One Trek Mind -- A Tip of the Cap to the Breen

“To seek out new life and new civilizations.” The phrase is part of the ethos of all that is Star Trek. Of course, right before it in the opening narration there's the even more famous use of three oft-repeated words: “strange new worlds.”Gene Roddenberry and the original producers of Star Trek were far too polite to cast aspersions on any of our cousins from beyond the farthest star – but what they really were implying was this: weird aliens.

There's a theory that the Breen's alliance with the Dominion is actually more Founder subterfuge. In “In Purgatory's Shadow,” when Garak and Worf come to Internment Camp 371, there is a rather tame Breen there alongside Martok and Dr. Bashir. One could interpret this to mean that this was a high-ranking Breen who, like the others, had a Changeling in its place, bending fate to the Dominions' whim.And that's what's so great about the Breen is that we'll never really know for sure. For those that go deep, David Mack's book from 2010, Zero Sum Game, is a big, fat wet kiss for Breen fans. In it he digs into (non-canon, of course) Breen culture, explaining that the Breen are actually made up of multiple species hailing from the same planet who appear the same to us because of their refrigeration armor. To me, the complete distance with which the Breen is kept from the audience is something of a breath of fresh air, in a way. In Star Trek, no one is all evil. Even the Jem'Hadar, who are BRED to be killing machines, are shown in a light that captures our sympathy. Their dependence on Ketracel-white, it is implied, is all that's keeping them mindless instruments of violence.

Jordan Hoffman is a writer, critic and lapsed filmmaker living in New York City. His work can also be seen on Film.com, ScreenCrush and Badass Digest. On his BLOG, Jordan has reviewed all 727 Trek episodes and films, most of the comics and some of the novels.