Character Insight No. 351: The Xindi (Did You Know)

Welcome back to Character Insight! I apologize for my absence the past couple months but pandemic life demanded a refresher period, and I'm developing some new segment ideas and concepts for the rest of 2020 and beyond.  If you have any concepts you'd like to see, let us know!

Turning to today's segment, we cover The Xindi with a "Did You Know" feature, checking in on five interesting facts that you may or may not have picked up on as you traversed the latter seasons of Enterprise.

LINK

1. The Xindi as a villain in Enterprise were originally to be one particular species much like prior villains the Klingons and Romulans. But the show producers wanted to investigate what it may be like if humans had not been the only species on Earth to develop high levels of intelligence. Hence, we end up with the 5 distinctive species making up this tenuous alliance in the show, and something new and unique in Star Trek lore to that time.

2. This background of the Xindi was written to remain relatable to Earth history in that the different species came into conflict and civil war, but it went so much farther with the destruction of their original home planet and the extinction of a sixth species, the Avians. The Xindi background serves as another cautionary tale on the track that humanity has previously been on with wars and conflicts.

3. The Xindi speak the Insectoid and Aquatic languages with each other because those two species are incapable of speaking the common language of the Primates, Arboreals and Repitlians. Despite these overlaps to work with one another, we see different styles of written language rendered for all 5 of the species, reflecting their significant differences. 

4. The Delphic Expanse, the region where the Xindi reside in the time of Enterprise, is an artificial zone of spatial anomalies generated by waves of gravimetric energy emitted by a series of massive spheres built by, you guessed it, the Sphere Builders. The Delphic Expanse was designed as a space version of the Bermuda Triangle, where predictable laws of physics and nature go out the window, adding more danger and unpredictability to the long mission Enterprise takes to find the Xindi in this region.

5. The Xindi were intentionally left out of episodes following their major arc in season 3 of Enterprise because while they proved to be popular with show fans, the show writers wanted to make a clear break from that story arc that defined the core of the Enterprise story. We are left to wonder if they do eventually join the Federation as is posited from another timeline by Daniels during the show and also in the game Star Trek Online.

In summary, the Xindi defined a new type of villain with a complicated past that fit well with the evolving and more complex storytelling TV shows were doing in the decade Enterprise was produced. It also provided a chance for the makeup artists and CGI crews to really stretch their legs and show off the best work they could produce at the time, and it all came together to make a great success on par with the Dominion War arc of DS9. 

Keep the dialogue going on Twitter. What other Xindi facts should we know? Until next time, all hail the Guardians who may be shifty-eyed Sphere Builders. 

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Character Insight No. 350: B-4

Welcome back to Character Insight! This week, we profile B-4, a Soong android who starred in TNG's Star Trek Nemesis and then reappears in the plot of Star Trek Picard.  Note that like we have with other recent segments touching on elements of Picard, major spoilers are avoided here for now.

https://archive.org/details/characterinsightep350 

B-4 was a prototype of the android that would eventually become Data, who was constructed well before other androids we see in the course of TNG like Lore.  B-4 did not have a sophisticated positronic brain on the same level of capability as these later "brothers," and as such, he is far more limited than Data and Lore.  

Our introduction to the existence of B-4 comes at the beginning of Star Trek Nemesis, when Captain Picard goes on a dune buggy joy ride and hunt through the deserts of Kolarus III.  The pieces of B-4 were planted there by Shinzon in a plot to lure Captain Picard towards Romulan space to capture him.  Before that plot comes fully into motion, the crew of the Enterprise reassemble B-4, and Data copies all of his memories into B-4 in an attempt to allow him to expand his own capabilities in a similar manner as Data did over the years.  This was a big red flag for the fate of Commander Data later in the movie, but I digress.

B-4 was also programmed by Shinzon to download position and communications information on all Federation starships, but this latter part of Shinzon's plot was foiled immediately by Geordi La Forge and Data.  Data then poses as B-4 and provides a bunch of inaccurate information to Shinzon while also helping Captain Picard escape Shinzon.  Shinzon should've known better than to rely on a beta version of hardware when the other side has the upgraded version.

B-4's story is left open-ended after Data then sacrifices himself to destroy Shinzon's ship and save Captain Picard.  Some of Data's downloaded memories were beginning to surface at the end of the movie, but he still could not understand much when Picard tried to explain the significance of Data's sacrifice and his long friendship with the crew.

While various comic books and novels had continued on with potential further developments of the B-4 character, the official canon did not pick up on this character until the beginning of Star Trek Picard.  We see that B-4 remains disassembled at the Daystrom Institute when Picard goes to visit 20 years after the events of Nemesis.  Dr. Anges Jurati observes that most of Data's positronic network was lost after the transfer to B-4, meaning the hope to keep another version of Data alive in a different body was unfortunately unsuccessful.

