The directing jobs came as a result of Rick Berman. “I blame Rick Berman for putting me through that,” said Auberjonois. “It was a real education.”

“Rick sort of nudged me into it and he was very supportive,” said Auberjonois. “I did eight of them and I’m going to say this off the top of my head, so it’s not anything that should be carved in stone, but I would say that of the ones I did maybe two of them were shows I was really proud of, where I thought I truly brought something to them. I thought maybe four of them were fine. They were exactly what was written on the page and I delivered that. Everyone was very professional and did outstanding work, so the shows were good shows.

“If one stands out, it’s probably Hippocratic Oath, which was a Dr. Bashir episode with people on this planet dying of a strange disease, and he ultimately figures out what’s going on.”

After his directing experience on Deep Space Nine, Auberjonois was asked if he would direct other shows. “I’d look at these people like they were crazy,” he said. “I had no interest in going to a show where I didn’t know the actors and the crew and the producers and everyone involved, where I wasn’t part of the whole world, so I wouldn’t really know the story. I mean, I could watch other episodes, but I wouldn’t be as immersed in anything else as I was in Deep Space Nine.”

Auberjonois is currently working on an episode of Bored to Death. “I’m playing someone named Henry, who is the father of an old girlfriend of Jason Schwartzman’s,” explained Auberjonois. “I hire him to protect a very valuable necklace that my daughter is going to be wearing. It’s a guest spot and my real reason for doing it is it’s a paid vacation and a trip to visit our son Remy, who lives in Brooklyn, and his wife, Kate, and our adorable two-and-half-year-old granddaughter, Sunde.

In addition to television work, Auberjonois is appearing at Star Trek conventions. “I’m doing a bunch of Creation events,” he said. “I started in San Francisco in May and I’ll be in Vancouver this month and also in Parsippany and Chicago. And I’ll be in Las Vegas, at the big show, in August. Nana (Visitor) and I are doing our show, Cross Our Hearts.”

Cross Our Hearts is “a collection of poetry and short stories that do not directly relate to Odo and Kira,” said Auberjonois, “but have to do with love, all different kinds of love, like romantic love and love for your dog and love for children and love for life. And then there’s a direct Odo-Kira reference at the end of it.”

One of the aspects that Auberjonois liked about Odo was knowing next to nothing about the character and watching him evolve. “So, where I thought in the beginning that I didn’t want to know where he was from and loved that it was a mystery, I also loved the fact that when we got a script – one that focused on Odo and his world – I’d learn something new that I didn’t know about the character,” said Auberjonois. “I would have to ingest it and incorporate it into this character that was being built over seven years.

When it came to Odo-Quark, Auberjonois believes that the writers saw the potential of their adversarial relationship and knew it would be often revisited. “I have a feeling that they knew the Quark-Odo would be one of the things that would be, not necessarily a cornerstone, but something that they could go back to, that was the kind of relationship between characters that Star Trek fans revel in,” he said. “So I have a feeling that there’s an element of that in the Quark-Odo relationship, because it meant the writers could refer to that very briefly and have it have meaning.

“We’d have tiny little encounters most of the time. It wouldn’t even be scenes. I would walk into the bar to do something else completely, and Quark and Odo would have an exchange, maybe only two or three lines between them, but the audience was so in tune with that relationship that they could extrapolate. And, in fact, Armin and I have commented on it over the years.”

Odo and Kira came out of Necessary Evil. “..in the end, in present time,” explained Auberjonois, [Odo] understands that Kira was responsible for this, that she was an underground fighter. The writers wrote in that scene at the end that they were in Odo’s office and he looks at her. I can’t remember the exact words of how they described him looking at her, but it was clear that he understood that this person who was his only real friend on the station has betrayed him in some way. I don’t know what it was that I did or if it was how it was shot, but the next day, when they were looking at the dailies, the writers said, ‘Oh my God, look, Odo loves Kira.’ And they went with that.”

