We aren't the damsels in distress.

René Auberjonois, a prolific actor best known for his roles on the television shows “Benson” and “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine” and his part in the 1970 film “M.A.S.H.” playing Father Mulcahy, died Dec. 8 at his home in Los Angeles. He was 79.

The cause was metastatic lung cancer, said his son, Rèmy-Luc Auberjonois.

For film fans of the 1970s, he was Father John Mulcahy, the military chaplain who played straight man to the doctors’ antics in “M.A.S.H.” It was his first significant film role and the first of several for director Robert Altman.

And for sci-fi fans of the 1990s and convention-goers ever since, he was Odo, the shape-shifting Changeling and head of space-station security on “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.”

“I am all of those characters, and I love that,” Auberjonois said in a 2011 interview with the “Star Trek” website. “I also run into people, and they think I’m their cousin or their dry cleaner. I love that, too.”

“Star Trek: Picard” is bringing back some familiar faces.

During the show’s San Diego Comic-Con panel on Saturday, it was revealed that Brent Spiner, Jonathan Frakes, Marina Sirtis, and Jeri Ryan would reprising their roles from “Next Generation” and “Voyager” in Ryan’s case. Jonathan Del Arco will also appear, likely reprising his role as the Borg Hugh from “Next Generation.”

Previously announced cast members include Alison Pill, Michelle Hurd, Evan Evagora, Isa Briones, Santiago Cabrera and Harry Treadaway.

Deep Space Nine is described as “dark,” “edgy,” and “the black sheep” of the Star Trek family – a show that did not fit in Gene Roddenberry’s vision of the future. 20 years after it left the airwaves, fans all over the world continue to watch Deep Space Nine with the same affection they feel for the other Star Trek series.

Through extensive interviews with cast and creators, show footage presented in HD for the first time anywhere, and brand-new animated storyboards showing what could have been and what still might be, directors Ira Steven Behr (showrunner of the original series) and David Zappone (Star Trek docs The Captains and For the Love of Spock), bring you What We Left Behind: Looking Back at Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, an in-depth look at this beloved show, its fans, and its ongoing appeal to Trekkies of all ages.

This one-night event will include an exclusive two-sided poster (11x17, limited quantities) as well as a roundtable discussion on the making of the documentary.

For the first time ever, the beloved crews of four Star Trek incarnations – The Original Series, The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, and Voyager – will be pitted against one another in IDW's mind-blowing comic book miniseries, Star Trek: The Q Conflict. Debuting in January, this epic six-part event features the writing team of Scott and David Tipton (Star Trek: The Next Generation – Mirror Broken) and art by David Messina (Cloak and Dagger, Star Trek: Countdown).

When a dispute between godlike beings threatens the galaxy, it will take all of Starfleet's best captains to stop them. James T. Kirk, Jean-Luc Picard, Kathryn Janeway, and Benjamin Sisko must go head-to-head in a competition rigged by the arrogant Q and his nigh-omnipotent cohorts.

twistedchick

In 1966, my friend, who I’ll call “Dee,” was 26 years old, living in Oregon with two other young women, both in their early twenties. Dee’s family considered her a “spinster,” as she should have been married with kids by then, but Dee had no interest in finding a husband. She wanted a career in the medical field, to attend grad school and, more than anything, to write.

She belonged to a women’s science fiction writing group. Some of them had written professionally and others were hoping to get published (Dee among them), but as she said: “Science fiction in the 1960s was not considered the purview of women. So we would go to science fiction conventions and so on — it’s not fair to say we weren’t welcome — but there was very much a division, and the social attitudes at the time played a large role in just how participatory we thought we could be.”

Aside from featuring an LCARS-influenced bottle design (that’s the Enterprise’s computer operating system from TNG onwards), the vodka’s Star Trek-iness is enhanced by the fact that... it’s been to space? No, really: the company is planning to send a batch of the spirit into space, which will be blended with the larger stock to guarantee that at least every bottle contains a tiny bit of space-bound booze. I’m sure the discerning Star Trek fan will absolutely be able to notice this cosmic addition while they down shot after shot during their next Trek marathon.

I thought it was the coolest thing ever when we were writing it, the idea of doing a 'lost episode' of The Next Generation, but they're going to the holodeck to look back at Enterprise, Rick and I thought was a great sendoff to Star Trek [the franchise as it existed in 2005], and it didn't work out so well...It was a kind of a slap in the face to the Enterprise actors. I heard it from everybody, it was the only time Scott Bakula was ever mean to me. I regret it.

startrek

On the same day CBS went on the defensive about the lack of diversity on its fall schedule, "Star Trek: Discovery" executive producer Bryan Fuller made clear that his new series will not have that problem.
Fuller announced Wednesday that the new show will feature a female lead character and honor the franchise's history of inclusion.

"'Star Trek' started with a wonderful expression of diversity in its cast. You had a Russian with a black woman and an Asian man amongst a Vulcan, which is a different kind of diversity," Fuller told reporters at a panel for the show at the Television Critics Association press tour. "We're absolutely continuing that tradition."
Fuller also said the new series will "absolutely" have a gay character.