career and marriage. Decades later, the wormhole is to undergo another inversion, and Jake attempts to recreate the accident on the Defiant. The attempt briefly sends him into subspace with his father. During this "visit", Benjamin is disappointed that Jake has abandoned his writing and marriage in order to save him, and begs him to return to his true passions and live out his life for his own sake. Jake returns without his father and tries to determine what went wrong with the rescue attempt. But eventually he honors his father's request to rebuild his life by returning to writing. On the night of Melanie's visit, Jake knows his father will appear again. He has injected himself with a lethal hypospray dose, believing that, by dying when his father is present, Jake will allow him to return to a time before the warp core incident. The next morning, Benjamin appears as expected, and Jake tells him that his death will give them both a "second chance". Jake dies in his father's arms; Benjamin finds himself back on the Defiant, and dodges the energy discharge. Confused, young Jake asks what happened. Benjamin tearfully responds, "I guess we were just lucky this time." Production The script was written by Michael Taylor, who would later join the writing staff until Star Trek: Deep Space Nines conclusion; once finished, he moved on to help write Star Trek: Voyager during its final three seasons. He also co-wrote "In the Pale Moonlight", another critically acclaimed episode of Deep Space Nine. Showrunner Ira Steven Behr noted that the everlasting love in the episode wasn't a romance, but something altogether more relatable: the devotion of a son to his father. The episode was directed by David Livingston, a prolific director of Star Trek franchise episodes in the 1990s and 2000s. Although the episode was always intended to be the second episode of the season, it was filmed third; "Hippocratic Oath" was filmed prior to accommodate Colm Meaney's (Miles O'Brien) schedule on a film. Tony Todd, who guest stars as adult Jake Sisko in this episode, also portrays Worf's brother Kurn in all his appearances in Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. Melanie, the aspiring writer who listens to Jake's story, is played by Rachel Robinson, daughter of actor Andrew Robinson (Garak). Rachel Robinson also later auditioned for the role of Ezri Dax. The