Wow...do you have the other half of this amulet?
I find Spock's Brain to be fun cheesy schlock; not nearly as unwatchable as Profit & Lace, Threshold, Author Author, Dear Doctor, the second Fair Haven episode...
My DS9 Rewatch Odyssey
- Thread starter ananta
- Start date
Wow...do you have the other half of this amulet?
I find Spock's Brain to be fun cheesy schlock; not nearly as unwatchable as Profit & Lace, Threshold, Author Author, Dear Doctor, the second Fair Haven episode...
What do you mean?
I just very much relate.
“TIME’S ORPHAN”
They grow up so fast, don’t they?
Right off the bat, “Time’s Orphan” has one big thing going for it—namely, it’s not “Profit and Lace”! Indeed, pretty much ANY episode would seem like a masterpiece after that horribly misjudged monstrosity. However, be that as it may, “Time’s Orphan” is far from a classic. In fact, it’s a deeply flawed episode that, unfortunately, continues one of the poorest run of episodes the show ever had.
Something about “Time’s Orphan” reminds me of those soapy storylines TNG would do in its middle years—you know, one of those sincere yet dull dramas that always got paired with a forced technobabble B-plot in which the Enterprise would almost be destroyed by some kind of anomaly or tech malfunction only to be saved in the nick of time. I’m sad to say the plot is fairly generic, especially by DS9 standards, and, while the actors give it their all, the beats are predicable and somewhat tired.
On the plus side, it’s one of the only episodes that actually puts O’Brien front and centre as a family man. While the Sisko/Jake relationship was one of DS9’s greatest triumphs, it’s sad that we never got to see Miles interact all that much with his daughter. That feels like a missed opportunity in many respects. In theory, it should have been delightful watching Molly grow up over the course of TNG and DS9. Strangely, however, following an inexplicable Alexander-like growth spurt of between TNG’s fifth and sixth seasons, Molly didn’t seem to grow up at all after that. I was astonished to see that actress Hana Hatae was nearly ten years old when this episode was filmed. Because, frankly, Molly still seems to speak and behave like a four or five year old. I find it inexplicable. As cute as she is, little Molly also seemed incredibly—I don’t know—vacant to me...If I’d been her dad I’d have been making sure she regularly received one of those anti-Changeling blood screenings. Anyway, she barely had more than a handful of lines across DS9’s seven seasons, which was probably for the best, but it did make Molly seem like less of a character and more of a prop.
In spite of her background presence throughout the show’s run, I had no real emotional connection to little Molly, so I wasn’t overly invested in the events of this episode. Of course, I do have a soul, so it was heart-wrenching to see the O’Brien’s grief at losing her through that random time portal. It goes without saying that Colm Meaney and Rosalind Chao do a great job throughout the episode, even when the material is pretty bad. The basic premise, in which they end up with an older, feral version of Molly (who has spent an entire decade alone on an uninhabited world) is fine, but the way it’s executed is deeply flawed. First of all, Molly stumbles on (and promptly into) what is essentially a mute Guardian of Forever, which treated as an irrelevant passing curiosity when it ought to have been one of the greatest archaeological and scientific finds of the decade. I really wanted to know more about the portal and who created it, but the whole thing was basically a MacGuffin and gets sidelined immediately.
The rest of the episode focuses on the O’Briens’ attempts to tame their traumatised Tarzan-esque daughter. Again, I didn’t feel particularly emotionally invested in spite of the earnest performances (and guest star Michelle Krusiac does a decent job as the older Molly). It all seemed a little obvious and flat, and I found it hard to believe that although Molly had been on her own for ten years, she’d almost completely lost the ability to use language or to connect with her parents. Apparently, the writers consulted a psychologist so maybe it is an accurate depiction, who can say.
