Like The Visitor this episode really grew on me over time. I always thought it's too preachy and too much on the nose. I felt it had to many mystery elements. I mean I hated it when Bashir imagined people. I thought it was totally out of place for a science fiction show. And I was cautious since the quality of many of other episodes in the franchise located in historic settings was too often mediocre. But it's a classic Star Trek theme to have such a setting. Voyager did this. TNG did this. TOS did this.
DS9 of course being DS9, this isn't an innocuous or funny holo adventure featuring Leonardo. It's much more cleverly intertwined with reality than I initially thought. Like in holo-episodes, it's great fun seeing the actors w/o costumes (Worf always fools me!). Must have been a field day for actors (and writers who concocted a story about a writer's room). They don't just look different from their sci-fi characters. They behave different but similar enough that you also learn about their 24th century doppelgangers. And just like in The Visitor or in Rapture, I argue that this is an episode where seemingly crazy mystery premises further DS9's over-arching story: he is indeed the chosen one. And this is an intimate look into how insane his visions must feel like. I'm not entirely sure what the meaning really is and what we are supposed to learn about space, time and the wormhole aliens, but I'm certain there's a philosophical core. Watch also 7x02 for a possible interpretation.
And this "Mad Men x film noire x Spike Lee" vibe is great (Plus: the jazz music!). Last but not least it's an important story. Perhaps I needed to watch the documentary What we left behind first and perhaps I - a white European guy - needed to spend some time in the US to fully realize how important it really is and how much this is also a comment about the fact that show runners hired a black actor as the Captain. When I think about what Brooks left us before he retired from acting and what positive impact he had on this franchise, I'd always point to this episode. I think of this episode as his legacy.
Review by Alexander von LimbergBlockedParent2023-09-27T16:59:07Z— updated 2024-03-06T11:57:26Z
Like The Visitor this episode really grew on me over time. I always thought it's too preachy and too much on the nose. I felt it had to many mystery elements. I mean I hated it when Bashir imagined people. I thought it was totally out of place for a science fiction show. And I was cautious since the quality of many of other episodes in the franchise located in historic settings was too often mediocre. But it's a classic Star Trek theme to have such a setting. Voyager did this. TNG did this. TOS did this.
DS9 of course being DS9, this isn't an innocuous or funny holo adventure featuring Leonardo. It's much more cleverly intertwined with reality than I initially thought. Like in holo-episodes, it's great fun seeing the actors w/o costumes (Worf always fools me!). Must have been a field day for actors (and writers who concocted a story about a writer's room). They don't just look different from their sci-fi characters. They behave different but similar enough that you also learn about their 24th century doppelgangers. And just like in The Visitor or in Rapture, I argue that this is an episode where seemingly crazy mystery premises further DS9's over-arching story: he is indeed the chosen one. And this is an intimate look into how insane his visions must feel like. I'm not entirely sure what the meaning really is and what we are supposed to learn about space, time and the wormhole aliens, but I'm certain there's a philosophical core. Watch also 7x02 for a possible interpretation.
And this "Mad Men x film noire x Spike Lee" vibe is great (Plus: the jazz music!). Last but not least it's an important story. Perhaps I needed to watch the documentary What we left behind first and perhaps I - a white European guy - needed to spend some time in the US to fully realize how important it really is and how much this is also a comment about the fact that show runners hired a black actor as the Captain. When I think about what Brooks left us before he retired from acting and what positive impact he had on this franchise, I'd always point to this episode. I think of this episode as his legacy.