The Best Star Trek Show Has Succeeded By Distanceing Itself From Captain Picard
By Chris Snellgrove | Published
Back in the '90s, Deep Space Nine it seemed like a crazy idea to get out The Next Generation. Like, there's a space station instead of a ship? And it's sitting there instead of boldly going anywhere? Also, some of our most important characters include a spy, terrorists, and Space Jesus? On paper, this all sounds like it's going to be a disaster. But DS9 ended up being a lot better than the TNG spinoff. In fact, it was the best Star Trek show ever made. That didn't happen right away, though, as it took some time for the game to find its voice.
Accordingly, the biggest early challenge was to differentiate DS9 from what came before. The boss of these games is always the main character, so it was important to make sure that Sisko was very different from Picard. Season 1 made a signal attempt to do this; we see how much Sisko dislikes the captain of the Enterprise in “Emissary” and that he has a more direct approach to dealing with Q in “Q-Less.” However, it wasn't until the Season 2 episode “Second Sight” that the writers discovered that Picard was the “explorer” and Sisko was the “builder,” which helped them turn DS9 into a great Trek show.
The Most Humanizing Star Trek Character
The plot of “Second Sight” is that Commander Sisko meets and falls in love with a mysterious woman. He can't find much information about her, and is appropriately shocked to meet another woman who looks exactly like his new girlfriend but doesn't remember ever meeting her. With Dax's help, Sisko learns that the woman he is in love with is actually a telepathic image from this other woman; She is not happy with her marriage to an arrogant person, but her people are not married all her life, so she feels stuck. Speculation about magic kills her, and her husband finally sacrifices himself for happiness.
One of the most interesting things about “Second Sight” is that it was (according to Star Trek: The Deep Space Nine Companion) was originally written as Bashir's story, and the horndog doctor is the one who falls in love with a mysterious woman. It was Michael Piller's idea to make this episode a Sisko episode instead. His main concern was that Deep Space Nine he had made the commander an insignificant figure, and he wanted to make his personality human. Along the way, he hoped to fully flesh out Sisko in a way the show never had before.
Sisko the Builder
Piller's partner in crime was Deep Space Nine writer and future runner Ira Steven Behr. He and Piller “had discussions about making Sisko a builder, to find the difference between him and Picard, the explorer. Sisko is a builder, he stays with the job until the end.” This had a transformative effect on the writing staff and helped them create better stories for the executive. “That helped us see Sisko in a lot of different ways. He's a tough guy and he's real and he's human,” Behr said.
Honestly, this understanding is very smart. What he said about Picard was in line with the captain we saw him in The Next Generation. Why didn't Picard stay to work in the family vineyard with his brother? Later, why didn't he take the underwater laboratory after recovering from the simulation? Because, like Kirk before him, Picard's best future is exploring the final frontier. In contrast, Sisko is a family man. He hesitated to take it Deep Space Nine but once there, he would never leave because he wanted to build a better world for his son, his crew, and the people of Bajor.
What the Worlds Need Now, Love, Sweet Love
So, where does “Second Sight” fit into these revelations about who Sisko is as a character? It's simple: giving Sisko a new love improves his character, showing how he's trying to move on from his wife's tragic death. Additionally, this plot helps viewers relate to the character. We may not know what it's like to be a Starfleet officer or a Space Jesus, but everyone watching at home you know what it's like to fall in love. After this, Sisko gradually became the emotional center Deep Space Nineemboldening murder stories like “Far Beyond the Stars” with the weight of his relatable personality.
None of this would have happened, however, if the show's top writers hadn't gone out of their way to make Sisko as different from Picard as they could!