The problem is—first of all, that there are multiple problems. Right at the start, it’s established that they can keep trying to reach back in time to get young-Molly back. This is dismissed outright because Keiko decides that they “don’t have the right” to take away the ten years Molly spent on that planet. What the actual heck? Those were ten years of cruel isolation and trauma! Her daughter suffered ten years of torture and yet Keiko doesn’t think she has an obligation to do whatever she could to spare her girl from that horrendous, psychologically shattering experience?! This makes Keiko a terrible parent and a terrible human being in my book. Indeed, this episode gives plenty ammunition for those who find Keiko a rather unpleasant character; from her overt hatred of poor Chester and her rather mean fat-shaming of her husband by the time the opening credits have even rolled. But that’s the least of our problems here.
It’s clear that adult-Molly is suffering terrible PTSD, and who can blame her? What doesn’t make any sense to me is Miles and Keiko’s absolute refusal to allow her to receive the specialist care she so clearly NEEDS. “We can’t let them take her away!” Keiko whines incessantly. Excuse me, dear, I very much doubt that a Federation therapeutic facility would be akin to the horrors of Victorian Bedlam. I think we can assume it would be more likely to be a luxurious retreat where she can receive the specialist therapy and care she needs in order to heal. Why the hell are the O’Briens’ acting as though this is an unspeakable evil; a fate so bad they’d rather send her back to the past to SPEND THE REST OF LIFE COMPLETELY ALONE! In other words, their solution to curing Molly’s trauma is sending her right back TO the trauma. This ending has always bugged me big-style because, despite the earnest performances, it makes no sense.
I mean is that how families should react when the going gets tough and there’s no easy solution to a problem? Instead of doing whatever it took to heal her, they just wash their hands of the situation? I don’t see how this would be much different to giving up on a teenager with a drug habit by letting them go live out the rest of their sure-to-be-short life in a crack den. I mean, just because they WANT drugs doesn’t mean drugs are in their best interest! Sending Molly back to live out the rest of her life completely and utterly alone without any human contact was a heinous act of cruelty.
Of course, it really just comes down to terrible writing, which we’ve been getting a lot of at this point in the series. While obviously in a quandary, the O’Briens make a number of dumb moves, including taking Molly to the holosuite and turning off the program while still inside the holosuite. Clearly she wasn’t going to react well to that in any event. In fact, what was stopping them from actually going back to the planet with her and staying there for a while as they rebuilt their bond with her and helped her to heal? Nope, why do that when you can just throw her back in time so she can escape the Federation’s evidently evil psychological caregivers. There is admittedly something sweet about older-Molly finding young-Molly and sending her home even if it’s hardly worth the past forty minutes of nonsensical melodrama.
What saves this episode from a score of 3 is the engaging and rather adorable B-plot featuring baby Kirayoshi and Worf eager to prove his fitness as a father to Jadzia. It’s sweet, nicely performed, and also very bittersweet given the impending events of the season finale. It was also a joy to see Kira interact with Yoshi for perhaps the first time since he was born. There’s not a whole lot to the B-plot, but it was fun to watch, and about the episode’s only saving grace. Rating: 4
They grow up so fast, don’t they?
Right off the bat, “Time’s Orphan” has one big thing going for it—namely, it’s not “Profit and Lace”! Indeed, pretty much ANY episode would seem like a masterpiece after that horribly misjudged monstrosity. However, be that as it may, “Time’s Orphan” is far from a classic. In fact, it’s a deeply flawed episode that, unfortunately, continues one of the poorest run of episodes the show ever had.
Something about “Time’s Orphan” reminds me of those soapy storylines TNG would do in its middle years—you know, one of those sincere yet dull dramas that always got paired with a forced technobabble B-plot in which the Enterprise would almost be destroyed by some kind of anomaly or tech malfunction only to be saved in the nick of time. I’m sad to say the plot is fairly generic, especially by DS9 standards, and, while the actors give it their all, the beats are predicable and somewhat tired.
