The Doubtful Star Trek Character Modeled After A Renaissance Gentleman

By Chris Snellgrove
| Published 1 second ago

Star Trek is a franchise set in the distant future, but many of its best moments are inspired by the distant past. For example, Captain Picard’s Enterprise is The Next Generation is a ship where people relax by playing classical music or living out literary adventures (from Shakespeare to Sherlock) on the holodeck.

Things were very different on Deep Space Ninebut that Star Trek spinoff was still inspired by the past. For example, in the episode “The Forsaken,” writer Jim Trombetta deliberately modeled Odo on the archetypal idea of ​​a Renaissance gentleman.

Even if you’ve watched this Star Trek episode many times, you probably haven’t clocked any references from the Renaissance because there’s no mention of that period specifically. Instead, Trombetta drew on that period’s idea of ​​a gentleman to give flavor to Odo’s very unique condition.

The shapeshifter in the episode is stuck in a broken turbolift with a very unhealthy Lwaxana Troi. Odo is embarrassed at the idea that she will be the first person to see him return to his liquid form.

Like Troi himself, we can hear what it’s all about Star Trek fans reading this are asking: What does Odo, stuck in an elevator with a crazy Betazed, have to do with the Renaissance? According to Jim Trombetta (who wrote the story but not the screenplay), Odo’s condition reflects that of Renaissance “gentlemen” who “had to be tough warriors with a tough shape, like armor.” The metaphor here is very direct, as Odo’s solid form disintegrates in the turbolift, and he is in danger of melting, something he is desperate to hide from Lwaxana Troi.

Star Trek writers tend to be history nerds, and as Trombetta helpfully points out, there was a “concern” during the Renaissance that nobles would “go soft.” Men at the time worried that they might transform from being fierce warriors to being “helpless” and “baby-like.” Odo had to return to his fluid state every day, and after stubbornly trying to hide his pain. After a kind gesture from Troi in removing her wig and showing the constable a vulnerable side of herself that no one else had ever seen, she turned into a pool of liquid trapped inside the hem of her dress.

While some of Star Trek’s tropes tend to be a little tortured, Trombetta is convinced that the Renaissance nobles angle “works very vividly” in “The Forsaken.” As he said, “Odo is a constable and a very tough guy, but he has to go through that process and allow someone else to help him.” Odo learned a valuable lesson that, frankly, many fans watching at home could stand to learn: that it ironically takes enough strength to be vulnerable in front of others, even those (perhaps especially those) that are important to you.

It’s fun to see Lwaxana Troi in all her glory, but for some it was hard to see her scenes with Odo as much more than an equally great middle-of-the-road comedy. Now that we know that even their silly moments are Renaissance inspired, we can’t help but look at the episode with a new respect. Also, real talk, we’re always down for any an excuse to rewatch Deep Space Ninewhich remains the best show in Gene Roddenberry’s long-running franchise.