But in the end, Odo left Kira and returned to the Great Link. “If anything could be called inevitable in a series as out-of-this-world as Deep Space Nine, that was inevitable,” said Auberjonois. “The one thing I knew, by the time we’d explored the relationship with Kira and started to know who the Founders were, was that that had to be the way it was going to end for them and for Odo specifically.

“So I was completely satisfied with it because I thought, ‘This is the way it has to be.’ It’s the classic, poignant ending. It’s people making great sacrifices for the greater good.”

On the first day of the convention, held in San Francisco, Richard Arnold, former assistant to Gene Roddenberry, started things off with a 45th anniversary slideshow and reminisced about 1970s fandom and the birth of the Star Trek conventions.

Grace Lee Whitney told the audience about her favorite Star Trek episode, The Enemy Within, which featured two Kirks, a good and a bad one. She was bruised during the scene when the bad Kirk grabs her and drags her across the floor of his cabin, she told the audience. Whitney also shared details about the “Janice Rand look” which included makeup, the way she was lit and of course, that famous basket-weave hair-do.

On the second day of the convention, Nichelle Nichols answered questions and sang for the fans, including a song about Charlie X from the episode of the same name. After her appearance, the Duras Sisters (Gwynyth Walsh and Barbara March) appeared in costume. “It all comes right back,” said March, who explained that the Klingon teeth they were obliged to wear were “like torture, so you can get in character and be pissed off already before you get on camera.”

The highlight of the second day was the appearance of Leonard Nimoy, who shared stories about his career in acting and photography. He spoke about his (at the time) controversial memoir, I Am Not Spock. “I called the chapter, I Am Not Spock,” he said. When his publisher asked him for the title of his book itself, he said, “Let’s go with I Am Not Spock. People will find that interesting.” But Nimoy soon found out that the fans ” found it interesting, all right, in the wrong way.”

The final day of the convention featured actors from Star Trek: Enterprise and Deep Space Nine. Connor Trinneer and Dominic Keating entertained the audience and updated them on the actors’ current projects. When asked if the cast members stay in touch, Keating gave a reply which will surely please Scott Bakula fans, “Connor and I are very close,” he said. “And every Christmas we go to Scott Bakula’s Christmas party. I’m still on the list for that.” Keating also said that fans will be seeing a lot of Scott Bakula at conventions this year, because he’s signed on for several. “He recently remodeled his house,” said Keating.

The final appearance was that of Rene Auberjonois and Nana Visitor, on stage together. The pair talked about their careers and current projects, and of course, about their projects. Auberjonois told the audience why he developed a gruff voice for Odo. “When I went in to audition for the role … The casting director said nobody had been grouchy enough.” So Auberjonois chose to go into the audition already in character as Odo, gruff voice and all.

Visitor shared her memory of the Take Me Out to the Holosuite episode; where it turned out that she had no baseball skills whatsoever but had to acquire them quickly. “I was never so nervous because we had to stay there until I hit the ball,” she said. But when the cameras started rolling, she (and those working with her) were in luck. “I cracked the ball right away,” she said. “The crew was so thrilled they carried me on their shoulders.”

Auberjonois and Visitor also gave a unique dramatic presentation called “Cross Our Hearts: Poems and Prose,” which they plan to do at other conventions this year.

“Cosplay, or dressing in character, has always been a huge part of our conventions and has become increasingly popular in recent years,” Creation CEO and co-founder Gary Berman observed. Berman acknowledges the goal is a lofty one, but is optimistic the fan participation will be high. “Beating this record is certainly a challenge but I believe our attendees are ready to go where no fan convention has gone before!” Berman said.

In addition to to a wealth of costumed fans, attendees will get the opportunity to hear from a plethora of Star Trek celebs. Jeri Ryan, who portrayed Seven of Nine on Star Trek: Voyager will be making her first appearance at the Vegas convention, which has been running annually since 2002. William Shatner, who portrayed Captain James T. Kirk and will star in the new CBS comedy $#*! My Dad Says this fall, will be on hand alongside Leonard Nimoy (Mr. Spock), who recently announced his retirement from acting. Last season, Nimoy appeared on the Fox show Fringe. Ryan, Shatner and Nimoy will all be appearing on Saturday.

