Quodo in Every Episode discussion: "The Alternate"

[chacusha]

This week we're discussing... episode 2x12 "The Alternate"!

Episode synopsis: Following the discovery of an Odo-like lifeform in the Gamma Quadrant, Odo's old handler from the Bajoran Institute of Science comes to the station, stirring up unresolved resentments in Odo about the way he was raised and his relationship with Dr. Mora Pol.

What The Boys are up to in this episode: This is an Odo-centric episode. Quark appears in a long opening scene where Odo confronts him about the authenticity of some desiccated disks of a notable Ferengi when Mora arrives. The rest of the episode is Odo going to the planet, being treated in the infirmary, and then investigating the mysterious disappearance of the collected lifeform and an attack that happens shortly afterward, and transforming into monster Odo, basically.

One screencap from this episode:

"Odo, I'm a victim here!"

Transcript: http://chakoteya.net/DS9/432.htm

Quodo fics tagged with this episode: There are five works tagged with Quodo in the tag. Two of these are already in our masterlist, but I need to check out the other three:
https://archiveofourown.org/works/27608330
https://archiveofourown.org/works/28524270
https://archiveofourown.org/works/42289659
https://archiveofourown.org/works/42308910
https://archiveofourown.org/works/47813875

Tell us:
- What did you think about this episode?
- Have you written a fic set during/after this episode?
- Have you read any of the fics linked above? Let us know if they fit! 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:

- Quodo off to an early start in this episode, lol.

- God, I can write an essay on the interactions between Odo, Quark, and Mora in this opening scene. Well, I already have. Uh... so I actually thought I've written TWO essays on how Odo, Quark, and Mora interact in this one, but I can't find either of them in any of the places I thought I would have posted them, so I guess I'll just rewrite them from scratch below.

- I like how Odo is an EXTREMELY private person and Mora is like doing the equivalent of telling baby stories about Odo to his coworkers lol.

- "I appreciate your thoughts, Commander, but Doctor Mora is not my father." -- Odo is so emotionally constipated. I love it.

- Sisko pajamas again, hell yeah.

- I like how Dax after waking up is behaving so suspiciously. Red herring suspect. Same with the obelisk.

- Damn, Dr. Mora just going into maximum alarmist mode.

- I feel like there are a lot of extras in this episode!

- There's a small bit cut from the script:

(DAX: There's a lot of seismic activity down there... possibly volcanic in origin...)

MORA: That's consistent with the probe's analysis of the area...
ODO: Perhaps that's why the changelings had to leave this world...
MORA: "Changelings?" That's a new one.
ODO: I've met people from the Gamma quadrant who've heard stories of a lifeform...
MORA: (laughs, interrupting, victorious) And you said you weren't interested in our work anymore...
ODO: That's not what I said...
WELD: I think I've located the area where the probe identified the trace elements... I'm picking up the same DNA traces... entering coordinates...

(DAX: Moving into synchronous orbit.)

WELD: (off sensors) Look at these readings, Doctor... I believe there's some kind of artificial structure on the surface...
MORA: (smiles, in anticipation) Is it safe to go down, Lieutenant?
DAX: Surface disturbances are minor... for the moment anyway...
MORA: Let's do it.

Also another scene where Odo pilots the runabout back from the Gamma Quadrant, confirming he's the only one still conscious, but not super interesting (I get why they cut this). Also, another cut scene where Sisko checks in on Jake as he's listening to Klingon opera lol. Also, this minor cut line: "I had to sneak out to my quarters in a hospital gown that wouldn't close in the back... but I met a nice ensign on the way. What did this..."

- Okay, overall, this is one of my favorite episodes! Here's my Odo and Quodo meta why:

Basically, I think a big part of Odo's character is that he is afraid of admitting that he wants things, because admitting you want something that you can't have puts you in a very vulnerable, miserable, pitiable sort of position, which is something Odo wants to avoid at all costs. This is core to his relationships with Kira, Quark, and also Mora; it crops up so many times throughout the series: in "Heart of Stone" where Odo's feelings for Kira make him miserable; in the questions he tends to ask Quark (e.g. in 1x09: "It's good to want things."/"Even things you can't have?"); and then with Mora, the fact that he DOES want to have a father/son relationship with Mora.

I think a lot of people in DS9 fandom seem to (IMO) misunderstand the nature of Odo's relationship with and attitude with Mora. People interpret it as a straightforwardly abusive parent/child relationship, but Odo and Mora's relationship is specifically a *sci-fi* abusive parent/child relationship, where it is important that Odo's status as a lifeform and his capabilities are initially an unprecedented mystery and only become clear after he has developed enough in order to prove these things to other people. For this reason, Mora isn't JUST Odo's dad -- he's also someone who started out as Odo's scientist and in some sense still remains that way.

This has interesting implications for Odo's relationship with Mora because at any time Odo could choose to think of Mora as his scientist and not his dad. In this case, Mora is very clearly someone Odo wouldn't want to spend any time with, but he wouldn't *resent* Mora for failing him the way Odo clearly does. Therefore, because Odo always has the "out" of classifying Mora as his scientist rather than his dad, the fact that he resents Mora at all is itself revealing that Odo implicitly does think Mora is his dad (and a bad one) rather than a scientist (and a decent one). But in order for Odo to openly acknowledge that Mora was a shitty dad, Odo has to also admit that he WANTED Mora to be his dad and this desire was frustrated and thinking about that only makes Odo angry and sad. So Odo treats Mora distantly as a scientist while resenting him as a dad (and constantly telling on himself whenever he is short and annoyed with Mora).

