Ep 24. Time's Orphan

In Star Trek: Deep Space Nine season 6 episode 24, "Time's Orphan," the crew of the space station is faced with a heartbreaking dilemma when a young girl named Molly O'Brien becomes trapped in a time portal and is stranded alone on a harsh, prehistoric world for a decade.

When the crew finally manages to rescue her, they are stunned to find that Molly has aged dramatically and assimilated into the primitive culture of the planet. Her parents, Miles and Keiko O'Brien, struggle to relate to this new, unfamiliar person who is their daughter, while the rest of the crew grapples with the ethics of altering someone's personal history.

As the episode unfolds, we see Molly struggling to come to terms with her isolation and the trauma of her experience. She alternates between lashing out at her parents and clinging to them desperately, unable to reconcile the two separate halves of her life.

Meanwhile, Commander Sisko and the rest of the crew debate the merits of trying to send Molly back in time to prevent her from ever being trapped in the first place. Some argue that it is the only way to give her a chance at a normal life, while others worry about the potential ripple effects and ethical implications of tampering with the timeline.

Through it all, the episode grapples with weighty themes of loss, trauma, and the impossible choices that come with time travel. It is a poignant and thought-provoking exploration of what it means to be human and the lengths we will go to protect the people we love.