What are your controversial Star Trek opinions?

[at Quark's]

Something I find disturbing about The Visitor is how Adult Jake completely flushes his life down the drain because he lost his father when he was a boy- even lost Sisko comments on that.

Granted, it's probably harder to give that closure in your life when your father randomly keeps popping up every five years or so and doesn't age, than when he'd actually died.

 

[Quinton]

Something I find disturbing about The Visitor is how Adult Jake completely washes his life down the drain because he lost his father when he was a boy- even lost Sisko comments on that.

Granted, it's probably harder to give that closure in your life when your father randomly keeps popping up every five years or so and doesn't age, than when he'd actually died.

Yeah, definitely. I had the same thought recently, and I figured, well… for all my issues with the episode, I can kind of get why such a haunting recurring event might throw somebody’s entire life course sideways.

 

[Nerys Myk]

If they had wanted to go to a Beatles concert, THEN I would have judged them. Gah. One of the most overrated groups in the history of music.

Hey, I’m a major fan, but I’m not even sure I would want to attend a Beatles concert at height of Beatlemania. The band was being drowned out by screaming teenagers and even the Beatles could barely hear what was being played. I can’t imagine it would be a good “date night”.

Overrated? Well, let’s just say everyone is entitled to an opinion.

 

[Farscape One]

Yeah, it feels forced to me. The framing device doesn’t work. I don’t find Old Jake’s conversations with the aspiring author to be, well, particularly inspired.

Not growing up with a father figure, I used to assume “The Visitor” didn’t hit for me the same way it does for others because I lack a point of real relation. And that might still be part of it, certainly. But on my most recent rewatch, my takeaway was that it’s got the potential for a good story. It doesn’t get there. A deep reworking of that framer would have helped.

Also, I realize there’s nothing that could have been done about it, but what a weird timeline this Jake grew up in - the Dominion never actually attacks outright? The Klingons keep being bullies for years and years, and it all blows over re: the Gamma Quadrant? An odd potentiality! Taken on its own, “The Visitor” would suggest to any first-time DS9 viewer that there’s really not much to worry about, going forward. I know that’s getting unnecessarily meta, but it kind of hurts my head, haha.

Obviously, I’m aware that I am in the slimmest of minorities on this one. Most adore the episode. I’ve only ever met one other person who dislikes it. Heck, I’m not even sure I dislike it, so much as I find it to be decidedly average.

I never had a father, either. Though my grandfather was very much a father figure in my life until he passed when I was a high school senior. (It was barely a year after this episode first aired.) But it still completely shatters me every time I watch "THE VISITOR".

Why? Because it's about loss and grief. Everyone either has lost or will lose someone that means a great deal to them. It's a universal thing. Everybody will deal with that pain in different ways, but it's there. And some people simply never fully recover from it. I still miss Pops, almost 30 years later. Same with my grandmother, whom I was especially close to. A week before this Thanksgiving will be 20 years... and there are times when it still hurts.

I can't speak for everyone, but I know I can't be the only one who thinks this... if there were a way to have them come back or I could spend a bit more time with them, I would do it. This is what Jake is doing: giving his younger self a chance to have his father back for more of his life.

And because this is such a univeral thing the episode touches on, and how it was done at the right time of the show (after 3 full years, we got to see just how close this father and son were, so this feels earned) it's why it will always be among the very best of not just the franchise, but in all of television.

Something I find disturbing about The Visitor is how Adult Jake completely flushes his life down the drain because he lost his father when he was a boy- even lost Sisko comments on that.

Granted, it's probably harder to give that closure in your life when your father randomly keeps popping up every five years or so and doesn't age, than when he'd actually died.

Some people just are not able to move on from such a deep loss. It's sad, but it also adds another layer of truth to the episode.

 

[Firebird]

One of the most overrated groups in the history of music.

Well, that's certainly an opinion. A historically incorrect opinion, considering the long reach they've had in inspiring countless musicians and artists since the 60's. But, certainly an opinion.

Just because you don't like The Beatles doesn't diminish the impact they've had and continue to have on the world.

 

[Farscape One]

I'm not a Beatles fan, either. But I do respect the mark they made in music. Same as I feel about the Rolling Stones.

 

[ananta]

Something I find disturbing about The Visitor is how Adult Jake completely flushes his life down the drain because he lost his father when he was a boy- even lost Sisko comments on that.

