Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (TV Series) The Forsaken (1993) User Reviews

Even computers want attention

[Tweekums · 7/10 · 24 February 2010]

While not one of the best episodes of Deep Space Nine this was still entertaining enough and featured a good turn from guest star Majel Barrett as Betazoid ambassador Lwaxana Troi who is attracted to Odo after he recovers an item of stolen jewellery.

Several Star Fleet ambassadors are on board the station when an unmanned probe comes through the worm hole from the Gamma Quadrant. It appears to contain a computer program which Chief O'Brien transfers to DS9. At this point things start to go wrong; while the computer claims to be operating properly it clearly isn't as Odo and Lwaxana get trapped in a turbolift, communications fail and Dr Bashir and three ambassadors are nearly killed in a fire. As he tries to figure out what is wrong Chief O'Brien comes to believe that the computer is creating problems just to get his attention. This sounds far fetched but it is possible that the program they downloaded from the probe may be an life form which just wants some attention.

While the main story about the computerised life form was fairly average the side story where Odo was stuck in a turbolift with Lwaxana was rather touching as she was able to reassure him as he had to turn into his liquid form, a private thing he'd never let anybody see before.

Enter Lwaxana Troi!

[dand1010 · 8/10 · 12 August 2021]

Ambassadors are being hosted on the space station to view the wormhole. Dr. Bashir is their guide and he hates the job with these high maintenance individuals. Lwaxana Troi is one of the ambassadors and she becomes obsessed with Odo. She is not obsessed on an intellectual level (is she ever?), it is more of a randy level lol.

The other plot in the episode is O'Brien vs the DS9 computer. Something "invades" the computer and O'Brien spends the entire episode trying to problem solve before they all die.

Things To Notice:

*Reviewers are either TOTALLY put off by Lwaxana (Majel Barrett - creator Gene Roddenberry's wife) Troi calling her acting horrible, complaining of nepotism and being annoyed by her overt sexuality or the reviewers absolutely love Barrett's portrayal and her character and find the episode awesome.

*Odo complains to Sisko about being harassed and pursued by Troi and Sisko's reaction is to tell Odo (and I'm paraphrasing) to go for it and let her have him sexually. Boy oh boy! This is the second episode in a row that deals with the whole sexual harassment issue in a rather cavalier 1990's way.

*Troi tells Odo she has never "been with" a shape shifter then goes on and elaborates a bit.

*Troi and Odo become stranded together in close proximity and the dialogue the writers come up with and the way the episode plays out is surprisingly fascinating. I especially enjoyed Odo's reaction to Troi's personality - watch his nonverbal reactions.... Classic!

*Why does Sisko seem to always "pick on" the Doc? Bashir has saved Sisko's life on at least one occasion (Battle Lines) and has saved the crew and the station in several heroic acts. I could be misinterpreting what is going on between the 2 but Sisko makes Bashir babysit the visiting ambassadors and seems to assign the only doctor on DS9 this mundane task because he's trying to piss him off or get "his goat" somehow.

Hmmmm.

*Odo needs to regenerate every 16 hours. He returns to a completely liquid state (for which he has a personal bucket). His time isolated with Troi leads to an amazing transformation (watch closely) and a very personal moment between him and Troi. A CLASSIC DS9 moment occurs because he doesn't have access to his bucket. Awesome!

*Question: Why would people so advanced in the 2300's and way beyond us earthlings in 2021 allow the download of a probe from a different galaxy into the mainframe of DS9's core computer? I just don't get it. Smh.

Stuff happens so Odo and Majel can get stuck in an elevator.

[thevacinstaller · 7/10 · 11 March 2020]

Positivity Bias ----- With any episode that features Majel I can't help but have a positivity bias because of how much Majel enjoys acting in the episode and the fact she is the mother of star trek.

The good:

• Some excellent backstory to Odo's early life experience.
• 62 year old Majel is a complete smokeshow in her blue outfit in the security office. Way to go Majel!
• I enjoyed Sisko ditching out on rubbing Elbo's with the ambassadors and putting young bashir on the job.
• I just love Majel making people feel uncomfortable like a inappropriate aunt at a family get together.
• We get a few moments of Odo's vulnerability and that's nice to see.

The bad:

• The B plot of the computer being a needy puppy was not exactly an engaging/thrilling experience.

New show, same old Troi

[sloopnp · 6/10 · 3 January 2020]

Boy this episode didn't age well, hmm? Odo complains to his boss that Troi is sexually harassing him. The boss laughs and suggests he "go for it" or else find a nice way to deal with it. I thought it was funny how this wouldn't fly these days. As for Troi, I wish they could've figured out a nicer path for her character. She throws herself at some man in every Star Trek episode, and its usually not reciprocated. For a woman who can read thoughts, she can't take a hint that they aren't interested? It's getting old and embarrassing.

Procreation does not require changing how you smell, or writing bad poetry, or sacrificing various plants to serve as tokens of affection

[snoozejonc · 6/10 · 29 December 2021]

The DS9 computer goes wrong and Odo gets stuck in an elevator with Lwaxana Troi.

This is reasonably good episode with some amusing dialogue and background for the character Odo.

The best scenes for me involve Odo and (clichéd concept of the broken elevator notwithstanding) there are some good exchanges between the two characters. Both Rene Auberjonois and Majel Barrett do well with the material they have to work with.

The other two plot threads are okay, but not particularly memorable, although, as usual Colm Meaney makes the scenes in the control centre quite watchable with his portrayal of Chief O'Brien.

I think you to have to like Lwaxana's character to really enjoy this one, otherwise it's a fairly average outing. I don't hate the concept of her like some who take television way too seriously do, but at this point in Star Trek, scenes of her chasing yet another love interest were a long way past their sell by date.

