Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
"Visionary"
Air date: 2/27/1995
Teleplay by John Shirley
Story by Ethan H. Calk
Directed by Reza Badiyi
Review by Jamahl Epsicokhan
"Commander, there is no careful way to question a Klingon." — Odo
During the Romulans' visit to DS9 for a briefing on the developments of the Dominion threat, a high dose of radiation subjects O'Brien to a series of unpredictable temporal displacements, causing him to periodically jump into the near future for short periods of time. While in the future, he witnesses curious events including his own death and worse.
What could've been an exercise in forgettable technobabble (something sister series Voyager has been offering plenty of lately) instead proves to be a fascinating high-concept story and a good outing for O'Brien. Chalk up another punchy direction for Reza Badiyi.
O'Brien's first jump puts him near Quark's bar, approximately five hours in the future, where he witnesses himself talking to Quark about wrecked holosuites. After a brief moment, O'Brien is whisked back into the present. At first, Bashir thinks that O'Brien seeing himself may be some sort of hallucination, but when Dax discovers a quantum singularity orbiting the station at a regular interval, she concludes the residual radiation in O'Brien's body is acting like a "magnet," causing him to be pulled in and out of time. Dax and Bashir begin working on a way to remove the radiation traces from O'Brien's body to prevent any more time shifts.
However, when a subsequent jump turns O'Brien into a witness of his own death—shot by a mysterious phaser-armed booby-trapped device placed behind a panel in some remote corridor of the station—he uses information from the future to avert being killed. Odo opens an investigation to determine why someone would place this device behind the wall panel.
But after saving himself once, another time shift allows O'Brien to see that he dies on the operating table due to undetectable radiation effects. A rather bizarre and intriguing scene has O'Brien talking to a Bashir in the future who gives him information on how he can be saved in the past.
Much to O'Brien's annoyance, Quark labels the engineer a "fortuneteller." The label takes on a whole new meaning when O'Brien jumps forward into the middle of a station evacuation—just in time to see the entire station destroyed.
The sudden way the story drops us right in the middle of this evacuation conveys a confusion and disorder that allows us to experience O'Brien's own bewilderment. One second we're in ops as the crew discusses Odo's investigation. The next second we're in a Runabout with two O'Brien's fleeing the station as it explodes. The sight of DS9 being destroyed is fairly spectacular, if not somewhat disconcerting—some modelmakers put in a great deal of work on a destructible mock-up. The results are quite good. (This is the first time we've seen the station actually destroyed.)
This gives the crew the task of figuring out what will cause the station's destruction and how to prevent it. With Sisko's approval, O'Brien figures a way of injecting himself with a specific amount of the radioactive substance in order to perform a controlled jump forward to just before when the station is to be destroyed.
This is just the beginning as O'Brien jumps forward in time to talk to his future self then witnesses a Romulan Warbird launching a surprise attack on the station. Miles from the past ends up switching places with Miles from the future, because past-Miles is so poisoned with radiation that experiencing another dose of temporal shifting would surely be deadly. Future-Miles instead goes back into the past with the crucial information. This is an interesting twist and a rather brave decision on the writers' part, which gives us some rather paradoxical food for thought. I'm glad they didn't let anything like restraint or plausibility get in the way of fresh storytelling.
In retrospect, the idea that the quantum singularity is really a cloaked Romulan ship makes a lot of sense. The fact is consistent with the establishment of Romulan power supplies given in TNG's "Timescape." That makes "Visionary" a mystery with a genuine audience-supplied clue.
The closing scene, where Sisko confronts the Romulans over their intentions of destroying the station and the wormhole because of their paranoia of Dominion invasion, is a satisfying jewel. I always like it when Sisko sports the no-nonsense attitude.
All in all, this is a great technobabble episode. Technobabble can never really be a story, but when it's used correctly and backed up with real storytelling, an episode like "Visionary" can be born. Sure, the concept is implausible. Sure, O'Brien's time jumps are admittedly way too convenient, placing him in the right place at precisely the right time. But the episode is, after all, called "Visionary."
Previous episode: Prophet Motive
Next episode: Distant Voices
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66 comments on this post
Mon, Sep 14, 2009, 11:06am (UTC -5)
Wed, Nov 11, 2009, 8:11am (UTC -5)
Sat, Mar 26, 2011, 2:09pm (UTC -5)
Sat, Oct 22, 2011, 9:36am (UTC -5)
Sat, Feb 25, 2012, 9:00am (UTC -5)
Tue, May 21, 2013, 4:49pm (UTC -5)
Wed, Jul 31, 2013, 11:32am (UTC -5)
Wed, Oct 23, 2013, 8:53am (UTC -5)
7/10
Fri, Nov 22, 2013, 12:43pm (UTC -5)
Thu, Dec 26, 2013, 1:33pm (UTC -5)
I enjoyed the 2 references to later TNG Romulan episodes (the reviewer mentioned the point from "Timescape" and "Face of the Enemy" about the black-hold-powered warp drive); there is also the line from Kira about the Romulan "floating his way home"--another reference to the goofy scene from "The Next Phase" where the phase-cloaked Romulan jumps through the Enterprise's hull into space and floats away.
Overall, the episode was pretty good, but I see not how an episode with roughly the same concept and conceits to temporal paradox, "Relativity", could receive the same score when the latter had grossly more personality, humour, wit and style. I don't think "Relativity" deserves more than 3 stars really, but this episode is nothing special.
