S06.E24: Time's Orphan

[rmontro]

Quote

An accident on the planet Golana sends Molly O'Brien through a time portal three hundred years into the past into an uninhabited world.

I just have one comment about this episode.  They lost Molly when she was about 7 years old and they got her back when she was about 18.  She was practically feral from spending all the time alone in the wilderness.  After attacking someone in Quark's bar, Starfleet wants to put her in an institution to oversee her retraining.  The O'Briens decide instead to send her back to the uninhabited world she grew up in.  And here's my comment:

I do not see how ANY parent can make the decision to send their child off to live in total isolation for the rest of her life.  I'm just not buying it.  By this time, she had recognized them and learned that they were "mommy" and "daddy".  After 40 years of living in isolation, you don't think she'd be regretting that there was no one else to talk to?  You don't think she'd be lonely?  I just can't believe that any parents would condemn their own child to this.  Although this has been an exciting season, some of the writing has stretched credibility a time or two.

[John Potts]

I don't know how much either Molly or Keiko turned up in the rest of the show (I know they pop in occasionally, but it's certainly not often), but they could have left Molly as an 18 year old and had Keiko going with her to nurse her back into civilisation. It would be tough on Miles to be separated from his wife and daughter (although we know how much TPTB loved to torture O'Brien!) but it wouldn't be unrealistic (well, in as much as "my daughter fell through a time portal and we didn't find her again until she was a feral teen" CAN be realistic) for Miles to have to stay on the station for the duration of the war. But no, we're going with the Big Red Reset Button!

[blueray]

I read on Memory Alpha, originally this episode was going to be about Molly going back and time and growing up in an ancient farming community. I personally think this idea would have made a great episode.  As it would have explored more cultural aspects.