Star Trek: 10 Things We Now Know About The Breen

the rumors are contradictory but it seems the Breen home world has frozen over the species is having one hell of a time of it recently we've learned more about them in the last few episodes than we did in the entire run of Deep Space 9 The Mask now redesigned has fallen first introduced in name only in Star Tre the Next Generation the Breen were something of a running gag or a red herring according to writer Robert huitt wolf but they would go on to become one of the most Dastardly and least forthcoming aliens of Star Trek e space 9 there wasn't more to know about them than they were willing to tell their Enigma was wrapped up in their Refrigeration suits which was at least in Deep Space 9 by Design as the series executive producer Iris Steven bear stated in the star Tre Deep Space 9 companion we wanted to give these guys something special I couldn't make them the toughest guys in the Galaxy that's the jadar or the most arrogant guys that's the Kardashians or the most untrustworthy guys that's the vorta so we decided to make them the most mysterious guys in the Galaxy some a lot of the mystery has finally been revealed with the showcasing of the two-faced brein I.E solid and fluid VI the character of luck in starri discovery's fifth and final season nevertheless the essence of the Breen remains shrouded in mystery with that in mind I'm Sean feric for Tre culture and here are 10 things we now know about the brain number 10 not to be Indiscreet but may I have your helmet before Kira and Dukat were nabbing kit and Kaboodle on doara the Breen were introduced to Star Trek in the episode the loss by a mention by data indeed there are many races that are not emphatically detectable the Breen the fangi the the Android would say Star Trek's most enigmatic race would then be nodded to again in the episode hero worship again in interface and in Star Trek generations it was the Star Trek Deep Space 9 episode in discretion that marked the Breen's debut appearance on screen although in that episode Kira and Duos made short time about kidnapping and stripping down a couple of Breen though we would still as an audience not be treated to their lovely faces in that episode nor again when Kira would take a Breen uniform later on in the show's seventh season but more on that later in reality and like most things in life the Breen's enigmatic nature was born out of exhaustion this according to executive producer Ira Steven bear in the star Duty space9 Companion was partly because the episode indiscretion came on the heels of multiactor makeup episodes like the way of the warrior I wasn't really in the mood to come up with a new alien race so I said let's not see them let's put them in costume because they normally live in the cold probably the only reason the Breen initially dawned the helmet or that they were in indiscretion at all according to Robert hu wolf was simply because we needed a bad guy in this episode so we just choked the brain in there number nine the mechanics of mechanical nursery rhymes until recently the brain have always spoken well Breen and their tiny shrillness was never translated for the the viewer with the right adjustments to the universal translator so that it could handle the syntax Breen language could be understood by characters on screen those characters would then reply in normal Federation standard which would sometimes lead to a couple of funny back and forths like in the Kardashian war room on kardashia prime it appears to be a simple Breen nursery rhyme Odo says via holographic transmission to Captain Cisco on the defi engine for the uniform it's a heterophonic feline verse he continues metrical analysis shows an alternating tetrameter and pentameter structure we might have different definitions of simple Odo odo's poetry verse was actually the first time we heard Breen spoken on screen if you don't count the grunting and possible death rattles of the guards that Kira and Dukat took on when it came to the iconic Breen sound which would feature prominently in stared Deep Space 9 Iris Steven bear stated that they decided to give the species voices that really great on the audience like Lou Reed's metal Machine music album which is basically two hours of feedback guaranteed to drive you insane in fact beay instructed the sound design team to listen to that album while creating the brain noise it's worth noting that in Star space 9's Fifth Season luck has predominantly spoken Federation standard to let's be honest give our ears a bit of a break for the very first time in the episode erga we hear Vance and Burnham listening to the universal translator translating Breen into Federation standard as they listen to the warning from the approaching Breen dreadn later when Primark run appears via giant holographic head he is speaking in his natural tongue but someone is translating in Federation HQ when run beams into Federation HQ he speaks in his natural tongue and has one of his underlings translate although president Torina displays that she knows full well what run was really saying prompting the Primark to switch a federation standard the rest that we know about the brein language is pretty much all nursery rhymes and metal machines number eight see