The Delta Flyers - The Forsaken

Episode Date: March 25, 2024

The Delta Flyers is hosted by Garrett Wang, Robert Duncan McNeill, Terry Farrell & Armin Shimerman. In each podcast release they will recap and discuss an episode of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. This week’s episode is, The Forsaken, hosted by Garrett Wang, Robert Duncan McNeill, and Armin Simerman.The Forsaken: Lwaxana Troi arrives on DS9 and sets her sights on a reluctant Odo. Also, data from an alien probe has an unusual effect on the station's computers.We want to thank everyone who makes this podcast possible, starting with our Production Managers Megan Elise & Rebecca McNeillAdditionally we could not make this podcast available without our Executive Producers:Stephanie Baker, Jason M Okun, Marie Burgoyne, Kris Hansen, Chris Knapp, Janet K Harlow, Heidi Mclellan, Rich Gross, Mary Jac Greer, Mike Gu, Tara Polen, AJC, Nicholaus Russell, Lisa Robinson, Alex Mednis, Holly Schmitt, James H. Morrow, Roxane Ray, Andrew Duncan, David Buck, Ian Ramsey, Feroza Mehta, Jonathan Brooks, Gemma Laidler, Rob Traverse, Matt Norris, Stephanie Lee, Izzy Jaffer, Jan Hanford, & Sam MikelicOur Co-Executive Producers:Liz Scott, Eve England, Sab Ewell, Sarah A Gubbins, Luz R., Dannielle Kaminski, Utopia Science Fiction Magazine, Courtney Lucas, Matthew Gravens, Captain Jeremiah Brown, E & John, Deike Hoffmann, Anna Post, Shannyn Bourke, Tom Paynter, Jenna Appleton, Lee Lisle, Sarah Thompson, Holly Smith, Amy Tudor, Mark G Hamilton, KMB, Dominic Burgess, Mary Burch, Sandra Stengel, Normandy Madden, Joseph Michael Kuhlman, Darryl Cheng, Elizabeth Stanton, Kayla Knilans, Tim Beach, Victor Ling, Shambhavi Kadam, Tae Phoenix, Donna Runyon, Nicholas Albano, Daniel O’Brien, Danie Crofoot, Steven Lugo, Penny Liu, Lisa Hill, David Smith, & Stacy DavisAnd our Producers:Philipp Havrilla, James Amey, Patrick Carlin, Richard Banaski, Ann Harding, Meredith Hudes-Lowder, Trip Lives, Samantha Weddle, Chloe E, Paul Johnston, Carole Patterson, Warren Stine, Jocelyn Pina, Mike Fillmon, Chad Awkerman, Mike Schaible, AJ Provance, Captain Nancy Stout, Claire Deans, Maxine Soloway, Barbara Beck, Dat Cao, Stephen Riegner, Debra Defelice, Vikki Williams, Cindy Ring, Alicia Kulp, Kelly Brown, Jason Wang, Gabriel Dominic Girgis, Samantha Hunter, Jamason Isenburg, Rob Johnson, Maria Rosell, Heather Choe, Michael Bucklin, Lisa Klink, Dominique Weidle, Justin Weir, Jesse Bailey, Mike Chow, Kevin Hooker, Matt Edmonds, Ryan Benoit, John Richardson, Heather Selig, Rachel Shapiro, Clark Ochikubo, Stephanie Aves, David J Manske, Seth Carlson, Amy Rambacher, Jessica B, E.G. Galano, Tim Neumark, Will Forg, Ryan Tomei-Sigurðarson, Charlie Faulkner, Estelle Keller, James Lyszczek, Russell Nemhauser, Lawrence Green, Greg Kenzo Wickstrom, Lisa Gunn, Lauren Rivers, Jennifer B, Dean Chew, Linda Daireaux, Mars DeVore, Jennifer Vaughn, Walkerius Logos, PJ Pick, Preston Meyer, Ryan Mahieu, Andrew Cook-Feltz, Karen Galleski, Rik Moran, Constance, Loretta Reyes, Jeremy McWilliams, & Timothy McMichensThank you for your support!“Our creations are protected by copyright, trademark and trade secret laws. Some examples of our creations are the text we use, artwork we create, audio, and video we produce and post. You may not use, reproduce, distribute our creations unless we give you permission. If you have any questions, you can email us at [e-mail].”Our Sponsors:* Check out Mint Mobile: https://mintmobile.com/TDFSupport this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/the-delta-flyers/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Welcome to the Delta Flyers Journey Through the Wormhole with Dax, Quark, Tom, and Harry. Your host for today are my fellow Trek actors, Armin Schimmerman, and Robert Duncan McNeil. So for the complete and amazing version of this podcast, please check out patreon.com forward slash the Delta Flyers and sign up to become a patron today. Hello, Robbie. Hello, Armin. Hello, Garrett. How are you?

Everybody survived the rains and the snow? Oh, my goodness. And the sun pump? Yeah, you've had the rains. Yes. We've definitely had a lot of snow. We're getting the rains that you had as snow now up here. It's beautiful.

Yeah. And is your roof done? We're all following along. I think it's done. I think all the holes have been plugged up. and we have a brand new roof and supposedly will last 20 years and then we'll see in 20 years

how it's doing if I'm still around you're going to be around I'm getting out of all the time me too how was skiing the other day Robbie I forgot to ask you that skiing was good it was like blizzarding while I was skiing so it's very flat light and for those that are

that ski, if it's real flat and you're up on steep, bumpy hills, it's hard to ski in that kind of light. So that was my biggest issue. You can't see the terrain very well. You can't. You think it's flat and then all of a sudden there's a four foot bump and you're flying in the air. It was one of those days. Joe, I tell you why I gave up skiing. Why? Yeah, you have no choice. As a young man, I kept skiing in UCLA, which is a little hard to conceive of, but we actually skied on straw during class. And then we moved very slowly down the hill because it was strong. Right. So when we, they took us on an adventure up to somewhere, I can't remember, but you know,

probably Big Bear maybe. Probably Big Bear, yeah. And, okay, so now I was going downhill a lot faster than I had ever gone on Straw, UCLA. And I just fell in the snow. And somebody behind me, an older gentleman, skied right into me just his skis went right into the side of my just below my ribs

it was like a Gwyneth Paltrow story I didn't die from it but and it was excruciating pain the snow bunny showed up and she was very considerate of the man who would skied into me but she left me in the snow never said one word to me

what? He helped him down the slope and I looked at my skis and I thought on my pain And I said, I'm never doing this yet. And I've got it to my word, and I've never done it since. Oh, wow. I can't be learning.

Kitty and her brothers were avid skiers and really a lot of skiing as young people. Well, I just want to say right off the bat, I went to UCLA like you did. And when I was there, there was no offer of skiing. It's a class? It's a class. It's a class. It was a P.E. class. Like a P.E.?

And you know the hill that goes from the library down to the student union? Yes. You guys were on that hill? Yeah. Gosh. That's amazing. It's a steep hill. I mean, let's face it.

Westwood, UCLA is probably one of the hillyest campuses I've ever been to. And they actually provided you guys with, they put the straw on that hill and you guys stayed down. And we learned everything we were supposed to. Of course, we didn't go very fast. And that's what this adventure was to do, was to teach us what it was like to be on real snow. I don't know if the rest of the students in my class continued to ski. I know I gave it outbrook.

Oh, man. I have a question. So you're skiing on straw in the middle of the UCLA campus. Were people watching this and cheering? I don't know if they were cheering. They were probably laughing. Laughing.

But certainly, that walkway that I was just mentioning to Garrett, which is frequently by the entire student body. Oh, yeah. Very busy. Yes, they must have seen us, you know, and laughed of watching us halting our way down to straw on the side of the wheel. That's amazing.

All right, ladies and gentlemen, I am so happy to inform everyone that Armand's microphone is properly connected now. Yay. Oh, that's so much better. I sat there and I said, he is so echoey today. I don't know what's going on. And then we troubleshot it and we figured it out. Yeah, we're all good to go now.

Well, we were on a side. Yeah, go ahead, Armin. So now you know what it sounded like to me when I was in the prosthetic head. There you go. It was always a little muffled and far away. That's funny. also it sounds much better sounds so much better it does thank you thank you very much there you go so right before we begin speaking of this episode we will talk about birthdays

which we love to do so first of all i would like to say what we would all like to say happy birthday to pamela miller march 29th is her birthday happy birthday pamela happy birthday pamela happy birthday, Pamela. Happy birthday, Pamela Miller, March 29th. Happy birthday. And who else we got? Who else? We also have Terra Poland.

