111: Temporal Bluetooth

The Orb of Time.

Deep Space Nine has few time travel stories, but when the writers chose to dip into the temporal well they had a unique tool at their disposal. The Orb of Time offered a way to move characters through time that was not available to the writers of other series. Tied to the Bajoran religion and the overarching storyline of DS9, this mystical object provided a bypass that avoided technobabble explanations. Yet the writers chose to use it only twice: in "Trials and Tribble-ations" and "Wrongs Darker Than Death of Night."

In this episode of The Orb, hosts C Bryan Jones and Matthew Rushing discuss the Orb of Time, why it worked in the instances in which it was used, and why it wasn't used in others. We also imagine new stories that could be built around this special object, and debate whether it is actually possible to change the timeline during an Orb of Time vision.

Chapters
Intro (00:00:00)
Why Use the Orb of Time? (00:03:44)
DS9 Time Travel Stories (00:13:04)
Imagining Other Orb of Time Stories (00:18:35)
Can You Change the Timeline? (00:24:27)
Closing (00:33:48)

Hosts
C Bryan Jones and Matthew Rushing

Production
C Bryan Jones (Editor and Producer) Matthew Rushing (Executive Producer) Norman C. Lao (Executive Producer) Charlynn Schmiedt (Executive Producer) Ruth Ward (Associate Producer) Will Nguyen (Associate Producer) Ken Tripp (Associate Producer) William Murray (Associate Producer) Kay Elizabeth Janeway (Associate Producer) Richard Marquez (Production Manager)