How Odo Actually Became Deep Space Nine's Complicated Conscience
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 24 ธ.ค. 2019
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R.I.P. René Auberjonois, one of my favorite character actors.
I was so, so sad to hear that. Because you're right..... The dude was an amazing actor and I'll miss him. He was in the Patriot.
We've lost too many of recent.... just damn well too many...
“...also he’s kind of a daddy? Am I using that right?” Yes Steve, yes you are.
NEVER GO TO CONFERENCES! Runabouts and shuttles are always a trap.
@@TheEDFLegacy and you'll have gross long fingernails.
@@IceWolfLoki I feel like there is 1 episode and I think it is DS9. But I've watched so much trek in the background the only series I'm certain about nowadays is Disco.
You think the Enterprise PT shirts just say "ENTER" on the fronts?
To be fair there is an episode of TNG where Wesley and Picard go to some hospital planet or some such the episode is “The Samaritan Snare” I think. Not much happens re the shuttle ride, though I suppose it was the most uncomfortable shuttle ride ever for Wesley.
Uhhh can you really forget the bit that gave TMP the moniker "the slow motion picture"? :D Kirk and Scotty in a Shuttlepod. For what feels like a real time travel to the moon... In Broken Bow, the Enterprise Pilot they have a similar inspection flight that only leads to a bit of scraped paint...
A bit late to the conversation, but I thought this was Star Trek, not Star WARS, Admiral Ackbar. ;P
Do it, Steve! An episode specifically about Odo's relationship with Quark would be BRILLIANT!!!
"... the most Deep Space Nine thing about Deep Space Nine." - well said Steve.
I never thought of them as Prof X vs Magneto. I saw them as a strange version of Rick Blaine and Capt Louis Renault, in terms of the roles they each played on the station, though of course their characters are entirely different. So maybe not so much.
Dewit
They were Best Frenemies.
The last scene of The Ascent sums it up:
QUARK: Odo? Odo? Are you awake?
ODO: I am now.
QUARK: We survived.
ODO: We did.
QUARK: I bet you were surprised I actually made it all the way to the top.
ODO: Astounded.
QUARK: You remember back there when I told you I hated you, and you told me you hated me?
ODO: Vividly.
QUARK: I just wanted you to know I meant every word of it.
ODO: So did I.
*they both start laughing*
I met Rene at a convention when I was a young child. He was a gentleman to me and my family, my dad has a signed photo tucked away for me. I just went through and watched DS9 in its entirety for the first time as an adult. He was amazing. Rest well, Rene.
I had an interesting notion over the years about Odo’s inability to properly imitate other people. While younger me initially thought it was kinda of dumb that he could copy objects and other animals so well but not do faces, I think it actually makes a lot of sense. If there’s one thing we’ve learned in the era of cgi special effects, it’s that the hardest thing to get right is a human face. There’s so many subtle details that we subconsciously pick up on when they aren’t right(the uncanny valley effect of being oh so close, but just not quite right). I like to think that the reason Odo can’t do faces right is not because he can’t do details like skin texture or ear cartilage, but rather because he can’t do the subtle movements that go with them right. Basically that he dumbs down the details in his face so that others don’t experience that uncanny valley every time he talks with them. 🤔🤯
It might not have been the original intention, but it fits so well that it’s become my head canon reason for it.
Interesting notion and it makes sense! There was also an episode where Odo commented that other Tarkeelian hawks (or whatever) don't find his forms particularly convincing -- perhaps they're experiencing some uncanny valley equivalent.
I like the way you think! I had also assumed that it had a lot to do with him feeling alien and isolated and his trouble bonding with others...
Both things can be true , right?
@@Galvion1980 indeed, they seem like different aspects of the same problem
Nice head canon, Some Schmuck on TH-cam, but the events of the episode "Children of Time" contradicts it.
In that episode, Odo looked a lot less artificial. When Kira made mention of his appearance, he replied, "I've gotten better at shape shifting over the years." The Defiant had crashed on the planet 200 years in the past. Therefore, it's clear that the show creators were communicating that over time Odo would become far more adept at mimicking other lifeforms and his odd looking humanoid face wasn't a choice, but a limitation.
@@eme.261 I don't see a contradiction. In Some Schmuck's explanation, the choice is a way to cover for a limitation. In "Children of Time", that limitation has been (partially) overcome.