Terrapolin, March 30th, a day later after Pamela, happy birthday, Tara. Happy birthday, Tara. Happy birthday to Tara. Happy birthday to Tara. Happy birthday on March 30th. Happy birthday to Tara. There you go, Tara. and many more

and happy birthday of Pamela the day before I just haven't heard of her name in there okay all right all right all right let's talk about this episode let's start off with first of all I just want to say the forsaken

did you know that the working title of this episode was only the lonely the title of the Roy Orbison song and then it became the forsaken So very different, which was also a movie back in the 90s. There was a movie called The Forsaken. Right, right. Interesting.

And it's, I mean, you remember also Robbie on Voyager. We would get scripts where there would be working titles, which then changed and it would say formerly known as. And how often does that happen? I'm just wondering why they keep changing these titles. Well, we did one earlier on this podcast. It was called Move Along Home, which I'm quite sure had a different title when I shot the episode. Oh, how funny. what it was. Wow. How funny. And then they changed it way, way later. Okay. All right. Shall we do our

poetry synopsis? Let's do. I would love to. You want me to start with my limerick? Of course. I always love a limerick to start us off. Here we go. For the Forsaken, my poetry synopsis goes a little something like this. The computer makes Miles pretty upset and Waxana tries to catch Odo in her net. Bashir shows ambassadors around the station. They finally show him. some appreciation, and Miles now has a new computer pet. Yeah, look at that, tight. Yeah. Love it.

I love it. There's a little limerick. I'm sure Bob Picardo would not like my rhyme and rhythm, but... I think you have an issue with that one time that Bob was very critical of me. Yeah, and I was not in the tempo format that he wanted. Yeah, but I thought it was overly critical. I'm going to be on your side. I felt for you.

Listen, just let me say that I'm the English professor and I'm happy with it. Thank you, Armin. Here you go. I'm telling Bob. Here you go. Thank you. Tell Bob. Yes.

Yes. I defer to Armin on this one as well. I think that's right. No, when he, when he criticized you, Robbie, I know he was joking. I think he was. That's what we do. That's my bit with Bob. It is, but it did hurt me because I feel like the limericks that you have come up with.

They're hard. The limericks that Rebecca has helped you with have been amazing. I love them. And so when he was critical, I, I really, I felt bad for me. I did. I felt bad and I felt a little bit upset with him. I was like, how dare you, Babacardo? How dare you?

I'm telling him now, Armin, the English professor, has given me the stamp of approval. So there you go. All right. Exactly. Okay. Here's my haiku for the forsaken. Delegates arrive. Bashir must babysit them.

Chief builds a dog house Excellent Thank you You got the pet You got the dog house The pet in there too Well you ended with the pet I ended with the pet

And so we're good Armand do you have A etymology of I don't write poetry I just grade it So the word Forsaken is a relatively old word

In the English language Okay It was first used At least according to the Oxford English Dictionary, the first citation is in 1305, that's when the language wasn't anything like what we understand English to be. So, you know, when that opera with Yeshua Souta, that's old, that's Middle English. Wow. Wow. That sounded cool. Sorry. That's the opening lines of Canterbury tales. Oh, is it? When that opera with Yeshua, Souta, the druch de

march, a persa to the root, in every way, in which sweet liquor, of which vert, Agendur, that's... Wow. So it sounds more Latin. Yeah, it sounds more Latin. No, it's not Latin. It's not, no, it sounds just Celtic or something or... It is closer to Celtic than it is.

Or Scandinavian? It could be... As it's very influenced by Scandinavian. Okay, that's what it is. That's what I heard. Okay. So the OED, Oxford English Dictionary says the definition is, deserted, left solitary or desolate.

The great poet Spencer a renaissance english poet said forsaken woeful solitary made it's a lovely old word and compared to all the techno babble that's in this episode it's a great juxtaposition to have a title from middle english as opposed to all the technical terms that we have in the 24th century hmm and and garratt what did you say the roy overson song only the lonely only the Lonely, yeah. Which is interesting, the etymology is very sad. It's very, there's, there's something very emotional about the word.

And then that song that was the other option is also only the lonely is also very sad. Yeah. Sad titles. And if you look behind the comedy in this episode, it is very sad. Yeah. It is very sad. Yeah. Yeah.

This episode was written as a bottle show to save money at the end of season one. That's another fact that I found on the- interesting but they had a whole odo liquidization moment so that can't be cheap yeah that was it wasn't it wasn't cheap that's why they gave up on it after a very short time after they were done yeah but it was that just that one shot though right so but that's still and you know what let me take that back that wasn't a cg i think that was makeup him sweating and the makeup coming off i think that wasn't cg i yeah that was makeup that's makeup so it's a lot cheaper it's a lot's a lot cheaper but he does go into go oxana's dress at the very but we don't see him turn into that

we see right the we see the liquid going into the folds of the dress yes that's cheaper that's cheaper yes okay so that's the bottle version of his liquid state not showing him from human into liquid but just the liquid because you're right it didn't show him on that it just show the liquid going into the dress. Interesting. Okay. All right. They were learning, they were learning about this transformation themselves, I would, I would think, that first season. Yeah. Yes, because it was very expensive. And they were learning that this is probably not something they were going to do on a regular basis. Yeah. Yeah. Makes sense. Teleplay by Don Carlos, Dunaway. You like that? I gave it a, yeah, a little bit of the first two

names and then not on the last. Okay. And Michael Pillar. Story by Jim Trombetta and directed by our good friend Uncle Les Landau, who we loved. And did you like working with Les Armin? Yeah, absolutely. Okay, because Robbie and I adored us. I love them. We love Les Laddell. Definitely. Guest stars, Major Barrett as Luxana Troy. Interesting, she doesn't have Rottenbury at the end of the name in the credit here. Well, that's your sag name. Oh, okay. Thank you for clearing that up. I did not know that. Constance Towers, is it tusco or taxco i'm not sure go toxico michael ensign as loggile i did not know ensign was a last name which now makes me wonder if michael ensign indeed was in the navy as a young man and

an ensign he would be ensign ensign is what he would be ensign ensign now ensign is has other definitions besides a naval ranking okay yeah the person who held the flag in uh in the middle ages in battle, that was the ensign. So that is why Iago and Othello is, he's not an ensign, he's not in the Navy, but he is Othello's flag bearer, and he is an ensign. Wow. Interesting. Look at that.

The flag bearer. Yeah. That's probably where the name, Michael Ensign's name came from. Some ancestor was a flag bearer on the battlefield. Wow. And Ensign's much more efficient and economical. I mean, his last name was Michael Flagbearer. It's just too long.

Yeah, it's a lot for SAG. That's a long SAG name. We also have Mr. Jack Shearer in his very first Star Trek appearance as Vadoja, the Bolian ambassador. Do you remember Robbie where he showed up in Voyager? No. Who was he? Jack was in the episode non-sequitur, where I go back to Earth. Oh.

Yes. And I have to go to that briefing of that meeting. Yes. And I'm talking about the new runabout and all the admirals are there. the main admiral was Jack Shearer, and I'm trying to discuss a design idea that I did not design because I'm another Harry Kim. Yep, yeah, that's Jack Shearer, that really commanding voice that he has. He was great.

He does. He does have a commanding voice. Yeah, like when he speaks, you stop, you listen. So he went on to be a human. Yeah, I like particularly when he was talking about Taxco, the Constance Tower's character, and she was repressed and all of that. It's very funny. He just had a ton of character behind all that makeup. As you do, Armin, you like, you got to fight through that makeup sometimes, and I thought

he did a great job. He did a phenomenal job. I loved his voice. I hope he does a lot of voiceovers. Yeah, for sure. Last but not least, we also have Benita Andre as Anara, the Bajoran engineer who helps O'Brien figure out what's going on with the computer. Is she like a, it felt like they were introducing a new recurring character.

Does she become a recurring kind of character, Armand? No. Oh. Oh, wow. It did. The way she was interacting it, I was like, oh, this is a new recurring. That's going to be Miles's second banana or something. Yes.

Yes. Second in command. Yeah. No, they tried, you know, we saw that with the security person. Oh, yes. That's right. They tried those on for size. But for whatever reason, of which I was never privy to, they would use them.

they would lose them wow interesting so we don't see roy rogers as robbie refers to him however however there is there is a character that i has that has maybe one word or or a line forgive me randy for not remembering but uh but he actually stayed around for the entire seven years because he was not only the speaking character uh as an ensign in this episode but he was also rene standing so was that the security ensign that i yeah In this episode, he's in very briefly. But he is standing not only for Renee, but also various other people as well. Other guest stars and things.

