DS9 Flashback: Visionary

Fans of long-running TV series can be hard on episodes of their beloved entertainment. But often, no one is harder on the writers of these shows than the writers themselves. Such is the case with Deep Space Nine's "Visionary" -- a perfectly fine episode from season three that the writers themselves seem not to care for.

A Romulan delegation comes to Deep Space Nine for a Starfleet intelligence briefing on the Dominion. But Romulans being on the station is far from the most unusual thing happening. O'Brien is experiencing time jumps, glimpses of five hours in the future. And what he sees is a series of escalating threats to both himself and the station.

This story was pitched by a school teacher from Texas named Ethan H. Calk. Show runner Ira Steven Behr then gave the idea to a friend, John Shirley, to write the script (which, in the end, was polished by staff writer Ronald Moore). Having this many hands in the mix really isn't unusual for television, and isn't related to why many on staff wound up unsatisfied with the results. According to Behr, the idea felt much more like an episode of The Next Generation than of Deep Space Nine. Although it was centered on O'Brien, the "most human" character -- it wasn't really about him or especially tailored to him. This was a science mystery of the week, a type of story that Behr was trying to steer away from in season three. Some might even argue that they did do this story on The Next Generation -- "Time Squared" also dealt with time travel on an unconventional scale of hours. It still plays out quite differently from "Visionary" (and isn't nearly as good).

Ronald Moore stood up for the episode, feeling it was refreshing to tell a time travel story not bogged down in concerns about "preserving history." I side with him; The Next Generation was off the air by this point, so go ahead and tell the story they might have told but now couldn't. Besides, this story is filled with plenty of fun character moments to leaven the story and keep things from getting too technical. (A great example of steering clear of unnecessary details is when O'Brien interacts with his future self and both declare "I hate temporal mechanics.")

There's plenty of playful fun at O'Brien's expense throughout the episode, from Bashir mocking his deficient fantasy life if all he can hallucinate is a conversation with Quark, to Bashir lamely apologizing in one time jump for having failed to save his life. Other characters get light moments too, particularly Quark (who lies brazenly to the Romulans, wants to profit from O'Brien's trip to the future, and whose dart-throwing technique is a great sight gag) and Kira (whose claim to being "diplomatic" is undermined by a smash cut to her debriefing by the Romulans).

Though it's an O'Brien episode, Odo actually gets a fair amount to do in it. He's taken off guard when the Romulans reveal his secret love for Major Kira. (He's also the object of their xenophobia, which fails to distinguish between Founder and changeling.) He gets to show off his skills during his investigation of the Klingons (and specifically notes he is showing off, to remind Sisko how good he is). He also gets in several good one-liners, including the expected digs at Quark.

The ending of the episode has a surprise twist -- and it's not that a cloaked Romulan warbird is ultimately the cause of O'Brien's time jumps. (Nerdy fans of Star Trek will suss this out the moment that a mysterious "quantum singularity" is mentioned, recalling when Next Gen taught us of their use in Romulan engineering.) No, the twist is when the "O'Brien we know" dies, and his future self takes his place. It was an idea Ronald Moore introduced in his final rewrite, leading to a neat existential discussion at the end of just whose life it is O'Brien is now living.

Other observations:

• There's nothing like a classic "Vertigo zoom" to convey disorientation. The famous camera technique is employed here when O'Brien flashes forward for the first time.

• The bar fight is staged pretty well. Scenes like this don't always get enough extras, or enough fight choreography. It feels convincingly out of control.

• O'Brien and Kira have actually been through a few adventures together. There's a nice acknowledgement of their friendship when she shows up in the Infirmary with a report for Sisko, but first stops to ask how the chief is doing.

• Klingons are so often portrayed in the same limited way that it's fun when they shake things up. The idea of Klingon covert intelligence operations is a pretty sharp turn from their normal values of honor and combat.

It's probably fair to say this wasn't the most "Deep Space Nine-y" of Deep Space Nine episodes. But it's one I enjoyed a fair amount. I give "Visionary" a B+.