Fri, Dec 27, 2013, 1:54pm (UTC -5)
It's also in this episode that the dart game at Quark's is introduced, and that Bashir & O'Brien finally seem to embark on a course for the Alamo. What more is there to say? ;)
Even the score is great: mysterious and eerie, much like some episodes in the first couple of seasons of TNG ("Datalore" comes to mind): great stuff.
@Marcel: "Really liked this episode"
- Couldn't agree more.
@Corey: "I don't think there's a single episode where Colm Meaney carries it that I haven't liked."
- x2
@Nic: "This was probably the most TNG-like episode DS9 ever did"
- So true.
A very good, though very atypical episode for DS9. Three stars seems about right.
Fri, Dec 27, 2013, 11:55pm (UTC -5)
In the meantime, could we have a general site ban of the continuing defensive Voyager trolling?
Tue, Dec 31, 2013, 2:56pm (UTC -5)
Fri, Feb 21, 2014, 8:18pm (UTC -5)
I would like to know if this action by the Romulans was government-sanctioned however or a rogue operation. If it was indicated one way or the other in this ep I missed it.
Also I've been wanting to point out that there is similar ideas or storylines across multiple trek series. A point of contention seems to be VOY for instance getting a lower rating for an ep than DS9 for a similar idea. It makes a lot of sense to me that one would get a better rating if it's execution is better. I'm not saying that as negative towards VOY as a whole, there's a lot of really great episodes there. But for the most part DS9 is just a better written show in my opinion. And a lot of similar ideas between the two show that. I understand that I may be now included in the VOY-bashing group despite my above statement of "...a lot of really great episodes" but so be it.
Despite a few contrivances I really did enjoy this one though.
3 stars.
Fri, Feb 21, 2014, 8:21pm (UTC -5)
Thu, Jun 19, 2014, 7:15pm (UTC -5)
Anyway, my problem with this episode is the outrageously large amounts of Treknobabble. And it's the type of babble that really doesn't mean much and the audience really can't follow, even if you do know what most of the Trek technology does. It basically amounts to "magic."
However, following the babble a little bit we basically have it that the Romulan Warbird's warp core, some chemical they use in it, in combination with the radiation that hit O'Brien when a conduit exploded in his face is what's causing the jumps in time. Which makes me wonder, why has this never happened before? At least with the Romulans themselves. Or even with Starfleet. Or anyone really? It's a coincidence that the radiation and the warp core were in the same vicinity at the same time, yes, but it doesn't seem like it would be a rare coincidence. So why didn't they know about it? They should have seen that O'Brien was jumping in time and assumed there was a Warbird out there almost right away.
Thu, Jun 19, 2014, 8:39pm (UTC -5)
Tue, Jul 8, 2014, 10:20pm (UTC -5)
Also The timeline made no sense. Why would future O'Brien not know what past O'Brien had been through -- it's the same guy in the future. Why in the jump to where O'Brien is escaping DS9 did he not remember that past O'Brien (who he was) would show up? Why didn't future O'Brien, who had been past O'Brien, already investigate the cause of the explosion, since he had been to the future when he was past O'Brien and knew it was going to happen?
Fri, Aug 1, 2014, 12:31pm (UTC -5)
Major reset crap here as we know DS9 isn't going to get blown up; therefore there is no sense of urgency.
The DS9 blow up did look pretty good though, especially for a TV show.
2 stars.
Wed, Sep 3, 2014, 2:32am (UTC -5)
Thu, Sep 11, 2014, 12:10am (UTC -5)
I can't imagine Keiko being cool with anything O'Brian could say or do. She's very no-win at him. If he's smart he didn't mention a word of this to her.
Mon, Feb 16, 2015, 8:52pm (UTC -5)
Sat, Mar 21, 2015, 1:24pm (UTC -5)
Sat, Apr 11, 2015, 5:14am (UTC -5)
Thu, May 28, 2015, 6:11pm (UTC -5)
Mon, Jun 22, 2015, 3:40am (UTC -5)
Usually I don't mind the technobabble, but it bothered me in this one.
Fri, Aug 21, 2015, 7:12am (UTC -5)
But, even though it's a standalone, it's still connected to the larger fabric! It foreshadows just how concerned the Romulans were about the Dominion. First, they lend the Defiant a cloaking device in 'The Search,' and then they try to destroy the wormhole here. Their failure to do so in this episode leads to their co-venture with the Cardassians to obliterate the Founders in 'Improbable Cause'/'The Die is Cast.'
With all their motivations laid clear, their future actions shouldn't be surprising. (And with the Cardassians' own involvement foreshadowed with the fleet build-up in 'Defiant,' it's amazing just how subtly that whole invasion plot was hinted at beforehand. In retrospect, it's all there.)
But there are so many great lines in this one! From Odo telling Sisko how he needs to remind him just how good he is at his job, to Odo telling the Klingons off in the holding cell, to Kira reading the Romulans the riot act, to Bashir saying, 'Who am I to argue with me?' The dialogue was great throughout.
Very enjoyable.
