“The Alternate” 30th-anniversary reflections

When the Bajoran scientist who first studied Odo—and whose hairstyle the changeling unconsciously adopted—arrives at Deep Space 9 with a potential clue to his origins, their reunion is anything but warm. Dr. Mora Pol's patronizing manner rekindles old resentments, even as his discovery drives them together through the wormhole to investigate a planet in the Gamma Quadrant. What they bring back threatens the station: a mysterious silicate-based life-form that escapes its containment and begins attacking crew members in the night. As Odo leads the investigation, the evidence points in a direction no one anticipated—and the truth forces him to confront the scientist who shaped him, in more ways than one.

In this episode of The Orb, hosts C Bryan Jones and Matthew Rushing continue our 30th-anniversary retrospective that will take you through all of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, one episode at a time. In this installment, we discuss “The Alternate,” how the story fills in Odo's background, explores parent-child relationship, plants seeds for the Dominion, and more.

Chapters

Intro (00:00:00)

Literally Malleable (00:02:53)

Communication through Mirroring (00:06:31)

Father and Son (00:10:34)

The Original Concept (00:18:02)

Jekyll and Hyde (00:24:19)

More Dominion Breadcrumbs (00:26:20)

Final Thoughts and Ratings (00:32:01)

Closing (00:34:43)

Hosts

C Bryan Jones and Matthew Rushing

Production

C Bryan Jones (Editor and Producer) Matthew Rushing (Executive Producer) Norman C. Lao (Associate Producer)