Quodo in Every Episode discussion: "Time's Orphan"

[chacusha]

Hi everyone, I meant to post this earlier in its own post, but just a reminder that works for Quodo Mini-fest are due very soon (tomorrow night, a little under two days from now -- a countdown for your reference). Good luck with your works, and if you need to default, no worries -- just do so using the AO3 interface.

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Anyway, this week we're discussing... episode 6x24 "Time's Orphan"!

Episode synopsis: While on a family vacation to a Bajoran colony, Molly O'Brien falls through a time portal. The Molly that Miles and Keiko end up recovering from the portal is ten years older, having survived by herself on an uninhabited planet and possessing little ability to handle modern society.

What The Boys are up to in this episode: Odo shows up several times in this episode -- first delivering some information about Molly's situation while Kira takes care of Kirayoshi, second responding to Molly being violent in Quark's, and then informing Miles that the injured party has filed charges, and then at the end, purposely letting the O'Briens escape the station to return to Golana. Quark has one scene where he informs Miles that his holosuite timeslot is up, and then later gets bitten on the ear by a stressed Molly.

One screencap from this episode:


Transcript: http://chakoteya.net/DS9/548.htm

Quodo fics tagged with this episode: None (https://archiveofourown.org/works?work_search%5Bsort_column%5D=revised_at&work_search%5Bother_tag_names%5D=Episode%3A+s06e24+Time%27s+Orphan&work_search%5Bexcluded_tag_names%5D=&work_search%5Bcrossover%5D=&work_search%5Bcomplete%5D=&work_search%5Bwords_from%5D=&work_search%5Bwords_to%5D=&work_search%5Bdate_from%5D=&work_search%5Bdate_to%5D=&work_search%5Bquery%5D=&work_search%5Blanguage_id%5D=&commit=Sort+and+Filter&tag_id=Star+Trek%3A+Deep+Space+Nine)

Tell us:
- What did you think about this episode?
- Have you written a fic set during/after this episode?
- Do you know of any other fics set in or that build off this episode that weren't linked above?
- What do you see as the Quodo potential for this episode?

Anonymous comments are on, so feel free to chime in even if you don't have a Dreamwidth account! If you prefer, we are also available on Discord:
https://discord.gg/VaCnMYvKu6 (18+ proship Quodo Discord - there is a dedicated channel for this event)
https://discord.gg/Htz4crCdCt (general Quodo Discord)
Event info & rules
Fic masterlist

Comments

[chacusha]

Random thoughts:

- I like how Kira is a part of the O'Brien family here. I also like the acting in this one with Keiko, Miles, and older!Molly's actors -- I think they all do a great job here.

- I really don't agree that it would be a bad thing to activate the time machine again to pull out an earlier Molly. Like, growing up by yourself on a planet without civilization doesn't seem like an experience worth preserving...

- "I raised Alexander" -- hm... Worf. Worf.

- The original script and transcript here say that Quark is bitten on the arm, but I'm pretty sure on-screen he is bitten on the ear here, lol. Also, he is wearing his Cranberry Stripe outfit in this episode.

- I like the Worf and Jadzia plotline here -- it's fun seeing it mean a lot to Worf that a tiny child likes him. I also just generally like the whole cast taking turns to babysit Kirayoshi and supporting Miles and Keiko here -- DS9 polycule vibes.

- The first time I watched this episode, I liked it because of the family feels, Miles and Keiko's support network, and getting to see wild child Molly. But watching it again, I feel like the story is showing the strings a bit. The rationale to not pull out an earlier Molly is weak, and the weird anti-therapy sentiment that ST:DS9 has shows itself here, where Molly getting treated at a facility by professionals rather than by Keiko and Miles and they won't get to see her as often is somehow worse than just dropping her off at an uninhabited planet where they won't get to see her ever again??? Like... what. The implication here that it is better to cut your child out of your life entirely rather than commit them even temporarily to institutional care is... sure something... On top of that weird morality, if they really felt it was a better decision for her to send her back to past!Golana, then... they could have just said that? Like, "As her parents, we've decided that Molly should go back to Golana in the past and live out the rest of her life there. We think she would be happier and she wouldn't disrupt people on the station." And then there's... literally no problem?? You don't need to sneak off the station?? As her parents, they have the right to unilaterally make that decision and since there's no public safety issue with that plan, who would raise an objection? I mean, I like the interaction between the O'Briens and Odo here and definitely see why that's worth keeping in, but the whole "unauthorized escape from the station" sequence just makes no dang sense in the first place! Watching this the first time, I was vaguely bothered by the decision-making here, but I couldn't quite put my finger on it, but I think that was what I was reacting to.

- That said, I did like the family themes here, and it was nice getting a little TNG-style self-contained sci-fi story towards the end of DS9 where those stories are very rare.


Thoughts on Quodo potential:

- Not exactly a Quodo idea, but I feel like it would be interesting to see Quark and/or Odo having their own chance to babysit Kirayoshi here, since that's something you get to see a lot in this episode. Quark and Odo are both unusual choices to babysit a young child but I do think, for that reason, it has the potential to show a different side of their characters.

- You could also have Quark and Odo interact with each other shortly after Molly goes out of control in Quark's bar. Seems like an opportunity for some banter or a little hurt/comfort moment or just for Quark and/or Odo to opine on the current situation re: Molly and the O'Briens or something like that.

- Kira and Odo are dating here, but you could do an AU for this episode where Quark and Odo are in an established relationship and responding to these events together.