Granted, it's probably harder to give that closure in your life when your father randomly keeps popping up every five years or so and doesn't age, than when he'd actually died.

That’s the tragedy, Jake just cannot move on with his life. I mean, it’s devastating losing a parent or any loved one, but it would surely be impossible to move on when they’re not actually dead but stuck in limbo, so close yet apart, and you feel that if you try hard enough you have it in your power to free them.

It’s just an utterly heartbreaking episode, easily the most emotional, heart-wrenching hour of Trek ever made for me. It doesn’t matter how many times I’ve seen it, when I come up to it on a rewatch I have to steel myself because it’s impossible not to cry…and I mean ugly cry.

 

[cooleddie74]

I feel the way about Zeppelin that some here feel about the Beatles and Stones. Not my cup of British Invasion tea, but damn, do I like some of their stuff and a lot and I respect the way they helped changed popular music.

Just don't expect to see Zeppelin in my Top 5 favorite bands.

 

[Nerys Myk]

I feel the way about Zeppelin that some here feel about the Beatles and Stones. Not my cup of British Invasion tea, but damn, do I like some of their stuff and a lot and I respect the way they helped changed popular music.

Just don't expect to see Zeppelin in my Top 5 favorite bands.

I think by the time Zeppelin showed the invasion was over and it became an occupation.

 

[cooleddie74]

Give me Paul Revere and the Raiders over Zeppelin any day.

 

[fireproof78]

Give me Paul Revere and the Raiders over Zeppelin any day.

Idaho representan'!

 

[cooleddie74]

"In a little town in Idaho, way back in '61...."

 

[fireproof78]

"In a little town in Idaho, way back in '61...."

Speaking of Idaho and stories, this comedy series is based off of a comedy writer who grew up near Sandpoint, Idaho.

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[Nerys Myk]

Give me Paul Revere and the Raiders over Zeppelin any day.

Saw them live once. A fight broke out. Not what I was expecting at a Raiders' performance. A Raiders game, sure.

Zeppelin's not in my top five Rock acts. Britwise the Beatles, Stones and Who beat them out. U2 and Springsteen round out the list

 

[Nyotarules]

Ok back to controversial Trek opinions

 

[cooleddie74]

Okay. The music in "The Way to Eden" is fun and actually not bad, even for made-for-TV hippie tunes written and filmed in 1968.

 

[Jayson1]

Something I find disturbing about The Visitor is how Adult Jake completely flushes his life down the drain because he lost his father when he was a boy- even lost Sisko comments on that.

Granted, it's probably harder to give that closure in your life when your father randomly keeps popping up every five years or so and doesn't age, than when he'd actually died.

Jake would die someday at some point and when he did Sisko would have jumped back anyways creating a constant time loop much like we saw in the TNG episode "Cause and Effect" only Sisko would always retain his memories. In away Jake would never grow up because his lives would constantly be rewritten in every loop and Sisko would be doomed to this fate for eternity and even the universe itself would stop moving forward post Jake's death.

 

[1001001]

It’s just an utterly heartbreaking episode, easily the most emotional, heart-wrenching hour of Trek ever made for me. It doesn’t matter how many times I’ve seen it, when I come up to it on a rewatch I have to steel myself because it’s impossible not to cry…and I mean ugly cry.

If you don’t cry watching The Visitor, you’re dead inside.

 

[korblborp]

Well, yeah, we see Janeway playing the new teacher in a subordinate position in a Victorian manor (I think she was supposed to fall in love with the lord of the manor eventually, but that particular holodeck storyline was abandoned so we never got to see that), but not Chakotay (or Riker or Picard for that matter) doing something similar as far as I recall.

Riker had Minuet... but not for long...

 

[Farscape One]

Jake would die someday at some point and when he did Sisko would have jumped back anyways creating a constant time loop much like we saw in the TNG episode "Cause and Effect" only Sisko would always retain his memories. In away Jake would never grow up because his lives would constantly be rewritten in every loop and Sisko would be doomed to this fate for eternity and even the universe itself would stop moving forward post Jake's death.

Actually, old Jake told Sisko that they had to be together when Jake died or Sisko would end up untethered and lost for eternity. He was not only saving his dad's life, but giving his younger self a second chance of having his dad around longer.