen one of your videos since last year! (With daddy in the title, I'll reach and do a dad joke. What the hell...) I know you half-jokingly bash these vids since you don't need as much prep time for them. Just wanna say that I always enjoy your smacking down of the dumb comments. Always puts a smile on my face.

"Is future Odo a daddy?" It's not the only reason I watched this clip, but it's a big part of it. #represntation

Three months late to the party and your defense of Daddy broke me and earned the hell out of that like from me. Aaaand the shout out for my terrrrrrible puns. Sweet delicious validation. It gives me life.

Damar & Rusot show the difference between a Patriot & a Nationalist. (Or in this case a Freedom Fighter & a Terrorist) Damar is willing to forget he used to hate of Kira because his priority is freeing Cardassia. And he asked for help because he took a clear eyed view of Cardassia’s position, assessed its strengths & weaknesses and did what he needed to do to fix them. I’m always struck by the fact that he had brought in cooling unit for her - I think he was genuinely grateful for her help. Rusot on the other hand is more interested in proving the superiority of Cardassians. He can’t bear the thought that they “need” the help of Bajorans. He’d rather believe that myth than help his people. And he wants to hit out against the dominion more than he wants to strategically help Cardassia.

There's been references in later series, including DS9, that at least post-TOS, it's extremely common (if not the norm) for Starfleet ships to have crew of primarily one Federation species. Makes me wonder if other major Federation planets have their own versions (or campuses?) of Starfleet Academy. I guess it makes sense that not many Vulcans would wish to join a paramilitary organization, but I can't imagine Andorians or possibly even Tellarites being against joining the Federation's main defense force, but we don't see a bunch of Andorians or Tellarites wandering around STA:SF (or would it be STA:E?).

Hey Steve, love the video, just wanted to point out that the episode mentioning an ‘ all-Vulcan crew ‘ is “ Take Me Out To The Holosuite “, and the all-Vulcan crew is that of Captain Solok, the petty Vulcan that challenges Captain Sisko to a baseball game, on the basis on the claim that his all-Vulcan crew will beat them because Vulcans are superior to most other humanoids, mainly humans And no, I didn’t have to look that up! 😊

Just for the record, it's Major Margaret "Hot Lips" Houlihan (Sally Kellerman) who asks how "how a degenerated person like that could reach a position of responsibility in the Army Medical Corps?" in the original movie version of M*A*S*H. And yes, it was Hawkeye. (Donald Sutherland).

We know by inference in the TOS episode “The Immunity Syndrome” that Spock is far from the only Vulcan in Starfleet. The entire crew of the USS Intrepid NCC 1631 were, in fact Vulcan. As Vulcans are founding members of the UFP, it only makes sense that some of them would also serve in Starfleet. Sorry Steve...good response video anyway.

I've been an avid follower of your channel for over a year now and recommended you to many people. Absolutely love all your content. I don't know what it was about this video in particular that pushed me to being a patreon patron (especially since it was just a late night re-watch, I'd already seen this one) but honestly, can't believe I wasn't already. You're a real one Steve. Thanks for the thoughtful analysis and creating one of the few spaces for Trek discussion that isn't completely full of vitriol. Thanks I guess too then, to the rest of your subscribers. The comments section of your videos can usually be counted on for some really interesting follow up reading. Hope the monthly donation helps. Keep doing what you do!

I would personaly say Yesteryear was probably up there as one of the best episodes in all the series because how it spark the imaginations of a generation. Dc Fontana even introduced the first holodeck. As a kid, when my friends and I saw the both "Yesteryear" and "The Practical Joker" these episode were talked about heavaly in school come monday morning and were part of our play time. We wanted the figure out how to make this all come to reality. I would argue that the whole tech boom may not have exploded like it did if not for star trek. To bad you didn't grow up seeing these shows coming out for the first time you would have loved it.

i could have sworn in the first encounter with the female changeling that they had the same face setup as him as a way to connect with him. that all the changelings minus the one that did the fog thing was told to do so for odo sake

Hey Steve, first off, great videos, love your work. Your sense of humor and views of the Trek-verse aren't just entertaining, but informative too. After your quite colorful response to the DC Fontana hater (GFY!!!) I thought I should let you know that Epoch Times is an advertiser on your page. Based on your political leanings this seems to be a bit off. Could you do a video specifically slamming them so they are paying for ads for you to destroy their lies? Thanks and keep up the great work!

