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This post contains spoilers for Star Trek: Starfleet Academy episode 5.
This Sisko has returned! Just… not in the way you might expect. The fifth episode of Starfleet Academy, “Series Acclimation Mil,” was indeed the much-vaunted “love letter” to Deep Space Nine, the oddball ’90s series that has become a favorite among Star Trek fans. The episode managed to pay loving tribute to the show in general and Captain Sisko in particular, complete with shots of his uniform, an appearance by Cirroc Lofton as a now-grown Jake Sisko, and even a recording of actor Avery Brooks’ voice. However, Sisko himself did not appear—heck, Brooks’ likeness didn’t even show up on screen.
Disappointing as that might be for DS9 fans tuning into Starfleet Academy, the TV series isn’t the only place to find Captain Benjamin Lafayette Sisko. Sisko’s return was a major part of the Star Trek ongoing comic book series that IDW launched in 2022. Written by Collin Kelly and Jackson Lanzing and illustrated by various artists, Star Trek gives Captain Sisko the homecoming he deserves.
As “Series Acclimation Mil” recounts, Sisko was chosen by the Prophets—aliens who lived within the wormhole outside of Deep Space Nine, and who were worshiped by the people of Bajor. At the end of the series, Sisko gets called away from the mortal plane by the Prophets, and is never heard from again. Within Starfleet Academy, he makes his presence known to Jake, but there’s no official record of his actions.
The Star Trek comic book series imagines something different, in part because of plot points from other shows. In the Next Generation season six episode “Rightful Heir,” we meet a clone of Kahless the Unforgettable, the mythical warrior king venerated by Klingons. That episode ends with a question of faith, indicating that the clone and those involved with creating the myth understand that Kahless is not a god. However, in the comic, everything has changed. The Kahless clone has decided to prove his worth by slaughtering the god-like beings of the Star Trek universe. And, as anyone who has watched The Original Series can tell you, Star Trek has a lot of god-like beings.
As god-like beings themselves, the Prophets worry about Kahless’ rampage, and so they bring Sisko back to the mortal plane to deal with the destroyer.
A lot of what follows could be dismissed as mere fan-service. On his new ship, the appropriately-named USS Theseus, Sisko assembles a team of all-stars, including Dr. Crusher and Data, Tom Paris from Voyager, and Scotty from TOS (still in the 24th century after the TNG episode “Relics”). Even Enterprise is represented in the form of Ensign Sato, a human-Andorian related to Hoshi. Across the issues that follow, the team meets other fan favorites—which eventually leads to a sister series called Star Trek: Defiant, following a team led by Worf that includes Lore, Spock, Ro Laren, and B’Elanna Torres.
And, of course, the series makes time for interpersonal moments that one would expect. Sisko’s disappearance at the end of Deep Space Nine, in which he abandons not just Jake, but also his new wife Kasidy Yates and his newborn daughter, always rubbed some people the wrong way, particularly Brooks himself. Issue #1 of Star Trek addresses that problem, making “Jake” the first word that the reconstituted Sisko speaks. Not only do we get a better idea of how little agency Sisko had in his disappearance, but we get a beautiful reunion between father and son in the form of a hug the two share on the station’s promenade.
Were Star Trek just moments such as these, it would be an enjoyable, but cloying comic. But the fan-service moments are secondary to a satisfying Star Trek adventure, one that combines the promise of exploration with the philosophical quandaries that made the franchise great.
As demonstrated in their work for DC and Marvel, especially the Guardians of the Galaxy and Kang the Conqueror runs they did for the latter, Kelly and Lanzing understand how to pepper their big, high-concept stories with plenty of action. The “When the Walls Fell” arc that runs across issues 25 through 30 is a particular highlight. The storyline takes full advantage of a rift and time and space to further play with Trek lore, bringing aboard a young Kirk and even taking a dip into the Kelvin timeline, while staying focused on Sisko’s conflicted feelings about his allegiances to the Prophets and Starfleet.
To its credit, “Series Acclimation Mil” refuses to deify Sisko. The episode is keenly aware of fans’ reverence for Sisko the character and Brooks’s performance, but it retains a playfulness that never lets the nods become too serious.
However, the Star Trek comic series does one better. Not only does it once again show us Sisko the man, it shows us Sisko the man in a complicated relationship to the gods. It brings him back into the Star Trek universe, but never in a way that feels expected or comfortable. The Star Trek comic a strange, idiosyncratic riff on Star Trek storytelling, just like Benjamin Sisko himself.
Star Trek: Starfleet Academy streams new episodes every Thursday on Paramount+.
The post Star Trek: Captain Sisko’s Best Return Happened in the Comics appeared first on Den of Geek.
