Summary[]
While the Defiant is investigating an energy barrier around a planet in the Gamma Quadrant, Kira is struck by a plasma discharge. The crew discover a colony on the planet, led by a certain Miranda O'Brien and entirely populated by descendants of the Defiant crew. This is possible because upon their departure from the planet, the Defiant would enter the energy barrier again, would be hurled 200 years to the past and crash land. Trapped on the planet named Gaia, the crew would have to begin a new life and have several generations of children. Yedrin, the current Dax host on Gaia, claims to be working on a plan to duplicate the Defiant of which one would crash and one would make it through the barrier. But he has no hope that it could work, and his actual plan is to let the crash happen in order for his colony to continue to exist. Although Sisko's initial decision was to escape in order to save his first officer and to allow everyone to return to their families, he changes his mind after spending some time with the people on Gaia. He ultimately rules in their favor, with the approval of most of his crew. But the Odo of Gaia, who is still alive and still in love with Kira, changes the ship's course in a way that it would be able to cross the energy barrier unscathed. The people on Gaia cease to exist.
Errors and Explanations[]
Internet Movie Database[]
Plot holes[]
- Given its proximity to Dominion space, it is unlikely that the colony would have been left unmolested by Jem'Hadar for 200 years. The energy barrier could have either hidden the colony from the Jem’Hadar, destroyed any JH ship that tried to penetrate it, or both.
- The settlement on Gaia seems to appear the moment the Defiant passes through the energy barrier. However, it is not actually this passage, but the encounter with the temporal anomaly and the subsequent crash landing in the past that leads to the colony's creation. Since that accident hasn't happened yet, the colony should not appear at this stage yet. Although, of course, there would then be no story. This could be due to some type of temporal flux effect.
Incorrectly regarded as goofs[]
- We find out that Odo was infected with the morphogenic virus during the events of Homefront/Paradise Lost in When It Rains… Yet he was subsequently "cured" of the virus after being turned into a human in Broken Link, so that even after he got his shapeshifting abilities back, he may not have been affected by the virus in this one. Odo would later be reinfected with the same virus by the female Changeling in Behind the Lines.
EAS[]
- What reconnaissance mission could be so vital that DS9 may be unshepherded with the complete senior crew gone for weeks, while the Dominion could attack any time? The station is not shown once in this whole episode, by the way. They could be checking for new Dominion staging bases.
Nit Central[]
- Chris Booton on Friday, December 11, 1998 - 10:44 pm: The dialogue here seems to indicate that no-one died in the crash! I find that hard to believe. Well, the Defiant is a tough ship!
- In the past Odo could have contacted the Founders, then they could have gotten onto a ship the Founders sent and gone into the wormhole and asked the prophets to send them into the future where they belong, that way they could still crash and get home! Too risky – the Founders could have decided to destroy the survivors, traverse the wormhole and launch a full scale invasion of the Alpha Quadrant!