Beloved Star Trek Character Changed Over Budget Limitations

In case you’ve forgotten the details, “Paradise Lost” was the direct follow-up to the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode “Homefront.” In the first ep, Sisko works closely with Admiral Layton, a man who wants to put Earth in a state of martial law to deal with a supposed Changeling infiltration. Sisko eventually discovers this is just a plot for Layton to pull off a coup; the captain is thrown in jail, and Odo later shows up to liberate his commanding officer by using a Vulcan nerve pinch on the guard.

Seeing Odo rock a nerve pinch in “Paradise Lost” was surprising to fans because this is a distinctly Vulcan move. It’s the kind of thing we had repeatedly seen Spock do in The Original Series and in the early movies. However, it was strange to see a non-Vulcan pull the move off, especially because Odo made it look so easy.

Eventually, the co-writer of “Paradise Lost,” veteran Star Trek scribe Robert Hewitt Wolfe, admitted the real reason Odo used a Vulcan nerve pinch in the ep. “We ran out of money for morphs,” he admitted with a laugh. While it’s not immediately clear how much the morph effects cost, these were the days that it cost $10,000 to simply show a phaser blast onscreen, so we can imagine Odo morphing into one cool shot after another could easily put an episode over budget.

Of course, Odo using a Vulcan nerve pinch in “Paradise Lost” brings up the question all Star Trek fans were asking when the ep came out: where the heck did the shapeshifter learn how to do this? Odo actor René Auberjonois admitted that he had no idea, but implied that it made sense because “Odo is a man of many talents.”

At any rate, Odo wasn’t the first non-Vulcan to master the nerve pinch, and he wouldn’t be the last Star Trek character to do so. Data has used the nerve pinch before, though it makes sense that his perfect android brain would let him master this complex technique. Picard has actually used the nerve pinch on at least two different occasions, but these notably occurred after he mind-melded with the legendary Vulcan Sarek.

On Voyager, both the EMH and Seven of Nine knew how to use the nerve pinch. On Discovery, Michael Burnham has mastered the technique, which isn’t as crazy as haters might think. Not only was this character raised by Vulcans, but we know from The Original Series that humans can be taught this technique and that Kirk was simply a poor study.

It’s a small detail, but having Odo use a nerve pinch in “Paradise Lost” added a fascinating new wrinkle to this compelling Star Trek character. Just like that, we discovered that the Security Chief had a hidden weapon in his arsenal to instantly incapacitate those who threaten him. We never would have had this character detail at all, though, if not for Paramount running so low on money that they couldn’t whip up another morphing effect.

It all worked out, though. In retrospect, most of those morphs now look cheap and dated. Odo perfectly imitating Spock, though–now, that’s priceless.