My favourite Odo episode is the first one with him and Lwaxana Troi in the stick elevator. DS9 wasn’t afraid with the campiness of her character, but also showed her to ultimately be a sympathetic and emotionally sensitive person full of love and it’s just such a beautiful episode.
There are two things that I would never have forgiven DS9 for: tiptoeing around the past transgressions many of its characters must have committed, and not seeing to it that Winn Adami was absolutely destroyed by the end of the series. I think they handled both beautifully.
I mean they did something better than simply killing Winn off and giving her an easy out, they made her completely abandon and degrade her own faith, brought her down to absolutely nothing, tricked into being seduced by the greatest Bajoran genocide-committer. Thats one way of giving your villain some comeuppance
It’s funny you would bring up “Children of Time”, though. Yes it’s fascinating seeing an Odo who’s 200 years older, calmer and tinged with sadness, but the ending is one of the if not the most horrifying things Odo ever did. That future Odo essentially wiped out a whole community of people - his friends and companions - in order to save Kira’s life. I think it’s a chilling foreshadowing of the Changelings’ extraordinarily rigid and very alien sense of justice, and also how they can let their emotions lead them to make horrifying decisions. Like when Odo would abandon his co-conspirators while in rapture with the female Changeling, leading to the collapse of the minefield around the wormhole.
Since it's time travel I'm not sure it counts as much..but yes that crossed my mind. Not to mention he wiped out his own existence
Muppet Overlord It wasn’t time travel to Odo. He’d lived in that community for over a hundred years and was respected and loved. He’d known each and every individual there since birth. And he wiped them out of existence to save Kira. That’s pretty hardcore.
@@sunspot42 Odo is hardcore
sunspot42 -- To top that off, every time I watch "Things Past", something feels off about the conversation Odo has with Kira at the end. I feel this little hint that Odo knows now that Kira was the bomber.
Maybe she was "the exception to the rule" even back then.
Grizabeebles I thought the same thing.
I would argue that Voyager's "other" also includes The Doctor as a hologram. He has to fight for rights and autonomy like Data.
Yes!! I just started watching Voyager again and Robert Picardo is so great as the doctor. I love how he starts out all stiff and, for lack of a better word, robotic. Then, as he starts working with Kes more frequenty, he warms up and becomes one of my favorite characters.
Yeah it's not Neelix. It's the Doctor. And later, seven.
One of the most fascinating things I've learned watching Sfdebris reviews is how the character of Worf is alien even to his own people. He embodied the Klingon honor code, but it's because he has had no first hand experience with the reality of Klingon politics and how that code is and isn't applied in their day to day life. Or how their values (external Honor) differ from his own, the ones he learned from Humanity (Internal Honor).
At least in TNG, by DS9 he's reconciled his own version of that code with theirs though he still retains a Romantic view. Martok (the real one) is the closest to Worf's values, knowing how things are done and the ideal, thanks to having to confront them first hand. It's such an interesting aspect that elevates him above the 'token alien' role you think he's just their to fulfill on first impression.
Odo was one of the best characters. His eventual personality had a huge impact on me as a child, it showed me that, in the end, a good honorable man, may not get the happy ending..... but that's ok, cause you can walk into that end with a smile and love.
Happy holidays.
His ability to emote so well is all the more impressive when his character is the walking embodiment of "the uncanny valley".
Rene Auberjonois was a consummate actor, able to show great range between funny and seriousness. Whether he was Odo on DS9, or Clayton on "Benson", I always enjoyed watching him. He will be missed.
David Tyler: if you can find it, on the Bob Newhart show, season 4, episode 7. Auberjonois gets to speak good French on an American sitcom which was a lot of fun to hear (usually it’s Pepe LePew). I’m sure he made sure the French in the script was real and probably improvised the French background dialogue with the actress playing is girlfriend. (I’m from Montreal🇨🇦)
And he also played a supercilious horny shrink on Rhoda.
Rene working so closely with Armin Shimerman in all of the Odo/Quark scenes was half the fun of DS9. Two really good character actors just obviously having the time of their life working together while wearing about 99 pounds of latex props and makeup between them 😂
At first, I didn't like DS9, due to them constantly being on a station. I recently forced myself to watch it. Now its one of my favorites to watch now.
