Show: Star Trek; Deep Space Nine
Episode
Particulars: S1EP16, “The Forsaken”
Standalone
Thoughts: Lwaxana Troi has a certain reputation among most Trek fans; namely, that she may be
written to be intentionally annoying, but that still makes her annoying. My
first exposure to her on TNG was when
I was younger and less inclined towards critical thinking, so I was mostly
indifferent to her. Having grown up and heard so many people complaining about
her, I was bracing myself for the worst. And maybe it’s just that I haven’t
seen her in awhile so I don’t have a benchmark to compare it to, or that I’m
inclined to cut DS9 slack as much as
possible, but…I don’t think she’s that bad this episode.
Don’t get me wrong, she’s exactly what everyone expects
in her early scenes—loud, arrogant, constantly chasing after men, and wearing
outlandish outfits—but the longer she’s stuck in the elevator with Odo, the
more sympathetic she becomes. She seems like she’s genuinely interested in Odo’s
story, and tries to be nice to him in a variety of ways. Maybe it’s because she’s
really only playing off of Odo and no one else, but she seems more like a
character rather than a caricature. If this is what can happen when different
writers get their hands on an established character, then I think it’s
something that needs to be experimented with more often.
The rest of the episode is a little less successful. I
think the big problem is that so much of it relies on technobabble, so it’s not
always easy to follow along. Even so, I feel like the resolution is too fast and
not very well-explained. What exactly did O’Brien do to fix it? Why did it make
everything go back to normal? How do we know the solution is a permanent one? This
really would have benefitted from explaining things to the audience in normal
words.
I should probably also mention Bashir’s subplot, because
it led to more than a few observations from me. First, the intent may have been
that Sisko was assigning Bashir as liaison to the diplomats as a learning
experience, but it really comes across as a punishment of some sort. Bashir’s
had his problems this season, but this seems a bit out of the blue for Sisko,
who’s never given any indication that he thinks Bashir needs this sort of tough
love. Secondly, Bashir has an interesting moment where he seems exasperated by “frontier
adventures” which is the exact opposite of the things he was saying in “Emissary”,
and while it was probably brought on by the stress of dealing with the ambassadors,
it suggests a slight change in his character, which is good. Third, like the
computer plot, Bashir’s solution to getting out of the tough situation he and
the ambassadors find themselves in in the third act is just kind of shown to us
without going into details, when it’s the details that I really wanted to see.
And finally, we get yet another moment
that would have tied in beautifully to later developments, even though I’m
pretty sure it wasn’t intentional. When we finally
hit that point, I may need to compile a list. Unfortunately, I’m going to
be in for a bit of a wait.
How it Relates to
the Whole: Like Picard in “Emissary”, the Duras sisters in “Past Prologue”,
and Q in “Q-less”, this seems to be another example of the studio putting in a
familiar face from TNG in order to
boost DS9’s ratings. I’m not sure how
effective it was (even at the time, I don’t think Lwaxana was well-loved), but
like other call-backs to the rest of the franchise, I felt it was worth
pointing out.
As for how it will relate to DS9 going forward, there’s actually a decent amount here. I’m not
sure if the new computer entity ever shows up again, but Lwaxana will make (I
believe) two more appearances, one of which directly connects back to this
episode. More importantly, we learn more about Odo’s backstory, which will lead
to its own episode later down the line. In short, this is an episode that has
both small and large ramifications, and that wasn’t at all what I was expecting
from it. But then, DS9 was always
full of surprises.
Other: *Why is
this episode called “The Forsaken”? You can try to argue that the computer
thing is a forsaken entity, but we never get any proof of that. Odo and Bashir
have difficult tasks ahead of them, but they weren’t abandoned so much as
targeted and thrown under the bus, respectively. I don’t know what this episode
should have been called, but they probably should have saved this title for an
episode with more appropriate material.
*Remember back in “Vortex” when I said the computer was
being oddly literal? This episode suggests that that was meant to be both
intentional and recurring, given O’Brien’s frustrations with the computer.
However, even its antics here seem more “normal” than that moment in “Vortex”.
Granted, it wasn’t something I was really paying attention to, but the fact
that I didn’t notice anything out of the ordinary most of the time suggests
that either the writers didn’t do a good job of getting their point across, or
that they made it up for this episode.
*I love this little fourth-wall break;
It may not have been intentional, but a Trek fan can read a lot into that
expression, and that’s part of what makes it so fun.
*I realized while watching this episode that I’d stopped
paying too much attention to Odo’s makeup. I might have just been getting
distracted by bigger issues, but I think that’s because the makeup crew has
generally figured out what they’re doing. It only came up this time because a)
the makeup around Odo’s lips seemed a little off, and b) the crew did a great
job with Odo’s makeup as his regeneration deadline comes closer. It seemed
appropriate to mention it one last time before considering this an established
part of the series.
*This is the first time we see an internal view of the DS9 turbolifts, and they’re actually
kind of neat;
It’s functional and artistic at the same time. I hope it
shows up again occasionally; it’s a cool shift in perspective.
*There are several lines here that make implications that
you wouldn’t expect to hear on a Star
Trek show. One is a line that I’m pretty sure is meant to be a double entendre (either that or I’ve got
a filthier mind than I realized), and the other sounds suspiciously like a “I
want to kill myself to get out of this” line, only the line is delivered with
an uncomfortably serious tone. DS9’s reputation
of being the most adult of the shows continues to hold up.
*There is no way that the scene where the crew tries to
distract the computer long enough to remove the entity manually wasn’t inspired
by 2001: A Space Odyssey. If the crew
is saying otherwise, then they’re lying.
*I didn’t mention it yesterday, but there was a fire
effect in one scene that didn’t look remotely realistic, but I was willing to
turn a blind eye because it was related to the “imagination” thing. However, it
looks like the same fire effect was used in this episode, and it looks just as
fake, even though it’s meant to be real this time. I’m guessing they were just
trying to save money, but it’s a little awkward in practice.
Best
Line/Exchange: While there are some amusing bits scattered throughout, the
one I chose is actually a bit of a surprise, even to me;
(Lwaxana has
removed her wig)
Lwaxana: No one’s
ever seen me like this.
Odo: Why? It
looks fine.
Lwaxana (shaking
her head): It looks ordinary. I’ve never cared to be ordinary.
This is quite possibly the simplest yet most accurate
summary of Lwaxana ever, and it’s said very gently and genuinely. It shows that
Lwaxana has a certain amount of self-awareness, and that she can be serious
when the situation calls for it. More proof that at its best, DS9’s writing could draw unexpected
depth out of almost any character.
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