[DS9] "Hard Time" Guide Page







Hard Time

See also: 
    Credits -
    Review -
SOS -
    Season 4
Prev: Rules of Engagement
Next: Shattered Mirror


Production Number: 491
Original air week: 4/16/96
Originally titled: "Injustice"

Written by: Robert Hewitt Wolfe (Teleplay);
            Daniel Keys Moran &amp; Lynn Barker (Story)
Directed by: Alexander Singer

Guest Stars:
Rosalind Chao as Keiko O'Brien
Margot Rose as Rinn
Hana Hatae as Molly O'Brien
F.J. Rio as Muniz
And: Craig Wasson as Ee'char


Spellings: "Argrathi"

Notes:
O'Brien commits a crime in another species' space and is found
    guilty, but the punishment doesn't quite fit the crime.
[[ 8/22 ]]
    In the repeat of this episode, there is an additional 30-second scene
    in which Odo approaches Chief O'Brien and asks how he's doing.  This
    scene was removed from the first showing to make room for the
    special May sweeps commercial. (Thanks to Joan Marie Verba
     for this information!)
This is very reminiscent of the Voyager episode "Ex Post Facto".  In fact, that episode
    may be based on this one:  read a message
    from the author.
Muniz (F.J. Rio) was previously in "Starship
    Down" working on the Defiant.
O'Brien has been through extrenuating circumstances before--fighting
    the war on Cetlik III (TNG's "The Wounded"), being imprisoned by the
    Paradans ("Whispers"), and being put in trial
    on Cardassia ("Tribunal")--but he's made it
    through all of them.
Asikas is an Argrathan term which is used
    to describe geometric patterns on the ground.  One starts drawing an
    Asika by drawing a circle in the dust with your finger, then making
    lines without really thinking about them.  This technique is used as
    a relaxant and something to keep one from losing one's sanity.
Chief O'Brien successfully recognized an interphasic coil spanner, an
    ODN recoupler, and a Quantum Regulator, Mark III.
Ee'char doesn't have a wife.
Counselor Telnori lives on the station.


The Author's Keyboard:
Robert Hewitt Wolfe:
    We talked about the Sito story, but with Worf coming on, we decided
    we really didn't need any other TNG cameos.  Some elements of the
    Sito story we had in development were rolled into HARD TIME.
    (Post-traumatic stress disorder, bacially).



Program Highlights
STAR TREK: DEEP SPACE NINE: "Hard Time" -- After an alien race
    implants false memories of a twenty-year prison sentence into
    O'Brien's brain, he has trouble readjusting to station life.
TV Guide Ad
HARD TIME
    The punishment was only hours--but will O'Brien's recovery take a lifetime?
TV Log Listing
O'Brien prisoner inside his own mind/STAR TREK: DEEP SPACE NINE.


