Pretty simple ways to identify changelings

[Trekker09]

It would make sense if all of the 100 infant changelings that were sent throughout the galaxy had to regenerate every so often, and the Founders did not since they were close to the great link and spent much of their time there. It doesn’t really make sense if Odo is the only one of the 100 who has to regenerate.

 

[Kor]

The topic of regeneration never came up with Laas, another of the hundred who had significantly more experience with solidity than Odo. I don't think any others of the hundred were ever encountered during the series (the infant changeling in "The Begotten" might have been one, but it wasn't confirmed). All others of their species who we saw were Founders.

Kor

 

[Crewman6]

The topic of regeneration never came up with Laas, another of the hundred who had significantly more experience with solidity than Odo. I don't think any others of the hundred were ever encountered during the series (the infant changeling in "The Begotten" might have been one, but it wasn't confirmed). All others of their species who we saw were Founders.

Kor

Well, Odo basically confirms that the "baby" in "The Begotten" is one of the 100.

SISKO has joined Odo and Bashir. The goo is now sitting atop a scanner.

SISKO
A baby changeling?

ODO
(nods)
Centuries ago, my people sent a
hundred of us out into the galaxy
so we could learn about other
races. When I was found, I looked
very much like this.

 

[XCV330]

Would be possible for a changeling to mimic digestion by maintaining internal machinery for the task. There was for some years a travelling art exhibit called Cloaca that basically turned donated food into artificial feces. (which was then sold at the gift shop): https://archive.newmuseum.org/exhibitions/385
It was large but a compact version could have been made for a dominion Founder in deep cover.

 

[NewHeavensNewEarth]

Anyway, 7 years is a long time and writer's ideas are going to change over that period, making it up as they go. You'd probably be able to keep it consistent only if you wrote out (and thoroughly checked) the entire arc in advance.

That's really what it comes down to, isn't it? You end up with certain contradictions, like the fact that Sisko was made to be the product of a Prophet mating with his dad. But then in the Mirror Universe, MU Sisko gets killed where nobody's even heard of the Prophets, and he wasn't the Emissary to anybody or anything. (Again, these contradictions are not uncommon in wider Trek, but it's an interesting retrospective on how radically some things changed, rather than simple tweaks here & there.)

Except the change in Rom's characterization, and his voice. Maybe he was replaced by a changeling early on!

Oddly enough, on the finale-to-premiere rewatch, this was something else that really stood out! For Nog, they made enough stepping stones in his story arc to make his Starfleet ambitions/career believable enough. But for Rom, he went straight from xenophobic, chauvinistic, murderous (towards Quark multiple times) and technologically totally incompetent, to being an engineering genius who championed equality, philanthropy and married a non-Ferengi. His voice was drastically different as well, as you mentioned.

 

[Captain Jerk]

For Nog, they made enough stepping stones in his story arc to make his Starfleet ambitions/career believable enough. But for Rom, he went straight from xenophobic, chauvinistic, murderous (towards Quark multiple times) and technologically totally incompetent, to being an engineering genius who championed equality, philanthropy and married a non-Ferengi. His voice was drastically different as well, as you mentioned.

Yup, they changed him from an unlikeable person to someone the audience could root for. From devious and borderline evil, to a genuine sweetheart who both looked and sounded like a big dummy on the outside and yet somehow was a technological genius on inside, essentially making him into the "Rain Man" of DS9, with Quark playing the part of Tom Cruise taking advantage of his smarts from time to time for selfish reasons -- the difference being that Rom is fully aware that Quark uses/abuses him, but he lets him do it because gosh darn it, post-murder-minded Rom is just so darn likeable with a heart of gold.

 

[at Quark's]

I guess the simplest way of all hasn't been mentioned yet.

Just approach them, and ask them 'excuse me sir (madam), but are you a changeling?'

(Perhaps you won't get the most reliable results that way, but it's the simplest way for sure.)

 

[Sisko_is_my_captain]

DR HOOCH: I got a way to identify a changeling. It's foolproof.
JD: How, Hooch?
DR HOOCH: I'm gonna take a finger!
JD (to himself): Man...Hooch is crazy.

 

[kkt]

That's really what it comes down to, isn't it? You end up with certain contradictions, like the fact that Sisko was made to be the product of a Prophet mating with his dad. But then in the Mirror Universe, MU Sisko gets killed where nobody's even heard of the Prophets, and he wasn't the Emissary to anybody or anything. (Again, these contradictions are not uncommon in wider Trek, but it's an interesting retrospective on how radically some things changed, rather than simple tweaks here & there.)


Oddly enough, on the finale-to-premiere rewatch, this was something else that really stood out! For Nog, they made enough stepping stones in his story arc to make his Starfleet ambitions/career believable enough. But for Rom, he went straight from xenophobic, chauvinistic, murderous (towards Quark multiple times) and technologically totally incompetent, to being an engineering genius who championed equality, philanthropy and married a non-Ferengi. His voice was drastically different as well, as you mentioned.

Leeta pushed him into organizing the union, and its success gave him the confidence to leave working at Quark's and go to Engineering. Then he discovered he was really good at engineering, when he didn't have Quark calling him an idiot every two minutes.

 

[publiusr]

Tricorders have probably improved by Lower Decks. By the 32 century they could find The Thing and ALIEN easily as well if not before.

 

[NewHeavensNewEarth]

I guess the simplest way of all hasn't been mentioned yet.

Just approach them, and ask them 'excuse me sir (madam), but are you a changeling?'

(Perhaps you won't get the most reliable results that way, but it's the simplest way for sure.)

I've heard of that happening in real-life spy operations, where someone got caught using their native language in casual conversation when they weren't thinking. Not exactly the same, but made me think of that.