Star Trek's Cirroc Lofton Won't Say No To A Picard-Style Deep Space Nine Reunion
Jake Sisko, the character played by Cirroc Lofton, appeared in 71 episodes of "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine." The series, however, was so well-populated that even 71 episodes wasn't necessarily enough to push the character into the spotlight very often. Jake's best friend Nog (the late Aron Eisenberg) had his own episodes, as did Nog's father Rom (Max Grodénchik) and Rom's eventual wife Leeta (Chase Masterson). There was a lot of ground to cover on "Deep Space Nine" and Jake was seemingly a minor casualty. The episodes specifically about Jake were, perhaps unfortunately, few and far between.
Jake was, many Trekkies might say, conceived as a balance for the character of Wesley Crusher (Wil Wheaton) who appeared on "Star Trek: The Next Generation." Wesley was obnoxiously well-behaved, at least early in the show, and thought of nothing he wanted to do more than homework and impress the adults in his life. Wesley was a narc. Jake, by contrast, had no ambitions to join Starfleet and spent his youth on a distant space station where he was robbed of his abilities to make friends and live comfortably. He eventually found his path as a reporter and as writer of novels. He was a survivor.
The current ethos of Paramount+-era "Star Trek" seems to lean heavily into legacy. "Star Trek: Picard," for example, recently reunited the main "Next Generation" cast (sans Wheaton) for a "one last adventure" story aboard a reconstructed Enterprise-D. While there are no announced plans to reunite the cast of "Deep Space Nine," Lofton — recently speaking with Screen Rant — said he'd certainly be open to the idea. If audiences can find Picard at age 110, why not Jake at age 40?
The Deep Space Nine reunion
It should be noted that Deep Space Nine, the eponymous space station, was recently visited on an episode of "Star Trek: Lower Decks" titled "Hear All, Trust Nothing" (September 29, 2022). On that episode, audiences saw that, about eight years after the end of the "Deep Space Nine" series, Colonel Kira (Nana Visitor) was still in command, and Quark (Armin Shimerman) was still tending bar. Other notable "Deep Space Nine" characters were absent for reasons Trekkies might know: Captain Sisko (Avery Brooks) had evolved into a non-corporeal being; Odo (the late René Auberjonois) rejoined his species of Changelings; Worf (Michael Dorn) had left the station to become an ambassador; and Chief O'Brien (Colm Meany) left the station to become a professor at Starfleet Academy.
But Jake wasn't accounted for. As far as anyone knew, he was still on board the station, writing books and looking out over the wormhole where his father disappeared.
Catching up with the "Deep Space" cast, then, is completely plausible and even open for exploration. Cirroc Lofton also feels that the stories covered on "Deep Space Nine" — tales of religious corruption, genocide, war, spirituality, and philosophy — are more relevant in 2023 than even 30 years ago when the series debuted. He explained:
"Do I think there's a chance? Yeah, I think there's a chance, I wouldn't say there's no chance. And I would also say that now being over 30 years removed from when we started the show, you start to look back at how the show impacts people today and our society and where it's going today. And some of those storylines that we covered, and the subject matter that we covered, it's becoming more relevant than it was when we did it. [...] I won't close the door on that."
The 7th Rule
Cirroc Lofton currently has a podcast called "The 7th Rule," a show he launched with Aron Eisenberg, wherein Lofton discusses "Deep Space Nine" at length on a weekly basis. Lofton and producer Ryan T. Husk do deep dives into individual episodes and interview luminaries who worked on the series. Lofton said that if it weren't for the podcast, he would likely have checked out of "Star Trek" and lost track of what was going on as the franchise moved forward. Thanks to his discussions, however, he knows what's going on and how the franchise is now shaped. And, yes, he would love to come back into the fold in some capacity, even with a new creative team in charge of things:
"'Star Trek' has new people at the controls, at the helm. And so, it is possible. I'm not closing the door on the realm of possibility because I think that's one of the things that 'Deep Space Nine' talks about, they talk about the dreamer and the dream. And if you close yourself to possibilities then you close yourself to those dreams. Sure, it would be a dream of mine to reprise the role of Jake Sisko and do it again. So I will never close the door on those dreams."
Those thirsting for what might have happened on "Deep Space Nine" had it returned for an eighth season will be pleased to learn about a pitch meeting held by showrunner Ira Steven Behr in the very good documentary film "What We Left Behind." Just for fun, Behr and the show's head writers all reunited in the old writers' room to pitch a new "Deep Space Nine" story just like back in the 1990s. The story they came up with, well, it was astonishing.
Ira Steven Behr's pitch
Ira Steven Behr and his team came up with a pretty good follow-up story. Section 31, the secret villainous spy organization of "Star Trek," would seek to put an end to the Bajoran religion (!), making Bajor more secular and open to Starfleet ideals. Earth, in "Star Trek," is a post-religious society and Section 31 would now want that ideal elsewhere ... by force. Dr. Bashir (Alexander Siddig) would be in charge of Section 31. Jake would learn from a now-grown Joe Sisko (!) that Section 31 is up to no good and that they had killed Nog. And, just when things were about to get violent, Ben Sisko would reappear to Jake to apologize for leaving him.
Cirroc Lofton saw the pitch and gave his opinion:
"I wasn't a big fan of them killing Nog as you would know, because that's my best friend and I would have loved to see him become a captain in his own right. So I have some hesitation about that. But I do like the idea that they were piquing our interest and trying to see what could possibly happen in season eight. I'd have to share some Sisko spotlight with my imaginary brother at this point, but I definitely thought that the writers and Ira did a fantastic job on that documentary. It's one of the most entertaining documentaries that you can find out there."
When asked about his dream "Star Trek" project, Lofton was clear: he wanted to work with the "Deep Space Nine" cast again. Those were his co-stars before and he would just want to be with them again. A guest spot on "Lower Decks" would no doubt be fun, but he'd rather work with friends. "[W]hen you are in the trenches with people," he said, "you'll always have a special bond with them."