star trek characters odo

Origins [ ]

Odo was one of the " Hundred Changelings ", a group of one hundred newly-formed Changelings that the Founders sent out into the galaxy , "centuries ago", to gather information and explore, and was not expected to return until the late 27th century . ( DS9 : " The Search, Part II ", " The Begotten ", " Chimera ")

Dr. Mora Pol

In the 24th century , Odo was found adrift in his natural gelatinous state in the Denorios belt in the Bajoran system and was brought to the Bajoran Institute of Science where he would be studied by Doctor Mora Pol for seven years. Not initially recognizing Odo as a sentient being , Mora subjected him to a long series of experiments, in which Odo endured time in a vacuum chamber and a protein decompiler , as well as extensive electric shocks. Odo eventually rebelled against Mora's unintentional mistreatment by forming into a tentacle and hitting him, ( DS9 : " Emissary ", " The Begotten ") before later forcing Mora to recognize him as sentient by copying a beaker on a laboratory table. ( DS9 : " The Alternate ")

Odo's name stemmed from the Cardassian word for "nothing", Odo'ital , which was the loose translation of the "unknown sample" label in Bajoran on his laboratory flask. After he was discovered to be sentient, the scientists began jokingly referring to him as "Odo Ital", in a similar manner to a Bajoran name, which eventually got shorted into simply "Odo". ( DS9 : " Heart of Stone ", " Chimera ") He himself used only the single name "Odo". ( DS9 : " The Forsaken ") Early in his life, when he heard others address him as "Odo", he heard it as "nothing". He felt that the name was appropriate, since he had no friends, no past, and no form; once he had gained the respect and affection of Kira and the others on the station, he ceased hearing "Odo" as "nothing" and simply considered it his name. ( DS9 : " Heart of Stone ")

Later in life, Odo recalled that when he was first discovered, " I didn't know what I was. I had no memory of where I was from. I didn't even know I had the ability to mimic other forms. " ( DS9 : " The Begotten ")

Mora continued to study and teach Odo during the Occupation of Bajor , assisted by Dr. Weld Ram . When Odo assumed humanoid form, he copied Dr. Mora's hairstyle. During the Occupation, Odo performed a Cardassian neck trick that greatly amused the Cardassian officers. When Odo left Dr. Mora's institute, he did not leave on good terms; he resented some of the methods Mora had used on him and blamed him for not realizing that he was sentient. ( DS9 : " Necessary Evil ", " The Alternate ")

Odo later recalled, in 2370 , that when he was younger, " people were always asking me to change shape for them. They'd pretend to be my friends, but all they wanted was to see me become a chair or an animal . None of them ever really cared about me. " ( DS9 : " Shadowplay ")

Cardassian occupation [ ]

Odo during the Occupation

At some point during the Occupation, Odo arrived on Terok Nor. He was seen as an impartial outside observer and often settled disputes between the Bajoran workers on the station. In 2365 , due to his reputed neutral position, Odo was recruited by Gul Dukat to investigate the murder of a Bajoran collaborator. Among his chief suspects was Kira Nerys , who Odo found out to be a Bajoran resistance fighter. He lied about this to Dukat and did not reveal her identity but, in 2370 , discovered that Kira was indeed the murderer. In their initial encounter, Kira sardonically called Odo " Constable ", a term she later adopted as a term of affection, and which eventually fell into common use as an unofficial title for him. ( DS9 : " Necessary Evil ")

Odo continued working for the Cardassians, eventually becoming chief of security .

In 2366 , Odo investigated an assassination attempt (a bombing ) on Dukat. Three Bajoran workers were initially linked to the attack, and Odo – too concerned with maintaining order and the rule of law – hurriedly convicted them and allowed them to be executed . If he had performed any kind of investigation instead of relying on circumstantial evidence, he would have seen that the three men were clearly innocent. However, he didn't know the difference between "order" and "justice" at that time.

A bombing identical to the one that nearly killed Dukat occurred three days later, and Odo realized the men had been innocent and that his lax investigative procedures had caused a serious miscarriage of justice. This incident prompted him to be much more insistent on actual justice, though not necessarily the actual letter of the law. Odo's guilt was revealed when, after traveling through a plasma storm , his mind formed a link with the other passengers – Captain Benjamin Sisko , Elim Garak , and Lieutenant Commander Jadzia Dax – and caused them to relive what had happened seven years prior, the three men taking on the roles of the convicted men while Dax represented an unidentified Bajoran woman in an hallucination of the past. ( DS9 : " Things Past ")

Later in 2366, Odo was designated an officer of the Cardassian court in order to testify in criminal cases. ( DS9 : " Tribunal ")

It was quite clear that his Cardassian employers still viewed him with suspicion; an automated counter-insurgency program designed to activate in the event of a slave revolt on the station was programmed to raise a force field around Odo's office on the assumption that he would take sides and aid the insurgents. ( DS9 : " Civil Defense ")

As an investigator in a totalitarian regime, Odo was occasionally required to operate outside official channels, and he maintained a clandestine network of debts and allegiances to high-ranking members of the Cardassian government, which he could call on when needed. In the course of his career, he developed an extensive knowledge of espionage and assassination techniques, such as poison , explosives , and scrambling signals. ( DS9 : " Improbable Cause ")

Deep Space 9 [ ]

Chief of security [ ].

Odo smiling during his duty shift

Odo retained his post as chief of security even after the Cardassian forces withdrew from the space station in 2369 , when the station fell under Federation administration and was renamed Deep Space 9 . Odo never held any rank but was informally referred to by the title constable , which was first used by Kira upon their first meeting in 2365 . ( DS9 : " Necessary Evil ") He sometimes gave orders to officers who had a formal rank but were part of his staff, indicating that his role as chief of the security staff took priority over the rank structure in certain instances. ( DS9 : " Time's Orphan ")

At first, Odo and Starfleet Commander Benjamin Sisko, the station's then-new commanding officer did not see eye-to-eye on how station security should be handled, but they eventually became close associates. ( DS9 : " Things Past ", " Emissary ", " A Man Alone ", " The Passenger ") Sisko stood by him when he was accused of killing a Bajoran he had arrested years earlier. When the Bajorans on the station became unruly and wanted to harm Odo, Sisko protected him. The situation was resolved when it was discovered that the Bajoran, Ibudan , had faked his own death in order to take revenge on Odo. ( DS9 : " A Man Alone ")

Having been found in the Denorios belt, the discovery of the Bajoran wormhole provided Odo with further opportunity to investigate his origins. He was tricked by Croden into believing he had discovered Odo's people. The story had been fabricated by Croden to manipulate Odo into helping Croden rescue his daughter, Yareth . Croden apologized to Odo for the deception and wished him luck in finding his people. ( DS9 : " Vortex ")

Odo in an incident involving one of the Saltah'na energy spheres trying to take possession of him

Odo resolved a conflict between Kira, who threatened mutiny , and Sisko, who wanted to arrest her for treason . Both were being mentally affected by Saltah'na energy spheres that contained a log of a similar battle in an ancient culture, causing the crew to do the same thing. Fortunately, Odo's non-organic nature rendered him immune to the effects of the spheres, and with the aid of Doctor Bashir , he was able to remove the spheres' influence and eject them out of a cargo bay door. ( DS9 : " Dramatis Personae ")

As the outcome of an investigation regarding a Cardassian claiming to be war criminal Gul Darhe'el , Odo managed to prove that the man was actually Aamin Marritza , a file clerk for Darhe'el who wanted the Cardassian people to realize their crimes. ( DS9 : " Duet ")

Odo provides reconnaissance during the Bajoran coup

In 2370 , an extremist group of Bajorans known as the Circle , led by Minister Jaro Essa and supported by Vedek Winn Adami , demanded that all non-Bajorans leave DS9 and Bajor . Civil war threatened the planet , but Quark informed Odo that the Circle was being helped and financed by Cardassia in order to drive out the Federation, leaving the planet ripe for reconquest. Weapons had been smuggled to the Circle through Kressari traders, which Odo revealed by using his shapeshifting abilities to "borrow" a passenger manifest with a Gul's thumbscan on it. ( DS9 : " The Homecoming ", " The Circle ", " The Siege ")

When Odo was affected by a gas in the Gamma Quadrant that turned him into a destructive creature, Dr. Mora, the scientist who had discovered him, helped cure him. ( DS9 : " The Alternate ")

Together with Lieutenant Jadzia Dax, Odo, while in the Gamma Quadrant, discovered a planet where people were disappearing. The people were actually holograms created by Rurigan , the sole survivor of a planet destroyed by the Jem'Hadar . Odo and Dax fixed the holographic projector and restored the people. In the process, Odo formed an attachment to a girl called Taya , even shifting into a spinning top for her amusement before he and Dax departed. ( DS9 : " Shadowplay ")

Odo helped represent Miles O'Brien in a Cardassian court on false charges of aiding the Maquis . Odo's knowledge of Cardassian law annoyed the court, and his delaying tactics provided time for Sisko to prove the evidence false and gain O'Brien's release. ( DS9 : " Tribunal ")

Odo in 2370

During a mission to locate the Founders of the Dominion in the Gamma Quadrant, Odo found himself drawn to a rogue planet in the Omarion Nebula . There, he discovered that the Founders were in fact Changelings like himself. After initially becoming annoyed with shifting into every plant and rock he could see, with the aid of the Female Changeling , he changed into a bird and took flight, finding that he enjoyed exploring his shape-shifting abilities. He soon discovered the Founders' distrust of " solids ", though, and rejected them in favor of his friends, with the Female Changeling acknowledging his request for the time even if she warned him that he wouldn't be as fortunate in future interaction. ( DS9 : " The Search, Part I ", " The Search, Part II ")

Later that year, Odo had another encounter with the Founders while he was on an away mission with Kira. In response to a distress call from a Lissepian cargo ship under attack they pursued modified Peregrine -class courier ship to a moon in the Badlands . While on the moon, Kira was captured, and the Female Changeling assumed her identity. The Changeling pretended that she was trapped inside a growing crystal that was suffocating her. After Odo admitted having romantic feelings for Kira, he was able to see through the ruse when she claimed to feel the same way; he was sure that Kira didn't love him but knew she wouldn't lie to him about something so important. It gave the Changeling an understanding of Odo's feelings for Kira, although Odo still refused to admit how he felt to the real Kira, simply claiming to have seen through the deception due to a 'slip of the tongue' that the real Kira would never have said. ( DS9 : " Heart of Stone ")

In 2371 , a newly-"born" Jem'Hadar was found among the wreckage of a salvaged ship Quark had purchased. The baby matured into an adolescent within days, and as a Changeling (and therefore a Founder in the boy's eyes), Odo inherited the responsibility of looking after him. The Jem'Hadar was willing to do anything Odo asked of him. Odo tried to break the boy of this habit and encouraged him to think for himself and resist his inborn tendency toward violence. Ultimately, the boy decided that he belonged with the other Jem'Hadar and that anyone who was not Jem'Hadar was his enemy, arguing that if Odo actually accepted his right to self-determination, he would respect his wishes. Odo, wanting to protect the crew, escorted the boy to Dominion space. ( DS9 : " The Abandoned ")

It was also during this time that Odo had requested his own personal quarters , and was decorating them with furnishings appropriate for himself, allowing him to experiment with his abilities in private. ( DS9 : " The Abandoned ")

Also in 2371, Odo was forced to admit to Garak that, despite his disgust at the Founders' behavior, he still wanted to return home. He accompanied Garak in an attempt to contact Enabran Tain . Odo became a prisoner of Tain, who was plotting, along with the Romulans , the extermination of the Founders. The plot failed, and Odo was aided in his escape by a Founder who was posing as a Romulan on Tain's ship , although he still rejected the offer to return home. This resulted in the Battle of the Omarion Nebula , in which both the Romulan Tal Shiar and Cardassian Obsidian Order were decimated. ( DS9 : " Improbable Cause ", " The Die is Cast ")

Odo as Curzon

Odo also served as host for Curzon Dax during Jadzia Dax's Trill zhian'tara , during which Odo shifted into a form resembling Curzon. Initially, the two wanted to stay together, but Curzon was eventually convinced to return to the Dax symbiont . This gave Jadzia a greater understanding of the joy Odo found in his shape-shifting abilities, and Odo learned how much fun solids had staying up all night drinking and playing tongo . ( DS9 : " Facets ")

In late 2371, Odo was forced to kill a Changeling posing as Ambassador Krajensky , who had tried to provoke a war between the Federation and the Tzenkethi . By killing the impostor, Odo became the first Changeling ever to harm another. ( DS9 : " The Adversary ")

