Review of DS9 episode 1.16 “The Forsaken”
An alien probe comes through the wormhole and begins to affect the station’s computer systems. Meanwhile, some Federation ambassadors are on board and Sisko passes the buck of dealing with them to Dr. Bashir, but one of the ambassadors is Lwaxana Troi and she has taken a special interest in Odo.
This is a pretty pointless and boring episode for the most part. Lwaxana’s presence in eps seems to go one of two ways: either it leads to a lot of humorous situations or it leads to total and complete boredom. This episode is mostly the latter.
The energy that Majel Barrett brings to the screen is impressive, to be sure, but unless Lwaxana is stirring up trouble, she doesn’t lend herself to many interesting stories. It doesn’t help that this particular story has been done with her many times before. Shamelessly throwing herself at every man that she encounters (none of whom want to be with her) was a trope that got old quickly on TNG and this ep does nothing to remedy that. On the plus side, we get some good character development for her and especially Odo in their scenes trapped on the turbolift, and Odo is such a deep and complex character that any development for him is always good. Overall this is a slightly below-average episode.
THE GOOD
- Lots of O’Brien, who is great as always.
- Sisko is great too in this ep. I love the way he interacts with absolutely everyone. From trying to soothe O’Brien’s ego, to bracing himself before dealing with the ambassadors, to his glee at torturing Bashir with the assignment--he is such a good character. Avery Brooks can be very awkward at times, especially with his dialogue delivery, but he often makes up for it with the nonverbal things he does as an actor to make his character come alive. Plus he is so well written. He’s not hammy like Kirk, nor is he perfect like Picard; he’s the most “real” of the captains by far and that’s why I think he’s equal with those two legendary captains on my ranking scale.
- Good character development for Odo, although it’s mostly just talking which isn’t super interesting. Still we get a lot of meaty backstory for him that will be explored deeper in future eps.
- Lwaxana Troi reminds me of Michael Scott from The Office. She’s awkward and cringy and often downright unlikable, but she usually does something by the end of the ep to redeem herself or make you feel for her in some small way, just like you usually do with Michael. I think that the last act of this ep does a lot to show her to be more complex, caring, and compassionate than the buffoon she is often portrayed as.
THE BAD
- Terrarium ep
- The B plot (or is it a C plot?) with the other ambassadors feels utterly and completely pointless. The ambassadors themselves are all so wooden, one-dimensional, and boring. Every scene with them was a chore to get through.
- Yet another ep where Lwaxana throws herself at a man. It’s boring and cringy and simply not fun to watch at this point.
THE UGLY
- What is up with the episode’s title? Who or what is supposed to be forsaken?
- So, apparently this didn’t happen because I can find no confirmation of it on Memory Alpha, but I have a distinct memory of the crew unleashing the Pup during the Dominion War when the station was occupied by the Dominion, in order to mess with their control of it. Maybe it happened in a Dominion War novel I read years ago, but there’s nothing on Memory Beta about that either. Apparently in a novel called Valhalla they do that to a different force that has taken over the station, but I’m like 95% sure I’ve never read that novel so I have no idea where my memory of that happening comes from. According to Memory Alpha, the Pup is never mentioned again on the show.
- Odo shapeshift count: 1 (turns to goo to regenerate), 8 total for the series
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