Star Trek: Starfleet Academy and the Novels

[Michael]

I dunno, the way the graphic is phrased strongly suggests that Sisko's fate is still an "unexplainable" mystery. Speaking as a former history major, I don't recall any course syllabus ever describing a course about a known historical event in terms implying that it was an open question. An advertiser concocting a promo for some sensationalist cable-TV pseudohistory show would have no compunctions about writing such misleading copy, but you wouldn't find it in an academic setting. A course description would acknowledge what is known and say that its specifics and meaning would be examined, but it wouldn't ask elementary questions about whether it happened at all.

Interesting. And I will admit that in reality you probably might not find advertising language on a poster for an academic course. All I’m saying is that there’s room for multiple interpretations of what that poster means and that it’s certainly not saying anything definitive about what Sisko’s fate ended up being. Plus, this is on a screen, so for all we know a moment later the text flashes and says “Newly uncovered evidence suggest that previous assumptions about Benjamin Sisko’s fate might have been incorrect.”

 

[Lone Iguana]

As I’m sure somebody else has already pointed out, it does not necessarily mean that. This appears to be a screen advertising some course, and I’m sure the idea is that those lines are just meant to get you interested in learning about Sisko’s fate. It doesn’t mean that he never returned nor that it isn’t known.

If Sisko's fate was an established historical fact, any cadet worth their salt would get on Space Wikipedia and learn the answer before even signing up for the class.

Also the text at the top of the display says "confronting the unexplainable," which strongly suggests that whatever happened with Sisko, Federation historians find it, well...unexplainable. "He came back three months later and retired to Bajor" would not really fall into that category.

Speaking as a former history major, I don't recall any course syllabus ever describing a course about a known historical event in terms implying that it was an open question.

"Did Napoleon win the battle of Waterloo? Uh-uh-uh! No spoilers!"

 

[Christopher]

Interesting. And I will admit that in reality you probably might not find advertising language on a poster for an academic course. All I’m saying is that there’s room for multiple interpretations of what that poster means and that it’s certainly not saying anything definitive about what Sisko’s fate ended up being. Plus, this is on a screen, so for all we know a moment later the text flashes and says “Newly uncovered evidence suggest that previous assumptions about Benjamin Sisko’s fate might have been incorrect.”

I think that's bending over backward to concoct a rationalization at odds with the clearly implied intent of the passage. No amount of speculation on our part can alter the intentions of the show's writers. If that one poster is the only time the show ever addresses the question, then maybe it will stay vague enough that we can take refuge in the ambiguity, but the very fact that they wrote it that way implies that they believe Sisko never returned, and that's what they'll assert if it should come up again in the show. They're the ones making the show, not us, so our preferred interpretations are irrelevant. We can only observe the evidence and try to objectively evaluate what it suggests about their intentions.

 

[Lone Iguana]

The most interesting aspect of that display to me is that a Starfleet text is referring to the Bajoran wormhole as the "Celestial Temple." In the DS9 era most Starfleet personnel stuck to referring to the Prophets as "wormhole aliens" and they did a whole episode about how Keiko refused to call the wormhole the Celestial Temple in her class at the station school. Wonder what this says about Starfleet's current attitude toward the Bajoran religion.

 

[Michael]

Well, we can assume whatever we want. And it could certainly be the intended interpretation that he never came back. But as I said, I was merely talking about whether it left enough wiggle room to also be interpreted differently and possibly be ignored. The question is, if they would now do a story where it is revealed that Sisko came back 400 years after he disappeared, would the existence of that poster in Starfleet Academy really mean the writers would contradict any established continuity?

Not to mention the possibility that Sisko did come back, but that it was somehow not part of recorded history. The poster could also just be wrong, is what I mean.

 

[Christopher]

and they did a whole episode about how Keiko refused to call the wormhole the Celestial Temple in her class at the station school.

That's misrepresenting the facts the same way Kai Winn did. Keiko didn't refuse to call it that; she was just teaching a science class at the time rather than a Bajoran history or religion class, so it was the wrong place to address that topic. The episode absolutely was not about Keiko's attitude; it was about how people like Kai Winn used inflammatory propaganda and the pretense of religious piety to advance their political agendas, pushing their own intolerance by claiming they're the ones being persecuted by the mere existence of other points of view.

 

[Lone Iguana]

That's misrepresenting the facts the same way Kai Winn did. Keiko didn't refuse to call it that; she was just teaching a science class at the time rather than a Bajoran history or religion class, so it was the wrong place to address that topic. The episode absolutely was not about Keiko's attitude; it was about how people like Kai Winn used inflammatory propaganda and the pretense of religious piety to advance their political agendas, pushing their own intolerance by claiming they're the ones being persecuted by the mere existence of other points of view.

Ok, fine. Yikes.

 

[The Wormhole]

The most interesting aspect of that display to me is that a Starfleet text is referring to the Bajoran wormhole as the "Celestial Temple." In the DS9 era most Starfleet personnel stuck to referring to the Prophets as "wormhole aliens" and they did a whole episode about how Keiko refused to call the wormhole the Celestial Temple in her class at the station school. Wonder what this says about Starfleet's current attitude toward the Bajoran religion.

Well, this series does take place in an era where Bajor is a Federation member and the current Federation President is part Bajoran.