The Abandoned
- FIRST SHOWN (US)
- 31 October 1994
- ON
- First-run syndication
- STARDATE
- None given
- DIRECTED BY
- Avery Brooks
- PRODUCTION NO.
- 452
WRITTEN BYWritten by D. Thomas Maio & Steve Warnek
A baby found among salvaged wreckage grows at astonishing speed, and Odo takes a special interest in a child who may be more dangerous than anyone realises.
Red alert: the full plot, ending included. Haven't watched yet?REVEAL SYNOPSIS
Quark buys the wreckage of a crashed ship from the salvage dealer Rionoj and finds an abandoned infant inside. The boy grows at an astonishing rate, looking eight years old within hours, and Bashir finds that he has been genetically engineered. As he reaches adolescence, his aggression and his instinctive deference to Odo reveal what he is: a young Jem'Hadar soldier. Odo, who knows something about being raised as an outsider, believes he can teach the boy that there is more to life than violence and obedience to the Founders, and he resists Starfleet's wish to study him. When Starfleet sends a ship to take the youth, he pulls a phaser and lashes out. Odo persuades Sisko to let him take the boy back to the Gamma Quadrant to live among his own kind. Meanwhile Sisko has dinner with Jake's older girlfriend, the dabo girl Mardah, and sees a new side of his son.
- 01Sisko's dinner with Mardah fulfils a promise he made in the second season's “Playing God”.
- 02Chase Masterson was considered for Mardah but thought too old. She later joined the show as Leeta.
- 03The first hint that Jake has ambitions as a writer.