But I did notice, yeah, there was a security guy that normally they don't give those one-line roles to anybody. They'll have the loop group put it off-camera or something. But you saw this one actor with a line. I was like, oh, wow, that's surprising that they gave. that they put that on camera and spent the money because they weren't known for that. They would usually loop it in. But they did at the end in season seven,

they were actually quite good about giving the stand in some lines. That's great. Wow. And I would say often those kind of things are pushed by the lime producer. Who was your line producer? Was it Steve Oster? Steve was the line producer. Yeah.

I bet Steve was the one. Very likely, yeah. Yeah, that said, we need to give these guys a little something here for all the hard work. they've done. That's usually, because the writers and those producers don't really know the stand-ins. They're never around. They don't know them. They don't know how hard they work. But the line producer, like we had Mary Howard, and she would tell the writers, hey, you need to do this,

you know, give them a little something, a line here or something. Which they appreciated, obviously. Absolutely. That's a huge deal to say something for sure. Okay, so we start off with the station log. We have been honored with a visit by a delegation of Federation ambassadors on a fact-finding mission to the wormhole. Fortunately, I have just the officer to take them off my hands. And the minute we're in Corks, I thought, Robbie's going to love this episode because it's Bashir. It has to take care of this.

Well, also, I like the, I like the station log because you get in that station log that that Cisco doesn't want anything to do with these people. Not a thing. Before you even see anyone on screen, you know he wants to stay away from him. So, yeah, we go to Quarks. There's Bashir awkwardly trying to entertain and distract these ambassadors. And he makes up some kind of recalibration sweep. That's why Cisco's not here.

Yes. And then the Vulcan says he wants to see it. I'd love to see a recalibration sweep. And then Bashir tries to suggest a HoloSuite. Maybe we should go to a holosuite, which this is the moment that I love is the female ambassador, Taxco, who is Constance Towers. Yeah. And she's a very successful, I would argue, you know, famous actress, Constance Towers.

She's done a ton of work. She played this beautifully. This is a bit uptight Taxco character. Yeah. She's very offended about the Hollow Suite. Yeah. And this is where the Bolian ambassador says, Arbazon's are sexually repressed, which I loved.

Yeah. And then we hear a scream. Yeah. from some other part of of the of quarks from the gambling area yes the gambling area it's lux wuxana it is hard to say it isn't it because you want to say luxana you don't want to even hit the w you want to go right to the to the vowel but no I will I will admit I misspelled it in most of my notes I spelled it L-U-X-W-A-N-A which is how I want to pronounce it Luxwana that's what I want to say

but it's Luwaxana Yeah you want to forget about the L. Just touch on the LLB it's the WUWU wants to Waxana Oh yeah There you go thanks Armin

You're a speech teacher too Or use the original karate kid to help you Lwaxon Lwax off And maybe that helps you Yes there you go Yes but Major Barrett screams from the gambling area

Does it bear telling people Who Major Barrett is Is everybody probably, please. Okay, go ahead. Yes. Armand, who is Major Barrett? I'm sorry, open my mouth.

Major Barrett is Mrs. Jean Roddenberry. The third, I believe. Forgive me if I've got it wrong. The third Mrs. Jean Roddenberry. Oh, I didn't tell me more about that. I did not know that. I thought she was first.

Oh, no, no, no. She was not first. She was the longest, though. She's the one that inherited. Yes. She held the title, the longest of all. And so, and she's also, as everyone must know, she is the sound, she's the voice of the computer

on Next Generation. And I think she becomes the voice of the computer for Deep Space Nine eventually. But I don't. She was our voice. She's our voice. For Voyager, yeah. For Voyager, yeah. So, and, and she's also the owner of all the tribbles.

So if you want to use a, if you want to create a toy that looks like a Tribble, you have to pay the you have to pay the Roddenberry family and of which she was the main beneficiary at the time before she passed away and then her son, their son

Rod became the person in charge. Did you Armand, I have a question, did you ever go to Majel's house? Yes, in fact, in this episode she said, oh let's have a party. She threw parties all the time. Yep.

I went to a, about, I would say, half a dozen of them. They were always fun. And what she always was trying to do was bring the various shows together. She would invite the actors from all the various shows together so that there was a sense of family amongst the shows, not just amongst the one show, but amongst all the shows. And I was very grateful for her doing that.

Major was a terrific lady, but we all were a great applause for what she tried to do and what she always did. When we took, did conventions together or cruises together, she was always the den mother. She brought everybody. Yeah, that's a great way to put it. I went to only one party at her house, but it was a Super Bowl party.

Yeah, yeah. It was so much fun. And I had forgotten the way you describe it that she brought all the shows together to try to create that unity in that sense of family. And I forgot about that part, but you're absolutely right. It's where I got to meet a lot of the other actors

from the other shows was at that party so yeah she was she was a great great lady and uh anyway so that's the background on major bear she's very good in this episode too she is she's really relaxed remember her being this good but watching her in this and it's it's a it's a relatively hard thing to do yep she is both obnoxious and sweet and sexy uh and real uh all at the same time yeah i i knew ravi was going to ask that question or bring up that story about the one time you went. Yes. It's the only time I won't know once. I got to say there's a couple of regrets that I have from the old days of filming and regret number one was not taking up Bill Shatner's offer of coming to his horse show,

which he offered every single year and I never did it. And secondly was not taking up Majel's offer of coming to one of her parties, which she invited me to every single one that she had. And I did not go. you never went no dude and i'm so i if i'm telling you if someone invents a time machine please contact me because i need to go back to go to major barrett's party because i you really missed something because they were wonderful and it was it was very home style she made the food herself uh she made sure that everybody was comfortable yes there there were a lot of super bowl parties but there were other holidays also celebrated at major's uh it was just a very homey situation. Yeah. Yeah. I saw her when she was on this. She was on the set of Voyager once,

Robbie. She was in the wheelchair at the time, though. So I said hello to her then, and that was it. Okay. So we hear, we hear Mitchell Barrett scream. We go over. She said, Luaxana, Wauksana, I'm going to say it right. Lwaxana claims that someone stole her brooch, her hair brooch, and Quark says, reminds her that the sign reads, we are not responsible. I love this. You point to a sign over the door, Armin. and it looks like the tiniest writing i've never noticed it it's because it's not there often it was there only for this episode oh that's the only time that time was there that's funny that's very funny well it's so small you wouldn't know if it was there or not yeah but i love that

it's it's like this fine print when you sign like you know uh apply for something or you you know it's all the pages that you have to approve of stuff you never read it's that kind of thing that Quark has. But Odo arrives in the scene. She demands that someone find this broach of hers. We learn that she can read minds. She is an empath, but she can't read Ferengi mind. So she can't read Quark's mind.

And Odo looks around and he sees a Dupterian. Okay. Another one of those once in a millennium characters that show up on Star Trek. What does that alien remind you? two of the dupterian a lizard i don't know what dobby from the harry potter franchise oh yeah yeah it's it's dobby he stole the latinum hair brooch but robbie you skipped over one of the most important parts of the scene which is when lusana grabs corp's ear very aggressively and she calls him she goes he says not my ear please and what yes and i know where it hurts the most you little troll and i was

like oh he just called armin a troll but that was a you know that was a pretty uh so arm in the ear is a is a uh rogynous zone and very pressure so it would be like grabbing you by the yes it would oh yeah yeah now that makes sense yeah oh wow you can either caress it or you can i saw yeah oh that's what it was yeah and of course i have no as the actor i have no sense of right you feel nothing yeah that's funny but that's what makes you such a good actor you played it like it was painful so we like that yes yes uh any thoughts on working with her or any memories of that she was always a delight and maybe because i knew that from our personal interactions although at that time i probably hadn't gone to that many parties probably hadn't gone to a party yet because

this is early on in the first season um but uh she was charming always charming and um just a lovely person to be around. And I'm mixing up my times with her on the set with my times, personal times. Just a lovely, lovely lady. Just made the franchise just seem family. Really, it's a family. Yeah. And this is actually, according to the underwebs,

the first of three Loxana Troy appearances on DS9. Yeah. Yeah, actually, my first appearance in Next Generation, she was in that episode. She did a TNG episode as well. Is that, was it Menagerie Troi, that one, or another episode? I don't think it's Monagetre. I don't remember the name of the episode.

Okay, but it wasn't Minaja Troy at all. I don't think so, no. All right. That's the one that they referred to later, though. Like when she's with Odo and she says like, oh, Damon, that, you know, whatever. That's in reference to that TNG episode, Menager Troy. That's what that was, yeah. Okay.

Well, she does think initially that Quark might have her brooch, but we learn that she cannot read Ferengi Mines here. Odo looks around, and he sees this other alien, this one-off alien, who tries to run out. Odo grabs him, bends him over a counter or something, and starts emptying his pockets of all kinds of things. He's got a communicator in there, which I thought was very funny. Oh, I didn't see that. He was a communicator out of it? Yeah, yeah, he did. Well, I thought he gave up the goods too quickly because he goes, empty your pockets.

