Line #14 Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS05E12TheBegotten


1	[[quoteright:346:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/mv5bmzqzzthkmgutnjvjnc00n2y4lwe0mdctzjawzjrmnda1ntqzxkeyxkfqcgdeqxvymtawmdk1mjm_v1_sy265_sx346_al.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:346:Odo and his new "Baby"]]
3	Odo visits Sick Bay with a sore back, since he's still not used to having a spine. After he receives treatment, Quark approaches him with some merchandise: a sick, infant changeling. Odo is entranced. The changeling has been hit with tetryon radiation, but Bashir treats it back to almost perfect health. Odo convinces Sisko to let him raise the changeling, arguing that caring for the infant can give the Federation intel on the species and prove to the Founders that they are a peaceful people. Sisko suggests that Odo recruit his own surrogate father, Dr. Mora, but Odo dismisses the idea.
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5	Meanwhile, Kira is almost ready to give birth. Bajorans require absolute calm to deliver, so Keiko and O'Brien awkwardly help the birthing ceremony by playing calming music. Shakaar is late to arrive, however, which gives Kira so much stress that her body delays the birth. This is the start of some friction between Shakaar and O'Brien, who both jockey for the role of the father figure.
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7	Odo resolves not to use the harsh tactics inflicted on him by Dr. Mora to teach his young changeling how to shapeshift. He gives it a tour of the station and talks to it constantly, but he's dismayed when Dr. Mora arrives on the station eager to help anyway. Odo angrily accuses Mora of being a cruel father figure, but Mora defends himself, saying that he used the only techniques he had available. He convinces Odo to let him stay and supply his knowledge while Odo attempts his gentler approach. However, Odo's style yields no results, and Sisko warns them that the Federation will take over the project if Odo makes no progress. Odo is forced to start integrating Mora's sharper methods.
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9	The new methods work, and soon the changeling is learning to move and form shapes to avoid electrostatic. After one experiment, the changeling reaches out unprovoked and forms an imitation of Odo's face. Odo and Mora are both overcome with joy. Mora admits that Odo's gentler approach has allowed him to form a connection with the infant that Odo never felt for him. However, Odo admits that without Mora's tutelage, he'd still be sitting on a shelf somewhere. They reconcile and resolve to celebrate.
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11	While Odo is getting drunk, he's called back to Sick Bay. The changeling's radiation poisoning was never fully healed, and it's now dying. Distraught, Odo takes the dying changeling into his hands, and his body suddenly absorbs it. Odo instrictively realizes that his body has changed, and he shapeshifts into a bird. His abilities are restored.
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13	Meanwhile, O'Brien and Shakaar's squabbling get them kicked out of the birthing chamber, but they're invited back in just in time to witness Kira give birth to the O'Briens' new son, Kirayoshi.
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15	As they part ways, Mora tells Odo to think of his restored abilities as a gift. They also resolve to see more of each other in the future. As Odo walks away, he crosses paths with Kira, who admits that it was hard to give up the child she reared. Commiserating their similar losses, the pair share a walk around the station.
16	----
17	!Tropes
18	* BirthDeathJuxtaposition: One baby dies, another one is born.
19	* BittersweetEnding: The baby Changeling dies, but it merges with Odo and restores his powers, and through raising it Odo and Mora Pol manage to mend their relationship. The O'Briens' new baby is born, but Kira is saddened to not have a child of her own to hold.
20	* BothSidesHaveAPoint: Both Odo and Mora Pol ultimately are shown to have points in their arguments regarding raising the changeling. Eventually they merge both approaches and obtain better results than either of their extremes.
21	* ContinuityNod: O'Brien's absence during [[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS5E5Disaster Molly's birth]] is referenced.
22	* DeathOfAChild: This episode contains the death of a ''baby''.
23	* EyeTake: Worf asks Odo why he is "talking to [his] beverage". Odo happily replies that it's not a beverage but a baby changeling, then walks off, leaving Worf to glare suspiciously at his prune juice.
24	* GetOut: When Miles and Shakaar start bickering the second time she's in labor, Kira tells them to leave. The midwife and Keiko back her up, but let them back in when Kirayoshi is about to emerge.
25	* HardWorkMontage: Odo showing the infant changeling various shapes.
