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selenakThis is a really bad week for anyone connected to Star Trek. First D.C. Fontana, this morning I learn Martina Sirtis (aka Deanna Troi from TNG) lost her husband last night, and René Auberjonois (Odo in DS9) has died.
He was 79 - which btw I had not been aware of - so he did have a life, but still. Look, I may have complained a lot about how Odo/Kira happened in s6 of DS9 (and how Odo/Dealing with his collaboriation never really happened), but that doesn't change the fact Odo was a quintessential really important part of what made the show, and a great example of an actor inspiring the writers through his performance to evolve the concept of the character. The original description for Odo as of the DS9 pilot had just been "Clint Eastwood" - that was, Eastwood's "Stranger with no name" persona from the Sergio Leone movies. And of course Auberjonois could do "gruff enigma", but he did so much more, and the vulnerability shown in such early episodes as the one with Lwaxana Troi's first visit to the station in s2, when a standard "woman chases after unwilling man" plot from TNG is turned into something else in the elevator where they both show each other their true selves, that in turn meant later episodes would provide Odo with a backstory including being experimented on by Mora, not knowing his own identity, and a present day story that made the longed for finding of his biological origins into a shattering revelation, with the Odo/Founders relationship key to the remaining show.
Despite being stuck with a facial mask that was pretty immobile, Auberjonois did such a lot with his eyes. (And body language, of course.) The first time we get Terok Nor flashbacks, you can immediately tell this is a far younger Odo despite the lack of physical difference by demeanour alone. His reaction in the final scene with Kira - which carries the reveal to the episode's "whodunit" mystery - in that same episode is non verbal and yet says it all. And of course the scenes with Armin Shimmerman as Quark, which aren't as many as you'd think given the prominence of Odo and Quark as best enemies in one's memory of the show, live from intonation and chemistry conveying such a lot during their sparring.
The end of the year sadly always brings more than its shares of deaths, but seflishly, I really hope no more creative people who have given me so much will die in 2019. It's a sadder world without them.
He was 79 - which btw I had not been aware of - so he did have a life, but still. Look, I may have complained a lot about how Odo/Kira happened in s6 of DS9 (and how Odo/Dealing with his collaboriation never really happened), but that doesn't change the fact Odo was a quintessential really important part of what made the show, and a great example of an actor inspiring the writers through his performance to evolve the concept of the character. The original description for Odo as of the DS9 pilot had just been "Clint Eastwood" - that was, Eastwood's "Stranger with no name" persona from the Sergio Leone movies. And of course Auberjonois could do "gruff enigma", but he did so much more, and the vulnerability shown in such early episodes as the one with Lwaxana Troi's first visit to the station in s2, when a standard "woman chases after unwilling man" plot from TNG is turned into something else in the elevator where they both show each other their true selves, that in turn meant later episodes would provide Odo with a backstory including being experimented on by Mora, not knowing his own identity, and a present day story that made the longed for finding of his biological origins into a shattering revelation, with the Odo/Founders relationship key to the remaining show.
Despite being stuck with a facial mask that was pretty immobile, Auberjonois did such a lot with his eyes. (And body language, of course.) The first time we get Terok Nor flashbacks, you can immediately tell this is a far younger Odo despite the lack of physical difference by demeanour alone. His reaction in the final scene with Kira - which carries the reveal to the episode's "whodunit" mystery - in that same episode is non verbal and yet says it all. And of course the scenes with Armin Shimmerman as Quark, which aren't as many as you'd think given the prominence of Odo and Quark as best enemies in one's memory of the show, live from intonation and chemistry conveying such a lot during their sparring.
The end of the year sadly always brings more than its shares of deaths, but seflishly, I really hope no more creative people who have given me so much will die in 2019. It's a sadder world without them.
