Does Odo have form limitations?

[Farscape One]

Since they show up on scanners and such as exactly what they transform into, I wonder if they are a living representation of the phrase 'I think, therefore I am.'

Odo's lack of changing prowess can be the result of two things. Either because he is still very young compared to other Changelings, or has had VERY minimal contact with the Link. Possibly a combination of the two. Despite this, he said that when you scan him as a rock he shows up AS a rock. Imagine the more gifted Changelings.

I know the Female Changeling said they once had a solid form long ago, and that line always made me think of "The Chase". I still think it's not a coincidence that it's not only the same actress, but the same basic physical appearance. Maybe the Changelings, when appearing as humanoids, subconsciously take that appearance because it was what they looked like originally. But that history is so long ago that the Link forgot.

If true, that means they are the progenitors of most of the galaxy. Which I think would be an interesting story to tell. And quite ironic, in that each type distrusts the other so much.

(I always wondered if anyone at Starfleet ever looked at that recording from "The Chase" and images of Odo and other Changelings and had the same thought.)

 

[publiusr]

Hmm...ties to Voyager’s fluidic space as to where the mass comes from?

 

[Oddish]

And whatever they choose to become, they don't do well when you phaser them.

 

[matthunter]

If Changelings shift their mass into subspace when adopting smaller forms, you'd figure some form of subspace scan could detect them, if only when they shift forms.

Sisko Sr's point about there not being a test devised that you can't cheat is taken, but you'd think blocking a scan would be trickier than faking a blood test, since the former must involve some sort of tech unless the "Founders are gods" shit isn't just rhetoric...

 

[JirinPanthosa]

We know that shapeshifter forms fool tricorders. It's not clear if they have upper or lower boundaries on size. We have never seen Odo try to just be an insect or something, or something gigantic.

 

[at Quark's]

Since they show up on scanners and such as exactly what they transform into, I wonder if they are a living representation of the phrase 'I think, therefore I am.'

Odo's lack of changing prowess can be the result of two things. Either because he is still very young compared to other Changelings, or has had VERY minimal contact with the Link. Possibly a combination of the two. Despite this, he said that when you scan him as a rock he shows up AS a rock. Imagine the more gifted Changelings.

I know the Female Changeling said they once had a solid form long ago, and that line always made me think of "The Chase". I still think it's not a coincidence that it's not only the same actress, but the same basic physical appearance. Maybe the Changelings, when appearing as humanoids, subconsciously take that appearance because it was what they looked like originally. But that history is so long ago that the Link forgot.

If true, that means they are the progenitors of most of the galaxy. Which I think would be an interesting story to tell. And quite ironic, in that each type distrusts the other so much.

(I always wondered if anyone at Starfleet ever looked at that recording from "The Chase" and images of Odo and other Changelings and had the same thought.)

Then the question would be what they had been doing all that time, as that species lived over four billion years ago. That's a whopping chunk of time. The Dominion at best seems only 10 thousand years old or so.

Still, it would have been fun to confront the female changeling after her surrender with those images and interrogate her: "Where were you the night of the 17th on the 18th of august, 4,541,753,281 B.C. ? "

If true, though, in some sense they indeed would be our "gods" as the Vorta claim (or at the very least our creators).

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Of course Odo doesn't have any form limitations. That's why they have Hammerspace!

 

[Farscape One]

Then the question would be what they had been doing all that time, as that species lived over four billion years ago. That's a whopping chunk of time. The Dominion at best seems only 10 thousand years old or so.

Still, it would have been fun to confront the female changeling after her surrender with those images and interrogate her: "Where were you the night of the 17th on the 18th of august, 4,541,753,281 B.C. ? "

If true, though, in some sense they indeed would be our "gods" as the Vorta claim (or at the very least our creators).

What were they doing in all that time?

Evolving into goo, and becoming the Great Link.

The Link seems to be quite seductive to them, if Odo is any indication. It's quite possible they stayed as just a giant lake for 2 billion years without even moving. Time doesn't seem to mean a damn to them.

 

[at Quark's]

Perhaps their link is the equivalent of us playing video games. You can sink a huge amount of time in it and it's very tempting but it's not necessarily time well spent . Perhaps their link is a sign of stagnation and they seem to be content with it. In those 4 billion years they could have grown into literal gods. At least the Q continuum got bored of knowing everything there is to know in time.

 

[Voth commando1]

The Changelings don’t have god like abilities of the Q though?

They can’t teleport, shrink ships, time travel, or create life on demand.

 

[at Quark's]

The Changelings don’t have god like abilities of the Q though?

They can’t teleport, shrink ships, time travel, or create life on demand.

They don't because once they reached their current phase, they were apparently content lying in that goo pool, probably just reminiscing about how awesome they all were, and better than solids and all such, rather than going on. Had they put their mind to it, they might well have gained the level of powers the Q had, as billions of years seem ample of time for that. The Q continuum apparently did achieve this (going by Quinn's statements about the new era in the continuum, rather than by 'our' Q's statements that the Q always had existed as omnipotent beings) and still got bored of it all, in contrast to the Founders. (All of this assuming they really are billions of years old).

 

[Sisko_is_my_captain]

The Millennium novel trilogy used the shunting into subspace theory as a plot point. I recall enjoying those books.

 

[IMC Headquarters]

Odo is also a Bajoran communication badge. With a power source. That makes him part battery. Depending on how much imagination and life force he expends, he could make himself a portable replicator, a phaser, tricorder, jukebox... Maybe even dilithium in a crunch...

 

[Mytran]

Odo is also a Bajoran communication badge. With a power source. That makes him part battery. Depending on how much imagination and life force he expends, he could make himself a portable replicator, a phaser, tricorder, jukebox... Maybe even dilithium in a crunch...

Maybe he just keeps a communicator inside himself and only pops it up near the surface when he assumes humanoid form?

 

[kkt]

Just like the Founders carry a little humanoid blood inside themselves and project it toward the hypo whenever they are undergoing blood screenings...

 

[Odo]

None that I would reveal with Quark lurking out there...

 

[at Quark's]

Quite possibly Odo doesn't even know his own limitations exactly , himself. After all, he's still a very inexperienced shape shifter, who might never even have imagined he wasn't limited to mimicking tangible objects, but could become fog or fire too, till Laas showed him. And Laas is still relatively inexperienced, too (though less so than Odo) - he still has difficulty with faces where the Founders seem to have none.

 

[Farscape One]

That's something I wondered about with Odo and Laas. Neither were part of the Link, and neither can do faces well.

We also never saw a Founder travel in space like Laas did. And given how good they are at shifting, one wonders why we didn't see that more often.

Could the face limitation simply be due to them not being part of the Link, similar to a governor on a car that stops it from going above a certain mph, rather than just being relatively young?

 

[at Quark's]

We also never saw a Founder travel in space like Laas did. And given how good they are at shifting, one wonders why we didn't see that more often.

Perhaps they can't actually go to warp under their own power, limiting the usefulness of it

 

[Farscape One]

Even not being able to warp, that would still have advantages.

Long range, perhaps not much. But within a star system, definitely.