Timeline wise, Tuvoc would have been in the Academy at the time of TOS.

I became a Star Trek fan about 35 years ago. At the time, there were 79 episodes, 3 movies, and rumors of an animated series that many of my friends didn't believe existed. I could rent the 3 (and eventually 4) movies at the corner video store whenever I wanted, but seeing episodes of TOS at this point wasn't easy. It had been replaced by other shows (at least in my area) for the "after school syndication", and was relegated to middle of the night or weekend afternoon (if it wasn't pre-empted for sports). I read a lot of the Pocket Books novels (some of which are quite good), and caught episodes where I could. I bought a lot of the supplemental materials (episode guides, James Blish novelizations, behind the scenes books, RPG material, etc). Eventually, I would buy the series on VHS through CBS/Columbia House - 2 episodes per tape, 1 tape every 6 weeks - ($19.95each + $5 shipping). It took me all of high school and into college to amass the full series. It required several bookshelves to display and filled a full sized foot locker for storage. 15 years ago, my wife bought me the same series on DVD, it took up 6 inches of bookshelf space (if I wanted to display it in the fancy plastic cases). Today, I can tap my phone no more than 10 times, and get to a menu where I can can watch any episode of any series of Trek whenever I want to. That's pretty cool.

One thing I've wondered is why everyone in Next Generation and later still wear cumbersome space suits when going outside their ship when they had personal force fields in the Animated Series.

I love your videos. It is awesome to see someone so volatile yet positive! I don’t think that I’ve ever found that combination in anyone else. Your stuff about about the Orange Impeached Gorilla is so spot on, passionate, and well informed that I’ve shared it around more than once. My mom even likes your work. And your Star Trek stuff is not only informative but it fires so many shots at the toxicity often found in fan communities. Please keep it up!

The changelings initially took on an odo-face because they wanted to connect to odo, and show their solidarity because they wanted to convince him to join the great link, later on, the female boss changeling (forgot the name) linked with odo, and so she might have absorbed his comfort with that form into herself. Only from that point onwards did she actually use odo-face with people who aren't odo (the cardassians for example)

This was an intellectual and respectful discussion.

I love it when you go off at the incels in the comments hahaha

I always figured the reason changelings look like November-Jack-o-Lanterns was because it was easier for them. If Odo being bad at faces produced his smushed up faceblob, then it stands to reason that a skilled changeling just throwing together a form with minimum effort would result in something similar. Remember that the founders view solids as trash. It seems logical that they would be wearing the shapeshifter equivalent of a stained white tank top and grey sweatpants most of the time.

Silly thought that popped into my head: Can we call the Comment response Not Actuallys "Not Even Not Actually Star Trek, Actually"? Highlights its lower-effort-than-Not-Actually, succinctly ties up the branding... Outside that, solid vid!

Regarding Odo's resembling the other Changelings in their default humanoid, but 'not impersonating another being form' -- it's pretty clear that the changelings have ingrained Odo with some genetic memory and programming. They admit to it a degree when they explain how they sent Odo out with the intent that he would go home and how he reacted upon getting close enough. It isn't hard to believe that some basic shapes would be a part of that programming, including that featureless face that the changelings seem to use among their lessers to, as pointed out in this episode, wave the flag of what they are. Also, just because their relaxed form is the goo, it doesn't mean that is their only natural form. They were, by their own admission, once solids. It could be that face is easiest for Odo because it is the changeling' species natural face from when they were still solid and thus that face is just natural for them to assume when they assume the shape of 'themselves' as a solid.

PZ Myers rocks!!!!

I just noticed that the Niners logo uses a set of the station pylons as the other side of the baseball stitching. Clever. Only took me 20 years.

My favorite part of this video was seeing PZ show up. I went to college at University of Minnesota-Morris and got to see him fairly regularly. It is always fun to see different aspects of one's life intersect, very cool.

I thought of the animated Griffin as a forerunner of Griff from Disney's Gargoyles

On the subject of Odo's face, I always figured that the 'imperfect' face is actually intentionally designed to be a sort of 'blend of common humanoid facial features'. Likely programmed into him by the Founders like they did with the need to seek out their home.

