I recall really disliking this episode the first time I saw it, but I didn't feel that way this time. Now I do have a few very serious objections, but overall I think it works really well. First the stuff that I liked better this time: I am not a parent, but I am now at the age where it is something I consider, plus I lead a Jr. Ranger group and I know how I would feel if one of them fell through a time portal. This made me really feel a lot more for Miles and Keiko than I probably did the first time. The issue I have is with how first the Federation deals with the situation and then the O'Brien's. Clearly feral Molly needed more help than the O'Brien's could provide, but the idea of just locking her up as was implied seems way too inhumane for the Trek future. And then O'Brien's plan to send her back to live the rest of her life isolated on a planet as the only person there seems just insane.
The episode opens with the O'Brien's being woken up by Molly, she is excited to go on a picnic. They get packed up and head to Golana. It is a pristine place with trees and grass and an ominous looking pile of boulders. While distracted with Kirayoshi Molly wanders into the rocks and finds a cave. Miles comes running when he hears her screaming and finds her dangling from a cliff. He tries to grab her but she falls into some kind of energy field and disappears and then the energy disappears as well. A few hours later Dax is there with a team of engineers trying to figure out how to reopen the time portal. After a lot of technobabble they manage to get it open and beam Molly back, but they get a Molly who has been in the past for ten years. She is much older and wild to the point that Bashir has to sedate her.
Back on the Defiant they determine through DNA that it is her and now the question is what they can do. They set up a tree and some bushes in a cargo bay and start trying to get her to talk again. While doing this Worf and Dax take care of Yoshi who is fascinated by Worf who meanwhile is determined to prove to Dax that he is a suitable father. Things seem to be going well with Molly, she eventually starts saying words and wants to go home, but when she gets there she is upset that it isn't her home on Golana. They take her to a holosuite but when it is time to leave she freaks out, runs away and stabs a guy in the chest with a broken bottle when he won't get out of her way fast enough. She gets stunned by a deputy and taken to a holding cell.
The Federation insists that she be taken to a special facility to be taken care of but that isn't acceptable to the O'Brien's. (I know sending their daughter away sounds bad, but have they looked that the facility? This is Star Trek, I suspect it is actually super nice and just what Molly needs, but whatever, it is a facility and it is bad.) Instead they take a sedated Molly with them to a runabout which they steal and take back to Golana. They turn the time portal back on and send her back to live in peace or something. Luckily for everybody their dumb plan turns out great as the portal sends old Molly back to the young version of herself who she convinces to go back home through the portal. In the end Worf proves to be a good potential father and Sisko agrees to represent the O'Brien's at the hearing.
Review: If they hadn't gotten super lucky and gotten the young Molly back this seems like something that the O'Brien's really should have been charged with some serious crimes over. But since it worked out in the most fortuitous possible way I guess it is fine. Still a good episode despite a few serious issues.
6 out of 10
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