In the Defiant mess hall, Kira and Dax chat about Kira being single again, and don’t notice Odo’s reaction.
Sisko reluctantly lets Dax talk him into a detour to study a random planet’s plot contrivance particle field, and of course things Go Wrong.
Instead of staying on the ship to unflabbergast the Defiant’s badly flabbergasted jimberjams, O’Brien joins a party that beams down to the planet, so that he can meet a round-faced redhead who introduces herself as Miranda O’Brien. There’s also a Trill who introduces himself as Yedrin Dax.
A thriving colony of about 8000 people are the descendants of the Defiant crew, thanks to a time travel accident that will be caused in two days, when the Defiant tries to leave the planet.
O’Brien is not thrilled to learn he’s destined to settle down and start a new family.
We see a little boy who has heard stories about Worf, a little girl with Trill spots, and another little O’Brien with red hair.
Yedrin has a plan: “certain modifications to the Defiant’s systems” (I l love how the writers totally punted on that technobabble) will create a duplicate Defiant, one of which will stay in the time loop, the other of which will escape.
We meet the future Odo, who has had 200 years to get better at shape-shifting and social graces. He admits he has always loved Kira, and asks her to spend some time with him. A few scenes later, Kira is praying at her own gravesite, and the two leave holding hands. (I remember this episode very well from the first time I saw it, 30 years ago, and I found this story arc very moving.)
Sisko enjoys spending time with a baby (one of his descendants) and later plays baseball with kids in the town square. Worf meets three proud warriors who identify as Klingons (“some by blood, some by choice”). Bashir has met his own descendants, and annoys O’Brien by chattering about them, but grumpy O’Brien is thinking of his own family.
Dax learns that Yedrin lied about the plan to make a duplicate Defiant; all along he was working to make sure that the same accident that started his timeline will happen again; otherwise, we are told, the settlement of 8,000 colonists will “cease to exist.”
Sisko is empathetic, but insists he has a duty to get his people home, and no right to ask Kira to sacrifice herself (and maroon all the others) just to preserve the settlement’s timeline.
Kira sees it differently, and asks Sisko to reconsider. Bashir, Dax and Worf offer support, but O’Brien is still opposed, and Sisko says he was never actually considering staying.
The next day, everyone in the community is planting seedlings, and the montage is so effective that it changes O’Brien’s mind. After a commercial break, we understand Sisko has agreed to follow the flight plan that caused the time loop, thus ensuring the continuation of the settlement.
Kira is at peace, but Odo from the colony is not. They kiss, and he’s broken.
The Defiant’s attempt to re-create the accident by following the trajectory Yedrin laid out does not go as planned — the autopilot changes course and the ship escapes without triggering the time loop. The settlement is gone. Sisko suspects that seeing them all again changed Yedrin’s mind, so that he could not make them go through with it.
The final plot twist comes as as “our” Odo reveals to Kira what he learned from his counterpart, which will likely complicate their relationship.
A good character-based story, with decent production values. A matte painting of the settlement features moving windmills, and enough villagers have speaking parts that it feels like we get to know this community well enough to care about it. It’s a bit talky; we hear about characters we never see, such as Bashir’s descendants, the women that Bashir and O’Brien would have settled down with, and the other Klingon-identifying “Sons of Mogh.” And the time-travel paradox really doesn’t hold up, except as a vehicle for exploring the relationship between Kira and a wiser and more confident version of Odo. But the writers don’t dwell on the technobabble, leaving plenty of room for multiple story arcs.
Post was last modified on 8 Sep 2025 4:18 pm
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