While this is a sad end for the character of B-4, it does introduce and lead into a couple plot lines of significant importance for the first season of Star Trek Picard.  His character is one of many loose ends that come together for wrapping up as Picard effectively writes the epilogue to TNG.  Thus, while I previously summarized B-4's role as fairly unimportant, he does provide more depth of background on Dr. Soong's work and does help advance the story of synthetic life, in the end.

B-4 was played by Brent Spiner, like most other Soong androids.  Although Spiner has not acted as much in recent years, beyond Picard he can also been seen in previous years in episodes of The Big Bang Theory, episodes of Ray Donovan, and in the Independence Day sequel.  As his singing of Blue Skies plays a central role with the character of B-4, I recommend checking out Spiner's 1991 crooning album Ol' Yellow Eyes is Back, which includes some backup vocals from some other TNG memorables on one song. Enjoy!

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Character Insight No. 349: Dr. Bruce Maddox

Welcome back to Character Insight! This week, we profile Dr. Bruce Maddox, who starred in one of the most memorable episodes of TNG and reappears in the plot of Star Trek Picard.  Note that like we have with other recent segments touching on elements of Picard, we will avoid major spoilers for those who haven't yet watched.

https://archive.org/details/characterinsightep349 

Dr. Maddox was born in San Francisco on Earth, so it should come as no surprise that he eventually becomes involved in Starfleet.  To this end, he is a cyberneticist that works his way up the ranks of the Daystrom Institute.  He eventually becomes the Chair of Robotics at Daystrom.

Once Maddox learns of Dr. Nooian Soong and his androids like Commander Data, he becomes inspired to make it his life's work to continue improving the field of androids to help humans and other races when in dangerous situations.  His goals sounded good on first blush, but as Captain Picard would contest in the trial in the episode The Measure of a Man, his vision of duplicating androids as forced labor could also be argued to be nothing more than slavery of a sentient android race.

In that aforementioned episode of TNG, Dr. Maddox is a young Commander in Starfleet and has earned Admiral Nakamura's blessing on a plan to disassemble and reverse-engineer Commander Data.  Data objects to the plan because he believes Maddox will not be able to preserve the important nuances of his positronic brain that defines who he is.  Maddox orders Data to be transferred to his command, leading to Data's resignation from Starfleet and an eventual trial to determine if Data is a sentient lifeform allowed to make such a decision.

QUOTE - "You are imparting Human qualities to it because it looks Human – but I assure you: it is not. If it were a box on wheels I would not be facing this opposition."

Of course, Captain Picard is successful in a trial against the arguments of Maddox in front of one of the Captains serving in the Judge Advocate General's office.  So Data is deemed to be a sentient being, a critical moment that really begins his character development arc for the remainder of TNG.  Despite the loss, Maddox remains dedicated to his goals of continuing Dr. Soong's research, including by learning more about Data through correspondence with him, as we also see in the episode Data's Day which the main show covered a couple weeks ago.

The story of Maddox and his research is then left as one of many open ends in TNG, and it's one that fits neatly into the Star Trek Picard story, which centers around synthetic life forms.  Thus, it should be no surprise that Dr. Maddox re-appears in the new show, but you'll have to watch for yourself to see where Dr. Maddox's story goes from there.

Bruce Maddox was played by Brian Brophy in his TNG appearance, and although we don't cover details of the new Picard stuff yet here, John Ales is the actor who picked up the role this year.  Brophy has been largely retired from acting since the early 2000's, but you can spot him in small roles in great films including The Shawshank Redemption and Armageddon.  He is currently the director of theater at the California Institute of Technology.

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Character Insight No. 348: Tal Shiar

Welcome back to Character Insight! This week, we profile the Romulan group Tal Shiar.

https://archive.org/details/characterinsightep348

The Tal Shiar is a Romulan intelligence agency, a sort of secret police force as understood by the Federation.  Like the Federation's Section 31 or the Cardassian Obsidian Order, this largely covert group works to ensure loyalty to the Romulan Star Empire while also pushing agendas in foreign lands as opportunities arise.  It has been posited in Star Trek Picard that this organization is a front for a much older Romulan cabal, but as that is still speculative and in spoiler territory, we'll leave that to our imagination for now.

The Tal Shiar was introduced as a concept in TNG, most notably when an underground movement has Deanna Troi go in Romulan disguise and pose as a well-known Tal Shiar leader to help some Romulan defectors escape to the Federation.  We also learn that the Romulan military and the Tal Shiar distrusted each other, leading to competition and deception even between their respective fleets of warbirds.

The Tal Shiar take a much more important central role in the Dominion War storyline on Deep Space 9.  The Tal Shiar worked with the Obsidian Order to try and carry out a preemptive strike on the Founders homeworld before the war began in earnest, but the Founders had infiltrated the Tal Shiar already and that led to the ambush and massacre of their combined forces in the Battle of the Omarion Nebula.  This ended the Obsidian Order, but the Tal Shiar rose from the ashes and rebuilt itself.

