9. Andrew Robinson As Odo
Andrew Robinson is better known to Star Trek fans these days as Elim Garek, possibly one of the most interesting characters in Star Trek history. I'd say that he is far more interesting than the part of Odo. But Garek wasn't in the pilot, he didn't appear until the following episode, Past Prologue, and then only becomes a recurring character from the second season onwards. What we do know about Robinson and Odo is that he managed to get down to the shortlist of the final three choices to play the role. The other two on that list were René Auberjonois and Gerrit Graham. Both Robinson and Graham had guest character spots during the first season, with Graham playing the Hunter in Captive Pursuit. One thing that Odo, Garek and the Hunter all had in common was that they were to feature full face make-up although this was later cut from the Hunter due to budget reasons. The question of how different Odo would have been with Robinson playing him cannot be easily answered. It all depends on how much of the character was by direction and how much of it did Auberjonois bring to the role. We know that Robinson brought a great deal to the Garek role he wrote a biography of the character from which extracts were written into the series. He later wrote a rather brilliant book called A Stitch In Time about Garek in essence, he really bought into the role. So I'd bet that Garek would have expanded the Odo character likewise. We would probably have seen a great deal more investigation about what Odo was up to during the Cardassian occupation and the scenes with the other founders would have been a great deal more heartfelt. The only problem is that if Robinson had got the part, then either Auberjonois or Graham would have ended up playing Garek in Past Prologue. A Garek without Robinson's influence? I don't think it would have been worth it.