Star Trek: Deep Space Nine — 1x01 — Emissary, Part I
Synopsis
On a distant outpost at the edge of the final frontier, an untested crew embarks on an unprecedented journey.
Filler rating: not filler
Not filler by virtue of being the pilot.
Remarkable scenes
- Seeing Sisko as first officer of the Saratoga fighting the Borg.
- Viewing the destruction of the Saratoga from the escape pod.
- The first sight of DS9, orbiting Bajor.
- The DS9 intro, my favorite of all the Star Trek intros.
- O'Brien and Sisko discussing the poor state of the station.
- O'Brien asking Sisko if he had ever served with Bajoran women. O'Brien remembered how feisty Ro Laren could get. ;)
- Kira's adversarial first meeting with Sisko.
- Odo's first scene; a shape shifter!
- Odo's first line to Sisko: "Who the hell are you?"
- Picard: "Have we met before?" Sisko: "Yes sir, we've met in battle."
- Picard disturbed, trying to ignore Sisko's angry attitude.
- Quark complaining that he can't run his establishment under Federation rules, and Sisko telling Quark that he'll bend the rules because the station is owned by Bajor, not the Federation.
- Sisko's meeting with the Kai. Opaka: "Ironic. One who does not wish to be among us is to be the Emissary."
- Sisko's first orb experience, freaking out about meeting his wife again for the first time.
- Jennifer: "Do you use this routine a lot with women?" Sisko: "No. Never before. And never again."
- Opaka's confidence in Sisko.
- Bashir's first scene... trying to seduce Jadzia.
- Sisko's first discussion with Dax.
- Bashir's faux pas with Kira.
- Sisko's first use of the nickname "old man" for Dax.
- Dax having an orb experience, flashbacking to Curzon's death.
- Dukat's first scene.
- Dax discovering the wormhole.
- Odo sneaking aboard the Cardassian shp, as the bag for the Cardassians' game winnings.
- The first sighting of a runabout class vessel.
- Morn appearances; 1. When Sisko enters Quark's Bar for the first time. 2. gambling with the Cardassians at the Dabo table. 3. In the crowd Odo is moving when the station is attacked.
Review
Probably the most remarkable first episode for a Star Trek series ever. This is a complex episode with oodles of internal continuity and nice small details. It opens with an absolutely stunning flashback scene of Sisko fighting the Borg as first officer of the Saratoga, in which Sisko's wife, Jennifer dies. There are some small things I liked a lot about this scene. The whole scene was perfectly tied into the look and feel of TNG. They could have inserted the whole scene into TNG: The Best of Both Worlds and it would have fit in seamlessly. That said, this episode plays well into modern (season 6) TNG as well, since it picks up on the story displayed in TNG: Chain of Command. Cardassia has withdrawn from Bajor, and they need help from the Federation. So Sisko is assigned to take command of the ore processing slave labor station in orbit of the planet, which they planned to convert to a center of interplanetary operations to oversee the rebuilding of Bajoran society. Since the station is under Federation control, despite now being owned by the Bajorans, it has been designated Federation Deep Space Station 9, or Deep Space 9. This premise is complex, but not overly so. Additionally, the smaller TNG continuity bits are great. O'Brien gets promoted to Chief of Operations of DS9, so both O'Brien and Keiko move the DS9 show on which O'Brien becomes a main character! Also, Sisko's confrontation with Picard adds some flare to the episode. Finally, this episode ends with a marvelous cliffhanger; Sisko trying to investigate the Celestial Temple on behalf of the Bajorans. But to do so he must elude the maliciously close-by Cardassians.