Wed, Sep 23, 2015, 4:15pm (UTC -5)
I think the time stuff is mostly handled well, though there are a few strange choices -- pyjamas-O'Brien and his sickly counterpart say "I hate temporal mechanics" in unison over pyjamas-O'Brien's not feeling sick, but even weirder is the idea that O'Brien was apparently planning on sleeping through the destruction of the station. I think as in "Time Squared" (and to a lesser extent "Cause and Effect"), the major theme is facing up to death, in particular one's *own* death, as a way to avoid total destruction; O'Brien is confronted with more and more violent futures, from Quark talking about Klingons destroying property to brawl to Miles' individual death to station destruction and finally to the time-shifting O'Brien himself dying, his body flooded with radiation. Miles talks early on about the shock of seeing his body lying there which is a first for him (I guess his replicant's death didn't move him all that much in "Whispers"), and eventually becomes permanently "unsettled" by having one of his selves die while the other goes back to replace him. The slightly unsettling, eerie feeling is, I think wisely, downplayed -- this is weird, but O'Brien is still here, even if he's from a few hours in the future -- but I think it's an effective way to get at the idea of confronting one's own death and being changed by the experience. And I think it's noteworthy that while the O'Brien who sacrifices himself heroically *is* only a few hours removed from the O'Brien who remains, that O'Brien only has second-hand experience of that sacrifice; one can only get so close to death (and the heroism of being willing to die).
I have little else to say -- it's a tight, effective little show with a nice escalation and some effective continuity. 3 stars.
Wed, Sep 23, 2015, 4:21pm (UTC -5)
One thing of note is that the title -- "Visionary" -- is interesting considering that this episode follows "Destiny" and "Prophet Motive," both of which deal with the Prophets; note how this episode essentially plays out the "man with visions of the future" plot as pure science-fiction temporal mechanics stuff, rather than dipping into religion or psuedo-religion. It is particularly apparent given its episode placement. So here's the question: given that there is a rational, materialistic explanation for both the Wormhole Aliens' ability to see into the future and O'Brien's time jumps, why are the former still treated with reverent awe and the latter is clearly just a guy? Okay, okay -- obviously the WAs living in nonlinear time is different from O'Brien taking a few jumps back and forth. But maybe a stronger comparison is between this and "Rapture," which are actually *very* similar in terms of their central character's plot (radiation weirdness -> unstuck in time; do they risk their lives to continue?) but come at it from two wholly different perspectives. It would be interesting to know whether the artists were aware of the similarities between this story and many of their Bajoran faith stories, without an explicit religious dimension, though O'Brien's sacrificial death and "resurrection" can be viewed through a secular spiritual lens, and whether this episode is thus a kind of restatement of some of the themes the show returns to over and over again, or a commentary, or an accidental recreation.
Sat, Sep 26, 2015, 12:28am (UTC -5)
More could've been made of O'Brien's willingness to sacrifice himself. Indeed, he doesn't hesitate when he hears the risk of a controlled jump. O'Brien dies, saves everyone, and comes back to life... hmm, seems like there's a story there, but the episode wraps up without exploring it.
Sat, Sep 26, 2015, 2:30pm (UTC -5)
Fri, Oct 2, 2015, 5:39am (UTC -5)
Sat, Nov 28, 2015, 2:11pm (UTC -5)
Nevertheless, this is a fun episode in many ways and has an intriguing undercurrent, what with 3 dead O'Brien's and one coming back from the future to live his own dead life. Or something. Obviously though we get to this point via the standard set of contrivances. But it's never boring. 3 stars.
Sun, Dec 20, 2015, 11:10pm (UTC -5)
Mon, Feb 15, 2016, 6:06pm (UTC -5)
Mon, Feb 15, 2016, 6:08pm (UTC -5)
Fri, Mar 18, 2016, 11:37pm (UTC -5)
The main problem with it is that it's a tech heavy, high concept, sci-fi story. And that simply isn't what DS9 is all about. This kind of story would have worked very well on either TNG or VOY (which was, at this point, already half-way through its first season). But it just doesn't feel quite right here on DS9. DS9 isn't about high concept science fiction and it certainly isn't about tech heavy stories. It's much more of a character and plot-arc driven show. So it's no wonder that the good parts of "Visionary" focus on those two areas.
O'Brien watching himself get shot, Kira's reaction to the Romulans' realization that Odo has feelings for her, Odo's response to that revelation, Quark trying to use O'Brien's knowledge of the future for his own gain - all wonderful scenes. The scenes where the Romulans debrief everyone on their Dominion knowledge are also enjoyable as they finally follow up on the Romulan loan of the cloaking device, something that has been dropped like a hot potato ever since "The Search, Part II".
But as for the time-travel aspect of the episode - meh, it's all just a little to convenient for my tastes. O'Brien just happens to always travel to exactly the right place at exactly the right time? Yeah, sure. And the whole plan by the Romulans to destroy the Wormhole is really undermined by having the solution be little more than dumb luck. If O'Brien hadn't happened to get a huge dose of technobabble radiation and start time jumping, the Romulans would have succeeded with no trouble and destroyed the station and the Wormhole. Yeah, dumb luck.
In all fairness I probably should score this one a little lower, but the character interactions work well enough. And that is one of DS9's strengths, after all - they can take even a fairly lackluster episode and buoy it up with the character work.
5/10
Sat, Oct 29, 2016, 8:47pm (UTC -5)
Wed, Dec 7, 2016, 9:45am (UTC -5)
That coupled with the antiproton scans make Romulan cloaks (and by extension Klingon cloaks since they are derived frok Romulan tech) almost completely useless.