how they run the Star Trek Deep Space 9 Episode by inferno's light introduced us to the Romulan saying never turn your back on a Breen that the romulans and the gem Hadar learned the hard way during the Second Empire according to Warf until death dos part the Klingons sent a fleet of ships to Breen space to conquer their home world and they were never heard from again in fact many Alpha quadrant races would end up on the run from the Breen as they entered as a late stage belligerent in the Dominion War news is always is the most chilly when it must be delivered matter of factly we have received a priority one message from Starfleet command the Breen have attacked Earth Colonel Kira delivers the news to Cisco over the intercom and our worlds were turned upside down this was our true introduction to the Breen as part of the Dominion War as dominion allies leaving much of San Francisco and the Golden Gate Bridge as a smoldering wreck if they'd been on better terms at that time perhaps the Klingons would have been Green With Envy the Breen followed that up with a devastating assault on Federation forces in the Chinta system this was a deadly attack for the defiant and in total 311 Federation Klingon and Romulan ships that were destroyed having had all of their energy removed via the brein energy dissipating weapon the target vessels were almost immediately drained of power save for one Klingon ship the katang leaving the crews to limp home in Escape pods completely demoralized the Breen Interceptor used in that and several more episodes was designed by the legendary John E he had received a brief that the ship should be asymmetrical which he delivered in Spades we've also learned from Tuvok in the episode scorpion that Breen ships are at least part organic data even suggested that Breen ships had cloaking technology as well back in the Next Generation if the 24th century bre ships weren't enough for you we've now been introduced as well to the massive Breen dreadn vessel that arrived at Federation HQ in the episode ERA this is also the same massive vessel that was shown to have destroyed Federation HQ in a possible future in the episode of Face the strange number seven ConEd con flab Imperium aside from the face reveal and the fact that they all have that one Uncle we've learned a lot about the Breen in SRA discovery's fifth season in the 24th century the Breen Were A Confederacy who did the odd deal with fangi and then tried to take over the alpha quadrant by the 32nd Century though thanks to president Arena's information in red directive we discover that the brein have formed an Imperium and are frankly a pain in the neck to all surrounding species from the episode ARA we realized that the Breen Imperium is now made up of several Waring primar who are battling for control over the Empire after the death of the emperor president Arena reveals that there had been no official contact with the Breen since before the burn and of course Vance revealed that the last time the brein entered Federation space it had been a disaster for the Federation as Tilly said they came in and destroyed an entire city in mirrors primar run confirmed the infighting when he was chastising lack for spending his time with Maul that is of course the episode in which we learned that lack was of royal descent VI an Insignia on his belt although he was not in good favor having been demoted to shuttle Bay duty of course in face the strange in that possible future we discovered that the Breen had managed to overcome Federation HQ and presumably the rest of Starfleet as well rer Burnham and Zora were not exactly thrilled by this as Rainer realized that the Breen must have been Maron Lock's highest biders and just in case you weren't sure that the brein weren't exactly friendly in ER ago we realized that the Breen had once used kerin as a musicians resupply Hub basically devastating the planet just to make their travel through the cosmos A little bit handier Rainer not a fan number six see how they Rune what's ARA got to do with it one question finally came to a close in the episode mirrors when Burnham realizes having heard the word ARA that lock must be Breen and seeing as we managed to see what was under a Breen's helmet and survive the real discussion can begin and era is a Breen blood Bounty they're after you aren't they Burnham asks Lo and Maul as they stand on the ISS in mirrors now that we know that the Imperium and that one really angry uncle are after Mal unlock we also know by the episode era that run isn't the only one who's probably after lock because holding lock means holding the Scion of the emperor in your pal in the final flashback in mirrors we see that the ARA is placed on lock and Maul after luck shoots two of his compatriot Breen guards and then also his really annoying Uncle all in the name of helping Maul Escape an aroga is impossible to lift they'll never stop hunting me lock tells Maul before he's convinced to go on the run with her they then hope that billions of years old progenitor Tech will be enough to buy their freedom which is let's be real probably not the strangest thing we've heard in Star Trek in the last couple of weeks let alone anything else it turns out in the episode era when burnam really figures it out