Something about this episode really rubbed me the wrong way. The whole time I was watching I kept thinking, "This has to be one of those episodes where the characters have been taken prisoner and are merely experiencing a simulation. It would have made sense if the founders captured them and somehow were able to deceive them into thinking they had to stay there and couldn't go back to the station. I mean particularly as every one of the senior officers happened to be on the away mission. Whereas Sisko and maybe one other character wanted to go back to the station everyone else completely bought into staying there. No one was suspicious that it might be a trick. No one seemed to appreciate that it was more important they go back to the station where their friends, families, the war, and their jobs were waiting for them. What? Stay there just because 8,000 people were there due to them having gone back in time? The objective should be not to alter the flow of time and change things. If something happens because they went back in time that shouldn't matter. It's not like they killed the 8,000 people. They just stopped existing because they weren't supposed to exist. It should not have ended up that 200 year old Odo altered their flight path to save Kira's life. It should have been a decision the crew realized was right. They have no allegiance to altered history. Their allegiance should be to the reality they came from and the people and situations which were going on there, not to people who only existed due to an accident. It just seemed like there was a bigger picture that should have been explored here instead of tugging on our heartstrings by having all these children running around and descendants of Worf walking around with spears. Sure, it was easier to make the choice in City on the Edge of Forever when it was a matter of preventing Germany from winning WW2, but for me the same principle holds. You go back in time and change history your obligation is to put things back to how they were. And just as it is a soldier's duty to escape from a prison camp, it's a starfleet officer's duty to try to return from their missions.
Review of Children of Time
