Classics: DS9 4:2 - The Visitor

Overall Rating: 9.7
(Comments by SABR Matt)

Two of the most important life lessons a person could ever learn under-gird a masterfully written, gorgeously filmed, powerfully scored and wonderfully acted piece of drama which stands as one of Star Trek's finest hours. The Visitor may lack the clever (and painful) story construction (from a technical standpoint as an admirer of great writing) that we find in an episode like B5's The Coming of Shadows, but it more than makes up for this lack on the strength of its presentation and performances. My co-author and I have gone back and forth arguing over which of these two masterpieces should have won the Hugo. I can definitely understand why the voters ultimately chose B5's entrant (it has more to offer the fan of the written word, I think, and the Hugos are delivered, at base, by a LITERARY crowd), but to me, The Visitor is the winner.

The synopsis, our commentary, and the highlights can be found under the cut.



Plot Synopsis:

The episode begins with the appearance of a young, eager writer in a pouring rainstorm. She rings the chimes at an old man's home and he welcomes her in to dry off. As it turns out, she's been looking for this man who so impacted her desire to be a writer. This man...is Jake Sisko. We are many years into the future and this girl named Melanie is dying to know...why did Jake stop writing? He considers refusing her request for the real story, but this is a special night, and he decides that someone should hear (and learn from) the story of his life. It begins (in soothing narrative) when Jake was 18 (present day in the DS9 canon of early 4th season) when the worst thing that could happen to a boy befell him. His father died. While observing the subspace inversion of the wormhole, a burst of gravimetric sheer screws up the Defiant's warp core and pulls Ben Sisko into subspace.

Jake, then, tells the heart-breaking story of his life punctuated with the appearances of Ben, who re-emerges from subspace for fleeting moments...just long enough to torment Jake with the thought that his father wasn't truly gone and drive him into an obsessive, all-consuming struggle to save his Dad. At the age of 37, Jake gives up everything he has - a fledgling writing career, a wife, a happy home...and studies subspace mechanics in an attempt to understand what happened to his father and, perhaps, some day, to save him. At the ripe age of 68, as the wormhole undergoes another inversion, his quest fails. He attempts to retrieve his father and the result very nearly entraps him too.

After years of studying what went wrong, Jake realizes that the connection between he and his father is responsible - that he's been "dragging his father through time like an anchor" and the only way to set things right is to die when his father appears next. And this is the morning Jake has been waiting for. He takes some sort of poison and awaits his father - who arrives on schedule and realizes what his son has done for him in utter anguish. When Jake dies, his father is sent back to the moment of the accident and he successfully avoids getting trapped in subspace. Full of the memories of Jake's Ahab-like quest and the ultimate sacrifice he'd made to save his father, Sisko is overcome with emotion and hugs Jake for all he's worth.

SABR Matt's Ratings:

Writing: 9.5

Several things to appreciate here artistically. First - the writer of this script actually had to do a fair bit of "world building." This version of the future included significant political intrigue, amusing anecdotes about the cultural backdrop on DS9, and a whole life to describe for Jake himself. I actually found much of the story compelling...and the "Visitor Future" has spawned countless fanfic developments, which is a sign that author Michael Taylor did a very believable and fascinating job telling such a "small" story and making it feel like it belongs in the larger canon.

Second - the understanding of the two key characters and how they would respond to a tragedy like the accident on the Defiant is impeccable. The way in which his father's incomplete passing consumes Jake's every thought for a lifetime is exactly how I'd picture it for someone like him...particularly someone with his history. How many times have we seen Jake paralyzed at a moment of decision until his father gives him the words of wisdom or support or praise that he so desperately needs? Jake and Ben have an enviably close and wonderfully supportive bond. And of course, Jake is a writer...an obsessive writer at that. He has his father's tenacity and an artist's tendency toward perfectionism. He would be exactly the kind of person I'd expect to dedicate his life to fixing a perceived mistake like giving up on his father (even though, as we the viewers know, it was surely not a mistake). And Ben - you'd better believe I could see Ben selflessly begging his son to move on and look to the future.

Third - the presentation is exquisite. The score is not wholly original (we've heard the romantic requiem before...I believe The Visitor marks the second time that particular piece was used), but it's certainly deeply emotionally effective the way it's used. The film work is gorgeous and intimate, bringing us closer to the story (as we need to be for the messages to reach us to the very depths of our souls). The choices for where to place act-outs and temporal transitions were non-intrusive (very important with a story like this). I can't think of a single thing they did wrong in preparing this script, directing or producing this episode.