On the plus side, it’s one of the only episodes that actually puts O’Brien front and centre as a family man. While the Sisko/Jake relationship was one of DS9’s greatest triumphs, it’s sad that we never got to see Miles interact all that much with his daughter. That feels like a missed opportunity in many respects. In theory, it should have been delightful watching Molly grow up over the course of TNG and DS9. Strangely, however, following an inexplicable Alexander-like growth spurt of between TNG’s fifth and sixth seasons, Molly didn’t seem to grow up at all after that. I was astonished to see that actress Hana Hatae was nearly ten years old when this episode was filmed. Because, frankly, Molly still seems to speak and behave like a four or five year old. I find it inexplicable. As cute as she is, little Molly also seemed incredibly—I don’t know—vacant to me...If I’d been her dad I’d have been making sure she regularly received one of those anti-Changeling blood screenings. Anyway, she barely had more than a handful of lines across DS9’s seven seasons, which was probably for the best, but it did make Molly seem like less of a character and more of a prop.
In spite of her background presence throughout the show’s run, I had no real emotional connection to little Molly, so I wasn’t overly invested in the events of this episode. Of course, I do have a soul, so it was heart-wrenching to see the O’Brien’s grief at losing her through that random time portal. It goes without saying that Colm Meaney and Rosalind Chao do a great job throughout the episode, even when the material is pretty bad. The basic premise, in which they end up with an older, feral version of Molly (who has spent an entire decade alone on an uninhabited world) is fine, but the way it’s executed is deeply flawed. First of all, Molly stumbles on (and promptly into) what is essentially a mute Guardian of Forever, which treated as an irrelevant passing curiosity when it ought to have been one of the greatest archaeological and scientific finds of the decade. I really wanted to know more about the portal and who created it, but the whole thing was basically a MacGuffin and gets sidelined immediately.
The rest of the episode focuses on the O’Briens’ attempts to tame their traumatised Tarzan-esque daughter. Again, I didn’t feel particularly emotionally invested in spite of the earnest performances (and guest star Michelle Krusiac does a decent job as the older Molly). It all seemed a little obvious and flat, and I found it hard to believe that although Molly had been on her own for ten years, she’d almost completely lost the ability to use language or to connect with her parents. Apparently, the writers consulted a psychologist so maybe it is an accurate depiction, who can say.
The problem is—first of all, that there are multiple problems. Right at the start, it’s established that they can keep trying to reach back in time to get young-Molly back. This is dismissed outright because Keiko decides that they “don’t have the right” to take away the ten years Molly spent on that planet. What the actual heck? Those were ten years of cruel isolation and trauma! Her daughter suffered ten years of torture and yet Keiko doesn’t think she has an obligation to do whatever she could to spare her girl from that horrendous, psychologically shattering experience?! This makes Keiko a terrible parent and a terrible human being in my book. Indeed, this episode gives plenty ammunition for those who find Keiko a rather unpleasant character; from her overt hatred of poor Chester and her rather mean fat-shaming of her husband by the time the opening credits have even rolled. But that’s the least of our problems here.
It’s clear that adult-Molly is suffering terrible PTSD, and who can blame her? What doesn’t make any sense to me is Miles and Keiko’s absolute refusal to allow her to receive the specialist care she so clearly NEEDS. “We can’t let them take her away!” Keiko whines incessantly. Excuse me, dear, I very much doubt that a Federation therapeutic facility would be akin to the horrors of Victorian Bedlam. I think we can assume it would be more likely to be a luxurious retreat where she can receive the specialist therapy and care she needs in order to heal. Why the hell are the O’Briens’ acting as though this is an unspeakable evil; a fate so bad they’d rather send her back to the past to SPEND THE REST OF LIFE COMPLETELY ALONE! In other words, their solution to curing Molly’s trauma is sending her right back TO the trauma. This ending has always bugged me big-style because, despite the earnest performances, it makes no sense.
