Star Trek: Starfleet Academy Pays Homage to Deep Space Nine, Black Families, and the Siskos

In its opening volley of episodes, Star Trek: Starfleet Academy has been boldly going into fresh territory for the 60-year-old sci-fi franchise, a natural move given that the series is set some 900 years in the future from the original series. But longtime Trekkies with keen eyes and ears have also picked up on dozens of built-in nods to the rich universe of Star Trek that's preceded the new installment, and the first season's fifth episode, "Series Acclimation Mil" — named for its central character, the photonic cadet Sam — takes the deepest and most reverential lean into the lingering legacy of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, considered by many fans to be the most complex, and therefore finest, of the many series offshoots.

Appropriately, two of the episode's key creative collaborators have their own significant histories with Star Trek. The episode's co-writer Tawny Newsome previously voiced Star Trek: Lower Decks' roguish Ensign Mariner before joining the writing staff of Starfleet Academy, and guest star Cirroc Lofton spent seven seasons on Deep Space Nine playing Jake Sisko, the aspiring author and son of station commanding officer Benjamin Sisko (Avery Brooks). 

Together Newsome and Lofton joined TV Guide for a conversation about the moving and joyful effort to, at long last, pay tribute to the too-often unheralded excellence of Deep Space Nine, the impactful depiction of a Black family in the far future, and the profound contributions of both actor Avery Brooks and his role Benjamin Sisko to the greater tapestry of Star Trek.

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Tawny, tell me where this whole idea came from. Was this something that you'd been nurturing? How did it all come about?

Tawny Newsome: Yeah, I entered the Starfleet Academy writer's room with a singular focus and that was to in some way, small or hopefully big, and thankfully I got to do it in a big way, honor the legacy of the Siskos, to celebrate and pay homage to Benjamin Sisko and the Sisko family and the show Deep Space Nine in much the way that the franchise has paid homage to so many of our great legacy characters. I wanted to help correct what I saw as quite a large oversight. And Cirroc was right there along with me from the inception of the idea. I brought him in and started asking for advice on how to do this right.

Why did the show mean so much to you that you really wanted to kind of make this episode and fulfill that injustice you saw?

Newsome: I mean, Deep Space Nine was always my favorite Trek because I got to see a Black family in space. In 1993 to see a Black dad being a great dad? I think we take for granted how many scenes in Deep Space Nine were so unapologetically Black. There are scenes with four or five Black characters on camera. And it wasn't some offshoot show that only Black people watched. This was a huge sci-fi property. And the scenes between Jake and Benjamin and Joe, and then you got Wharf coming in there. This was Black media and it was sci-fi and those things so rarely intersected in the '90s that I mean it was always going to be my favorite.

Cirroc, when Tawny came to you with what she had cooking, give me a little peek into how you reacted to it, how you wanted to kind of advise and help steer her.

Cirroc Lofton: I couldn't even believe it, to be honest with you. It was so long that we didn't do anything and weren't even talked about, it felt like we were the redheaded stepchild of Star Trek, where we met resistance in the beginning when they called us the "dark show." And then afterwards we kind of got forgotten about and they didn't want to revisit the Bajorans and they didn't want to revisit the wormhole or Deep Space Nine. And so it felt like we would just be kind of forgotten about for eternity, until Tawny decided to say, "Hey, why are we not looking over here? We keep looking over here, we're looking over there, but we're not looking over here where there is a whole storyline and seven seasons of good Star Trek." And to her credit, she forced everybody to look over there. 

And I'm grateful for it because I feel like Avery Brooks' contribution as Captain Sisko is immeasurable and it's unparalleled. So I believe that what he's done should be recognized and should be honored. We've got statues of Kirk, we've got things in museums, but Sisko kind of goes under the radar and he doesn't get the kind of credit that he deserves for what he did for Star Trek. So this was a great opportunity to say, "Hey, let's put all eyes on what an amazing character Captain Sisko was."

And you're never very far away from the Star Trek family, but to get back on set, to get back into character and revisit him after all this time, tell me how that all hit you, how you did the sort of mental calculus as to the Jake you wanted to play in this episode?

Lofton: Well, I watched "The Visitor" episode not too long ago and when I watched [it], now I can see it through the lens of Sisko because I am a father now and I can understand what it would be like to have your child waste away their life trying to bring you back. And now as a father, I feel like this is an opportunity for me to pay forward what I was given by Avery and the Sisko character, which is the nurturing, the love, the hugs, the words of encouragement, and sometimes the tough love. And all of that was what made Jake who he was. And so this was an opportunity to see Jake as an adult, somebody who now has gone through the motions, who's made the mistakes, who's already gotten all of the childhood out of the system and is now looking at life as an adult and reflecting on the meaning of what his dad meant to him. And this was a beautiful moment to just reflect on life for my character.