Odo – along with Rom , Quark, and Nog , – time traveled to Earth of 1947 . None of the Ferengi were aware of Odo's presence until he revealed himself as having shapeshifted into the guise of a German Shepherd dog , Odo having sneaked onto a shuttle the Ferengi had traveled there in, Quark's Treasure , in order to catch Quark in flagrante delicto , smuggling . This became known in Human history as the Roswell Incident . Along with the three Ferengi, Odo eventually managed to escape back to the 24th century and Deep Space 9. ( DS9 : " Little Green Men ")

Odo, along with Sisko and Leyton, speak to President Jaresh-Inyo

In 2372 , Odo accompanied Sisko, who now held the rank of captain , on a trip to Earth to advise Starfleet Command on the Changeling threat. Odo was able to demonstrate to the organization how easy it would be to infiltrate Starfleet, and subsequently helped free Sisko from a prison after Admiral Leyton , a former mentor to Sisko, was revealed to be staging a military coup . ( DS9 : " Homefront ", " Paradise Lost ") While visiting Earth on this occasion, Odo was secretly infected with a morphogenic virus by rogue organization Section 31 , in the belief that he would eventually link with others of his kind, transferring the disease and ultimately eliminating his entire species. ( DS9 : " Extreme Measures ")

Odo with the Siskos

Odo protected Shakaar Edon , the head of the Bajoran government, while Shakaar visited the station, even though Odo was jealous of him because Shakaar was in a relationship with Kira. ( DS9 : " Crossfire ")

Odo with Kira and Shakaar

When Worf 's brother, Kurn , arrived on the station after being dishonored by the Klingon High Council due to Worf siding with the Federation in a Klingon attempt to conquer Cardassia, Odo gave Kurn a job of security officer, although this ended when Kurn made near-constant attempts to commit suicide . ( DS9 : " Sons of Mogh ")

Odo also went on a joint mission with the Jem'Hadar to stop a group of renegade Jem'Hadar from capturing an Iconian gateway . ( DS9 : " To the Death ")

Later that year, Odo became desperately ill, not as a result of the virus , but because he had been poisoned by his own people in order to force him to return to them for treatment. Once there, he was judged by the Great Link and forced into his humanoid form permanently, unable to change shape, as punishment for harming another Changeling. While Odo was locked into a humanoid form, it hinted that he was essentially still a Changeling because, as Dr. Bashir later pointed out, Odo's brain still contained morphogenic components. The other shapeshifters may have just used their greater collective ability while linked with Odo to force him to alter his form into that of a humanoid, guiding the specific elements of his transformation such as Human physical makeup based on their expert knowledge of Humans. While part of the Link, Odo unwittingly infected his entire race with Section 31's bioweapon . Also, owing to information Odo had gleaned in the Link, he was convinced that Chancellor Gowron , the leader of the Klingon Empire, was actually a Founder. ( DS9 : " Broken Link ", " Extreme Measures ")

Life as a solid [ ]

Odo surgically altered to appear Klingon

Permanently locked into his solid state, Odo became extremely depressed. He found some comfort in the new sensations of eating and drinking, but this gave him little solace. Odo's frustration was exacerbated when Captain Sisko decided to bring him on an undercover mission to expose Gowron as being a Changeling infiltrator. If Odo had still been a Changeling, he could have simply changed into Gowron's pet targ . Instead, he, Sisko, O'Brien, and Worf disguised themselves as recipients for the Order of the Bat'leth and attempted to use polaron radiation to expose Gowron as a Changeling.

Odo, using the alias " Kodrak ", proved to be a less than intimidating Klingon, but the mission went as planned until someone recognized their true faces. The Starfleet officers were exposed and nearly executed, but General Martok helped them escape to complete their mission in the name of the Empire. Although Worf almost killed Gowron in honorable combat, Odo had deduced, by this time, that "Martok" was the true Changeling and Odo's information about the infiltrator had been deliberately falsified by the Founders to provoke further unrest between the Federation and the Klingons, weakening them and paving the way for a Dominion invasion of the Alpha Quadrant . The mission was ultimately a success and the Martok Changeling, having been identified by Odo, was killed by a barrage of disruptor fire. Before undoing Odo's Klingon alterations, Bashir mentioned that he could surgically alter Odo's face to realistically resemble any humanoid; Odo declined the offer as he preferred his face the way it was. ( DS9 : " Apocalypse Rising ")

Odo behind Uhura and Chekov in 2268

It was during Odo's time as a solid that the USS Defiant , through the treachery of an undercover Klingon named Arne Darvin , was sent back in time to the year 2268 . The ship found itself near space station K-7 at a crucial moment when Darvin had been exposed as a spy and subsequently disowned by his people. Odo helped search for an explosive tribble to prevent Darvin from killing James T. Kirk , and even acquired one as a pet. He found Worf's recounting of the Klingons' "war" against the tribbles rather amusing, finding it hard to believe that a cute ball of fur was a "mortal enemy" of the Klingon Empire. ( DS9 : " Trials and Tribble-ations ")

Odo, Worf, Bashir, and O'Brien on K-7

Apparently, the Founders' attempt to force Odo to remain a solid took some time, as a plasma storm later reacted with leftover morphogenic enzymes and therefore caused his mind to telepathically reach out to link with other Changelings. At the time, he was returning from a conference with Sisko, Garak, and Dax, when the four of them were suddenly trapped in a dream-like but utterly realistic recreation of the Cardassian Occupation based on Odo's memories. The people in the dream believed them to be a group of Bajoran terrorists who had been executed during the Occupation, but instead of Odo, his predecessor Thrax was in charge. Odo did not realize (or did not want to admit to himself) that Thrax's actions in the dream were in fact a recreation of his own, and their personae there were a group of innocent Bajorans who had been executed because Odo had sided with order rather than his sense of right and wrong. The experience, a product of Odo's guilt, persuaded him to admit the truth to himself and others. ( DS9 : " Things Past ")

The baby Changeling imitates Odo's face

In 2373 , Quark found an infant Changeling among some salvage he had purchased and sold the infant to Odo. He, in collaboration with Dr. Mora, made attempts to teach the infant, which was very ill, to change form, just as Mora had done with Odo himself. Though their attempts did result in making the infant form a face to look at Odo (along with various other shapes, assuming them seemingly at a much faster rate than Odo had when in Mora's care), its morphogenic matrix began to destabilize. As it died in Odo's hands, it linked with Odo and restored his morphogenic matrix, allowing him to change form once again. This was done as a means of thanking its mentor for all that he had tried to do. As Dr. Mora departed the station, he encouraged Odo to think of his restored abilities as a gift the Changeling had wanted him to have, and Odo, in return, told Mora that he now had a better understanding of what Mora had done for him years ago. ( DS9 : " The Begotten ")

The Dominion War [ ]

After the Dominion captured Deep Space 9, Odo was one of a few crewmembers who remained on the station, retaining his old role as chief of security, only with Dukat in charge. Odo joined the Ruling Council at the invitation of Weyoun . After the Female Changeling arrived on the station, his loyalties were questioned. The Female Changeling realized that the reason Odo remained with the solids was his love for Kira. She linked with Odo, hoping to manipulate him. While Kira led a resistance cell, Odo did nothing to help. Rom was arrested, but Odo again did nothing, stating that he was at peace after his linking. His inaction directly led to thousands of deaths as Starfleet was forced to accelerate their plans to retake DS9, going without an entire fleet to meet an enemy who outnumbered them two to one. Kira was later put into the brig and when the Female Changeling explained her plans for the solids, including the execution of Kira, Odo's eyes were opened. During a subsequent battle to retake Deep Space 9, he helped Kira and Rom escape from custody. Odo and his security forces attacked the station's guards, allowing Kira and Rom to disable the station's weapons system, helping the Defiant to retake the station. ( DS9 : " A Time to Stand ", " Behind the Lines ", " Favor the Bold ", " Sacrifice of Angels ")

Odo and Weyoun 6

In 2375 , Odo tried to help Weyoun 6 defect to the Federation, as Weyoun 6 believed that the Dominion War was a mistake, but his programming meant that he still saw the Founders as gods ; contacting Odo was as close to a compromise as he could come. Due to an attack perpetrated by Weyoun 7 and four Jem'Hadar ships, the attempt failed and ended with Weyoun 6's death; he triggered a termination implant in his brain that killed him in a matter of minutes . At this time, Weyoun also revealed that the Founders were all dying of a strange disease, and Odo was the only one who seemed unaffected by the disease. ( DS9 : " Treachery, Faith and the Great River ")

Odo cured of the morphogenic virus

Some time after this, it was revealed that Odo was the original source of the morphogenic virus that was killing the Founders, having been infected by Section 31 during his brief visit to Earth, ( DS9 : " Extreme Measures ", " Homefront ", " Paradise Lost ") in an attempt by Section 31 to end the threat of the Founders by committing genocide. Odo was beginning to die of the disease himself, but after tricking Section 31 agent Luther Sloan into coming to DS9, Bashir was able to discover a cure for the virus, although it necessitated him and O'Brien each using a neural interface to enter Sloan's dying mind when the agent tried to kill himself rather than reveal the cure. ( DS9 : " Extreme Measures ")

Odo joins his people in the Great Link

Odo was instrumental in ending the war with the Dominion. He and Colonel Kira joined a Cardassian resistance group led by Damar . As such, Odo provided valuable help in Damar's fight against the Dominion. When the Female Changeling refused to order Jem'Hadar and Breen forces to stand down, Odo linked with her, curing her of the virus and convincing her that she was wrong about solids and to stand trial after ending the war. In exchange, Odo agreed to return to the Great Link permanently to help build a new Dominion, and to cure his people. This meant the end of his relationship with Kira, though he was accompanied on his return to the Great Link by Kira. As he merged into the Link, he changed into a tuxedo, which Kira liked him in. ( DS9 : " What You Leave Behind ")

Later life [ ]

Before or around 2401 , Odo warned his friend and former colleague, Worf, about a group of Changelings who, still bitter with the solids who defeated them, had broken off from the Great Link to seek revenge against Starfleet and the Federation. ( PIC : " Seventeen Seconds ")

Beliefs [ ]

Odo had a deep sense of justice, which he valued above all other things. As he told Sisko at one point, " Laws change depending on who's making them, but justice is justice. " ( DS9 : " A Man Alone ") Because of this, Odo enjoyed "thumbing his nose" at authority and going by his rules rather than those of Starfleet. ( DS9 : " The Search, Part I ") He once speculated that his belief in justice was an innate part of his racial makeup, and thus a link to his lost people. ( DS9 : " Necessary Evil ") When his people revealed themselves to be the Founders of the Dominion, they claimed that what they desired was order, not justice. ( DS9 : " The Search, Part II ") A desire for order was present in Odo's personality also, however, and it was expressed in his sometimes-authoritarian methods, which were justified because, in his view, they made things safer. As part of his jobs, he would, for example, spy on people's private communications and he wanted to introduce a general curfew to the station, be allowed to search more arriving passengers, and wanted dozens of extra security staff. His views on order sometimes made him blind to the plight of those who might be oppressed. In his view, the space station was safer under Cardassian control because of the powers given to security staff - an opinion his friend Kira Nerys corrected by pointing out it was not safe for Bajorans at that time. Odo admired the efficiency of the ruthless Cardassian intelligence agency the Obsidian Order . ( DS9 : " The Maquis, Part I ", " The Wire ")

Odo's service during the Occupation changed his attitudes about justice significantly. When he began working for Gul Dukat, he believed he was on neither the Bajoran nor Cardassian side, an impartial investigator whose only goal was to find the truth. Experience during the Occupation and being forced to choose sides when the truth would not lead to justice caused him to realize that contrary to a Human axiom, justice is not blind. During this time, he also began to distinguish justice from order, recognizing that he preferred the former after he allowed three Bajorans to be unjustly executed. When DS9 was under Federation command, Odo released Cardassian political prisoners from his jail whom the Bajorans wanted handing over to the Cardassians in exchange for the release of Bajoran prisoners. He did so because he thought it unjust that that they should be handed over. ( DS9 : " Necessary Evil ", " Things Past ")

As late as 2369, Odo had never "coupled", claiming he chose not to do so. He saw too many compromises involved in humanoid relationships and failed to understand the humanoid obsession with coupling. ( DS9 : " A Man Alone ") Odo also believed in punctuality. His daily patrols of the Promenade were so routine that shopkeepers could set their watch to him. ( DS9 : " Crossfire ", " Broken Link ")

Shapeshifting nature and ability [ ]

