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Are the shapeshifters on the rogue planet actually the Changelings that create the Dominion?

Seems a big coincidence to have two rogue planets with shapeshifters on them.

2 Answers 2

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The Changelings were from the Gamma Quadrant, so far away that without the conveniently placed Bajoran Wormhole they never would have interacted with the Alpha Quadrant (where the Federation, Klingons, Cardassians, Romulans, etc. all are). The Enterprise (NX-01) had only a Warp 5 engine, which would make the travel time to Gamma Quadrant on the order of several centuries at least.

In short, there is no way the planets could be the same because the Changeling planet was tens of thousands of light-years away from the parts of the galaxy that the Enterprise had access to.

Also, it's not really much of a coincidence. There are a lot of shapeshifters in Star Trek, and rogue planets are thought to be very common in the galaxy.

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    But both coming from a rogue planet with the same immunity to scanners ? Maybe the whole planet went through the worm hole ! Commented May 5, 2013 at 22:42
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    The Dominion has existed for 2000 years, which puts its founding at the 4th century at the latest. Considering that the shapeshifters on that planet were pretty defenseless technologically, they probably aren't part of the dominion. Commented May 5, 2013 at 22:52
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    @user1450877 There is also no guarantee that the first planet we see the Founders on was their original planet.
    – Xantec
    Commented May 6, 2013 at 18:41
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    @Xantec Most likely it isn't, there was a broken-down monument identical to the one on the Founder planet, found on another planet prior to discovering the Founders.
    – Izkata
    Commented May 6, 2013 at 23:30
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The wraiths of Dakala are clearly not the same species as the founders. For one, the wraiths have a completely different culture from the founders. They are indigenous to Dakala and appear to use no technology and have no ability or desire for space travel. They also don't have the great link or the natural tendency to revert to any type of liquid state. In fact, their natural form resembles a sort of slug: a wraith in her natural flat-slug-like form, standing upright

versus:

Odo and female founder linking, their heads in their stereotypical changeling humanoid form while their bodies are turning into liquid

Similarly, the founders don't have telepathic abilities (they can communicate nonverbally through the link, but they can't read others' thoughts directly), and they live very differently from the wraiths, whom have a much more nonhumanoid/alien intelligence than the founders (despite all their rhetoric about how they're not humanoids and the drop becomes the ocean, blah blah blah...). In fact, it's not even clear that the wraith which contacted Archer actually spoke to him in audible words or if it were just telepathic.

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