I thought the first time they encountered Odo, they said they were taking on Odo’s appearance to make him feel more comfortable with them? Also the difference between Changlings and shapeshifters is that shapeshifters have basic skeletal structures and only really take on the appearance of things, vs Changelings actually become the thing they mimic, going so far as they can become fire, a chemical reaction.

I think something that has clicked in my head from your examination of the various cardassian characters is that the overall plot for cardassia/cardassians was predicted in the season 2 episode "The Wire", when garak talks about the cardassian epic "The Never Ending Sacrifice". However, the true story of cardassia is turned on the head of what the novel says, the sacrifice isn't one of upholding the state, it's one of protecting the people, and every major cardassian character throughout the series looks upon this sacrifice, though some make better choices than others.

Steve, when Picard airs I'm gonna unfortunately be on holiday in Austria, so please can we have a spoiler free first review. Yes, I'm actually lamenting the fact that a great holiday is affecting my TV watching!

Scripted Steve is best Steve. But that don't mean that lazy Steve isn't good Steve. I hope you keep doing weird shit in the future, too.

I had sort of assumed that the Odo like facial appearance might have been a genetic memory from the link of the default humanoid appearance they use. Do I remember correctly the in one episode it was mentioned that the founders were once solids who evolved into changlings? If so, maybe that look was thier original solid appearance. Plus I think the actress who portrayed the lead founder was also on TNG as the hologram from the race that seeded all the humanoid races. Maybe the founders are also a product of that race or thier descendants. Wouldent that be ironic?

Happy New Year! Thanks for the new content. Great episode as always. 🙂 I just wanted to tell you that I just started listening to The Ensign's Log and that I really enjoy it! You and Jason are doing a fantastic job. I finished the first nine episodes on a drive from Ohio to Chicago on Sunday. And I listened to two more last night. OMG! Baby! Spot! Tina the Iguana! Beautiful work. Kudos. All of this has finally convinced me to donate to your Patreon. I cannot afford much, but I want to help keep you making these videos and podcasts. Thanks for all your hard work.

I disagree with the negative comments on the Evolution Episode. I love it when you experiment with your format like in that one, the Tasha Yar funeral one, and the time travel loop.

Three things. I liked the Griffin gag because who is to say given millions of years a quadrupedal species would not eventually become a bipedal species. Also, what are Khajiit in The Elder Scrolls series but bipedal talking felines? The Griffin of Earth mythology could have been an early proto Griffin-person, their missing link for example. The comments on criticizing something you love around 24 minutes in to 28 minutes in, that's something the Pokemon community needs to hear. I critique the current Pokemon games not because I hate Pokemon as a media franchise, but because I dislike the direction they have taken in the past several years and feel that it could be better than the product they have delivered. And lastly, the scientist bit. I liked it. It was a little much, but I did like the bit overall. Maybe next time you decide to so something like that, prep the script and pay someone else to deliver the lines in a costume in front of a green screen, I'm sure you could maybe find someone to do it on Fiverr, that way you aren't playing both the scientist and "podunk youtuber".

I hope a future _Trek_ series returns to the delta quadrant and finds that the Paris/Janeway salamander babies have conquered the planet.

Your comment on the literary or dramatic necessity of Damar's death got me thinking about his redemption through death. From a literary perspective, could we see Damar's redemption ironically as a moment of tragedy? As the original comment pointed out, he had been risking his life throughout. I see this as not only his path to redemption, but his *struggle to reach* redemption. It is only in death that the struggle finally ends. His redemption, therefore, is achieved through a tragic climax to the character's story arc. Damar becomes a cautionary exemplar for the audience, his story a moral lens through which we get to assess moral choices, regret, and the scars of the past. It also serves as a moral lens through which we can assess the choices of *other* characters. I recall the brilliant performance of Avery Brooks in the episode "In the Pale Moonlight", where Sisko nearly slips into moral darkness that had engulfed Garak, Damar, and others. In considering Damar's own tragic redemption (and he is redeemed through tragedy), I get to see the real danger facing Sisko as our good captain is teetering on the edge. DS9 was great at engaging the moral ambiguity in humanity and the impact of humanity's choices.