who lock is that Lo is a direct descendant of the deceased Emperor and without him run has a much weaker claim to the throne as Burnham says this was never about lock this was about power number five brain there done that after Deep Space 9 and before starter Discovery the Breen appeared on our screens only two more times one of those times was in holographic form as one of the heroin's creation in the Voyager episode Flesh and Blood the inid class shape had had effectively skipped the entire Dominion War by being stranded in the Delta quadrant so the audience had probably seen far more of the Breen than the crew of Voyager had at that stage the Breen were introduced on screen in late 1995 whereas Voyager was flung to the Delta quadrant in early 1995 I'm of course speaking in our calendar here that's not continuity breaking or anything it just it's a bit like kind of keep everything in track because Voyager starts in 2371 whereas that episode of Deep Space 9 is in 2372 re Inception the Breen's second appearance outside Deep Space 9 was in the Star Trek lower decks episode trusted sources where the Cali class beams several people down to Brea only to be ambushed by the Breen with a California class being ambushed by three Breen interceptors in space a while before the Breen's third post DS9 appearance in 2018 effects department head Glenn hetrick took part in a Facebook live with his colleague Neville pagee in reply to a fan question hetrick stated the following I want the Breen to eventually be in Discovery too I want to get one of those Refrigeration suits off and see what the brain looked like it seems they've brein on the brain for some time number four txus Factor the sequel unless they had their eyes closed the whole time Kira and Dukat must have seen what the brain looked like when they took their uniforms in indiscretion and Kira doubly so when she took another brain uniform in what you leave behind according to Warf however until death do its part no one has ever seen what's under a Breen's helmet and lived in the DS9 companion book Ronald D Moore stated that really that's just just one of those continuity things that slipped through the cracks there was so much going on at the time Iris Steven bear on the other hand gave a surprising more in Universe justification there's nothing in those helmets or maybe there's a little slug some tiny little creature in there I never wanted them to be humanoid in any way or we could go with first assisant director Lou Race's explanation I always figured they must look like Donald Duck you know because of the beak thankfully none of those options came to pass and you couldn't ask for a more enthusiastic first face of the brain than Elias txus texus is a lifelong Star Trek fan so his unfettered enthusiasm seeps through his performance in an interview with Cinema Blends Mike Joost he explained the feeling upon seeing the concept art for lock for the first time I said what is he and they said oh he's going to be a Breen and I was like Breen don't take their helmets off that was the first thing I said that's how much of a nerd I am are you telling me I'm going to be the first Breen that takes his helmet off txus has made Star Trek history and he's just as excited as the rest of us would be L level unlocked number three suits you too before lock no Breen had ever not been suited and booted on screen in Star Trek the DS9 companion suggested that the original design for the Breen assumed that they would be a snouted species a bit like an arctic fox the headpiece then would allow space for a muzzle now whilst they were visually impressive the costumes did provide several issues for the poor actors stuck inside them as assistant director BC Cameron stated in the DS9 companion the problem was the people in the costumes cannot see they cannot breathe they're wearing big clumsy boots and their outfits are layered like an armadillo making it very hard for them to move some of these restrictions caused unintentionally comedic moments like for example in the episode strange bed fellows when Breen performer Wade Kelly couldn't see walked into a wall and tripped over the edge of a doorway they made us sound a bit like the Tin Man falling over in The Wizard of Ozz quipped director Renee auberjonois over time the refrigeration suits have been streamlined gone now is the extended mouthpiece as we know that underneath them there is a flatter face there although what remains is the iconic green eyepiece across the top now that we've seen what's underneath the brein helmet we can start to wonder what the bloody hell they need those Refrigeration suits for to begin with we are slowly getting some answers number two cold day in xenobiology 101 even in the 32nd Century there can't be much under the entry Breen in Dr mco's revised and revised and revised and revised comparative alien physi ol ology textbook after all Captain Burnham was surprised to hear of Lock's Breen Origins and no one else in Starfleet seemed to recognize him as a Breen either what we do know about brain physiology we've pieced together along the way aside from data's Revelation that they are not empathically detectable in the Next Generation we discovered via Basher the real one not the changing one in in purgatory shadow