The Visitor

Like so many of the previous reviewers, I find this episode to be among the best of any in the entire Trek franchise ... and more, simply one of the best episodes of any TV show, any genre, over time. And I'm frankly bewildered by the couple of negative reviewers who seem unable to empathize with the quiet power & beauty of this deeply moving father-son story.

If you're reading these reviews, you already know the basic plot: young Jake Sisko loses his father in a bizarre accident that strands Benjamin Sisko in a timeless limbo, from which he emerges for a brief moment every so often over Jake's lifetime. The plot mechanics of this are unimportant -- what matters is the human story of a son losing his father, yearning for his presence, never quite whole because of that loss, and struggling to cope with it & set it right.

I just watched it again last night, which makes it at least a dozen times since it first aired. My father was alive then; he died a few years later. So the wrenching emotional punch of this story has only grown over time for me ... and, I suspect, for the vast majority of those who have also watched it. Were there tears streaming down my face by the end, this time around? Oh, yes. Anyone who loved & lost their father understands.

Next Generation justly takes pride in "The Inner Light" -- but "The Visitor" is easily its equal, and in many ways even more meaningful & rich. I'll definitely be watching it many more times to come in the future.

'The Visitor'~ Season four, episode two.

This episode explores the love and devotion between Jake Sisko and his father when an accident occurs which sees Ben Sisko being lost in time. As Jake, now all but orphaned, struggles to cope, Sisko re-appears and continues to do so through his son's life. Sisko remains unchanged but Jake grows up and enters adulthood, becoming an obsessive man who is unable to let his father go and is determined to bring him back whatever the cost.

This is a truly poignant episode that wonderfully depicts the bond between Ben and Jake Sisko, all the more touching because relationships between parent and child depicted in Trek are often shown to be turbulent and fractious (Picard, Riker, Bashir, Paris, Torres, Chakotay, Ezri Dax and Spock, to a degree, are such characters that this is a trend in). Cirroc Lofton and Tony Todd do an excellent job of portraying Jake through various points of his life, both as a grief-stricken teenage boy and as a single-minded, intense man who is unwilling to give up on his father. They interact well with Avery Brooks' Ben Sisko, as the father who is forced to watch Jake grow up without him and eventually realises just how far his son will go to save him. The very down-to-earth, human aspect to Jake is apparent in this episode and it is all the more clear why he always a Trek child who viewers could tolerate and identify with far more than the irritatingly perfect Wesley Crusher. 'The Visitor' is an episode which proves DS9 can do heavy emotional story lines with a flare often just associated with Patrick Stewart's Picard.

I've recently been re-watching all of DS9 from scratch and was working my way up to this episode, an episode I knew I was very much looking forward to watching again.

Now normally I'm not a fan of what you might call the 'filler' episodes you get in Star Trek, you know nothing especially exciting happens its usually some basic moral story cause the writers were having a lazy week blah blah yawn.

The very first time I saw this episode I got that impression from the first few seconds that this might be a filler episode so wasn't that excited... but then I watched, and kept watching, and became glued to the screen and so emotionally involved. By the end of it I had tears streaming down by face.

There's a good reason why this particular episode of DS9 has so many reviews of it, because it really is THAT special, not just for DS9, but any television show ever made. It's such an incredibly moving script about the love between father and son that it seems to have elevated everyones A-game. The directing the acting cinematography, even music, the music especially felt far more raw and emotional than any episode before. I think everyone working on this particular one felt truly inspired by it.

But especially the acting by Avery Brooks, Cirroc Lofton and Tony Tood just killed me. It's like they all drew from some deep personal experiences to deliver those performances. Just wow, honestly, if there's one episode of DS9 that is not to be missed, it is this one.

If one really had to nit-pick, you could argue the older Nog wasn't so great, but it doesn't matter. Watching it again after all these years it still brought me to tears, and for it to move me that much emotionally and really cut right through me....deserves a 10/10 from me.

A heart-wrenching, tear-jerking, performance driven episode that will not easily fade away from anyone's heart... Father-son relationship... It's just so good. I can explain the story and how it unfolds, but it's just not the same as viewing it. This episode is so wonderfully written and has such poignant, moving details that it soars to new heights of storytelling. Through this, we see many new things about Sisko and Jake--about their lives and their relationship. Above all, this episode stresses the bond between a father and a son, and contains family issues that many people can relate to.

Michael Taylor has delivered one of the series' best stories, and David Livingston's direction is stunning, stellar execution. As I said before, the flashback elements are wonderfully done and the performances are about as perfect as they could be. The editing and music is all in place, causing scenes to flow terrifically together. Even if you're grabbing the tissues by the end of this episode (I was) there is no way you can call this story maudlin or melodramatic. It's completely absorbing from the first frame to the last; definitely one of DS9's finest moments. There is true magic working here.

About a son's unending love for his Father. Told by Jake Sisko over many decades in the future.

"Time waits for no Man!"

Note I first saw this episode on terrestrial TV, BBC2 in the UK, then again more than once recently on Netflix.