I really appreciate how in this episode the one person human enough to want to save the people he knows from crash landing on a planet in the distant past is Odo. And sure, he is sacrificing himself, but only a version of himself. The other version gets to keep living in a universe where Kira is alive. And sure, 8000 people stopped existing, but in some ways they now never did exist. You can tell this is a bit of a mind bending episode since I am this far into my opening rant and I haven't even gotten to the fact that this is the episode where Kira finally learns Odo love her. And that at least some version of him is willing to sacrifice thousands of lives so a different version of him can have a shot at her. She must have such mixed feelings at this point.
We open with the crew chatting on the bridge of the Defiant after a long mission. Mostly they just want to be home, but we also learn Kira and Shakaar were told by the prophets that they aren't meant for each other and have broken up. Odo can barely contain himself and has to leave to go "regenerate." Dax notices a strange energy field around a planet they are passing and also that the planet has life on it. She convinces Sisko to let her take the ship into the energy field to investigate the planet since life there has had to survive the damage from the energy field. They pass through but there is an explosion on the bridge and Kira has been injured, but apparently not badly. They have taken damage that will take a few days to repair, but there is more pressing business. Dax has detected several thousand humans living on the surface of the planet. They are hailed by a man who know all about them including oddly specific details and promise to explain when they beam down.
Sisko, Worf, O'Brien and Dax beam down and are greeted by Miranda O'Brien and Yedrin Dax. It seems when they try to leave the planet the Defiant will be sent back in time 200 years and will crash trapping the crew on the surface. Well, all the crew except Kira, she died a few weeks after the crash. The remaining crew after many attempts to escape started over with new families and started a colony that now numbers over eight thousand. They are variously horrified and pleased to have spawned such a successful colony. Miles mostly just wants to get out of there and head home to his family. Sisko agrees at first, but things start changing as they meet more descendants. Worf learns that his descendants started a colony of Klingon warriors in the wilderness who survive by hunting rather than farming. They accept human members as well to keep their numbers up. Odo is trapped in a container this whole time, but the Odo from the colony has learned to handle the local energy fields and comes to visit Kira.
The old Odo has a long talk with Kira where he admits he loves her and always has. The two of them go for a walk to visit her grave site where she prays; and decides she can't escape this fate. They have a meeting about what to do and Sisko just listens while the crew argue about whether they can return to their timeline or if they must go through with the crash. Yedrin Dax gives them a third option, they can cause a quantum duplication and send one back in time while the other survives. But this turns out to be a lie. They decide they have to go back, but when they try it doesn't work and the colony disappears from the planet. Odo talks to Kira after, it turns out he joined with the version of himself from the colony who admitted to sabotaging the computer to send them back so Kira wouldn't die which really upsets Kira.
Review: A really cool episode with all sorts of moral questions. It isn't clear what they should do in these circumstances, especially since Sisko is so important to the fate of not just Bajor but the entire Alpha Quadrant. A great what could have been episode.
9 out of 10
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