And the guy just pulls everything out. Like, he doesn't even, like most criminals, like, I don't have anything, right? He had a lot of stuff in his pocket. He had a communicator because Zodo says, oh, well, since when did you join Starfleet? So, yeah, it's very funny. All right. But he does find the brooch. Lwaxana is very grateful.

And as Odo leaves Loxana, goes to Bashir and she's very interested in finding out more about Odo she's smitten with him he's strong and her hero and it's a great moment yeah we go to Ops next and we see Miles is running a diagnostic

on the fusion power plant and I have to say I have to give it to Cullum my God they threw every techno babble word that could possibly think and he got them down perfectly I just kept thinking, how many strange words does he, this poor man have to memorize? Yeah. And you had mentioned before the column doesn't learn his lines ahead of time very often.

He didn't later on, whether he did at the beginning, that I can't tell you. But I certainly came to realize after a period of time that he wasn't memorizing early. So, but he was very good at spouting all that techno. I just had a memory, Armin. I'm going to go off on a tangent for a minute. I was on a soap opera in the 80s in New York, all my children. And there was an older actor, James Mitchell, who was Agnes DeMille's lead male dancer. He was in all kinds of old Hollywood movies and shows.

James never learned his lines for all my children, for the soap. And this is one hour every single day, right? We did have teleprompters. But what James would do is he would always have mail in a scene. He'd have envelopes that he's going through. And he'd write his lines on the mail. So he'd be talking to you, but pretending to look at his mail, but his lines were on the mail. And I remember, I was like 19 when I was on this show.

I remember going, God, that's genius. How does he do it? And it's so natural. So it reminds me of column. Wow. I have a feeling, Column probably had lines. Did he? I never saw it.

No, I mean, there's lots of scenes with Colum that I wasn't in. but I never saw him refer to something that he brought up. Oh, wow. Nor did Sid for that matter. Okay. Well, then I'm very impressed. They did not go the James Mitchell route and write it on envelopes. I was the first Voyager person to do the James Mitchell route, which I got criticism from Tim Russ when he saw what I did.

And then two weeks later, he did the exact same thing I did. So I took black electricians tape, pasted it on my console, and silver sharpie my lines on the black tape. when I came in two weeks later, Tim Russ had typed it up at home and brought, I mean, cut the paper out. He would cut the paper and put it in different spots on the console so he could look around. Yeah,

because he stole it from me, who I basically stole it from James Mitchell, not knowing James Mitchell, but in the essence and skirt of Jim. And then Robert Beltran stole it from all of you because he would take his little sides and rip just his lines and tape them onto the center console. Oh, we were such cheap.

You guys are smarter than I was. I just rehearsed everybody during the weekend. Good for you. That's the right way to do it. So Miles is in ops. He's running this diagnostic on the computer. We learn that this is a Cardassian computer because he starts arguing with the computer, basically. Yeah.

He tries to override the computer. He basically wants to go higher than the Cardassian limits allow or something on this. And so he tries to override it and do that. But the computer just shuts down the reactor. So they're basically arguing. it's a sassy cardassian computer it really is yeah and in fact i was surprised and happy that they did this because because it always sort of bothered me early on that that federation was able to come in and use all these computers very easily from day one yes i know as a as a ludite uh and an older

person that it takes me a week two weeks to to figure out all the the ying is and yangs of a new computer and it usually takes me much longer than that to get the really to be really good at it. So the fact that they could do this just like that in the first episode, now they're addressing the fact that it is a Cardassian computer. Well, let's also not ignore the fact that if this is a Cardassian computer, then the displays any type of buttons or consoles, any labeling will be in Cardassian language, not English. And they were. Yes. Oh, they were? Yeah. Oh, that's cool. so but how would they read that then yeah i mean the the wow the the things that the okuda's put around all the displays they were all in cardassian right what they thought was good cardan right but you're

right well how could they read the display they're going to read that being in cardassian yeah and and and that is to say that perhaps the universal translator that we all take for granted that we can understand and everybody else, maybe includes the ability to tell you, can read Cardassian and translate it in your ear for what it is. Maybe. Oh, interesting. Maybe. Okay, so we're still in ops.

Cisco arrives. Miles is very frustrated. Miles says he's going to rebuild the entire computer if he has to because it's his arch enemy. And Cisco tries to calm him down. I love in the scene where, O'Brien says, I'll have to do a root canal. Right. It was like a root canal? And O'Brien says, it's engineering shorthand, sir.

But he doesn't explain what root canal is. I guess it's a procedure, an engineer's procedure. It's very funny. But then, you know, you assume that this is going to take, like, I don't know, a couple weeks. And then he says, oh, no more than two to three years to do this. I'm like, what? Two to three years?

Oh, my gosh. I did liken this episode, too. Did you notice Avery was smiling a lot in this episode? I noticed it right off the bat. He seemed to be smiling, just enjoying some of these scenes. He enjoyed this scene with Column. He was kind of laughing and smiling and not a mean way. No, but he was just enjoying himself.

But didn't it seem, Robbie, like, as if he didn't have to deal with any of the drama in this episode. So he was like, you do it with that. I love watching this. So he was a spectator in a way. He was very much. And he loved it. And it was like, oh, yeah. So, yeah, right, he does smile.

And it is sort of explained when he's, you know, in the future scene we're going to talk about where he explains to Bashir that he used to have to do all this stuff and now he's free from it. So he's happy about that. Yeah, that's true. Speaking of Bashir, the turbolift arrives in ops. There's Bashir with the ambassador. Cisco turns to hide from them, but he's caught and he gets a big smile on his face, welcomes them.

and tax go our female ambassador complains about her horrible accommodations and as she's complaining Kira announces there's an unidentified vessel coming through the wormhole no life signs on this vessel though

but it has an extensive computer array that's trying to keep to contact with its mothership perhaps Dax suggests towing it into the dock and the ambassadors want to stay and watch this procedure and maybe help but Cisco says oh no no I will brief you at oh 400 hours he's going to get

them out of there and tells Bashir to take them to watch at the docking ring so he's not going to spend a moment with them yeah it was a fun scene I liked in the scene where lojall says obviously this young woman doesn't have the necessary experience talking about dax and Bashir says this young woman over there as 300 years, has 300 years of experience ambassador, which is, it's a great line, but don't you think the ambassador to the Vulcan planet, I mean, wouldn't he know what a Dax, I mean, wouldn't he see the markings on her face and say like, yeah, we know that the symbion has been, yeah, symbion has been in this body for X amount of years and this, or maybe this is, maybe he's thinking this is the first lifetime of the symbion. So maybe that's

why. But you're right. I didn't think about it. The spots would definitely give it away. Yeah. Sure. Okay. Yeah. We go in, yeah, we go into the security office now. Odo's there with Lwaxana. That's good. Good. Thank you. Lwaxana basically is stalking him is what I'm to say. He's in there. She pops in, tells him that he's basically her hero. She keeps everyone, he keeps everyone safe on this entire ship. He's basically a superhero. And asks Odo about his

name. He says, is that your first or last name? He answers, yes. Very clever. I love the writing in this episode. I'm just going to say there's some brilliant writing in this episode. Yeah. But she does tell him in the scene that she knows he's a shapeshifter and loves that

he can mold himself because she always has to mold the men in her life, but he can mold himself. And then she tries to kiss him in the scene. Yes. And as she's trying to kiss him, I love Renee's comic timing on this when he turns his head and goes, was that the calm? I'm going to go to ops.

See you. He runs. Oh, God. So funny. Very funny. They're a funny couple of these two. I mean, as actors, it's an interesting partnership because, Armine, you're right. She's very natural in a, she's big.

and flamboyant on one hand but it's very grounded like it's very grounded it's she's very blousy but she's very grounded and it i was fascinated she didn't she didn't try to overact it is major in a slightly different you know dress and everything but but but but it is major and and so it's very real um i was i was actually very impressed watching her performance and i agree I don't know that I've ever seen her on a Star Trek show I know she's done TNG and your show but I've never seen those episodes and I was I think I was expecting

a less natural performance and more forced you know kind of my memory is that's what I thought that's why I was surprised watching this episode because that's my memory that she was too flamboyant and then watching this episode

went no Armin you're wrong this is this is right on the money this is right this is perfect and in fact the person that i think is overacting is my good friend rene i think Renee is well maybe i mean in what he in this scene in the way through overall i must say it tickled me no end that he was getting a little of his own the very thing that he does to me on a regular basis for seven years he gets a little of that that back from Angel in this in this episode. Yeah, it's funny

to see Odo in the kind of the lower status position, I guess. You know, it's unusual to see him in that place. It's unusual, but it's also endearing to see that. You know, now you see his vulnerable side. Because what have we seen so far?

