Summary[]
An aged Jake Sisko tells the young aspiring writer Melanie the story of his life. When Jake was 18 years old, his father, Ben Sisko, apparently died in an accident on the Defiant when he was hit by a light bolt from the warp core during an experiment. But time and again the captain rematerialized in the following years. Jake, who had become a successful author in the meantime, his principal work being the novel Anslem, decided to start over and study subspace mechanics. But the attempt to to exactly reproduce the experiment to retrieve his father from subspace failed. Ben was just able to tell his son to finally let go. Old Jake expects Ben to appear one last time, and he takes a poison to die in the very moment when his father is with him. Now that the cord between the two is broken, Ben is hurled back to the moment of the accident. Knowing what would happen, he ducks when the light bolt strikes, gaining a second chance to live with his son.
Errors and Explanations[]
The Nitpickers Guide for Deep Space Nine Trekkers[]
Plot Oversights[]
- Gotta hand it to those Federation scientists, They discover a wormhole just over three years back and already they know that it undergoes an inversion every fifty years! (Nit Central) Sven of Nine, temporal theorist I think not on Sunday, May 13, 2001 - 2:26 pm: That's the same reason as to why we reckon things happen in our past several millions of years before intelligent thought came into being in Homo sapiens. It's because the scientists can extrapolate current findings and turn them into scientific predictions. How do we know when the first solar eclipse of the Fourth Millennium of the Christian calendar will be, and from where it can be seen? Scientists can try and work these things out from banging simple rocks together firstly (metaphorically speaking, of course...). It also explains how Old Jake knows when his father will see him for the last time, and thus time things perfectly (not that I'm a temporal astrophysicist, I don't know how these things work...) - he can work this out. After all, didn't he lose his marriage from studying temporal astrophysics-related subjects at the Academy in an alternate future?
- A short time after the accident, Sisko appears momentarily in Jake's bedroom. The next time, he materializes in a hallway. This time he sticks around long enough for Jake to take him to the infirmary. When asked what he remembers last, Sisko relates the accident. So...why didn't he say anything about appearing in Jake's bedroom? (He did seem to recognize Jake and his surroundings.) He may be temporarily confused.
Equipment Oddities[]
- Are the sensors better on the Defiant than on the station? Is that why the crew putter out to the wormhole as it undergoes inversion? The station sits right beside the wormhole. Was that not close enough? They probably wanted to conduct scans from more than one location. (Jake Senior told Melanie that the Defiant was in the Gamma Quadrant at the time of the incident – which may also explain why the attempted rescue during the next inversion failed, as that was – presumably – carried out at the Alpha Quadrant end).
Continuity And Production Problems[]
- The elder Jake finishes another collection of stories before Sisko appears for the last time. In fact, Jake gives his handwritten copy to Melanie. He must write really small, because the stack of papers 'looks like it's less than one-half inch thick! (The manuscript for this book was a stack of paper more than two inches high.) They could be short stories!
Nit Central[]
- Norman on Wednesday, February 24, 1999 - 4:56 am: Does Sisko become a Prophet by being "The Visitor?" If so, why does he need to be more "corporeal" and history must reset? (Keep in mind: no Dominion War, a stronger alliance between the Bajorans and the Cardassians, etc.) Cableface on Monday, March 01, 1999 - 2:30 pm: He was a prophet of things that happened after he disappered. Just his being there could have changed the course of the future history. For one thing, it was him who convinced Gowron to re-sign the Khitomer accords.
- Cableface on Saturday, February 06, 1999 - 1:16 pm: How come in the time-line after Sisko disappeared, Nog goes from starting the academy to captain, and Dax only goes from liutenant commander to commander? Chris Thomas on Saturday, February 06, 1999 - 9:07 pm: It's possible she has some indiscretions on her permanent record, like Worf. Mike Konczewski on Monday, February 08, 1999 - 6:21 am: Nog's also very good at brown-nosing, thanks to his Ferengi background. I'm sure that would help things a lot. Sharon Jordan on Monday, February 08, 1999 - 10:44 am: and maybe a quota going on as well. Nathan K. on Sunday, May 09, 1999 - 10:30 pm: Dax is a science officer, and Nog is on the command track. You don't get into the higher ranks in areas other than command unless you become something of a legend (like most of the TOS crew.) Mark Swinton on Tuesday, October 26, 1999 - 11:58 am:Or maybe Dax made it to commander, got a nice cushy job as an Academy professor that lasted her up until a certain age, and then she retired. Hence, when Nog called the Defiant back into service for Jake's rescue mission, he extended an invitation to Dax (and Bashir) to join them. As per Kirk and McCoy in past TNG episodes and movies, they accepted this invitation and re-entered service with whatever rank they had at retirement. Chris Thomas on Tuesday, October 26, 1999 - 9:55 pm: Or maybe she did a Riker and kept turning down captaincies of ships and stayed commander, constantly damaging her Starfleet career, never getting any higher in rank.
- Keith Alan Morgan on Sunday, May 09, 1999 - 6:10 am: How did Jake know, that this was the day that his father would reappear? It didn't seem like he appeared on any kind of schedule.Nathan K. on Sunday, May 09, 1999 - 10:25 pm: Jake knew when his father would appear because he spent a good part of his life studying the wormhole and the anomaly his father was trapped in. That's how he was able to make his previous attempt to save his father on the Defiant. He knew that his father would appear again if he failed that time, but that it would be decades and it would be the last chance (if Jake was still alive).
- John A. Lang on Monday, September 12, 2005 - 12:31 pm: I hate this episode because I hate time-travel episodes that don't make sense. Elderly-Jake's death (in my opinion) solves NOTHING.
NOBODY can anybody correct a time-line by DYING!
If this episode was a joke by "Q", then it'd make sense.
If Jake was affected by some kind of temporal particles from the Wormhole, then it'd make sense.
If Jake was affected by a warp-bubble or some other kind of radiation from the Warp Core, then it'd make sense.
But what happens?
Ben Sisko gets trapped in some kind of temporal anomoly after an accident in Engineering. He is suspended in time. Jake however, gets old. He figures the only way for the time-line to be fixed is to die and "cut the cord" (whatever that means) that's been dragging Ben Sisko through time. Jake dies and Ben Sisko finds himself back at the time of the accident.… To me---that makes no sense. It's just plain stupid writing LUIGI NOVI on Monday, September 12, 2005 - 9:43 pm: I can sorta understand why you might feel that way. For my part, as I recall when I saw the episode, I understood (by virtue of the fact that Ben never ages in the episode as Jake does) that Ben is stuck at the moment when he disappeared on the Defiant, not experiencing time as everyone in normal space is, and that once the subspace link between him and Jake is severed, he goes back into normal space, but since he has no longer has anything pulling him into the "future", he just shows up back at the point in spacetime where he was pulled in.
There's also no reason to conclude that a counsellor wasn't recommended for Jake, or that he didn't spend time with one. Yeah, they coulda mentioned it, I guess, but not doing so is not necessarily a nit, IMO.
| Deep Space Nine Season 4 |
| The Way of the Warrior I The Visitor I Hippocratic Oath I Indiscretion I Rejoined I Starship Down I Little Green Men I The Sword of Kahless I Our Man Bashir I Homefront I Paradise Lost I Crossfire I Return to Grace I Sons of Mogh I Bar Association I Accession I Rules of Engagement I Hard Time I Shattered Mirror I The Muse I For the Cause I To the Death I The Quickening I Body Parts I Broken Link |