Star Trek Picard pays touching tribute to late original star

Star Trek Picard: Prime Video releases trailer for third season

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Star Trek Picard is set 18 years after the events of Star Trek: Nemesis, with Sir Patrick Stewart reprising his iconic role of Jean-Luc Picard. As fans delve into the action of the third season this week, viewers may have noticed a sweet tribute to late actor Rene Auberjonois, who played the shapeshifting character Odo.

Episode three titled Seventeen Seconds saw the tense moment Worf (Michael Dorn) told Raffi (Michelle Hurd) about the difficult situation involving the Changelings. 

At the end of the Dominion War, the official position of the Changelings was that they had surrendered to the Federation Alliance.

However, some individuals within the Great Link refused to accept the defeat and broke off forming a terrorist faction. 

Worf explains that he was given this information by “a close friend” and “a man of honour” who was inside the Great Link. 

Loyal fans of Star Trek will have put the pieces together and have realised the close friend Worf was referring to was Auberjonois’ character, Odo.

For those who didn’t notice the sweet nod, Odo would be the only Changeling with any loyalty toward the Federation.

Odo was a member of the shapeshifting species Changelings and served as head security for the space station Deep Space Nine, which the show is based around. 

Auberjonois first appeared in the sci-fi show back in 1993, in Deep Space Nine’s first ever episode titled Emissary

When Odo was first found by the Bajoran as an infant blob near their wormhole, the species realised he came from the distant Gamma Quadrant, where the wormhole connected.

At the beginning of the series, the mysterious creature could shape-shift into anyone or thing 

But by the end of the series, Odo not only discovers that he is a member of the Changeling species but also finds himself in a tricky situation. 

He is faced with his loyalties being divided when his friends enter into a war with his newly discovered homeworld. 

In the end, Odo chooses to return to his people and their “Great Link” following the end of the war with the Dominion.

Following the end of his character’s arc in 2011, Auberjonois spoke with StarTrek.com where he revealed he was happy with how his character’s storyline ended on Deep Space Nine. 

The actor expressed that Odo’s return to the Great Link was inevitable given the direction the series had been going in for years. 

He explained: “It was exactly the way I would have done it myself if I’d been writing it.”

After a successful acting career spanning five decades, Auberjonois sadly died in 2019 of metastatic lung cancer (via The New York Times).

Obviously, it would have been impossible for the actor to return to showcase his beloved character in Season 3 of Star Trek: Picard.

However, despite speculation stating that the third would reportedly be final, it seems a fourth season is possible. 

The Star Trek spin-off was first confirmed back in 2018 with the first being released in 2020, with a second season premiering in 2022.

Star Trek: Picard is streaming on Paramount+ and Amazon Prime Video in the UK.

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