Tawny, I love that you got to be able to "sign your work," in effect, by being in this episode. Tell me about why you decided to do that. Was it especially important for you to take on the mantle of Dax? Tell me a little bit about your whole headspace going into that element.

Newsome: Yeah, so Kirsten [Beyer, the episode's co-writer] and I and the rest of the writers were really careful and intentional with this character, Professor Illa, who was the appropriate person to help shepherd this story for Sam and for the Siskos. We had a lot of missions to honor these legacy characters that had been overlooked to also help this young girl find her identity as this new type of emissary. We're teaching the audience all about cast, this new species. There's a lot going on in the episode, and we wanted to make sure that the support system around her felt meaningful and important. And also logically and logistically possible that she would have the only copy of Jake's manuscript, things like that. So when we realized that Dax was the perfect person for it, we definitely decided to slow play that reveal until the very end so it wouldn't kind of overshadow the story.

And then I just have to say, I was the last piece of that puzzle. [Laughs] I was the last person to be added to it. It was all constructed. And then the opportunity to get to play her came very late. And I'm just so honored that Alex and Noga, the showrunners, were on board with it.

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Your delivery was so Terry Farrell-esque in some moments. I just absolutely loved that.

Newsome: I really just have watched so much Deep Space Nine! I mean, Jadzia is one of my favorite characters, and so I have to imagine that ... I think the only thing I was really thinking about were physical mannerisms. The arms behind the back is such a Dax thing and I didn't realize how much more I was channeling. And I think it's just through osmosis.

Is Illa part Cardassian?

Newsome: Yeah!

Okay, what prompted that? I think it's a brilliant choice, so tell me where that sort of eureka moment came.

Newsome: So initially we knew we had to hide the trail of spots in order for the reveal to work. And then Alex Kurtzman wisely said, "We don't want people to just go, Oh, why is Mariner here?" since I've also played that character in live action? So we knew we needed a prosthetic. And then when we got to be creative about what species it would be most kind of cathartic or interesting to play, we obviously don't have time to get into what's going on with the Cardassians now. This episode is already jam-packed, but what Kirsten and I hoped making her a Cardassian would do was open up this area for questioning, of like where are the Cardassians culturally that Dax would be in a partial Cardassian host? And we hope it says something beautiful about where the Cardassians are and we leave it to future writers to fill that part of the canon in.

Was there a favorite Easter egg that you got to sneak in that you want to clue the sharp-eyed viewer into keeping an eye out for?

Newsome: I will tell you, without throwing anyone under the bus, a lot of hands go on the script after the writer writes it. Probably six or seven times I put Sam — Kerrice Brooks — at the end of the episode, "I can live with it," or "I can live with that" [a reference to a crucial Sisko line from one of Deep Space Nine's best episodes, "In the Pale Moonlight"]. And it got taken out every draft and I would just put it back in, which is such a bad habit thing as a writer to do. And I just kept sticking it back in and I just kept doing it. And then I think finally someone went, "Oh, we see what you're doing. All right. OK. OK, Tawny, you can have it." I was like, "She has to say it!" [Laughs]

Cirroc, you've had many years now to encounter people like Tawny who grew up on the show, for whom the show had a deeper meaning, who it put them on a course for their life along with the representation of Black family and Black love that the show had. Tell me what that's come to mean to you over the course of time.

Lofton: Yeah. I mean, when I first got the job, they said, "You know what it's going to mean to be a part of Star Trek." And I was like, "No, I don't know what it's going to mean." But what it's going to mean is that you're a part of this extended family where the viewers of Star Trek are a part of this extended family. We're all together and we get touched by these episodes in so many different ways, whether it reminds us of a loved one, whether it reminds us of a career path that we want to take, it reminds us of a social stance that we want to adhere to. It reminds us of our friendships. It reminds us of so many different kinds of things that identify the human experience. And for me, the greatest joy and honor has been to meet the people that have been affected by Star Trek in their different ways and to see how diverse it is, to see the contributions they themselves have made to the world, whether it's teaching children, whether it's becoming astronauts and architects and engineers and doctors.

I mean, I've met so many people who have really impacted the world in a real-life way based on the influence that they had from watching Star Trek. And to be a part of that is a tremendous honor. And I'm glad that I was able to tell a story of love, because that's something that ends up becoming an identifier for what Sisko and the Sisko family means.

When was the last time you connected with Avery Brooks?

Lofton: Well, not too long ago. We're on a connect basis and I've been in contact with him ever since the show ended. He was there when I got married. He was there when I opened my first business, when I first moved out of my house, when I moved abroad. He's been there throughout this journey. Matter of fact, when I did a show right after Deep Space Nine called The Hoop Life, I was excited. I was living in Toronto and I said, "Avery, I'm here and I want you to come and see what it's like. " I said, "Can I ask you to direct an episode?" And I was able to twist everybody's arm and get Avery to direct an episode, so he lived out there for a week or two and we got the chance to experience that together. So he has been instrumental in my life, including into this episode that we did here for the Academy. He was aware of it, gave me his blessings, he worked with me and he wanted to see me succeed.