We then see the new leader of the Tal Shiar Koval as he works with the Romulan Continuing Committee as well as with Section 31 as a Federation collaborator.  You can truly never trust the Tal Shiar, as evidenced by how much they secretly collaborate with other covert operatives and organizations.  But they are always there in the background, ready to be an integral part of any story involving high level issues with Romulans and their Star Empire.

As mentioned previously, we will see how the Tal Shiar plays into Star Trek Picard.  This organization provides a nice foil to others in the Star Trek universe and for those who love spy stories and plot twists, the Tal Shiar never fails to provide.

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Character Insight No. 347: Sarina Douglas

Welcome back to Character Insight! This week, we profile Sarina Douglas, a recurring character from a couple episodes of Deep Space 9.

https://archive.org/details/characterinsightep347

Sarina Douglas was a human augment thanks to her parents putting her through an illegal genetic manipulation procedure called accelerated critical neural pathway formation when she was a child.  This advanced her intelligence level to beyond genius, but her visual and auditory systems could not keep up with her enhanced cerebral cortex in her brain.  As a result, she couldn't focus on the outside world and this made her appear to be a non-responsive mute.

Eventually Sarina ends up at a Federation special needs institute where her and several other augments receive treatment.  She was primarily supervised and treated by Dr. Karen Loews over 15-plus years, and Loews eventually becomes Sarina's legal guardian as well.

We first meet Sarina when Dr. Loews brings her and the small group of augments the doctor manages to Deep Space 9 to be studied and perhaps helped by Dr. Bashir, a fellow genetically-enhanced augment.  During this three weeks on board the station, Sarina helps the Federation efforts in the Dominion War by figuring out a way to negotiate with Weyoun to get the Dominion to cede more territory back to the Federation.  However, this turns south when the augments calculate that the Federation will lose the war and lots of lives will be sacrificed in the losing effort.

The augments put a plan into motion to contact the Dominion and provide them with critical information on how to win the Alpha Quadrant with minimal loss of life.  However, Bashir gets through to Sarina before the plan is implemented and the augments leave the station without further interference in the war.

A year later, Sarina is brought back to Deep Space 9 to undergo a new treatment he had developed to try and allow her brain to properly handle information from her senses.  This treatment is successful and we get to watch Sarina re-learn how to speak and interact with her surroundings.  Sarina also falls in love temporarily with Bashir, but as Bashir's romances often end up, it goes too quickly and she leaves, heading to an internship at a research center.

QUOTE

Sarina serves as another of many examples where genetic engineering goes wrong in the Trek universe, but her story has a happy ending while allowing Dr. Bashir to have some further important character development, including some further insight into his own augment history.  Her return in the episode Chrysalis is one of the more positive one-off episodes in the middle of the mostly-dark Dominion War story arc.

Sarina was played by Faith Salie in both appearances, although after not having any dialogue in her first appearance, the show producers auditioned her before the second episode to make sure she would shine in a dialogue-heavy episode.  Salie has not acted in about 15 years, but she has gone on to better fame in radio as a host and producer of the NPR show Fair Game from PRI with Faith Salie.

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Character Insight No. 346: Remembering Rene Auberjonois and His Roles

Welcome back to Character Insight! This week, we catch up on the sad news during my recent break and do a memorial segment honoring the life and career of Rene Auberjonois, who passed away in December.

https://archive.org/details/characterinsightep346


Auberjonois became the first regular cast member of any Trek spinoff show to pass away at the end of last year, and his contributions in acting will stand the test of time well beyond our realm of Star Trek. His family background is very interesting as his mother was a princess descended from the family of Napoleon Bonaparte. He grew up in New York City as the son of a journalist and the grandson of a painter, so his passion and connection to the arts began early in life.

As with many actors, he began his career on Broadway in many plays of the 1960's and 70's. His first breakthrough television role was as the memorable Clayton Endicott III on the comedy series Benson in the 1980's. During this time and the following years, Auberjonois became a regular face in many films and television shows, though mostly in smaller roles. One such small role was as Starfleet Colonel West in Star Trek VI, but his scenes were cut from the theatrical release of this film.

That opened the door of Trek to him, and he quickly earned the role of Odo, the chief of security aboard Deep Space 9. As the changeling Founders became a core nemesis in the DS9 story arc, it allowed Auberjonois to really stretch his legs in character development as we learned more about the other side of the conflict through Odo's own discovery of his kind. Although he had to endure long days in the makeup chair, usually alongside close friend Armin Schimmerman, he added a lot of gravity and acting chops to the show that raised the game of everyone else in the cast.

Auberjonois was considered strongly for the EMH role in Voyager, but his only other Trek role came in a guest appearance as a character named Ezral in Enterprise. Around this same time, he got to co-star with William Shatner in Boston Legal, which was a legal comedy spun off from another show he appeared in called The Practice. If you want to enjoy more of Auberjonois's work, I recommend this show highly, even as an attorney who generally dislikes legal shows.

Auberjonois was married for the final 56 years of his life and leaves behind two children, Tessa and Remy, who have also dabbled in their father's acting craft. As someone who was very quotable, we'll leave you with two of his quotes about life and acting:

- "If you do your job properly you usually learn a lot about yourself from any role you play."
AND
- "The best part is the part I'm working at the moment."