Odo did not have the benefit of connection with the Great Link while he matured, and as a result, he was relatively unskilled in the use of his shapeshifting abilities when compared to most other Changelings. Unlike Odo, other Changelings, such as the Female Changeling , showed little difficulty in mimicking the faces of Kira Nerys and others. ( DS9 : " Heart of Stone ", " Paradise Lost ")

Nonetheless, Odo was able to improve his abilities with time and practice. By shapeshifting into an object, not only was he able to create a visual representation of the object; he was able to duplicate the object to such degree that if he was scanned with a tricorder while he was in the shape of a bird, the tricorder would detect a bird. ( DS9 : " Paradise Lost ")

Odo did not have a sense of smell, or a sense of taste either, which is part of the reason he disliked eating; he noted once that he had actually attempted to eat shortly after he first mastered the ability to assume a humanoid form but commented that the lack of a digestive system had made the whole process very messy, without elaborating further. ( DS9 : " If Wishes Were Horses ", " Meridian ", " Improbable Cause ") When the situation was appropriate, Odo was able to use his shapeshifting ability to create a visage of a table setting with a meal which he could "consume," and in doing so be a part of the dining experience. ( DS9 : " The Way of the Warrior ")

Odo did not wear real clothes, instead creating his uniform from his body. Despite his difficulties imitating certain humanoid features, he was skilled enough as a shapeshifter to imitate some technological devices well enough for them to be functional, including his combadge on his uniform. But on at least one occasion Odo elected to wear a "real" combadge. ( DS9 : " Invasive Procedures ")

Odo could not hold a form permanently, and had to regenerate on a regular basis, generally every sixteen hours. During this time, he returned to his natural state for a period of several hours. Nevertheless, in 2369, while trapped in a turbolift for several hours, Odo showed signs of distress when approaching the fifteenth hour mark since the time of his last regeneration; physical changes in his appearance were already beginning to show. ( DS9 : " The Forsaken ") Several years later, while bunk mates with Quark during a mission on the Defiant , Odo appeared fine physically, even if highly agitated, when – interrupting multiple attempts Quark made to engage in conversation – Odo explained he had been holding his shape for a full sixteen hours. ( DS9 : " The Search, Part I ") In one case, Garak tortured Odo by preventing him from regenerating, using an Obsidian Order device that prevented Changelings from changing form. The inability to regenerate appeared to cause Odo great distress and pain, as well as causing his physical appearance to begin to fall apart. ( DS9 : " The Die is Cast ") Other Changelings did not seem to have this difficulty; when suffering from the Morphogenic virus , the Female Changeling remarked she had not been able to change form for weeks. ( DS9 : " What You Leave Behind ")

Personal interests [ ]

Odo employed a number of tactics in his attempts to integrate with solids; for instance, he would often sit for quiet drinks with friends, and would create the illusion of drinking by forming part of his body into a cup of coffee and then drinking himself. ( DS9 : " The Way of the Warrior ")

Thanks to the instruction of his people, Odo began to take a great interest in his abilities as a shapeshifter, and to explore the various forms and sensations he could experience while in his liquid state. He outfitted his personal quarters to this end. ( DS9 : " The Search, Part II ", " The Abandoned ")

When he was used as a host for the memories of Curzon Dax during Jadzia Dax 's zhian'tara , Odo, after Curzon left his body, admitted to Dax that he had found Curzon's memories of various Humanoid activities such as eating, drinking, and playing tongo quite enjoyable, to the extent that he was amazed that Curzon had ever been able to get any work done. ( DS9 : " Facets ") Even prior to this, he noted that he was intrigued by the preparation efforts solids put into food, participating in Sisko's efforts to prepare a meal for the senior staff ( DS9 : " Equilibrium "). During his time as a solid, Odo learned to appreciate the simpler things in life. When Captain Sisko found Odo in Quark's, Sisko was surprised to find the constable was not on duty for once; he was instead studying a glass of sparkling wine . Odo observed how soothing the sound of the bubbles was. Although he had found ingestion a disgusting process at first, Odo told Sisko he had come to enjoy it. ( DS9 : " Apocalypse Rising ")

Other aspects of monoform life proved less than comforting to Odo. In one embarrassing folly, he instinctively attempted to turn into a Vorian pterodactyl while chasing a criminal on the Promenade , but instead fell and injured himself. Additionally, he suffered from poor posture because he carried himself too rigidly for a normal humanoid. ( DS9 : " The Ascent ", " The Begotten ")

Odo also had a penchant for the Earth sport of kayaking . He and O'Brien occasionally used a kayaking holoprogram , which O'Brien brought with him from the USS Enterprise -D . Odo found the experience "quite enjoyable," although he refrained from singing sea shanties while they paddled. ( DS9 : " Heart of Stone ")

Odo found humanoid death rituals fascinating, particularly the Ferengi tradition of vacuum desiccation . When Quark was selling discs of recently deceased Ferengi entrepreneur Plegg , Odo sarcastically informed Quark of his interest in the subject and offered to buy a disc, much to Quark's surprise. It turned out that Plegg was very much alive, and that Quark had been cheated. Plegg found this very amusing, although Quark and Odo did not. ( DS9 : " The Alternate ")

Odo ejecting Sisko

During a baseball game between the Niners and the Logicians , Odo served as umpire , a position he found fascinating. He took his duties as umpire very seriously, to the point that he threw Sisko out of the game for breaking a rule, specifically, touching the umpire. Later, Odo also ejected Vulcan captain Solok from the game, for the very same reason. ( DS9 : " Take Me Out to the Holosuite ")

Personal relationships [ ]

The link [ ].

Although Odo was ostensibly an "orphan" from his beginnings of life in the Alpha Quadrant, Dr. Mora liked to think of himself as Odo's father and referred to himself as such on several occasions. Odo resented this presumption and preferred to forget his time in Mora's laboratory, mainly due to the various shock treatments he had been subjected to before it was realized that he was a sentient being. ( DS9 : " The Alternate ") When Mora helped Odo care for an infant changeling, the two of them bonded better, Odo realizing what Mora went through while "raising" him and understanding how hard it must have been for Mora when he left. ( DS9 : " The Begotten ")

In a manner of speaking, all Changelings, and particularly the Great Link, were his family. He felt an irreconcilable estrangement from the Link when he discovered their hatred of the solids and that they were the leaders of the ruthless Dominion. ( DS9 : " The Search, Part I ", " The Search, Part II ")

When arguing with a few Klingons, Drex asked in Klingonese if his mother let him talk to men. Garak responded that he wasn't sure if Odo even had a mother. ( DS9 : " The Way of the Warrior ")

Friendships [ ]

"I'm watching you, Quark."

From the time Quark opened his bar on DS9, he and Odo were constant antagonists. Regardless, they maintained a mutual respect for one another, and Quark once observed that as Odo's worst enemy, he was the closest thing the shapeshifter had to a friend. ( DS9 : " A Man Alone ") Odo always kept a vigilant eye on Quark's illicit activities, but in many cases, he was able to use Quark's underground contacts to infiltrate criminal organizations to which he would not otherwise have access. ( DS9 : " Indiscretion ")

The two often had idle conversations at Quark's Bar while Odo was on duty and Quark was working. They maintained their rivalry yet were fond of each other's company and their regular exchange of insults. For example, Odo simply "hrmphed" when Quark, in his momentary capacity as Grand Nagus of the Ferengi Alliance , told him to kiss the Nagal staff , yet he was confounded by a sudden burst of cooperation in 2370, which was actually Quark's interpretation of the 76th Rule of Acquisition : "Every once in a while, declare peace. It confuses the hell out of your enemies". ( DS9 : " The Nagus ", " The Homecoming ") During a temporary crisis in which a group of non-corporeal beings caused people's wishes to come true, Odo amusingly wished Quark into a holding cell without thinking about it. ( DS9 : " If Wishes Were Horses ")

More than anyone else, Quark knew about Odo's secret feelings for Kira and confronted him about them several times. It was Quark who told Odo that Odo was in love with Kira, breaking through the defenses Odo had carefully erected to keep his personal life private. Odo did not want Quark's sympathy, but when Kira officially began dating First Minister Shakaar, it was Quark who came to his quarters to check on him. There, he set Odo straight, although with the usual facade; Quark ran a regular betting pool on how long it would take Odo to catch a perpetrator, and he claimed his profits would suffer if Odo did not rectify things and get back to work.

By choice, Odo's quarters were directly above Quark's, and at times he took perverse (albeit secret) pleasure in annoying the Ferengi by practicing his shapeshifting skills during the night. Whether it was a Takaran wildebeest or a Rafalian mouse , Odo was able to annoy Quark whenever he felt like it. Once he set aside his feelings for Kira and got on with his life, Odo conveniently had his floor reinforced. As this would also soundproof the floor, Quark saw that his advice had helped and thanked Odo. ( DS9 : " Crossfire ")

In a mental recreation of Terok Nor during the Occupation, Odo (seen as a Bajoran) had to do subsidiary work at Quark's Bar which he felt quite humiliating. He asked Captain Sisko " How much damage would it do to the timeline if Quark were to suffer a mysterious... accident? " ( DS9 : " Things Past ")

After O'Brian and Bashir recovered from a shrinking accident, Odo shared a prank on them with Quark; tricking them into thinking they weren't fully baxk at normal height. In truth, both Odo and Quark were just on a step. Odo smirked as a bemused Quark stated "and they say you dont have a sense of humor"

Odo and Quark stuck together on a class L world

Quark and Odo managed to get along briefly while trapped on an inhospitable planet and under dire circumstances; they resumed their old rivalry as soon as they returned to DS9. ( DS9 : " The Ascent ")

When Laas visited the station and was detained for " the fog episode" on the Promenade, Quark later came to Odo to explain to him " You're smart enough to know that people don't want to be reminded that you're different ", in a seemingly friendly way. ( DS9 : " Chimera ")

When Odo left DS9, he attempted to do so without anyone noticing, but Quark caught up with him in the airlock . Odo claimed to have nothing to say to the Ferengi, but while he did not say so, it was clear Odo would miss his long-time adversary. When Kira tried to apologize for Odo's coldness, Quark said " That man loves me – you can see it written on his back ". He later admitted to Kira before entering the Great Link that he would miss everyone aboard DS9, even Quark. ( DS9 : " What You Leave Behind ")

Odo and Worf in 2372

Worf and Odo both enjoyed their privacy, and they shared a dislike of unexpected visitors. Although the two of them did not become close friends (as was the case with most of Odo's friendships), Worf and Odo respected and understood each other, as in many ways they had similar personalities.

The two of them clashed while Worf was attempting to acclimate himself to life aboard DS9. Worf observed that Quark was conducting smuggling activities and informed Odo about it only to find that Odo already knew of the transactions. Unknown to Worf, Odo was conducting an undercover operation and planned to use Quark's clandestine connections to infiltrate a large smuggling ring. When Worf placed Quark and Quark's contact under arrest, he discovered that the container in which the payment for the illicit goods were located was actually Odo in disguise. ( DS9 : " Hippocratic Oath ")

Worf and Odo discussing station matters with Kimara Cretak

Worf and Odo occasionally argued over the laxness of security on DS9. On one occasion, when Worf apprehended a Dopterian who had stolen items from Worf's quarters , he asked Odo why he "allowed" such security breaches to occur. Odo responded by citing a number of security breaches aboard the USS Enterprise before Worf told him to stop. ( DS9 : " Bar Association ")

Once the two learned each other's ways, they found they could relate to one another far more than they realized. Odo offered Worf advice on how to keep people from simply "dropping by" his quarters. ( DS9 : " Crossfire ")

Miles O'Brien [ ]

Miles O'Brien and Odo had a good working relationship. Odo volunteered to represent O'Brien when he was tried in a Cardassian court, successfully proving O'Brien's innocence despite the Cardassian legal structure regarding the trial as a mere formality for a pre-determined sentence. This trial gave Odo the opportunity to get to know O'Brien better and develop an admiration for his strong sense of duty when he proclaimed that he had always tried to be somebody his children could be proud of. A couple of years later, he allowed the O'Briens to return the temporally-displaced Molly O'Brien to Golana , even though they broke her out of a holding cell. He joked that he was actually disappointed as he expected O'Brien to succeed in breaking someone out of the station without being discovered. ( DS9 : " Tribunal ", " Time's Orphan ")

At one point, Garak made mention that O'Brien shared "Human crime novels" with Odo; he stated that they may have been influencing Odo's thinking. ( DS9 : " The Die is Cast ")