It was a show ahead of its time. It really lends itself to the streaming format but didn't work as well with weekly, episodic airings. I watched it as a child but never truly appreciated it until I watched it start to finish on Netflix. Cheers
I felt the same way. When it first came out i didnt really care then i watched it on Netflix and now its my favorite Star Trek show next to TNG
@@cloudwatcher608 Same for me. Being able to binge watch it on Netflix has given me a whole new Appreciation for the show; it's outstanding writing, characters, story arcs & the acting chops of all the cast. And, in particular, Rene Auberjonois. So sad knowing he's no longer with us. What a Talent & what a Legacy he leaves in his portrayal of Odo. One of THE best Trek characters ever created.
I was blessed to have met Rene Auberjonois at the 50th Anniversary Star Trek convention 3 years ago. It was at one of the social areas after the autograph and photo op times were done for the day. He was chatting up a bunch of ladies (who were just hanging on his every word) and after, we talked a bit. He offered me a free selfie as long as there was no flash on my camera, but I didn't know how to shut the flash off, so that was a sadly missed opportunity.
Thanks for the video, Steve and have a Happy Holiday to you, Ashley and Ottie!
lesson for the future: know your camera app well before going to a ST convention ;)
20:24 Children of Time is an episode that asks too much of me to suspend disbelief. we see how much Sisko will sacrifice for the war, for Star Fleet, for the alpha quadrant, yet he'll abandon all that overnight to live a farmers life?
Your tributes to Aron Eisenberg and Rene Auberjonois have made me genuinely appreciate both of their characters more. You're fantastic Steve. Keep at it!
How can you list the "outsider" characters and miss the one who isn't even a material being? Voyager's Doctor had at least as much claim to "outsider" status as Seven...
Hear, Hear! Love our good Doctor!
came into the comment section to find this one
Except for the fact that the doctor is never really outside. He may be the most inside character ever written. He cannot conceive of being an outsider, hard as he might try, and every time he tries, Voyager and everyone aboard is nearly annihilated.
Frankly, Neelix and Kes don't actually have standing as the "outsider" characters. Being most alien is usually an indicator of who the show wants to be the outsider, but for me the key qualification of this lineage is their growth in humanity and how they make us ponder what it means to be a fully dignified human. Neelix and Kes never really have story lines that get us there. If anything, Neelix's purpose seems to be to other Tuvok. It was always doc and seven for voyager.
I call his relationship with Quark a "Tom and Jerry" kinda of thing.
One keep teasing the other but at the end they kinda needed each other to make things interesting... that´s why Odo never arrested Quark, and lets face is, Odo was not that dumb and Quark gave far enough reasons...
Odo did arrest Quark in "The Ascent"
He actually arrested Quark several times, but the charges never seemed to stick
You don't keep your overly self-moxxed ears in prison; he tends to be your oft-unwilling keys to the criminal underground.
@@ZeoViolet Yep Quark is Odo's I informant that's why he doesn't go down. This exact thing happens in the real world to.
RIP Rene Auberjonois . He was an amazing actor who grasped the complexity of his character and brought it vividly to life-there's all these great subtleties in his performance
The "problem" with DS9 is that it has a whole series of "That guy is my favorite character." In between Nog, Dax, Odo, Quark, Worf and Sisko.......... It's hard to pick one.
Oh, Jesus....Don't even get me started on Miles O'Brien, the most dangerous engineer in all of Starfleet. He may not be the "best" engineer, although you could make a hard argument at the end of DS9, but if I had to pick a fictional crew to come with me, I'm taking him.
That dude could be *SOOOO DANGEROUS* if he got it in his head to be, and that's the kinda guy you want at your back in a pinch. He's brave, resourceful, level-headed, he doesn't want to get killed, but in a pinch he did used to be a soldier, and he knows how to make and disarm booby traps. The guy is terrifying! Thank god for frickin' Keiko.
Anyway, Odo is another of my "favorite" characters because he's such an exemplar of raw, unapologetic justice. Justice *TRULY* matters to him, despite what the other changelings might say about their obsession with order. Not to Odo, to him this is about *JUSTICE*, about *FAIRNESS*, and I think the reason why is because he was very much on the receiving end of the Cardassian Occupation, even if in a relatively minor capacity compared to the Bajorans themselves. He was basically prodded and tortured due to both ignorance and the need for results, eventually being touted around as a living freak show.