26	* IDidWhatIHadToDo: Mora Pol has always insisted on this as the justification for his methods of testing and training Odo. In this episode Odo is forced to reexamine his previous dismissal of that, as Sisko informs him that unless he begins to yield tangible results with the baby changeling, Starfleet will likely take it away to study themselves. Pol tells Odo that he was faced with much the same dilemma, and was just as desperate to keep Odo away from researchers who wouldn't ''care'' about him.
27	* NeverMyFault: For much of the episode, Mora is unsympathetic towards Odo and says that the fact that Odo "is standing here whining about it" is proof that Mora was right. After the Changeling imitates Odo, however, Mora does admit he was mistaken.
28	* OffTheShelfFX: When Odo is training the infant changeling, it mimic's Odo's face. The producers ran into a problem, as there was no money left in the budget for CGI effects. (The part that we see with the changeling in the petri dish was already filmed and set for CGI processing) One of the producers got a brainstorm, took a length of pantyhose, put it over his hand, and poured the physical goop representing the non-CGI changeling over it, and had the scene shot, with his hand in the foreground blurred (hiding the defects), and René Auberjonois and James Sloyan (Mora) reacting to it. It saved them money, and was easy to create.
29	* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: Quark is suspicious of Odo being chummy with him, as it ''usually'' means that Odo wants something from him, like a confession. It takes him a while to accept that Odo, for once, is ''genuinely'' happy.
30	* OpenMindedParent[=/=]EducationMama: Odo and Mora basically become this. Odo, the open-minded one who doesn't want to push his baby blob too hard. And Mora, the guy who'd rather use tests to get the baby moving.
31	* OpposeWhatYouSuffered: When Odo himself was an infant, he was treated as a mere lab specimen and even subjected to painful experiments before he could convince the scientists he was self-aware, and now he works hard to protect the infant changeling from suffering the same fate, refusing to allow even the man whose experiments helped Odo gain control over his own shapeshifting abilities in the first place to help. Instead, Odo chooses to raise the infant shapeshifter in a very gentle, nurturing manner. Eventually, however, the scientist who raised Odo demonstrates that raising an infant may also require a bit of ToughLove on occasion when Odo's progress hits a wall.
32	* PetTheDog: A subtle one for Quark. He probably could have sold the baby Changeling, even if it was actually dead, to Starfleet for a ton more money, but instead he sells it to Odo for a relatively cheap price.
33	* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech:
34	-->'''Mora Pol:''' If it wasn't for me, you'd still be sitting on a shelf somewhere in a beaker labeled 'unknown sample.'\
35	'''Odo:''' If it wasn't for me, you'd be a nobody. Starfleet wouldn't hire you to judge a science fair!
36	* ResetButton: It's hit in a particularly cruel way by having the baby changeling merge itself into Odo as it's dying.
37	* RightOutOfMyClothes: When Odo becomes a changeling again, he morphs into a hawk, leaving his uniform in a pile on the Promenade.
38	* StatusQuoIsGod: Odo is back to his old shapeshifting self.
39	* SurpassedTheTeacher: Odo hopes that the baby changeling will be a better shapeshifter than he is.
40	-->'''Odo:''' I was never a very good shape-shifter. If you could see the face I'm stuck with, you'd know what I mean, but I think I can be a good teacher. You'll be better than I ever was.
41	* TemptingFate: Odo tells the baby Changeling that he'll never treat it the way he was treated. Seconds later, Dr. Mora walks in.
42	* TookALevelInJerkass: Shakaar, who believes that his status as Kira's boyfriend outranks O'Brien's status as ''the baby's father''.
43	* TransformationExhilaration: Among Odo's earliest lessons for the baby Changeling is that shapeshifting itself is fun, and he recalls that he found learning how to become simple geometric shapes "immensely rewarding" when he was young. Later in the same episode, the baby is able to restore Odo's powers, prompting him to spontaneously transform into a hawk, soar across the Promenade, and change back with an expression of pure, jubilant bliss on his face... one that quickly turns to sorrow as he realizes that he only regained his powers because the baby was dying and wanted to help him in its final moments.
44	* StarfishAliens: A reminder that Changelings are this. You have to admire Rene Auberjonois' ability to act with such convincing emotion towards a glass of corn syrup.

Context Recap / StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS05E12TheBegotten