I mean is that how families should react when the going gets tough and there’s no easy solution to a problem? Instead of doing whatever it took to heal her, they just wash their hands of the situation? I don’t see how this would be much different to giving up on a teenager with a drug habit by letting them go live out the rest of their sure-to-be-short life in a crack den. I mean, just because they WANT drugs doesn’t mean drugs are in their best interest! Sending Molly back to live out the rest of her life completely and utterly alone without any human contact was a heinous act of cruelty.
Of course, it really just comes down to terrible writing, which we’ve been getting a lot of at this point in the series. While obviously in a quandary, the O’Briens make a number of dumb moves, including taking Molly to the holosuite and turning off the program while still inside the holosuite. Clearly she wasn’t going to react well to that in any event. In fact, what was stopping them from actually going back to the planet with her and staying there for a while as they rebuilt their bond with her and helped her to heal? Nope, why do that when you can just throw her back in time so she can escape the Federation’s evidently evil psychological caregivers. There is admittedly something sweet about older-Molly finding young-Molly and sending her home even if it’s hardly worth the past forty minutes of nonsensical melodrama.
What saves this episode from a score of 3 is the engaging and rather adorable B-plot featuring baby Kirayoshi and Worf eager to prove his fitness as a father to Jadzia. It’s sweet, nicely performed, and also very bittersweet given the impending events of the season finale. It was also a joy to see Kira interact with Yoshi for perhaps the first time since he was born. There’s not a whole lot to the B-plot, but it was fun to watch, and about the episode’s only saving grace. Rating: 4
Last edited:
DS9 has a lot of strengths but the O'Brien family dynamics is not one of them. Very rarely do I find good family interactions in Star Trek, but this episode manages to make the sheer amount of ignorance in child rearing I encounter in the general public seem like master's level child specialists in comparison to how Molly is treated. I can't stand it and can't watch it, because it plays in to all the horrible tropes of psychological care, poor parenting and poor family dynamics.
You're so right, this is a terrible episode. Plus why wasn't Keiko using the same reasoning about Miles when he went back from the virtual prison." We can't suppress these memories, we would be erasing twenty years of virtual existence!"... The very premise is horrible, they had the possibility to bring her at an earlier time but refused. I was also shocked that they turned off the holosuite while she was inside. Talk about a traumatic experience!
About the holosuite, why can Nog live there for days, weeks even but not Keiko's and Miles's child?
It's funny that Odo says "On stun!" Are their phasers set to kill by default?
About the holosuite, why can Nog live there for days, weeks even but not Keiko's and Miles's child?
It's funny that Odo says "On stun!" Are their phasers set to kill by default?
Great review, as usual.
While I agree that O'Brien's family might seem like just a plot device for the series as a whole, the relationship of Miles and Keiko was anything but. I've found that it's possibly the truest representation of a marriage on tv. Particularly since I'm married. (10 years in November.)
The episode does have a lot of plot holes, and it is VERY glaringly obvious the time portal was just shrugged off. For the episode, I can let it go because the focus is on the O'Briens. But on repeated viewings of the series, it retroactively hurts the episode.
(Speaking of the portal, is it a proto-Guardian of Forever? Like a prototype. Or dare I say it... an offspring of the Guardian, since it also living? Since the Prophets live outside time, could the Guardian and this portal have been created by them? So many questions...)
Colm and Rosalind are excellent actors, and really sell this episode, despite it being not that great.
Worf's subplot was a lot of fun. Gung, gung, gung! (I dare anyone who watches this to try NOT to go 'gung, gung, gung' a couple times...)
I'm a bit more kind to this episode because of the acting, 'gung, gung, gung', and how it does tug at my heartstrings because I love the O'Briens and I love kids.
I give it a 5.
While I agree that O'Brien's family might seem like just a plot device for the series as a whole, the relationship of Miles and Keiko was anything but. I've found that it's possibly the truest representation of a marriage on tv. Particularly since I'm married. (10 years in November.)
The episode does have a lot of plot holes, and it is VERY glaringly obvious the time portal was just shrugged off. For the episode, I can let it go because the focus is on the O'Briens. But on repeated viewings of the series, it retroactively hurts the episode.
