Emmisary

[EnriqueH]

So I'm watching the franchise from start to finish, I just finished TNG's Chain of Command II and I just saw Emmisary (I plan to watch the rest of the franchise in chronological order).

I've already seen Seasons 1-3 and some of 4 and got sidetracked some years ago.

I remember when Emmisary premiered and I remember liking the characters of Sisko, Quark and Odo, but at 17, I don't think I was appreciating the concept very much. I also like Kai Opaka.

After a few years, I said DS9 was my LEAST favorite of the 4 Trek shows.

But how wrong I was.

LOVED Emmisary. It's very Star Trek.

My favorite moment: when Sisko explains linear existence to the prophets, an idealized version life, but the prophets challenged him: "If what you say is true, why do you live here?" taking him back to Jennifer's death.

Wow, what a punch to the stomach. What a dose of reality.

 

[doubleohfive]

That really is a great scene. "Emissary" is a really strong pilot also. (Certainly better than "Farpoint...")

I read a great essay years ago, that basically made the point that Deep Space Nine wasn't Star Trek, at it's core, but more than any of the other series it was able to truly show what Star Trek was supposed to be about and did so by not being Star Trek. I wish I could find it; that essay explains it much more eloquently.

 

[Bad Thoughts]

That really is a great scene. "Emissary" is a really strong pilot also. (Certainly better than "Farpoint...")

I read a great essay years ago, that basically made the point that Deep Space Nine wasn't Star Trek, at it's core, but more than any of the other series it was able to truly show what Star Trek was supposed to be about and did so by not being Star Trek. I wish I could find it; that essay explains it much more eloquently.

I believe that several people have made this argument in various ways. I like how Christopher Jones says that DS9 is much closer in spirit to TOS than TNG, which I think makes sense. The original series was not simply a reflection of Roddenberry's idealism: it was also a dialogue with pragmatism.

 

[Kobayshi Maru]

When I watch this episode for the umpteenth time, I am amazed at how much the concept of "prophets/wormhole aliens" has evolved throughout the series, I mean they began as these strange beings barely able to get the concept of time to the all powerful beings in season seven that hold the future of Bajor and even the quadrant in their hands. From barely knowing what made Sisko tick to being the planners of his conception and the meaning of his existence. Plus how many times did they have to get rid of the Kosst Amojan? It's like it keeps reappearing throughout the series with a different purpose each time... Well not exactly purpose but definitely between its possession of Jake and Keiko for example it managed to get rid of the red eyes and the spooky voice.

 

[mswood]

I really, like Emissary. It's easily the biggest character piece for an opening episode that Trek has ever done. It also gets to benefit from a spectacular opening, hitting one of (if not the) defining points of Trek to that point.

Really my only dislikes in this episode are:
1. That by having Sisko be so forceful in his hatred of Picard it made some in my family seriously dislike Sisko. Something that lasted with some of them up to the episode Explorers. Because the Trek audience (as opposed to any new audience) as had 5 and a half seasons with Picard, who was at that point very possibly the most explored character in tv trek.

2. Kira's hair. Luckily that changed with the very next episode.

3. Odo's makeup. It might have been my reception at the time, but I wanted Odo to look a little more alien. A very minor quibble.

Surprisingly I didn't mind the changes to the Trill either in makeup or in what the symbiote and host are.

Solid casting choices, each actor had enough material to have a moment. Production values for an above any Trek episode to date.

Immediately I was fond of Odo/ Quark, Kira, and Bashir, I already like O'Brien. Loved seeing a family man on Trek, especially nice seeing Trek not cast a caucasian male.

Though frankly I was always so surprised the media never seem to bring up either racial makeup of the commander when they talked about Lack of diversity in TV roles. Or how DS9 rarely was mentioned as a show that discussed religious issues on tv.
4 out of 5 stars.

 

[Lance]

I remember reading that Piller went back and used "Farpoint" as a guide to how to write Emissary. He came away from it with a few ideas that he thought strengthed the story, including the idea of holding back the introduction of several characters until later, so it wasn't so much of a deluge of characters in the first half (this manifested itself nicely, with Part 1 introducing the setting, Sisko, Kira, O'Brien, Odo and Quark; and then Part 2 adds Dax and Bashir to the mix in a very organic way; it doesn't feel forced).

