Breen (Star Trek)

Breen

Thot Gor, a Breen official from an episode of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.
Home world	Breen
Official language(s)	Breen
Affiliation	Breen Confederacy Dominion
Quadrant(s)	Alpha

The Breen are a fictional extraterrestrial species that feature in the Star Trek science fiction franchise. They were first mentioned in "The Loss", a fourth-season episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation that first aired in 1990. References to them were made in several other Next Generation episodes, but they did not appear until the 1996 fourth season Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode "Indiscretion". On Deep Space Nine, they played a significant role in the final story arc of that series in 1999, during which much information about them was revealed. The Breen's true appearance remains unrevealed to viewers, as they have never been seen onscreen without their helmets.

The Breen were first mentioned in "The Loss", a fourth-season episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation that first aired in 1990. The episode established their race as one of several alien species to be unreadable by empaths, much like the Ferengi. References to them were made in several other Next Generation and Star Trek: Voyager episodes but they were not seen onscreen until the 1996 Deep Space Nine episode "Indiscretion", which aired as part of that show's fourth season. In that episode, they were depicted as running a mining facility from which Gul Dukat and Major Kira rescued Dukat's daughter, Tora Ziyal. According to DS9 writer/producer Robert Hewitt Wolfe, after having previously been treated as red herrings since their first mention on Next Generation, and as a running joke by the production staff because "they were these people who were out there who were dangerous but were never really responsible for any of the trouble going on", they would finally be used as the villains in an episode. Their true appearance would be concealed beneath masks, according to writer/producer Ira Steven Behr, because "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 just put them in costume because they normally live in the cold.'"