Star Trek fans are well familiar with the Kobayashi Maru, a test administered to Starfleet cadets to teach them about the no-win scenario. This test was first seen back in 1982’s Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, and earlier this year, Star Trek: Prodigy showed Brett Gray’s Dal R’El try to beat it in the appropriately-named episode “Kobayashi.” However, Dal’s time on the Kobayashi Maru was special, as he was aided by holographic representations of major Star Trek characters, including Star Trek: Deep Space Nine’s Odo, who was played by the late René Auberjonois. Cirroc Lofton, who played Jake Sisko in the same series, shared his thoughts with CinemaBlend about Prodigy including his late co-star’s shapeshifting character in this guest star lineup.
Just like with Nichelle Nichols’ Nyota Uhura, Leonard Nimoy’s Spock and James Doohan’s Montgomery Scott, archival audio was utilized for Odo’s dialogue in “Kobayashi,” while Gates McFadden recorded new dialogue to play the holographic Beverly Crusher. After “Kobayashi” was released to Paramount+ subscribers in January, Cirroc Lofton said on his Star Trek-centric podcast The 7th Rule that this was the “best new episode of Star Trek” he’d seen. When I asked Lofton to talk about it felt for him to see Odo in this Prodigy story, he first noted that after seeing so much “backlash” and “resistance” to what Deep Space Nine was doing during the show’s original run, he’s been happy to see it’s resonating these days not just with fans, but the writers behind the newer Star Trek shows. He continued:
… I thought that in that episode, if I’m not mistaken, it was an Aaron Waltke episode, and I think he’s one of the best writers of the young Star Trek generation, [the] up-and-coming class. His knowledge of what it’s about, his implementation and execution of what his vision and storyline is is really second to none. Seeing Odo, there’s a poise that he carried himself with, there’s a grace that he carried himself with, and I believe that they emulated that well in that episode. I love to see that they used Odo in that episode in such a great way. It was a vision that Aaron put out that I think was just extremely well executed, and not too long ago he had another episode that I thought is right up there with that as far as quality. So yeah, Aaron Waltke is becoming one of my favorite young writers in the business.
“Kobayashi” was indeed written by Aaron Waltke, who also wrote “All the World’s a Stage” and co-wrote the two-part midseason finale, “A Moral Star,” with Kevin & Dan Hageman, Julie & Shawna Benson, Lisa Schultz Boyd, Nikhil S. Jayaram, Diandra Pendleton-Thompson and Chad Quandt. From Cirroc Lofton’s perspective, Waltke did a great job implementing Odo as a member of Dal’s bridge crew in his Kobayashi Maru simulation, and the audio clips of René Auberjonois that were selected emphasized Odo’s gruff personality wonderfully. This marked the first time the Changeling protagonist appeared in another Star Trek show after serving as the Deep Space Nine space station’s constable from the same-named show’s start in 1993 to the series finale in 1999.
What’s sad is that as Aaron Waltke told Comicbook.com in January, he originally wrote Odo’s role in “Kobayashi” with the intention of René Auberjonois recording the lines, but the actor passed away before that could happen. In the end though, Cirroc Lofton was pleased with how Star Trek: Prodigy’s sixth episode handled Odo, and he’s clearly a fan of the stamp Aaron Waltke has left on this sci-fi franchise. With a second season of Prodigy in production, maybe there will be more opportunities for Deep Space Nine characters to appear, whether they’re also holographic representations or the real deal.
My conversation with Cirroc Lofton also included him sharing his thoughts on Star Trek: Lower Decks’ Deep Space Nine tribute episode, as well as his reflections on Candyman’s Tony Todd playing the older Jake Sisko in “The Visitor.” If you’re interested in hearing him co-host The 7th Rule with Ryan Husk, the podcast is wrapping up its time covering Deep Space Nine and will delve into The Next Generation at the start of 2023, with actress Denise Crosby joining them for all of her character Tasha Yar’s Season 1 episodes.
