Quodo in Every Episode discussion: "Chimera"

[chacusha]

This week we're discussing... episode 7x14 "Chimera"!

Episode synopsis: While traveling through space, Odo encounters a changeling, one of the Hundred who were sent out and have no knowledge of the Founders or the Great Link. By linking with Laas who eschews humanoid civilization, Odo finds himself torn between living a humanoid life with Kira and living a changeling life with Laas.

What The Boys are up to in this episode: This is an Odo-centric episode. He (along with O'Brien) encounters Laas in the opening of this episode, and then in the rest of the episode, he is showing Laas around the station and linking with him, introducing Laas to his friends, debating with Sisko about how the law should treat Laas, talking to Kira about Laas and his feelings of belonging in solid society, etc. Quark has minor appearances in a couple of scenes where he's working in his bar, and then has one detailed conversation with Odo where he explains the origins of humanoids' distrust of changelings.


One screencap from this episode:


Transcript: http://chakoteya.net/DS9/564.htm

Quodo fics tagged with this episode: None (https://archiveofourown.org/works?work_search%5Bsort_column%5D=revised_at&work_search%5Bother_tag_names%5D=Episode%3A+s07e14+Chimera+%28Star+Trek%3A+Deep+Space+Nine%29&work_search%5Bexcluded_tag_names%5D=&work_search%5Bcrossover%5D=&work_search%5Bcomplete%5D=&work_search%5Bwords_from%5D=&work_search%5Bwords_to%5D=&work_search%5Bdate_from%5D=&work_search%5Bdate_to%5D=&work_search%5Bquery%5D=&work_search%5Blanguage_id%5D=&commit=Sort+and+Filter&tag_id=Star+Trek%3A+Deep+Space+Nine)

Tell us:
- What did you think about this episode?
- Have you written a fic set during/after this episode?
- Do you know of any other fics set in or that build off this episode that weren't linked above?
- What do you see as the Quodo potential for this episode?

Anonymous comments are on, so feel free to chime in even if you don't have a Dreamwidth account! If you prefer, we are also available on Discord:
https://discord.gg/VaCnMYvKu6 (18+ proship Quodo Discord - there is a dedicated channel for this event)
https://discord.gg/Htz4crCdCt (general Quodo Discord)
Event info & rules
Fic masterlist

Comments

[chacusha]

Random thoughts:

- This opening scene is one of my favorite O'Brien scenes ("I'll buy them from you."). 😂 It is so perfect. I also love Odo's "fourteen-year-old boy in his first relationship" energy coming out again here, with him being like, "Y-you don't think she'll like it?"

- This episode is interesting -- it's one of my favorites even though I don't like Kira/Odo. But it's a good episode and also specifically a good Kira/Odo episode. This episode really develops their relationship, and the ending gives me feels. I think what appeals to me most about it, though, is the metaphor for being an assimilating changeling here with being in the closet. Linking is a sci-fi mechanic described as very intimate and also somewhat comparable to sex, and it's something that Laas and Odo (two male changelings) do in this episode multiple times; you can read some jealousy or insecurity in Kira's reaction when she finds out ("It's a little more personal than talking, isn't it?"); and then there's Quark's comments about it not being a good time for a "changeling pride demonstration" on the Promenade...

- I've always wondered what the title of this episode is meant to be referring to. I looked up the info about this episode in the DS9 Companion and it came through!

The name of the episode, "Chimera," reflected Laas's contention about the impossibility of racial harmony. The term, from Greek mythology, carries two meanings: "an imaginary monster" and "an unattainable dream." Echevarria felt the second meaning fit the love story between Odo and Kira. "In my first draft, the possibility of Kira and Odo really coming together was somewhat unattainable," Echevarria says. "That part changed, but I kept the title."

As for the imaginary monster, the episode begins with Laas appearing as a fishlike life-form, swimming though [sic] space. To save on the budget, they considered reusing some footage of the whalelike life-form that appeared in the Voyager episode "Elogium." in the end, however, Senior Illustrator John Eaves created a new design, which was then rendered in CGI.

- Also from the DS9 Companion:

The story that the writers broke was very heady, notes Echevarria. It was also very wrong. "It was this strange thing where Odo decides that humans are all a bunch of racists, or species-ists, and Sisko and the others keep denying it and denying it. Finally, Odo decides to go off with this other changeling out of anger. But Sisko goes, 'Okay, dammit, you're right. We are. We can't help it. Human nature is what it is -- we shrink from what is 'other.' And somehow" -- Echevarria laughs -- "Sisko's honesty makes Odo stay. It was preposterous! We threw it out, except for some of Sisko's dialogue, which was recycled as Quark's speech to Odo. After that, I reenvisioned the story as much more of a triangle. It ultimately became an exploration of Odo and Kira's relationship."