This is a structure that it shares with "Farpoint".

One of the things that I think works so well about "Emissary" is that it seems to have been approached more like a movie than a pilot episode. The other NextTrek pilots all feel like, well, pilots for a series. "Emissary" could have stood on it's own and still held it's head proud. David Carson did a terrific job of realising that, and in some ways season one itself feels like a come-down after "Emissary"... but it doesn't stay that way for long.

 

[Kobayshi Maru]

Emmisary is an above average episode (vis a vis the series) in a rather dismal first season.

 

[mswood]

Yeah season starts out exceptionally well, and then it takes the last two episodes of the season to match that atoll quality. I know Duet gets a lot of love (and its a great show), but I also really love In the Hands of the Prophet, which I think is very nearly as good as Duet. And its certainly a more important part of DS9 growth.

 

[Kobayshi Maru]

Yeah season starts out exceptionally well, and then it takes the last two episodes of the season to match that atoll quality. I know Duet gets a lot of love (and its a great show), but I also really love In the Hands of the Prophet, which I think is very nearly as good as Duet. And its certainly a more important part of DS9 growth.

Yes, I agree that ITHOTP is a fairly good episode. I certainly didn't say the season was all bad.

 

[mswood]

No I was absolutely agreeing with you ( I might not use the term dismal), but season 1 outside of a few solid shows (like Captive Pursuits, Nagus, Past Prologue & Progess) doesn't have much to be positive about between Emissary at the very beginning and the final two episode of the season.

Thankfully (and unlike TNG) season two is for the most part a really strong season of Trek.

 

[YellowSubmarine]

I did not like how DS9 started with the introduction of new gods, just like TOS, TNG and Voyager did. Out of those, I did like it when TOS did it – it was so creepy it was good, but after that I would have preferred a simple start such as the one of Enterprise.

That being said, having beings living inside a wormhole is actually interesting. It is one of the cases where Trek has tried to come up with a cool concept for a being, but unlike creatures from subspace, this is from an object that is semi-compatible with our actual physical reality. So in a way, that would be similar to a being inhabiting a neutron star whose biology is based on nuclear reactions, or a similar being inhabiting a star. Both would be as weird as a gaseous lifeform that has evolved on a gas giant. And the exotic properties of wormholes make them exotic and substantially weirder.

However, I don't think the episode did it justice. The Gods and religious angle was somewhat off-putting to me – though it shouldn't have, because it was put to good use... eventually. And it felt as patchy as Encounter at Farpoint and VOY: The Caretaker. Perhaps the thing that actually bothered me was that Sisko's time spent inside the world of the aliens felt holodeckesque. At least to me. One small change and I would have probably loved it – have Sisko communicate with the beings through the runabout's comm system.

 

[q264]

Great pilot episode. I'm torn between "Emissary" and "Caretaker" as the best Trek openers but DS9 clearly takes the cake as things move beyond episode one. There are definitely some clunkers in DS9's first season ("Babel", "Move Along Home", "The Storyteller", "If Wishes Were Horses") but they really did a good job at setting up a rather complicated social/cultural/political/spiritual situation on Bajor while giving all the characters a solid and significant piece of the action. There isn't a Kim or Mayweather in the bunch. I never recognized that the TOS/TNG/DS9/VOY pilots all having God-like beings at their core, but it's true. I'd say the Prophets were better realized than the Q. As much as I think de Lancie is great, the Prophets are just inherently more compelling and built for better storytelling. I thought Sisko's way of communicating with them was also quite unique, however it prevented them from having a talented actor take up the role with notable dramatic gravitas. That element of the show was really left to Dukat who maybe hammed up that angle a little too much by Season 7. YMMV.

 

[EnriqueH]

Really my only dislikes in this episode are:
1. That by having Sisko be so forceful in his hatred of Picard it made some in my family seriously dislike Sisko. Something that lasted with some of them up to the episode Explorers. Because the Trek audience (as opposed to any new audience) as had 5 and a half seasons with Picard, who was at that point very possibly the most explored character in tv trek.

I forgot to mention this.