(Speaking of the portal, is it a proto-Guardian of Forever? Like a prototype. Or dare I say it... an offspring of the Guardian, since it also living? Since the Prophets live outside time, could the Guardian and this portal have been created by them? So many questions...)
Colm and Rosalind are excellent actors, and really sell this episode, despite it being not that great.
Worf's subplot was a lot of fun. Gung, gung, gung! (I dare anyone who watches this to try NOT to go 'gung, gung, gung' a couple times...)
I'm a bit more kind to this episode because of the acting, 'gung, gung, gung', and how it does tug at my heartstrings because I love the O'Briens and I love kids.
I give it a 5.
Very sad episode. We've spent Star Trek's entire existence going on about how much better the poor and afflicted are treated in the Federation... Paradise... and now that's not as good for Molly as a primitive planet in complete isolation from other humans? The B plot isn't that great either. I say it gets a 3.
Probably standard procedure to double-check that the weapons are set on stun before you go to use them. Like checking whether a gun is loaded when you pick it up.
Didn’t want to rewatch this one...as the review points out, the parents’ responses just didn’t make sense emotionally. The whole story felt like a poorly written filler episode.
Hana Hatae recalled that filming the picnic was interrupted when a rattlesnake was spotted in the grass very close to the scene. A park ranger was brought in to remove it.
There seems to be an unwritten rule in Trek that happy family times cannot last longer than 2 minutes!
Hana Hatae recalled that filming the picnic was interrupted when a rattlesnake was spotted in the grass very close to the scene. A park ranger was brought in to remove it.
There seems to be an unwritten rule in Trek that happy family times cannot last longer than 2 minutes!
Last edited:
Too often Trek skates by on popular science and folk psychology. The idea that people might be taking its take on the scientific world drives me to plex.
“THE SOUND OF HER VOICE”
“Get that damn coffin away from me, Worf. It’s making me strangely nervous...”
This is an episode I tend to forget even exists until I come to it in a series rewatch. It’s a fairly unmemorable hour, and one that ultimately fails to live up to its potential—but at least it’s a great deal more enjoyable than the three steaming piles of Tribble poo that precede it. Praise be to the Prophets for small mercies!
The basic premise is fine; the Defiant crew must keep a stranded captain company over the comm line as they charge to her rescue, while she, in turn, helps them deal with some of their psychological “stuff”. Debra Wilson deserves credit for creating a vivid and engaging character even though she’s nothing but a disembodied voice throughout. It’s an episode that would likely have fallen completely flat on its face if Wilson’s performance hadn’t been as compelling. I do think it’s rather funny, however, that Cusak is slowly running out of oxygen yet she spends the entire episode yapping away to the crew ROUND THE CLOCK FOR SIX DAYS—so much so that they even have to take shifts speaking to her. Just how much talk does one woman have in her?! It’s quite funny, but I know people like that—extreme extroverts who, though often the loveliest of people, are nevertheless absolutely exhausting.
The character vignettes with Lisa and the crew are decent, if perfunctory. Indeed, the characterisation is a bit hit and miss on the whole. It reminded me a little of “Starship Down”, which featured a handful character-driven moments for the crew, but none of them were really that interesting or insightful. Most effective here is the scene between Miles and Lisa, where Miles admits that the war has got him feeling insecure and fearful of losing his friends and comrades—although I do take issue with his speech at the funeral, as I’ll explain in a bit. The Sisko/Kasidy scenes are less successful. Although I love the pairing, these scenes are just awkward and contrived. In my view, it would have been more effective if Lisa had helped Sisko see that his uneasiness over Kasidy being on the ship stemmed from the trauma of losing Jennifer aboard the Saratoga. That may have lent the scenes more emotional weight. The scenes with Bashir are similarly underwhelming and contain one of the most cringeworthy act-bridging “cliff-hangers” in the show’s history—specifically, the moment where Lisa pretends someone has appeared and “eaten her” simply to get Julian’s attention. It wouldn’t have been as bad if it had been played as a gag and not a moment of false drama with the customary orchestral swell as the scene fades to black. It’s a cheat, and fairly annoying.
