FRIDAY HALL OF FAMERS' MEMORIAL TRIBUTE, 12/13-2019 - CONSTABLE ODO

From the AP:
René Auberjonois, a prolific actor best known for the TV shows “Benson” and “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine,” has died. He was 79.

His son Remy Auberjonois told The Associated Press he died Sunday at his home in Los Angeles of metastatic lung cancer.

The actor won a Tony on Broadway in 1969’s “Coco” opposite Katharine Hepburn. His first major movie role was as Father Mulcahy in the 1970 film “M.A.S.H.”

In the 1980s, he played Clayton Runnymede Endicott III, a snooty staffer in a governor’s mansion on “Benson.” And in the 1990s, he played the shape-shifting alien Odo on “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.”

I’ve always liked Auberjonois.  He carved a unique place for himself in his roles without pigeon-holing himself into a stereotype.

Yet I didn’t think there would be a way to get one of his characters into the Television Crossover Hall of Fame.  Constable Odo of ‘Deep Space Nine’ seemed to be the best choice, but he never made it into the movies and there were no TV shows at the time in which he could have appeared.  (Or were there…?)

But I looked into his credits at the IMDb anyway and discovered Odo actually is eligible for membership as a multiversal, which makes him perfect for the December Friday Hall of Famers.

ODO

From Wikipedia:
Odo, played by René Auberjonois, is a fictional character in the science fiction television series 'Star Trek: Deep Space Nine'. He is a member of a shapeshifting species called Changelings and serves as the head of security for the space station Deep Space Nine on which the show is set. Intelligent, observant and taciturn, Odo uses his unique abilities throughout the show to maintain security on the DS9 station and, later, aids the Bajoran people and the Federation throughout the Dominion War against his own people, the Founders.  

The original Writer's Bible from 1992 for Star Trek: Deep Space Nine described Odo as follows:

Odo, an alien male, middle-aged curmudgeon, and a shape-shifter. In his natural state he is a gelatinous liquid. He was a 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 backstory is:
50 years ago, with no memory of his past, he was found alone in a mysterious spacecraft 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 don't 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. That's why he became a law man. He has a couple of Bajoran deputies; he doesn't allow weapons on the Promenade, and once every day he must return to his gelatinous form.

According to the backstory of the series, Odo was found adrift in his natural gelatinous state in the Denorios Belt in the Bajoran system. Doctor Mora Pol studied him for seven years, not initially recognising him as a sentient being. Doctor Mora was later forced to recognise Odo's sentience when he copied a beaker on a laboratory table.

Odo's name stemmed from the Cardassian language word "Odo'ital", meaning "nothing", which was the loose translation of the "unknown sample" label in Bajoran on his laboratory flask.

It's taken me years, but thanks to the advancement of the technology, video games are now considered part of the greater tele-mosaic as their own videoverse, akin to the Tooniverse.  As such, Odo has at least three incarnations in games, all voiced by Auberjonois, which serve as the foundation for his multiversal status.

Here are the items in Odo's tally:

1993-1999
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
173 episodes

1996
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - Harbinger
(Video Game)

2000
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - The Fallen
(Video Game)

2005
Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story
(Video)
O'Bservation: This may be a fantasy of Stewie's.

2010
Star Trek Online
(Video Game)

I suggested earlier that Odo might have appeared in other shows set in the same time period.  We’re entering fanfic territory to suggest this.

But what if during the crossovers with ‘Star Trek: The Next Generation’ and ‘Voyager’, Odo visited their ships off-screen - for security checks - during their visits to DS9?

If you write Trekfic, you can carry that idea even further.  What if Odo was thrown into the past, like Spock was in the novel “Ishmael” and he interacted with the characters from the TV series ‘Here Come The Brides’?  It could be to Earth Prime-Time of the present day, giving so may options for his involvement without even the need of Mr. Auberjonois to participate.

And then there are the alternate dimensions he could visit, perhaps to that of ‘Babylon 5’ which takes place approximately in the same time period.  (Because B5 and Trek delved into their non-similar political structures of Earth, they can’t be in the same Toobworld.  So it goes.)

The trick to pull this off if – in a perfect world – some show wanted to acknowledge his presence on the set would be to have Odo be there in his transformed state, disguised as whatever prop stands out in a scene.

Come to think of it....

Perhaps Odo not only traveled to the distant Past, but to Earth's twin planet Mondas, where Toobworld Central has placed 'Game of Thrones'.

And where did he show up?

As that time-displaced coffee cup and then as the water bottle!

Just an idea....

Welcome to the Hall, Constable Odo.

I’m sorry it had to be under these circumstances....

Thanks to my "Sister Iddiot", Amy Chen, for spurring me to take a second look at a tribute for Mr. Auberjonois....