Star Trek: 10 Crazy Facts About The Trill
9. The Spots
As is often the case with alien species in Star Trek, the Trills had a very distinctive features that set them apart from other races. Klingons had their forehead ridges. Ferengi had their giant heads and huge ears. Vulcans had their pointed ears and terrible haircuts. Trills had their spots.
Trills had two lines of spots that ran down each side of their head and all the way down their bodies. This was not an indication of the joining process as all Trills have them. The patterns were unique to each Trill, with some slight variations on color variations. But all Trills have them.
That's what makes the first Trill to appear in Star Trek so weird.
Odan was a Trill symbiont in a male host sent to the Enterprise-D to help mediate a dispute. On the mission, Odan was injured, requiring a new host. While a new Trill was sent, the symbiont briefly lived in Commander Riker. But the Trill hosts did not have spots but the did have unique forehead ridges. The changes in Trills between TNG and DS9 were startling.