He's rough. He's tough. He's always given it to Quark. He's all. I mean, the guy, is just, remember that prior episode when he goes to Cisco's office, he goes, look, it's either me or Roy Rogers. I know, who's it going to be? Because I quit, you know, like, this guy is hardcore.

And this is the one episode where there's awesome character development, awesome vulnerability. And yeah, and he finally gets, he gets what's coming to him in a way. So I love, I really, I love that interaction between those two. Yeah. Yeah.

We're back up in ops after, after Oda runs away from Lwaxana. We're back up in ops. Miles and Dax are running scans of this probe that's appeared out of nowhere. The computer now seems to be cooperating, the Cardassian computer that Miles was arguing with before. Surprisingly, yes. Yeah, surprising Miles. He doesn't expect this, but everything seems to be working great, cooperating. And Odo arrives, goes straight into Cisco's office, ringing the doorbell. I didn't know there was a doorbell on the...

Is there? What? Yeah, he rings a doorbell. He pushes a button or something. Ding dong. There's a sound. Really? I thought was interesting. I didn't think they're, okay.

I don't think there is. He hit a button and it went bing bong? Yeah, because it's a glass door. It's got kind of, you can see in. And you see him at the door and he reaches over and you hear a little sound. Wow. Then the door opens, yeah. Okay.

Which I thought was new. I hadn't seen that before. Yeah. But Odo is freaking out telling Cisco, he's got a, problem, a big problem that Lwaxana is very grateful for what he did and now she's interested

in him and she's being very aggressive. He just comes out and says it. This is the scene where Avery was smiling the whole time. I just loved it. Well, my favorite line Odo says she's extremely aggressive and Cisco's, I see. So she's

after you like a Wannoni tracehound is what he says. That's right. Whatever that is. Which, you don't even have to know what that is. You understand the meaning of it. From the tray sound part. Yeah. Cisco's very amused. He says, I can't help you.

You're going to have to handle this on your own with great delicacy. He suggests. Don't you understand this is Mrs. Jean Romerry? Yes, exactly. Are you sure you don't want her to catch you? This is Mrs. Jean-Rondery. Exactly. Yeah, but Odo does say, I do not handle delicacy very,

well, which is true from what we've seen with Odo so far. He's not a delicate character for sure. Right. He's not a one flower. That's true. No, he's not. We go into Ops and Anara, this new Bajoran assistant that I thought was going to be recurring, but I guess not. But Anara tells Miles that they have the analysis of the probe, Dax and Kira join them over there in the corner. they realize there's no people, no communication system, no nothing, just a giant floating computer. It's a mystery. They don't know what it is. But I want to say something about this guest star or this co-star. I think she did a great job. I really like to. I mean, she was very natural. Benita Andre, if you're listening, you did a wonderful job. And you should have been on more episodes. She should have. And again, an incredibly real, down-to-earth, straightforward, delivery.

just adored what she was doing. She took all this. She too had Technobabble. Unlike Colum, who's been doing it for years, this is her first stab at it, and she hit it out of the park. You know, when people talk about, oh, yeah, Star Trek shows

will never get nominated for acting Emmys because it's just known as a kid's show. That makes me so mad because I say, I always tell people, it's very difficult to act on a Star Trek show, especially if you're a guest star. With the Technobabble and being able to deliver that naturally, I'd venture any, any actor to try this out and say, this is a kid show.

It's like, no, it's not easy. So, Benita made it look easy. Good job. She did. She did. I noticed for the first time, her costume, Benita's costume, imitated Kira's costume. It was a different color. And of course, we know that different colored costumes mean something for Federation.

Yes. But I noticed, oh, hers is purple, whereas Kira's is tawny red. or something like that. And I thought, oh, is this, so I was never sure whether Kirrwell was wearing a uniform or whether those were her clothes. But now I come to see, oh, it was a uniform. And yet we never really deal with that at all.

And if it is a uniform, a uniform of what? Because Kira was a terrorist. It's not like she belonged to, unless somehow she, I mean, she's a major now. So she's a major of what? That's the question for me. Right. Major in what?

Well, also talking about bejoran uniforms and colors, we do know that Odo and the rest of his pejoran personnel are in that beige, that tan. And that was actually a line that Loxana used earlier when she was trying to seduce him. If you remember, she said, she goes, oh, to be a member of the thin beige line. Because you hear about, if you think about American police officers. The thin blue line is used, and they use thin beige line in this episode. That's funny. But he's security.

They're somehow military. Right. Yeah. So I would like to, you know, later on we'll ask about what's the scene that's missing. I might say that's the scene. Explain to me the uniforms. The uniform, the Bajoran military ranks and uniforms. Exactly.

Agreed. There you go. Well, we do go down to the promenade. We see Odo very tentatively. stepping off the turbo lift or the lift. He looks both ways, and then he sees, walks on it, but he tries to get back on, but she sees him and catches up to him. And she tells him that she's got a romantic holodeck prepared for them,

that Quark has made them a picnic basket for this romantic date. And he says, no, no, no, I have to be at the Upper Pylon, Upper Pylon 3 immediately. So she jumps on the lift with him to ride up to the upper pylon and... Before you continue on the lift, evidently, that earlier scene when he looks around and he sees the coast is clear and he kind of walks, it sort of duplicated a scene from TNG where Picard came out of something and he was looking around. Again, Waxana was chasing after Picard and so very similar setup. Oh, that's funny.

According to the interwebs. So I just want to throw that in there. Very funny. I like when Wuxana gets on the... the lift with him and she bangs on the wall do you remember that yet she's fonsie or something's danging on the wall and telling the lift to take them to upper pylon three she's always wanted to see upper pylon three um anyway they're on the lift and woxana says she'll have quarks send up their picnic basket to upper pylon three so they can have it up there otto says you know i'm liquid

I don't eat, I don't have an esophagus, I can't chew food, I can't do a picnic. But suddenly the lift freezes and Odo calls ops. This is my favorite line in the whole thing. When he says, I don't eat, this is not a real mouth, it's an approximation of one. I don't have an esophagus or a stomach or a digestive system. Every 16 hours, I turn into liquid. And she goes, I can swim. I was like, look at these writers.

Look at these writers. Yes. Good job. Odo does call Ops and informs them that the power to the pylons has failed. In Ops, they try to beam them out of the turbillift, but there's no luck. They can't do it. There's an issue here of continuity. Because he says, Kira says, go ahead, Odo.

And Odo goes, Ambassador Troy and I are stuck in Turbo Lift 7. Later, they are stuck in TurboLift 4. So it's just, it's like, what? So they missed that. So whose job is that script supervisor should have caught that? Or who should have caught that? Yeah, probably. Judy Brown should have got it.

Yeah, she's a supervisor. Or certainly the director or somebody in editing should have realized that. Somebody should. Someone in the writing department that proof reads it. I don't know. They should have corrected it in ADR. Yeah. Also, the writer's assistant goes through these scripts and looking for those kind of things,

typos or continuity problems. So there's multiple layers of people. So are we talking about Lolita Fatscho now? It would be Lolita. Lolita should have, well, first of all, the writers should have caught it. Second of all, maybe the studio or network that read the script and gave notes could have pointed it out. Third of all, Judy Brown, Lolita, maybe the actors. There's a lot of people that could have said, hey, I said I'm in Turbo Lift 7, but then later I say I'm in TurboLift 4.

It seems like that detail just slipped by everybody. But then Armand said, which is totally valid and correct, they could have corrected it all in post at Modern Sound. We could have looped it out, but they didn't do that either. So it's like, uh-oh, yeah. Little things that get by, you know. There's one later on that I caught too that I don't think anyone has mentioned. Oh, there's another one.

Okay. For me anyway. For me anyway. Please make a note of that until we get to that. Yes, I want to hear. we go back to obstax calls miles o'brien to come help them figure this out and kira calls down to otto just be patient and uh this is where loxana says alone at last and otto is just terrified and i think this was like a put this is lesslando doesn't do push-ins very often but on this act out he did this like dramatic push-in to to Renee's face it was like he was terrified very terrible it made me feel so good

yeah i bet it did uh in the old days we would have had a commercial break here but but in the streaming world we just go right into ops and miles says uh everything should be working that if it were not cardassian he could get them out very quickly but uh Cisco tells him just to try and fix this. Kira calls down to Odo, reminds him to be patient. Don't try and goo your way out of this, basically. She says it's dangerous. It's a Cardassian

lift. There's some kind of power flow conduits that are, you know, he could die, I guess, if he goos himself tries to go his way. They're exposed. Yeah, so that he could electrify himself. Here's a question for both of you. How do you pronounce the word, R-E-R-O-U-T-E?

