Believe it or not, there was a time on DS9 when Kira Nerys was not fated to be Odo’s lover – at least for a little while.
By the fourth season of the series, Shakaar (played by Duncan Regehr of “Sub Rosa” fame) had moved into a relationship with Kira. The creative team made the decision to remove the romance between Constable Odo and The Major, and transitioned them back into being “just good friends”. Along the way, plans were put in place for Odo to seek love in new ways and with other people. Enter actress Dey Young.
Trekkies will recall Dey Young from her first appearance in the franchise from the fifth season “Star Trek: The Next Generation” episode, “The Masterpiece Society“. There, she played Hannah Bates, a scientist who works with Geordi La Forge to help her “perfectly balanced” society from meeting their demise due to an errant stellar core fragment. When Dey earned the role of Hannah, she realized the technobabble needed for the character was going to be a challenge since she considered herself to not be very computer savvy, so she found a great way to hide that.
“I felt that I really had to rise to the occasion,” Dey explained about becoming Hannah, as explained in her interview on Trek Untold. “And you know, I have a lot of passion in my life, in everything I do, I have passion for my acting, I have passion for my, for my sculpting. And the one thing about Hannah Bates is she was very passionate. And so, I just zoned in and brought in the passion of what I was saying, and I believed in a lot of what she believed in.”
“I brought my passion for what I love to do in my life forward and just brought it forward with Hannah. Now, I didn’t necessarily know what I was talking about how I was going to move this planet… but I just got behind my words in the way that I do with the acting and all of that. So I just tried to bring my A-game.”
Dey was lucky enough to return to Trek for the second time in the DS9 episode “A Simple Investigation“, where she played Arissa, a mysterious woman who can’t recall her past. As she works with Odo to uncover her secrets, the two falls for each other and she became the first character who wasn’t named Kira or Lwaxana Troi to fall for the changeling.
“You know, I think back on that experience, and playing that role, it is one of my favorite in all my career. Just everything gelled. It was, first of all, working with Rene and the director, John Kretchmer was amazing. He was a wonderful director. And he encouraged the chemistry that Odo and Arissa had, and I think that’s what really gelled in this.”
“It was a love story. And I literally fell in love with Odo during this time. And, you know, yes, I was supposed to be mysterious, and all of that. But the bottom line of this whole episode is the love that they have for each other, that connection, and then finding out at the end, that she’s someone else that she didn’t even know about, and that she has to go back to her husband when she loves this Odo, you know when she’s fallen in love.”
During the interview, I asked Dey about one of the most infamous parts of this episode, where she shares a bed with Odo and becomes his first physical lover (in the way that the “solids” do). Specifically, I wanted to know how she was able to smooch those prosthetic covered lips and have a sex scene on a Trek show. “They were wonderful lips, let me tell you,” she answered gleefully. “I think the beauty of it all was, well, I didn’t have any as you know – Arissa – until the very end, doesn’t have any kind of prosthetics. I had nothing. I had myself. And that was Arissa.”
“But you know, it’s all in the eyes. Rene’s eyes really came through his prosthetics. And so, it just all was so natural. It was seamless. It just was such a natural thing. It was a beautiful love story.”
“I felt more beautiful as that alien than as Arissa [the humanoid]. The wardrobe was beautiful. That is one of my favorite scenes and saying goodbye to him at the very end. I mean it was, it makes me cry even today. It was such a heartfelt goodbye.”
Viewers may not know, but Rene had to shave his chest for the scene to ensure his smooth shapeshifter appearance was maintained, and Dey recalled having a wonderful time with a true professional who understood how this on-screen affair worked.
“You know, I think I lay in his arms. I mean, Oh, God! It was one of those fantastic experiences and… the chemistry that we had, I think it was a beautiful loving chemistry and I especially liked Arissa because she goes through such growth and change. And she has a real arc in the episode. It is very heartfelt throughout the whole thing. You know, she might start out very mysterious and you know all of that and, and she’s on a mission. But by the end, you really know who she is.”
To hear more stories from Dey about her appearances on Star Trek TNG, DS9, and her time as Keyla from the “Star Trek: Enterprise” episode “Two Days and Two Nights”, along with more stories from her career including her two times working with William Shatner, check out the full interview on Trek Untold, available at any of the links below:
iTunes – https://buff.ly/2ywjYxT
Spotify – https://spoti.fi/35UuHyl
Stitcher – https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/trek-untold
Google Podcasts – https://buff.ly/2YJw15k
iHeartRadio – https://www.iheart.com/podcast/966-trek-untold-62512575/
Watch the newest Trek Untold video below
Trek Untold is a weekly podcast series that chats with character actors, stunt performers, behind-the-scenes crew and other people who are the contributors of the Star Trek universe whose names aren’t in the opening credits of the shows. Follow Trek Untold on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram to learn more about upcoming episodes, which are released every Thursday on all major audio platforms, and Sunday on Youtube in video form.
