Articles
How Star Trek Just Brought Captain Sisko Back for The Perfect Tribute, 13 Years After Avery Brooks Retired
The history of Star Trek‘s Captain Benjamin Sisko is an interesting thing to reflect on in 2026. The Deep Space Nine legend has been missing for almost 30 years, thanks to his DS9 ending sending him off on a new adventure as Emissary to the Prophets, but his iconic status has only grown since. Given the way new Trek shows are welcomed by genuine diehard fans (and not an insignificant number of bad-faith agents), the fact that Sisko’s story was also unpopular at first, and divisive for its progressiveness and difference, is also ironic. And, shockingly, the two things have come together. Warning: This article contains SPOILERS for Starfleet Academy episode 5.
Unfortunately, the chances of a Sisko stand-alone series that explores the Emissary’s post-Deep Space Nine life with the god-like alien race are slimmer than nonexistent. Avery Brooks retired from acting around 2013, and no Star Trek creatives ever seemed particularly interested in wrapping up his final mystery by actually revealing what he learned from the Prophets. But, Starfleet Academy has now confirmed that Sisko never returned (at least up to the 32nd Century), and actually brought Sisko back in a way as part of an episode dedicated to him. And we have official word on how it happened.
Benjamin Sisko Returns (Briefly) In Starfleet Academy
While ‘Series Acclimation Mil’ is a very “Data test-drives humanity” style episode, with SAM attempting to deliver on her mission to her strange AI overlords, it’s also an overt celebration of Sisko’s legend. Both Sisko and SAM are emissaries, after all, and in the mystery of what happened to the Captain after his disappearance, SAM actually finds a way to affirm her own identity. It’s a good approach, though admittedly it comes with some frankly insufferable Gen Z-targeted content that I personally wish hadn’t been in there. Crucially, at the end, Avery Brooks appears (in a voice-only cameo) to offer the episode’s final meditation on the true spirit of existence: love. As the episode closes, his instantly recognisable voice delivers the following speech (a monologue not previously seen in Star Trek):
“Divine laws are simpler than human ones, which is why it takes a lifetime to be able to understand them. Only love can understand them. Only love can interpret these words as they were meant to be interpreted.”
It’s a touching fullstop on an episode that really acts as a tribute to Sisko, and it’s just a shame it’s the closest we’ll ever get to a genuine reappearance by the legend, akin to Picard and Janeway’s legacy appearances. Aware that Sisko’s monologue never appeared in Star Trek, I reached out to the Starfleet Academy team and confirmed that Paramount licensed a piece from a spoken word album by Brooks with permission. The 2007 album, titled ‘Here,’ contained, according to Brooks, “a selection of ballads and love songs… I speak of my respect for my father, and for artists that I have listened to all my life.” The fact that the episode chose a quote from an album dedicated to his father in an episode that explores Sisko’s importance as a father is just perfect.
Starfleet Academy’s Latest Episode is a Perfect Tribute to Sisko
Beyond Sisko’s voice cameo, and the fact that the story is focused on SAM’s attempt to solve Sisko’s mysterious disappearance, the entire episode is basically a tribute to Avery Brooks’ iconic character. After his monologue ends, the final screen before the credits reads “Thank you, Avery” as the familiar sound of the Deep Space Nine theme plays. If it doesn’t immediately send fans back to rewatch DS9 this weekend, I’d be very shocked (maybe even the angry men on YouTube who definitely aren’t just doing it for engagement).
Elsewhere, the Sisko Museum is obviously full of references to key moments in Sisko’s life: the baseball he was given by an alien impersonating legendary baseball player Buck Bokai that he kept in his office with a catcher’s mitt, the Prophet’s orb, and a typewriter, seemingly a clever deep cut tribute to seminal episode ‘Far Beyond the Stars,’ which Brooks directed, and in which he played Benny Russell, a 1950s sci-fi writer struggling with racial prejudice. It remains one of the most important episodes, and makes current obsession with denouncing New Trek as “woke” particularly ridiculous.
All-in-all, the Starfleet Academy episode feels like a convergence of tradition and newness, just as has been the show’s intention all through this season. And while it hasn’t been for everyone (I admit I have not loved it all, even with some excellent moments), ‘Series Acclimation Mil’ was my favorite episode so far, particularly as a massive Deep Space Nine fan. It may not offer a definitive answer on Sisko’s story, but it does offer closure in that we know he never returned to his family.
What do you think? Leave a comment below and join the conversation now in the ComicBook Forum!
