STAR TREK:
- The Original Series (TOS)
- The Animated Series
- The Movies
- The Next Generation (TNG)
- Deep Space Nine (DS9)
- Voyager
- Enterprise

DEEP SPACE NINE:
- DS9 Season One
- DS9 Season Two
- DS9 Season Three
- DS9 Season Four
- DS9 Season Five
- DS9 Season Six
- DS9 Season Seven

Season Six:
-530: "Sacrifice of Angels"
-535: "Waltz"
-541: "Wrongs Darker Than Death or Night"
-545: "The Reckoning"
-548: "Time's Orphan"


SCIENCE FICTION:
- Doctor Who
- Sliders
- The Matrix


- Main Index
- Site Map

Time's Orphan

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Season Six (1997-1998):

26 episodes @ 43 minutes each.
Get your copy of this 7-disc DVD set from the links below:
Region 1, NTSC, U.S.
Region 1, NTSC, Canada
Region 2, PAL, U.K. (regular)
Region 2, PAL, U.K. (Slimline Edition)

(The episode "Wrongs Darker Than Death or Night" can now be found on its own page.)

Time's Orphan

(Star Trek - Deep Space Nine episode production code 548)
story by Joe Menosky
teleplay by story editors David Weddle & Bradley Thompson

This episode has a really good idea behind it. It just made so much sense to explore O'Brien's family, who had largely been ignored this season, and put such a fascinating twist into it.

Of course, the writers here are making their usual mistakes with time travel, but at least keeping them largely unobtrusive this time. The usual Starfleet belief comes out of Dr. Bashir this time, as a quick rebuttal against the obvious fix. At this stage, it is just character belief, with Starfleet remaining true to itself.... sad but necessary, because this motivates the story, and without the O'Briens trying their best to work with this new Molly, we would never find out what the ideal resolution for her would be.

The end actually went up a notch in coolness, as the older Molly comes face to face with her younger double.... and we do here mean double as the term is used in "Sliders", as we are not just dealing with travel through time, but also separate universes branching off all of the various choices that the characters are making.

In fact, this story would only have to lose one shot to align itself with good time travel theory, and that is the shot of the older Molly vanishing in a magical effect. She is free to continue to exist in this universe now parallel to the one she grew up in, although she will see it go through the same ten years she saw before, and watch events among the plants and animals and weather patterns play out somewhat differently. Too bad no one thought to take the bloody reset button and erasers out of the Trek writers' hands. Oh well, at least they didn't mess up more than that one last shot, and for the most part gave us a thoroughly enjoyable episode with its drama sourced in proper ideas. Thus, this story is much better than last year's "Children of Time", despite making pretty much the identical mistake.



This Deep Space Nine Season Six story is available on DVD.
Click on the Amazon symbol for the desired disc format and location nearest you for pricing and availability:

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Season Six (1997-1998):

26 episodes @ 43 minutes each.


Get your copy of this 7-disc DVD set
from the links below:

DVD Extras include:

  • Crew Dossier featurette: Julian Bashir
  • Crew Dossier featurette: Quark
  • "Far Beyond the Stars" in-depth
    episode featurette
  • 24th Century Wedding featurette
  • "Section 31" barely hidden featurettes
  • DS9 Sketchbook - John Eaves
  • Photo Gallery

DVD U.S.

DVD Canada

DVD U.K.
slimline

(regular)


Article written by Martin Izsak. Comments on this article are welcome. You may contact the author from this page:

Contact page


LYRATEK.COM


Read the next Star Trek review for the "DS9 Season 7 opener"



Home Page Site Map Science Fiction Doctor Who Sliders The Matrix Star Trek Catalogue