Other guests at the convention include the recently knighted Sir Patrick Stewart, who brought Captain Jean Luc Picard to life on both the small and big screens in Star Trek: The Next Generation. Last year, Stewart appeared on stage opposite David Tennant in “Hamlet,” portraying the titular character’s uncle Claudius. Stewart will be joined on Sunday by fellow TNG alums Jonathan Frakes (Commander William Riker), Brent Spiner (Data) and Michael Dorn (Worf).

On Friday, the star of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Avery Brooks (Captain Benjamin Sisko), will take the stage. He’ll be joined on Friday by castmates Nana Visitor (Major Kira Nerys), Rene Auberjonois (Odo), Armin Shimerman (Quark) and James Darren (Vic Fonaine). Thursday will see the reunion of Classic Trek stars George Takei (Sulu) and Walter Koenig (Chekov). Voyager will be further represented by Robert Picardo (EMH), Ethan Phillips (Neelix) and Garrett Wang (Harry Kim) on Saturday, while Star Trek: Enterprise stars Connor Trinneer (Trip Tucker), Dominic Keating (Malcolm Reed) and Anthony Montgomery (Travis Mayweather) take the stage on Sunday.

Tickets for all four days are available on site at the Las Vegas Hilton. More information, including ticket pricing information and additional guests, can be found at Creation’s page for the convention here.

In a new article at Geek Speak Magazine, the directing careers of Star Trek alumni are explored. Each actor began his or her directing career by directing Star Trek episodes.

Some of the actors only directed Trek episodes. These directors include Patrick Stewart, Gates McFadden, Avery Brooks, Rene Auberjonois, Alexander Siddig and Robert Picardo.

Both Brooks and Auberjonois directed nine episodes each, including Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: Rejoined, known for the kiss between Jadzia Dax and Lenara Kahn, and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: Ferengi Love Songs.

Other actors went beyond Star Trek. LeVar Burton, who began his directing career with The Next Generation: Second Chances, went on to direct for other Trek series as well, including nine Deep Space Nine episodes, eight Voyager episodes and nine Enterprise episodes. Burton then directed two episodes of Showtime’s Soul Food, episodes of JAG and Charmed, and several movies, including The Tiger Woods Story.

Roxann Biggs-Dawson started her directorial career with Star Trek: Voyager: Riddles and Workforce Part 2. She went on to direct ten episodes of Enterprise. After Star Trek, Biggs-Dawson directed Crossing Jordan, Close to Home and Cold Case, plus more.

Robert Duncan McNeill started out directing Voyager‘s Sacred Ground, and his non-Trek work includes shows such as Everwood, One Tree Hill, The O.C., Summerland and Dawson’s Creek. McNeill also directed an episode of the new V: Red Sky, and thirteen episodes of Chuck.

Warehouse 13 and Eureka, two series from Syfy, will be joined together in a pair of crossover episodes this summer.

“In the episodes, which are currently filming,  Douglas Fargo (Neil Grayston) of Eureka’s Global Dynamics is sent to Warehouse 13 to help update its aging  computer system. This triggers a seemingly sentient computer virus that sends the Warehouse into lockdown and traps the team inside.  The Warehouse 13 episode is entitled 13.1 and will air on Tuesday, August 3, at 9 PM (ET/PT).

“The Eureka episode entitled Crossing Over, will air on Friday, August 6, at 9 PM (ET/PT).  Warehouse 13’s Claudia Donovan (Allison Scagliotti) pays a visit to Eureka, hoping to see some amazing technological wonders.  She gets more than she bargained for when seemingly random objects begin appearing around town.  Working with Sheriff Carter (Colin Ferguson) and Fargo, Claudia has to help solve the mystery before the strange anomalies have deadly consequences…particularly for newcomer Dr. Grant (James Callis).

“Rene Auberjonois (Boston Legal and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine) will guest star in the Warehouse 13 episode as former Warehouse agent Hugo Miller.”