So Odo got to see, essentially as a child, that the "Order" that the Cardassians were using was cruel, brutal, and unfair. Likewise, when Odo was eventually given the job of Investigator due to his scrupulously fair and rigid, orderly nature.... Odo realizes that *JUSTICE* and *FAIRNESS* are what matter to him, and that the Cardassians and all of their insistence upon *ORDER* seems very different when you're not on the receiving end of that *order!*
Sorry about my excessive use of asterisks and quotation marks. It's just my writing style and way of placing emphasis. I know a lot of people hate it like fire, but..... Deal with it.
Very true.
From the beginning Odo's concern for fairness and justice made him a really good cop.
yeah, if i had to pick a fictional crew to bring along with me, i would pick most of the ds9 cast
odo worf kira dax sisko bashir o'brien even quark, he can be a quite skilled diplomat when he needs to be, and ideally i would bring along other crew members from other shows,
especially in the medical department, you can't just have one guy on medical,
i would include mccoy and the doctor from voyager
Wonderful vid. "I was more interested in order, than justice." Much like his people.
I love Odo for the fact that he recognized the difference after the fact, but he never made that mistake again. I love Rene for an incredible portrayal and all that time he spent in the makeup chair to make it real.
"Justice is incidental to Law and Order." - J Edgar Hoover
There's a clip of him saying that, which I wish I could find. I think it might be in one of the Black Panther documentaries, perhaps American Revolution II. As bad as it looks to read, it's much, much more frightening to hear and see him make that declaration straight at you.
I wonder if that Odo line was a direct reference to J Edgar or if it's just because he's the archetype of that way of thinking.
I, of course, go the other way: "No Justice, No Peace!"
"What are you standing around for!? Do you not know a jailbreak when you see one!?"
Hehehe, The Final Frontier isn't a good Star Trek movie, but it has some great gags in it.
Loved that reference!
I love his relationship with Lwaxana Troy and this it was a very importan one in regards to his character evolution. I'd go as far as to say it really helped both of them become better or rather gives the audience a chance to see them with their guards down. Which was rare for both.
I look at Odo's time as a Cardassian security agent a little differently: in an unjust occupation, there are no perfect solutions as to what to do to make things better, and Odo did what he thought would be best. Maybe he should have become a terrorist like Kira, but as noted, she has all sorts of blood on her hands, and that includes a lot of Bajorans. Maybe many of them were collaborators (which might mean little more than trying to get by under difficult circumstances), but you can bet that there were some straight-up innocent Bajorans killed too. So I can make sense of Odo as a security guy trusted by both sides because, if his job included finding out who committed crimes, it also included keeping innocent Bajorans from getting blamed (most of the time anyway), and maybe even bending the law just a little in keeping with Gul Dukat's "I'm a less harsh kind of brutal dictator" image (arguably why Gul Dukat used Odo instead of Thrax). Also consider, as I have come to realize as an old fart, that much of life is a matter of trying to balance principles, since it's impossible to offer complete devotion to any one principle without utterly betraying the rest. In this particular case, Odo was trying to balance justice for individuals against the good of the community, and yes he made the wrong call, but at least he was caught between principles rather than just being an indifferent jerk. (Would add that a bomb planted by Kira is just another iteration of the same clash of principles, with the only central difference being how you define the good of the community.)
I think " harm reduction" as a principle covers Odo's approach to his job under Cardassian rule....and it still troubled him because he was just that decent.
@@Galvion1980 Did it trouble him though? My impression was that it's only about the three innocent deaths, not the whole collaborating with Cardassians thing. I mean imagine the timeline where Odo instead catches those who actually did the bombing, and so three resistance members are hanged, and the innocent people are free (as free as you can be under the occupation). What would Kira think? I'm pretty sure she wouldn't say "Good job Odo, you really helped do some justice there!" But at the end of the episode she ask about innocents specifically, so it seems the episode was written with a Kira in mind who could forgive Odo for executing resistance members left and right.
@@conatgion Remember that episode ("The Wire") where Garak was talking about his life as an Obsidian Order operative? While we don't know for sure which stories he told are true, the one that seems the truest is the one where they were interrogating some Bajoran kids whom they knew were completely innocent, and it clicked with Garak in that moment how futile the exercise was. That sounds like standard Cardassian operating procedure. Odo, on the other hand, was much more about finding the actual guilty party, which had to be a relief to the average Bajoran.