Acting: 9.9

This is actually kind of a dangerous script for Avery Brooks. There are several scenes where most actors would probably choose to play the emotions rather "big." Jake's death, for example, could have been a much tearier and more anguish-ridden experience. Thankfully, Brooks went with the far more satisfying choice every time the drama intensified. He stayed within himself as an actor, rather than chewing scenery like Bubble-Yum as he frequently does in his feature scripts (see: Far Beyond the Stars e.g.). A huge "Bravo!" as well to Cirroc Lofton and Tony Todd (Elder Jake) as well. Jake is asked to cry on cue four different times in this script...any good actor can produce tears on command, but most of the time it winds up feeling fake to me. Not once did I lose the dramatic "bubble" with Jake in either child or adult form - I was right with the moment and not thinking about the tears as being generated by an actor. All of the other bit players were solid as well, with the possible exception of Galyn Gorg (Korena)...not that she did a poor job...just that she occasionally felt a tick off-step with Todd. I also want to give a shout out to Nana Visitor. Her role in this story was limited to one short eulogy and one scene with Jake shot exclusive in "two"...but I still get a little choked up watching her mother Jake in the absence of his biological family. I love seeing that side of Kira, because every time we do see it, Nana impresses me.

Message: 10.0

We rarely notice as teenagers when a jewel of good advice falls from the lips of our parents. When you're eighteen, you think you know everything you need to know to succeed. Add to that the fact that the events of a person's life at that age often seem larger than life and it starts to become a little clearer why kids sometimes take their parents for granted and tune out their advice. This script levels on us a piece of fatherly advice in the first few minutes that seems to pass almost without notice until, after a life poignantly wasted, we hear it again. In effect, Mr. Taylor gives us the benefit of experience so that Ben's simple words of wisdom: "Every once in a while, poke your head up and take a look around. It's life, Jake, and you'll miss it if you don't open your eyes," don't fall on deaf ears. At all ages, we are susceptible to tunnel vision. Life is so much bigger than what is right in front of us and sometimes we have to take a step back, let our cares fall away for a little while, and just reflect on what we have in our lives.

The other big lesson here is taught by example. I want everyone who is currently a parent, considering becoming a parent, or has friends with children to watch this episode. With Ben Sisko as your role model, you can't help but raise children who believe in themselves, respect and love you (and thus will act in ways they believe will make you proud) and keep their eyes on the right goals. While Jake lives 70 years in torment - constantly berating himself for his failure to save his father from exile in subspace - his father, in his brief appearances, pleads with him for details about Jake's LIFE (not his research or his latest idea about how to save him)...have you done any writing, do you have a woman in your life, where are my grandkids?! Let's not forget, Ben was in a pretty scary position...trapped out of time, possibly forever in a state of limbo as the universe whipped by without him. He could have easily been begging Jake to find a way to rescue him. Or he could have spent his small moments of consciousness fretting about how the passage of time would affect him if he ever came back (whoa is me...my son will be dead...everyone I know will be dead!). But all he cared about was the health and happiness of his son. That is parenting. When you bring someone into the world, you give up your own priorities and fantasies...it's not about you anymore. There are too many people today who have children but refuse to center their lives around what those children need. If everyone were like Ben Sisko, this world would be a far...far better place for children.

Stephanie S.'s Ratings:

Writing: 9.5

In every war, three lists are compiled: the wounded, the confirmed dead, and the missing in action. On occasion, I have sometimes wondered what it must be like to be a mother, father, sister, or brother of a soldier on the third list - what it must be like to be forever locked in limbo. Many of these families have probably moved on, but have they done so in complete comfort? Do they still, in quieter moments, hope that their missing relatives will turn up alive? Do they sometimes wish these missing soldiers would be confirmed dead after all so they wouldn't have to keep wondering? Have they ever experienced the peace of closure? A confirmed death brings a pain of its own, but - and this is true whether you believe in God or not - at least with death, you know your relative is safe, beyond caring. And knowing that, you can definitively get on with your life. 

No one I love is missing in action -- but I do have an imagination that can conjure up any number of possible human responses to such a circumstance. It is this power of imagination that draws me into the story Taylor tells in The Visitor. The grief that follows a simple and conclusive death usually fades -- but here, Jake is simply not allowed to move beyond that moment of loss. His grief is repeatedly - and cruelly - renewed every time his father makes another all-too-fleeting appearance in his life. I'm personally very glad B5's The Coming of Shadows won the Hugo, but that doesn't mean I don't respect - and love - how profoundly devastating and emotionally true every bit of this script is. Everything this alternate Jake does - from lingering on the station to going back to graduate school to sacrificing his life for the sake of his younger self - makes perfect psychological sense.