O'Brien and Odo went kayaking in a holosuite several times; an activity Odo found "quite enjoyable". ( DS9 : " Heart of Stone ") Odo (or the impostor Changeling trying to pass as him) tried to use knowledge of details from their most recent trip to prove he was the real Odo. ( DS9 : " The Adversary ")

Odo with Garak

Elim Garak and Odo were forced to work together during the events leading up to the joint Tal Shiar-Obsidian Order strike on the Founders' homeworld . What began as a decidedly unwilling partnership, evolved into a mutual respect as Garak began to understand that, unlike his other erstwhile sparring partner Doctor Julian Bashir, Odo truly understood who Garak was. Strangely, Garak's attempt to torture Odo while trapped on the Tal Shiar ship created a mutual understanding and a peculiar bond between them. Garak recognized that he no longer had the will to torture those he was close to, and Odo empathized with Garak's willingness to do anything to return to his own people. They later had many quiet "drinks" together. ( DS9 : " Improbable Cause ", " The Die is Cast ", " The Way of the Warrior ")

Garak once attempted to set Odo up with a date with Chalan Aroya but was ultimately unsuccessful. ( DS9 : " Broken Link ")

Benjamin Sisko [ ]

Odo speaking privately with Benjamin Sisko in 2371

Although Odo noted that he didn't think he would like Benjamin Sisko when he first met him, the two formed a keen respect for each other over the years. When Sisko was promoted to captain, Odo noted that, while he didn't personally see the relevance of such titles, he could think of nobody who deserved this ritual more than Sisko. Sisko reciprocated this admiration more than once. When Odo's life was at stake following his capture by the Obsidian Order and later his illness, Sisko took the Defiant into Dominion territory to save Odo, despite the risks of conflict with the Dominion. Odo also accompanied Sisko back to Earth when they received news that the Changelings had reached Earth. He helped him develop means of detecting Changelings on the planet . On another occasion he helped Sisko, who was falsely accused of being a Changeling by Admiral Leyton , escape. ( DS9 : " Emissary ", " The Adversary ", " The Die is Cast ", " Paradise Lost ", " Broken Link ")

While on a routine mission in the Alpha Quadrant, Odo and Chief O'Brien happened upon another Changeling named Laas . Odo was fascinated, as Laas too was one of the hundred infant Changelings the Founders had sent out to learn about other civilizations. The two of them bonded quickly, and Odo was able to tell that Laas' intentions were good despite the chief's concerns.

Laas did not integrate well when they returned to the station. He openly stated his dislike of "solids," much to Odo's chagrin. Laas believed Odo had been brainwashed into acting and thinking like a solid, making excessive and disruptive use of his own shapeshifting abilities to prove his point. Ultimately, Laas left in search of other Changelings in order to form a second Great Link. ( DS9 : " Chimera ")

Romance [ ]

Kira nerys [ ].

Odo and Kira kiss passionately on the Promenade

Over the years, Odo began to fall in love with Kira Nerys . He kept this a secret from her, and stood by as she entered into and ended other romantic relationships, including the death of Vedek Bareil Antos . After Bareil's death, Kira took up a relationship with Shakaar, the head of the Bajoran government. Although she eventually learned his true feelings after an encounter with an alternate future version of him, Kira and Odo were left reluctant to pursue a relationship at the time, due in no small part to the future Odo having erased over eight thousand people from existence simply to prevent Kira's death in his original timeline and give his younger self another chance with her. Eventually, with the help of Vic Fontaine , he finally revealed his feelings for her in 2374 , Kira reciprocating his feelings. Despite this, Odo left Deep Space 9 at the end of the Dominion War to heal the Great Link of a virus that was killing the Changelings and showing them positive aspects of the solids. ( DS9 : " Children of Time ", " His Way ", " What You Leave Behind ")

Lwaxana Troi [ ]

Lwaxana Troi without her wig

Odo and Lwaxana play shapeshifting games in his quarters

Ambassador Lwaxana Troi was infatuated with Odo from the moment she saw him. As she put it, " I've never been with a Changeling before! " Odo found Lwaxana's advances annoying and even complained to Commander Sisko that Ambassador Troi wouldn't leave him alone. An accident trapped the two of them in a turbolift together shortly before Odo was set to revert to his gelatinous state. Over the course of several hours, the two of them began to understand each other better.

They were stuck in the turbolift so long that Odo could barely hold his shape and was literally "melting." Lwaxana offered to carry Odo in her dress, but he was embarrassed and worried, as no one had ever seen him in his liquid form. He was worried that if someone saw him like that, they would be repulsed because he was so different from them. To make him feel understood, Lwaxana removed her wig and admitted that no one had ever seen her in her natural state either. Odo felt more at ease after this revelation and allowed Lwaxana to carry him. Their interaction had a profound effect on Odo, giving him more confidence in who he was. ( DS9 : " The Forsaken ", " The Muse ")

During Ambassador Troi's next visit to DS9, her persistent feelings for Odo combined with a case of zanthi fever caused people in close proximity to her to desire others: Jake Sisko and Doctor Bashir both became infatuated with Kira, for example, Jadzia Dax with Sisko, and Vedek Bareil with Dax. ( DS9 : " Fascination ")

Lwaxana's final visit with Odo was when she fled her Tavnian husband, Jeyal , who was intent on taking her unborn child when it was born. In Tavnian culture, boys and girls were raised under strict gender separation, something Lwaxana's husband had initially promised would not be the case for their child (he later declared his intention to take her male child as soon as it was born, disregarding his previous assurances to her). Lwaxana had married Jeyal in response to being rejected by Odo and having her heart broken. She had come to Odo for protection from her husband and Odo came up with the plan to marry Lwaxana in Tavnian tradition in order to end the biological father's legal claim to their offspring under Tavnian law (which specified the mother's husband as the legal guardian for male children). This required a public profession of his love for her, which needed to be believable. While Odo wasn't romantically attracted to Lwaxana, his profession of love for her was genuine, revealing the depth of appreciation he had for her and their friendship. Reflecting on their relationship since their time stuck in the turbolift a few years before, he said, " Before I met her ... I was ashamed of what I was, afraid that if people saw how truly different I was they would recoil from me. Lwaxana saw how different I was and she didn't recoil. She wanted to see more. For the first time in my life, someone wanted me as I was. And that changed me forever. The day I met her, is the day I stopped being alone. And I want her to be part of my life from this day on. " The plan was successful and Lwaxana was free from Jeyal. Odo wanted her to stay on DS9 following their marriage, but Lwaxana knew Odo's love for her wasn't romantic and she would come to resent him for not reciprocating her love. Their friendship was too precious, she said, to allow that to happen. ( DS9 : " The Muse ")

Odo talking to Arissa

An Idanian woman named Arissa once fell for Odo while he was protecting her from the group who were trying to kill her, the two even spending the night together (a first for Odo, outside of a single pseudo-sexual encounter during his brief time on the Founder homeworld). Later, he found out that she was an agent sent into deep cover to infiltrate the Orion Syndicate . She was married and, due to her mind having been altered to escape telepathic examination, she did not know this while she was undercover. As she departed to return to her former life, she assured Odo that she had genuinely loved him in their time together and in a way still did. ( DS9 : " A Simple Investigation ")

Female Changeling [ ]

When Odo first visited the home of his people the Changeling representing them took the form of a female humanoid. The two linked together in a way that might be considered sexual. ( DS9 : " A Simple Investigation ") Later, during the Dominion's occupation of Deep Space 9, Odo became involved with the Female Changeling. Initially, his only intent was to learn more about his own people and perhaps influence her towards a peaceful resolution of the current conflict. However, she was able to manipulate him and his desire for control over his own emotions regarding Kira. Eventually she was able to almost completely turn Odo away from his former friends and allies, but the revelation that she intended "to break" the Alpha Quadrant peoples of their desire for freedom shocked him into reconsidering his new "perspective". He effectively ended their personal relationship by siding once again with the Federation against the Dominion. ( DS9 : " Sacrifice of Angels ") Later, at the end of the war, he was able to save her life from the morphogenic virus and convince her to give the stand-down order to the remaining Dominion forces by promising to return to the Great Link with the cure. ( DS9 : " What You Leave Behind ")

Alternate realities and timelines [ ]

A version of Odo from an alternate timeline

In an alternate timeline in which Harry Kim was never assigned to the USS Voyager , Odo arrested Tom Paris in 2371 , after Paris attacked Quark in Quark's bar. Odo's actions during this incident resulted in Paris still sitting in a holding cell on DS9 when Voyager was thrown into the Delta Quadrant . Odo was later mentioned by Paris, in conversation with Kim, at which point Paris described him as "a very unpleasant shapeshifter." ( VOY : " Non Sequitur ")

In an alternate timeline in which the Defiant was sent back in time to the 22nd century , Odo was the only member of the crew (besides Dax) who lived to see the Defiant arriving in the 24th century. In two hundred years, he had grown more proficient in shapeshifting and was able to assume a more humanoid face. Odo, during the Defiant 's visit in the 24th century, admitted his romantic feelings to Kira, and subsequently linked with his younger self. He sabotaged the Defiant and caused it to avoid crashing on Gaia , wishing to give his younger self and Kira a second chance at love. By doing so, the inhabitants of Gaia ceased to exist. ( DS9 : " Children of Time ")

Holograms [ ]

Odo was holographically duplicated at least twice.

Luther Sloan recreated the entire station, and staff, of Deep Space 9 in 2374 as part of his investigation into Julian Bashir, including Odo. ( DS9 : " Inquisition ")

The USS Protostar 's computer chose a holographic Odo as as a member of Dal 's command crew during his attempts at taking the Kobayashi Maru scenario . ( PRO : " Kobayashi ")

Chronology [ ]

Mid- 24th century : Found adrift and in his gelatinous state in the Denorios belt , Odo is brought to the Bajoran Institute of Science to be studied by Doctor Mora Pol

2363 : Guls Dukat and Hadar attend a reception at the Bajoran Center for Science to view Odo and his abilities. The Changeling performs the Cardassian neck trick , to wide acclaim

2365 : Becomes an investigator on the Cardassian space station Terok Nor

2366 : Is designated an officer of the Cardassian court, in order to testify in criminal cases

2369 : Becomes chief of security when Terok Nor is transferred to Federation control as Deep Space 9 . He learns he originated in the Gamma Quadrant

2371 : Discovers the Great Link , and later becomes the first Changeling to kill another

2372 : The Great Link sit in judgment of him, and render him " solid "

2373 : The dying act of an infant Changeling is to make him a Changeling once more

2375 : Leaves DS9 to rejoin his people in the Great Link

Memorable quotes [ ]

" You are a thief! "

"QQUUAARRKK!!!!"

" You can tell a man's intentions by the way he walks. "

" All right, let's try again. Close your eyes, take a deep breath... clear your mind of anything in it... if there's anything there... "

" I have a friend at Starfleet Intelligence . And she has a friend who has a cousin who's married to the assistant of one of the members of the Federation Medical Council . " " Really? " " And according to my friend, her friend heard something from his cousin that his wife heard from this council member that I thought you might find interesting. " " Which is? " " Doctor Wade is not going to win the Carrington. "

" But don't worry – I plan to investigate the Klingons, the Bajorans, Quark, the visiting Terrelians... " " You think Quark had something to do with this? " " I always investigate Quark. "

" …But then I contacted a friend at Starfleet Intelligence who used to be assigned to the Federation Embassy on the Klingon Homeworld. He put me in contact with a former Klingon operative who's out of favor with the current administration. This former operative sent me a series of reports " " Odo, cut to the chase. " " The three Klingons now on the station are part of a covert strike force that reports directly to the Klingon High Council. " " Why didn't you just say so? " " Sometimes I have to remind you just how good I am. "

" I've had enough of your dissembling, Garak! I am not Doctor Bashir and we are not sparring amiably over lunch. Now, you dragged me into this investigation and you are now going to cooperate with me. " " Dragged you in? I don't know what you're talking " " You blew up your own shop, Garak! Well, I don't think I've ever seen that particular expression on your face. Is it surprise? " " Yes, Constable, it is. I'm surprised that you could come this unlikely conclusion. " " Drop the pretence. I knew as soon as I spoke with the Flaxian. Assassins don't like varying their methods. He planned to poison you. I think you spotted him on the station and then blew up your own shop so that I'd begin an investigation. " " That seems like a very elaborate way to get you involved. If I needed your help I could have just asked. " " But you couldn't be sure that I'd take you seriously. Or that I'd help you. Besides, I think you secretly enjoyed destroying your own shop. " " Well, I admit watching it burn wasn't exactly tragic. " " Whether or not you want to admit it, you pulled me into this case and now you're stuck with me. "

" Come on, Quark, move it along. You should be in the emergency shelter by now. " " I'm not going to any emergency shelter. This is my bar, and I'm going to defend it. " " Really? And how do you plan to do that? " " With this. " " You're going to hit them with a box? " " No. This is my disruptor pistol. The one I used to carry in the old days, when I was serving on that Ferengi freighter. " " I thought you were the ship's cook. " " That's right. And every member of that crew thought he was a food critic. If the Klingons try to get through these doors, I'll be ready for them. " (reads note in the empty box) " 'Dear Quark, I used parts from your disruptor to fix the replicators. Will return them soon. Rom.' " " I will kill him! " " With what? "

" It's just Quark's luck that you would be assigned quarters right above his. " "Luck had nothing to do with it. "

" They were an ecological menace, a plague to be wiped out. " " Wiped out? What are you saying? " " Hundreds of warriors were sent to track them down throughout the galaxy. An armada obliterated the tribble homeworld. By the end of the 23rd century, they had been eradicated. " " Oh, another glorious chapter in Klingon history. Tell me, do they still sing songs of the Great Tribble Hunt ? "

" Someone's extracted all the latinum! There's nothing here but worthless gold! " " And it's all yours. "

Appendices [ ]

See also [ ].

