Star Trek: Deep Space Nine — 4x19 — Hard Time

Aired 1996-04-15

SpaceOpera.com rating:7

Average reader rating:6.56

Synopsis

After an alien race implants false memories of a 21-year prison sentence into O'Brien's brain, he has trouble readjusting to station life.

Filler rating: good filler

There's no essential plot or exposition in this episode that renders it unskippable, but it's a decent episode, even though it could have been better.

Remarkable scenes

A disheveled O'Brien in the first scene aged 20 years extra, waking up to his old life.
O'Brien lying about being alone in his prison memories.
O'Brien's reeducation.
O'Brien relieved of duty and freaking out at people, even Molly.
O'Brien accidentally killing his inmate friend in the flashback.

Review

A fascinating episode from a science fiction point of view. Similar to what happened to Picard in TNG: The Inner Light. What effect would there be on society if there were no prisons, but in fact you were forced to live the equivalent of years in prison all in your mind, but just in a few hours? I think this punishment method's success rate is overly exaggerated in this episode somewhat. For part of the reason prison is used in society today is to force offenders to be out of touch with society for a certain period of time. Waking up 20 years later and having all your friends and family exactly the way you left them defeats the purpose somewhat. But only partially. Beyond this point, I am very fond of this episode. It's a great O'Brien episode and a very moving one at that. One remarkable detail is the musical score of the episode. It was utterly fantastic all throughout. I was incredibly moved by O'Brien accidentally killing his inmate friend. I only wish the writers had found a way to make this story take place not in a dream world. As incredibly moving as it is and as profound an effect it had on O'Brien, it would have had a much greater effect on the viewer if O'Brien had actually killed someone he cared about accidentally, instead of in a virtual reality. Possibly even rating ten material. Oh well, nevertheless it was yet another high quality offering from DS9.

3 reader comments

The first time I watched this episode, I realized that TNG hadn't really used the acting talents of Colm Meaney to their full capacity. We got glimpses in TNG: Power Play, but in DS9, O'Brien's character really shows some dimension. He moves beyond the down-and-dirty, blue-collar Irish engineer, and this episode is a big part of that development.
It was an interesting concept for an episode, and it improves with repeated viewing as you can fully absorb the significance of O'Brien's behavior with regard to his Argrathi cellmate. Speaking of the Argrathi, this is one of a couple episodes (see DS9: Whispers) where O'Brien encounters an alien race whose relationship with the Federation isn't entirely clear, but which nonetheless decides to screw with him psychologically and get away with doing so. It's hard for me to believe the Federation's complacent reaction to one of their Starfleet officers being arrested, charged, and essentially tortured (certainly by Federation standards) and do nothing about it. Maybe the protesting is off camera. But while the episode's focus is on O'Brien, this is an inconsistency that takes the episode down just a peg in terms of believability.
The punishment these Argrathi inflict on their prisoners is especially harsh when you consider, as the webmaster's review does, that your family and friends will have barely noticed you're gone. I think that's the point: it's as if they want you to be psychologically scarred and unable to act normal while everyone else acts like it's just been a few hours. Your erratic behavior will then startle your loved ones so much that they will, in theory, restrain you from committing a crime again. Obviously, it doesn't always pan out that way, since we know about how institutionalization takes its toll.
Yet another example of how Star Trek gets you to think about things without being preachy and encouraging you to endorse a particular value. Well done!
by MJ | 02/05/2011 at 10:09 pm

A great concept, and a really good character piece.
But once again the Federation lets an alien race seriously abuse, torture and violate one of their members, for just asking questions, and seem to do nothing about it. This treatment was an outrage and if they were ever in the federation they should be kicked out. I was thirsting for revenge or at least a shaming speech, Picard style, but no. This is politically correct cultural relativity gone too far. This should not be tolerated.
But this was a 'real' science fiction concept, and well done.
by L | 05/27/2013 at 8:52 am

You guys realize that this is a TV show where writers come up with concepts that don't always jive with overall plot. This was a great idea and I thought it was executed well and for that willing to believe that the Federation handled this situation well off camera.
by AW | 12/17/2015 at 6:52 am