Acting: 9.9

I agree with SABR Matt a hundred percent as far as the performances are concerned. I would, however, like to give some additional credit where credit is due: Rachel Robinson does a beautiful job as Melanie. The elder Jake's death is heart-wrenching, but what also gets me every time I re-watch this episode is the way Robinson delivers what is perhaps her most important line: "And you can miss it if you don't open your eyes." My co-author mentions in the highlights below that he starts tearing up here. I do more than that -- and my reaction has a lot to do with the actress and her rendering of that moment.

Message: 9.5

As Ira Steven Behr has observed, when a television show does a "love stronger than death" story, it usually involves a couple that is romantically involved; very rarely is filial love utilized for such a tale. That Taylor elected to go against the grain and shine light on a dimension of human feeling that is too often ignored in fandom and in the present-day artistic world is what I, as a fan of "gen", appreciate the most about this episode. The intense devotion Jake and his father display here can and does exist in the very best father-son (or mother-daughter) relationships. You don't have to be sexually attracted to someone to feel willing to sacrifice - or even to die - for him or her.       

Highlights:

JAKE SR: I didn't realize people still read my books.
MELANIE: Of course they do. A friend recommended Anslem to me and I read it straight through twice in one night.
JAKE SR: Twice in one night?
MELANIE: It made me want to read everything you'd ever written, but when I looked, all I could find was your Collected Stories. I couldn't believe it. I'd finally found someone whose writing I really admired, and he'd only published two books.
JAKE SR: Not much to show for a life's work, is it? I'm going to go get us some tea.
MELANIE: I savored those stories. I read them slowly, one each day, and when I was done I wished I hadn't read them at all. So I could read them again like it was the first time.
JAKE SR: There's only one first time for everything, isn't there? And only one last time too. You think about that such things when you get to be my age. That today might be the last time you sit in your favorite chair, or watch the rain fall, or enjoy a cup of tea by a warm fire. (I love how aged Jake starts to sound like his grandfather and father, offering little trinkets of wisdom that make us feel the continuity right away)
MELANIE: Can I ask you something?
JAKE SR: Of course.
MELANIE: Why did you stop writing?
JAKE SR: I lost my favorite pen and I couldn't get any work done without it. (heh)
MELANIE: You're joking. You weren't even forty when you stopped writing. I've never understood why you gave it up.
JAKE SR: It's a long story.
MELANIE: I have time. Tell me. Please.
JAKE SR: If you had shown up yesterday or the day before, or a week ago, I would have said no and sent you on your way. But here you are, today of all days, and somehow it seems like the right time for me to finally tell this story. It begins many years ago. I was eighteen and the worst thing that could happen to a young man happened to me. My father died. (what a teaser!)

SISKO: Jake, this only happens once every fifty years. You will never forgive yourself if you miss it.
JAKE: Yeah, I'll be right there.
SISKO: That's what you said ten minutes ago.
JAKE: I just want to get this last paragraph right.
SISKO: I thought you were going to put that aside for a while.
JAKE: I tried, but it's all I can think about.
SISKO: Well, I'm no writer, but if I were, it seems to me I'd want to poke my head up once in a while and take a look around, see what's going on. It's life, Jake. You can miss it if you don't open your eyes. Now, what do you say you come up to the bridge with me and we'll watch the wormhole do its thing, and then I'll read what you've got and we'll talk about it. Deal? (this is some damned good parenting right here...we need to see how awesome this bond is before it gets stripped away)
JAKE: Deal.

JAKE SR [OC]: People came forward and talked about my father, what they remembered most about him why and they would miss him.
KIRA: Benjamin Sisko was more than my commanding officer. He was the Emissary to my people, sent by the Prophets. But most importantly, he was my friend.
JAKE SR [OC]: I didn't step forward. I couldn't. I felt that no matter what I said about him, I'd be leaving so much more out and that didn't seem right. (aw...) I'd never felt more alone in all my life. Everyone went out of their way to look after me, especially Dax. She was my father's closest friend, and I guess she felt responsible for me. (awwww)

