Star Trek 289: Emissary

289. Emissary

FORMULA: The Best of Both Worlds + Ensign Ro + The Wounded + Encounter at Farpoint + retroactively All Good Things with elements from The Final Frontier, The Host, The Last Outpost and The Corbomite Maneuver

WHY WE LIKE IT: The best Trek ever starts... NOW!

WHY WE DON'T: Fighting cast members.

REVIEW: With over 5 years of experience under their belts, the Modern Trek folks pull off a more confident and assured series premiere than TNG's in Emissary, a show promises to be very different from Next Gen. Too different? For one thing, it takes place at a stationary base with no big iconic ship in sight. But I think Sisko makes a good point to the Prophets in the climax: "We're explorers, we explore our lives day by day..." Though there's a new quadrant a stone's throw away, DS9 will be about exploring one environment. As an audience, we'll be exploring these characters and their neighbors, the local culture, and their roles in it. With hindsight, we might say that other Treks changed locales every week, but on DS9, it's the characters and their situation that changed.

Another different is the look. The smooth reflective pastel surfaces of the Federation are relegated to a couple runabouts (basically just pimped out shuttles named after rivers), and we're into Cardassian architecture instead. Elegant yet creepy curves and impressive two-storied sets, lots of shadows and negative spaces. The station itself is presented in the opening sequence as a strange jewel in the sky. I think it's really cool, and the music is the first new theme Trek's gotten in years. It's melancholy yet uplifting, much like the show.

And then there's the tone. Roddenberry's "everyone gets along in the future" policy is subverted by populating the cast with non-Starfleet characters. These people have different agendas and opinions, they don't see eye to eye and may not be happy to work together. Cumulatively, I seem to remember the first season as the one where they always fight, but in practice, that's hardly the case. The characters don't have an immediate and implicit trust between them, and that's a lot more realistic. We're watching them grow, and are invited to give them a chance. Because the creators are pretty bold in daring us to like these guys...

For one thing, by the time this came out (and certainly now in the way I've scheduled these reviews), we're well in love with the TNG cast, so comparisons become second nature. Sisko is a commander, not a captain, which means we automatically think less of him, and though his anger at Picard for the Wolf 359 incident is understandable, our new hero is starting out at an antagonist to the captain we do know and like. Despite all that, Sisko is a complex character, at once amused and disconsolate over his situation, depending on the moment. He's a man who's been asked to build a community and he's quite able to make the rules up as he goes along. I'll admit that Avery Brooks has an unusual acting style, with strange mouth and head movements, but he feels real enough. And he's got a young son who, thankfully, isn't the new Wesley. Jake isn't some wunderkin boy genius, he's just a kid, and the father-son relationship here is one of the best things about Sisko.

What we have to forgive Major Kira is that she isn't Ro Laren, which is hardly her fault. Her anger is more out there than Ro's, and yes, she can be a bit strident, but her bluffing the Cardassians out by wasting all her torpedoes is just the kind of dramatic maneuver I like to see. She's really not that irritating and has her heart in the right place. Odo is another gruff character that you're meant to like only because he has a cool "power", but his no-nonsense attitude is there right from the start, and he comes out aces. His foil will be Quark, a Ferengi (oh that most ridiculous and hated race), and again, another surprising hit. Armin Shimmerman was one of the first Ferengi and he's come a long way in portraying the diminutive merchants. Quark is incredibly charming right from the start, which is tough to do given the make-up and reputation. In the background are Morn and Rom, who haven't yet even gotten names, and Nog, Quark's no good nephew.

On the Starfleet side, O'Brien is our identification figure, not just because he's the only character we already know, but because he's so down to earth. He gets right in there, kicking consoles, cursing the bloody Cardies and basically acting as the resident miracle worker. Which doesn't help Bashir whom O'Brien immediately takes a disliking to. The enthusiastic young doctor is the polar opposite of the practical career man engineer after all. Julian spends most of the pilot with his foot in his mouth, but it's great fun (especially the frontier medicine business). The science officer is Dax, a joined Trill in a brand new body who has been Sisko's mentor in an earlier life. Interesting dynamic only hinted at here, and aren't we glad they switched the Trill make-up to Kamala's? Really, you better forget everything you knew about the Trill from The Host (from the look to the transporter weakness), because only the concept and name truly remain.

Off-station, we have the Cardassians, represented most ably by the very first actor to portray the slimy race, Marc Alaimo AKA Gul Dukat. Dukat says one thing and means another, setting the tone for all that is to come. Part of Sisko's job is maneuvering in this political environment, and the Cardassians will certainly prove to be interesting "politicians" in the Romulan mold. Bajor's also part of this, a world torn between spirituality and terrorism, rebuilding but on the cusp of civil war. Kai Opaka is our introduction to the spiritual side (Kira to the other), and to Sisko's destiny (though it will take a number of episodes before this Emissary business is mentioned again). There's definitely something going on here, especially with that creepy priest stalking Sisko at opportune moments.

That destiny, in it most secular terms, is the discovery of the Wormhole and the Prophets that live within. I've put a lot of thought into how the "timeline" works in relation to the Prophets over the years, and I think the best way to think about them is this: They are timeless, and live outside time as we know it. They are aware of their entire existence simultaneously. Whenever we access them, or they access us, it may be at any point in their existence (Sisko accessed them "first"). Whenever they are accessed, it disrupts their existence and changes it, with all consequences simultaneous. This explains how they feel a destructive disruption when someone goes through the Wormhole. It changes EVERYTHING. And it's also how Sisko can teach them about linear existence when, after all, he should already be among them... or is it just going through the motions?

In any case, what a great way to explore the Sisko character! The Prophets allow us to visit different points in his life, how his loss of Jennifer has impacted him ("You exist here."), uses baseball in a useful way and not just as Michael Piller's fetish, and all in all, produces an incredibly emotional series premiere. The creators could have been content with a simple Wormhole discovery, opening up a new quadrant for exploration, but giving it a personal and mystical resonance, linking it closely with Bajor, that signals a greater plan at work.

Some props to the effects department: The Wormhole is beautiful, looking almost like the opening hand of God. The opening sequence at Wolf 359 is incredible, with amazing model ship work and an eye-popping escape pod release (great idea to start this series in the middle of the best TNG episode ever). The opening sequence with our entering the tail of a comet is beautiful. And though very simple, I love how ships start arriving to DS9 at the very end of the episode, now a hub of activity.

LESSON: Bajoran women wear the pants in the family.

REWATCHABILITY - High: I've made no secret of my preference for this series over all others, but I can confidently say that it's objectively a far more mature premiere than any we've had before. There's a different ethos at work, Ira Steven Behr's, and it's more modern and implicitly dramatic than what went before.