“Second Sight” is a significant letdown. Rarely does an episode start so promisingly and end so miserably. Sadly, that’s the case here. You can certainly see what the episode was trying to accomplish –between the ideas of romance and dreams, between sacrifice and duty. But everything is undone by a plot that is so hopelessly obscure that it sabotages and undermines the emotional heart of the story.

The episode begins with Sisko’s remembrance of the anniversary of his wife’s death at Wolf 359. It’s deep in the wee hours of the morning and his thoughts are touching and revealing about the depths of emotion he still has about his wife. And when Jake comes out to share a bad dream, the scene between father and son becomes quite touching – ending with a plausible and memorable shared “I love you.” Jake returns to bed and Sisko decides to stroll the promenade, lost in his thoughts. It’s here that he meets Fenna – a remarkably attractive and engaging woman who immediately sparks feelings within the widower.

The idea of Sisko finding the possibility of love again, following the death of his wife, is an intriguing concept. And the character of Fenna (at least initially) certainly does justice to the storyline, conveying a wonderfully captivating personality. The problem, however, is that she just keeps disappearing. In truth, she’s merely a psychological apparition, generated by the wife of a visiting terraforming scientist. The whole plot-twist element is simply dreadful.  As a result, the benefits to such a twist are, like the character of Fenna, illusory.

True, it can be said that this allows the episode to explore how love can exist even in dreams – and it’s an interesting connection back to Jake’s original bad dream. But with all of the various ways to portray the romance between Sisko and Fenna as, essentially, an impossibly unrequited love, this was perhaps the worst possible choice. The whole psychological projection idea is just too esoteric. It involves far too much technobabble to even explain. And while it’s certainly plausible for those in an unhappy marriage to fantasize about a true love beyond their marriage, the story simply does no justice to the real emotional trauma that people in such situations feel.

About the only thing the episode might have had going for it was the insufferably arrogant scientist, Seyetik. He’s so self-aware of his conceit that it’s almost disarming. And the guy certainly proves to be jocular enough to pull a few scenes along out of sheer charisma. But he, too, is a victim of the overwrought plot. In the end, he sacrifices himself in his experiment to reignite a star to release his wife from her oath (conveniently for the episode, her species doesn’t believe in divorce, hence her despair).

“Second Sight” sets itself up to be a wonderfully introspective episode about love, dreams, and moving on from trauma. Instead, it devolves into contrivance and hollow twists. Not even the solid Sisko and Jake scenes can provide enough help to make this episode average.

Filed under: Deep Space Nine