Deep Space Nine
| Season
1
Rating:
   
Reviewed on: 1 April 2003
Reviewed by: Michael Axe
A brilliant pilot episode, Emissary successfully introduces all the main characters, establishes the setting, and lays a surprisingly large amount of groundwork for all that was to follow. The story manages to fulfil its purpose as an introduction to the show, while still being an entertaining and original episode in its own right.
By far the best of the Star Trek pilots.
Pilot episodes are often just there to perform a function – introduce the characters and the concept of the show, and have a showy finale to impress everyone. Emissary breaks the mould by actually telling a damn good, and unusual, story as well as introducing all the necessary elements.
At its core, it is a story about a man who has lost his wife in a sudden and unexpected accident, and who has not been able to emotionally move on from that loss. Ben Sisko continues to care for his son, Jake, and takes his new assignment as DS9’s commander – but in his heart, he is not really ready to commit to anything new, but can’t understand why.
All this changes when he meets the Prophets, beings who the Bajoran people worship as gods. The Prophets are in fact the most original idea for an alien race I have seen in years – or maybe ever. They are entities or consciousness with no physical presence, which in itself isn’t particularly new. But the uniqueness of the Prophets is that they exist outside of “linear time”, in that they have no concept of past, present or future. As Sisko tries to explain simple concepts like sport or growing older to a species that just exist, he also is shown what he has been unable to admit before – that despite his claim to live a linear existence, in his heart, he has been living in the past, at the moment when his wife died. This realisation finally allows him to move on, and begin to create a new life for himself and his son on DS9.
The Prophets themselves are an incredible literary creation, and the idea that they learn from Sisko while Sisko also gains insight into himself from them is a theme that is carried on throughout the show’s seven seasons. It certainly has a lot more depth than your average “action-hour” type of pilots.
Of course there is still plenty of drama and tension. The corner of the universe where DS9 and Bajor reside is set up perfectly in this episode, even if you’ve never seen any Next Generation episodes with Bajor or Cardassia before. The Bajoran people are fleshed out nicely here, as is their recent history and current political climate. The Cardassians, unfortunately, are left a little thinly developed, but there is only so much you can do in one double episode. At least we are introduced to Gul Dukat, who will continue to be a pivotal character over the next seven years, and who has a chance to make a memorably unsettling entrance here.
The plot involving the discovery of the wormhole is obviously designed to set up the premise of the show, but also works well in the confines of this single episode. Once again, Sisko’s relationship to Bajoran religion and his status as “Emissary of the Prophets” will be a theme throughout the show’s seven year run. The confrontation with the Cardassians over the wormhole adds the necessary drama quotient, but without degenerating into mindless action. A lesser show would have just gone with a giant shoot-out – but here we see that DS9 can barely hold itself together, and despite everything, it cannot defeat the Cardassians on its own. Once again, this is a refreshingly original move for a pilot episode.
There are many, many other credit-worthy aspects – the anti-Federation attitude of Major Kira, Sisko’s Bajoran second-in-command – the irritating eagerness of Doctor Bashir – the cross-over aspects with Picard, Sisko and O’Brien (which works really well and doesn’t feel tacked on) – the development of Quark and his relationship with Odo – and countless other gems…
The truth is, although the pacing may be a little off in a couple of places, and the Cardassians are a bit too generically evil at this stage, this is a brilliant, original and fresh interpretation of the Star Trek universe, and it is incredible to look back and see how much they actually manager to cram in to 90 minutes of television.
While it may not be perfect, you’ll be hard pushed to find a better pilot/introductory episode anywhere else.
Michael Axe is the author of a number of novellas and screenplays, and is a main reviewer for ST Universe. All his reviews are copyright © Michael Axe and are used here exclusively with his permission. |
