My Random Journey Through Trek #24

Deep Space Nine
S3 Visionary

Mild mannered Miles O'Brien finds himself being tended to by the doctor after collapsing on the command deck of the station when a plasma conduit ruptured, he seems ok despite some minor concerns and life onboard the station continues as a Romulan transport arrives bringing in a delegation for discussions about the Dominion threat. While Quark is having a frank chat with Miles about the danger darts can bring to paying customers Miles notices well himself across the promenade, the other Miles than shimmers out of existence. Investigating this anomaly indicates some cause for concern but it's not until Miles realises he is actually seeing himself in the future that things start to get more interesting in a bad way. When he sees himself killed by a energy beam he is justified in having a heightened state of alarm but they learn that a monitoring device with bobby trap may have yet to be planted where the Romulans will be quartered and the finger points to the Klingon transport crew docked at the station for repairs. Miles then experiences the destruction of DS9 and in one of those interesting twists "our" Miles is not going to be the one hugging Molly next time she visits :)

Hint, it's the pointy end.

Visionary is a good solid addition to the Miles O'Brien centric episodes which appear throughout Deep Space Nine but you can't help but think they were relying a little too much on the stereotyped actions of both the Klingons and the Romulans to make the episode work. That said you can not disagree that the conclusion reached by the Romulan High Command did not have merit but it would have been a stop gap measure at best, eventually the Dominion like the Borg would come a calling.
I can't say I was happy about the basic Klingon freighter crews being decked out in military armour nor the emotionless and abrupt attitudes of the Romulans, it may be inline with how the series was portraying these races but I think they could have done a much better job but I guess these were secondary concerns when compared to how Miles would be reacting to the situations presented.
I did laugh at the stuntman/body doubles wig, it did kinda stand out a bit and you really don't expect to see that level of sloppiness in a show of this calibre but some nice and simple camera setups to make it look like there were two Miles in many of the scenes.
Did I hear right that the stations sensors were scanning up to 2 kilometers, that would mean the orbital slot for the station which would be filled very very quickly, I don't know if it's canon but I've certainly read 5km upwards is the preferred spacing for tight fleet formations and given the range of transporters that seems regulations for their own sake. Odo saying he always investigates Quark, yes the best line of the episode delivered with just enough emotion to make it seem like Odo really really means it and while Miles and is dislike of Temporal Mechanics raised a chuckle it seemed a little forced.

Overall a decent episode of Deep Space Nine more so if you are a fan of Miles Edward O'Brien played to a tee by Colm Meaney.

IMDB

Rating 7