Star Trek: Starfleet Academy’s Deep Space Nine tribute episode didn’t just fall into place; for co-writer Tawny Newsome, getting it made was, in her words, a “gargantuan feat.” From the moment the idea solidified that this show would finally circle back to Benjamin and Jake Sisko, she knew it couldn’t be done casually or quickly, and she wasn’t going to attempt it alone. Newsome said in an interview via TrekMovie.com:
"He’s [Cirroc Lofton] amazing. He is incredible… And yeah, Cirroc and I were on the phone and at lunches for months and months and months and months trying to figure out how we could get this done. Getting the episode made was such a gargantuan feat, and I have had so many partners locked arm in arm in battle."
Newsome continued by saying:
"Between [co-showrunners] Noga Landau and Alex [Kurtzman], Cirroc, [executive producer] Aaron Baiers. My co-writer, Kirsten Beyer, who’s been such a fierce advocate from the jump. So many people came to my aid to help me push this thing through."
That quote comes in response to a question about whether she talked to Cirroc Lofton before writing the episode, and it underlines how collaborative this DS9 love letter really was. Lofton wasn’t just brought in to show up as Jake.
He was a long-term sounding board as Newsome and co-writer Kirsten Beyer worked out how to revisit Sisko in a way that honored both the character and the fans who have lived with that ending since “What You Leave Behind.”
On top of that, showrunners Alex Kurtzman and Noga Landau, plus executive producer Aaron Baiers, are framed less like distant bosses and more like comrades “locked arm in arm in battle” to push this very specific, very DS9-centric story through the pipeline.
From a DS9 fan perspective, that’s the most encouraging part of this whole rollout. For years, it has felt like Sisko and his family occupied a blind spot in modern Trek, respected, sure, but rarely centered. Hearing that Starfleet Academy’s creative team spent months in conversation with Lofton, and that Newsome needed an entire coalition of advocates just to get this one episode over the line, tells you how fragile and hard-won DS9 representation still is behind the scenes.
You can debate the episode’s individual choices, but the process she describes, a writers’ room willing to fight, plead, and collaborate to make a Sisko-focused hour happen, feels very much in the DS9 tradition: messy, determined, and powered by people who refuse to let this corner of the franchise fade into background canon.
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