• Odo 1 , a combat training holoprogram
• Odo One , a program used to drive away the Saltah'na energy spheres
• Odo's bucket

Appearances [ ]

• " Paradise "
• " Distant Voices " (dream only)
• " By Inferno's Light "
• " Far Beyond the Stars "
• " Change of Heart "
• " Strange Bedfellows " (impersonated only)
• PRO : " Kobayashi " (hologram only)
• PIC : " No Win Scenario " (image on PADD only)

Background information [ ]

Odo was played by Rene Auberjonois throughout the entire run of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine . Odo has also been played by Salome Jens (when he took the form of the Female Changeling in " Tacking Into the Wind " to infiltrate a Jem'Hadar ship), several animals (including rats, birds, and a German Shepherd), and various inanimate objects.

As Michael Piller explains, " we needed a character who represented the traditions of Spock and Data , the outsider who looks in at humanity. " ( New Frontiers: The Story of Deep Space Nine , DS9 Season 2 DVD , Special Features) He described Odo as " the curmudgeon of all curmudgeons. So instead of Data who worships humanity and wants to be that, and Spock who would deny it, Odo has been forced to pass as a humanoid all of his life, to look like us and act like us because it's a lot more socially acceptable and he resents it. So he has now found a way to use it as a defense mechanism and keep a distance from it and find ways to be critical of the human condition. " ( Trek: Deep Space Nine: The Unauthorized Story , p. 10)

Concept art for "a much more muscular, intimidating lawman" version of Odo" ( Star Trek: The Magazine, Issue 5, p. 22)

The original 1992 Writers' Bible for Star Trek: Deep Space Nine [2] gave this biography for Odo:

Odo, an alien male, middle-aged curmudgeon, and a shape-shifter. In his natural state he is a gelatinous liquid. He was Bajoran law enforcement officer on the space station under the Cardassians. Starfleet decides to have him continue in that role, since he's extremely savvy about the Promenade and all who frequent it. His back story is: 50 years ago, with no memory of his past, he was found alone in a mysterious space craft that appeared in the Denarias asteroid belt. He was found by the Bajoran and lived amongst them. At first he was sort of an Elephant Man, a source of curiosity and humor as he turned himself into a chair or pencil. Finally he realized he would have to take the form of a humanoid to assimilate and function in their environment. He does it, but resents it. As a result, Odo performs a uniquely important role in the ensemble: he is a character who explores and comments on Human values. Because he is forced to pass as one of us, his point of view usually comes with a cynical and critical edge. But he can't quite get it right, this humanoid shape, though he continues to try. So he looks a little unfinished in a way. He's been working on it a long time. Someone might ask him: Why dont you take the form of a younger man. His answer: I would if I could . He has the adopted child syndrome, searching for his own personal identity. Although he doesn't know anything about his species, he is certain that justice is an integral part of their being, because the necessity for it runs through every fiber of his body – a racial memory. Thats why he became a law man. He has a couple of Bajoran deputies; he doesnt allow weapons on the Promenade, and once every day he must return to his gelatinous form.

According to Rene Auberjonois, " Constable Odo was envisioned originally as a kind of young John Wayne sheriff-in-town. " Similarly, Ira Steven Behr stated, " I was told six months before the series began that Odo was going to be a Clint Eastwood type, and when we started creating the first couple of episodes, we sent writers off to write Clint Eastwood. And then I was told Rene Auberjonois. And I said, 'Clint Eastwood, Rene Auberjonois? Clint Eastwood, Rene Auberjonois? Does not compute.' And then I saw what he brought to the role, and I had to call up a whole bunch of writers and say 'Guys, I apologize, but this is better than we even imagined.' " ( Crew Dossier: Odo , DS9 Season 3 DVD special features)

Although Rene Auberjonois himself was initially unsure as to whether or not he could play the role, his daughter had no such doubts: " When the script was first sent to me and I read the description of the character, my daughter said to me, 'Oh dad, yeah, this is yours, you're gonna get this.' My kids were completely confident that this part was for me, which, considering the nature of the character, I don't know if I should take that as a compliment or not ." (Hidden File 04, DS9 Season 1 DVD special features)

Auberjonois was not allowed to eat or chew gum while filming, for fear it would ruin the make-up, although Salome Jens managed to get away with chewing gum on the set. Subsequently, Auberjonois said that "now I chew gum as a tribute to Odo." [3]

The name "Odo" is shared with a central character in Ursula Le Guin 's 1974 novel The Dispossessed . The character, ironically and in contrast to the Odo of Deep Space Nine , is an anarchist . Michael Piller originally called the character "Otto", but Rick Berman changed it to "Odo". ( New Frontiers: The Story of Deep Space Nine , DS9 Season 2 DVD special features)

Odo's relationship with Quark is a clear homage to the classic 1942 Michael Curtiz film Casablanca , with Odo in Claude Rains ' role of Captain Louis Renault and Quark as Humphrey Bogart 's Rick Blaine, although the garrulous Renault and taciturn Blaine are somewhat the opposite in personality to their counterparts. At one point Quark notes, " Everybody comes to Quark's, " a nod to the title of the play on which Casablanca is based ( Everybody Comes to Rick's by Murray Burnett and Joan Alison ), while, in " The Ascent ", he asks, " Do you think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship? " a twist on the film's closing line.

Several scripts refer to Odo's superior strength, such as " Vortex ", [4] and his lack of a sense of smell. ( DS9 : " If Wishes Were Horses ")

Mary Chieffo once remarked, " Of course, I have a soft spot for Odo. " [5]

In 2001, René Auberjonois was the voice of Bio-Con, a villainous snake-like shapeshifter similar to Odo, who appeared in the CGI animated series Max Steel .

Apocrypha [ ]

In the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - Millennium series of novels , it was revealed that Odo rarely shifted into smaller forms such as insects due to a psychological block from his original "training" under Doctor Mora; Mora once speculated that Odo's excess mass during small transformations was transferred to a pocket dimension, and Odo initially worried that something might happen to his mass if he maintained a small shape for long. The same novel series also speculates that the Founders placed a mental block on Odo's abilities to make it difficult for him to alter his face, thus explaining why he can never get faces quite right, even after linking with other Changelings on several occasions.

In the DS9 Relaunch novels, Odo sent a Jem'Hadar ambassador to the Alpha Quadrant to foster understanding in the Dominion of other cultures. He soon returned to DS9 and reunited with Kira.

Odo later learned that the Hundred were initially sent out to find the Progenitor – the first Changeling and the key to solving their declining population, as Changelings could not reproduce (Odo and the other Hundred were not "infants", but merely Changelings that had never been part of the Great Link) – but the discovery of the Progenitor's death caused the Changelings to disperse across the quadrant. As of 2382 , Odo had only rediscovered approximately thirty Changelings, including himself and Laas, to form a new Link.

According to the Star Trek: Terok Nor novel Night of the Wolves , Odo was found in a spherical module in the Denorios Belt by the Cardassian vessel Kevalu , which was under the command of Dalin Malyn Ocett , in 2345 .

In the Star Trek: Typhon Pact novel Raise the Dawn , Odo returned to the Alpha Quadrant to help Sisko investigate reports that the Typhon Pact, an alliance of the Federation's enemies, have stolen Jem'Hadar technology to perfect their own quantum slipstream drive , only to be trapped in the Alpha Quadrant when the wormhole was seemingly destroyed thanks to Kira's attempt to stop a Typhon Pact ship from using it again. Sisko offered Odo a place on his new ship, the USS Robinson , but the novel ends with Odo deciding to remain on Bajor for a time to think about what he will do next.

In Star Trek Online , Odo makes a sudden appearance at the very end of the mission "Scylla and Charybdis" when Dominion ships race in to aid the Alpha Quadrant Alliance in protecting Bajor and the heavily damaged Deep Space 9 from a fleet of Hur'q ships, only cryptically telling the player character "We have to talk." Odo plays a major role in the "Victory is Life" expansion, voiced again by René Auberjonois. In the introductory missions for new Jem'Hadar characters, set immediately before "Scylla and Charybdis", Odo instructs his Vorta advisors Weyoun and Loriss to lead his Vanguard Fleet through the wormhole to Bajor. He calls a conference on DS9 and informs the delegates that the Dominion fleet, save for his Vanguard, has all been destroyed by the Hur'q, and calls for the Alpha Quadrant powers to join him in combating the threat. In the course of events in the Gamma Quadrant, Odo admits that he has secretly used transponders to purposely lure the Hur'q to various worlds, including Bajor, to convince the other powers to fight them alongside the Dominion, and reveals that he has been kept in the dark by the Female Changeling and the rest of the Great Link in regards to their threat. In the mission "Home", Odo personally leads the defense of the Founders' homeworld of Empersa, and later brings the Dominion officially into the Alliance.

Odo of the alternate reality

The alternate reality version of Odo appears in the Star Trek: Ongoing story arc The Q Gambit where he is a member of the Free Federation Resistance after being found by Resistance scientists in 2348 . Odo helps Sisko, James T. Kirk , Montgomery Scott , and Nyota Uhura escape from Terok Nor by posing as a Jem'Hadar and are then beamed aboard the USS Defiant where they head for Earth, which had been taken over by the Klingon Empire and renamed "Tera'." When Kurn escorts the group to meet with Chancellor Worf, Odo tells Sisko that something felt amiss to him, and he was right when Worf is suddenly killed by his guards and Kurn, but it is revealed that they're actually Changelings who proclaim Earth is now under Dominion control. One of the Changelings then points his disruptor at Odo saying he would have the honor of dying first for betraying his people, to which Odo said he would commit the betrayal a thousand times over as they have twisted their once peaceful civilization into a mockery of all that is honorable. They are saved when a shuttlecraft piloted by Miles O'Brien arrives and causes the ceiling to crumble killing the Changelings. Odo then explains that he arranged for the shuttle to come pick them up but couldn't risk telling Sisko in case their enemies found out. When they meet up with Jake Sisko and Jadzia Dax on the Resistance outpost planet Paradise, Sisko becomes host to a Prophet and Odo explains to Uhura who the Prophets are.

External links [ ]

• Odo at StarTrek.com
• Odo (Star Trek) at Wikipedia
• Odo at Memory Beta , the wiki for licensed Star Trek works
• Odo at the Star Trek Online Wiki
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Published Jun 15, 2023

Star Trek's Unlikely Fathers: Data and Odo

Our two figures came to discover, through trial and error, that fatherhood was a constant evolution.

StarTrek.com

Fatherhood is not a step one should take lightly. For two of Star Trek ’s least likely fathers, fatherhood began as clear-eyed choices, which would reveal to them truths about themselves and the world in which they walked.

For Data , in the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode “ The Offspring ,” his daughter started out as an experiment driven by a visit to a cybernetics conference. And for Odo , in the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode “ The Begotten ,” his adopted child was a chance-find brought to him by his main foil . Both knew almost immediately that what he was undertaking was not something done lightly, and yet, like all new fathers, neither had any idea what they were actually in for.

It is often said that being a parent is like having a piece of your heart walking around outside your body. Your heart (your child) is exposed and vulnerable, and every instinct inside you screams to protect it. You cannot let this piece of you come to harm because anything that hurts it hurts you. But you understand that you cannot protect it forever, and sooner than you wish, your child will have to learn to cope with the world and all its dangers on their own.