that the brein or at least that brain in captivity have no blood in the 32nd Century in the episode mirrors when luck is impaled in the ISS Sick Bay he does seem to I'm going to use the word bleed for a second but we just don't know that it's blood is this something that only becomes apparent when the brain takes solid form furthermore Burnham's translation of blood Bounty may have been a sort of a loose approximation of the word and then later on in ARA the doctor does state that locks O2 saturation levels are dropping in humans anyway that means blood and in the same episode Primark run states that the only payment for a blood Bounty is blood Dr colber admitted the federation's ignorance on the matter but we did learn that brain physiology is reactive to Tri cordrazine so more hopped up than McCoy hopping through the guardian of forever lack let's say he takes a little bit too much in this episode one of the most enduring things about brein physiology is the everpresent refrigeration suits as mentioned earlier Iris Steven Bear's rationale for this was that the species lived in the cold if anyone knows how to keep things cold it's the Breen Cisco would say in for the uniform whereas that relative certainty was offended by a certain little vorta later on in the episode The Changing face of evil wayon has the following exchange with Demar I'm sure you've read the intelligence reports that say their home world is a frozen Wasteland well it's not the climate on their planet is quite comfortable then why do they wear Refrigeration suits they won't say they're full of surprises that they most definitely are from ARA Dr colber goes at least partially away toward explaining why the brein use these Refrigeration suits Dr colber having done a deep dive into Dominion era medical research discovered some evidence that the Breen are capable of sematic cell regeneration in extreme cold colber also located a Breen refrigeration unit in storage proving that once again the Breen do use these Refrigeration suits he planned to convert it into an ICU biobed for something of a slap Dash Refrigeration ICU technically that means that both Cisco and wayon can be correct they may not have to be in refrigeration suits but they certainly benefit from them indeed before the accidental overdose of tricord resine lock did seem to be bouncing back thanks to coler's Refrigeration bed in coler's words Sub-Zero gases promote a strong immune response in the brain which helps them to heal although the somewhat strange looking organ that culber is scanning holographically a bit before that well that does anyone's guess number one fluid dynamics within 10 minutes of the beginning of Star Trek discovery's Fifth Season premere red directive mul and lock were introduced to us and we'd seen both the fluidic CGI face of Lock and the solid prosthetic face we didn't realize it but we'd also just seen the two faces of the Breen for the first time it wasn't however until the later episode mirrors that we would start to understand the uses for these two faces in the brain we're generally calling them the fluid face and the solid face in one of the flashbacks laak finally shows Maul his fluid face although he appears deeply uncomfortable doing so stating that it's not him after Maul points out that all aspects of him are him he removes his helmet and we see his fluidic face again this is pure speculation but we think that the refrigeration suits allow the brain to hold that fluidic shape while within the suit without the suit do they very quickly turn solid and we're not talking solid versus liquid either but more like solid versus Bose Einstein or even fermionic condensate now that's cold when Luck's Uncle arrives he Reveals His fluidic face as well and States rather emphatically this is Breen Uncle run goes on to state that lux's holding of a solid form is an insult to his heritage heritage in this case means the genetic code of the yod thought or those who rule for run at least the Breen have evolved beyond their need to hold a solid form as in his words it leaves him unfocused inflexible and weak Lo gives a spirited defense stating that both faces are part of them and if they deny part of them they deny all of them it's a good defense but there's not many people picking it up ultimately as we saw in erga Lock's Cho choice to remain in solid form flies in the face of other Breen particularly his dastardly Uncle added to that the marriage that he enters into with Maul via The Branding on their arms is called called an Abomination by Rune as well now that he's dead the progenitor's tech may be luck and muls Only Hope Long Live luck that is everything for our list folks we will update this as we go on because the clues in the title it's things we now know about the Breen thank you so much Jack Kylie for putting together this list this is a deep dive and you're a legend thank you so much everyone for watching along you are wonderful you are awesome please don't forget to follow us on all the various socials on Tre culture you can follow me at Shan feric on the various socials follow Jack Jacky 7465625

Channel: TrekCulture

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Id: ts3E5QcNVCE

Length: 20min 11sec (1211 seconds)

Published: Wed May 15 2024