Star Trek: Starfleet Academy Episode 5's Funniest Moment Is A Deep Cut Deep Space Nine Joke
This article contains spoilers for "Star Trek: Starfleet Academy" season 1, episode 5 — "Series Acclimation Mil."
The fifth episode of the wonderful, YA-flavored "Star Trek: Starfleet Academy" is devoted to "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine" lead Benjamin Sisko (Avery Brooks). As a midterm project that's personally important to her, SAM (Kerrice Brooks) attempts to get to the bottom of whether Sisko died in the Cardassian Fire Caves or if he transcended as an Emissary of the Prophets and continues to watch over Cardassia. During her quest, SAM visits a Sisko-themed museum, interacts with multiple people and objects from the "Deep Space Nine" character's life, and learns many interesting things about him.
At a club, the inebriated SAM casually informs Genesis Lythe (Bella Shepard) that Sisko used to start riots, to the latter's understandable confusion. Soon enough, SAM invokes Sisko's name again as she starts a hilarious bar fight between the Academy and the War College. In an episode full of touching and funny moments, SAM's insistence that Sisko ran around inciting riots seems like a particularly offbeat one. However, it's a deep cut callback to Sisko's actions in the "Deep Space Nine" season 3 episode "Past Tense,"which explores one of the darkest "Star Trek" storylines.
"Past Tense" is a two-parter where a transporter malfunction sends Sisko, Dr. Julian Bashir (Alexander Siddig), and Jadzia Dax (Terry Farrell) hundreds of years in the past into the year 2024. The former two find themselves in the middle of a closed ghetto of impoverished people that's about to become the hub of sociopolitical turmoil. After things go awry and they accidentally change history, Sisko has to assume the identity of a historically important man who leads the so-called Bell Riots after the real Bell (John Lensdale Bennett) dies before his time.
The deep cut joke abous Sisko's role in the Bell Riots further establishes his importance
In "Past Tense," Sisko, Bashir, and Dax try to avoid changing history to the best of their abilities, to the point that the first two choose sleeping rough on the streets in order to remain as removed from the important historical events as possible. Nevertheless, their refusal to partake ends up influencing the events, and Bell is prematurely killed when protecting them during a fight.
Understanding that this will radically alter the future, Sisko sees no choice but to assume Bell's identity and lead the pivotal riot himself, despite knowing full well that Bell needs to die at the end of it to become a history-changing civil rights hero. Of course, Sisko survives the situation and manages to fake "Bell's" death. As stealthy proof of his involvement, Bell's image in the history books is replaced by that of Sisko.
Notably, the ambitious and socially conscious "Past Tense" isn't necessarily considered one of the best "Deep Space Nine" episodes out there. This makes SAM's reference a beautiful deep cut nod to an incident that further proves just how important Sisko has been — not only to the Bajorans in his role as the Emissary of the Prophets but to humanity's history as well.
"Star Trek: Starfleet Academy" season 1 is streaming on Paramount+.