1x02 Emissary (2)

[7.4/10] If the first part of “Emissary” is about saying, “We’re not The Next Generation!”, the second part is about saying, “We’re still Star Trek!” We get into ships and explore odd spatial phenomena! We get into tense stand-offs with intimidating forehead aliens! We still seek out new life and new civilizations in all their wild and wooly forms! The concluding half of Deep Space 9’s premiere acts as reassurance, that those into the franchise for the exploration and action will have their fill too.

But there’s a certain tension present as well. At the same time “Emissary” is having our heroes explore the interstellar equivalent of the Bermuda Triangle and matching wits and weapons with belligerent Cardassians, it has Sisko commune with the Bajoran Prophets/Wormhole Aliens/Whatever You Want to Call Them inside of a new, nigh-magical throughway to the Gamma quadrant (or the “Celestial Temple” depending on your preference.)

The former is action-packed, space pioneering, traditional meat and potatoes Star Trek. The latter is something stranger, more impressionsitic, more heady and personal. At its best, this franchise marries the exciting and imaginative with the deeply-felt experiences of individuals. But what’s fascinating about this hour is the way those two halves of the show don’t quite fit together, even as they both succeed in what they set out to do.

But before Deep Space 9 can show off its fireworks, it’s time for a few introductions. Recurring villain Gul Dukat makes his first appearance. He verbally tussles with Sisko, not-so-subtly projects his displeasure of the new arrangement, and displays the reach and specificity of his spy network. It’s a strong first look by performer Marc Alaimo, who walks the line between cordialness and intimidation beautifully, with Sisko matching him note for note.

We get a little more backstory on the testy but noble Odo, an orphan who’s still searching for answers about what he is and where he came from. We see his shape-shifting capabilities put into action in a sharp ploy to get him aboard the Cardassian vessel, and we see his devotion to the space station when he insists on tagging along to confront other enemy ships. Odo’s one of my favorite characters from DS9, and ironically, he feels like one of the more fully formed from the jump.

If that weren’t enough, character’s we’re already acquainted with have more to do. After his exposition-delivery status in the first half, Chief O’Brien proves his mettle as a Mr. Fix-It. His swift kick of the Cardassian transporter console is all it takes to beam Odo back from the enemy ship. (O’Brien’s apparently aiming to be half-Scotty and half-Fonzie.) And with the ideas and insistence of Kira and Dax, he manages to lighten the station enough to move it toward the brand spanking new wormhole, cloud Cardassian sensors, and make it seem like the station has more of an armament than it really does.

Still, beyond technical wizardry, much of that owes to the psychologically, steadfastness, and calmness under crisis of Major Kira. WIth Commander Sisko off on his alien adventure, she’s in charge of the station amid the wormhole discovery and ensuing threats. Her steel in the moment, her willingness to bluff the Cardassians because of the importance of what this discovery means to Bajor, and her courage in the stand-off all instantly mark her as a fierce commander up to this challenge, despite her gripes about it.

But while Kira and company are keeping up with the Cardassians, Sisko is inside the wormhole, communicating with the beings that reside within it. It’s one of the more ambitious sequences Star Trek ever put together. Lacking form or understanding of humanity, the wormhole beings communicate with Ben through snippets of his life, forcing him to relive moments both wonderful and disturbing, using the voices of those in his past and present to speak to him.

It’s a cool concept, even if “Emissary” uses it for a little too long for it to have continued impact and not start to wear on the audience. That said, there’s extra power and meaning in having Sisko’s conversation not be with some shimmering energy being or demigod probing the limits of humanity, but rather the faces of people he knows, loves, or reviles.

Those wormhole aliens exist apart from time, akin to the Tralfamadorians from Slaughterhouse Five or Dr. Manhattan from Watchmen. They worry that “corporeals” like Sisko are a threat, there to undermine them or otherwise attack them. But their understanding of humans, and their very mode of existence is minimal at best.

So Sisko has to explain the basics to them like the way we experience linear time, the concept of non-existence and loss, the way we deal with cause and effect, and how our ignorance of what the future holds prompts us to seek out and explore the unknown. It’s an exchange of ideas, of mutual understanding across two very different species, done in a way that pushes the boundaries of form and presentation for Star Trek. The acting in the excerpts of Sisko’s life isn’t always amazing, but the rush of images and time periods, and a conversation held through all of them, still impresses all these years later.

But it’s not just Sisko communicating to the beings inside the wormhole about who and what “corporeals” like him are. It’s them helping him through his trauma. He keeps coming back to the moments when his wife, Jennifer, died, complaining that they’ve forced him to relive this moment. The cinch is, it’s not their choice to return to this place; it’s Sisko’s. He admits that he’s been unable to let go, unable to make peace with that moment, unable to find a way to live past it since that fateful event three years ago.

And the Prophets, or other beings, or whatever you’d like to consider them help him to do just that. Sisko’s arc here is going from a state of resistance and grief to one of closure and acceptance. He is able to move on, to psychologically resolve the lingering issues around his wife’s death, and the life together they lost, or at least avoid being haunted by it twenty-six hours a day. When he returns to report on his experiences to Captain Picard, his tone is different. He’s appreciative of his assignment, excited to take on the challenges of a Bajor that’s unexpectedly becoming a center of commerce and intrigue. He’s pushed past the events of Wolf 359, and can now take his assignment on Deep Space 9 as a fresh start.

I’ve heard other fans argue that Deep Space 9 is the 1990s Trek show most indebted to The Original Series. I’ll put that in the “remains to be seen” category for now, but I think you can see the idea at play in the second half of “Emissary”. You have the rollicking action, the tense confrontation with a hostile species, the technobabble solutions to a thorny problem, and the uncovering of unexpected phenomena in the galaxy like the first stable wormhole on record. Those were all trademarks of the 1960s series.

But you also have the supremely bizarre, like a trip into a liminal space occupied by extra-dimensional beings who can’t even comprehend the limits of human existence. You have a meditation on loss, on what it is to be human, on our desire to explore that which we do not know. The other Star Trek series, up to the present day, all touch on these ideas. And yet the downright weirdness of the presentation and willingness to delve into the nature of beings so far beyond ourselves was also a calling card amid the adventures of the original Enterprise.

The tension between those two conceptions of Trek will stay with Deep Space 9 for the duration. There will be more thrilling conflicts, more cunning ploys, more exchanges of torpedo fire and desperate situations. But there will also be more heady, reflective, challenging embraces of issues and experiences only the imaginative expanses of science fiction can contain. The melding of the two, the affirmation of both these facets of the franchise, would fuel the series from here to its finale. Strap in.