DS9 Flashback: The Visitor

I am one of the many Deep Space Nine fans who considers "The Visitor" the very best episode of the series. At least, that's how I remembered it; we'll see how other episodes fare as I continue rewatching them. One thing's for sure: the episode itself is as moving as I remember.

It's decades in the future. Jake Sisko is a recluse visited by an aspiring young writer who wants to know why he published so few works. He relates the sad story of his life: losing his father as a teenager... only to then discover his father was not killed, but had become trapped in subspace, forever beyond his reach.

According to the people behind the scenes, they didn't know until the fan reception that they had made an enduring Star Trek classic here. They did like the idea brought to them by outside writer Michael Taylor (who would later join the Voyager writing staff), a story that portrayed familial love in the exceptional and transcendent manner normally reserved for romantic love. They liked how Taylor ran with show runner Ira Steven Behr's suggestion to add a future framing device to the originally chronological tale, coming up with the J.D. Salinger inspired gimmick of a recluse who randomly agrees to give an interview to a high school student who happens to turn up at his house. They all felt that staff writer René Echevarria had done great dialogue punch-up in his rewrite of the script (work which Taylor praised).

But there was some scrambling in prepping the episode that may have distracted them from fully appreciating what they had at the time. Originally, the next episode, "Hippocratic Oath," was meant to be filmed third in the season -- but it heavily featured Chief O'Brien, and Colm Meaney was going to be unavailable for the week. The two scripts were swapped. with the directors kept in the same slots. The O'Brien-light "The Visitor" would be filmed third (but still aired second). This crunched the prep time for both directors, giving David Livingston less time to prepare with this story (and taking the opportunity to direct this classic away from actor Rene Auberjonois).

Then there was the challenge of finding an actor to play old Jake Sisko, when it was decided there was no credible way of aging actor Cirroc Lofton into his 40s and then 70s. That, at least, was a problem handily solved with Star Trek veteran and wonderful character actor Tony Todd. He studied past episodes to try to match his performance to Lofton's, and also drew on some very personal memories. The aunt who'd raised him as a child had passed away only three months before this, and Todd found this script a wonderful opportunity to channel and process those feelings.

Great as Todd is (and he is), Avery Brooks and Cirroc Lofton are every bit as great -- and that's what makes the episode truly work. Lofton first must convey Jake's grief, as every character from Dax to Kira to even Quark make poignant efforts to try to help him move on from the apparent death of his father. Then the real tragedy of the episode is introduced: that it's impossible to move on when the person you're grieving isn't really gone. Meanwhile, Avery Brooks must show Benjamin trying to hold his head high, to be a good father and be strong, begging and pleading for Jake to live his own life.

That story arc is powerful enough to make this an exceptional episode, though there are many other wonderful elements at the margins that make it better still. From the "dark and stormy night" opening to Ben's final, anguished declaration that he's okay now, every moment of this episode is full. Even the few lighter moments work, especially the glimpses we get of the future: Quark gets his moon, Morn takes over the bar, Nog makes captain, and Bashir is wearing the too-perfect high-waisted pants of an old man.

The few criticisms I've heard of this episode seem easy to me to dismiss. Some have said the "it was all a dream" ending undermines what we've just watched. But Benjamin Sisko remembers it all -- and it's a truly painful memory he has to carry, watching his son throw his life away and then ultimately kill himself so that he might live. Others say this story feels close to the Next Generation episode "The Inner Light," it its depiction of an entire life lived in 40-ish minutes. Setting aside the fact that both episodes can be exceptional, there's at least one truly significant difference: here, we know more of the people involved, instead of having a main character surrounded by strangers. (And plenty of the other characters get wonderful small moments in "The Visitor.")

Perhaps the element that nudges this episode to the head of the pack for me is how the act of writing itself is written into the tale. I find pathos in the way Jake sets writing aside for other things in his life. But I also find comfort in the notion that it's "never too late." Jake has written just one novel, but it's regarded as a masterpiece. And at the end of his life, he returns to writing.

Other observations:

• David Livingston really did luck out with the late script swap here. He said in an interview: "'The Visitor' is the best piece of material I've ever been able to direct, in terms of the script."

• This episode was nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation, and was in exceedingly good company with the movies Apollo 13, Toy Story, and 12 Monkeys. All lost to the Babylon 5 episode "The Coming of Shadows."

• It's a bold move for this episode to paraphrase Ferris Bueller's life philosophy to "poke your head up" and "look around every once in a while" so that you don't "miss life." Thoughts of Bueller could have torpedoed the drama in a moment, but the sentiment lands delicately.

• I think it's smart to name Jake's novel a nonsense word like "Anslem," so that the title isn't freighted with extra meaning in this story. (I understand that a tie-in novel would later say that it's Bajoran for "father," which I think makes it too on the nose.)

• Tony Todd isn't the only significant guest star in the episode. Young Melanie, who knocks on his door in the middle of the night, is played by Rachel Robinson, the daughter of Garak actor Andrew Robinson.

• Nog isn't a major character in this episode, though seeing that he made captain just as he'd hoped is a lovely and resonant moment. I call it out because actor Aron Eisenberg passed away just this past weekend at age 50. From the outpouring of love I've seen from Star Trek fans across the internet, it's clear his character was an especially relatable and beloved one.

We'll see if any episode in the back half of Deep Space Nine can knock "The Visitor" off its lofty perch. It's going to be tough. Certainly, it's my favorite episode to this point, above even any Next Generation episode, and it deserves the most enthusastic grade A that I could give.