DS9: The Begotten

Once upon a time some crazy ass changelings shot a hundred gooey babies into space and said, "Welp, that's done. Shall we go conquer some folks?" One of those little puddles happened into Bajoran space and was found by a Bajoran scientist during the Cardassian occupation. The Bajoran scientist--once figuring out the goo was a life form--raised him and experimented on him and called him Odo.  The process was all trial and error and Odo grew to feel lots of complex emotions toward his caretaker, Doctor Mora.

Catching up with DS9, we find Odo as an adult buying a tiny gooey baby of his own from Quark. (For the record, this is the SECOND alien baby Quark has bought/sold in the series) Odo, with permission from Sisko, starts raising up the teensy changeling when Dr. Mora shows up on the station with his own opinions about changeling child rearing. Of course, this makes Odo experience all kinds of old feelings and they start arguing.

In lots of ways, I understand what Odo's going through. He came along when Dr. Mora had no idea what to do with a baby changeling. Mora was discovering all this new stuff and trying to advance his field and he made a lot (read: A LOT) of mistakes but Odo didn't die. He made it. He was just the practice kid. And so was I.

My parents didn't give me electroshocks or check my volume every hour or whatever. They were just young and silly and when they had more kids much later they were somewhat different people and so was I.  As an adult, watching my parents raise their younger children, it's sometimes challenging to see the ways they've changed and the ways they haven't. Like Odo, my feelings about my childhood are numerous and complex and watching this episode recalled a lot of that for me.

Of course, this is also a very well-written, well-done episode and for those reasons alone, it's pretty powerful. The Begotten accomplishes many things in forty-five minutes. It deepens Odo's relationship with his adoptive father, it helps him deal with who he is and who he has become, and it strengthens his relationship with Kira who, by the way, goes into labor with the O'Brien baby. I won't give anymore away but you should check it out because The Begotten is definitely worth a watch.