Seems like this is an absolute darling of an episode, and yet I found myself bored to death not being able to care much at all for any of it, and not able to wait for it to end. From the random girl that just randomly shows up to what's- not even Benjamin but Jake, himself an old man now, to investigate why her favourite author stopped writing, like a teenage fan stalking her idol to their home, with said idol yoloing it and just going along to Tell The Tale:tm: to her because why not - all the way to where the whole story, predictably, is undone at the figurative snap of a finger, making none of it matter at all. Coming hot on the heels of that particular season opener that saw significant aspects of the whole universe upended, but also bringing in a rather major sort of "returner".
I'm sorry, I'm sure. I love this particular father-son relationship as much as the next person, and I've always loved any episode, any minor scene that served to portray it. But this episode jumps so far from what precedes it in the series, as well as jumping so far ahead in time, supposing so many things to have just happened this way or that. And we just have to roll with it, we have to accept all those details as facts, in a way yeah, plausible, but at the same time not at all certain. While at the same time knowing that it's only a "what if?" anyway, that this isn't how things will be, it's not how anything will go down. So many changes regarding the cast (complete with ever-awful aging makeup), and yet the important people are still in important enough positions to be able to pull a few major strings, offscreen ofc, and everyone can get back together just like that. At the same time, the station itself remains the exact same. The Defiant remains the exact same, because apparently that doesn't need upgrades either over decades (2D control panel, right, Doctor?). And nobody, save for Jake himself, seems to be able to figure out anything about the incident? Jake, who has to give up his passion because he still has to go through school, even, to have a better understanding on the subject? Not the Chief, not even oh-so-wise Dax with so much experience Benjamin means oh-so-much to? Give me a break.
And then - yeah, it does all come apart. A swish of a magic wand, old man Jake dying (despite Benjamin's insistence, it's a little hard to believe he's just so much ahead of his time with that, which is, fair is fair, kudos to the acting), and BAM! For less then a whole minute at the very end, we just get to see both Benjamin and Jake safe, back where they were on the Defiant, having successfully avoided the incident that started the entire mess. (What was that very much in-sync line, I think the Doctor and Chief, just a few episodes back? "I hate temporal dynamics!" or some such? Indeed...)
All in all, I do love these two characters. And the amount of time we get to spend with them - usually. This particular episode, though, just falls really flat, as far as I'm concerned. Not because the acting or the emotional upset isn't there, but because literally everything else around it is so flimsy. It's asking too much to be believed and taken for granted, just to drive home... a single point? Maybe? Not even sure. When it only ends up doing what episodes like this always do eventually: undo it all.
Review by RenBlockedParentSpoilers2023-02-12T00:28:42Z
Bah, humbug!
Seems like this is an absolute darling of an episode, and yet I found myself bored to death not being able to care much at all for any of it, and not able to wait for it to end. From the random girl that just randomly shows up to what's- not even Benjamin but Jake, himself an old man now, to investigate why her favourite author stopped writing, like a teenage fan stalking her idol to their home, with said idol yoloing it and just going along to Tell The Tale:tm: to her because why not - all the way to where the whole story, predictably, is undone at the figurative snap of a finger, making none of it matter at all. Coming hot on the heels of that particular season opener that saw significant aspects of the whole universe upended, but also bringing in a rather major sort of "returner".
I'm sorry, I'm sure. I love this particular father-son relationship as much as the next person, and I've always loved any episode, any minor scene that served to portray it. But this episode jumps so far from what precedes it in the series, as well as jumping so far ahead in time, supposing so many things to have just happened this way or that. And we just have to roll with it, we have to accept all those details as facts, in a way yeah, plausible, but at the same time not at all certain. While at the same time knowing that it's only a "what if?" anyway, that this isn't how things will be, it's not how anything will go down. So many changes regarding the cast (complete with ever-awful aging makeup), and yet the important people are still in important enough positions to be able to pull a few major strings, offscreen ofc, and everyone can get back together just like that. At the same time, the station itself remains the exact same. The Defiant remains the exact same, because apparently that doesn't need upgrades either over decades (2D control panel, right, Doctor?). And nobody, save for Jake himself, seems to be able to figure out anything about the incident? Jake, who has to give up his passion because he still has to go through school, even, to have a better understanding on the subject? Not the Chief, not even oh-so-wise Dax with so much experience Benjamin means oh-so-much to? Give me a break.
And then - yeah, it does all come apart. A swish of a magic wand, old man Jake dying (despite Benjamin's insistence, it's a little hard to believe he's just so much ahead of his time with that, which is, fair is fair, kudos to the acting), and BAM! For less then a whole minute at the very end, we just get to see both Benjamin and Jake safe, back where they were on the Defiant, having successfully avoided the incident that started the entire mess. (What was that very much in-sync line, I think the Doctor and Chief, just a few episodes back? "I hate temporal dynamics!" or some such? Indeed...)
All in all, I do love these two characters. And the amount of time we get to spend with them - usually. This particular episode, though, just falls really flat, as far as I'm concerned. Not because the acting or the emotional upset isn't there, but because literally everything else around it is so flimsy. It's asking too much to be believed and taken for granted, just to drive home... a single point? Maybe? Not even sure. When it only ends up doing what episodes like this always do eventually: undo it all.