The nice thing about the timing of the DS9 crew's transition to the "First Contact" uniforms, and the fact that the real Bashir was seen in the older style uniform gives us a rough estimate of how long a Changeling's been impersonating him. Now definitely, any episode from "Rapture", on he's a Changeling, perhaps even further back than that for an episode or two like "The Ascent". (I think any more than that is stretching things, since it was supposedly only four weeks, and if you go by what the Okudas came up with the Chronology, every episode is separated by about two weeks, with the episodes themselves possibly taking up as much as the same time themselves).
Rewatching those episodes with that knowledge puts a spin on things. With regard to the infant Changeling, the DS9 Companion, I believe, included some interview with one of the writers explaining away his lack of attention by the Changeling being aware that the infant couldn't be saved, but does seem like not much effort was made to determine that, let alone bringing it home to its people. (The Female Changeling once told Weyoun that Odo meant more to the Founders than the entire Alpha Quadrant, after all).
But setting all that aside, there's also the issue of the Bashir-Changeling performing brain surgery on Sisko in "Rapture". Obviously, when Changelings replaced Bashir, they couldn't possibly have known which medical procedures Bashir might be called on to do, and therefore, to avoid suspicion, would have to become just as knowledgeable as a Starfleet Officer who graduated second in his class after EIGHT YEARS of medical school. Does the Dominion have some way of implanting that much knowledge into someone in a relatively short amount of time? Do Changelings have eidetic memories?
On top of that, it's interesting that the Bashir-Changeling passed up an opportunity to have Sisko die from some sort of "complications", thereby ridding the Dominion of Starfleet's most troublesome captain, and striking a devastating blow to the morale of the Bajorans. Maybe the plan to destroy the Bajoran sun with a bomb took priority, and the Bashir-Changeling couldn't blow it's cover under any cirmcumstances (assuming, of course, that was it's mission all along. We don't know).
Two sidenotes on this arc:
1) I've read a few things (including the Encyclopedia, I believe), suggesting the bomb was a suicide mission. I don't buy that, mainly for the reason of what the Female Changeling said. Besides which, the runabout could easily outrun the blast, even at warp 1 (of course so could the alliance fleet, which is why the plan never made much sense, along with the question of what that would do to the wormhole, no matter how much stronger it had become).
2) I retrospect, I really wish that "Doctor Bashir, I Presume" was not the first episode to follow the real Bashir's return. It makes no sense that neither Bashir's parents, nor Zimmerman, would've brought up what happened. (Yes, they couldn't brought it up off-screen, but that just seem like a cop out for avoiding something that realistically should've been addressed).
Rewatching those episodes with that knowledge puts a spin on things. With regard to the infant Changeling, the DS9 Companion, I believe, included some interview with one of the writers explaining away his lack of attention by the Changeling being aware that the infant couldn't be saved, but does seem like not much effort was made to determine that, let alone bringing it home to its people. (The Female Changeling once told Weyoun that Odo meant more to the Founders than the entire Alpha Quadrant, after all).
But setting all that aside, there's also the issue of the Bashir-Changeling performing brain surgery on Sisko in "Rapture". Obviously, when Changelings replaced Bashir, they couldn't possibly have known which medical procedures Bashir might be called on to do, and therefore, to avoid suspicion, would have to become just as knowledgeable as a Starfleet Officer who graduated second in his class after EIGHT YEARS of medical school. Does the Dominion have some way of implanting that much knowledge into someone in a relatively short amount of time? Do Changelings have eidetic memories?
On top of that, it's interesting that the Bashir-Changeling passed up an opportunity to have Sisko die from some sort of "complications", thereby ridding the Dominion of Starfleet's most troublesome captain, and striking a devastating blow to the morale of the Bajorans. Maybe the plan to destroy the Bajoran sun with a bomb took priority, and the Bashir-Changeling couldn't blow it's cover under any cirmcumstances (assuming, of course, that was it's mission all along. We don't know).
Two sidenotes on this arc:
1) I've read a few things (including the Encyclopedia, I believe), suggesting the bomb was a suicide mission. I don't buy that, mainly for the reason of what the Female Changeling said. Besides which, the runabout could easily outrun the blast, even at warp 1 (of course so could the alliance fleet, which is why the plan never made much sense, along with the question of what that would do to the wormhole, no matter how much stronger it had become).
2) I retrospect, I really wish that "Doctor Bashir, I Presume" was not the first episode to follow the real Bashir's return. It makes no sense that neither Bashir's parents, nor Zimmerman, would've brought up what happened. (Yes, they couldn't brought it up off-screen, but that just seem like a cop out for avoiding something that realistically should've been addressed).