@@kingbeauregard You're absolutely right Cardassia is doing a full 1984 which is much much worse... but still...is what Odo did for the Cardassians good enough? More importantly, is it good?
@@conatgion Those are good questions, and I don't think there are any simple answers. Which is what makes DS9 the most intriguing of Treks: so many things about that show don't lend themselves to convenient solutions. As much as I love TNG, Picard had it easy, in that he could leave a planet at the end of an episode after Data or Geordi technobabbled an answer to the immediate problem.
The proper response to Gul Dukat or any other Nice Guy®.
Now this episode as a nice Christmas surprise. Odo and quark back and forth at each other is always my favorite part of ds9. As always all trek is good trek.
17:16
As early as S2E8 "Necessary Evil", the show questions the morality/ability of Odo being "neutral" in the Cardassian occupation of Bajor:
"Odo: I appreciate your restraint this time. You're not planning on leaving the station soon?
Kira: If I were, would you have the Cardassians stop me?
Odo: Yes.
Kira: Then I'm not planning on leaving the station soon. Let me tell you something. Unofficially or not, you're working for the Cardassians. Sooner or later, you're going to have to decide whose side you're on.
Odo: I don't choose sides.
Kira: Everybody has to choose sides, Constable."
“...because Odo changed a lot as the series went on.”
👍 I see what you did there 😂
The fact that Odo was one of my favorite characters in the entire franchise makes it all the more saddening to learn of Auberjonois's passing.
Loved the video. I have always been a huge fan of Odo. When talking about Rene in DS9, it would have also been worth pointing out when he portrayed Curzon. He was fantastic in that too.
As something of an outsider myself, Odo quickly became one of my favorite Trek characters. His skepticism and dry wit were the highlights of every episode he was in. Rene Auberjonois will be fondly remembered and terribly missed. 1940-2019 😢💔✝
If I remember correctly, Odo had no idea of where he came from. He was formed, on a personal level, by his environment. He had no other upbringing on which to base his moral code.
You remember correctly. The only clue Odo initially has about his origin is that that mysterious necklace.
YOU SHOULD TOTALLY DO AN EPISODE ABOUT ODO AND QUARK'S FRIENDSHIP!!
Odo's story reads as a beautiful condemnation of centrism
Merry Christmas, my friend. There is so much about Rene Auberjonois to go over, I'm glad you found a way in. My favorite single thing is him saying in an interview how playing Odo and being in Star Trek made him a better person. His son is a brilliant actor, and maybe someone will have the idea of bringing him in. Or not. Just vaguely musing. Never been a hardcore Trekker (not their fault, just timing), but I was already a fan of his when it premiered, and that was enough to get me to watch.
Auberjonois is one of my favorite actors (the other being David Warner), and I always like to watch something in tribute when an actor I admire passes away. I would have chosen Heart of Stone, but I watched that when Aron Eisenberg passed away earlier in the year -- they're both so good in that one... I ended up watching an 80's movie called "My Best Friend is a Vampire" because he shares the screen with Warner, but I watched What You Leave Behind a little bit after. His parting scene with Armin Shimerman is perfect.
He was also quite the prolific Broadway actor starring in such shows as Big River, City of Angels, and Dance of the Vampires.
But I must agree... Odo was performed flawlessly.
6:55, absolutely! They travel around all the time without incident... just off camera... lol
Odo and Quark are the cutest couple in Star Trek history.
It only goes to show, the true definition of cute is 'interestingly ugly'. I've always believed this.
The ending monologue nearly had me in tears. You clearly love Odo.
I had the pleasure of meeting Rene and talking with him in a casual setting. He was a huge inspiration to me and this video is a fitting tribute to his work as Odo. Thank you!
First exposure to Rene Auberjonois was as Dee's high school acting teacher in It's Always Sunny. Blew my mind with excitement when I started DS9
In a future video, you should address how overqualified Dax is to be on a backwater space station. Her main jobs are driving miniature starships and knowing interesting facts about Klingons. Shouldn’t she have a more elevated status and responsibility given she has at least some good snapshots of eight lifetimes? It’s almost like being a member of a wise, long-lived species assigned to the flagship of the federation, but being stuck running the bar 24-7.
So true! And from this lifetime alone, she has 4 academic degrees: exobiology, zoology, astrophysics and exoarcheology.
