Comment on Episode Discussion | Star Trek: Starfleet Academy | 5x05 "Series Acclimation Mil"
ValueSubtracted@startrek.website 1 day ago
I’ve been pretty excited for this one ever since it was highlighted as a “love letter” to DS9…but I was pretty nervous about a couple of things.
I wasn’t sure how the hell they would make it relevant to the cast of this show, and keep them rightly front-and-centre. There was no obvious connection for them to do so, and it wouldn’t serve them well to just do a full-on nostalgia fest.
I also wasn’t sure how to explore Sisko’s fate in a way that felt substantial. It seems like any story about his return would have to be pretty significant (or, alternatively, so insignificant that it would be hard to make an episode about it).
As it turns out, I needn’t have worried. They threaded the needle pretty perfectly. SAM was the central character from beginning to end, and her “connection” to Sisko was uniquely intertwined with the character’s motivations. And they sidestepped my second issue entirely, but in a way that I still found satisfying.
I feel bad for Ben and Kasidy’s kid, though - apparently completely insignificant to the history books.
And I do hope he was able to visit them from time to time.
skfsh@startrek.website 4 hours ago
I think they left it open for the interpretation that Sisko could have visited Jake, Kasidy and maybe even Dax and others, in ways that are lost to time.
Jake’s holorecording and his book could have all been completed before Sisko returned. Or he did return prior to those being done, but Jake left those out of the record on purpose. In either case, Sam’s recreation of Jake from the record could not have been privy to what the real Jake experienced.
Perhaps Sisko even returned and finished living out a full and complete life with his family, but out of the public eye. It couldn’t be recorded it would have disrupted the Bajoran religious mythos too much. I would not put it past Dax to actually know what happened, but make it a point that for the sake of history and culture and religion, that the facts be forever shrouded in mystery. Dancing around the question of Sisko’s fate could be a deflection, not an admission of defeat.
“Solving the mystery isn’t why we study him.” “I did warn you it wasn’t solvable.” How would you know that for sure, Dax? Unless you’re part of it?