10 Star Trek Episodes That Are Beyond Words
3. The Shape Of Trust
When Odo embarks on a mission to nurture a baby changeling, he brings a whole new meaning to the phrase 'shaping a child in his own image'.
The Begotten offers a wonderful story of duality. While Odo is forced to adjust to life as a solid, he has to teach an infant how to be a changeling. And as he confronts the invasive experiments of his own infancy at the hands of Dr Mora, he resolves to bring up the child with patience and compassion instead.
His quest is complicated when Dr Mora shows up to 'help', and he's torn between utilising his expertise and protecting the child from his scientific methods. In the end, Odo allows him to stay as an observer only, but things don't go to plan.
All of Odo's efforts to elicit a response or any sign of understanding are met with nothing. Careful introductions to different shapes, reassuring explanations, patience and understanding- all fruitless. It leads to a reckoning between the doctor and protégé; Odo calling Mora out for the brutal methods he'd inflicted on him, and Mora claiming he'd been under immense pressure for results.
Under threat of Federation interference, Odo relents and allows the doctor to help. But this time, Mora's methods are tempered by Odo's empathy and care, and the changeling finally moves. To Odo's delight, the child reaches out by mimicking his face. A far more advanced result than Mora's previous 'spare the rod, spoil the child' approach.
The Begotten offers a unique take on the struggle to form trust and impart wisdom without an open dialogue. But just as importantly, it allows Odo to come to terms with his upbringing and find some understanding for the man he had resented for so many years...an insight he never could have achieved through a shouting match alone.