Their form also could be a version of their species before they evolved into their shape shifting form. After all it fits their way of doing things . DS9 treachery , Faith and the great river. Weyoun says the founders made certain they remembered their origins by making certain the Horta had bad taste buds

I had never noticed the USS Actually in the corner of your screen before it was mentioned here. But now that it's mentioned, *of course* it's a science vessel, with a name like that! In fact, I'd bet that the smartass who named it put it in the official Starfleet registry _with the ellipsis_ - the "USS Actually..." - but that it's never used either on the ship's markings itself or in any technical manuals, correspondence, etc. because it's just confusing and makes everything harder to read. But it's there in the official registry so that pedants can make legit use of it.

It is just my head cannon, but I always imagine that the Founders were originally the same species in the TNG episode "The Chase". They look similar, and Salome Jens played both a Founder and the Humanoid Progenitor (also founder and progenitor are linguistically close too). The Founders are stated to once be similar to solids. So the appearance of the Founders could look the way they do because it is similar to how they once looked when they were the Progenitors, and it is easy for them to assume that form (which is why Odo looks the way he does until he learns to control his shape changing ability better). But this is just my head cannon. 😎

Hahahaha the daddy section, fantastic, you're an awesome hetero ally

In Herodotus' History he relates a conversation between Solon and Croesus wherein Solon insisted that a man could not be accurately labeled 'happy' until he was dead, for until that time misfortune or bad decisions or whatever could still occur to rob him of the things that created this happiness. I suspect that if he had been asked about being a 'good' or 'moral' man he would take a similar approach to the 'only good Nazi' question. He may or may not allow for the possibility of a person's redemption, but until a person's story is finished it is impossible to assess his morality in total. Until that point there always exists the possibility of an aboutface and any assessment you make is of that moment in time and subject to change by more information coming to light.

In regards to the Anti-Vax argument for “Genesis” - keep in mind the time period that episode was written in. I’m sure it was just a convenient plot device that truly falls under the recurring “Starfleet technology screws things up again” and no political side meaning. That movement wasn’t nearly as prevalent in the 90’s, but because it is now, you can see passing connections to the hotbed topics. (I would say the same with “Children of Time” and abortion as well”) Also - Tim R. would be a prime candidate for an unfortunate “de-evolution” quandary in Star Trek. When he finally evolves into a decent compassionate human being we can consider it.

As soon as I saw it was a response video, I started waiting to see who and how someone complained about Steve's politics. I knew it was coming and I was not disappointed. I don't always have the same opinion as Steve, but he is very upfront in his unapologetic political opinions. I do agree with him questioning why crediting DC Fontain (which I think I spelled wrong) is political.

t w e l v e p e r c e n t I wonder how they came up with that number

Re: Spock as "only" Vulcan in Star Fleet, I see it as more along the lines of, due to their emotionalism, Vulcans generally found working closely with humans distasteful. Thus, while not completely unique as a member of Star Fleet, he is uncommon in that he works primarily with humans instead of other Vulcans.

Actually, the approach PZ Myers suggests what the writers should have did was actually what DC Fontana did in the TOS days and it shows in the episodes that she made major contributions in.

We have a bipedal cat person and bipedal lizard people in Star Trek. I'm entirely on board with that character being a bipedal griffin person.

An explanation for the "Odo" face on other changelings I found plausible is their familiarity to that given face/form. Odo formed a new face, and was that same humanoid for 200 years, so developed a his face, improving the details with experience. The others may require a similar development time (tho short for more experienced changelings) If a changeling has a model, like General Martok, an experienced changeling could emulate the face to near perfection.

Hi Steve, can you do an episode on TNG Ethics...because in my opinion Dr Crusher self righteousness seems to be at the detriment to her patient.

Of course Odo is a daddy, agree 100+% with you, Steve. He is a hot, hot daddy (and the actor was as well, with respect to R. Auberjonois).

