Star Trek fans love a crossover: Generations was an incredible movie because it gave us Picard and Kirk together, and Picard‘s three-season run ended up being a crossover fest by the end. And even beyond the more substantial recurring roles, Star Trek also loves a cameo of returning characters – who can forget Bones appearing in TNG‘s Encounter at Farpoint, Picard in Emissary, or Quark in Voyager‘s pilot – and there’s a very rewatchable list of episodes. You can now add Starfleet Academy‘s fifth episode, ‘Series Acclimation Mil,’ to that pile, thanks to the reappearance of two legendary characters. Warning: This article contains SPOILERS for Starfleet Academy episode 5.
Say what you want about Starfleet Academy – and good lord, have people been vocal – it has consistently gone out of its way to tie itself back to Star Trek’s distant past. We’ve had tributes to Wesley Crusher, belated justice for Harry Kim, and memorials to some of the most important Star Trek characters, even as the show challenges lore, evolves canon, and basically strides confidently into a wholly different space. Naturally, that last point has been difficult for the purists, but the latest episode’s returning Deep Space Nine heroes – including the surprise return – in a way – of Captain Sisko actor Avery Brooks – should help there (more on that point soon).
Jake Sisko and Dax Both Return to Star Trek
The latest episode of Starfleet Academy sees hologram student SAM attempt to learn about the legacy of Captain Sisko as she looks to unpick the mystery of what happened to him after Deep Space Nine‘s ending. On her journey, she’s directed to the Sisko Museum by Professor Isla (Tawny Newsome) and gains access to its digital archive. In there she accesses digital files of Jake Sisko as part of an exhibit, which reveals details about Jake’s life after DS9 (he became a successful author), and talks about how his father’s disappearance affected him. He’s played once more by returning star Cirroc Lofton, who has his father’s bald head and beard combination now. SAM then also seems to conjure a sprite of Jake, whom she interacts with further, further exploring the mystery of Sisko and decoding her own identity with him.
After Jake’s cameo, SAM returns to Professor Isla, who she realizes previously revealed details about Sisko that weren’t part of the museum’s files (that he grew tomatoes in his quarters as a nod to his father’s Creole restaurant). When SAM challenges the teacher on how she knows he grew tomatoes, Isla reveals her full name is Isla Dax, and she is the latest host for the Trill we all knew in DS9. The most famous of Dax’s hosts was, of course, Jadzia (Terry Farrell), but over DS9‘s run, we learned of several generations of hosts: Lela, Tobin, Emony, Audrid, Torias, Joran, Curzon, Jadzia, Verad, and Ezri (Nicole de Boer), as well as alternative timeline host Yedrin. Star Trek Online also introduced a non-canonical 12th host – a female host who became Captain of the USS Enterprise-J. Now we have confirmation that Dax was still alive in the 32nd Century.
Benjamin Sisko Makes A Voice-Over Cameo in Starfleet Academy
In probably the most shocking reveal of the episode, the final moments of Starfleet Academy’s fifth episode feature the closest thing we’ll ever get to a Sisko return. Avery Brooks has now retired (as of 13 years ago), but his voice appears over the final moments of the episode, reading out a sort of poetic epitaph when SAM has learned her lesson from his legacy and Jake. The cameo wasn’t recorded for the episode; instead, cleverly, it was licensed from a spoken word album Brooks recorded back in 2007. You can read more about Sisko’s cameo here. Deep Space Nine really is forever.
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