R-E-R-R-R-R-E-R-R-R-R-E. I would say, Thank you. Thank you. Do you sit? He says reroute in here. That's because, excuse me, that's because you guys were born on the West Coast and Renee and I were born on the East Coast. Really? I was born on the East Coast. Oh. We say root as opposed to route. Okay. Yeah. Because I, on Voyager, I often said we just, we need to reroute power to the EPS relay. I said reroute. That's because you grew up in Memphis and I grew up in Georgia. That's what it is. It's Southern, I think. Rerout.

We're not going to re-route. We're going to reroute it. You just go left and take Route 65, like that. Fine. I'll go with that. Sorry. Yeah, but it's dangerous. So it kind of covers why Odo has the superpower to turn into goo, but he can't use it here to get out because it's...

That would end the episode. It'd be done. Yeah, he'd be electrocuted. Yeah. Can't do it. We go, yes, it's multi-phase, exposed multi-phase alternating currents. You go through their... Just bullshit.

Just bullshit. Don't try to shape-shift your way out of this. Yeah, but they're stuck. Odo says in the scene, as they're waiting, trying to be patient, which he's not good at, he says, I'd just like to spend the time quietly. Just let's be quiet. I love this scene. This is one where Majel was great.

She's trying to be quiet, but she can't help herself. You just got to talk. But I love the fact that she's on top of him. I love that there was no space between them. And which makes it very uncomfortable for Odo, of course. But I loved that juxtaposing to put them right on top of each other. I just thought that was great. They could have been separate, but they were.

Yeah. Just the way the writers wrote that, Odo says, I'd prefer to pass the time quietly. La Oaxana, quietly. Odo, quietly. La Oaxana, of course. Odo goes, thank you. Lwaxana. the quiet man she keeps going even though it's very 1940s film noir yes i love that that was

yes yes i didn't even think about that yeah yeah but she she can't be quiet and she ultimately sits down on the floor of this lift and starts to tell a story about when she and diana troy were trapped on a ferengi ship and then her story turns into like this romance novel long story. It's a long monologue, by the way. She talks about making love to Damien and Odo turns. I love the shot because it's over Odo's shoulder and she keeps going and she keeps going and he finally turns like towards the camera. And he stares off and she asks, you know, what he's thinking, I think. What are you looking at? He's like, what are you looking at? Yeah, what are you looking at? It's like, oh, nothing. Just wondering how many volts are in that exposed circuit. Go, go on.

He wants to go through out and get out. Very funny. I'm curious in the scene as I watched it. And I loved Majel's work. But she was looking as she told this very long story. She was kind of looking. I wonder if she had cue cards is what I'm getting at. Was she John Mitchelling it?

Yeah, yeah. James Mitchelling it? She might have had cue cards because it was a very long monologue. Yeah. I don't know. You weren't there, Armand. I wasn't. I can't answer that. No. We had a couple actors on our show that used cue cards.

We had a few. Yeah. We may have had them. I just never saw it. Yeah. I never saw it. So I would say the series regulars never did that because I never saw them do it. The guest stars, perhaps. I mean, no one, no one, I would say certainly, I'm not going to say no one ever put lines down somewhere where they could, you know, like we were talking about before.

Yeah, but I find that to be more of a. series regular thing. You know, for a guest star to have the audacity to come in and say, I don't know my lines, you better write them down on a poster board and let me look at them. We had a few of those guest stars on Voyager. Yeah, we did. We had to have cue carts for them. I remember kind of scrambling a couple of times. Okay. Was that John Savage that you're talking about? Okay. But that's because he's dealing with his, you know, head injury or whatever he had going on. So he had to happen. That was one. There was a couple. And I don't criticize if Major was using cue cards because it was a long I looked at the script it was the longest monologue I've ever seen on

the Star Trek show yeah it was meant to be just like spit out fast and funny because that was the fun of it is that she just can't stop talking she's the blabberman right but it did feel to me as I watched the coverage like she kept her eyes so her eyeline didn't make sense right leaving uh yeah rene and kind of focusing and it could have been the way she was performing it she was just remembering She was visualizing. Could have been that or could have been Q cards. But either way, whether it was Q cards or not, she did a fabulous job of this.

It was very well done. We go to Commander's office next. Bashir does not want to be the tour guide anymore. He says they're unhappy all the time. And Cisco says, shares that Curzon used to make him do the tours until he hits someone, which is very funny.

I do like Bashir's comment. They are the end. ambassadors of unhappy. That was a great line. So much good writing in this one. Good writing in this. Cisco does suggest that Bashir not hit them. He understands they're frustrating, but I'd suggest not hitting them.

Did Cisco, did he smile in this one, too? Was he smiling in this scene? Yes, he was smiling in this whole episode. I loved it. Because often Avery is very serious. Yes. That's his go-to is to be strong and serious. So watching him have fun, he's got a great smile.

It was nice to see. Yeah. We go to ops again. Miles tells Cisco the computer is acting differently. And it sounds differently. He says, listen to the voice. And he asked the computer something. And Miles says, it's not the same.

It just doesn't sound the same. It's not a sassy, right? Yeah, it's not a sassy. And something about like the pitch of it or something. He's just everything about it doesn't sound like. the same computer and he also says to cisco every time i leave to do something else the computer creates a reason for me to come back and so cisco comments it sounds like a child sounds like a kid wanting you to making a fuss to bring you back so it's the first inkling that something's up

here with maybe this probe and the computers are getting mixed up together yeah oh here's the station log so the station lock says odo and ambassador troy remain in TurboLift 4. Here it is right here. Yeah. Right. And they said seven in the script. Yes, earlier.

Yeah. That's right. Yeah, he says they remain trapped. And as of yet, we've been unable to ascertain what it is that's causing our station's computer to malfunction. And I love the shot of, you know, we're usually in space for these captain's logs and or station logs. and this shot is underneath the station. I don't know if you noticed this, but it was an angle I hadn't seen.

It was beautiful. It's a beautiful shot. Really pretty underneath shot. The light and everything that they did was great. Yeah. We go to ops and the whole team is discussing this computer problem. They think it may be a non-biological life form from the probe. And Kira says it's acting like a baby.

that was left on a doorstep or a stray puppy. So they're starting to work with these metaphors. Actually, I think the stray puppy comes from Dax. Does it? Yeah. Yep. So these ideas of, you know, likening it to a puppy or a baby or something are starting to get repeated.

They're starting to make sense of it. Miles thinks maybe if they put back all the files they downloaded from this probe, just put them all back. Maybe this thing will leave. So he goes to work on that. Kira says Odo's been in this lift for four hours now. And Cisco is worried about his regeneration cycle. Ask if she knows where he's at, but she doesn't.

And she says he needs to get back in his pale. I have a question, Armin. Does Odo stand in the pale? He can't. It's not big enough. He melts into the pale. Does he kind of go head first? Does he die?

I don't think there's ever been a shot showing him dissolve into the pale. But I would imagine he just melts into the pale. The same way that he drifts from where he's standing in this episode into the folds of her dress later on. So head first, like a dive into it. So a dive or a... You can't call it a head because it's not a head. Right.

The top portion first into... Yeah. Okay. The crest of the wave. The crest of the wave. Like a wave. Exactly. There you go.

The wave. We have a little time cut. We go out of space and we come back in, Miles is trying to upload these files from the probe. The computer says it's unable to do so, and he tries again to upload them, and then all the power goes out. Yeah. So this is not going to be easy.

O'Brien says, I thought it's not as easy as I thought it would be commander. So this solution probably isn't going to work. We go to the promenade. The lights go out on the promenade from this attempt. It's a bottle show. They're saving money on utilities. yes turning off the lights very clever right right clever right it into the script bashear is continuing his tour uh lowjol the vulcan says o'brien must not be very good if the powers

you know breakers are tripping here and he's yeah the lights are going out but bashear defends miles in the scene and yeah and i love his line he says something about the edge of the frontier says something like the edge of the frontier is one adventure after another and i love love that image that Bashir sort of let us remember that's almost verbatim what he says in the in the pilot episode yes yeah remember that when he says it to uh I think it's Cisco I think he says it to Cisco but maybe it's Kira okay yeah it's a great line and I love the continuity of his character looks at this whole you know appointment on the on the on the station as being an adventure that there's all these exciting things

It's kind of the way that the typical Star Trek ship that's going off exploring, the adventure's coming to you guys because you're right on the edge of this frontier. Exactly. As I've said before, it's not wagon train. It's Dodge City. Right. Yeah. Yes, exactly.