Of course, any discussion of a couple's relationship has to include the nature of their sex life. "In the first draft, there was a scene between Odo and Kira, who were in bed together," continues Echevarria. "There was tension between them, because this changeling guy had been around. So they've had an argument, and she's saying, 'Oh, yeah? Well you know what it's like sleeping next to you? You're like a cold fish -- you have no body temperature.'" Echevarria begins to laugh. "I don't know where I was going with that. My initial feeling was that Odo was able to mimic the human form, so he was able to please Kira. But on a different level, she couldn't really enjoy it because she knew that he couldn't enjoy it the way a human would. He was just performing for her, and she didn't get the satisfaction of giving him pleasure. I did call both Rene [Auberjonois] and Nana [Visitor] separately and talked to them about their characters, and how they envisioned their sex life -- which was pretty hilarious. But ultimately there was no way to talk about any of that on a family television show, so all of it fell by the wayside. Later I realized that I'd had it all wrong, that really Kira was unable to give Odo something that was so natural to him. She couldn't share with him in the way that he's capable of sharing, by linking. It's a different kind of intimacy."

Man, I have a lot of thoughts on this! First of all, I agree that initial concept sucks... but also that this episode really improved! All the changes mentioned here worked REALLY well, so I'm glad they kept reworking this until we got what we got. Second, I feel like this episode really inspired my thoughts on how a dysfunctional Kira/Odo relationship would look like. Namely, I think Kira isn't a particularly adventurous person and Odo would be very sensitive about that and there would be this tension where Odo doesn't really feel seen by Kira but would be pretending that he's OK with that because he's very fearful about losing Kira, and so Kira can't actually get closer to him because he won't let her in. Anyway, I feel kind of validated that the initial concept echoes my thoughts here, and I think came out in the episode itself, even if these exact scenes weren't there. Third, this partly solves a mystery for me regarding Quark's conversation with Odo in this episode. He inherited Sisko's "rather than denying whether humanoids are racist against Changelings, I'm just going to be real with you" role here. But I always thought it was a bit bizarre because everything you know about the way Quark behaves around Odo is that he just doesn't mind Odo being a shapeshifter at all. So I always thought it was incredibly bizarre and just not believable to have Quark be the one trying to stuff Odo back in the closet here. I get that Quark is doing that thing where he's being quite mean to Odo as a way to cover up that he's actually really scared for him (and the script does confirm this ("Quark has an agenda here -- he's worried for Odo, but he's not about to come out and say so.")) but I still find it a very strange choice.

- This is also interesting (regarding the intimate moment between Kira and Odo, when he turns into light):

"At first the producers wanted to have Odo on the sofa, and when he turns to goo, Kira would snuggle into it, " Stipes says with a frown. "Everyone thought, 'Ugh. That sounds disgusting.' Then they decided to have snow fall on her. Well, that sure sounded warm and reassuring!" he laughs. "Nobody knew what the heck to do. Finally I was talking to my wife, Patricia, and she recounted the story of how she'd first seen the aurora borealis up in Michigan. She said she couldn't believe how beautiful it had been."

I always thought this was an odd (but lovely) choice, because we've never actually seen Odo turn into light before. It makes sense, though, that it was the result of struggling to come up with something Odo/inhuman enough that it would feel like Odo is showing his real self to Kira but also wanting it to visually look nice and establish the right tone.

- There are also some fascinating notes here about why they asked J. G. Hertzler (AKA Martok) to also do Laas's role here and also how Hertzler decided to act Laas (he went for a kind of William Shatner impression omg XD). And the dangling plot thread of did Laas get the changeling virus (because at this point, the writers didn't know that Odo was also infected, so it was a bit of a retroactive oopsie).

Anyway, this is one of my favorite episodes, and part of that is because Laas is a great character. I like how he has this very different perspective from Odo that challenges Odo, and even at the end, he doesn't budge on it.


Thoughts on Quodo potential:

- I definitely think that you could write something where Odo takes Quark's speech to him really hard. It is kinda a betrayal for Quark -- someone who is the most casual about Odo being a shapeshifter and has probably seen Odo shapeshift the most and is very used to it, and also someone who Odo has revealed a lot of private information regarding his Changeling physiology to -- to suddenly reverse that and tell Odo that people only tolerate him because he hides his Changeling-ness and that it would be a bad idea for Odo to turn into goo around his intimate partners and such.

-- ...Also... does anyone else feel like Quark is way overcompensating with that whole "Who wants to see somebody turn into goo? I hope you don't do that around Kira. If she's anything like me, she'd rather you didn't" bit? I mean, maybe I am too Quodo brained but it just seems sooo out of character to me -- you just KNOW that Quark desperately wants that goo. XD I think he doth protest too much!

- In general, I just feel like there's plenty of places to insert more Quark/Odo interaction in this episode. Quark and Odo discussing Laas, Quark reacting to Odo linking with Laas, Odo confiding some of his doubts and indecision with Quark, Quark reacting to Odo possibly leaving the station and him ending up staying, etc.

- Or write what this episode plot would have looked like if Quark and Odo were in a relationship instead of Odo and Kira, and Odo was considering going off with Laas?