I think this episode is probably my favourite too. I just don’t admit it very often. It’s probably the most moving 47 minutes of television I’ve ever seen (closely followed by “The Inner Light”). It never fails to render me speechless and tearful with emotion. Even reading the article, I was welling up just by association.

My father is dying of cancer at the moment.

It’ll be hard, but I think I’m gonna watch this with my best friend next time he’s over. I think I need the release.

There are times in Trek when all the ingredients come together and make it so much more than sci-fi.

Thank you for writing this article, I’m sorry I didn’t see it when it was originally published. I think this episode is vastly underrated, well done for giving it some much needed recognition.

Berman never made a secret of the fact that he didn’t intend on making DS9 a trek show at the beginning – he set out to create something completely different, in a different universe. But he found that he didn’t know how to create scifi without using the Star trek vocabulary, so he just made the non-Trek show he wanted and called it Trek.

Thank you so much for writing this. (And Anthony, thank you so much for publishing it.)

When [sad, ignorant] people ask me why I love Star Trek, I point them to episodes like this, Inner Light, and City on the Edge of Forever — timeless, classic, human stories that resonate both within and without the context of canon. Stories that really push the boundaries of what Star Trek could be, while at the same time perfectly distilling exactly what it is.

I first saw this episode when it debuted, when I was about a year out of college and just really beginning adulthood. It was incredibly moving to me then, and even more so now, over a decade later, as I’m now a father myself. Looking back, it’s clear to me that the father-son love story in this episode – and woven throughout Deep Space Nine – was among the things that really inspired me to want to be (and showed me how to be) a father. Sisko is a remarkable and rare role model for fathers (except, I’d argue, in the series finale, which I have the same issues with as Avery Brooks did; Sisko would never abandon his son like that – especially after the experience he had in this episode!).

Someday I look forward to sharing this and other episodes (like Explorers and Far Beyond The Stars) with my son, and maybe one day he’ll do the same with his.

His name is Benjamin.

I guess I’m one of those guys,Though I do Love DS9, I do believe that Gene would’ve hated it. It’s too bad It wouldn’t seem so contradictory if DS9 had been a whole other sci fi Show without the name Trek attached to it.

A fantastic episode among dozens and dozens that DS9 had to offer. Come to think of it nearly ALL DS9 episodes are great except the annoying Ferengi ones.

But, of course, this is only my opinion.