And of course, Mora is the same situation but reversed -- Mora also always has the "out" that he was Odo's scientist and not his dad. And as his scientist he did an impressive job, discovering and cultivating the capabilities of a completely new lifeform. As a dad, though, he was shitty, and the more he leans into his identity and accomplishments as a scientist (where he did well), the harder it is to make reconciliation with Odo as Odo's dad (where he did poorly, and he knows it). Mora is therefore just as reluctant as Odo is to acknowledge that their relationship is familial, because it would mean acknowledging how extensively he failed in that role. But just like Odo's behavior doesn't make sense without an implicit desire for a father/son relationship, neither does Mora's. It's very obvious on his side too that he too wants to have a relationship with Odo / be a part of Odo's life, resents that Odo has cut him off (NOT related to his scientific reputation -- Odo has already done the work of boosting Mora's profile and there isn't really any further benefit he could bring him in that regard), wants to show his pride in Odo's accomplishments qua dad rather than qua scientist (but recognizes that these two things have become intermingled in a way that now makes it hard to untangle them), and is flattered when people mistake him for Odo's dad, but he (like Odo) is too scared to ask for this relationship because it would only result in him coming out in a bad light and having to face how broken his relationship with Odo is.

So it's easier for both of them to pretend they aren't actually parent/child and that's not the source of the bad blood between them.

Now let's bring Quodo into it: What I love about the opening sequence here, where Odo and Quark are doing their whole Thing, and Mora comes in in the middle of it, is that Odo's relationship with Quark is also very much the same as his relationship with Mora. That is to say, there is the outer layer of the relationship, which is what they claim it to be (enemies); then there is the inner layer of the relationship, which is what it actually is (playful game/friends/flirting). However, if either of them were to ever be honest and name their relationship for what it is, it would basically ruin it. By losing their independence from each other, they also lose the value of what the other provides.

I think for example, this scene is interesting because it's the only one I can think of where it's ambiguous whether Odo is persecuting Quark here or helping him. In general, it's often ambiguous how much Quark knows, and when, and whether he's being sincere or not (see, for example, the moment in 6x25 "The Sound of Her Voice" where it's ambiguous whether Quark knows that Odo is eavesdropping on him or not), and this largely serves to protect Quark from being pursued for crimes because he always has plausible deniability he had noooo idea what was going on. But even though that's a recurring aspect of Quark, this is the only episode I can think of where Quark's ambiguous ignorance very explicitly means that Odo digging deeper into the situation with the counterfeit Plegg discs is either (a) him volunteering his time to help Quark recoup his money OR (b) Odo investigating Quark's scam in order to nab him for it. One is very selfless (friends) and the other is mean (enemies), and Quark's ambiguous amount of information makes it so that it's not really clear.

Into this situation, Mora arrives at the bar. I really like this moment because it's Odo's two pretenses crashing into each other: his not!dad walking in on him flirting with his not!love interest. And worst of all: both Mora and Quark instantly name the other's relationship in the way Odo DOESN'T want it named -- Mora immediately gets the impression of Quark as someone Odo is cordial with, a friend who has sincerely nice things to say about him, forcing Odo to do cleanup and undo that impression (which he got because Odo was clearly having so much fun talking with Quark when Mora walked in); meanwhile, Quark also immediately treats Mora as Odo's family and begins immediately to show interest in Mora primarily because of his special relationship to Odo.

So yeah, I think this trait of Odo's, where he tries to avoid vulnerability by covering it with pretense but it just kind of leaks out anyway, is an interesting part of his character, and I feel like takes on Odo that interpret him as not actually wanting a relationship with Mora kind of make me scratch my head in confusion a bit. Like, if Odo were just a normal human, that would make sense, but this is a sci-fi show and Odo isn't a normal person, and so his relationship is this odd combination of father/son and scientist/experiment that bends the mind a bit because it doesn't directly exist in real life, even though it has analogues to real life. For this reason, Odo also reminds me of various mythological/fairy tale/sci-fi beings like Frankenstein's monster, Galatea, Kaguya-hime, etc. -- just an impossible thing to exist but which makes you try to imagine how those beings would experience life and be shaped by their experiences.


Thoughts on the Quodo potential:

Well uh, there are already a lot of fics for this one! I think we're covered. Of the five fics, four clearly counted, and one was borderline because it's in a genderswap AU with several timeline changes because of that, but I thought it referenced this episode enough to count.

Anyway, some other things I feel like you could do with this episode:

- You could have Quark reacting to Odo going all goo monster. It's a bit cliche, but I have a fondness for that trope where a character goes into berserk mode and it's only their best friend/love interest who can bring them back to themselves -- you could certainly do a Quodo plot like that here!

- The obvious thing would be to have a follow-up plot where Odo investigates who is selling counterfeit discs of Plegg and resolve whether Quark was in on it or not. Or maybe his investigation ends up inconclusive.