Rest in peace, Rene, and thank you for your great contributions to the growing tapestry of Star Trek.

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Character Insight No. 345: Prepping for Star Trek Picard

Welcome back to Character Insight! I apologize for my absence over the holidays and past few weeks as I dealt with a bug that took my voice away with coughing fits most days, but I'm back for the new year just in time for new Trek.  To that end, This week, we provide some guidance on what to re-watch in preparation for Star Trek Picard, which launches later this week.

https://archive.org/details/characterinsightep345 

Whether you are binging some content before Picard begins or you are seeking some filler to spend the long hours between each week's episode release, a good way to spend this time is watching the best Picard content previously released.  So with that in mind, and looking at some of the characters and themes that appeared in the trailers for the new show, here are some suggestions for episodes and movies to catch up on.  I've split these by some themes rather than by chronological order, as you may want to focus on particular themes especially after they come up in the new show.

Picard

Family, TNG S4

Tapestry, TNG S6

Starship Mine, TNG S6

All Good Things, TNG S7

These Picard-centric episodes provide some of the best glimpses we have into the multi-faceted Captain.  Family is probably the must-watch here for the new series, but the TNG finale also provides a similar future vision to what it appears we will end up with in the new series.  

Borg

Q Who, TNG S2

Best of Both Worlds, TNG S3/4

I, Borg, TNG S5

First Contact (movie)

For the Borg, these selections hit the beginning and the high points of Picard's interaction with them.  As it is confirmed that the former Borg drone Hugh will be in the series, the one episode you should definitely refresh is I, Borg.

Data

The Measure of a Man, TNG S2

Data's Day, S4

Descent, TNG S6/7

Nemesis (movie)

Turning to Data, I've selected a sampling showing the many investigations we have into Data's journey and desire to become more human.  The new series will certainly pick up on the threads left by Data's demise in Nemesis, but even the other movies Generations and First Contact are helpful in refreshing yourself on Data's storyline.

Romulans

The Defector, TNG S3

Unification, TNG S5

Face of the Enemy, TNG S6

Inter Arma Eni Silent Leges, DS9 S7

Star Trek (2009 movie)

Reading the earl grey tea leaves, it seems the Romulans will play a central role in the new series following the events of the Abrams 2009 movie, so that's required viewing.  Just like Klingons in Discovery, it may be helpful to have some background on what we know about how Romulans work, and that's why these episodes have been identified.  Of course, I would also expect the new series to provide its own background on Romulans if relevant.

Seven of Nine

Scorpion, VOY S3/4

The Gift, VOY S4

One, VOY S4

Infinite Regress, VOY S5

Finally, we also know Seven is coming back, and much like the Borg episodes, this selection both shows the high points of her character development and more background on the all-important Borg.  

Even if some of this material is not that relevant to the new series, it will be enjoyable to visit these high points in the series coming back together in the new show.  For those of us who grew up on TNG and the like, this is what we've been dreaming of, so let's get excited and enjoy the next chapter for our Captain and the rest.

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Character Insight No. 344: Ilia and Star Trek: TMP

Welcome back to Character Insight! This week, we celebrate the 40th anniversary of the first Star Trek movie by sharing my experience of seeing the movie for the first time, and then we do a character profile on Lieutenant Ilia from that movie.

https://archive.org/details/characterinsightep344 

My personal first Trek movie experience was seeing The Final Frontier when it hit television, shortly before seeing The Undiscovered Country.  Needless to say, the sixth movie in the theater was far more impressive to a young BuckeyeFitzy than the What Does God Need With A Starship movie.  That led me to seek out a box set of the other movies at the ripe old age of 9 or 10, and so my first experience with The Motion Picture was on a fuzzy small TV screen and a VHS tape.  Given that this movie is more about the amazing big screen visuals than characters and action, that kind of made TMP a heavy disappointment, especially as compared to Wrath of Khan and Voyage Home.  But I admit, I didn't have a chance to appreciate it on the big screen as it was intended.

TMP opened the door for what is now 12 other movies and 6 future TV shows, so the original return of Trek is something we should all be thankful for.

Today's short segment will focus on Lieutenant Ilia, who was a Deltan female conn officer on the Enterprise during what becomes the V'Ger mission.  Deltans are known for their sexuality and strong affect on other races like humans, so in order to be a Starfleet officer, Ilia had to take a vow of celibacy.  This is a bit awkward as she had previously on her home planet had relations with Commander Will Decker, who is also on Kirk's Enterprise.

We don't see much character development of Ilia beyond this background, as she is killed in the movie by the V'Ger probe.  The V'Ger probe then creates an artificial life form in the guise of Ilia to act as a liaison to the "carbon units" infesting the ship.  Although the probe replicated her memories and personality, V'Ger suppresses these aspects of Ilia, which reveals that Ilia really is gone.  Nevertheless, Will Decker decides to sacrifice himself to join what's left of her and the V'Ger probe at the end of the movie, opening these roles on the ship to once again be filled by the TOS regulars in future films.

