The Suspicious Star Trek Character Modeled After A Renaissance Gentleman
Star Trek is a franchise that’s set in the far future, but many of its best moments have been inspired by the distant past. For example, Captain Picard’s Enterprise in 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 Nine, but that Star Trek spinoff still took inspiration from 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 countless times, you probably haven’t clocked any Renaissance references because nothing about that time period is explicitly mentioned. Instead, Trombetta drew upon that era’s idea of a gentleman to flesh out Odo’s very unique plight.
The episode has the shapeshifter stuck in a broken turbolift with a very amorous Lwaxana Troi. Odo is ashamed at the idea that she will be the first person to see him revert back to his liquid form.
Like Troi herself, we can hear what all the Star Trek fans reading this are asking: What the heck does Odo being stuck in an elevator with a crazed Betazed have to do with the Renaissance? According to Jim Trombetta (who wrote the story but not the script), Odo’s plight mirrors that of Renaissance “gentlemen” who “had to be hard warriors with a hard shape, like armor.” The metaphor here is very direct, as Odo’s solid form is breaking down in the turbolift, and he is in danger of melting, something he desperately wants to hide from Lwaxana Troi.
Star Trek writers tend to be history nerds, and as Trombetta helpfully points out, there was “an anxiety” during the Renaissance that gentlemen would “become soft.” Men at the time were worried they might transform from fierce warriors into someone who is “helpless” and “babylike.” Odo had to revert to his liquid state each day, and after stubbornly trying to hide his pain. After a kind gesture from Troi by taking off her wig and showing the constable a vulnerable side of herself that nobody else had ever seen, he turned into a pool of liquid held inside the hem of her dress.
While some of Star Trek’s metaphors tend to be a bit tortured, Trombetta is convinced that the Renaissance gentlemen angle “works very vividly” in “The Forsaken.” As he put it, “Odo’s a constable and a very tough guy, but he has to undergo 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, ironically enough, it takes plenty of strength to be vulnerable in front of others, even those (perhaps especially those) that you care about.
It’s fun to see Lwaxana Troi in all her glory, but for some it was difficult to see her scenes with Odo as much more than equally middle-of-the-road comedy. Now that we know that even their silliest moments were inspired by the Renaissance, we can’t help but look at the episode with a newfound respect. Plus, real talk, we’re always down for any excuse to rewatch Deep Space Nine, which remains the best show in Gene Roddenberry’s long-running franchise.
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