Star Trek: 10 Things We Now Know About The Breen
Green-eyed monster or great big softie? What's beneath the mask of Star Trek's coolest species?
The rumours are contradictory, but it seems the Breen homeworld has finally frozen over. The species is having one hell of a time of it lately; we've learnt more about them in a couple of episodes than we did in entire series. The mask, now redesigned, has fallen.
First introduced in name only in Star Trek: The Next Generation as a kind of "running gag" or "red herring," in the words of Robert Hewitt Wolfe, the Breen went on to become one of the most dastardly, but distinctly least forthcoming species in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. There wasn't more to know about them than they weren't willing to tell. The impenetrable nature of the Breen, wrapped up in the enigma of their 'refrigeration suits,' was somewhat by design in DS9. As the series' executive producer Ira Steven Behr stated in the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion:
We wanted to give these guys something special. I couldn't make them the toughest guys in the galaxy — that's the Jem'Hadar. Or the most arrogant guys — that's the Cardassians. Or the most untrustworthy guys — that's the Vorta. So we decided to make them the most mysterious guys in the galaxy.
Some — a lot — of that mystery has now been lifted with the long-long-awaited reveal of the TWO faces ('solid' and 'fluid') of the Breen through the character of L'ak in Star Trek: Discovery's fifth, and alas, final, season. Nevertheless, the essence of the Breen remains constant, that is, shrouded in secrecy. There's a lot left to learn about them. In that sense, we're all a little green.
10. Not To Be Indiscreet, But May I Have Your Helmet?
Before Kira and Dukat were nabbing kit and kaboodle on Dozaria, the story of the Breen had begun with a mention from Data in the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode The Loss. "Indeed, there are many races that are not empathically detectable. The Breen, the Ferengi, the…," the android would say. Star Trek's most enigmatic species was then nodded to by name again in TNG's Hero Worship, Interface, and in Star Trek: Generations. It was the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode Indiscretion that marked the first appearance of the Breen on screen.
Although, in that episode, Kira and Dukat weren't too shy about stripping a Breen or two down to the bare necessities, not once in all of DS9 (and beyond) did we, the audience, ever get a glimpse beneath the helmet. Kira would make good use of a Breen suit once more in DS9's seventh season, but more on that later.
In reality, and like most things in life, the Breen's ultra-secretive nature was, at least in part, born out of a degree of exhaustion. As executive producer Ira Steven Behr reported in the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion, because Indiscretion had come hot on the heels of episodes involving multi-actor make-up Klingons and Jem'Hadar:
I wasn't really in the mood to come up with a new alien race. So I said, 'Let's not see them. Let's just put them in costume because they normally live in the cold.'
Probably the only reason the Breen (and others) donned the helmet, or the species was used in the first place in Indiscretion, was, according to writer Robert Hewitt Wolfe in the Deep Space Nine Companion, because "we needed bad guys in this particular episode, and we just stuck on the idea to use the Breen."