Tue, Dec 27, 2016, 7:03pm (UTC -5)
Mon, Mar 20, 2017, 4:42pm (UTC -5)
Sisko: Keiko, I regret to inform you Miles is dead.
Keiko: What?!? Then who is that on my couch drinking coffee?
S: That's Miles O'Brien
K: But you said Miles is dead!
S: That's the Miles O'Brien three hours from now.
K: What?
S: Oh, I'm sorry. That happend four hours ago, so technically that's the Miles from an hour ago. He came back from his present which was our future to the past which was our present but is now in the past and left the past Miles in the future which is now also our past.
K: So when did my Miles die?
S: Three hours from now four hours ago. You just missed it.
K: When?
S: Just now.
K: I hate temporal mechanics.
Mon, Apr 3, 2017, 9:00am (UTC -5)
I'm glad there's no Keiko, she probably wouldn't bat an eye if either of these two Miles' were dead lol.
Tue, May 30, 2017, 9:54pm (UTC -5)
A certain amount of artistic license has to be allowed for those shows to work. Would you rather watch a show with no plot holes, no inconsistencies, 100% accurate scientifically, but is boring, or a show like this? Bottom line, this is intended as entertainment, and this is an entertaining episode.
One thing I found a little surprising is the comments that Keiko must now adjust to the "new" Miles O'Brien. I could understand this if the "new" Miles was from 2 or 3 years (or even 6 months) in the future. However, as one poster mentioned above, he's only a few hours older than the "old" Miles O'Brien. So, basically he's the same person.
Thu, Jun 22, 2017, 4:25pm (UTC -5)
Again, I don't mind the technobabble with the radiation and the singularity to create time jumps for O'Brien -- it's sci-fi, the writers can have their creative licence as long as they make some effort to not be totally ridiculous in the sci-fi paradigm -- and I think they achieve that in this story.
Must say, pretty cool (and tragic) watching DS9 blow up -- that takes a fair bit of work.
Of course, the issue with time travel stories is the inconsistencies/contrivances. Why does O'Brien travel into the future to witness only really important things? Because it makes for a good story.
VOY's "Before and After" was also an interesting episode, but what's becoming clearer to me is that DS9's characters are less wooden.
Pretty ballsy of the Romulans to have such a plan to blow up DS9 and the wormhole -- I don't know if that's a stretch for the writers to write that in but I would expect repercussions from this now that Sisko and Co. have found out. And does this de-frock cloaking technology going forward once and for all? Seems the Romulans giving the Defiant the cloaking device in exchange for info is a win for the Romulans if they can actually get good info.
I'd rate this a solid 3 stars - plenty to digest in this one but all the individual parts of the episode tie together well. The writers came up with a new way to have timeshifts just as was done in VOY's "Before and After" and I'm cool with the technobabble.
Sat, Jul 8, 2017, 2:45am (UTC -5)
Sun, Jul 30, 2017, 11:07pm (UTC -5)
Liked how again the fact the Romulans use an artificial singularity as their core since first dropped as a throwaway line back in TNG Face of the Enemy
The explanation for Miles' time jumps works well I enjoyed seeing Klingons and Romulans on DS9. Liked how Romulans come to the station to receive intelligence briefing on the Dominion in exchange for the Federation getting to use the cloaking device. The Romulans viewing the Dominion as a grave threat and only option left is collapsing wormhole makes a lot of sense
Lots of good mystery elements--the hidden spying device, the cause of the station's destruction etc
I enjoyed Odo's need for being appreciated by retracing his efforts to get to the bottom of the Klingon spies to Sisko
A very good action adventure, mystery and Dominion ep all rolled into one
Sun, Nov 12, 2017, 2:42pm (UTC -5)
Sun, Nov 19, 2017, 10:52pm (UTC -5)
Tue, Aug 14, 2018, 12:10am (UTC -5)
3.5 stars.
Fri, Sep 21, 2018, 11:18am (UTC -5)
It has been about 2 years since my cable people have put H and I on their schedule and all 5 of the Star Trek series run every night. ST:Tos is only one of the 5 I had seen on a regular basis, etc. DS9 AND VOYAGER I had not seen for 10 years or more since they were not run in my area. I would buy DS9 if wasn't so darned expensive. Voyager, well I only like about 10 of the eps and I love the Borg eps esp. with Jeri Ryan. She is a wonderful actress. Too add on, I finally gave in and bought the dvd pkgs of TOS BUT I have a few of TOS on VHS from the past. They were so expensive I could not afford them. I did spend over $30.00 buying THE CAGE.
HERE IS WHAT I GOT:::::some color and a bunch of black and white where the whoever it was picked up the pieces and glued them to the damn film strip.......some parts have no speech at all because the speaking parts were snipped out and thrown away back in the day [1960's]. Of course, back in day those people had no idea that Star Trek would go on living thru the years.
Anyway, I think that Sisko should have shot the Romulons out of 'sky' and stars once the Romulons took off from the station. They were nasty to everyone. Yeah, they should go thru the worm hole and look up the changelings!!
I did not like it that Miies had to die and be replaced with a future O'Brien. Best to leave that alone because Keiko and Molly would never understand. No one would understand.