I understood Sisko's aversion to Picard, but it kinda bothers me that there was no resolution on this. It was left a little too open IMO. I liked that Picard's wall never came down following that first meeting.

Immediately I was fond of Odo/ Quark, Kira, and Bashir, I already like O'Brien. Loved seeing a family man on Trek, especially nice seeing Trek not cast a caucasian male.

Me too.

I didn't become a fan of the series until well after it ended, but at the time of its premiere, I remember enjoying the characterizations immediately, with the exception of Bashir who kinda grated on me a little bit with his relentless pursuit of Dax. Although I kinda get that it was done to make him seem young and eager in his life in general.

 

[Kobayshi Maru]

Well, I suppose, we all imagined that if there were alien cultures some of which extremely advanced vis a vis us then their technological achievements would seem like godlike powers to us. So it's certainly no surprise to me if St starships keep stumbling upon these kinds of creatures. So Trelane, the Q, the prophets, the caretaker and Future guy and the sphere builders in ENT (let's not forget that even Enterprise has its godlike creatures), they are all believable to me and not at all unwelcome as a plot device.

 

[Lance]

I liked the way the wormhole aliens were used as a religious symbol by the deeply sprititual Bajorans, while keeping our Starfleet officers rather more interested in them on scientific terms. Sisko doesn't really buy into the "Prophets As Gods" at this stage. He respects the Bajorans beliefs, but doesn't share them. He respects the wormhole aliens without wholeheartedly seeing them as Gods. I like that they brought religion into Star Trek without changing the essence of Star Trek (which had always been clincally distanced from such things). It allowed them to explore concepts that Star Trek hadn't before, because they could now to 'religion' stories from the point-of-view of certain characters who were, in fact, religious.

 

[Kobayshi Maru]

I liked the way the wormhole aliens were used as a religious symbol by the deeply sprititual Bajorans, while keeping our Starfleet officers rather more interested in them on scientific terms. Sisko doesn't really buy into the "Prophets As Gods" at this stage. He respects the Bajorans beliefs, but doesn't share them. He respects the wormhole aliens without wholeheartedly seeing them as Gods. I like that they brought religion into Star Trek without changing the essence of Star Trek (which had always been clincally distanced from such things). It allowed them to explore concepts that Star Trek hadn't before, because they could now to 'religion' stories from the point-of-view of certain characters who were, in fact, religious.

As a matter of fact Sisko is one of them, the prophets/wormhole aliens that is.

Something strikes me as funny. And that's Sisko is to the prophets pretty much what Odo is to the great link!

They both were sent to live among the solids/linears for a while and then came back among their own kind.

I wonder if other people noticed that.

 

[Lance]

I liked the way the wormhole aliens were used as a religious symbol by the deeply sprititual Bajorans, while keeping our Starfleet officers rather more interested in them on scientific terms. Sisko doesn't really buy into the "Prophets As Gods" at this stage. He respects the Bajorans beliefs, but doesn't share them. He respects the wormhole aliens without wholeheartedly seeing them as Gods. I like that they brought religion into Star Trek without changing the essence of Star Trek (which had always been clincally distanced from such things). It allowed them to explore concepts that Star Trek hadn't before, because they could now to 'religion' stories from the point-of-view of certain characters who were, in fact, religious.

As a matter of fact Sisko is one of them, the prophets/wormhole aliens that is.

Well, yes. But my point was, I guess, that Sisko wasn't aware of any of that during 'Emissary', and remained unaware of it for a long time to come. Most times he was uneasy about being the emissary until much later on when he started to embrace it..... and, in turn, embrace spirituality. In any case it opened up narrative possibilities that hadn't existed before in Star Trek.

 

[Kobayshi Maru]

There are even more similarities between Sisko and Odo:

Sisko saves his kind from the Pah Wraiths.

Odo saves his kind from a terminal disease.

Sisko convinces his kind to save Bajor and the federation by blocking the Wormhole.

Odo convinces his kind to spare the federation further deaths due to the continuation of the war.

Sisko returns to live among his kind indefinitely.

Odo ditto.

 

[dub]

^ Hadn't really thought of any of those correlations before. Cool!

 

[Kobayshi Maru]

^ Hadn't really thought of any of those correlations before. Cool!

Thanks.