Tawny, has this cracked open like, OK, you got to do this great tribute, but you're like, "Oh, we can do more. There's so much more we can do from here."

Newsome: Oh yeah. I mean, I've been trying to pitch the Jennifer Sisko/Curzon Dax prequel series forever! [Laughs] I've been trying to pitch Young Sisko forever. They could do Young Sheldon, why not Young Sisko? No, obviously I would love to see way more acknowledgement and celebration of this incredible show and these incredible characters, because they mean so much to us. And as fans, we're hungry for it. And this franchise has done a really good job at honoring a lot of our important legacy characters and we could stand with some more for the Siskos.

Do you want to, in your wildest dreams, maybe solve the mystery of Benjamin Sisko down the road or are you happy with the mystery being a mystery?

Newsome: For me, it's not so much of a mystery. I think what we say in the episode is what we all know Mr. Brooks asked the writers of Deep Space Nine to put in the final episode of that series, which is, "Tell them that I will come back." He tells Kasidy he's coming back. He's not a man who abandons his family, even if it's to go be non-corporeal. And so we just really took that to heart. It may not be in the Starfleet records, there may not be approved sightings, we may not have scientific evidence, but we have Jake, his son, the most important person to him, telling us and telling Sam, he was there. He was there for all of it. And so to me, that solves the only part of the mystery I care about.

Why was Sam the ideal character to see this story through? It works so well that she is the vessel for this story.

Newsome: Yeah. I mean, so Kasq is a race of new aliens to us in canon, but they're really examining their role in the galaxy and whether or not they want to interface with organics. And they have questions about them because they haven't been in contact with them for years. So to me, it really, as soon as we started designing the character of Sam, which our series creator did, Gaia Violo, she created Sam. But when we got into the writer's room to flesh out what this world looked like and what challenges they may have faced, it just so clearly started echoing the role of Sisko as the emissary to the prophets. His job, as Jake puts it at the end of our episode, was to be a bridge between worlds to allow people to communicate who otherwise wouldn't be able to. And that is exactly what Sam's put there to do. So I couldn't think of a better mirror for Sisko than Sam.

And I wanted to ask, because I feel like watching the first six episodes as I have, this show, as different of a Star Trek show as it is, has found its Star Trek footing so quickly.

Newsome: Yay!

I felt really by Episode 4, and then this one and Episode 6, you guys really are a Star Trek show and that's faster than most shows find it. So tell me a little bit behind the scenes about how you guys got there so quickly.

Newsome: Thank you. I'm going to text the writers' chat right after this and tell them you said that. They'll be so pleased. I think such a huge ... We owe so much to our showrunners, Alex and Noga, for assembling such an incredible writer's room of people who are new to Trek, but immediately got caught up to speed, people who are diehards and who are very annoying about Trek like me and my co-writer, Kirsten Byer, and then everything in between. I've never seen a group of people who care so much and brought so much of themselves to it while also wanting to honor the past and also make it new. So I think that there was always such a commitment to honoring the fans also. 

I've been very loud in the room about how we don't create Star Trek in a vacuum. No one should. And I'm not suggesting that any other show has, but I think ignoring what the fans want, you do it at your own peril because they have lived with and have obsessed over these storylines for so much longer that they're really such an asset to you. And through my role as Mariner, getting to be in the convention circuit, I've had so much interfacing, just direct one-on-one conversations as Cirroc has done for 30 years, you don't get more instantaneous feedback than someone passionately at a convention running up to you and telling you their favorite thing about your character or the thing that they didn't like so much. And so I brought all of that with me into the room and said, "Hey, here's what they're saying on the street." We don't have to be beholden to every single thing, but we do have to be aware of it. And our showrunners were instantly on board with that. So I think that was the special sauce.

I'll close with asking Cirroc, now that you've got to do this, how'd you come out the other side of this experience? Are you like, "And I'll see you guys next week! I can come back now?" How was it to have it done and complete?

Lofton: I was just honored to have the opportunity to do this love story for Avery, for Captain Sisko. To me, that was the ultimate goal and mission. And no, I'm watching the show like everybody else and I'm a fan of the show. I think what's great about it is the casting. I think the story is well written and I also think we're getting what we expect on the Academy show because we want to see a group of young cadets going through the Academy and that's what we're getting. And the anticipation for that has been as long as I can remember, at least 25 years of people suggesting that this show may come to fruition and finally it's here. And so I think that's also another thing that we're grateful that it's here and it's delivering on the expectations we had for it. So kudos to everybody in the writer's room for giving the fans what they want.

Star Trek: Starfleet Academy is now streaming on Paramount+. New episodes premiere on Thursdays.