JAKE SR: I told Dax about what had happened. How it felt so real, not like a dream at all and she very kindly obliged me and did a very thorough scan of my room. I felt vaguely ridiculous, like a child insisting his parents check under his bed for monsters. She tried to tell me it was probably just a nightmare and I did my best to put the entire episode out of my mind. I puttered around the station for the next eight or nine months. Nog was off at Starfleet. My stories stubbornly refused to write themselves. I filled my time playing dom-jot and tried not to think about how alone I felt. Dax and the others were worried about me. But before long, they had bigger things to worry about. Tensions with the Klingons were continuing to rise. My father was a kind of religious figure to the Bajoran people, and when he died they took it as a sign from the Prophets that the Federation wouldn't be able to protect them from the Klingons. Eventually Bajor entered into a mutual defence pact with the Cardassians, and the Klingons didn't like that at all. The station's civilian population was leaving en masse. They knew that if war broke out against the Klingons, Deep Space Nine was going to be on the front line. (listening to this history being built so quickly and so well, I am always deeply moved)

KIRA: Jake. I wanted to talk to you about something. I spoke with your grandfather and he told me that he asked you to go live with him. Even if this sector weren't on the brink of war, I would like to see you leave the station.
JAKE: I'm not going anywhere.
KIRA: Oh, Jake. I could order you to go if I wanted to.
JAKE: Please don't make me leave. Not yet. This is my home. When my Dad and I came here this place was just an abandoned shell. He turned it into something. Everywhere I look it's like I see a part of him. If I leave I won't have anything left of him (heart breaking).
KIRA: All right. You stay a while longer if you want to. But you have to promise me when the time comes and I tell you to go, you'll do it. (this scene always really impacts me...Kira is just so sweet here...)

SISKO: Jake, they'll have me fixed up in no time. How are you doing? (Jake nearly bursts into tears.) It's all right. Everything's going to be all right.
JAKE: I thought it was a dream.
SISKO: What was?
JAKE: When I saw you in my quarters I should have felt you were alive. I should have known it.
SISKO: It's not your fault, Jake. I'm here now. That's what matters. (Sisko fades out and back.)
DAX: We're losing him.
SISKO: Look at me. I need to know you're going to be all right. (listen to him...a dedicated father to the last)
O'BRIEN: His temporal signature is fluctuating.
BASHIR: I need that containment field now, Chief.
O'BRIEN: Right away. Field active. (Sisko flickers again. Dax holds Jake back.)
BASHIR: It's not working.
SISKO: Jake.
JAKE: Dad!
O'BRIEN: I'm going to try locking onto him with the transporter beam.
JAKE: Don't leave me. (But he does) Don't leave me. (UGH! this is painful)

NOG: The Klingons agreed to let Starfleet send an expedition through the wormhole. They said it was in the spirit of scientific exchange, but I think they were happy to have us test the waters in the Gamma Quadrant after all these years. Find out how the Dominion would react to ships coming through.
JAKE SR: Did you see the station?
NOG: I'm sorry to say it's looking a little run down these days. But you'll never guess who's still there.
JAKE SR: Not your father?
NOG: No, no. He and my Uncle left years ago. Quark finally got that little moon he was always talking about, and my father, as usual, is making sure it doesn't fall out of orbit. But Morn is still there, running the bar!
JAKE SR: Talking his customers' ears off and drinking himself out of business, I'll bet. (LOL!...love the hsitory and the throw-away about Morn)

JAKE SR: This is Korena, my wife.
SISKO: Your wife?
KORENA: I never thought I'd have the pleasure of meeting you.
SISKO: The pleasure is mine. How long have you two been married?
JAKE SR: Seven years.
SISKO: Do I have any grandchildren?
JAKE SR: Not yet.
KORENA: We were married in New Orleans, in your father's restaurant.
JAKE SR: He insisted. Just about everyone came. Dax, Kira, O'Brien.
SISKO: That must've been something.
JAKE SR: I got to go call Starfleet.
SISKO: Whoa. They'll get here as soon as they can. Talk to me. I've missed so much. Let's not waste what little time we have.
KORENA: I have a feeling you might want to see these. They're Jake's.
(Korena takes two books from a shelf - Anselm and Collected Stories.)
SISKO: You did it. I always knew you would.
(Jake is crying.)
SISKO: Oh, Jake.
(Korena leaves them alone.)
JAKE SR: I'm sorry.
SISKO: What for?
JAKE SR: For giving up on you.
SISKO: No one could be expected to hold out hope for this long.
JAKE SR: I should have just kept trying to find you. I just went on with my life.
SISKO: And I'm proud of what you've accomplished.
JAKE SR: None of it matters now that I know you're still out there, lost somewhere.
SISKO: Of course it matters. You have a wife, a career. And don't think because I'm not around much that I don't want grandchildren. (this is just awesomely written...)

JAKE SR: Are you ready over there, Dax?
DAX: As ready as I'll ever be, considering the replicators were just about the only things still working when we came aboard.
BASHIR: It's a lucky thing too. Dax isn't any good to anybody these days without a cup of coffee in her hand.
DAX: It's the only thing that's kept me awake while you prattled on about your latest paper, or your new backhand, or your kid's science projects. (LOL!)

