Time's Orphan

The premise is actually interesting, but instead of diving into the trauma, ethics, or even the sci-fi potential, the episode opts for melodrama and half-baked emotional beats.

While Rosalind Chao and Colm Meaney give it their all, even their seasoned acting can't make up for a script that treats time displacement like a bad case of summer camp. The emotional stakes feel oddly low, the pacing drags, and somehow the solution to this temporal tragedy is something that I as a parent would never ever do.

Decisions with potentially devastating consequences are made on a whim, and more often than not I completely fail to understand the characters' actions. The ending comes off as a cheap escape from the and emotional ethical dilemma. Nothing has consequences here.

Worf's sub-plot about proving himself as a dad is kinda heartwarming though. I'm giving this episode an extra star just for that.

Every shows hits its weak phase - and Deep Space Nine started struggling around this time. The previous (very weak) comic Ferengi episode was followed by this very serious Molly O'Brien episode.

So much of it is rushed and shallow. The O'Brien's give up on getting back "their" Molly after a 20 second existential discussion on the nature of being - which they adjust to with little emotional consequence. Ultimately they decide to send her back to her primitive world 300 years previous, alone, with little or no discussion of whether they should all go as a family, or if they could settle on another uninhabited planet s a family. Just send her back to her cavewoman life - end of discussion.

All the while, Worf's inferiority complex about being a good father is thrust upon the viewer as a subplot with very little setup or explanation. At first it seems like it is going to be for comic relief - then it turns very soap opera like.

DSN is a great show, and had more great story lines subsequent - but there is a string of episodes at this time that show how dry the creative well had run.

If one is willing to accept what happens to the little girl in this episode, it's still a stretch to accept the ending. Once in a while, people who experience things they have never observed are able to paste together solutions. In these Star Trek offerings (most of the time) they work to cure the problem. If the time thing is at work here, how could they have the science to deal with it in a few short days. From Poltergeist to Twilight Zone, the idea of a child lost in some supernatural realm has been explored. The solutions have always been suspect. We know from the outset that some magical thing will rear its head and take care of everything.

Molly O'Brien disappears through a time portal.

This is an okay episode that includes decent character moments.

For me the plot unfolds in a mostly contrived way as it includes certain events that feel like they happen because the writers want to have their cake and eat it with painful emotional moments and happy endings. As some reviewers have correctly pointed out, the Federation is supposed to be an advanced, progressive society, which makes the treatment of Molly feel especially forced into the story to create the central dilemma.

I like the interaction between characters in various family situations. The O'Brien family, plus the likes of Worf, Jadzia and Odo are all used very well during interactions with each other. The Worf and Jadzia scenes in particular work well considering what happens in the season finale.

All actors are on good form, particularly Colm Meaney, who always impresses when the writers make his character suffer.

A number of highly unlikely things have to go wrong for this episode to begin another amount for the ending and in the middle the seemingly worst parents ever.

Would you quit your job to be with your daughter? O'Brian thinks theres a better way..

Just watch it for how bad it is.