The DS9 ep is called The Visitor and if you’ve ever seen the Picard flute ep where he lives an entire life and it’s incredibly emotional and heartrending, you should watch this because it’s just as good and he delivers one of the great performances
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There's a group that livestreams TNG eps Sunday nights at 8PM Pacific / 11PM Eastern under #TNGSunNight but this week we're watching The Visitor in honor of Tony Todd. (Also check out #TOSSatNight for original/animated series shenanigans at 9 PM Pacific/midnight Eastern Saturdays.)
No shade to Cirroc Lofton but Tony really made me -feel- a son's love for his father, though granted a big part of that is the nature of the story that episode was telling.
I'm rewatching this one right now. First time in fifteen years; the last time I did, it wasn't long after one of my brothers had taken his own life and it broke me in ways I never thought possible.
He was also on the shortlist to play Ben Sisko and Avery Brooks is great and I can’t imagine anyone but him as Sisko, but I think it would have been amazing to have him be a series lead for 8 years and get to do everything from action to romance to comedy as a leading man in that role.
Any time an actor who often typecast as a bad guy or an intense psychopath or the like gets to be funny or charming or warm or Just A Dad in a role, goddamn it warms my heart. Thinking of guys like Tony Todd, Giancarlo Esposito, Willem Dafoe, Pete Postlethwaite, etc)
I never knew this! Avery Brooks is such a unique actor that it's hard to imagine anyone else as Sisko at this point, but Tony Todd would've been amazing (plus, fun 90's mirror filming for the DS9 Kurn episodes)
I was about to go on about what a great and underrated performer that Brooks was, and then I decided to look up why people were talking about Tony Todd... and oh my god.
One of the great things about the show at its best is you never knew if you were in for a silly good time with rubber forehead aliens shooting laser guns or about to be completely emotionally shattered
The Visitor makes me sob like a baby every time I watch it. It always has and there’s nothing I can do to stop or prevent it. Possibly my favorite episode of not just any Star Trek, but any sci fi.
There's a reason why the Visitor is on a lot of folks top 10 best episodes list for DS9, it's because the story is one a lot of folk can resonate with.
Take a bow Tony. This episode is the 'Field of Dreams' of Sci-fi. It's impossible not to be moved by the father/son relationship and what it means for both of them. "I'm here Jake" just brings on tears.
I just saw a screencap of him looking at Avery Brooks the way an adoring son looks at his dad and even though they’re the same age he did it so perfectly that it kind of took my breath away
One of the most heartbreaking performances in all of Star Trek. And then the amount of fun he seemed to have playing Kurn. One of the all time best guest actors.
Back in the early '90s TV Guide took a poll of the best Star Trek episodes of all time. At number 2 was the great grand-daddy of sci-fi TV, TOS' "City on the Edge of Forever".
At number 1 was "The Visitor".
Got a lump in my throat just remembering when I first watched it.
"The Visitor" is in my top five episodes of DS9, along with "Far Beyond the Stars," "Duet," "Way of the Warrior," and "In the Pale Moonlight"
Tony Todd was great in that episode. He gave the character of Old Jake an emotional core that was recognizably Jake. You believed they were the same person.
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But man… I haven’t had the stomach for this one since the first or second watch.
One of my favorite performers, lost. Devastating.
Picard's Inner Light is one of the best TV episodes ever, and this DS9 ep is very close.
RIP Tony Todd. One of the best character actors ever, and I love character actors.
I'll give The Visitor a watch, but it has a high bar to clear.
At number 1 was "The Visitor".
Got a lump in my throat just remembering when I first watched it.
Tony Todd was great in that episode. He gave the character of Old Jake an emotional core that was recognizably Jake. You believed they were the same person.