Three strands entwine to develop how we long for connection

Rhonda’s Take on Episode 16: “The Forsaken”

Balanced Storytelling

“The Forsaken” is the kind of episode that showed the strength of storytelling from the team of writers behind Deep Space Nine. More so than its predecessors, DS9 never forgot it was an ensemble show. While Avery Brooks’s Commander Benjamin Sisko appeared in every episode, many of the stories were not about him. While an occasional episode might focus on one of the ensemble, the others were integral parts of every whole. In Season One, only Terry Farrell’s Lt. Jadzia Dax remained undeveloped. It was an unfortunate function of Farrell being cast late in the process and then the season being a truncated one (Building a station does cost a bundle!). In this episode as in previous ones, Dax is there to deliver the technobabble that moves the scienc-y part of the story toward a resolution. While “The Forsaken” is arguably an Odo and O’Brien episode, Siddig El Fadir as Doctor Bashir comes into his own for the first time. The writers even manage to give Majel Barrett in a guest role as Lwaxana Troi time in the spotlight without her role feeling like a cameo of the month!

Also remarkable, “The Forsaken” does not have separate A and B stories as previous episodes, the shenanigans caused by the computer visitor cause Odo’s moment of truth and Bashir’s proving his competence and that entity’s story and Odo’s are definite reflections of each other.

Let’s Bow to the Magic that is Majel Barrett

I assume Majel Barrett has been crowned the queen of Star Trek. Until her death in 2008, she was inextricably linked to every show. She was the original Number One until studio execs made Gene Rodenberry choose between a woman or an alien on the bridge. Instead, she gave Nurse Chapel strength and courage and compassion that tempered the irascible Doctor McCoy. As the voice of the computer for the original series and movies, DS9, Next Gen, and Voyager, she gave each ship individual character and a sense of stemming from the same source. Then, she became Lwaxana Troi. She drove her daughter, Deanna Troi, crazy, but she rocked Jean Luc Picard’s world with aplomb and never stopped rocking ours. Yet, the Lwaxana of The Next Generation was never as perfectly written or played as in “The Forsaken.” I desperately wish I could have one ounce of the compassion and composure she retains in this episode!

Throughout the episode, Barrett plays up Lwaxana’s seductive playfulness. Her first moment on screen is a damsel in distress cry for her stolen broach, but that is quickly followed by her unabashed grabbing of Quark’s ear and threatening him. When Odo skillfully stops the thief, Lwaxana is smitten. Odo, of course, doesn’t know how to handle her overtures, since this is the first time he’s been subject to another’s sexual interest. “You can handle thieves and killers, but not one Betazoid woman,” Commander Sisko says with glee, offering him no pity or promise of relief from Lwaxana. In fact, Sisko suggests that Odo let her catch him! Odo gruffly responds that humanoids waste too much time on mating rituals. Sisko’s only advice is to handle the situation with delicacy to which Odo responds that he does not handle delicacy well. When he says it, we have every reason to believe him, but Lwaxana will bring out his delicacy in the scenes that follow.

Lwaxana Troi is a force of personality as she railroads Odo into spending time with her. She will not take no for an answer even when he angrily explains that he doesn’t eat or drink so a picnic is frivolous.

Once they are stuck in the turbolift, we aren’t sure who will break down first. Lwaxana is clearly distressed. She is always talkative, but now she needs to keep talking. The taciturn Odo wants to escape her incessant rambling, but sinks onto the floor with her to offer her comfort. This favor is returned as they remain stuck in the turbolift and he nears the end of his waking cycle.

We should all take a page from Lwaxana’s handingly of this situation. She tries encouragement: “You don’t have to be ashamed with me.” She tries comfort: “How can I make it easier for you?” Odo does not have an answer, but she knows.

“The moment she hands Odo her wig and he turns to see her natural state is indelibly beautiful.”

The moment when she hands Odo her wig and he turns to see her natural state is indelibly beautiful. Odo sees her beauty and we do too, but she admits that she does not. She sees herself as ordinary and she “never cared for ordinary.” It allows Odo to relax and return to his fluid state—safely held in her skirt!

When they emerge from the turbolift, they are connected by this shared moment of vulnerability, which has also connected Odo more deeply with the audience. As Lwaxana says, when it comes to the picnic, it is the company that matters. Both will be discrete in keeping what they saw of each other.

O’Brien and His Stray

Meanwhile, O’Brien has been fighting with the computer, which suddenly becomes compliant after they download data from a rogue Delta Quadrant satellite. If we weren’t already paying attention to the parallel experience of this entity and Odo’s backstory, Barrett’s voice helps make the connection.

In the turbolift, Odo tells Lwaxana about his early days when he lived in a lab and was the party trick for his researchers. In Ops, O’Brien and Dax discuss how the entity now rattling around in their systems is shutting down functions to keep O’Brien’s attention. Both Odo and the computer program have been cut off from interaction and they both long for the connection. Odo has yet to truly connect with anyone. The computer program attempts to connect with O’Brien, but cannot truly do so either. In the end, Odo has connected with Lwaxana, but the program must be put in a metaphorical doghouse where it will feel connected without true connection to another.

Bashir Saves the Day

This episode starts with Sisko’s Station Log that lets us know he’s basically set up Doctor Bashir for the worst duty on the ship: entertaining ambassadors. One wonders how Sisko can get away without even meeting the ambassadors. They certainly know they’ve been shunted onto an underling. They’ve also become the comedy relief for an otherwise serious minded episode.

Humorous moments:

• In response to Bashir’s suggestion he have Quark set them up with a holosuite program, Ambassador Taxco dismisses them as “Ferengi sex programs,” and Ambassado Lojal or Vadosia scoffs at her sexually repressed culture.
• Bashir begs Sisko to relieve him of the duty, but Sisko tells him that all junior officers have to go through this experience. Curzon relished assigning him this duty until he hit one, which he cautions Bashir not to do: “I’m not as understanding as Curzon.”
• When the ambassadors demean O’Brien for not being able to keep the station running, Bashir once again declares the challenges of life “at the frontier, it’s one adventure after another.”

Bashir wins their support when they are caught in an explosion and his quick thinking allows them to escape into a service hatch. They emerge with due respect telling him to call them by their first names, giving effusive praise, and promising to put forward his name for accommodation.

In three strands, “The Forsaken” investigates how we long for connection and how the way we treat each other either builds walls of separation or allows connection.

Return to Jim’s Take: “Lwaxana Troi is…Grateful!”

Continue to Ray’s Take: “Karens and Love in an Elevator”

Skip to Matt’s Take: “A Surprising Gem”

Return to Episode Logs or Episode 16 Guide