Today In STAR TREK History: June 1st

Found him!

Welcome to our round-up of the Star Trek episodes which received their premiere broadcast on this day throughout the show's long history, along with anything else of note that may have taken place. All viewing figures quoted are for U.S. premiere broadcast (unless noted).

June 1st
On this day in 1984, the third Star Trek feature film premiered in US theaters. Star Trek III: The Search for Spock was written and produced by Harve Bennett, and directed by Leonard Nimoy himself. Critical reaction to The Search for Spock was positive, but notably less so than the previous film, The Wrath of Khan. Regardless, it went on to gross $76 million at the domestic box office, with a total of $87 million worldwide, and all on a budget of just $16 million.

From the big screen to the small screen...

The penultimate episode from season 5 of Star Trek: The Next Generation, The Inner Light premiered on June 1st 1992 to an audience of 11.1 million viewers. The episode was partly inspired by The Beatles' song "The Inner Light", written by George Harrison and based on verses in the 6th Century Chinese text Tao Te Ching.

Often cited as one of the finest stories from The Next Generation, and certainly some of Patrick Stewart's finest work, The Inner Light saw Stewart's Captain Jean-Luc Picard struck unconscious by an energy beam from an alien probe. While minutes pass for the rest of the crew, the probe makes Picard experience 40 years of lifetime as Kamin, a humanoid scientist whose planet is threatened by the nova of its sun. Toward the end of Kamin's "lifetime," Picard (who had come to accept his new life, though he never forgot his life on the Enterprise) learns that the purpose of the probe and the 40 years of virtual life it gave him was to keep alive the memory of Kamin's race long after the death of their civilization. Brought on board afterwards for analysis, the probe also contains Kamin's flute; Picard, having mastered it during his 40 years as Kamin, finds he retained the musical skills he learned and can still play it. He keeps it as a memento for the remainder of the series.

Born on this day in 1940, René Murat Auberjonois first achieved fame as a stage actor, winning the Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Musical in 1970 for his portrayal of Sebastian Baye opposite Katharine Hepburn in the André Previn-Alan Jay Lerner musical Coco. Moving into television, Auberjonois played Clayton Endicott III on Benson (1979–1986), for which he was an Emmy Award nominee, and Paul Lewiston on Boston Legal (2004–2008). In films, Auberjonois portrayed Father Mulcahy in the film version of M*A*S*H (1970); the expedition scientist Roy Bagley in King Kong (1976); Chef Louis in The Little Mermaid (1989), in which he sang "Les Poissons"; and Reverend Oliver in The Patriot (2000).

He was probably best known for portraying Chief of Security Odo on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, and he also directed many episodes of the series. Prior to assuming the role of Odo, Auberjonois appeared as Colonel West in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (although his scenes were initially cut for the film's theatrical release) and then went on to make a guest appearance as Ezral in the Star Trek: Enterprise episode Oasis.

After a long and successful career spanning six decades and over 200 screen roles, René Auberjonois died from metastatic lung cancer at his home in Los Angeles on December 8, 2019, at age 79.

Join us again next time for another round-up of the episodes broadcast, the movie's released, the special events, the birthday's celebrated and anything else of note that went down on this day in Star Trek history.