As you likely know, TMP was a replacement for a Phase II scrapped television project, and some of the general concepts from Phase II did live on when a second TV show eventually aired 8 years later in The Next Generation.  Once of these general concepts was an ESP and sex-positive attitude character who serves on a bridge crew with a commander who had a past romantic relationship with her, AKA Deanna Troi is based on Ilia while Commander Will Riker is a small leap of letters away from Will Decker.  They even named the Betazoid race in a similar fashion as Ilia's Deltans, based on the Greek alphabet.  So while Ilia and Commander Decker only show up in The Motion Picture, the general concepts and underlying character threads were more than fully developed, just with modified characters in TNG.

Persis Khambatta played Ilia, and she had a short unsuccessful Bollywood career in India before establishing herself primarily as a US television actress. TMP was one of her only breakout movie roles.  Khambatta passed away in 1998 at the age of 49.

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Character Insight No. 343: Persis

Welcome back to Character Insight! This week, we wish everybody in America a Happy Thanksgiving and follow up with another augment character from Enterprise related to Malik, who we covered last week.  This week's subject is Persis.

https://archive.org/details/characterinsightep343
  

Persis is one of 20 human augments raised by Arik Soong, the great grandfather of Noonien Soong, who would perfect artificial lifeforms.  As this elder Soong did not have the technology available for such innovations, he had to rely on human augments like Persis and genetic engineering, which he had access to as a chemist working on Cold Station 12.

Persis was beautiful and used that to put herself in a position close to power, by being the consort to augment leader Raakin.  However, she proves in what we see in this series of episodes that she is cunning and has high intellect, allowing her to be a natural leader herself.  She plays a key role in overthrowing Raakin when she decides to side with Malik, who she had also fallen in love with.  She goads Raakin into making a first move against Malik, leading to his capture and later death.

QUOTE

Persis also leads the assault on the Enterprise to rescue Soong, who was being held by the Enterprise crew to try and lure and trap these augments.  She succeeds in returning Soong to the augments, where Soong and Malik begin plotting to steal another 2000 augment embryos from Cold Station 12.  While Persis helps Malik again in taking command back from Soong, who had taken over, she ends up releasing Soong and hiding his escape path by disabling internal ship sensors.  Malik kills Persis for this betrayal once he figures it out.

Persis first appears as just a pretty face and a consort to a male leader, but we quickly see that she is the one pulling the strings to shift the balance of power when she deems it necessary.  Her character has more depth than the savagery of Malik, which makes it sad to see her get killed in this storyline.  Arik Soong believed that augments could be much better members of society than Khan, and in the case of Persis, he may have had a perfect example.

Persis was played by Abby Brammel, who continues to act today in small roles, mostly on television.  Her most notable recurring role outside Trek was on The Unit in the late 2000s, but she can more recently be seen as a recurring character on the popular Fox drama 9-1-1.  Brammel turned 40 just this year and has recently had her first child, so we can likely expect more out of this actress as the years go on.

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Character Insight No. 342: Malik

Welcome back to Character Insight! This week, we review a character from Enterprise who appears in a couple episodes, this character being Malik.

https://archive.org/details/characterinsightep342 

Malik is one of 19 human augments who were made by 20th century genetic engineering in the timeline of Star Trek.  The embryos of these 19 augments were stolen by Arik Soong and then raised as children by Soong on a distant planet called Trialas IV.  However, at the age of 10, Soong is captured and put in prison for stealing the embryos, leaving the augments to fend for themselves.  It goes about as well as it did when Khan and his followers were stranded on Ceti Alpha.

To this end, Malik grows tired of being stashed away on a distant planet when the augments reach age 20.  Thus, he hatches a plan to steal a Klingon Bird-of-Prey, which he successfully does with one of his augment brothers Saul.  This angers the leader of the augments, whose name was Raakin.  This also leads Raakin and Malik to become fully at odds with one another, a conflict that had initially arisen over a shared love interest in Persis, one of the female human augments in their group.

Malik convinces Persis, who was Raakin's consort, to help overthrow the leadership of Raakin shortly after the theft of the Bird-of-Prey.  Malik kills Raakin and then shows his true self to be incredibly ruthless, a familiar trait for augment leaders as we've seen in other stories.

QUOTE

The crew of Enterprise then runs into Malik and the augments when Malik detects that Soong is aboard Enterprise.  Malik successfully captures Soong by taking Captain Archer hostage to assure his safe escape from Enterprise.  The Bird-of-Prey then takes off for Cold Station 12, the place where 1800 more augment embryos are being stored.

This obviously would be a bad situation, so Archer and his crew continue to try and capture the augments to put the genie back in the bottle, so to speak.  Of course, there are thousands of nasty pathogens stored in stasis at the cold station, leading Malik to torture others and threaten to make biological weapons out of this nasty stuff.  Long story short, with great effort and many twists and turns, Archer and his crew stop the augments and end up killing Malik in the end.  Soong realizes the error of his ways based on how Malik turned out.

