It was a move which was called a “love letter” to Star Trek: Deep Space Nine by those that brought it to life, but some Star Trek fans were left confused by the events, and even a little upset. Others, however, felt that it was the perfect end to an imperfect story—one that didn’t entirely close the chapter on a beloved character while still honoring his story so far and all of the messy implications therein. And to some, it was just Starfleet Academy‘s Sisko episode.
The most recent episode of Starfleet Academy, “Series Acclimation Mil,” which was co-written by Star Trek novelist and producer Kirsten Beyer, along with Tawny Newsome, who voices Beckett Mariner in Star Trek: Lower Decks, and played new teacher Professor Illa Dax, paid homage to a character who made some big promises back in his final appearances—promises that it seems now he wasn’t fully able to keep. Speaking with TrekMovie, Newsome revealed why they chose not to bring Sisko back from being Emissary to the Prophets after he left in a concrete sense, despite his promise to his fiancée, Kassidy, that he would return:
“How do we say this man came back, yet nobody’s talked about him, and we haven’t seen hide nor hair of him? So we sort of had to get into the territory of something that maybe science and Starfleet records can’t explain. So that’s why we wanted to put it in Jake’s mouth at the end, where he literally says, ‘I can’t prove it.’ But all those things you think he missed, he didn’t. He was there.”
Where Exactly is Benjamin Sisko?
The question of Sisko’s true fate still is, and likely always will be, unclear. In this most recent Starfleet Academy episode, fans get to see Sisko’s son Jake (who was played by returning DS9 actor Cirroc Lofton) appear in hologram form as an adult, as well as meet a new incarnation of Dax, a Trill lifeform, both of whom reveal new details on life after Deep Space Nine. Each detail shared implies that Sisko never returned from the wormhole, thus breaking his promise.
Reactions to the episode and its implications are as widely varied as the fan base itself, with some believing that Sisko did return in some sense, but that the moment between himself and his son was kept private. Other fans don’t buy that, claiming that no matter how he was brought back, there was no way to explain away what was, simply put, the abandonment of his family, something that Sisko actor Avery Brooks was adamant would never happen. “Sisko’s ending was never defensible, and ultimately amounted to an implicit abandonment of his family, just not an explicit one. Even if he had chosen to return, they’d still have had to explain why he missed whatever period of time he missed and why he’d chosen to abandon them for that time,” said one viewer.
Expanding on Avery’s feelings about Sisko never being one to abandon his family, Newsome said, “It was massively important to all of us in the writers’ room to honor that request. And then we had to square that with the fact that we have seen a lot added to the canon, and there hasn’t been any mention of seeing him. So that puts you in a little bit of a storytelling quandary.”
In the end, though, it seems the writers paid tribute to Sisko and the promises he made in the best way that they could without bringing Avery back into the role—something made impossible by the actor’s retirement back in 2013 and the rumored health issues that have kept him from making any kind of return. In the final moments of the episodes, fans were treated to an incredibly special moment: Avery’s voice, one that hasn’t been heard in the Star Trek universe in nearly 25 years, floats through the speakers as he reads a piece from his spoken word album recorded in 2007, saying, “Divine laws are simpler than human ones, which is why it takes a lifetime to be able to understand them. Only love can understand them. Only love can interpret these words as they were meant to be interpreted.”
How do you feel about the ambiguity of Sisko’s continued absence? Let us know your thoughts in the comments. And don’t forget to check out the ComicBook forums to see what other fans are saying.