DS9: “The Visitor” and “Hippocratic Oath”

Date: July 13, 2020

Season 4, Episodes 2 and 3

Musical Accompaniment: Various El Ten Eleven albums

Interstellar News: We got a new front window installed today and it’s wonderful.

Favorite Quote from “The Visitor”:

Melanie: Why did you stop writing?

Jake: I lost my favorite pen and I couldn’t get any work done without it.

Jake still has a sense of humor in his old age.

So what had happened in “The Visitor” was…: A young woman named Melanie asks Jake, now in his old age, why he stopped writing. He tells her the story of a time on the Defiant where Sisko died when Jake was 18. There’s a memorial service and everyone looks out for Jake, but he’s clearly lost without his dad. One night Sisko reappears and then disappears and months later he reappears again and they realize his temporal signature is off and he’s not experiencing the passage time. Nog heads off to Starfleet, DS9 is given to the Klingons, Jake goes to writing school and then gets married to a Bajoran woman and they settle in Louisiana near his grandfather.

One night Sisko reappears again and Jake decides to go back to school and dedicate his life to helping Sisko, but loses his wife in the process and stops writing. 50 years after the incident Nog is a Captain and Dax and Bashir are back on the Defiant to try and recreate the accident but it doesn’t work. All the while Sisko encourages Jake to move on and Jake won’t give up. He explains to Melanie that he’s got to end his life the next time Sisko shows up so Sisko can avoid the accident and time can reset, which works and the Sisko men hug each other tight.

“If you publish posthumously nobody can ask you for rewrites.”: Thankfully someone had the good sense to warn me this was an emotional episode or I would have been even more of a mess than I wound up. Sisko and Jake are the adorable father-son team that truly love each other and have been though a lot. They lost Jennifer together, they have rebuilt their life on DS9, and they have both grown as people over the last three years. While there is never a good time to lose a parent, it happens to Jake at the absolute worst time. Not only is he there in the room where it happens but he’s still a young man who wasn’t quite off on his own just yet. As old Jake says later on, 18 year old Jake still needed his dad and once it was proven that he was lost instead of dead it was going to eat at him for the rest of his life. Sisko is still father-of-the-century as he encourages Jake to be happy without him and to go on and live his life.

There are a few things that are out of place and are done to get the others some screen time. Having Nog captain the Defiant and pulling Dax and Bashir out of Starfleet’s nursing home is like The Motion Picture or “All Good Things…” where the band gets put back together because reasons. I mean who buys that the Defiant didn’t get blown up or destroyed in 50 years?! I also spent a bit of the episode being confused as to when in the timeline the episode was happening and figuring out where it was going. The technobabble was moderately convincing but it also seemed like a Hail Mary, but it worked and Sisko got to hug his boy and it was super touching. As someone who has lost a parent I can tell you that even when you get to say goodbye you always want just a little more time or there’s always that one last question you want to ask. Jake was able to get that but he sacrificed his life for it. The timeline resets, however, and Jake will never know what happened unless Sisko shares it with him. Overall it was a wonderful episode and very touching, 9 boxes of tissues please!

Favorite Quote from “Hippocratic Oath”:

O’Brien: You’re just guessing. You don’t know how the other Jem’Hadar will react when they’re off the drug. They may go marauding through the galaxy on their own. At least now the Dominion keeps them on a short leash.

Bashir: They’re not animals. They’re people being used as slaves. And this is their one chance at freedom.

I liked O’Brien in TNG but here I see more of his flaws.

So what had happened in “Hippocratic Oath” was…: Worf is having a hard time leaving the Security life behind and he interferes with Odo’s investigation into Quark and a smuggler. Sisko helps Worf understand there’s a difference between being on a starship and being on a star station and Worf endeavors to give it his all.

O’Brien and Bashir are heading back to the AQ when they crash land on a planet filled with Jem’Hadar who are trying to beat their drug dependence and leave the control of the Dominion. Goran’Agar is the only one who can live without the drug and he enlists Bashir’s help to create what they were trying to do to the child in “The Abandoned“, though O’Brien keeps trying to find ways to escape because he doesn’t trust anyone. Bashir wants to help and orders O’Brien to assist, but O’Brien escapes and blows up the progress Bashir had made in order to save his life. Goran’Agar allows them to escape and the two men need some time before they can rekindle their bromance, as each was on a different side.

“Quark definitely is a shade of gray.”: As much as I love Worf he just doesn’t know when to stop, even though he understands orders he still always thinks he’s right. I think he’s met his match with Odo especially given how surprised he was when Odo changed shape. It’s a nice little side story that shows what is happening on the station and how Worf is getting along with his new crew.

The real story is happening where O’Brien and Bashir are captive. The Goran’Agar seems genuine and sincere, Bashir has his views on life and the sanctity of it, and O’Brien believes it could be a ploy to create soldiers who can no longer be controlled. I have to side with Bashir on this one because doing the Jem’Hadar a favor could be the turning of the tide in relations between the two quadrants. This conflict also shows how real a work friendship can be tested when your fundamental philosophies differ. It’s wonderful that there’s no happy ending because in truth they both need time to consider the other’s position, but I wonder if this will be one of those things that gets resolved off screen or if it will be the things that drives a wedge between the two men. It’s really one of the first times that Bashir has pulled rank and you can hear O’Brien cursing in his head at the downside of being an enlisted man. I really liked that all points of view were explored here, even the side of the Jem’Hadar. 8 vials of ketracel-white for this episode.

TA Out!