Star Trek Randomized Rewatch: Broken Link

DS9 "Broken Link"

As a season finale, "Broken Link" doesn't appear to break the budget. It's a character-focused look at Odo facing a reckoning for killing another changeling, an unprecedented act in the species' history. Odo is surreptitiously infected with a virus to draw him out to the Gamma Quadrant in search of a cure from the Founders; the various stages of Odo's sickness are rendered in... extraordinary makeup jobs. At one point Odo's hair looks painted on like a tabletop gaming figurine.

The episode uses Odo as a nexus for his relationships. His infatuation with Kira is addressed briefly. There's a lovely scene with Quark where he sensitively hopes for Odo's safe return without losing face. And there's a lot of material for Odo's friendship with Garak. Friendship is an interesting word for it, considering that about a season ago, Garak agonizingly tortured Odo, but Odo doesn't appear to hold too much of a grudge.

As Garak, Andrew J. Robinson shows the range of the character. He shows Garak's congenial side, his gleefully devious side, and in one showdown with Worf, gives the kind of deranged performance he brought to the Scorpio Killer role in Dirty Harry.

Odo is tried and sentenced in the Great Link of the Founders: he is made a solid, stripped of his shape-shifting abilities. Specifically, he is made human, which seems a bit baffling to me. Why not Bajoran? Odo was raised by Bajorans, his approximation of a humanoid face is based on a Bajoran, and he wears the uniform of the Bajoran militia. To make him human is to equate humanity with solidity, which is an oddly Earth-centric notion.

When Odo identifies Klingon Chancellor Gowron as a changeling duplicate, the even-more-aggressive acts of the Klingon Empire at this point in the show make a lot more sense. But I must question another of the Founders' decisions. If there was a risk of Odo uncovering details of their statecraft, why did the Founders let him go? Now their operation is exposed.

"Broken Link" is a typically effective, though not particularly standout, example of Deep Space Nine's focus on character. 7/10.