Data does this in the most logical way he knows, which is the only way he knows to do anything. He exposes Lal to as much of the world as he can as quickly as he feels she will be able to understand. He soon realizes that he cannot teach her everything she needs to know, becoming so overwhelmed by her constant quest for learning — “ Why is the sky black? ” — that he shuts her off for the night. (Human children, alas, come with no such switch, but that’s why science invented tablets and Cocomelon.) He decides, in that moment that, while Lal can learn from him, it is better than she learn on her own as other children do — in a social setting. He pushes his baby bird out of the nest, and in doing so, he learns that early difficult lesson of fatherhood — making friends for yourself may be hard, but making friends for your child is impossible. All you can do is step back, watch them fail, and then talk with them about why it didn't work out.

Odo felt the sting of his child’s failure much more sharply because of his own upbringing. While Data had no parent figure when he was a “child,” he has had a positive father figure in his own life in the form of Captain Picard. Odo’s sole father figure was Dr. Mora Pol , a scientist Odo came to resent and even hate. Why? Because Dr. Mora had no idea what he was doing as he raised Odo, and he made every mistake a father could make. He pushed, punished, and was neither gentle nor kind. He barely saw Odo as a person, but more as an experiment, a thing to be understood.

And so Odo, when given the chance, made his parenting choices almost out of spite. Sometimes being a father means putting into action the words, “Oh, I’ll show you.” In doing so, Odo overcorrected the sins of his father and cradled his child like an egg, terrified to do anything which would cause it any discomfort or pain, terrified to be anything like the man who raised him.

Only once Odo did what Data did, and allowed the child to come under strain and experience difficulty did the child grow and respond. But because of the lessons Odo had learned, he reacted with empathy and understanding. He guided the Changeling infant through the challenges it faced even as he was the one subjecting it to those challenges. Through this, Odo also came to an understanding of Dr. Mora because it is not until you are a parent that you can truly begin to understand your own parents. And through Odo’s journey, Dr. Mora came to understand his son like he never had before. Fatherhood is a constant evolution, rippling forward and backward through generations.

As their children begin to grow, both Data and Odo see their hopes and dreams for their children expand. Data understands his limitations — his lack of emotion and, on a more surface level, his inability to use contractions. While he never states his intention to make Lal better than he is, he does strive to help her understand that she can be the best person she could be. When Lal asks Data what their function is, he responds, “To contribute in a positive way to the world in which we live.” Much like Odo wants to be a better father than his was, Data wants Lal to understand she exists to make the world better. Macro and micro goals which both equal out to the same thing.

Lal uses a contraction for the first time, and Data realizes that his child has capabilities which far exceed his own. While this is never explored in the episode, it can be assumed that, at some point, Data would have to wrestle with the fact that there will come a time when Lal will experience things Data can no longer explain to her. What is a father to do when he no longer understands the world as his child sees it? The only thing a father can ever do — love the child unconditionally and be there for whatever the child needs.

Odo also glimpses this future, and in fact, it’s part of his stated goal from the very moment he learns of the baby Changeling. “You can be anything,” Odo says, a cliché all fathers say (and believe), but carrying with it a delightful double meaning for this infant shapeshifter. Odo tells his child that he can’t wait to teach it to change into all sorts of wonderful things, like a Tarkalean hawk, while admitting that he was never very good at shapeshifting. He knows that he can teach his child to exceed his own abilities, and, in fact, relishes the idea.

Data and Odo both also experience one of the most rewarding and unexpected joys of fatherhood; something you never really think about until it happens. For Data, it occurs when Lal understands the purpose of holding hands and, on her own, makes the choice to take Data’s hand in her own. For Odo, it's when the infant Changeling rises up and mimics Odo’s own face back to him. For both characters, these silent gestures mean one thing — “I love you, father.” And the first time your child tells you they love you unbidden, it is one of the most special moments in a parent’s life.

There is one more thing that Data grasps about being a parent innately that cannot be left unstated as too many parents in this present day do not understand it. Data understands that he will accept and care for Lal no matter what gender or appearance she chooses. He gives her that choice freely, and if she were to choose to change it later, we understand that he would accept that as well and care for them just the same. This is not a discussion Odo must have because he, by nature, understands the fluidity of his child’s person. Star Trek , it seems, will forever reach across decades and speak to discussions happening today.

Both fathers, in the end, must also experience the worst thing a parent can go through. But rather than focus on that, we can focus on the final lesson both learn. That through our children, we understand the world. That what they experience — how they live, learn, and grow — can teach us to be better ourselves. Through the experience of fatherhood, brief though it is for both Data and Odo, they are forever changed for the better. We can all hope that we teach our children to be better than we are, and they, in turn, teach us to be better than we thought we ever could be.

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Doug Robertson is a lifelong Trek fan and educator who has written several books about teaching, including "The Cardboard Classroom," which can be found anywhere books are sold.

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A constable in the Bajoran militia, the no-nonsense Odo serves as Chief of Security aboard Deep Space Nine. Unsure of his roots, the shapeshifting Odo desperately seeks out clues about his people, who ultimately prove to be one of the Federation’s greatest threats.

Portrayed By: Rene Auberjonois

Position/Role: Constable/Chief of Security

Race: Changeling/Founder

Duration: Seasons 1-7

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Star Trek Fan Says One Character Actually Deserves More Hate

One Star Trek fan has had enough of other Trekkies giving a free pass to one beloved character that they believe deserves a harsher look from fans.

• A Star Trek fan on Reddit believes that the character Odo from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine doesn't receive enough criticism for his actions, particularly his relationship with a Female Changeling in charge of a potential genocide.
• The fan compares Odo's actions to those of Hitler's consort Eva Braun and argues that he should be judged harshly for fraternizing with the enemy while millions of lives were at stake.
• Despite Odo eventually siding with the right factions in the Dominion War, the fan believes that not enough is done to address the magnitude of his wrongdoing or to atone for it. However, some fans argue that Odo's actions were influenced by mind control and manipulation.

Star Trek hosts several complex and well-loved characters with interesting moral positions. However, one fan believes that Odo from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine might have gotten off too easy in public discourse.

Star Trek : Deep Space Nine is the fourth Star Trek series and the first to take place on a station instead of a Starship. The series enjoyed remarkable critical acclaim, and fans took to many of the main characters, including the shapeshifting head of security for the Deep Space Nine station, Odo, a sentient creature known as a Changeling who starts his life adapting to human ways and acted as something of a moral guidepost for other characters.

Star Trek: How Did Data's Cat Save the Enterprise Crew?

Despite the character generally being viewed in a positive light as a fan-favorite, one Star Trek enjoyer on Reddit doesn’t believe the character deserves this stellar reputation at all. User OpCrossroads1946 took to the site’s r/startrek board to put forth a post boldly titled, “Odo doesn't get enough hate,” in which he took issue with one particular part of the character’s history that he views as far more irredeemable than other fans seem to remember it. After giving honorable mention to the fact that Odo served as an enforcer for a brutal occupying invader, a job that he kept after Deep Space Nine was liberated , the user instead chose to focus on an even more blatant flirtation with authoritarian forces and subjugation: Odo's literal flirtation and relationship with a Female Changeling in charge of a potential genocide in service of expanding the Changeling's Dominion Empire.

OpCrossroads1946 goes on to establish the severity of the threat posed by the Dominion–who at one point were considering killing all inhabitants of Earth–and highlights the fact that Odo would go on to have an intimate relationship with the female Changeling despite her position as the head of the war effort, effectively fraternizing with the enemy while millions of lives were at stake. The user compared Odo's position to that of Hitler's consort, Eva Braun, arguing that Odo's actions were similar to hers and should be judged as harshly. Rather than appropriately resenting the character for his betrayal, OpCrossroads1946 points out that Odo got a free pass for eventually siding with the right factions in the Dominion War . They also attributed some of this leeway to the stellar performance behind Odo from the late great René Auberjonois, which may have bought the character more goodwill than earned.

While a lot happened to Odo throughout Star Trek: Deep Space Nine , even after these events, little is done to address the magnitude of this wrongdoing or atone for it. On the contrary, Odo would instead make peace with the female Changeling and save the species in a pivotal moment for the series. However, many fans in the replies were quick to point out that Odo's species were shown to be subject to a pseudo-hive-mind and that Odo himself noted with some discomfort that he’s lost track of multiple days while linked to the female changeling, who was explicitly shown to be manipulating him. Because of this, the dissenters say, Odo is treated the same way any other character who sinned when under mind control or similar forms of coercion would be, a condition that isn’t unheard of in Star Trek .

No matter how fans look at it, Odo's experiences and actions in this arc played a major part in one of the most important facets of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine 's famously fulfilling ending . This intricately connected story arc carries far more weight than the character’s actions under duress, and for better or worse, is far more memorable when fans think of Odo.

The Star Trek franchise is available for streaming on Paramount Plus.

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

In the vicinity of the liberated planet of Bajor, the Federation space station Deep Space Nine guards the opening of a stable wormhole to the far side of the galaxy.

Star Trek: Worst Starships To Work On

Source: Reddit/OpCrossroads1946

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Odo is a Changeling . Formerly the security chief aboard Deep Space 9 , he currently resides with the Dominion Founders in the Gamma Quadrant . Loriss acts as his personal Vorta .

• 2 Missions given
• 3 Missions involved
• 4 Missions mentioned
• 5 Other Involvement
• 8 External links
• Date Unknown: Odo is among the one hundred Changelings scattered across the galaxy by the Founders. He is eventually discovered in the Alpha Quadrant , and is studied by Bajoran Doctor Mora Pol for seven years. In that time, Odo learned to control his shapeshifting abilities; however, he regarded Mora's experiments as mistreatment.
• Date Unknown: Odo arrives on Terok Nor , a Cardassian space station orbiting Bajor . There, he developed a reputation as a neutral party, and frequently settled disputes among the station's Bajoran population. Eventually, he is appointed chief of security by Dukat .
• 2369 : The Cardassians are forced from the station by the Bajorans, who turn to Starfleet for assistance with administration of the station. Commander Benjamin Sisko asks Odo to remain as chief of security.
• 2371 : Odo encounters his people in the Gamma Quadrant, notably meeting the Female Changeling , discovering that they are the Founders of the Dominion .
• 2372 : Odo is secretly infected with a morphogenic virus by Section 31 , with the intent that he will pass the infection on to the Founders.
• 2375 : Odo meets Laas , another of the one hundred Changelings. While they develop a strong bond, Laas has learned to hold "solids" in contempt, and ultimately leaves the station. Later that year, he returns to his people in the Gamma Quadrant following the Dominion War , curing them of the morphogenic virus.
• 2384 : Odo acts as the Founders' ambassador to the solids. In this capacity, he meets with Laas and invites him to return with him to the Gamma Quadrant. Laas refuses, choosing to search the Alpha and Beta Quadrants for changelings.
• 2386 : Odo meets with Lamat'Ukan , First of the Jem'Hadar in the Alpha Quadrant, and invites him to return with him to the Gamma Quadrant. Lamat'Ukan rejects Odo as a false god, and refuses.

Missions given

Missions involved

Missions mentioned, other involvement.

• "Introducing: The Swarm!" : Ambassador Odo asks for assistance in rescuing civilians from a Hur'q attack on an unidentified planet.
• "The Missing Link" : Nuno, a Founder, returns home with his ship and crew from a five-year Dominion exploration mission. Before he can rejoin the Great Link, he learns that the Dominion is at war with the Hur'q. Accessing a console, Nuno realizes that while the Dominion has officially maintained that the war is going well, far fewer vessels are returning from their deployments than are sent out. He is met by the Female Changeling and Odo; the Female Changeling tells him that the members of the Link are not to be "troubled" with the details of the war. Agreeing to keep the secret, Nuno decides not to rejoin the Link. Privately, Odo asks Nuno to tell him everything he has learned about the state of the war.
• Reunion : Odo returns a young Dukan'Rex to the Dominion, only to be reunited with him years later during an operation to Stakoron .
• Following the deaths of René Auberjonois and Aron Eisenberg, both Odo and Nog were moved to be permanently visible, talking in Quark's Bar.
• Prior to Victory is Life , Odo's cameo in “Scylla and Charybdis” used archival audio.

Odo and Nog talking in Quark's Bar

Odo defends himself

Odo tries to communicate with the Hur'q

Kira and Odo face defeat

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Star Trek: Deep Space Nine actor René Auberjonois dies at 79

Fellow actors George Takei, William Shatner and more pay tribute online to the actor who played Changeling Odo.