Malik was played by Alec Newman except one child appearance in a flashback played by Jordan Orr.  Newman is originally from Glasgow and studied in the Shakespeare theater until coming to the field of acting.  He continues to act in many TV shows today, but it possibly best known for his role Muad'Dib in the 2000 Dune movie.

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Character Insight No. 341: Calvin Hudson

Welcome back to Character Insight! This week, we review a recurring character from The Maquis two-part episode of Deep Space 9, that being Calvin Hudson.

https://archive.org/details/characterinsightep341 

Calvin Hudson was a fellow Starfleet cadet at the Academy with Ben Sisko, and they graduate together in 2354. They remained close friends after the Academy, including spending time together in New Berlin as couples once they both were married, and also having adventures with shared friend Curzon Dax.

Hudson is a Lieutenant Commander by the time we meet him in the episode The Maquis, and he is serving as a double agent at this point for the Federation and the rebel Maquis.  Hudson had climbed the Federation ranks quickly thanks to having similar qualities as Sisko: good leadership and the ability to inspire trust in those he worked with.  That put him in position to be a primary attache to the Demilitarized Zone planets after the Federation-Cardassian Treaty is signed.

But after seeing firsthand the significant suffering and abuse of colonists by the Cardassians, he joins the Maquis and uses his Starfleet position to provide supplies and intelligence.  Sisko discovers Hudson's double agent role and Hudson initially tries to convince Sisko to allow the Maquis to use DS9 as a repair station for their ships, but Sisko is much more loyal to his Starfleet principles than Hudson and thus declines the proposal.  Hudson escapes the Federation grasp in a skirmish at the end of the two-part episode.

QUOTE from The Maquis
"You're throwing away your entire life."
"And beginning a new one."

We later find out that Hudson dies in a different fight with the Cardassians a couple years later.  He is described by a fellow Starfleet defector as a martyr for the Maquis cause.  Hudson provides an interesting contrast of a similar character and a similar officer as Sisko, but he turns out much differently based on a different set of life experiences and decisions made.

Behind the scenes, the writers had originally planned to kill off the Calvin Hudson character in this two-part episode, but showrunner Michael Pillar convinced the writers to not do so because they had done that for a couple other interesting and notable guest star characters recently.  Later Michael regretted the decision, leading the writers to put in a note killing off the character in the script for Blaze of Glory.  So we never see Hudson show up again, despite the threads left open at the end of this notable Maquis-centric episode.

Calvin Hudson was played by Bernie Casey, who had fame as an actor by his appearances in 80s movies like Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure, Revenge of the Nerds, and Never Say Never Again. Before acting, he was a track and field champion in college and a profession football player. He was not a fan of Star Trek, but he took this guest star role because he wanted to work with Avery Brooks, who he admired. He passed away two years ago at the age of 78.

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Character Insight No. 340: Icheb

Welcome back to Character Insight! This week, we review a recurring character from the latter seasons of Voyager, the former Borg drone Icheb.

https://archive.org/details/characterinsightep340 


Icheb was a young Brunali who was discovered by Voyager after he had been assimilated by the Borg. However, what Voyager did not know was why all of adult Borg drones on Icheb's cube were dead while several premature/developing Borg drones were alive. Voyager decides to try and re-integrate these four young people into non-Borg society and Seven of Nine decides to try and lead these children back, following her own successful re-integration.

Life aboard Voyager was difficult initially for the former Borg children, as Seven tried for a long time to control the children with heavy discipline and rules. When Icheb, the oldest but most gentle and soft-spoken one of the bunch, refuses a disciplinary order and yelled at Seven for never letting the children do what they want, she realizes that a different approach needs to be taken. She starts treating the children more as individuals and this helps them continue to re-integrate into normal society.

Icheb's original homeworld and his Brunali race are eventually discovered by Voyager. The Brunali are an agrarian society that used to be very technologically advanced, but that led to constant attacks by the Borg thanks to their planet being near the mouth of a Borg transwarp conduit. Janeway sends Icheb back home over Seven's objection, and Icheb discovers that his parents used their society's great knowledge in genetics to craft him as a virus to defeat the Borg Collective. In other words, they had made Icheb as a weapon rather than a son, and had voluntarily put him through assimilation.

QUOTE from Child's Play
"Then why does my stomach feel so strange?"
"You've got butterflies in there."
"I never assimilated… butterflies."

Icheb's parents sedate him and send him again towards the transwarp conduit to finish the process he had started, but Seven exposed their plan and stopped Icheb from being re-assimilated by the Borg. With no real home to return back to, Icheb decides to stay on Voyager. That makes him unlike all other locals who joined Voyager for a time, as all the other children, Neelix, and Kes all end up going back to their home societies or staying with another society before Voyager returns to the Alpha Quadrant.