SISKO: Jake. How long has it been?
JAKE SR: Fourteen years. What is this place?
SISKO: I don't know
JAKE SR: We could be inside some sort of subspace fragment. Sisko to Dax. Can you read me? I brought the Defiant back to the wormhole. We're trying to rescue you. Dax, if you can hear me, try to lock onto my signal.
SISKO: Look at you. You're older than I am.
JAKE SR: Damn it. Why can't they lock on to us?
SISKO: Jake, they're doing the best they can. There's nothing we can do from here. It's been so long. I need to know what I've missed. What about those grandchildren we talked about?
JAKE SR: Korena and I, we're no longer together. She left me.
SISKO: I'm sorry.
JAKE SR: I shouldn't have let her go, but there was so much I had to do. This has taken years of planning.
SISKO: What about your writing?
JAKE SR: Dax, try boosting the carrier amplitude. Maybe you can
SISKO: Jake, what's happened to you?
JAKE SR: This is the last chance I'm ever going to have to help you. (Jake flickers) No!
SISKO: Jake, it's over. It's not going to work.
JAKE SR: It has to.
SISKO: Let go, Jake. If not for yourself, then for me. You still have time to make a better life for yourself. Promise me you'll do that. Promise me! (just wow...)

JAKE SR: I want you to see something. Go over to my desk. Go ahead.
(There's a pile of paper with a pen on top)
JAKE SR: It's a collection of new stories. I decided to honour my father's request and try to rebuild my life. Writing these stories was the best way I knew to do that. I'd like you to have a copy. Let me get you one.
MELANIE: Can I have these instead?
JAKE SR: Well, if you'd like, but those have handwritten notes all over them.
MELANIE: I know. I want to study them so I can see the changes you made.
JAKE SR: Because you want to be a writer someday.
MELANIE: Can I ask why you haven't published these?
JAKE SR: Well, I was tinkering with the last story just this morning. Besides, if you publish posthumously no body can ask you for rewrites. I was hoping to finish another two stories, but there isn't enough time.
MELANIE: You keep on saying there's no more time.
JAKE SR: You see, Melanie, after the last attempt to rescue my father failed, I spent months trying to figure out what went wrong. Eventually, I came to understand the nature of what was happening to him. It was as if he was frozen in time at the moment of the accident, and the link between us was like an elastic cord. Every so often the cord would go taut enough to yank him forward into my time. But only for a few minutes. I realised that if my motion through time came to a stop, the cord would go slack and he'd be lost in subspace forever. But if I could cut the cord when the link was at its strongest, while we were together, he'd return to the moment of the accident.
MELANIE: Your father's coming here, isn't he? Soon.
JAKE SR: Yes.
MELANIE: You're going to cut the cord, aren't you?
JAKE SR: I want you to promise me something.
MELANIE: Anything.
JAKE SR: While you're studying my stories, poke your head up every once in a while. Take a look around. See what's going on. It's life, Melanie.
MELANIE: And you can miss it if you don't open your eyes. (and this is about where I start to well up...every...single...time...)

SISKO: Jake.
JAKE SR: I've been expecting you.
SISKO: I'm glad to see you're still in this house. You seemed happy here. And this. I can't tell you how good it makes me feel you got back to writing. (Jake wheezes.) Jake, what is it?
JAKE SR: Read the dedication.
SISKO: To my father, who's coming home. Thank you, but I don't understand.
JAKE SR: It was me. It was me all along. I've been dragging you through time like an anchor and now it's time to cut you loose.
SISKO: Jake, what are you saying? (Jake looks over at the desk. Sisko goes and picks up the hypo.)
JAKE SR: It won't be long now.
SISKO: Jake! No!
JAKE SR: When I die, you'll go back to where this all began. Just remember to dodge the energy discharge from the warp core.
SISKO: Jake, you could still have so many years left.
JAKE SR: No. We have to be together when I die.
SISKO: Jake, you didn't have to do this. Not for me.
JAKE SR: For you and for the boy that I was. He needs you more than you know. Don't you see? We're going to get a second chance.
SISKO: Jake. My sweet boy.
(Cut to Sisko...about to take the tool out of the device. Instead, he dives to the side taking Jake with him. The discharge hits the wall.)
SISKO: You okay?
JAKE: How'd you know that was coming?
SISKO: I guess we were just lucky this time.
JAKE: You okay, Dad?
SISKO: I am now, Jake. I am now. (*sobbing like a woman...*)