1x01 Emissary (1)

[7.8/10] Deep Space 9 is not The Next Generation, and “The Emissary” wants you to know that. It’s a good thing! We don’t need two TNG*s. When it came time for another Star Trek spinoff, one that would run concurrently with another show in the franchise no less, it was vital to mark some new territory and not simply rehash what the audience has already seen. In that spirit, *DS9 nods to the series it sprung from, but puts its differences with its sister show into immediate relief.

Everyone wants to be on the Enterprise. But few people are excited about a posting at Deep Space 9. The Enterprise is the Starfleet flagship, replete with a fancy computer and clean decks as far as the eye can see. Deep Space 9 is a junked out, malfunctioning, alien space station, riddled with debris from the Cardassians’ “going away party”. Picard’s domain is bright and full of smooth lines, as befits the premiere ship of the Federation. Sisko’s new home is without luxury or amenities, reflecting Cardassian architectural choices and few of the familiar comforts.

Most notably, TNG centers on a Starfleet vessel, where our heroes often encounter partners and foes from other worlds and communities, but largely work and play amongst their fellow officers. Deep Space 9, by contrast, is a mix of the familiar Federation crewmen, Bajoran veterans, changeling constables, and most significantly, civilians, be they Ferengi, Bajoran, or otherwise.

In short, this is far from the polished places Picard’s (and even Kirk’s) Enterprise encountered. This is something different, something rougher and ruddier. And that remains both the right choice for DS9 and a thrill in its opening hour.

As is true for most pilots, the first part of “The Emissary” is also an introduction. We need to understand this world, with its rougher edges and leftover tensions. But we also need to understand the people who will populate it, chief among them Benjamin Sisko.

As Sisko himself will tell a familiar visitor not long from now, he’s not Picard. He is a family man, with a child in tow, two things Picard managed to avoid (give or take Wesley Crusher). He’s an unqualified professional, but also a little more relaxed, a little more down-to-earth than the sophisticated captain of the Enterprise. And he is marked by tragedy, a tragedy that came at the hands of Picard himself, albeit in an altered state, which drives a further wedge between the two men.

I don’t mind telling you that I teared up in the cold open when Sisko had to watch his wife die after an attack by Locutus and then abandon her body. It caught me by surprise. I’d seen this episode before. I remembered what happened. The sadness of it couldn’t catch me off guard, and to be frank, I don’t remember having much of an emotional reaction when I first saw it. But maybe it’s being closer to Benjamin’s age than Jake’s, and having someone who’d you’d be devastated to lose, that makes it hit so much harder now.

Sisko’s still bitter about it. He’s cold with Picard and keeps him waiting. He bristles at Picard’s invocation of Bajoran politics and the need to help. He respectfully but angrily asks to be replaced and resents being shuffled away to some place where it’s harder to raise his son.

Already, Sisko’s a multi-faceted character. He clearly loves Jake with all his heart. He tries to help his son see the best of their situation, at the same time Benjamin himself is pissed about the reassignment. He still grieves for his wife, seeing pieces of her in their child. And he is not enamored with Starfleet or its golden boy, knowing what both have taken from him.

And yet, he finds more than he expected aboard Deep Space 9. For one thing, he finds Kira. It’s not hard to see how the role started life as a continuation of Ensign Ro. The Bajoran Major is testy. She is resentful of the Federation’s interference. She is doubtful that the Bajorna provisional government” will last a week or that Sisko will last a moment longer. Kira is a doubter, a veteran of the resistance, and someone more apt to bristle at the Federation’s help than embrace her new commander.

It’s a great characterization. The politics of Deep Space 9 are already intriguingly complicated from the jump. One of the show’s hobby horses will be balancing relations between the people implicated in the power struggle. Kira has a personal history and a personal stake in that. Pairing a Federation officer who doesn’t want to be a part of it, with a skeptical Bajoran leader who doesn’t want him there, provides a challenging but worthwhile role to their inevitable finding of common ground.