Icheb eventually applies to Starfleet Academy to earn his commission that he earned in the field based on his strong aptitude in astrophysics. He becomes a valuable member of the crew, serving in various science and engineering fields over the last two years of Voyager's journey. At the same time, we see some fun character development as he mistakenly believes Lieutenant Torres has fallen in love with him, and he interacts regularly as a peer to Q Junior when that adolescent joins the crew for a time. Icheb also shows an appreciation for James Kirk and loves playing the Vulcan game kal-toh, once even beating Tuvok at the game.

Icheb was a modern version of Neelix and Kes, someone to give local flavor to the crew based on them undertaking a long journey far from Earth. In this regard, he adds interesting new character and story possibilities just like Seven of Nine did previously, while continuing the ongoing story of the journey home and the conflict with the Borg. He's a really important character to what made Voyager unique and good.

Icheb was played by Manu Intiraymi in most appearances and then by Mark Bennington in the one appearance we see this character as an adult. Intiraymi continues to act today, but his most notable regular role beyond Voyager was on the TV series One Tree Hill, where he plays Billy. His name is a combination of Incan words for the God of law and the God of the sun.

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Character Insight No. 339: The roles of Rebecca Romijn and Jerry O'Connell

Welcome back to Character Insight! This week, we review the career and roles of Rebecca Romijn, a recent notable addition to the Star Trek family, as well as her husband Jerry O'Connell, who she is bringing into Star Trek with her.

https://archive.org/details/characterinsightep339  

Unlike other actors and actresses we've done profiles on in this series, Romijn has not yet appeared in multiple different character roles.  However, she was a surprising recognizable face added in season 2 of Discovery and she reprised her role as Number One in a great Short Trek for this season entitled Q&A.  To celebrate her continued appearance on the show, this segment will look at her background for those unfamiliar.

Romijn was born in 1972 in California, and her father was a former Dutch national who was a custom furniture-maker while her mother taught English.  In high school she was known as the jolly blonde giant thanks to her notable 6 foot height and positive demeanor.  She went to college to study music but dropped out to pursue a modeling and later acting career.  

In her modeling career, she grew to become one of the famous Victoria's Secret models, also making the first appearance in body paint in Sports Illustrated, a precursor to the body-positive ESPN magazine body issues we see two decades later.  During this time she was also married to John Stamos of Full House fame, but they divorced a few years later.

The body paint turned out to be a ticket to one of her biggest film roles when she started acting, that being the villain Mystique in various X-Men movies.  While a younger version of the character was eventually taken over by Jennifer Lawrence, Romijn became one of the defining faces of that franchise in the 2000's, alongside acting greats Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart.  In this time she also met and married her current husband, Jerry O'Connell, and had twin daughters with him.

Although Romijn has played in a number of TV and film roles in the last 20 years, more recently she has taken on a regular voice role as Lois Lane in Superman and Batman videos.  She then added Star Trek to her resume by playing Number One on Pike's Enterprise in Discovery.  As stated earlier, she has shown more than capable of carrying on the intrigue of this character originally portrayed by Majel Barrett.

Interestingly, it appears Romijn has also brought her long-time acting husband into the Trek ranks as well.  Jerry O'Connell is perhaps best known for his role in the 1986 film Stand By Me, but he has continued to be a prolific film and TV actor for the last 35 years.  His Trek role will be as Commander Ramson in the first episode of Star Trek Lower Decks, which is in pre-production at the time of this segment.  Perhaps this will become another power acting couple that will add several memorable characters to Trek, we can only hope.

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Character Insight No. 338: Christopher Brynner

Welcome back to Character Insight! This week, we review a key character from the two-part episode Past Tense of Deep Space 9, Christopher Brynner.

https://archive.org/details/characterinsightep338

Christopher Brynner is the wealthy businessman and owner of Brynner Information Systems, a company based in San Francisco in the 21st Century on Earth. His past is not revealed in any detail on screen, but a short story in one of the Strange New Worlds compilations posits that Brynner was previously a lieutenant in the US Army in the early 2000's, serving in the Iraq war. Whatever his background is, he turns out to be in the right place at the right time to help Jadzia Dax when she and two other DS9 crew members are transported back in time to this history of Earth.

Ben Sisko and Julian Bashir were being held in the city's sanctuary district, a place where the homeless and mentally-ill were interned. Outsiders thought this was a good solution with ample care being given to these people, but on the inside, it was basically a prison. Dax convinces Brynner to help her find and retrieve Sisko and Bashir from this prison-like setting.

QUOTE

But because a Starfleet crew cannot let injustice stand for no reason, Dax also works to convince Brynner to restore computer access for the residents at the sanctuary district. He does help achieve this in the end, allowing residents to reveal their poor condition to the outside world. It is left as an open question where Earth will take this information from there, and given the current political nature of our society, who knows how this would be handled in real life today.

The little additional bits of character we learn about Brynner come from his dialogue with Dax, including some about his life experiences of skiing on Mount Cook and obtaining and later removing a Maori tattoo from his body. He may not be the most likeable character, but he does have power and influence and he is convinced to use those for the greater good. His character name was derived from Chris in The Magnificent Seven, who was played by actor Yul Brynner.

