30 Years On,Deep Space Nine‘s Opening Is IncredibleStar Trek

When looking back at Deep Space Nine’schallenging legacy , it ’s often the later season of the show — where the series and Star Trek at expectant was flung into the dark heart ofthe Dominion War — that people turn to as the point that the series really bear witness itselfas something different . But 30 years ago today , the show was already proving that from right out the logic gate .

“ Emissary , ” the two - part possibility of Deep Space Nine ’s first season , aired on January 3 , 1993 , and from its very first scene it was a show with so much to prove . That Star Trek could do it again after The Next Generation revitalized the enfranchisement , that Star Trek could push boundaries in term of itself as a saga and for sci - fi boob tube at big . But perhaps above all it was eager to prove something else : that Star Trek could be more complex , more challenging , more willing to poke at the kettle of fish withinits idealized futurethan it had ever considered to do so before .

Opening the series not with the titular Cardassian outer space station , but on the Federation starship Saratoga during the effect of the iconic TNG two - parter “ The Best of Both Worlds”—in which an assimilated Captain Picard top the Borg offense at Wolf 359 , one of the deadliest conflict in Starfleet history prior to what Deep Space Nine would go on to show during the Dominion War — gives us a bluff debut to both the show ’s family relationship to Starfleet and to its lead character , Benjamin Sisko . We are immediately shove into a horrendous expiration for the heroic faces of the enfranchisement . The Saratoga is almost like a shot compromised by the Borg , no matter the eagerness or the calm collectedness of its Starfleet crew . Sisko , barely abide after the ship ’s bridgework is blasted apart , hobbles through darken , cauterize hallways — hallways notedly full of bleeding , panicky civilian , too traumatized to do anything but plaint , a stark contrast to the dangers the Enterprise face in TNG of having civilians aboard ships . And then , in the firing of his quarter as other Starfleet vessels abide a likewise explosive destiny outside the viewport , Sisko is forced to confront the horror of his wife Jennifer ’s dead body , buried in the rubble of their former home — and leave it behind as he watches the Saratoga explode from his voidance shuttle .

Screenshot: Paramount

This chess opening picture define everything else about “ Emissary , ” whether it ’s related to Sisko or not . Throughout the hr and a one-half story , we are presented with an unromanticized scene of Starfleet in a way the original Trek or TNG could only rarely envisage , let alone depict . Sisko and his come Federation crew are treat with disdain by the Bajorans and other specie that call in DS9 home during the Cardassian occupation , know - it - all gadabout who are here for their interests , not the interests of the people they ’ve fall to help . In particular , the arrival of Dr. Bashir as a self - of import , idealized go - getter of a Starfleet officer is skewered throughout the sequence over and over , from his attempt to dally with Dax or the way Major Kira prune him down for do by her people ’s post - occupation disarray as an opportunity for personal gloriole .

Sisko himself is presented as unlike any kind of leading Trek commander we were used to — from the underhanded way he strongarms Quark into keeping his bar on the station ’s promenade capable , to his fiddling willingness to disprove Kira ’s begrudging perspective of him as someone who wo n’t get his hands dirty . If anything , Sisko excels here with his hand as grungy as possible , this potent mix of a humans who is capable of doing so much but is still too obsess by the trauma of his prior assignment to be willing to care .

Sisko ’s unwillingness to do his responsibility quietly comes bubble over when he is put face - to - boldness with both the idealized hero of the Star Trek enfranchisement at this minute and who he sees as the architect of his brokenheartedness — Patrick Stewart ’s Jean - Luc Picard — to perform the handover to his new tariff . Sisko , still so lose from the dying of his married woman three twelvemonth after Wolf 359 , can not help but goad Picard for his part in the struggle , and similarly Picard ’s amicable , polite theatrical role , the military personnel hearing had see throughout TNG , falls away immediately . The despite the two have for each other , our new “ hero ” and our sure-enough one , with neither really quite in the right , each too drawn in and focused on the past , is an encapsulation of everything Deep Space Nine would go on to defend thematically . These are hoi polloi from an organization that we ’ve been present a fantasized view of ne plus ultra to in the past tense , have that ikon punctured by their human vulnerabilities , and then have to deal with it .

Screenshot: Paramount

Screenshot: Paramount

Really , that ’s what “ Emissary ” is largely about , beyond the relatively pro forma story that emerges in its low one-half , as the find of the wormhole to the Gamma Quadrant threatens to stoke latent hostility between the Bajorans and the Cardassians again . As Sisko is storm to voyage first contact with the omnipotent wormhole alien , and undergoes a pseudoreligious experience that will tie him to the Bajoran apparitional belief system for the rest of the show , this imperfect man is put to the chore so often asked of Star Trek ’s heroes , to be the perfect representative of an entire beau monde of beings , and he struggles . His endeavour to explicate the deadly experience to these divine beings is repel by his inability to let go of his past times , and his sorrow over Jennifer ’s death , until he is forced to reconcile with it through this experience .

And it ’s essential that emerging from the wormhole and contact with these beings does not radically castrate Sisko ’s personality . He ’s not “ work out ” by the end of the installment , even as he picks himself up to move on from his past times and into this new chapter of his life and career . He ’s still the same man who strong - gird Quark into stay on the station , he ’s still the same officer that holds that grudge against Picard . He just has to pick himself up and deal with it , and will continue to deal with throughout Deep Space Nine ’s run . Thirty years on , with the serial publication now as rightfully re - evaluated and revered as one of Star Trek ’s most dramatically fascinating launching , “ Emissary ” remain as strong an opening shoot across the bough as any Trek show has delivered , right aside boom the thing that would make it an all - clip great .

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Screenshot: Paramount