But they decide to go weighted out in their quarters. Back to the turbo lift. Odo is sweating now. That's the makeup effect you were talking about, Armin. turning to liquid slowly Loxana wants to know about him ask about his hair which I thought was

which was very sweet she's interested in hair so yes she's got big hair she's got a giant yeah she and she asked if she if Odo studied hairstyles and Odo says well if you must know

I imitated the hairstyle of the Bjoran man who was assigned to me so at this point we're getting some character development We're getting some backstory. We're now know that he was evidently being studied by a major scientist, which kind of makes me wonder, was he captured? Or was he under guard as well? Or in a laboratory or something?

Whatever it was. Certainly he was in a laboratory. He was in a laboratory. And he was being studied. And I like this because we're getting finally, as you said, some backstory on this character that's been an enigma for all these episodes. we're finding out more about his personal life, which I found very interesting.

But I ask myself, she's a Betazoid. Can't she just read these things? I know. Sorry. I thought the same thing. You're right, because they mentioned it in the episode that she can read minds. And what kind of mind does he have?

It's a liquid. Maybe she can't read a shapeshifter mind. Like, Frankies. They should say that then. Yes, another missing episode. Yeah, missing scene, yeah. Missing scene. Okay.

Yes, missing scene. But he does, he does share that when he was being studied, that he tried to fit in by going to these parties and doing party tricks, parlor tricks, and being the life of the party. And he says, I hate parties. So you see that that was not easy for him. He came with me to Majel's parties often. Oh, did he?

He didn't hate parties. Renee didn't hate parties Renee likes parties Odo hates parties Because he got to do party tricks He did he did Yeah But you do see

Some empathy from Luxana She says well Maybe you've been going to the wrong parties If you come to mine All of my guests will be there To entertain you And the minute she said that In this scene

I immediately thought about Robbie going to the party That he told me about And all the parties she threw So it really It's almost like they knew That she was doing that party's into this episode.

I know I didn't make that connection. Yes. Yes. It's very possible. It's very possible. He does let her know that he is very close to becoming liquid every 16 hours. He has to return to his liquid state and he's an hour 15. So we do find that.

Less than an hour left. Yes. Yeah. We go to ops next. Miles is trying to manually transfer the files onto six isolinier rods now. New plan. they try to distract the computer while he's doing that

by these random complex tasks everybody's joining in asking the computer, do this, do this, do this. Did you guys understand? What was Anara? Anara's pulling out those liquid isolinear chips basically, right? But is she trying to do it?

What's happening? They're distracting the computer, but they're pulling these chips out. They're downloading the probes computer files. onto those six rods. Oh, okay. So they're just trying to separate out.

To isolate it, correct? Yes, to isolate it was. Okay. Yep. They're trying to do that. But eventually sparks start flying everywhere. The computer is overloaded. And Kira sees a huge plasma surge on the habitat ring.

She sees that reading. We cut to this corridor in the habitat ring with Bashir and the ambassadors. and this huge fireball comes right at them, explodes right at them. Robbie, do you think that was the same fireball they used in the prior episode where Kira was envisioning the imaginary fireball? It looked like.

Some visual effects elements of that same fireball. I thought it was the exact same fire. Oh, really? Yeah, because it was a bottle show. Very similar corridor. Okay. Yes. So we see this explode with Bashir and the ambassador.

Then we go back to ops. They're detecting a big fire and four life forms that are in danger down there. And the fire suppression systems are not responding. They're not working. Cisco says, let's get some manual fire gear and get an emergency crew down there now. So they head off for action. Speaking of manual fire gear, I know we don't see it yet. But when we do see that, those fire extinguishers, they look amazing.

They look super cool. They look almost like a caulking gun or something like that. Oh, yeah, they did. They were just really compact and cool. First, I thought it was a weapon. Then I was like, no, no, no, that's the fire suppression year. It has to be. Right, right, because it was red.

So it has to be like a fire. It has to be. Red. Red is for fire. For fire. For fire. Red means danger. Yes.

Back in the corridor, Bashir's trying to manually open the door, but they're trapped and the fire is getting bigger. And I was very impressed with these practical effects. Like, having a big fire on stage like that, I know it was. at the end of the corridor they probably built a fire safe area down there but it was a big fire it was a big practical effect yeah it was very impressive yeah so they can't get the door open and we this is the first time i've ever seen them pull the the door oh that little latch thing off and then there's a latch underneath that i went wow that's that's interesting uh yeah

why is there a latch underneath them why underneath all that technology is something as simple as a latch, you know. But, yeah, but what kind of bothered me is that it was so easy to pull that thing off. So let's say if you were trying to shut off one section of a corridor from some people that are chasing you, all they have to do is, yeah, some bad guys. So all they got to do is go, yeah, just pull it off and pull the latch and it opens. Open it manually. It's too easy.

Yeah, it's like, what? Hmm. Yeah, it seems like there would be another code or something. Or some other, yeah, some other. some other, there has to be something, some device that helps pry that thing off. It was so easy with their finger tips to just, both, both Bashir and Cisco do the same thing. They pull it off so easily. So we come back and Cisco and Kira are there with a team.

They're trying to open these doors. They try to phaser it, but we realize the Kardashian titanium alloy is too strong. Is it titanium or Cardassian? Terranium is what they call it. I knew I was wrong in that note. Titanium's real. Terranium is not. So you have a problem with Technobabble.

I do. I definitely do. Always have. Cisco sends the team back to ops to tell them to get the fire suppression back online or they're going to lose their people. And this is where the crewman says, I, sir, and we see it. I think we see it on camera. Randy, that's Randy.

Yeah. This, Randy is Odo stand-in. Is that right? Okay. That's right. From day one all the way through the end of season seven. I don't remember that far back. I don't know from day one, but certainly for most of the years.

I bet it was most of the run because all the stand-ins on our show were pretty much the same, except for mine. Mine seemed to. Yours? Yeah. Mine flipped around a lot. Mine flipped around too. Kier has flipped around as well. Mine was there from day one.

From day one. Yeah. Because remember I had John Tampoya? Then I had Stewart. Oh, yeah. So the bigger Asian guy, yes. I always think of John as your stand-in. No, he just did it part of the time.

That's it. And like Randy, David, who was my stand-in, many of the stand-ins got to be prominent extras, but not speaking until the last season. And then they got some lines. That's great. That's great. We go to ops next.

O'Brien's up in ops trying to understand what is happening. He just, none of this makes sense. sense, he thinks it's acting like a scared puppy. It seems to like all of this attention. And it wants to be where the action is. And he realized, wait a minute, we've been trying to separate it from what it thrives on. Let's do the opposite. The opposite.

But he doesn't explain what his plan is. He just goes, aha, I've got an idea. And I have to build a dog house. Yes. Yes. And Dax does not know anything. about puppies in the scene clearly because her responses are like, what are you talking about? Now, wouldn't you think that if he had an idea that would affect the entire station,

that he would have to move it up the chain of command? You'd think. To ask permission to do this? Wouldn't he at least announce his plan to Cisco or to Kira and say, this is my plan, do I have your permission to do this? But that didn't happen. No, that didn't. They were in an emergency.

Cisco's fighting a fire and trying to manually open a door and, yeah, things are bad. Things are looking bad for the station. I mean, nobody was dying except those guys who had the fireball, but no one was dying where they had to do it immediately. That's true. That's true. He did go out on a limb here and do something that he fills Cisco in on at the end of the episode.

He goes, oh, by the way, I did this thing. Yeah. Thanks for telling me now. Yeah, exactly. Armin, did we already pass or have we not gotten to that? Not gotten to that. Okay, no you haven't gotten to it yet.

Continue, Robbie. Okay, so we're back in the turbo lift with Odo and Waxana. You're getting good at this. Every time you say it, Armin and I are just going to golf clap for you every time you get it right. Okay.

Odo is turning into liquid now, though. He can't hold out much longer. And he's turned away from her in the scene. He's embarrassed. He doesn't want her to see it. Well, he says he's not ashamed, though, which I think is important. Really?

Yeah, I think so. I think he is ashamed. That's the whole point of them being together. He is ashamed. Otherwise, he would just do it. It's not the, you know, it's not the end of the world. Yeah. He says it's a private thing, though.

