Tuesday, April 10, 2012

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine’s Last Great Neglected Episode Is “Time’s Orphan!”


The Good: Acting, Character, Plot development
The Bad: Almost nonexistent plot, One special effect.
The Basics: A gem of human emotion, “Time’s Orphan” is easily the best Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode that viewers forget about or underestimate.


In the Star Trek franchise, there are episodes that people either forget about, saw once and never revisit or judged harshly initially that, upon further review, are actually exceptional hours of television. The easiest example that comes immediately to my mind is the first season Star Trek: The Next Generation episode “Too Short A Season” (reviewed here!). While most people write it off for the make-up, I find it to be an engaging morality play that is actually quite worthwhile. For Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, the most neglected worthwhile episode is “Time’s Orphan.”

“Time’s Orphan” comes late in the sixth season of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and as near as I can tell, the reason people do not like it is one of three reasons. It is a bottle episode that distracts from the Dominion War plot, it has a pretty bad special effect near the beginning and it does not feel like other episodes in the Star Trek franchise. The first issue is a legitimate one; that “Time’s Orphan” comes when it does is a bit distracting to those who like the tightness of the Dominion War story. The initial special effect that involves Molly falling into a temporal vortex is, to be fair, pretty bad. It is entirely cheesy and it is sad to see that. But the fact that “Time’s Orphan” does not feel like other episodes of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine only makes it better. The lack of familiarity allows the episode to go in any direction it wants and the truth is, it does not feel disappointing when it resolves itself in a way that reestablishes the status quo.

The O’Brien family makes a trip to one of Bajor’s colony worlds for a picnic. There, Molly O’Brien falls through a time portal which promptly stops functioning. Convinced that Molly is alive three hundred years in the past, Chief O’Brien sets about trying to rescue her. As Chief O’Brien works desperately to restore power to the device that generated the portal and Keiko tries to stay calm, Kira takes Kirayoshi back to the Defiant. When Dax and O’Brien manage to get the power restored, a transporter beam is used to recover Molly. Unfortunately, the process is hardly a precise one and Molly O’Brien returns to the present as an eighteen year-old woman.

In her time stranded in the past, Molly has gone feral and upon returning her to Deep Space Nine, she slowly makes progress with assimilating back to her family. It is, however, not fast enough and shortly after she becomes verbal, she has a tantrum demanding to return home. When Miles uses the holosuite as a temporary solution, he runs into the problem of not being able to keep Molly there. When it looks like Molly will be confined, the O’Briens find themselves in the unenviable position of trying to break Molly out of the brig and finding a way to save her life.

I make the argument that “Time’s Orphan” is a neglected great episode of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine for a few simple reasons. The big reason is that I cannot recall any other episode I tear up during more. Even when I come to the episode jaded about its faults, director Allan Kroeker paces, times and presents the anxiety of the O’Briens and their desperation so perfectly that it is virtually impossible not to tear up, or outright cry. “Time’s Orphan” is a well-executed tale of human longing and the love a family can have that is just heartwrenching, without being excruciating to watch.

Moreover, while the a-plot is an interesting twist on the usual “torment O’Brien” episode (this time, it’s a “torment O’Brien by really messing up his daughter” story!), “Time’s Orphan” executes the b-plot is an entirely satisfying way. In addition to referencing the Kelvans from the original series episode “By Any Other Name” (very cool!), Worf works to prove himself to Jadzia with his parenting skills. The plot works well enough, with Worf becoming frustrated when Kirayoshi hits his head, as toddlers are prone to do. It seems very natural that Worf would be concerned about being a good father and that he would express it as a function of wanting to be adequate for Jadzia.

I suspect that the real reason that people undervalue “Time’s Orphan” is because of the b-plot. Watching Miles and Keiko struggle to adapt to the transformation of Molly is agonizing in a way that many fans of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine are familiar with and can accept. But Worf proving his parenting skills to Jadzia is just a mindfuck for the fans, when viewed in context. Knowing where the season is going – and the writers knew well before this point! – the writers began a subplot that put Jadzia and Worf on the path to having a child of their own together. That’s just mean.

It’s also real and “Time’s Orphan” illustrates the reality of how a young couple prepares for having a child. It does it very well, in fact. Too bad that fans “in the know” could not accept that all that easily!

The acting in “Time’s Orphan” is homogenously good. Colm Meany and Rosalind Chao perform more with their eyes than most actors can with their whole bodies and the way they play the O’Briens as concerned and desperate makes the episode. The only one who trumps them is Michelle Krusiec. Krusiec plays the eighteen year-old feral Molly and she is amazing. She may have few lines, but she emotes with her voice and moves in the episode in a way that makes the viewer entirely believe that she has forgotten her early childhood.

If you haven’t seen it, “Time’s Orphan” holds up nicely for those who are not traditionally fans of Star Trek or Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and is a truly worthwhile hour of television.

[Knowing that VHS is essentially a dead medium, it's worth looking into Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - The Complete Sixth Season on DVD, which is also a better economical choice than buying the VHS. Read my review of the penultimate season by clicking here!
Thanks!]

9/10

For other Star Trek reviews, please visit my Star Trek Review Index Page for an organized listing of all the episodes and movies I have reviewed!

© 2012 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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