I love how Odo managed to make functional eyes and ears, how to walk bipedally, and speech, some very complicated things, but can't figure out how to make a proper face or a digestive tract.
A most profound and respectful exposition on a character. I found this video to be well made and executed. Thank you, sir.
Glad you were able to produce this video - this made my day!
Lovely tribute to an amazing actor. Thanks and Merry Christmas, Steve.
And Quark and Odo’s interactions would make for one hell of a TA!
Great episode. Odo is one of my favorites.
It’s always bothered me though that no one has seemed ever to have met or heard of a changling, despite there having been a species which did the same thing in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country.
Yeah, but Klingons in ST6 also had Pepto Bismol for blood, so, much of ST6 has been ignored canon-wise.
@@SummitSummit Fair point indeed!
I always kind of explained it away in my head with something like they can only do living beings (although the clothes kind of shoot that down) and a very simple scan can easily show when you're dealing with one (which Kirk and McCoy don't have, and might explain how the Klingon camp director knew exactly which one he shot). Not a perfect answer, but it covers enough for me.
To be fair, that character by Iman only changed between human forms, and changelings can be literally anything, are not made of solid humanoid organs, they’re just goo, they don’t even have eyes. Also i think that one was probably rare too
A brilliant tribute to a great man and a greater character, As someone who adopted that whole "man apart" posture in my younger days (and who still holds onto it somewhat with my current interactions), Odo has always had a specific appeal for me. Thank you for a great video highlighting what makes Odo unique even amongst the Trek "Outsiders-commenting-on-humanity" trope character. I salute you and wish you a happy holiday.
Rene's twitter was always a delight to follow. His acting roles were so memorable and left lasting impressions on my life.
He will be remembered and loved.
Odo was always a favourite, thanks for getting this out and happy holidays Steve.
Steve these tributes episodes, as sad as they are, are great. Just incredible retrospectives on the actors and characters they brought to life. The episodes bring the tears and the smiles and with a retrospective type of video essay like these are, I don't think you could ask for a better response. They make you miss the actor, the character, and the show while simultaneously maintaining that grand feeling of nostalgia for all three, making you smile st the times you had with them, while also saddened that there can be no more added to those wonderful memories. Uplifting and heartbreaking all at the same time. Great job, Steve. You really put your all into these tributes.
I don't think I saw anyone comment on it. Was not mentioned on the video. But Steve's comment on how it was impossible for Odo to not take sides between Cardassians and Bajorans was also covered on the episode where you see how he met Kira. She told him he'd have to take sides sometime over and over. And he did. Kira was seemingly innocent of the crime he was investigating but he believed her to be guilty of a different crime that she used as an alibi. If he had been only concerned with enforcing the law, he could have arrested her for the other crime. But he let it slide.
Ultimately, Kira is right. He has to occasionally take sides and stand for something in his position. The reason he may arguably be remembered as being even handed and respected by both sides is that most often, he did stick to the laws. Sure, the laws were not fair because these were crafted by an occupying army but even totalitarian regimes can have laws that seem or are theoretically mostly fair. The problem is that a complete lack of accountability allows officials to enforce them arbitrarily or selectively in truly horrific fashion. Odo apparently didn't seem, for the most part, to do that. But in the episode Steve describes you do see that even w/o actively trying to screw over Bajorans, the lack of accountability that the system fosters can result in the abuse in which Odo took part.
I feel that another aspect of "Things Past" that was not mentioned in this wonderful tribute/analysis video is the very human or, in this case, humanoid trait of following the established authority figure (be it a leader, government, company, ect.)
Numerous studies have shown that humans are disturbingly willing to do questionable or down right horrific things if the recognized authority figure says it is ok.
The studies were involved in answering questions like ("Why did german civilians, even those who did not like the Nazis turned a blind eye to or even participated in the holocaust.
In the context of "Things Past", it is true that his actions demolish the myth of Odo being an infallible servant of justice., but also says that while he is the most alien of outsider characters, he is also not as different from the humanoids he lives among as he and they often believe.
He is corruptible in part because he is as driven to follow the pack as other humanoids. And further, I feel like it also shortens the gap between him and the Founders who are as bad, possibly worse, than the Cardassians. Thus allowing adding weight to his admission at various points during the war with Founders, that if it weren't for his love for Kira, he would join them in a heart beat.
