What happened to Benjamin Sisko? This is the question SAM (Kerrice Brooks) becomes determined to solve once she learns that, like her, he was considered an emissary.
“Series Acclimation Mil” is our first real examination of SAM, but what makes it unique among the five episodes so far is it’s the first to lean heavily on previous Trek lore. To its credit, the audience doesn’t need to have seen Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (DS9) as enough information is provided for new viewers. Though Cirroc Lofton’s cameo reprising Jake Sisko as well as the reveal that the episode’s co-writer — as well as the voice of Beckett Mariner on Star Trek: Lower Decks — Tawny Newsome was playing the current Dax host are pleasant surprises for long-time fans. As was the familiar voice that delivers the episode’s closing lines.
It’s because of these connections to DS9 that this will likely be a divisive entry depending on how much previous franchise mythology you want in your new Trek. Generally, I’m on the side of less franchise callbacks, but I’ll tolerate the occasional deep dive into Trek’s past if it’s in service of a compelling story that also doesn’t sideline that series’ cast in their own show.
Here, I think writers Kirsten Beyer and Tawny Newsome mostly succeed. I don’t know if the producers planned on more involvement from Avery Brooks that might have explicitly answered the tantalizing thesis question of the cold open, but I’m grateful “Series Acclimation Mil” leaves those details a mystery. Star Trek: Starfleet Academy isn’t about solving the unanswered questions of past series — or at least it shouldn’t be. That’s why I’m pleased this Benjamin Sisko quest, that also features Jake Sisko and Isla Dax, is framed as being more about SAM’s journey of self discovery.
It’s because the audience is so thoroughly in SAM’s perspective here that the writers as well as Director Larry Teng engage in occasional flights of fancy in the form of words and graphics popping up on the screen. Even before the episode starts, the CBS Studios Production logo is crossed out and the words “A Story About Me” appears in crayon with a crudely drawn girl stick figure.
This feels somewhat derivative of the recent Ms. Marvel streaming series, which then carried over this device a bit into that titular character’s next appearance in the film The Marvels. I only wish that, if they were going to borrow the gimmick, that they used it more consistently throughout. Instead, we get inundated with these graphical flourishes at the start to the point of distraction and then Teng and the writers forget about it.
The B-story involving Captain Ake’s attempts to end her feud with her War College counterpart Commander Kelric doesn’t entirely work either. It’s mostly played for farce, but the main plot already has enough comedic beats, so there’s no need for a goofy subplot as a palette cleanser. Still, it manages to show another side of Kelric, who up until now, has been largely reduced to the joyless foil serving mostly as contrast to Ake’s kooky, freewheeling nature. We do learn though that some of Kelric’s animosity toward Ake stems from feeling she abandoned Starfleet when she resigned.
But while the two chancellors try to play nice, the cadets of both schools continue to fight. Literally this week as a drunken SAM (thanks to Caleb’s tweaking of her programming) starts a bar brawl. Disappointingly though, that brawl mostly occurs off screen, so we’re deprived of a full “The Trouble With Tribbles”-style throw-down. Of course, not all the cadets are at war. Caleb and Tarima share a kiss this week, and Jay-Den and Kyle seemed happy to spend time together.
Photo: Brooke Palmer/Paramount+
Tig Notaro and Robert Picardo make the best of their screen time in the subplot and rarely fail to deliver a laugh, but Picardo’s real moment to shine came in his brief scene alone with SAM in the infirmary. Last week, Klingon teacher Lura Thok played mentor to a Klingon cadet, so one might expect a similar moment here where The Doctor imparts wisdom onto the photonic/holographic cadet.
SAM, still thinking about Benjamin Sisko being ripped away from his loved ones by the Prophets of Bajor, asks the Doctor how can you overcome loss. Instead of sage advice though, the Doctor breaks from his usual comedic persona and just replies, “You can, and you do.” Picardo brilliantly plays this moment with a sharp, bitter tone that reminds us of everyone we know he cared about — particularly the Voyager crew — who are all long dead.
But the stand-out moments this week are the two scenes featuring Cirroc Lofton reprising the role of Jake Sisko. Long-time Trek fans will recognize the name of Jake’s unpublished novel “Anslem.” This is the book he began writing but didn’t finish in the DS9 episode “The Muse.” The novel was also completed in the alternate timeline of “The Visitor.”
In that timeline, similar to what would eventually happen in the Prime timeline, Jake’s father was taken prematurely from him in an ambiguous state where Benjamin was still alive but missed out on most of his son’s life. “Anslem,” we’re told is the Bajoran word for “father,” so it tracks that Jake might have produced a similar work in a reality where Benjamin left Jake behind to join the Bajoran Prophets in “The Celestial Temple.”
“Series Acclimation Mil” succeeds because it isn’t content to merely deliver fan service but to use its DS9 elements and the quest to solve what happened to Benjamin Sisko as a jumping off point for SAM’s personal journey towards self-actualization and independence from her “makers” on the planet Kasq.
But what makes it good Star Trek is its exploration of the question of fate versus free will. If Benjamin Sisko was created by the Prophets or wormhole aliens — and if he was simply destined to perform the actions he did — did he have any agency at all? Sisko loved creole cuisine. “I bet The Celestial Temple doesn’t even have shrimp and grits,” SAM surmises. She is saddened by the prospect of him being ripped away from everything he cared about. Aren’t the Prophets cruel then?
The spectral version of Jake that seems mysteriously connected to the Anslem book doesn’t see it that way though. Without the Prophets, he says, Benjamin doesn’t exist and neither does Jake. Jake notes that Benjamin still chose to marry Cassidy Yates despite the Prophets warning against it.
“He did what the Prophets needed, but he did it his way,” Jake says. “The Prophets were wrong sometimes. As much as they taught him, he taught them too, by staying true to himself. The episode began with SAM asking what happened to Benjamin Sisko. SAM comes to realize though it doesn’t matter because the search for Sisko itself helped her to see her makers can’t control her and, like Sisko, she too has the power to both make her own choices and still complete her mission. And from now on, she’s going to do it her way.
New episodes of Star Trek: Starfleet Academy release Thursdays on Paramount+.
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