The object of her affections

[bkoganbing · 6/10 · 1 November 2019]

In this DS9 story several Federation ambassadors are visiting the space station and they include Lwaxanna Troi. After he catches a thief who has stolen her broach, Majel Barrett decides that Odo is the man for her.

Of course Rene Auberjonois isn't exactly human and as he tries to explain to her why he is unique among life forms we learn a lot about him being a one and only; As Odo an Troi are trapped in an airlock.

In fact the other ambassadors are trapped as well with Dr. Bashir who Commander Sisko has made a chief of protocol. That Cardassian computer is acting up again and Colm Meaney has to deal with it.

They'd better get that Federation technology there pretty soon.

'Humanizing' Lwaxana Troi.

[planktonrules · 9/10 · 15 December 2014]

The episode begins with some extremely annoying ambassadors arriving at the station. They are so annoying that the Commander assigns Dr. Bashir to escort them--a task he clearly hates! Among the ambassadors is Lwaxana Troi and this time she has her horny sights set on Odo! She is determined to woo him and they end up spending far more time together than Odo had anticipated--all due to a weird computer virus-like program.

Strictly speaking, Lwaxana Troi is not a human. However, this episode is among her very best as it softens the character and makes her less an obvious comic foil. Instead, she's very sensitive, decent and likable--something she seldom was in her other appearances up until "The Forsaken". This depth is the reason I rated this particular episode so highly---it's well worth seeing and those very familiar with Troi should particularly enjoy this one.

Troi and Troi Again

[Hitchcoc · 7/10 · 28 September 2018]

A group of obnoxious ambassadors come to the station and get in the way. Lwaxan Troi, whom I've never been able to stand, takes a liking to Odo. They end up on an elevator and share their secrets. Of course, his constitution doesn't provide much for romance with a human. O'Brien must battle a recalcitrant computer left by the Cardassians and Bashir is stuck trying to provide for the painful guests. It's OK I guess. Played mostly for humor.

Rene carries season 1

[thepkhunter · 7/10 · 26 March 2024]

'Is Odo your first name or your last name?' 'Yes.' It's funny - this episode has a lot of the ingredients I've complained about in previous episodes. Schlocky writing, slapstick goofs, no real A-story and a reliance on recurring characters from TNG... But I can't help but quite like it. Rene is, again, an absolute gem and is quickly becoming my favourite character. He plays comedy and drama with equal conviction and it's hilarious. Playing opposite Majel Barrett - trek royalty for numerous reasons - creates a great slapstick double act and odo's little pleading faces of discomfort had me lolling. Third act is also quite touching for a comedy episode.

There's something really odd with the conversation pacing in this one, though, almost as if they're reading off cue cards SNL style. Can't decide if it's in the direction or the edit, but either option would be unusual form for Les Landau. Majel even fully flubs a line in the turbolift and they just keep it in, and a lot of the scenes are cut with very little coverage which leads me to believe they were suuuper short on time to get this in the can. Leaves a lot of slightly awkward lingering reaction shots in Sisko's office and in the turbolift.

Nice to see some experimentation with vfx and bluescreen to create a new style of turbolift shot we haven't seen before. Also makeup + vfx for odo's Cronenbergian transformation into liquid looked great. Horrendously expensive to do shots like that at the time!

Shout out to Colm's whole performance, too, though it's weird that his relationship with the computer never appears again.

It's not sexual harassment if it's a woman doing it

[beanslegit · 3/10 · 5 October 2021]

Lwaxana Troi is back to make unwanted sexual advances on another man. This time it's odo she's after and he wants none of it. He complains to his boss Sisko who smiles and tells him to go for it. If only they could think of literally anything else to do with the character than just be horny all the time. Pretty unpleasant stuff mostly. Oh and the b and c plots are weak too so I'd say skip this one.

DS9: Sexual Harassment

[cloudbuster63 · 3/10 · 30 April 2020]

A creepy old supposedly empathic cougar making persistent and obviously unwanted romantic advances against a non-humanoid alien is pretty unpleasant stuff. It's not humorous at all.

Nepotism is a vile, evil thing that destroys art.

[PhxDwn · 4/10 · 29 April 2021]

Lwaxana Troi is the absolute worst character in all of Star Trek, and Majel Barrett only got the role because she was the boss' wife. It's also how she got the role of Nurse Chapel in TOS. She was unlikable in that series, she is unlikeable in TNG, and she is unlikable here.

Yet the showrunners insist on using her again and again. Even after Gene Roddenberry passed, this obnoxious, annoying, horrible character still shows up, ruining every episode she's in and wasting the viewer's time. She steamrolls through TNG once a year, and now she's steamrolling through DS9 like a plague. Why did they insist on continuously using this awful character? Nobody likes her, with the exception of the few Star Trek sycophants who refuse to apply critical thought when appropriate.

In this episode she engages in grotesque sexual harassment towards Odo. It is clear that he does not want her advances, yet she persists. It's "supposed" to be comedic, but it's just another repugnant performance by a character that is both horribly written and horribly portrayed. It's an awful message, and the people who made this show should be ashamed of themselves.

Lwaxana is supposed to be an "ambassador." yet she possesses zero diplomatic skills. She just runs her mouth like the blowhard she is, and insists on getting what she wants without compromise, with selfish disregard to the words and wishes of everyone around her. This is supposed to be "funny," but it's not. It's just more despicable, unethical, and disrespectful behavior from a despicable, unethical, and disrespectful character.

I read that she appears a few more times on DS9. It would be best to skip those episodes. I'd rather see Wesley Crusher return, and that's saying a lot because he's the second-worst character in all of Star Trek.

Troi Time on the DS9

[Nominahorn · 5/10 · 28 February 2019]

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