Yeah, so he's ashamed. Yeah. Yeah. Well, she takes off her wig. We see her hand come into frame as he's faced away from her. Holding the wig. Holding the wig. And she says to him that she's never let anyone see her.

like this either and that it's okay and that's shame too yeah yes yeah that's true but it's it's a big gesture and it's a big i guess bonding moment where they you know they both connect on this level of how they they have parts of themselves that they hide right and i think uh the theme we'll get to this later but is of privacy privacy is an important part i think of this episode and so they are sharing their privacies. Yeah. Well, once she does this with the wig, he does turn into liquid and she offers her dress. She lifts her dress and he sort of falls, spills over like a wave, like you described. And she catches, she holds her dress out to catch him. And there he is. Liquid. And her lines, her lines, just, it's so simple. Let go. I'll take care of you. And this is definitely the most emotional

scene for me watching. I mean, I was, it was, I was getting emotional. Just watch this whole scene, this whole, just this interaction between the two. And just, yes. And just, yes. I mean, you empathize for Odo now. You like before you just thought, okay, this guy is just, all he does is, he's like a Marine drill sergeant. He's barking at everybody. And now you're, I'm like team Odo. I'm like waving the flag. I love this guy, you know. So, all right. When they were casting this part. of odo what they kept saying to actors who were auditioning is we want someone to be marshal dillon oh and so uh there's there's a lot of that in this in the character but thanks to episodes like this we begin to see the soft side of marshal dylan arman can you explain who

marshal dylan is for those who are listening that don't understand that reference Marshall Dillon is I think it was Dodge City was the name of it and Marshall Dylan was the the marshal and he was the guy that helped everybody he was the tough guy he faced down you know people came in trying to disrupt the town he was a very tough guy he was the he was the star a star in the sense

they wore the Marshall's badge and everybody looked at him for support and he was good at his job So that's Marshall Dillon. And it's a sort of a conographic stereotype for people who watch TV for a long period of time. Yeah. Thank you. Well, we go to the corridor next.

Cisco and Kira are still working and opening the door. She tells the crewmen to prepare first aid for Bashir and the ambassadors. If they're going to get in, they need oxygen. They need, you know, things to treat plasma burns. And also a runabout. They said, get a runabout ready. We might have to transport people to Bayjore because we don't have the equipment to treat them here. Yeah.

So things are not looking good at this point. Go back to Ops. And Miles has created, or he creates in the scene a sub-program and reroutes the main computer backup to that. So he takes the backup of their whole computer that the puppy was interested in, puts it into this sub-program, kind of walls it off. And he calls the sub-program pup. Yes, he calls it pup. And as soon as the transfer is complete, the lights come back on. Yeah.

And come back on an ops. We go to the corridor. The lights are on here too. Fire suppression is back online. So they manually can't open the door now and it's a mess. They think at first that they're all dead, that the ambassadors and Bashir are all dead. And then Bashir pops open to Jeffrey's tube hatch. I guess it's a Jeffries tube.

It's a Cardassian version. That's what it looks like. Yeah, they were hiding in there. And they're all fine. and they all thank Julian. They give Julian all the credit and say that he will need a commendation after this, after his heroism.

And Bashir is very, very humble. He says, I was just at the right place at the right time. But it's nice to see that storyline, you know, offer something for Bashir's character that, you know, he's smart. And even though he didn't want to be doing this, he ends up being a hero. Yeah. And they changed their attitude about him, which I thought was nice, a nice move in that story.

Back on the promenade, Odo's back. Yeah, that's the point. Uh-huh. Odo's back. Odo is back. He looks 100%. Yes. And how did that happen?

I don't know. Oh, there's not enough time for him to have regenerated. Am I right? And it's got to be a time cut. It's got to be. Yeah, but. They get off the elevator, the turbo lift. So the time is, whenever they say,

the systems are back online, that must be when the turbo lift works again. Right. So that tells us what the time period is. But it seems to me that if he really needs the pale to regenerate, when did he get into the pale to regenerate back to the solid? that he you know as odo that that it's not a mistake but but i well when it may be a mistake you're yeah i hadn't thought about the timeline here either but but this scene happens and

suggests that it's like the next day it can't be that they step off of the turbo lift they step off of the turbo lift that they were trapped in whether it's seven or four makes no difference but but but they step off the turbo lift so it's not the next day it's me i didn't think it was Maybe you saw it as the next day. I saw it as the next day. I saw it as like time passed. But here's the problem if I'm right and they're thinking this is the next day. The next scene in Ops, Cisco comes in and asks, Miles, what did you do?

So it feels pretty continuous. That's what I thought. Yeah. Well, I mean, okay, look at the lines, though. I mean, Odo says, I know that wasn't exactly what you had in mind for your picnic. He wouldn't say that the next day. It's immediate. Yeah.

But then my question is this. Has there been any reference to how long the regeneration cycle takes for Odo to regenerate? Well, he says 10 minutes. Every 16 hours. I know every 16 hours, he has to do it. But is it for a four hour period? Is it for a 12 minute period? We don't know that, right?

We've never been given that information. That's right. And that's why I thought it was a mistake. Yeah. You're absolutely right. If it's only four minutes, then he could have done it. Then he could have been, yeah. but but why why does he always do it in the pale what about the pale makes it the perfect place

as opposed to being in the fold the dress yeah or just on the ground on the floor you know exactly exactly yeah yeah yeah i hadn't thought about that good catch harmon well i you know i've had a couple more years on this than you guys well they whether it was four minutes or four days uh otto is back he He looks 100%. He looks great. And La Waxana has her wig back on. He does apologize. Yes.

No, I was just going to say he doesn't deserve a clap for that last one. Oh, no. No, it wasn't a great one. It was a La Waxana. I'll give one. That's it. I added syllables and all kinds of things. You went la Waxana.

Yes. You said. But he apologizes. Yes. He became French. Odo apologizes to her in the scene, though. and she says no you don't need to apologize the company was perfect he does ask for her discretion he appreciates if she's discreet and doesn't tell anyone and she says uh next time she'll give him

a lot more to appreciate and she walks off and he's very interesting because he watches her leave i felt like there was a little elevator eyes if she left it was uh it was very cute And our last scene, we go to Ops, Cisco returns, ask what Miles did. He says, he got this visitor out of the main computer and into this sub program, this walled off place. Cisco doesn't think that they should just leave it there on the station, though. And Miles says, I'll take care of it. And Dax agrees with Miles. She's like, it's just another new life form visiting our station.

And Cisco responds, well, just keep it off the furniture. And he leaves. And Miles smiles. writing it's very good writing because they very slyly introduced the idea of dog of pup and eventually it grows and grows and eventually ends up to this it's that's very good writing you know you know this ending though if you think about it Robbie on Voyager anytime we had any alien anything that was in our ship or in our system we always expelled it at the end and we were rid of it. But here in DS9, this thing, this thing is here to stay. It's not going anywhere.

Does it come back, Armand? Do you remember if they never? No, it doesn't come back. It just stays in there. And we don't refer to it that I know of again. Yeah. But it is, we don't expel it. You're absolutely right. We accept. We accept it. You accept it. Yes. We expel them. You accept them. Very nice. Very nice of you. Very involved of you. Yes. This is the least xenophobic of all the Star Trek series it's like yes it is everyone's welcome yeah everyone is welcome welcome to quarks yeah um the theme or moral or lesson of this episode for me was that people are not always what you expect them to be and that it's good to be open-minded i think that plays that's true in the computer probe storyline that they expect one thing and it's really something else they have to

be open-minded. I think it's true in the Luaxana and Odo storyline that, you know, they sort of expect a little something different out of each other, but they learn to be open-minded and accept each other. So that's my honest. So essentially the old adage, you can't judge a book by its cover. Yeah. Is where you're coming from? Okay. Yeah. All right. Armand, what your lesson or theme well mine's tangential to robbies it sits on the same line but slightly different mine is that every everyone everything needs companionship and nothing desires to be alone hmm uh i like that odo thinks he wants to be alone but realizes no um i want companionship He learns that during the course of this episode.

The entity that they adopt, the pet, the pup, that too wants companionship. Dogs want companionship. Nothing wants to be alone. Even the ambassadors, they think they're the be-all and the end-all, but they too find the realization that they need company, in this case, Bashir, to save them. So I think that all fits together.

But it's part and parcel of what Robbie said as well. I like the way you put it, though. Nothing wants to be alone. It's very concise and it's emotionally based. I like your moral there. What about you, Garrett? Yeah, I think for me, it's, I guess I would say, sometimes you have to let go to truly be free.

That's it. Nice. Okay. Well, there you go. There is our episode. The Forsaken. Thanks for joining us this week. Next time, we are going to be recapping, discussing, and reviewing the episode Dramatis Personae.

And just so everyone knows, there will be no new podcast next week. We're only doing four episodes a month now. So we'll skip a week. And the next episode, Dramatis Persona, will be released on April 8th at midnight on Patreon and April 9th at midnight on all streaming platforms. So join us for Dramatist Person A next time. Be there, be square. And for all of you, Patreon patrons,

stay tuned for your bonus material for this episode, The Forsaken. Do not forsake me, oh, my darling.