Actor René Auberjonois played lawyer Paul Lewiston in the TV drama Boston Legal.

Prolific actor René Auberjonois , best known for his role as shape-shifter Changeling Odo in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine , has died at the age of 79.

The actor died Sunday at his home in Los Angeles of metastatic lung cancer,  his son son Rèmy-Luc confirmed to the Associated Press.

Auberjonois also appeared as the character Paul Lewiston in 71 episodes of the TV drama Boston Legal . He is also known for his roles in Benson , The Practice (which earned him an Emmy nod), Stargate SG-1 , Warehouse 13 , Star Trek: Enterprise , Frasier , It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia , Murder, She Wrote , and The Jeffersons , to name a few.

Auberjonois has starred in numerous films such as director Robert Altman's M.A.S.H. in which he played Father Mulcahy. He appeared in other Altman movies such as McCabe and Mrs. Miller , Brewster McCloud , and Images. Auberjonois also appeared in the 1976 King Kong movie, The Patriot, Batman Forever , and  Eyes of Laura Mars .

René Auberjonois as Odo with the rest of the cast of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.

He is also known for his voice acting roles including 1989's  The Little Mermaid , were he plays Chef Louis and sings the song "Les Poissons."

Auberjonois' character  Odo in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine  was often treated as an outside by other characters, which in turn made Odo rather gruff and persnickety at time. His character was hilariously sarcastic, but he also could show a certain sensitivity that only outsiders can fully understand. He was one of my favorite Star Trek characters.

His Deep Space Nine co-star Armin Shimerman who played Quark tweeted on Sunday a favorite memory of the actor. 

"His last message to me was entitled 'Don't forget…'," Shimerman tweeted. "I know that I, Kitty and all that knew him will never forget. The world seems noticeably emptier now. I loved him."

It is with great heartache and loss I share with you the passing of dear,dear Rene Auberjonois.His last message to me was entitled "Don't forget..." I know that I,Kitty,and all that knew him will never forget.The world seems noticeably emptier now. I loved him. — Armin Shimerman (@ShimermanArmin) December 8, 2019

Star Trek actor George Takei also tweeted his condolences.

"This is a terrible loss," Takei tweeted. "Star Trek fans knew him as Odo from Deep Space Nine. We knew him as René. He was a wonderful, caring, and intelligent man. He shall be missed. When I look out to the stars, I shall think of you, friend."

This is a terrible loss. Star Trek fans knew him as Odo from Deep Space Nine. We knew him as René. He was a wonderful, caring, and intelligent man. He shall be missed. When I look out to the stars, I shall think of you, friend. https://t.co/IE2gtivRcg — George Takei (@GeorgeTakei) December 8, 2019

His Boston Legal co-star and fellow Star Trek actor William Shatner also tweeted his thoughts about Auberjonois.

"I have just heard about the death of my friend and fellow actor Rene Auberjonois," Shatner wrote. "To sum up his life in a tweet is nearly impossible. To Judith, Tessa & Remy I send you my love & strength. I will keep you in my thoughts and remember a wonderful friendship with René."

I have just heard about the death of my friend and fellow actor @reneauberjonois . To sum up his life in a tweet is nearly impossible. To Judith, Tessa & Remy I send you my love & strength. I will keep you in my thoughts and remember a wonderful friendship with René. — William Shatner (@WilliamShatner) December 8, 2019

Actor Edward James Olmos tweeted , "Rene Auberjonois a true gentleman and passionate artist passed onto the next understanding, and we will miss him so much. I was honored to have worked with him on Windows On The World, his second to last film. He delivered an amazing rendition of NY NY -- a brilliant artist."

Rene Auberjonois a true gentleman & passionate artist passed onto the next understanding & we will miss him so much. I was honored to have worked with him on Windows On The World, his second to last film. He delivered an amazing rendition of NY NY - a brilliant artist #sswa #RIP pic.twitter.com/KR5PKylNZe — Edward James Olmos (@edwardjolmos) December 8, 2019

Additional fellow actors, celebs and fans paid tribute to Auberjonois on social media. 

We are deeply saddened to report the passing of René Auberjonois. #StarTrek #StarTrekFamily https://t.co/ySVTLSERIA — Star Trek (@StarTrek) December 8, 2019

😥 pic.twitter.com/jj07NmaqCO — Discovery Writers (@StarTrekRoom) December 9, 2019

Rene was another icon I was amazed to have had the honor to work with on #WAREHOUSE13 . An artist in every sense. Rest In Peace, sir. https://t.co/fvKV0pEUvB — Eddie McClintock (@EddieMcClintock) December 9, 2019

I am so sorry to hear that the wonderful René Auberjonois has passed away. I had the great honor to play his daughter on Boston Legal. My thoughts and prayers go out to his family, friends, and his many fans. May he rest in peace. ❤️ pic.twitter.com/eRxwfmmkcy — Jayne Brook (@thejaynebrook) December 8, 2019

Rene Auberjonois describes life with Odo's makeup during this 1993 interview with Good Morning America. #StarTrek #ReneAuberjonois pic.twitter.com/icRqcXjsdG — TrekCore.com 🖖 (@TrekCore) December 8, 2019

RIP Rene Auberjonois, a man who loomed large in the TV & film landscape of my youth. I eventually got to meet him and felt so privileged to have done so. My thoughts are with his wonderful family. — Paul F. Tompkins (@PFTompkins) December 8, 2019

Rest in peace, René Auberjonois. You did many things but this was by far your biggest impact on me. pic.twitter.com/DtdcSgX7Nc — Benjamin Siemon (@BenjaminJS) December 8, 2019

Rene Auberjonois has left us. So sad. Such a lovely man. Had.the great pleasure of working with him on stage doing Bulgakov’s Heart of a Dog. And in Nicaragua in the height of the Contra-War, filming Walker. A gentleman and a scholar, chef and photographer. Miss him already. pic.twitter.com/5CLzNzBjt8 — Xander Berkeley (@xanderberkeley) December 8, 2019

2019 TV shows you can't miss

How Star Trek: Discovery's Trill Story Connects to Dax on DS9

• Star Trek: Discovery Season 5 deepens connections through Trill lore and rituals, forging ties with past series like Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.
• The zhian'tara ritual was introduced in Deep Space Nine, which allows interactions between host personalities and adds layers to character development.
• Adira's unique bonding experience with a Trill symbiont showcases new ways of connection, expanding the Trill's lore in Discovery.

The following contains spoilers from Star Trek: Discovery , Season 5, Episode 3, "Jinaal," now streaming on Paramount+ .

When Star Trek: Discovery first started its mission to bring Gene Roddenberry's universe back to television, producers made sure the series stood apart from the previous series. However, by Season 5, Discovery is embracing its Star Trek roots more than ever before. The third episode of the final season brings the USS Discovery crew to the Trill home world for a ritual that was first introduced on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine . In Season 3, the USS Discovery jumped forward in time (nearly a thousand years), and they discovered a galaxy that was almost unrecognizable to them. Decimated by "the Burn," warp drive travel was all but a thing of the past.

Starfleet officers and vessels were flung across the galaxy and separated from each other by millions of billions of miles. The spore drive -- the USS Discovery's unique propulsion method -- changed all that. Along the way, they picked up Adira Tal, a human who was bonded with a Trill symbiont after their partner, Gray, died. This reintroduced the symbiotic species into Star Trek and made the Trill home world and its unique brand of sci-fi mysticism a big part of the series. As Captain Michael Burnham hunts for clues to the mysterious and powerful technology sought by Starfleet, she and Dr. Hugh Culber have to participate in a ritual created for Deep Space Nine : the zhian'tara.

Discovery Has Always Been Steeped in Star Trek History and Connections

Star trek: discovery's alex kurtzman & michelle paradise talk final season.

When Discovery debuted, it departed from Star Trek staples of design and characterization. The crew of the USS Discovery were not the paragons of Starfleet virtue audiences expected from their Star Trek series. Yet, from the appearance of Harcourt Fenton Mudd to the Federation-Klingon War itself, the show was never too far from the franchise's past. When Season 2 introduced Captain Christopher Pike, Number One and, of course, Spock, the distance between Discovery and the rest of the Star Trek universe closed.

Since then, there have been countless references to past stories in the Star Trek universe. In fact, Season 3's “Unification III” made a trilogy out of the pair of episodes where Spock began to unify Romulans with Vulcans . There is a six-decade history of stories for Discovery writers to draw from, and they do it to serve the series' story more so than just collect Easter eggs for longtime fans . The reintroduction of the Trill is just one of many ways producers pull off this generational magic trick.

Discovery Season 5 ties to The Next Generation and one of its biggest open mysteries: that the majority of sentient, sapient life in the galaxy was born from a single race billions of years ago. However, Adira's very existence is a nod to the first episode to introduce the Trill, Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 4, Episode 23, “The Host.” Will Riker has to take on the Odan symbiont when the Trill host is killed. Similarly, when the Trill Guardians helped Dr. Culber give Gray a new body, they used the zhian'tara method to transfer his consciousness .

The Zhian'tara Ritual Was First Introduced for Jadzia Dax on Deep Space Nine

Star trek: discovery actors doug jones & david ajala prepare for their last adventure.

In Star Trek: Deep Space Nine , Season 3, Episode 25, "Facets," storytellers introduced a strange and powerful Trill ability in the zhian'tara. While the Trill hosts share the memories of their predecessors with their symbionts, it's all a jumble in their minds . A Trill Guardian, using a bit of natural telepathic abilities and a ritual, is able to take each individual host personality and place into another's body. This allows each Trill host to meet and talk with their predecessors in a more direct way.

Jadzia Dax was a Trill who'd previously been "washed out" of the program that chose host candidates. Not only that, it was her predecessor, Curzon Dax, who was responsible for it. Thus, she'd been putting off her zhian'tara, As each host's personality was put into her friends' bodies, Jadzia was able to learn things about them despite having all their memories . She learned about tics she picked up from each of them, as well as specific skills. She was even able to discover why Curzon washed her out of the program, even though she should have had his memories of the event.

While the host's consciousness was inside their bodies, the other Deep Space Nine characters were supposed to be able to resume control on a whim. However, murderer Joran Dax was able to keep Captain Sisko subdued until Jadzia hit him. Similarly, because of Odo's unique physiology as a Changeling, he and Curzon bonded on a more significant level. In fact, Curzon wanted to not return his consciousness to the Dax symbiont and continue to live in Odo. Jadzia convinced him to return, but it was revealed that the zhian'tara process was not temporary. This is how Guardian Xi was able to use it to put Gray's consciousness inside the synthetic body he now occupies.

How Jinaal Uses Zhian'tara to Advance Star Trek: Discovery Season 5

Star trek: discovery's sonequa martin-green embarks on one final voyage.

After finding a clue in the form of a poem , the USS Discovery arrives at the Trill homeworld, and Captain Burnham first has to answer a riddle posed by Guardian Xi. When she does, he tells her the symbiont they wish to speak to is still alive, currently in Kalzara Bix. However, the host who left the clue to the Progenitors' technology, is Jinaal Bix. He's been dead for 800 years, but Kalzara refuses to simply tell the away team where the clue is from his memories .

Instead, Guardian Xi initiates a zhian'tara to bring Jindaal back to life inside the body of Dr. Hugh Culber. While Jinaal says he only has "a few hours," given what Deep Space Nine revealed this is a self-imposed time limit. This turned out to be a good thing, since Jinaal's hike into the mountains was an elaborate test to see if Burnham was worthy of the clue that pointed them to the next piece of the puzzle . It also gave Jinaal a chance to once again "take a nice long walk."

Later, in Red's lounge on the starship, Culber talks about the experience, saying "I was there, but I wasn't. How does that even work?" It continues Discovery's theme in Season 5 of the various ways different species can connect to each other while also looking forward to the "big" questions of existence. Still, while the use of zhian'tara connects Discovery to Deep Space Nine , the quest on Trill continues to build on fans' understanding of this unique Star Trek species, and it's not the first time.

How Star Trek: Discovery Expands the Trill Beyond What DS9 Laid Out

Star trek: discovery's mary wiseman, wilson cruz and blu del barrio hype finale.

Adira is not like other symbiont hosts viewers have seen in Star Trek , and this is by design. As a human being, they are the first of that species to bond this way. In fact, at first, Adira couldn't access the previous Tal host's memories, nor could they access their own. In Season 3, Episode 4, "Forget Me Not," Adira is taken to the Trill home world in the hopes of sorting out the problem. While they met with resistance, Guardian Xi was willing to help them, even without permission. Just as Jadzia Dax was able to access her suppressed former host, Joran Dax, through a ritual in the symbiont pools. In Season 7, Episode 13, Ezri Dax was able to perform the Rite of Emergence and interact with Joran much in the way Adira was able to interact with Gray after their visit to Trill.

