As the Star Trek universe expands, creating links to past series becomes more important. Narrative connections and callbacks please fans, and Star Trek: Starfleet Academy producer, writer, and actor Tawny Newsome realized this as she helped create the fifth episode, "Series Acclimation Mil." In it, SAM, the emissary of the Kasq, searches for the Emissary Benjamin Sisko, who left with the Bajoran prophets centuries earlier.
Newsome discussed this episode at Trek Talks 5, a virtual eight-hour collection of panels to benefit the Hollywood Food Coalition. Paired with Gates McFadden, Newsome said (per TrekMovie.com): “It started as this idea where all of the students were going to be taking a test, and they all had to learn about different captains from the past, and we have some character learning about the captains we know, and then also some captains from the canon that we were going to build out, like some new names."
Newsome continued by saying:
"And then I think we decided we just needed to focus on one captain, and a lot of ideas were thrown out. And because I’m such a Deep Space Nine fan, and because I’ve been pretty vocal about that show, in particular, not getting as much attention in modern Trek, I was pretty adamant from the beginning that it needed to be a Sisko story. And also the fact that we kept calling SAM an emissary for her people. I was like, we can’t say the word ’emissary’ 40 times in this episode and not have it be about Sisko. That’s crazy.”
Newsome's decision was wise, as Deep Space Nine is one of the most popular Star Trek series, and Sisko's connection with the Bajoran prophets was a compelling story thread that weaved its way throughout the classic show's narrative.
In episode 5 of SFA, SAM seeks out Sisko's ultimate fate to earn her place in a class taught by Illa Dax, (Newsome), the current host of the symbiont who worked with Sisko for many years.
Although SAM is an emissary for her people, she finds the role difficult to embrace because of the restrictions her elders put upon her. She struggles to unravel the mystery of Sisko's disappearance while facing the challenges of her position and her duty to Kasq.
While SAM was sent by her people to study humanity, Ben Sisko became the Bajoran Emissary because the religious leader of their people claimed him so. Despite this, he still must answer to Starfleet and maintain Federation presence to press their growing control over the station after the events of the Cardassian occupation.
Sisko struggles with his title among the believers of Bajor, but he has experience, wisdom, intelligence, and a bold temperament to give him an edge over SAM, who's only now discovering how to handle her position.
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