Sure it is played off as his genes telling him join the Link and a desire to return home but if we look at it closely, if he was incorruptible, then he would not be willing to join the Founders if Kira was not a factor.
Steve is absolutely right in his assertion that this episode is one of, if not THE, best Odo episodes, as well as vital to the show.
I loved Rene as Clayton on Benson. Loved him even more as Odo
He will be missed
Travel via Runabout/Shuttle is the Red Shirt of the post TOS era.
I once saw Auberjonois on stage reciting stories from Poe. He was so good, the others on stage with him looked both shocked and humbled.
Thank you so much. Your videos offer vast insight as well as lessons in story-telling as well as appreciation of TREK.
RIP Rene, I have loved every one of his roles from Benson to DS9, he was such a marvelous actor with such a wonderful range. I will always miss him😢
This is a beautiful piece Steve. I, for one, feel your absence.
This was so insightful and reflective to both the actor and the man! My hope is that you do another video of Odo and Quark! Theses were written as secondary characters that were performed as staring roles! The writers and producers recognized these actors and have them quality writing and time to shine! Those two made the stating characters better and made DS9 multi facet!
Merry Christmas to you too, thanks for your videos. I love how you get the human point of view from every single Star Trek ‘s character
I think this is my favourite out all your videos. What a lovely tribute to Renè.
Not to mention so many great voice acting appearances: Mr. House in New Vegas, Yanos in the LoK series, Blockbuster in the DC animated universe. He had crazy range and depth.
Can we take a moment to appreciate the fact that one of the least duplicitous characters in Star Trek is a changeling? that was an amazing move.
Merry Christmas! Loving the great content and what a thoughtful retrospective of a fantastic actor.
The fact that Odo still knew their names, even all those years later, tells me everything I need to know about him. A true monster would lose them in the sea of names and faces, but Oda holds onto the memories.
Thank you for this tribute Steve.
The most incredible thing about it is that René conveyed all that while shackled under tons of prosthetic makeup. A little bit of it came subtly through his eyes and a bit more through body language. But the best of it was through his voice. Ignoring the spectacular shapeshifting stuff the character did in many episodes, it was often Odo's words and the way René delivered his lines that made the most impact.
Odo and Quark had some of the best conversations in the entire show.
Not so deep as others, but witty and funny. And still deep.
When I was a kid I listened to an audio book read by Rene. It was about the knights of the round table and how Lancelot survived to the future. I can not remember the title of the book. Has anyone else heard of the book?
Nobody could have portrayed Odo as brilliantly as Rene did. Such a talent.
Wow--thank you for making this video--your tribute stands out before me as an excellent exploration of what made Odo the man he became and how the writing from DS9 was as important to Odo's character as Rene's portrayal of Odo. He is actually one of the best character arcs that made DS9 what it became. A show I have loved for a very long time. Well done and to Rene, he was definitely one of the greats, beloved, and never forgotten.
Thank you for this. It helps with the grief. It's like losing a friend.
Much love, Steve. Merry Christmas.
Thanks for this, Steve. This is a wonderful video.
I'm crying.
Bless your heart, Steve. Thank you for such an amazing tribute to such an incredible man. Of all the actors in Trek, him, Eisenburg, and Doohan were the most 'hug the fan' types. Now, we've lost all three and my breaks whenever I think about them.
Thanks again for another great video. After Aron Eisenberg passed, I went back to DS9 and started watching it from start to finish again. It reminded me once more that like you, I agree that is the very best of Star Trek, showing how a show can explore darker themes in a way that is both inclusive and hopeful, without being contrived. Sadly, just as I was reaching the end of season 7, I learned that Rene Auberjonois had also gone. Finishing my DS9 marathon with him in mind, watching Odo say farewell to Kira and return to the great link at the end had such poignancy it brought a tear to my eye as it felt like he was saying farewell to all of us.
You have put into words what I always thought of Odo. Well done episode.
May Rene's memory live forever! This was a fantastic tribute
Happy holidays, Steve. Love you man.
I have always loved Rene’s acting and voice acting in Batman: The Animated Series, Justice League, Young Justice and Avatar the Last Air Bender. If you want to see something cool watch Warehouse 13 were he worked opposite Brent Spinner.
just an fyi, if you haven't listened to the ensigns log, do so. its great fun!
