History Recap / StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS04E03TheVisitor

The first shot of the episode gives us an old man, injecting himself with a hypospray, just prior to a young woman (Creator/RachelRobinson) knocking at his door. So, [[MayDecemberRomance what was in the hypospray?...]] Oh: the young woman, Melanie, claims that the old man (Creator/TonyTodd) is Jake Sisko (Cirroc Lofton). ...[[InMediasRes What?]] Oh: Melanie claims that Jake is her favorite author, and always wondered why he stopped writing after ''Anslem'' and ''Collected Stories'' were published. She has tracked him down, and Jake decides that tonight, of all nights, is the time to tell the story of why he stopped telling stories: "[[WhamLine My father died.]]"

The first shot of the episode gives us an old man, injecting himself with a hypospray, just prior to a young woman (Rachel Robinson) knocking at his door. So, [[MayDecemberRomance what was in the hypospray?...]] Oh: the young woman, Melanie, claims that the old man (Creator/TonyTodd) is Jake Sisko (Cirroc Lofton). ...[[InMediasRes What?]] Oh: Melanie claims that Jake is her favorite author, and always wondered why he stopped writing after ''Anslem'' and ''Collected Stories'' were published. She has tracked him down, and Jake decides that tonight, of all nights, is the time to tell the story of why he stopped telling stories: "[[WhamLine My father died.]]"

Jake, now totally orphaned, rattles around [=DS9=]; everybody is nice to him, but that doesn't help a whole lot. Even worse, his father appears to him while he sleeps--not as a ghost or a nightmare, but seemingly whole and disoriented, before immediately disappearing again. The first time Jake thinks it was a dream, but the second he is able to rush Sisko down to Sickbay, where Dax and Bashir confirm that this is the real Sisko, somehow UnstuckInTime. Unfortunately they are not able to re-stick him before he disappears again. Even worse, between the loss of [[CrystalDragonJesus The Emissary]] and the increased Klingon aggression (see ''The Way of the Warrior''), the Bajorans have lost faith in TheFederation. Jake and all other Starfleet personnel are obliged to withdraw from the station. While on Earth, Jake (now played by Tony Todd in flashbacks as well as in "the present") settles down in Louisiana with his grandfather, marries a Bajoran painter, Korena, and appears ready to put everything behind him... until Sisko drops in again, drawing Jake's attention away from his life and back to that of his father's.

* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: What happened to the Dominion threat to the Alpha Quadrant in this alternate timeline? Was it prevented, or postponed until a later date? The matter isn't discussed.

* ForWantOfANail: One dodged energy bolt...
** In terms of galactic events, Sisko's "death" somehow prevents Gul Dukat's rise to power and the resulting Dominion-Cardassian alliance, thus averting the Dominion establishing a foothold in the Alpha Quadrant and eventually kicking off the Dominion War. As a result Earth seems to be in pretty good shape even several decades after the "present day". The Klingon-Cardassian war does drag on for decades, but does eventually cool to a "cold war" state.

The first shot of the episode gives us an old man, injecting himself with a hypospray, just prior to a young woman (Rachel Robinson) knocking at his door. So, [[MayDecemberRomance what was in the hypospray?...]] Oh: the young woman, Melanie, claims that the old man (Tony Todd) is Jake Sisko (Cirroc Lofton). ...[[InMediasRes What?]] Oh: Melanie claims that Jake is her favorite author, and always wondered why he stopped writing after ''Anslem'' and ''Collected Stories'' were published. She has tracked him down, and Jake decides that tonight, of all nights, is the time to tell the story of why he stopped telling stories: "[[WhamLine My father died.]]"

* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: What happened to the Dominion threat to the Alpha Quadrant in this alternate timeline? Was it prevented, postponed until a later date...?

* NiceJobBreakingItHero: Sure Jake Sisko undoes the last sixty years, but it appears that the Dominion War was averted in this alternate timeline, while the reset timeline ensures the said war happens, leading to the loss of billions of lives.

This brings us back to "the present," where the elderly Jake and the young Melanie sit in that house in Louisiana. Jake explains that he has finally worked out the nature of the connection between himself and his father: Jake acts like an anchor, continuing to drag his father forward through time. If Jake were to somehow sever that connection when his father is present, it should act as a giant ResetButton, sending his father back to the moment of the accident. But how is he going to mash the... [[DrivenToSuicide Is that what was in the hypospray]]?? Is that why Jake chose today of all days to tell this story? Evidently it is so. He gives Melanie a copy of the work of fiction he was toiling over before she arrived, and some parting words of wisdom: "While you're studying my stories, poke your head up every once in a while. Take a look around. See what's going on. [[MeaningfulEcho It's life, Melanie]]." "And you can miss it if you don't open your eyes."

-->'''Sisko:''' I'm no writer, but if I were, it seems to me I'd wanna poke my head up every 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.

-->'''Melanie:''' I'm not sure I could ever get over losing somebody like that, right in front of my eyes.\\

-->'''Sisko:''' Jake... [[ManlyTears you didn't have to do this]]. Not for me.\\

* AdultFear: A father dies, and his beloved son never truly recovers from the loss - progressively throwing the rest of his life away in his inability to move on. Sisko gets to witness small glimpses of his son's life over the decades as Jake loses sight of everything that made him happy in his father's absence, and is progressively more distraught with each encounter.

* BigNo: Ben, when he realizes that Jake committed suicide for him.

* ManlyTears: Jake practically spends half the episode with this!

[[ManlyTears Bring tissues for]]] [[TearJerker this one.]]

** OutOfFocus: Odo appears at Sisko's funeral, but gets no lines.

** Writer Michael Taylor said the episode was inspired by reclusive writer Creator/JDSallinger doing an interview with a high school student in 1980 who just showed up at his door.

* ADayInTheLimelight: For Jake.

After the credits, we begin one of the episode's many {{Flashback}}s: to the USS ''Defiant'' in the "present day" of ''[=DS9=]'' (IE, Lofton as Jake), with the elder Jake narrating. Though Jake was nose-deep in the writing of ''Anslem'' at the time, his father, Captain Benjamin Sisko convinced him to come out to the Bajoran Wormhole to watch it undergo an "inversion," a natural wonder that only happens every 50 years or so.

-->'''Sisko:''' "I'm no writer, but if I were, it seems to me I'd wanna poke my head up every 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."

* ThisIsMyStory

* WholeEpisodeFlashback

* TheSlowPath: A rare example of seeing this trope from the perspective of the one on said path.

[floatboxright:
Series:Series/{{Star Trek Deep Space Nine}}\\
Episode: Season 4, Episode 3\\
Title:"The Visitor"\\
Previous: The Way of the Warrior\\
Next: Hippocratic Oath\\
Recapper: slvstrChung]

[[caption-width-right:350:"I've been dragging you through time like an anchor. And now it's time to cut you loose."]]

* SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong

* TheMourningAfter

* ShoutOut: Jake is shown reading "[[Literature/HoratioHornblower Commodore Hornblower]]" at the beginning of the flashback. It's quite appropriate, as ''Star Trek'' took in a lot of inspiration from the Hornblower books.