Time's Orphan

I wish the writers could give the O'Brien's good scripts and character developments. They just dealt with the family members as extras that can talk!

Here in this episode, the concept was great, yet the execution was kind of "bad". too many things could have happened with them, but again, writers would choose the cheapest way to do it.

Season six of "Star Trek: Deep Space 9" was odd. While there were many great episodes, there also were a far larger than normal number of bad episodes...really, really bad episodes. Try watching "Resurrection", "Statistical Probabilities", "His Way", "Valiant" and "Profits and Losses" and you'll see what I mean! Yup, there were some pretty bad season six entries and "Time's Orphan" might just be among the worst.

The show begins with the O'Briens off world for a picnic. While scampering about, Molly falls into a hole and enters a temporal distortion (and temporal episodes are usually quite bad). When they manage to get her back, she's 10 years older--and a wild maniac of a child. Can they get the original Molly back or will they have to take her out of pre-school and get her a kennel instead?

While you must suspend disbelief to enjoy sci-fi, this one required you actually turn off your brain. The worst parts clearly are at the finale--as the O'Briens' behaviors make little sense. Overall, pretty weak and one you would just as soon skip.

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.

This episode get's dinged a lot. I understand the complaints. But at the same time for some reason I connect with this story. The first time I watched this episode I hated it. There are a few plot points that are simply ludicrous. At the same time, it is that typical late season episode we see on various Trek series. Not part of the story arc, fleshing out background characters, either comical or poignant. Despite the trainwreck of the plot in the third act I like the poignancy of this story. I suppose it is something that came to me after I had experienced loss in my family. And also having children in your life makes you sensitive to the wounding of their innocence.

At this point it's a good idea to hip folks to how TV shows and movies get made. There is a perception that it simply get's written, they shoot the actors doing stuff. Then edited and that is it. In actuality it is more complicated. Quite often scenes and characters in a screenplay/teleplay do not survive to the shooting schedule. And even then, various scenes may end up taking longer or working out differently once they are committed to film. One of my good friends started off as a screenwriter, but instead had a slight career shift to set writer. She hangs out on the set all day and does on the fly re-writes for situations or dialogue that are not working out. That sounds niche, but it's fairly common. She bought a house and built a second house behind it with her re-writes.

I think that this screenplay started off as a good story, was shot and rewritten when some part or another wouldn't work and they just kind of kludged together the preposterous 3rd act to wrap up the story. After all, it's pretty competent up until that glitch. How else that could have been worked which makes more sense I do not know.

Nevertheless, nearly every time I watch this episode it gets the waterworks going. So on that alone I rate this at least a 6 or 7. My criteria for any episode is how well the story works. As entertainment, as a moral parable. As a tearjerker. If that story does that job it works. There are certainly episodes that do none of these!

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.