350. VisionaryFORMULA: All Good Things + Whispers + Coming of Age
WHY WE LIKE IT: That ending is either bold and fearless...
WHY WE DON'T: ...or needlessly disturbing.
REVIEW: A time jumping paradox story set against the political background of Deep Space 9, features the only real appearance of Klingon Intelligence (if not a paradox, at least an oxymoron) trying to spy on the Romulans who make like they're unhappy with the quality of the information on the Dominion they got, but really want to blow up the station and close the Wormhole. They probably have a right to be paranoid, what with the Dominion simulation in The Search excluding them from their plans!
The crux of the story, however, is about O'Brien's life threatening, if fortuitous, time traveling to avoid one disaster after another. Hey, torturing O'Brien always works, though this time, the show takes it a bit far by killing him. Well, killing the O'Brien we've been following for all of the episode (and since Encounter at Farpoin), replacing him with a future self who has a few hours of different memories, an O'Brien slightly out of sync with the universe around him. An extremely strange solution to the paradox, but giving O'Brien a chance to selflessly sacrifice his life for the second time in as many seasons (Whispers being the other). It's all an interesting enough puzzle, with some eye candy when the runabouts race from the exploding station.
The episode is rather dark, but there is some levity as well. Odo going into an elaborate explanation of how he uncovered the Klingon plot just to show Sisko how good he is. Morn getting hit by a dart. Quark assessing damages to specific participants during a bar fight. And even the Romulans can see Odo has a thing for Kira, though she's cruelly blind to it. Nice character moments.
LESSON: If you're going to screw with someone's timeline, make it yours.
REWATCHABILITY - Medium: O'Brien's ultimate fate is strange and off-putting, but it's definitely a tale of self-sacrifice with humor as well as drama.
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