Mon, Sep 24, 2018, 8:37pm (UTC -5)
Technobabble? I hear people complain about it often, but it never bothers me. I have no trouble following it, and in this case I thought the explanation was fine--the quantum singularity worked like a magnet. The only time-travel plot hole I perceived was that Now-Dead Miles, in order to travel in time, had to have the overdose of radiation so he could use the magnet to pull him through time. So I don't understand why giving the armband to Pajama Miles would have worked--he didn't have the magnets in him. But whatever--if I may paraphrase "The Big Chill,"--sometimes you just have to let art, I mean time travel, flow over you.
The one thing that made me angry is that they just let the Romulans--involved in a plot to destroy the station and wormhole--go free with no consequences. Very stupid.
Fri, Oct 12, 2018, 9:49am (UTC -5)
In Ops, O'Brien is revived from a tech accident by Bashir. Sisko assigns the chief, who seems genuinely humbled by his injury. Meanwhile, Sisko and Kira head towards a docking bay to meet a delegation of Romulans. On their way, they pass Odo arresting a drunk Klingon, whose ship is stuck on DS9 for a couple of days. Sisko asks Odo to monitor the situation for potential conflicts. Sisko greets the Romulans, who are on the station to receive the report owed them according the to deal that made to give the Defiant its cloak. The Romulans are curt—having no interest in diplomatic overtures—their dialogue is exactly the kind we would expect to hear from Ja-Rule, which makes her absence a bit glaring. I wonder if the producers didn't want Martha Hackett on both series at once.
Miles convinces Quark to hang a dart board in his bar, following up on the extremely minor subplot from “Prophet Motive.” Miles shows Quark how to properly throw a dart without impaling Morn in the eyeball, only to find himself flashing to a few meters away. He sees himself conversing with Quark, who informs him that the Klingons have destroyed his holosuites. The two O'Briens make eye contact, then our O'Brien flashes back to Quark's and feints. This is a really promising teaser, with a sci-fi mystery, continued political intrigue from “The Search,” and a focus on O'Brien, which is usually a sign of quality.
Act 1 : ***, 17%
Bashir explains to O'Brien that his “hallucination” (yeah right) and feinting spell are a result of his accident in Ops. A moment is spared for some character stuff—Bashir giving his buddy shit for having a “deficient fantasy life.”
In the Wardroom, the Romulans quiz Sisko and Kira about their Dominion intelligence. The Romulans think Odo, as a Changeling, should be able to provide insight into the machinations of the Founders, but our heroes are quick to point out that Odo is loyal to them and has no information about their plans. The Romulans demand to see classified reports on the Dominion, arguing that maintaining their new cloak-treaty (I didn't realise there was an entire treaty signed over this matter) as well as evaluating the Dominion threat are of utmost importance. Sisko agrees, provided Starfleet permits it. I wonder if he's going to tell them about destroying the wormhole...Sisko is...typically and unnecessarily hostile here. Yeah, the Romulans are a bit rude, but what they're asking for is perfectly reasonable.
Later, Quark approaches Miles and makes the same complaint we saw in the teaser. O'Brien realises mid-sentence what's going on and makes the point to look for himself across the promenade. Sure enough, the other O'Brien vanishes. Of note is that Quark is able to see him, so this is no hallucination. Dax is able to confirm that there was a temporal anomaly. While she lists all the technobabble theories on how this could happen—O'Brien has another flash, again to Quark's, but now there's a brawl between the Romulans, Klingons and, O'Brien himself again. Our O'Brien actually saves himself from getting stabbed by an errant Klingon. He flashes back and feints.
Act 2 : ***, 17%
Bashir notes that the cumulative effect of these jumps will eventually become fatal. Sisko deduces that the time shifting can't be more than a few days into the future, as the Romulans are supposed to leave within that timeframe. Kira retrieves him to give him the laundry list of the Romulans' demands—they want to debrief the entire Defiant crew, review all their logs, etc. The Empire has chosen not to risk their own ships going through the wormhole, “pulling the strings from behind” in Sisko's words. This doesn't quite work for me. Think of TNG's “Tin Man,” when the Romulans risked an entire vessel and its crew just to beat the Federation to the powerful entity. The Romulans may be devious, but they aren't cowardly. Sisko tells Kira to be diplomatic with the Romulans, which is among the most ironic statements I've ever heard on television.
Smash cut and Kira is screaming at them across the conference table. DS9 bring good the comedy! They have accused Kira of abandoning the Defiant prematurely in “The Search.” She explains about how Odo rescued her, having been knocked unconscious, in the shuttle. For a moment, I thought the Romulans were going to catch Kira in a lie—questioning Odo's motivations for abandoning the Defiant. This is a point I made in my review, as well. Rather, though the conversation turns to the idea that the Founders thought Odo would be upset if Kira were harmed, so only she was allowed to escape. They flat-out ask her if Odo ever indicated that he wanted to bang her, and she completely loses her temper, warning them they may end up “floating home,” which is a cute reference to “The Next Phase.”
In Quark's, Julian has humoured Miles by playing ten rounds of darts, waiting for that fight to start. Julian points out that the future has been altered by Miles' vision, but I'm sure Miles wants to be certain he isn't stabbed, so he presses on. Then, a trio of drunk Klingons enters the bar—Quark had agreed to keep them out, which I don't quite get. Is Quark allowed to racially-profile his customers? Well, it's moot anyway as they've paid triple for holosuite time and that's motivation enough for Quark to break his word. Immediately, tensions rise with the Romulans.
