One thing to clarify about DS9 is that it always suffered from “middle child” syndrome because it fell smack dab in-between the tail-end of TNG’s run during the height of its popularity and the very beginning of Voyager’s run. So it never really got the chance to shine on its own; I think there were literally only 4 months or so where it was the only Trek on television. In response to what Chris said: “The Visitor” was the first episode of Star Trek that ever made me cry. I haven’t rewatched it since becoming a father, but I would imagine it will hit me even harder now. There are very few movies or TV episodes that I feel are perfect…”The Visitor” will always get a 10 out of 10 from me! In response to the prophets and their non-linear existence: I guess this is similar to the Q continuum in that perhaps they exist in their own timeline that doesn’t necessarily correlate with what we perceive as linear time. The best comparison I can think of are the “flash-sideways” sequences from the final season of Lost (spoiler alert!), where Christian Shephard tells Jack that there is no “now” in the afterlife, which actually makes total sense to me. But yet on some level, they are experiencing a “before and after” that exists outside of the normal flow of time. The way I make sense of it in my own head canon is that the prophets and/or other godlike entities can perhaps observe all of corporeal existence akin to watching a movie or reading a book, and they can literally jump in anywhere and record/rewrite over certain parts as they interact with them, if need be. Which is why in the final episode, Sisko tells Cassidy that when he returns it “may be a year,” or “maybe yesterday.” Their nonlinear existence simply exists in a dimension outside of what we perceive as the beginning and end of time. You guys brought up so much about DS9, it seriously makes me want to go back and rewatch the entire series. Such a great show with such great characters all around! P.S. If you guys are interested in some cool Star Trek games, check out a company called Looney Labs. They created a very popular card game called Fluxx where the rules constantly change, and they have published four different versions of it for TOS, TNG, DS9 and VOY (TNG and VOY are apparently out of print now), with a couple of ENT-related expansion packs. Additionally, they have another card game called Chrono-Trek which is an offshoot of another of their best-selling games, Chrononauts. There are timeline cards that can be arranged in a grid, and the concept is that each player picks a character from the Star Trek universe (pre-Disco era and not incorporating anything from the Kelvin timeline). The objective is to cause paradoxes that flip a specific linchpin and its corresponding ripplepoint(s) that will change or repair the timeline to whichever reality your character originates from. You can collect artifacts from different realities, and it incorporates many of the most famous time-travel shenanigans from across the entirety of Trek lore (The City on the Edge of Forever, The Voyage Home, Yesterday’s Enterprise, First Contact, the Krenim Empire, the Xindi, etc.) There’s even an option where the anti-time anomaly can wipe out everything and no one wins (unless of course you’re Q)! Fun stuff! ~Damon
I loved Albie’s comment about how he now has a different perspective of Cpt. Sisco now that he’s a dad himself.
This is Star Trek at its greatest
01:24:30 The number one thing we learn about Bashir in this episode is that, unlike some other doctors, he is 100% competent.
One thing to clarify about DS9 is that it always suffered from “middle child” syndrome because it fell smack dab in-between the tail-end of TNG’s run during the height of its popularity and the very beginning of Voyager’s run. So it never really got the chance to shine on its own; I think there were literally only 4 months or so where it was the only Trek on television.
In response to what Chris said: “The Visitor” was the first episode of Star Trek that ever made me cry. I haven’t rewatched it since becoming a father, but I would imagine it will hit me even harder now. There are very few movies or TV episodes that I feel are perfect…”The Visitor” will always get a 10 out of 10 from me!
In response to the prophets and their non-linear existence: I guess this is similar to the Q continuum in that perhaps they exist in their own timeline that doesn’t necessarily correlate with what we perceive as linear time. The best comparison I can think of are the “flash-sideways” sequences from the final season of Lost (spoiler alert!), where Christian Shephard tells Jack that there is no “now” in the afterlife, which actually makes total sense to me. But yet on some level, they are experiencing a “before and after” that exists outside of the normal flow of time. The way I make sense of it in my own head canon is that the prophets and/or other godlike entities can perhaps observe all of corporeal existence akin to watching a movie or reading a book, and they can literally jump in anywhere and record/rewrite over certain parts as they interact with them, if need be. Which is why in the final episode, Sisko tells Cassidy that when he returns it “may be a year,” or “maybe yesterday.” Their nonlinear existence simply exists in a dimension outside of what we perceive as the beginning and end of time.
You guys brought up so much about DS9, it seriously makes me want to go back and rewatch the entire series. Such a great show with such great characters all around!
P.S. If you guys are interested in some cool Star Trek games, check out a company called Looney Labs. They created a very popular card game called Fluxx where the rules constantly change, and they have published four different versions of it for TOS, TNG, DS9 and VOY (TNG and VOY are apparently out of print now), with a couple of ENT-related expansion packs. Additionally, they have another card game called Chrono-Trek which is an offshoot of another of their best-selling games, Chrononauts. There are timeline cards that can be arranged in a grid, and the concept is that each player picks a character from the Star Trek universe (pre-Disco era and not incorporating anything from the Kelvin timeline). The objective is to cause paradoxes that flip a specific linchpin and its corresponding ripplepoint(s) that will change or repair the timeline to whichever reality your character originates from. You can collect artifacts from different realities, and it incorporates many of the most famous time-travel shenanigans from across the entirety of Trek lore (The City on the Edge of Forever, The Voyage Home, Yesterday’s Enterprise, First Contact, the Krenim Empire, the Xindi, etc.) There’s even an option where the anti-time anomaly can wipe out everything and no one wins (unless of course you’re Q)! Fun stuff!
~Damon