I do love Star Trek, it was the first sci-fi show I was introduced to (followed by B5 and Stargate). I will say that I'm not a fan of Discovery. I was hoping when it was announced they would finally move the story and timeline post-Nemesis. But we got a pre-ish-TOS era show instead. Then with that I knew the Enterprise under either April or Pike, not that I'm disappointed at seeing the ship, but I think natively the show would have been better in a different era adding more to the future of the story I've wanted to see since Nemesis and also not feel like it was tying into some nostalgia for TOS. Obviously the writers thought along these lines at some point too otherwise the end of season 2 wouldn't have been a thing. I was disappointed with the direction they took as well linking Burnham with Sarek and Spock. I think she would be far more interesting if she had been just been adopted by an aged T'Pol... now that would have been interesting and served as a fun narrative link between Enterprise and and DSC/TOS and would also explain Burnham's attitude towards battle, with T'Pol's own emotions being closer to the surface Burnham would emulate that and would have been told of the NX-01's encounters with the Klingons and Romulans and would explain that entire pilot episode "shot heard around the quadrant" a lot better. I am glad they decided to bring back Picard however, given what we know of the post Nemesis timeline in cannon from ST 2009 Romulus was destroyed. So to link that, the story from Nemesis with a presumably less hostile RSE after the battle of the Bassen Rift and Picard's link to them will be fascinating to watch and I hope post ST Picard that they continue building forward in the timeline and maybe deal with those displaced Jem Hedar ships that the prophets moved somewhere else in time.

Also, in an unrelated note; it's a terrible shame that Voyager missed the opportunity to name the EMH "Doc Hologram".... that among other shames that could be heaped on that show.

I'm gay, but must say hypothetical Gay-Steve has - relative to me - quite distinct tastes. You should consider pursuing them. (Joke, hope I didn't make you too uncomfortable.) Some more more thoughts; your stretch on the Griffin thing DID bug me because it felt a bit like misinformation, and the Cardassians always remind me of a fusion of Nazi Germany and The British Empire - Bajor bears resemblance to not just Hitler's Holocaust but also, among others, Irish and Indian occupation - I do worry it might be almost letting humanity off lightly by just comparing them to Nazis; but much more importantly that misogynist and the alt-right scum who thinks giving credit to a woman where its due needs to be eaten alive for that... preferably by a Griffin so you can enjoy the edutainment of watching it. (Also the slight Shakespearan edge of the Cardassians AND their love for their literature, and their flamboyance... a hell of a lot of small things scream 'British influenced'; British Cardassians also acts an amusing predictive text to some degree. From a 'predictive' stand-point Bajor joining the Federation can be argued to mirror Ireland joining the EU and quickly being transformed from a third-world country to a true stake-holder in the world that acts as an important gateway for trade, and makes the Dominion a metaphor for the seduction of Brexiteer fascism. Variants of that reading also work for India's massive growth instead of Ireland though, and I'm sure there examples beyond the British Empire and Nazi Germany that warrant consideration too depressingly. Truthfully Cardassia just currently seems like a strong warning to Britain about their specific brand of toxic patriotism which lead to Brexit, and the ways it kinda rhymes with the toxic patriotism of Cardassia that lead to joining the Dominion.)

Damar's life and death was very Roman, especially in the Shakespeare play, Julius Caesar. In the sense that he, like Garrak, spent his life in service of Cardassia and died in service Cardassia. In a sense he was less loyal to Cardassia than Garrak because Garrak had no issues of betraying friends if it served Cardassia. Where as Damar could never separate his loyalty to Cardassia from his loyalty to Dukat. In fact there is a scene when Garrak is sitting with Tayn and he says that he never betrayed Cardassia, at least not in his heart. Which I find very compelling because you prior to that comment. Tayn makes it clear that he views the the Obssidian Order as Cardassia, and "HE, Tayn" WAS the obsidian order. So Garrak's reply to him, in my mind, was Garrak saying "HEY! Cardassia is Cardassia, and you and I and the Obsidian Order are just tools that serve it. I may have betrayed you but I NEVER, betrayed Cardassia. Remember your place." Then we have Damar who sees Dukat and Cardassia as the same thing. And in the end he sees the folly of that thinking since Dukat's ambition was only to serve himself and not Cardassia. I like to think that in the end Damar saw that but I don't think he did.

This is a wonderful format, please do this again & again 😃😃😃

Hey Steve, Great episode as always, and your use of... how should I say it... more colorful metaphors... was not only appropriate, but awe inspiring, and made me smile big time. You are awesome. Odd question for you.. Where'd you get that big blue jumbo Star Trek logo mug?