In Odo's office, Kira briefs the constable about her upsetting meeting. Odo's reaction at the suggestion of Kira-boning is sort of cute: “RiDICulous!” Before this can plummet to sitcom levels, Quark calls about the inevitable brawl. There's a brief shot of Quark itemising the damaged property, which is pretty hilarious, and finally O'Brien relives his flash, from the other side, complete with near-stab experience. But then, O'Brien has a new flash-forward—he sees himself get zapped by panel on the wall. A great detail is how Colm Meaney has our O'Brien react physically upon seeing himself get injured. A very realistic touch. Ooo, and the bad news—the zap turns out to be fatal. Our O'Brien flashes back, having collapsed about an hour ago, awaking in the infirmary. And Miles is quite certain he'll be dead in a few hours.
Act 3 : ****, 17%
O'Brien, Sisko and Odo examine the panel from O'Brien's flash, which appears benign. The trio realise that someone will boobytrap the panel within a few hours, per the pattern of O'Brien's jumps. They can't figure out why, though. Odo suggests placing a surveillance device nearby which is utterly shocking. Shocking, because I assumed Odo had cameras in every toilet on the station, let a lone the hallways.
Meanwhile, Dax has discovered a techno-clue. There's a tiny blackhole moving in space around the station. Now, if you're a Trek nerd, you already know the answer—there's a Romulan ship cloaked nearby. In “Timescape,” we learned about how the Romulans use tiny black holes to power their ships because...they're insane. Anyway, this new information reveals to the in-show nerds that the chief's jumps are being caused by this anomaly and Bashir thinks he knows how to prevent further jumps, but it will take time; O'Brien isn't done jumping yet. Then, Kira has a plot bombshell to drop—she had to move the Romulans to section 47 (duh)...the very same section where the booby-trap will be planted.
Odo, has discovered that the booby-trap *has* been implanted, but it was actually transported into the wall, not placed by hand. Odo's lead suspects are the Klingons.
SISKO: Do you have any evidence besides the fact that Klingons hate Romulans?
ODO: Not yet. But don't worry, I plan on investigating the Klingons, the Bajorans, Quark, the visiting Terrelians.
SISKO: You think Quark had something to do with this?
ODO: I always investigate Quark.
Zing. In Quark's O'Brien is replaying his own death in his memory. He doesn't mention that this was actually the second time O'Brien has seen himself die (“Whispers”). Which means they writers forgot a point of continuity, which means this show fucking sucks.
O'Brien flashes again—to the infirmary. And, oh shit, his own corpse is on a biobed.
Act 4 : ***, 17%
Our O'Brien runs into future Bashir, who's oddly casual about the fact that his friend has died. But he does tell O'Brien what to tell Bashir's past-self to scan for to avoid our O'Brien dying in the first place. Got all that? Miles flashes back. Meanwhile, Odo and Sisko investigate the source of the transporter beam—some vacant quarters. Odo has unravelled much of the mystery; following a line of clues—being amusingly cutoff mid-ramble by Sisko—he believes the three Klingons are part of a “covert strike force” who were sent to gather intelligence about the Romulans for Gowron. Sisko permits Odo to hold the Klingons for questioning. The Klingons deny their mission, for the moment.
O'Brien awakens and gives Bashir his own warning, who both prevents the radiation death and continues to rid Miles of his time-particles. In Ops, the senior staff begin discussing the orbiting black hole, but Miles flashes forward yet again. Now, the station is being evacuated. O'Brien finds his other self piloting a runabout away from DS9, which is exploding. Future O'Brien doesn't know what caused the disaster, but both the station and the wormhole are destroyed. Miles flashes back to Ops...and doesn't feint? Huh?
Act 5 : ***.5, 17%
In anticipation of the impending disaster, Sisko has Kira begin prepping for an evacuation...again. O'Brien hits on the idea of purposefully forcing himself into a time-jump. Of course, the time-particles will be toxic and might kill him. Via technononsense, he and Bashir determine a means to control how far Miles is able to jump.
One more moment is set aside for Miles to remind Julian about that message for Keiko in his quarters in case, well you know. And so does Bashir. So, they engage with operation forced-time jump—O'Brien finds himself in his own quarters, asleep. And the two agree to team up to save the day. The Mileses arrive in Ops together just as a Warbird decloaks and starts firing at the station. Our O'Brien is too poisoned to take the trip back, and dies...again. So, future-O'Brien will go back instead, even though he “doesn't belong there.” This seems like a really dopey semantics question to be quibbling over as the station blows up around them, but whatever, future-O'Brien consents and puts on the magic armband. So, he flashes back, and Sisko raises shields and weapons in preparation.
Finally, the two plots come together. The Romulans were sent to destroy the wormhole (yes, thank you!). Kira states that the Federation wouldn't stand by and let this happen—which is a head-scratcher. I mean, yeah, there are the Prophets, but shouldn't the Federation and Romulan Empire discuss the “nuclear option”? Having locked “about 50 photon torpedoes” on the cloaked warbird, the Romulans agree to leave. So...what's going to happen with that treaty?
In the epilogue, O'Brien is agonising a bit about being displaced in time, cueing a TOS-style comic ending bit with Miles predicting a Dabbo, and cue credits.
