Remembering René Auberjonois, a heartwarming constant through Star Trek: Deep Space Nine's entire run

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"Star Trek: Deep Space Nine’s moral murkiness meant that a lot of its heroes, unlike many of the noble Trek stars that came before them, started out as kind-of jerks who softened and grew with the time we spent with them across seven seasons," says James Whitbrook of Auberjonois, who died Sunday at age 79. "But it wasn’t really a Starfleet officer on the show that best symbolized this; it was DS9's irascible chief of security, René Auberjonois’s Constable Odo." Whitbrook adds: "As the show itself grew and evolved—moving on from the lingering tensions between the Federations and the Bajoran government attempting to join its ranks (and the factions looking to avoid that outcome) to plunging into the dark depths of the all-out war with the alien Dominion in its back half—Odo felt like a character you could rely on for a sense of familiarity among the ever-changing crowds of the titular space station’s promenade. Whatever episode you pulled up, whatever season, Auberjonois—almost hidden underneath the layers of prosthesis required to give Odo his smooth-faced, almost melting changeling appearance—would be there, Deep Space Nine’s ever-watchful grump."

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