Here's How Star Trek: Starfleet Academy Episode 5 Pulled Off That Jaw-Dropping Cameo [Exclusive]

Spoilers for "Star Trek: Starfleet Academy" episode 5 follow.

"Starfleet Academy" episode "Series Acclimation Mil" features SAM (Kerrice Brooks) doing a report on Captain Benjamin Sisko (Avery Brooks), lead of "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine." As "DS9" fans know, Sisko was emissary of the Bajoran people to their Prophets (godlike aliens who live in a wormhole near Bajor). 

SAM, a holographic intelligence who has been sent as emissary by her own people, feels a kinship with Sisko. Even if she never meets him, she ends the episode thanking him for all he taught her. The episode closes with a voiceover from Sisko:

"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."

Before the credits roll, a simple message appears: "Thank you, Avery." This is pretty astonishing, since Brooks retired from acting (in "Star Trek" or otherwise) several years ago. /Film's Jacob Hall spoke with "Starfleet Academy" showrunners Alex Kurtzman and Noga Landau about this cameo and how they got in touch with the emissary himself.

Brooks did not come out of retirement to record that voiceover for the episode, but it is his voice, not an AI recreation. Brooks is also a jazz musician, and Sisko's voiceover is excerpted from a spoken word album track that Brooks once recorded. (While "Deep Space Nine" never did a full blown musical episode, Brooks did get to show off his singing in the episode "Badda Bing, Badda Bang.") 

"We realized this is the perfect encapsulation of what we're trying to say in the episode, and [Brooks] was incredibly generous, he let us use it," Landau told /Film.

"Series Acclimation Mil" is a homage to Ben Sisko, so it needed the blessing of the man who played him. "We crafted a love letter for [Avery Brooks] and we left it on his door in the hopes that he'd contribute somehow and that's how it all came to be," said Alex Kurtzman to /Film.

One of the writers of that love letter was Tawny Newsome, famous to Trekkies for playing Ensign Beckett Mariner on "Star Trek: Lower Decks." Newsome co-wrote "Series Acclimation Mil" with Kirsten Beyer and, according to Kurtzman, the two of them were advocates in making the episode such a love letter. (Newsome also appears in the episode as Dax, another character "DS9" fans will recognize).

"Deep Space Nine" stood in the shadow of "Star Trek: Next Generation," but nowadays, many Trekkies consider "DS9" the best "Star Trek" show due to its mature writing, eclectic cast, politically resonant themes, and satisfying serialized storytelling. Per Kurtzman, making an episode that highlighted "DS9," and Brooks' fantastic portrayal of Sisko, is another step of its overdue recognition.

To get in contact with the retired Brooks, though, "Starfleet Academy" needed its own emissary: Cirroc Lofton, who played Sisko's son Jake on "Deep Space Nine," and who does appear on screen in this episode. Newsome is friends with Lofton, so she reached out to him, and he in turn reached out to Brooks on behalf of "Starfleet Academy."

"I think Avery was another father for Cirroc and still is to this day," Noga Landau told /Film. While Brooks appears content leaving Sisko and "Star Trek" in his past, it's heartwarming to know the bond he built with his onscreen son was real and long-lasting.

"Star Trek: Starfleet Academy" is streaming on Paramount+.