SAM, emissaries, and the weight of destiny
The tribute really clicks because Starfleet Academy threads DS9’s emissary mythology through its own lead. Sentient photonic cadet SAM is dispatched as an emissary for her people and investigates Sisko’s fate. Kurtzman says, “It made a lot of sense” to honor Sisko “through the lens of a fellow emissary,” who is also trying to figure out “what it means to be an emissary.”
Kerrice Brooks, who portrays SAM, ties that journey directly to her own experience with loss. She describes the way “the manner in which Sisko met his end was beyond explanation,” and how her grandfather’s death felt “equally inexplicable,” creating a feeling that she was speaking to two presences at once when playing SAM. That fusion of personal grief and in‑universe spirituality is pure DS9, which built its reputation on characters navigating the murky overlap of faith, trauma, and destiny.