Top 20 Episodes of Star Trek Deep Space Nine #20. Emissary

What better place to start our countdown than with the very first episode. But before we get into that, allow me to give you a basic introduction to Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.

I think it's safe to say that most of you have at least a passing familiarity with Star Trek. Exlporers in the distant future where Earth has become a utopia and has joined a federation of planets to seek out new life and new civilizations and boldly go where no man has gone before. It's a fun little premise and made for good television for fifty years, but Deep Space Nine did things a little differently. After the Cardassian occupation of the planet Bajor came to an end, the Federation was brought in to aide with the restoration, using an abandoned mining station (renamed Deep Space Nine) as their base of operations. Leading things from the Federation end is Benjamin Sisko, combat hardened single father still realing from the loss of his wife during a battle against the Borg. While at first, Deep Space Nine seems like a dead-end assignment, but that soon changes when a stable wormhole to the Gamma quadrant, a previously unexplored section of space. Suddenly, this dingy old space station orbiting some backwater planet out in the space boonies is now the hub of all activity in the entire quadrant. However, just on the otherside of the Wormhole, danger is lurking. The Gamma quadrant is ruled by a malevolent force known as the dominion and anyone who crosses them, will feel the wrath of their gentically engineered super soldiers and nearly endless fleet of ships.

Joining Sisko is a whole host of interesting characters, including Kira, a former Bajoran freedom fighter and Sisko's second in command, Odo, the shape-shifting head of station security who's origins remain a mystery even to himself, Jadzia Dax, a Trill (a species that joins with symbiotic creatures and retains the memories of their previous hosts) who's previous host was a friend and mentor to Sisko, Miles O'Brian, the former transporter chief aboard the Enterprise now the chief of operations on Deep Space Nine, Julian Bashir, the suave yet highly intelligent medical officer who's excited to be practicing frontier medicine and finally, my favorite character in all of Star Trek, Quark, a Ferengi bartender who's always hatching a scheme to make profit.

Anywho, the episode itself. The episode naturally opens with Sisko arriving on Deep Space Nine, meeting his new colleagues and naturally, discovering the wormhole to the Gamma Quadrant. However, what I didn't tell you is that, inside the wormhole, live the Prophets, celestial aliens whom the Bajorans worship as their diety. At first, they see Sisko as a threat, as they have no way concept of things we humans take for granted such as corporeal existence or linear time. The scenes in which Sisko interacts with the Prophets are easily the highlight of the episode, speaking to him through images of his past and people in his life, and ultimately, helping him finally accept the loss of his wife.

Emissary is a great set up for Deep Space Nine and it's premise, introducing us to the charcters, and giving us an interesting premise to latch on to. It tells us right away that this will not be the Star Trek we're used to, it's something new and different that will take risks and, if I may be cheesy for a moment, will boldy take the franchise where it has never gone before. Next time, we jump ahead to season 5 to sort out a problem with the Klingons.