The episode’s closing twist is, frankly, rather pointless. It adds nothing to the episode...other than plot holes. It was fairly clear to me all along that there would be some kind of twist at the end of the episode, and I suspected the Defiant probably wouldn’t reach Lisa in time to save her. But the gratuitous time travel element was a bit of a head-scratcher; a half-baked gimmick laden with technobabble. In my opinion, it would have been much stronger if we’d learned earlier in the episode that Lisa was from the past. First of all, it beggars belief that the crew wouldn’t have looked up Cusak and her ship immediately. I mean, it’s the first thing I’d do, not least just to be able to see what she looks like and put a face to the name. Also, given the sheer amount of interaction between Lisa and the crew, I find it impossible to believe that certain discrepancies arise didn’t arise to indicate the time gulf. Just little hints or references would have been enough to raise questions. I think I’d have enjoyed this episode more if the crew had picked up on the clues and gradually sussed what was going on.
Indeed, if the timey-wimey revelation had been incorporated earlier in the episode it would have been heart-wrenching to see the crew realise that they were actually talking to a dead woman. Perhaps they’d have to weigh up whether or not to tell her the truth; namely, that they can’t rescue her because she’s already dead. I feel that would have made for a more dramatically satisfying and moving story.
As with last week, I actually found the B-plot, slight though it is, more enjoyable than the main plot. It’s fun seeing Jake “apprentice” himself to Quark in the hopes of understanding the criminal mind and improving his writing. Quark’s attempts to get Odo off his tail by exploiting his relationship with Kira recall the time he did the same thing with Kira and Bareil back in the second season’s “Shadowplay”. The twist, where Odo decides to let Quark off the hook and carry out his “extra-legal” transaction is surprisingly cute and shows just how much the relationship between the two has grown over the past six years. That, for me, was more interesting character growth than the laboured scenes on the Defiant.
Onto the ominous final scene. I’m rather mixed on this. While I like the idea of death making people realise how much they ought to value life, and each other, O’Brien’s speech about the crew drifting apart didn’t ring true. It’s been a somber, bleak season, in spite of the frequent comedy (both good and bad), yet I’ve seen no indication at all that the characters are any less close. Indeed, from what I’ve read, shared trauma and stress usually create a much stronger bond between people. O’Brien is still besties with Bashir and his wife and kids are now back on the station. In terms of other relationships—well, rather like Geordi on TNG, whose sole friendship seemed to be with Data, O’Brien never seemed particularly close to any of the rest of the cast in the first place (although he did have the shared history on the Enterprise with Worf). From where I’m sitting, the crew actually seem more cohesive and bonded than ever. Kira and Odo are now in love, Worf and Dax’s marriage has become ever stronger, and even Quark has benefited from softening attitudes toward him. Like some of the rest of the episode, this characterisation felt less natural and more forced and contrived. That goes for the none-too-subtle foreshadowing of a certain character’s death in the following episode.
Although functional and engaging, this is far from Ron Moore’s finest writing effort (although it’s a thousand times better than “Valiant”). I suspect it was a late-season effort written at breakneck speed to meet deadlines and I stand by my assumption that the writers had clearly burned themselves out by this point. That’s certainly a danger of peaking too early in the season. With regard to “The Sound of Her Voice”, just a little rewriting could have created a more cohesive and genuinely affecting episode; one in which the emotional beats felt natural rather than contrived to fit the plot. Rating: 6
“Get that damn coffin away from me, Worf. It’s making me strangely nervous...”
This is an episode I tend to forget even exists until I come to it in a series rewatch. It’s a fairly unmemorable hour, and one that ultimately fails to live up to its potential—but at least it’s a great deal more enjoyable than the three steaming piles of Tribble poo that precede it. Praise be to the Prophets for small mercies!
