On their way home from a mission in the Gamma Quadrant the Defiant passes a planet surrounded by an unusual energy barrier. Dax wants to investigate as the energy barrier means if they don't investigate now they won't get a chance again. The Captain agrees and when they get to the surface they in for quite a surprise; the planet is occupied by people descended from the crew of the Defiant! They tell the crew that when they leave something in the energy barrier will cause the Defiant to be doubled; the original will continue back to DS9 and the duplicate fill crash on the planet two hundred years before. Jadzia and the new Dax host, Yedrin, work to create the correct situation while the others get to know their descendants, one person has none though... it turns out that Major Kira died shortly after the crash. Jadzia learns that Yedrin has lied to her; the Defiant was never duplicated and if they carry on as planned none of them will see home again but will be destined to create the colony. Opinions about what they should do are divided, some believe they must allow the crash to happen as 8000 people would never exist otherwise, others believe they have a duty to return to their families on DS9.
This was an good episode which left the crew facing a interesting dilemma and when they must decide what to do it is surprising which people believe they should return to DS9 and those who think they have a duty to their descendants. While it was obvious that they would ultimately return to DS9 the way the ending happened came as quite a surprise which I won't spoil here. The colony itself seemed to be a standard Star Trek colony, the people all came together to plant the crops, seeming more like a commune than a colony of 8000 people.
This was an good episode which left the crew facing a interesting dilemma and when they must decide what to do it is surprising which people believe they should return to DS9 and those who think they have a duty to their descendants. While it was obvious that they would ultimately return to DS9 the way the ending happened came as quite a surprise which I won't spoil here. The colony itself seemed to be a standard Star Trek colony, the people all came together to plant the crops, seeming more like a commune than a colony of 8000 people.