Warning: SPOILERS for Star Trek: Picard Season 3, Episode 3 – "Seventeen Seconds"In a true shocker, Star Trek: Picard season 3 has brought back the Changelings from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine as its main villains! Going into Star Trek: Picard season 3, showrunner Terry Matalas promised that the final season would also serve as a sequel to DS9 and Star Trek: Voyager. After several clues were doled out in Star Trek: Picard season 3's first two episodes, the curtain dropped as the shapeshifting rulers of the Dominion are now officially back.
The Changelings, also known as the Founders, are the leaders of the Dominion and control the Gamma Quadrant. In Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, the shapeshifting Founders, along with their lackeys the Vorta, and their shock troops, the Jem'Hadar, allied with Cardassia to wage war on the United Federation of Planets. After nearly capitulating, the Federation won the Dominion War by introducing a virus into the liquid-based Changelings' Great Link. Constable Odo (Rene Auberjonois) returned to his people with the cure to the disease after the Dominion's official surrender. But Star Trek: Picard season 3 now makes it clear that the Changelings are back with malevolent intentions for the Federation.