The basic premise is fine; the Defiant crew must keep a stranded captain company over the comm line as they charge to her rescue, while she, in turn, helps them deal with some of their psychological “stuff”. Debra Wilson deserves credit for creating a vivid and engaging character even though she’s nothing but a disembodied voice throughout. It’s an episode that would likely have fallen completely flat on its face if Wilson’s performance hadn’t been as compelling. I do think it’s rather funny, however, that Cusak is slowly running out of oxygen yet she spends the entire episode yapping away to the crew ROUND THE CLOCK FOR SIX DAYS—so much so that they even have to take shifts speaking to her. Just how much talk does one woman have in her?! It’s quite funny, but I know people like that—extreme extroverts who, though often the loveliest of people, are nevertheless absolutely exhausting.
The character vignettes with Lisa and the crew are decent, if perfunctory. Indeed, the characterisation is a bit hit and miss on the whole. It reminded me a little of “Starship Down”, which featured a handful character-driven moments for the crew, but none of them were really that interesting or insightful. Most effective here is the scene between Miles and Lisa, where Miles admits that the war has got him feeling insecure and fearful of losing his friends and comrades—although I do take issue with his speech at the funeral, as I’ll explain in a bit. The Sisko/Kasidy scenes are less successful. Although I love the pairing, these scenes are just awkward and contrived. In my view, it would have been more effective if Lisa had helped Sisko see that his uneasiness over Kasidy being on the ship stemmed from the trauma of losing Jennifer aboard the Saratoga. That may have lent the scenes more emotional weight. The scenes with Bashir are similarly underwhelming and contain one of the most cringeworthy act-bridging “cliff-hangers” in the show’s history—specifically, the moment where Lisa pretends someone has appeared and “eaten her” simply to get Julian’s attention. It wouldn’t have been as bad if it had been played as a gag and not a moment of false drama with the customary orchestral swell as the scene fades to black. It’s a cheat, and fairly annoying.
The episode’s closing twist is, frankly, rather pointless. It adds nothing to the episode...other than plot holes. It was fairly clear to me all along that there would be some kind of twist at the end of the episode, and I suspected the Defiant probably wouldn’t reach Lisa in time to save her. But the gratuitous time travel element was a bit of a head-scratcher; a half-baked gimmick laden with technobabble. In my opinion, it would have been much stronger if we’d learned earlier in the episode that Lisa was from the past. First of all, it beggars belief that the crew wouldn’t have looked up Cusak and her ship immediately. I mean, it’s the first thing I’d do, not least just to be able to see what she looks like and put a face to the name. Also, given the sheer amount of interaction between Lisa and the crew, I find it impossible to believe that certain discrepancies arise didn’t arise to indicate the time gulf. Just little hints or references would have been enough to raise questions. I think I’d have enjoyed this episode more if the crew had picked up on the clues and gradually sussed what was going on.
Indeed, if the timey-wimey revelation had been incorporated earlier in the episode it would have been heart-wrenching to see the crew realise that they were actually talking to a dead woman. Perhaps they’d have to weigh up whether or not to tell her the truth; namely, that they can’t rescue her because she’s already dead. I feel that would have made for a more dramatically satisfying and moving story.
As with last week, I actually found the B-plot, slight though it is, more enjoyable than the main plot. It’s fun seeing Jake “apprentice” himself to Quark in the hopes of understanding the criminal mind and improving his writing. Quark’s attempts to get Odo off his tail by exploiting his relationship with Kira recall the time he did the same thing with Kira and Bareil back in the second season’s “Shadowplay”. The twist, where Odo decides to let Quark off the hook and carry out his “extra-legal” transaction is surprisingly cute and shows just how much the relationship between the two has grown over the past six years. That, for me, was more interesting character growth than the laboured scenes on the Defiant.