Episode as Functionary : ***, 10%
Like William B, I'm most reminded of TNG's “Time Squared,” which I think is one of the series' most unsung heroes. The sci-fi angle is pretty similar, but “Visionary” swaps out some of the existential questions for character moments between O'Brien and Bashir, which isn't bad by any means, but does make the story feel a bit smaller, despite the gigantic consequences portrayed in the final acts. It is certainly in keeping with Miles' character that he would begrudgingly deal with the temporal paradoxes, focused more on the consequences to his family if this should get him killed, instead of pondering the meaning of all this craziness.
The Romulan component to the story is a mixed bag, mostly good. First, the fact that it disguises itself as a B plot but is actually the crux of the mystery is fairly brilliant, even meta-textual; what appears to be a random Trek anomaly orbiting the station is actually an enemy vessel preparing to strike. The mystery itself is extremely well-handled, giving Odo a chance to shine and throwing a bone to fans of the series with several obscure references to TNG. There is one slight error: why did the arrested Klingons imply that they were guilty of spying by giving each other worried looks in Odo's jail? My only real problems with the story are, 1. the characterisation of the Romulans as cowardly seems really out of place, considering events before, during, and after this episode—maybe Sisko is just ignorant on the subject, 2. there would seem to be major consequences to the relationship between Romulus and the Federation given the events here; shouldn't the Romulans take their cloak back, having attempted to destroy a Federation outpost? 3. revisiting the events of “The Search” was a missed opportunity. Rather than exploring Odo's divided loyalties, which seemed to be where the Romulans were going in Act 2, they focus on the Odo/Kira romance thread. I said all the way back in “Necessary Evil” that I don't oppose this relationship developing, but it seems to me the writers are trying way too hard to push us here. Just let it happen, guys. Speaking of Kira, is she ever going to learn to control her temper?
Final Score : ***
Fri, Oct 12, 2018, 11:27am (UTC -5)
“The Empire has chosen not to risk their own ships going through the wormhole, “pulling the strings from behind” in Sisko's words. This doesn't quite work for me. Think of TNG's “Tin Man,” when the Romulans risked an entire vessel and its crew just to beat the Federation to the powerful entity. The Romulans may be devious, but they aren't cowardly.”
I see what you mean here, although TNG did characterize the Romulans as operating on counter-maneuvers as described in “The Neutral Zone” they have also been in the thick of the action in many occasions. “Tin Man” is one example but there’s also “Contagion” and “The Chase” which show that the RE will exert overt force to not be bested strategically by the Federation.
One good thing about their cowardice shown here, however, is that it further sets up the plot of “Improbable Cause” by showing friction between what the Tal Shiar wants (military dominance in GQ) and what the Romulan Guard want (the Federation to do the dirty work for them in the GQ while they reap the rewards). It might be kind of silly that the more covert group of the two appears interested in brute force tactics but perhaps we can brush that aside and assume the Romulan senate would never agree to the Tal Shiar/Obsidian Order plan.
Mon, Dec 17, 2018, 9:56am (UTC -5)
-O'Brien hurt and needs to rest. But he's really hurt and hallucinating . . . or something.
--The Alpha Quadrant trying to come together to protect themselves from the Dominion. It's rough going.
--O'Brien goes forward in time and saves himself from a Klingon! I have a feeling my "don't think too hard about it" time paradox philosophy will have to come into play here.
--Something there is that doesn't love O'Brien.
--Cool graphic of the station exploding.
--Wow, every time O'Brien goes five hours in the future, life-threatening events are occurring!
--O'Brien willing to risk his life to save thousands, except they were already planning to evacuate the station . . . why nearly kill his husband and father self, just to save that big hunk of metal?
--Yowza! Cool trick!! O'Brien replaces O'Brien. O'Brien dies but doesn't die.
--Julian says "you're O'Brien, just with a few extra memories," which isn't quite right. He's O'Brien, with a few more, and a few less, memories.
I liked it overall. It's a pretty crazy premise, but was well handled.
Mon, Dec 17, 2018, 10:44am (UTC -5)
--Yes, it was interesting that Sisko mentioned the "they like to sit back and watch" and "not make the first move" characteristic of the Romulans . . . when in fact, they were planning a hugely aggressive "first strike" the whole time. I suppose this fits with some of the "What makes you, you?" questions the ep brings up.
--Who's the Visionary here? Maybe it's the Romulans. After all, was closing the wormhole such a bad idea?
--Sure, tons of techno babble, obvious and unlikely "need it to move the plot forward" contrivance, obvious reset ahead, etc . . . but I can't enjoy Trek worrying myself too much about all that. For myself, it's not so much, "well, those criticisms can fall by the wayside if the ep is otherwise compelling" as it is "those criticisms should always fall by the wayside," and judge the ep from there, when it comes to Trek.
Sun, Dec 22, 2019, 3:42pm (UTC -5)
First it appears that O'Brien is just seeing the future. Then he's able to interact with the future. Then he's able to change the future. Then he's able to swap places with his future self - who is somehow still on another timeline which hasn't yet been changed by O'Brien's previous future incursions.
Worse, it also relies heavily on the fact that not a single federation officer is able to figure out that the invisible singularity orbiting the station is actually a cloaked Romulan vessel. During a visit to the station by Romulans. Not even O'Brien, who was presumably on the Enterprise when they were trapped in a time bubble caused by the singularity on romulan vessel.
