How planned the EMISSARY thing was?

[JesterFace]

In the pilot episode Ben becomes the Emissary.

Were there any plans as to what that Emissary business might be?
I bet there were some ideas but I guess they didn't think what the Emissary would do in the final episode if anything?
Was is planned ahead that Ben is a prophet? He did become a prophet/wormhole alien, right?

Was the Emissary thing a foundation that the writers could later visit?
Or, maybe Behr had it all planned from the start?

 

[MacLeod]

I thought the key to writing a TV show was to make it up as you go along, plans are losers.

Jesting aside, I doubt they had too much planned for where the arc would take them.

 

[Bad Thoughts]

I thought the key to writing a TV show was to make it up as you go along, plans are losers.

Jesting aside, I doubt they had too much planned for where the arc would take them.

As the Yiddish saying goes, "Man plans, God laughs."

 

[Bad Thoughts]

Was the Emissary thing a foundation that the writers could later visit?
Or, maybe Behr had it all planned from the start?

Behr wasn't involved in the creation of the show. That was Piller, with support from Berman. I think that Piller had a lot of ideas that were thrown into the pilot without a lot of forethought as to how they would be implemented in the long run. The Emissary was always intended to be the Space (Black) Moses, but it,like many things, got lost early on because Behr and his writers and the freelancers they hired didn't have access to the pilot until very late. I think it became easy to write Sisko as being uncomfortable with the Emissary role. What changed toward the end of the second season was that both Piller and Behr dedicate themselves to recentering the show on Sisko, making him a fuller character. The Emissary role was a natural aspect to develop.

 

[The Wormhole]

Hell, throughout the first season there are many times when we see other Bajorans interacting with Sisko and not showing him any deference at all, a stark contrast to how by season 3 being the Emissary actually meant something.

 

[Tenacity]

Sisko being the Emissary might not have been known to the general public initially, and not everyone who knew immediately accepted him as such.

 

[Nakita Akita]

It's one of the aspects of the show that I enjoy the most.
Planned or not I think it gave a cohesiveness to the series instead of just sort of aimless occurances each week.

 

[JesterFace]

In the end, was the emissary thing just to push an evil guy (Dukat) off the cliff?

 

[Bad Thoughts]

The Emissary was to stop the release of the Pah Wraiths. How he did it was not clear. The Prophets were not omniscient.

 

[Sakonna]

I'm nearing the end of a season 1 DS9 rewatch, I've been going along with the Greatest Generation podcast as they watch through the season (that pod is great, BTW, I always want to talk it up, it's hilarious! People should check it out)

One thing that has struck me was just how not-thought-out the Emissary thing was, since it's barely mentioned from "Emissary" until the finale. I think it's referenced in passing only twice, and there's sooooo many more times when it should come up.

But I've always thought the charm with DS9 was how they really did make it up as they went along, and that went right for them far more frequently than it went wrong. It's that whole spirit of on-the-fly invention that gives DS9 it's shape more than anything else. I think the Emissary arc is one of DS9's great successes, so I'm glad they were open to making the implications of it so big in the later seasons, even though it didn't track perfectly with their setup.

 

[Bad Thoughts]

One thing that has struck me was just how not-thought-out the Emissary thing was, since it's barely mentioned from "Emissary" until the finale. I think it's referenced in passing only twice, and there's sooooo many more times when it should come up.

The Emissary thing wasn't mentioned at all in the show's bible, the only document that the producers had for writers when they were soliciting story pitches in the first year. I suspect that they were not even told about it in order to keep the surprise about the Emissary, the Prophets and the wormhole a secret. It would explain why the Emissary thing was only brought up in two other episodes in season one.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

In the end, was the emissary thing just to push an evil guy (Dukat) off the cliff?

Not clear, that was the end goal but it seemed in Rapture the Prophets were surprised when Winn interfered. Perhaps Sarah Prophet had a different body of knowledge than Wormhole Prophets, and she was stashed away as a contingency?