Onto the ominous final scene. I’m rather mixed on this. While I like the idea of death making people realise how much they ought to value life, and each other, O’Brien’s speech about the crew drifting apart didn’t ring true. It’s been a somber, bleak season, in spite of the frequent comedy (both good and bad), yet I’ve seen no indication at all that the characters are any less close. Indeed, from what I’ve read, shared trauma and stress usually create a much stronger bond between people. O’Brien is still besties with Bashir and his wife and kids are now back on the station. In terms of other relationships—well, rather like Geordi on TNG, whose sole friendship seemed to be with Data, O’Brien never seemed particularly close to any of the rest of the cast in the first place (although he did have the shared history on the Enterprise with Worf). From where I’m sitting, the crew actually seem more cohesive and bonded than ever. Kira and Odo are now in love, Worf and Dax’s marriage has become ever stronger, and even Quark has benefited from softening attitudes toward him. Like some of the rest of the episode, this characterisation felt less natural and more forced and contrived. That goes for the none-too-subtle foreshadowing of a certain character’s death in the following episode.
Although functional and engaging, this is far from Ron Moore’s finest writing effort (although it’s a thousand times better than “Valiant”). I suspect it was a late-season effort written at breakneck speed to meet deadlines and I stand by my assumption that the writers had clearly burned themselves out by this point. That’s certainly a danger of peaking too early in the season. With regard to “The Sound of Her Voice”, just a little rewriting could have created a more cohesive and genuinely affecting episode; one in which the emotional beats felt natural rather than contrived to fit the plot. Rating: 6
Last edited:
Very enjoyable review as usual. The episode as you said demands a lot of suspension of disbelief but once you've moved past that, it's an entertaining one although not a memorable one. Sometimes I wonder if the initial Idea was to announce Jadzia's death, IOW Mile's speech and they went from there.
Very thoughtful review. I also enjoyed the B plot with Odo giving Quark a pass… Kira’s flapper costume for the Paris holosuite date… Morn getting spun around on his barstool. I agree about the contrived time dilation, and that Lisa should have saved her oxygen instead of constant yakking--and that O’Brien’s speech about the crew growing apart felt wrong.
Could have been interesting to hear Lisa talking with Jadzia, Kira or Kasidy.
Especially liked the suggested change of the crew figuring out what happened, and "Perhaps they’d have to weigh up whether or not to tell her the truth; namely, that they can’t rescue her because she’s already dead. I feel that would have made for a more dramatically satisfying and moving story."
Could have been interesting to hear Lisa talking with Jadzia, Kira or Kasidy.
Especially liked the suggested change of the crew figuring out what happened, and "Perhaps they’d have to weigh up whether or not to tell her the truth; namely, that they can’t rescue her because she’s already dead. I feel that would have made for a more dramatically satisfying and moving story."
Last edited:
- This gave me chills. In a good way. I immediately imagined TSoHV to be more like Voyager's "Eye of the Needle", with a series of discoveries leading up to the revelation that Cusack's dead and then how to progress from there - A fantastic idea, Ananta, and another engaging and thought-provoking review!
I can hear Worf's reaction to the reveal: "So that means we don't have to deplete our weapon's reserve? Good!". 
Great review as always.
I can actually suspend my disbelief here more because of Debra Wilson's performance. Winrich Kolbe actually had her do her scenes away from the cast the entire time, which was brilliant.
I do agree that the real growth of character was Odo here in the B story. I thought it was such a nice gesture and the best part is Quark has no idea!
I would actually rate this one a 7.
I can actually suspend my disbelief here more because of Debra Wilson's performance. Winrich Kolbe actually had her do her scenes away from the cast the entire time, which was brilliant.
I do agree that the real growth of character was Odo here in the B story. I thought it was such a nice gesture and the best part is Quark has no idea!
I would actually rate this one a 7.
I believe Odo was all set to arrest Quark but what Quark said to Jake in the hangar struck a chord in Odo and made him change his mind. It would have been interesting if we had found out that Quark knew Odo was there and that it was his final touch to his manipulating Odo which is what he was doing the whole time.
