Star Trek: 10 Things You Didn't Know About Odo

Lest we forget (Vadic certainly hadn't), Odo was used as an intermediary for genocide. The deadly disease he had unknowingly transmitted to his people very nearly killed him, too. As if that wasn't tragic enough, it could have been even worse. Early in development of When It Rains…, the exact origins of the morphogenic virus took a surprisingly different form.

Section 31 was still involved, because of course they were. When are they not? However, according to the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion, in the first instance it was Doctor Mora Pol who invented the disease on the clandestine organisation's behalf. Small consolation, Mora had been "recruited" and never meant "to get Odo sick".

In fact, Odo never succumbed to the virus at all in writer/producer René Echevarria's initial outlines for When It Rains…Instead, he would have remained an asymptomatic carrier and been the one to go after Section 31 for the cure. Echevarria quickly realised that, for the purposes of a compelling storyline, "Odo needed to get sick".

In Extreme Measures — or The One with the Multitronic Engrammatic Interpreter — the trip through Sloan's (dying) mind was also very nearly through Doctor Mora's or even Odo's mind. "It was going to be a journey into someone's mind," noted Ira Steven Behr in the Deep Space Nine Companion. Ronald D. Moore had also been working on sending Kira over to help Damar's rebel forces, so it was decided not to split the couple up.