For all that, it's a reasonably fun episode, but it really does feel like the story is a set of plot points badly glued together.
Sun, Dec 22, 2019, 3:48pm (UTC -5)
Tue, Dec 24, 2019, 4:12am (UTC -5)
One other point which didn't seem to get answered is: why was O'Brien tinkering with the access point which was rigged with a booby trap? In that timeline, there was seemingly no reason for anything in that section to be of interest.
By their nature, time travel episodes tend go be inconsistent- it's the whole chicken/egg paradox. But it does feel like this episode strained things a bit too far...
Fri, Jan 3, 2020, 6:16am (UTC -5)
Tue, Oct 6, 2020, 5:29pm (UTC -5)
Miles is yanked through time like a yoyo, but neither he nor the crew seem particularly shocked or disturbed by what should be a traumatic series of events. The technobabble used to sell this phenomenon is also pretty bad, the whole thing playing like a subpar TNG/VOY episode.
Then there's a subplot involving the Romulans. They're on the station to discuss treaties, cloaking devices, the Dominion, and Federation data harvested from the Gamma Quadrant, which should lead to some great, weighty discussions between the Romulans and Feds, but instead we get some pretty terrible scenes in which cartoonish Romulans yell at and/or interview Federation officers.
Everything climaxes with the revelation that the Romulans are plotting to collapse the wormhole. I found their tactics here very silly. Too often DS9 portrays itself as "realistic military science fiction", whilst indulging in strategies which make little sense. Here the Romulans go to absurd lengths to collapse the wormhole, a feat which could have been easily achieved via countless other means.
All the Romulans needed to do was fly a cloaked warbird over to the Gamma Quadrant, and blow the wormhole from that end while nobody's watching. Or drop some torpedoes while inside the wormhole, rigging them for delayed detonation so you can escape safely.
If you want to be more sneaky: buy a nondescript alien ship, fill it with explosives, put a cloaking device on it, rig it for remote control, wait for someone to trigger the wormhole, fly the cloaked remote ship into the wormhole, detonate the ship.
The Romulan Empire is big enough and powerful enough to collapse that wormhole if it wished to. Nothing should be able to stop them, especially at this point in time when the Federation seem to be AWOL.
Given that this episode hinges on the destruction of the wormhole, it would have also been the perfect time for DS9 to clearly explain why the Federation doesn't collapse the thing. This is a hugely important matter which the series just glosses over. This episode should have scrapped the Miles plot, and simply had Romulans ambassadors turn up and demand the wormhole be collapsed, with Sisko arguing otherwise. Structure the episode as a big argument between the Feds, Bajor and the Romulans, with the Romulans arguing for the safety of the Alpha Quadrant (they come with a petition signed by 400 Alpha Quadrant races!), and the Federation siding with Bajor. It's their space, their wormhole, their religious site.
Have some Federation ambassadors agreeing with the Romulan case, and trying to convince the Bajorans, with Sisko doing the opposite. To collapse the temple would be like destroying Jerusalem, the mosques at Mecca or Saint Peter's Basilica, he argues. Maybe the Federation begrudgingly concedes, with the proviso that the Federation boost defenses at the wormhole entrance ASAP.
This stuff needs to be clarified now, in season 3, not at the start of season 6, after the mines go down.
Tue, Dec 8, 2020, 11:17pm (UTC -5)
Tue, Oct 12, 2021, 1:04pm (UTC -5)
Thu, Nov 4, 2021, 9:02pm (UTC -5)
Here, the Romulans and others are worried about the "Alpha Quadrantt". In later episodes, Garak is taking actions to save the entire Alpha Quadrant.
With many such references, it's reasonable to believe the Feds are a major power in this area of the galaxy, as are other regional powers.
Thu, May 19, 2022, 10:00pm (UTC -5)
I'd like to address the alleged issues with the timeline here not working. First of all the O'Brien from the past is suffering from extreme radiation poisoning from his forced jump into the future since they flooded his body with the radiation, this was actually explained during the show. When past O'Brien dies in the future it doesn't actually create a loop where he can't have gone to the future to begin with because he actually dies in the future, he is already there. So the idea that him having died means he can't travel to the future is not a problem. Time is not a constant, time is a variable, it's relative. Once you can accept this you can put your shields down and actually start to enjoy these time travel episodes.
Mon, Jun 13, 2022, 8:09pm (UTC -5)
This is a Cardassian space station for Pete's sake. Given the series writers collective penchant for technobabblee, shouldn't it be called something like a 'gufgul tube' or something? How about calling it a "takud tunnel." Takud is Dukat spelled backwards. And while we speaking of missed opportunities, in all of DS9 they never used the one liner: "I smell an Obsidian odor." I can imagine Garak saying that.
Sun, Aug 21, 2022, 1:27pm (UTC -5)
The one thing I found annoying was the nonchalance with which everyone started treating Brian's "visits" in the future. His "visits" were not of a specific duration, as far as I could tell, so for Bashit and Future Brian to be dawdling around and cracking wise before explaining to Past Brian what transpired was pretty dumb.
I liked Dodo's performance in this ep., too. I'd just about given up on that character so am very glad they've been giving him a more involved role than just being a douche to Quark or yelling at kids for running on the promenaaaaaaaahd.
P.S. The Romulan shoulder pads... - never gets old!! 🤦♂️🤦♂️🤦♂️🤣🤣🤣
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