Kira also makes a good foil for the rest of the Starfleet imports. My favorite scene in the whole episode may be Dr. Bashir coming in, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, with dreams of practicing “frontier medicine” on the edge of the universe. And Kira basically tells him “my people’s ongoing struggle is not your tourist adventure.” The clash of perspectives, understandably well-intentioned on one side and exhausted on the other, portends good conflicts to come.

The other new arrival from Starfleet is Jadzia Dax, the first Trill we’ve met since Dr. Crusher’s encounter with a (very different-looking) pair of them back in season 4 of TNG. She doesn’t have much to do in this opening hour, but we get the basics. SIsko knew Curzon, the Trill’s last host, and playfully refers to her as “Old Man.” The change is an adjustment for everyone, but one she handles with confidence and aplomb. And we even get a flashback to the transfer of the symbiont, witnessing this important personal and cultural moment firsthand.

There’s something convenient about the magical Bajoran orb Captain Sisko encounters. It gives the show an excuse to use its powers to end Dax and Sisko into flashbacks. Sisko’s, however, feels like an excuse from Rick Berman to include an actress in a bikini. But despite a certain cheesiness, his experience with the orb has force too, as he relives the time he met his wife, this time knowing their romance is destiny. The vibe of the whole thing is corny, but it helps create the image of a more-recognizable, more human Starfleet officer, than the polished professionals we see aboard the Enterprise.

And it goes hand-in-hand with one of the other elements that distinguishes Deep Space 9 from its forebear -- religion. Sisko receives the orb as a gift from a Bajoran spiritual leader, after being told that The Prophets, their god, have chosen him for a special destiny. In just its first hour, the show grapples with the mystical side of religious practice, as actual supernatural events take place in the presence of the holy artifact Kai Opaka gives to Benjamin. But it also grapples with the practical and political side of it, as Kira warns only the religious leaders could unite her people.

How all of this might function, and what Ben Sisko’s role in it might be, is tastefully teased here. But suffice it to say, there is grand irony in an outsider itching to get away from this situation being dubbed as the key to resolving it.

But Sisko’s just as good at resolving more practical problems. One of the highlights of “Emissary”’s first half is the introduction of Quark and his antagonistic relationship with Odo. Quark represents the civilian side of the equation. His nephew, Nog, gets in trouble, and Sisko uses that as leverage to get Quark to stay and keep his establishment open on the station, recognizing its value as a community gathering place and signal to other businesses that it’s safe and worthwhile to continue operating here.

Sisko is not above using the safety of a young, misbehaving relative to get what he wants, and it even earns him the admiration of the prickly security officer aboard the station. Quark’s no rube though, and his perspective on Starfleet, and the way it operates to lean on him, makes him another worthy foil to the captain.

It’s not all foils, though. There’s also allies. After appearing in The Next Generation, Chief O’Brien gets to become a main character. He doesn't do much on Deep Space 9 itself here, mostly providing the audience with a familiar face and delivering exposition about what rough shape the station’s in. But no character represents the transition and divergence between the two series better than him.

As an enlisted man, moving onto a new assignment, he doesn’t feel like he has the clout to bother Captain Picard about his departure. Still, at the last minute, Picard himself takes the initiative to catch him before he goes. As Jean-Luc always does, he speaks with compassion and respect, providing a quiet benediction to someone who’d become an increasingly vibrant part of the Enterprise crew (and cast), setting out for greater fortunes.

Before he leaves, Miles gazes one last time at the bridge. He pauses for a moment in his favorite transporter before heading off. He says his goodbye to this place that meant so much, as a subtle musical leitmotif of the TNG theme segues beautifully into the triumphant horns of Deep Space 9’s score.

That musical sting is a microcosm of “Emissary”. It gestures to the events set up in The Next Generation, the concepts and species and even characters borrowed as a jumping off point for this new show. But it also affirms that we are moving away from it on Deep Space 9, experiencing something different, something no less vital or challenging, going places that even the Enterprise had never gone before.