Brynner was played by Jim Metzler, who enjoyed a long acting career with many small appearances in television shows. He's appeared in shows ranging from NYPD Blue to Grey's Anatomy, and he was nominated for a Golden Globe for one of his supporting roles in the 1982 film Tex.  His final TV appearance credited was on Mad Men in 2014, and he's been enjoying retirement since then.

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Character Insight No. 337: The roles of Cameron

Welcome back to Character Insight! This week, we review another actress who played multiple roles on Star Trek, that being Cameron.

https://archive.org/details/characterinsightep337

Cameron is the stage name for Roberta Jean Oppenheimer. Not much is known of her pre-Hollywood background, although we know as a child she always dreamed of being a stage star, leading to her move to Las Vegas to appear in several stage shows. Most of her television and movie appearances came in the 1990's. Some of this work was as a stand-in, but she also earned some significant screen time as a background character in Trek.

Her most notable recurring role was as Ensign Kellogg on Picard's Enterprise. She appears in over 40 episodes over the final four seasons of the show, with further appearances in the movies Generations and First Contact. She was only identified by name in the episode The Drumhead, and her appearances are usually in the mess hall or as a security officer.

As a stand-in, she served as one of the Beverly Crusher stand ins over her four years on the show, and she also worked a little as a stand-in for Seven of Nine when that character was first added to Voyager. She was replaced in latter seasons of Voyager in this role, but this was near the end of her short acting career in TV.

As for other bit roles in Trek, Cameron ran the gamut through the alien races of the show. She played a Klingon aide to Gowron in TNG, a Cardassian officer in another TNG episode, a Prytt guard and a human unnamed officer on Voyager. She also participated in many live and print Trek marketing materials, including promotions tours for DS9 and as a crew character for Star Trek The Experience in Vegas.

Outside Star Trek, Cameron appeared in several movies including Coneheads, Tales from the Hood, and Tomorrow Man.  She also relived her Vegas show girl days in one of the worst-reviewed movies of all time entitled Sunset Strip.  After wrapping up her TV and movie career, she appeared as the show creator and writer on the burlesque show Cameron's Bump and Grind. She retired from public view following this self-made show.

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Character Insight No. 336: Best of Nog (tribute to Aron Eisenberg)

Welcome back to Character Insight! This week, we honor actor Aron Eisenberg, who passed away this week, with a Best Of segment for his most notable TV character, Nog from Deep Space 9.

https://archive.org/details/characterinsightep336 

The character of Nog appears in over 40 episodes of the show and he arguably has one of the best character arc stories of Star Trek. A large credit of that goes to the superb acting of Eisenberg, who elevated some of the scenes he was in and the other actors around him.

Nog starts as a child character and a local foil to Jake Sisko, Commander Sisko's son who was recently moved to the space station.  In one of their first pranks and escapades together in the episode A Man Alone, they release some bolites on a dining couple to cause them to turn blue, green, and yellow for a short time.  

QUOTE (from A Man Alone, S1):

Jake and Nog's friendship grows and Nog learns many valuable things from Jake and also from Keiko O'Brien, who sets up a school on the station.  Nog proves his resourcefulness on many occasions, including in helping Jake escape from the Jem'Hadar while on a camping trip that turns into the first conflict with The Dominion.  That incident led Nog to desire to be the first Ferengi to serve in Starfleet.  He must convince Sisko as a command officer to endorse his application to the Academy, leading to this memorable scene in Heart of Stone where he convinces Sisko of his motives.

QUOTE (from Heart of Stone. S3):

Nog has a fast rise through the Academy, earning the rank of ensign after just two years as a cadet thanks to his help during the beginning of the Dominion War.  While there are many memorable missions from the Dominion War days, his accidental encounter with the USS Valiant, which was being run by the Red Squad cadets from the Academy, is perhaps his best character piece as an officer.  He initially joins the Red Squad crew and follows orders blindly despite his friend Jake's objections, but he discovers his mistake before it's too late and escapes the exploding Valiant in an escape pod with Jake.

QUOTE (from Valiant, S6):

We also see Nog deal with and overcome PTSD in another great episode It's Only A Paper Moon following losing his leg in later Dominion battles, and he ends up on the Defiant crew with the other DS9 officers to help end the war at the end of the series.  His arc completes with him being promoted to lieutenant junior grade by Sisko, a far cry from the mischievous child character Nog was in season 1.

Nog was played by Aron Eisenberg, who sadly passed away this week at the age of 50.  Despite struggling with health problems since birth and going through multiple kidney transplants in his lifetime, Eisenberg was one of the most fan-friendly and engaging actors you could meet at various conventions and events.  He only acted for about 10 years, but he had moved on to other passions including a photography business and parenthood in recent years.  The Trek world is truly richer thanks to Eisenberg's contributions to it, and we will greatly miss him in this community.

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