Grossed out by the concept of daddy Odo but laughing more than I should at the gag gag... everyone has their thing

Just want to point out, I’m a different Tim R. Other Tim R is a disgrace to Tim Rs everywhere

I just started ds9 and im on s3 e4 and my favorite series was voyager then the animated series then enterprise now ds9. Favorite characters: quark and odo

A propos Vulcans in Starfleet, in Journey to Babel it's mentioned that there are other Vulcans on the Enterprise, though it's never specified if they are crew members or not, and we sadly never see them.

As far as Odo being the first shape-shifter encountered by Star Fleet: I can remember several shape shifting species that can modify their appearance and appear to be different species or different individuals. I think I can remember a couple that can become "animals" or are shown shape-shifting into non-sapient species. The Changelings are the only species I can remember off the top of my head that can become not only any sapient species or any non-sapient animal, but also mimic or merge with inorganic or inert objects or even complex chemical reactions without suffering any side effects. Frankly their ability to modify their physical properties while maintaining their conscious control and memories (how does a rock or a fire remember the experience?) borders on powers displayed by "reality manipulator" species but localized to just their own body mass.

Absolutely love this video and love your defending of ur comments ❤👌😂🖖

I wouldn't mind seeing more science oriented trek actually videos with commentary from that professor.

An alternate theory of why cchangelings make that face that could be a both/and with yours: I thought that the sort of abstract face Odo had was easier than copying a specific human, so my guess has always been that the other changelings were not bothering to put a full face on when they didn't need to because it was less work to imagine a specific solid face to copy and hold for extended interactions where they didn't need to.

I always thought the idea was just that Spock was the first Vulcan to go join Starfleet, hence the first to graduate and become a Starfleet officer. I think that's why there was an Enterprise episode where T'Pol was offered a Starfleet rank if the Vulcan's kicked her out of their military but it didn't .end up happening because, then, Spock wouldn't be the first Vulcan in Starfleet and that was too important a part of Spock's concept.

I think to meet the canon of Spock being the first Vulcan to go to starfleet academy, other Vulcans in Starfleet were commissioned in Starfleet after attending the Vulcan science academy.

About the changeling face thing: my assumption has always been similar to the "real world reason:" changelings have set themselves up as literal GODS. Being recognizable as a member of the GOD RACE is important, so they've collectively decided to go with that particular humanoid form. That it's easier for them to do than to emulate a specific humanoid is a side benefit (and also explains why Odo ended up in a similar form).

I always figured Odo's face looked like that because he 'defaulted' to his species chosen humanoid face whenever he tried to look humanoid.

Hallelujah! BBC America finally started playing Star Trek:DS9! They mostly played TNG, TOS, VOY, but never DS9! Someone herd my cries!

Odo = Daddy with the ability to shift his, um, shape. If anyone needs me, I'll be in my bunk.

Regarding the Founders looking like Odo, I'm sure I remember a line about how they'd chosen that form to honour him in some way? Did I make that up? :p

happy new year :)

For the question where they asked why changelings look like odo does when assuming a humanoid form, I thought maybe another reason was that so they'd look like odo to make him feel more comfortable because nothing else looks like him in that form. I think you made a great point too though

23:28 it's helpful when confronting these people to remember that their mentality is the same that only grudgingly agreed to emancipation in the middle of the 19th century, then immediately got busy creating the KKK and jim crow law and then spreading the cultural myth in every direction it could possibly go, that the recently emancipated people were in fact lazy and lacked social virtue on a fundamental level. Same crowd. Maybe you know this already, but I always love how pitch perfect your response is to these people. Thank you for going for their juggular.

There's a planet (a couple actually) of dragons that are surely technically not dragons. So, they can be griffins. I'm sure magical quadrupeds could go biped if desired. I give that race the family Grypus, the genus gryphem, and species sapiens. Descended from gryphem erectus. the quadrupedal grypus gryps leo are spot on to our griffins of lore and beloved pets... Or so I tell me.

Steve the things you talk about in your star trek makes sense to me. I don't know a lot about many subjects yet your star trek stuff makes sense

Odo meeting people who look like him would have been a huge deal to him. He is always apart from his adopted community and they may have been deliberately whetting his appetite to be part of their society and simultaneously emphasising that he is one of them.