Legendary Irish actress Fionnula Flanagan played three characters in Star Trek who each had links to DS9’s Dax, TNG’s Data, and Enterprise’s T’Pol.
Summary
- Irish actress Fionnula Flanagan played iconic roles in different Star Trek series from 1993-2002.
- Flanagan’s characters had close ties to major heroes, impacting storylines in intriguing ways.
- Star Trek: DS9, TNG, and Enterprise featured Fionnula Flanagan in memorable guest star roles.
Irish actress Fionnula Flanagan played three very different characters in the Star Trek franchise between 1993 and 2002. Born in Dublin, Ireland, Flanagan trained at the Abbey Theatre School, where Star Trek: Deep Space Nine‘s Colm Meaney would also train as an actor. Fionnula Flanagan moved to Los Angeles in the late 1960s, and became a recognizable face, popping up in guest roles on classic TV shows like Gunsmoke and Kojak, before winning a regular role in How the West was Won, which also starred Ricardo Montalban, best known as Khan Noonien-Singh in Star Trek.
Fionnula Flanagan has also appeared with several Star Trek personalities over the years, outside the franchise itself. Between 2007 and 2010, Flanagan had a recurring role in Lost as Eloise Hawking, alongside other Star Trek guest actors like Terry O’Quinn, Alan Dale, and Daniel Dae Kim. Flanagan was no stranger to guesting in the iconic sci-fi franchise, appearing in three Star Trek TV shows; Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, The Next Generation, and Enterprise, respectively.
Enina Tandro in Star Trek: DS9
Star Trek: DS9, Season 1, Episode 8, “Dax”
Fionnula Flanagan’s first Star Trek role was Enina Tando in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine season 2, episode 8, “Dax”. Enina was a former lover of Curzon Dax, but their relationship was kept secret due to her marriage to Ardelon Tando, a military general fighting a civil war. Curzon’s involvement as a Federation diplomat made the relationship with Enina completely inappropriate. When Curzon died and the symbiont was transferred to Lt. Jadzia Dax (Terry Farrell), she vowed to continue keeping the affair with Enina a secret. Jadzia’s silence almost cost her her freedom and her life in “Dax”, when Ardelon’s son, Ilon Tandro (Gregory Itzin) sought to prosecute her for his father’s murder.
While Commander Benjamin Sisko (Avery Brooks) grappled with the legal complications of prosecuting a Trill host for a predecessor’s crimes, he sent Constable Odo (Rene Auberjonois) to investigate the circumstances of Ardelon’s death. Odo eventually brought Enina back to Deep Space Nine, exposing the affair with Curzon, and revealing that Ardelon’s death was of his own making, due to his betrayal of his own people. Enina and Jadzia shared a tender moment together before she left the station, hinting that Dax retained some semblance of Curzon’s love for Enina.
“Dax” was co-written by legendary Star Trek: The Original Series writer, Dorothy C. Fontana, it was her last script for televised Star Trek .
Juliana Tainer in Star Trek: TNG
Star Trek: TNG, Season 7, Episode 10, “Inheritance”
Juliana Tainer was, for all intents and purposes, the mother of Lt. Commander Data (Brent Spiner) in Star Trek: The Next Generation. Juliana was the husband of Noonien Soong (Brent Spiner), and worked on multiple Soong-type androids from B-4 to Lore to Data. As Data was the most promising of the Soong-type androids, Juliana taught him about art and music, creative pursuits that he enjoyed throughout seven seasons of TNG. Data and Juliana were reunited when the USS Enterprise-D arrived at Atrea IV to assist with Tainer’s scientific mission.
[Juliana Tainer] was an android replica, created by Soong after his wife’s death.
After some initial reluctance on Data’s part, he and Juliana bonded, performing a violin duet for the crew of the Enterprise. However, when Juliana was injured during the mission, the truth about Data’s mother was revealed. Rather than being the original Juliana Tainer that assisted with Data’s development, she was an android replica, created by Soong after his wife’s death. Juliana was completely unaware of her true nature, and Data respected the wishes of his creator by not divulging that information when he and his “mother” parted ways at the end of Fionnula Flanagan’s Star Trek: The Next Generation episode.
Ambassador V’Lar in Star Trek: Enterprise
Star Trek: Enterprise, Season 1, Episode 23, “Fallen Hero”
Fionnula Flanagan’s previous characters had close links to some big heroes, and the same can be said for Star Trek‘s female Vulcan Ambassador V’Lar in Star Trek: Enterprise. V’Lar was the first Vulcan that Captain Jonathan Archer (Scott Bakula) seemed to get along with, owing to her personable nature. Sub Commander T’Pol (Jolene Blalock) idolized the Vulcan diplomat, who had negotiated the first territorial accords between her people and the Andorians. However, T’Pol’s hero had seemingly fallen from grace, as she was accused of criminal misconduct.
T’Pol found this revelation difficult to swallow, and it was revealed to be a subterfuge. Rather than being a criminal herself, Ambassador V’Lar was carrying out an investigation into the corrupt political system on the planet Mazar. However, despite T’Pol’s advice, V’Lar kept this information to herself for too long, until the Enterprise NX-01 was boarded by corrupt Mazarites. V’Lar and T’Pol eventually parted on good terms, and as the Vulcan ambassador stepped off the Enterprise, Fionnula Flanagan’s Star Trek career came to an end. For now at least.