Its true, actually inspired me to watch the original series to follow along.
I'm very sad to hear of Rene Auberjonois's passing. I remember him from all the way back on Benson and was tickled when he took on the role of Odo. DS9 has long been my favorite Star Trek series, and I'm on season 6 of my Nth re-watch, my first since the loss of Aron Eisenberg, the remainder of which will now take an even sadder tone. Thanks for keeping us up to date, Steve.
i'm so glad i found your channel!!
This was a perfect tribute to a wonderful man. I met Rene Auberjonois at a convention long ago. Maybe DS9's first or second season. Taught us how to pronounce his name, and I'll never forget it (You said it absolutely correctly, too).
The best Odo episode I think is begotten. The one with the baby Changeling. It shows Rene Auberjonois' acting ability more than any other episode
Didn’t know he had passed on. This was a nice tribute. He was a great Odo, amd Odo was a great character. Rest easy Renee, proper legend now
11:52 Thanks...now I can never look at the relationship between Odo and Dukat the same(or better: sane) way again...
Merry Christmas to you too, Steve.
Great video! That ending brought a tear to my eye.
Odo is the most relatable character in Star Trek to me. His special brand of being an outsider reminds me a lot of myself. And while usually, the other outsider characters you mentioned are great and loveable and fascinating, it's a bit hard to relate to them since they're basically free of emotion. Odo, despite trying his best to hide his feelings, is certainly more expressive. His emotions are way closer to the surface than those of Spock, making him more like an actual human. More like myself
I remember that one episode where Kira and Shakaar start flirting with each other and Odo is alone with Shakaar at one point, so Shakaar asks him for advice on Kira. And Odo turns away, to hide his face, and talks to Shakaar, who believes everything is alright. Meanwhile, the camera is showing Odo's face and the viewer can see every last bit of anguish and pain that he's feeling. Watching that feels like getting stabbed
The way Odo slowly has to grapple with showing vulnerability, being emotional, creating close relationships (something tested many times before he finally opens up to Kira), I’ve heard someone say that they found he could be seen as being autistic, or at least they felt him to be relatable in that sense. I never had thought of him in that way before, all I knew was that his arc of slowly opening up felt very relatable, and the way he criticises and judges social behaviour from a distance, yet yearns also for love, is very understandable. In Children of Time future Odo asks Kyra that she ‘be patient with him’ because one day that Odo will be just as open and relaxed as he is. Kira and Odo are great because you finally see Odo being vulnerable and it pays off, its a very nice message for those that struggle with it.
Thank you for this tribute to René Auberjonois! As being not really a trekky but rather a „niner“, this was very nice to see for me!
Met him at a comic con Convention in 2017 he was very kind and down to earth it was a real Honor to meet him R.I.P 🧡🖖
Thank you for doing this video. Odo has been a character I've related to since I first watched ds9 growing up, and his journey has always given me hope for myself in regards to my own growth potential. What a treasure of an actor we lost.
Pancakes, (vegan) sausage, coffee, my presents and THIS WONDERFUL TRIBUTE VIDEO. Thank you and Happy Holidays! Not only was this appropriate, I think Rene would have loved this, and signed it with his trademark 'bucket'.
Thanks for doing this tribute to Rene Auberjonois. While I admired Odo, I will always remember him as he was in the first movie I saw him in. He was the lecturer in that very strange film, "Brewster McCloud," back in 1970. He appeared between scenes to give a little talk which prepared us for the next plot twist. And the fact that he was slowly turning into a bird as the film went on just served to prove how talented he was. His final scene had Rene Auberjonois's head atop the body of a bird on a perch. He even bent forward and pecked at tray full of bird seed convincingly. There aren't many actors who can pull that off.
YES, a wunderfull video for Christmas. Thanks for the wunderful present:)
EXCELLENT episode Steve!.... easily one of my favorites so far.... probably (in part) b/c Odo has always been one of my favorite characters on my favorite Star Trek series (DS9). Hated to hear of Renee's passing as well. He was indeed an amazing actor. Loved him in Boston Legal (with William Shatner) nearly as much as his work in DS9. ;-) Love these character examinations on your Trek Actually episodes.... keep 'em comin'. ;-)
Yes, Odo was one of the more interesting characters on a show with lots of them.
Have a good remainder of the holidays Steve and everybody.