Adira never had a proper zhian'tara depicted onscreen, but instead was able to experience the hosts in a new way . While trying to connect fully with the Tal symbiont, both Adira and Michael Burnham traveled to a kind of astral plane. There Adira reconnected with their memories of Gray, including his death. Yet, they were also able to meet with the separated consciousnesses of the other hosts and be welcomed "to the circle." This was a unique occurrence other Trill weren't able to perform, it seems. While this was going on, Guardian Xi said this was something he'd never seen before.

Lastly, the zhian'tara was used by Guardian Xi to transfer Gray's consciousness from Adira into a new Picard -style synthetic body . However, this process was dangerous and took much longer than normal because there wasn't a host mind to "guide" Gray. Still, while it took a while, Gray eventually awoke in his new body and resumed his Guardian training on Trill. The way Star Trek: Discovery built on the foundation laid by Deep Space Nine has led to fresh stories that expand fans' understanding of the Trill while providing excellent drama.

Star Trek: Discovery debuts new episodes Thursdays on Paramount+ .

Star Trek: Discovery

Star Trek: Discovery follows Michael Burnham on her journey from a mutineer in the 23rd Century to Starfleet captain in the 32nd. With its one-of-a-kind spore drive, the USS Discovery is a ship unlike any other, with a crew to match.

Release Date September 24, 2017

Cast Oyin Oladejo, Emily Coutts, Anthony Rapp, Sonequa Martin-Green, Doug Jones, Mary Wiseman

Main Genre Sci-Fi

Genres Drama, Sci-Fi, Action, Adventure

Rating TV-14

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Review: The EXO-6 ‘Star Trek: Deep Space Nine’ 1:6 Odo Figure Is The Shape of Things To Come

| April 9, 2024 | By: Jeff Bond 7 comments so far

Constable Odo 1/6 Scale Action Figure

Manufacturer: EXO-6 Price: $215 Grade: A+

Way back in the no-man’s land between the release of Star Trek: The Motion Picture and The Wrath of Khan , when it briefly looked like there might be no more Star Trek movies and there hadn’t been a new Star Trek TV show since the 1973 animated series, I had a weird dream one night that there was a new Star Trek series on the air and one of the actors in it was René Auberjonois. At the time I knew Auberjonois from his performances in the 1976 King Kong remake and The Eyes of Laura Mars (where he did an uncanny impression of Lloyd Bridges using only his face).

What I didn’t imagine was that Auberjonois would indeed appear in a new Star Trek show a decade or so later—but his face would be covered by a thick layer of latex makeup and he would be playing an alien shapeshifter named Odo. Like Spock, Data, and later characters like Seven of Nine and Saru, Odo was part of the Star Trek formula that dictated an alien “other” character was always needed to provide an outsider perspective on humanity. A holdover from the Cardassian’s shepherding of their space station Terok Nor, Odo retained his job as a security officer to become Deep Space Nine’s “constable”—a sheriff who keeps a close eye on the denizens that live on and visit DS9, particularly his arch nemesis, the Ferengi Quark. Odo can use his shapeshifting abilities to impersonate other beings or even disguise himself as inanimate objects—all a boon to his work maintaining law and order on the station.

René Auberjonois as Constable Odo in a Deep Space Nine publicity photo (Paramount)

Odo’s origins were initially mysterious, even to himself (in one first season episode after chasing what he’d thought to be a clue to his background, a lonely Odo gazes out into space from a runabout and ponders, “Home…where is it?”). Eventually, he discovers that he’s part of the race of the Founders, dangerous “changelings” and founders of the Dominion, a warlike confederation of races that threatens the Federation. Odo consequently finds himself torn between loyalty to his friends on DS9 and the race that gave birth to him. Auberjonois, a reliable and effective character actor, gave Odo a gruff, no-nonsense personality that set him off from DS9’s mix of hotheads, pious clerics, and very human Starfleet officers. He figured in some tremendous storylines, although I wish the show hadn’t gone in the direction of putting him and Major Kira—two of the strongest characters in the series—in a standard romance that ultimately weakened both of them.

René Auberjonois as Constable Odo in “What You Left Behind” (Paramount)

EXO-6 Odo Figure

EXO-6’s Deep Space Nine line of 12” action figures has been absolutely stellar in its quality, and Odo might just be the best release yet. One might think that capturing Odo’s deliberately featureless prosthetic makeup would be a breeze, but it actually seems more like a trap as the proportions of the character’s face come off as deliberately vague and confusing due to the makeup. Sculptor Dean Tolliver pulls off the assignment flawlessly, from Odo’s prim, downturned mouth to his piercing, deep-set eyes.

EXO-6 DS9 Odo figure

One big challenge to these characters is hair—it has to be molded into the one-piece head sculpt which often gives the entire character a plastic, doll-like sheen. Odo’s hair even in the series has an uncanny, sleek appearance that lends itself well to this kind of reproduction—there’s a very fine seam bisecting the head, something you can catch with careful examination on this and some other EXO figures, but it mostly disappears within the hair sculpture, and that’s really the only minor flaw (if you can call it that) in the figure.

Odo’s clothes are of drab and utilitarian Bajoran make, almost allowing him to disappear among the brown and bronze arches of the space station’s promenade, and the figure captures the cut of the uniform, its Bajoran insignia, belt and boots perfectly.

If you watch the series, you know that Odo doesn’t roll with standard Starfleet weaponry—he’s his own weapon, with the ability to turn his arms into whiplike tendrils or any other shape that might come in handy to subdue a scofflaw. Odo comes with the standard Starfleet PADD and a tricorder, but this figure boasts two more-character-based accessories that really set this release off and required a larger-than-normal collectors box. One accessory is Odo’s “bucket”—a metallic container that the shapeless being relaxes inside in liquid form after a hard day’s crime-fighting. EXO also includes a spectacular clear vinyl sculpture of Odo in mid-transformation, congealing upwards from a puddle on the floor, his arms folded and his distinctive features starting to take shape.

Bucket and shape-shifting accessories for EXO-6 DS9 Odo figure

These accessories make Odo’s display footprint about twice the size of a normal EXO-6 figure, but it’s worth it, especially since at $215 he’s in line with most of the other DS9 figure price points.

Odo was released today and is available now at EX0-6.com .  This is another spectacular figure release from EXO-6 and since they tend to sell out quickly, you’d be well advised to order ASAP.

The Odo figure is part of EXO-6’s Star Trek: Deep Space Nine collection. Quark and Sisko have already sold out. The Kira figure [ see TrekMovie’s review ] is still available. Dr. Julian Bashir is next in line , but the pre-order period has already sold out.

Upcoming EXO-6 Dr. Bashir figure

A closer look at Odo

Jeff Bond is a freelance writer and book author who’s addicted to plastic models and action figures. You can catch up with him on  Facebook  and  Instagram  where he posts model works in progress, and takes commissions. His latest Star Trek book is  Star Trek: The Motion Picture: The Art and Visual Effects .

Find more Star Trek merchandise news and reviews at TrekMovie.com .

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Incredible detail, the greatest representation….

Finally, an EXO sculpt that actually looks like the character.

Kind of funny that it’s the one with a deliberately featureless messed up face.

Wow. I sold my TMP Kirk and Spock due to the poor likenesses.

But this actually looks really good. Maybe….

Gotta admit, this IS a good one! 🫤 If only I had the bars of latinum… 😒💸

This looks absolutely fabulous!! 😍

Well done. These are so well done. Not surprised they keep selling out.

I sure hope Hiya Toys can give us a diverse range of Star Trek figures drawing from the entire legacy of Star Trek like Exo-6 is doing here. Playmates has certainly dropped the ball but I still have faith that a good quality line could be a success. I hope unlike Playmates, Hiya will take fan’s comments and input into consideration like Exo-6 is also doing. We fans like feeling like we have some say in the thought process of creating a line and being appreciated by the teams responsible for developing products like this and Playmates just took all our patronage for granted.

Screen Rant

Star trek: ds9 tried to make odo more like tng’s data in 1 big way.

Star Trek: DS9's Odo and TNG's Data were similar, but an abandoned plan for Rene Auberjonois in season 2 would have made them even more alike.

• Odo and Data in Star Trek share similar journeys as alien characters seeking to understand humanity.
• Plans to have Odo play both himself and Dr. Mora in DS9 were abandoned due to logistical issues.
• Odo and Data both start out as orphans and later discover their origins and evil counterparts.

An abandoned plan for the character of Constable Odo (Rene Auberjonois) in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine would have made him more like Star Trek: The Next Generation 's Lt. Commander Data (Brent Spiner) in one key way. Like Spock (Leonard Nimoy) before them, Odo and Data were alien characters who sought to understand more about what it meant to be human. However, while Spock and Data were aware of their origins, Odo's own origin story was shrouded in mystery for the first two seasons of DS9 .

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine seasons 1 and 2 did, however, reveal details about his early life. Discovered in his liquid form drifting through space near the wormhole, Odo came into the possession of Bajoran scientist Dr. Mora Pol (James Sloyan). Odo once told Lwaxana Troi (Majel Barrett) that he based his hair on Dr. Mora. DS9 's producers had planned to go much further with the similarities between Odo and Mora in season 2, episode 12, "The Alternate", in a manner similar to Data and his creator, Noonien Soong (Brent Spiner) .

Constable Odo's 10 Best Star Trek: DS9 Episodes

How ds9 tried to make odo more like tng’s data.

The Star Trek: Deep Space Nine companion reveals that the original plan for "The Alternate" was to have Rene Auberjonois play both Constable Odo and Dr. Mora Pol . Brent Spiner had done the same thing in Star Trek: The Next Generation , playing both Lt. Commander Data and his creator, Dr. Noonien Soong, to great success. Years later, Robert Picardo would also do double duty as the EMH Doctor in Star Trek: Voyager and his creator, Dr. Lewis Zimmerman. However, due to a considerable logistical issue, it was decided that Rene Auberjonois wouldn't play both Odo and Mora .

The main issue for "The Alternate" was that it would require extensive make-up work for Rene Auberjonois to play both characters in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine . One particular scene in the episode sees an angry Odo lose physical stability, and begin to melt in front of Dr. Mora. If that weren't complex enough, there would be the daily make-up required for Auberjonois to play Odo, combined with the additional make-up to transform the actor into a Bajoran scientist. It was estimated that the work involved would double the length of the shoot, and so James Sloyan was cast instead .

DS9’s Odo And TNG’s Data Did Have 1 Major Thing In Common

Rene Auberjonois didn't follow in Brent Spiner's footsteps by playing both "father" and "son" in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine . However, Odo and Data did share one big thing in common. Both DS9 's Odo and Star Trek: The Next Generation 's Data effectively begin their stories as orphans. Odo was discovered drifting in space above Bajor, while Data was discovered abandoned on the planet Omicron Theta. Both Odo and Data then spent a considerable amount of time learning to become more human, with the intervention of scientific minds. And then, years later, when Odo and Data do find their origins, they also discover their evil counterparts.

When Odo and Data do find their origins, they also discover their evil counterparts.

In Star Trek: The Next Generation, it was Data's evil brother Lore, while for Odo it was the Changelings, the so-called founders of DS9 's anti-Federation . Both men had to reconcile their problematic relatives, as both Lore and the Dominion sought to destroy everyone that Data and Odo cared for. So, while Odo wasn't as physically similar to Dr. Mora Pol as Data was to Noonien Soong, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine 's Changeling Constable did share a very similar character arc to TNG 's beloved android.

All episodes of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Star Trek: The Next Generation are available to stream on Paramount+

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, also known as DS9, is the fourth series in the long-running Sci-Fi franchise, Star Trek. DS9 was created by Rick Berman and Michael Piller, and stars Avery Brooks, René Auberjonois, Terry Farrell, and Cirroc Lofton. This particular series follows a group of individuals in a space station near a planet called Bajor.

Star Trek: The Next Generation

Star Trek: The Next Generation is the third installment in the sci-fi franchise and follows the adventures of Captain Jean-Luc Picard and the crew members of the USS Enterprise. Set around one hundred years after the original series, Picard and his crew travel through the galaxy in largely self-contained episodes exploring the crew dynamics and their own political discourse. The series also had several overarching plots that would develop over the course of the isolated episodes, with four films released in tandem with the series to further some of these story elements.