Warp Factor Trek

As the first season of the new Star Trek series reaches its halfway mark, once more the spotlight shines on a different cadet, this time the Kasqian holographic student SAM (Kerrice Brooks), whose full name gives this episode its title. The episode centres around her attempts to solve what is probably the biggest mystery in the Star Trek universe: the fate of Captain Benjamin Sisko. What can SAM’s quest tell us about the sixty-year legacy of Star Trek?

Log Entry

In the episode’s fourth-wall-breaking teaser section, SAM introduces herself. She is an emissary for her people and has been sent by them to find out more about organic lifeforms. The Kasqians are a non-corporeal race who want to open up to the galaxy but are terrified to do so, as they don’t trust “Organics.”

When the Kasqians ask SAM to go onto a course about Explaining the Unexplainable, she agrees. It brings SAM to the mystery of what happened to Sisko, since it is part of the curriculum. Instantly fascinated with the subject because he too was an emissary, she is approached by the tutor, Professor Isla, who says she has missed the enrolment date for this semester but might be able to enrol for the following year. Isla promises that, if SAM can solve the mystery, she will be allowed to teach the class, so SAM takes on the investigative challenge.

SAM discusses the eight-hundred-year-old mystery first with her classmates, then with cadets who attend a Bajor Class whom she ends up fighting with, and then with Chancellor Nahla Ake. The latter advises her to visit the Sisko Museum in New Orleans.

When Ake visits Commander Kelric – Chancellor of the War College – it turns out he has been diverting a lot of power to prepare an area for negotiations with alien eels. Ake plans to help by holding a dress rehearsal for a diplomatic meal.

At the Sisko Museum, SAM learns more about Benjamin Sisko. However, she also continues to question herself and how she can best do her job as Kasqian emissary. To this end, she consults a holographic recording of Jake Sisko before returning to update Professor Isla, who advises her to consider Sisko’s personal preferences.

During another get-together with her classmates, SAM expresses an interest in trying gumbo. So, Mir fiddles with her programming, unable to find out how to give her the ability to taste it. Darem Reymi mentions a cadet bar which Sisko used to frequent.

Ake, Kelric, The Doctor and Jett Reno have the preparatory diplomatic meal. During it, Ake roleplays a visiting diplomat who speaks with Received Pronunciation.

At the Port of San Francisco, SAM and her classmates visit The Academy bar. Mir recalibrates SAM’s holographic matrix so she can experience drunkenness when all she wanted to do was be able to taste gumbo.

At the meal, Kelric meanwhile delivers a flute performance which is far from flawless. His colleagues react with hyperbole. When he gives a speech and a fish deflates in apparent response, he assumes it’s a practical joke at his expense and accuses Ake of having abandoned Starfleet – fifteen years earlier – before storming out.

Outside The Academy, Mir and Timira have their first kiss. Inside the premises, SAM starts a bar fight with the War College. She and her classmates return to the USS Athena, where she questions The Doctor about the Siskos. Alone together, Chancellors Ake and Kelric put aside their differences, Ake making Kelric laugh about his musical performance.

In the starship’s atrium, Professor Isla shows SAM a book written by Jake Sisko called Anslem. SAM has an imaginary encounter with him in which they discuss his father and the role of emissary. He persuades her that she is suitable to continue being the Kasqian emissary and swears that his father never left.

In private discussion with SAM, Isla reveals that she is the current host of the Dax symbiont.

SAM confronts the Kasqians and declares how she will carry on being their emissary. She then addresses the unseen Benjamin Sisko, confident that he is still out there, and the episode concludes with a short voiceover by Sisko about the importance of love.

Status Report

The character of SAM injects a lot of fun into Star Trek: Starfleet Academy and this episode is no exception. There are some hilarious antics along the way, particularly in The Academy bar. SAM’s self-doubt, on the other hand, seems timeless and is very true to what many of us go through as teenagers ourselves.

This episode works on multiple levels. The story about SAM is not just a journey of self-discovery but also a huge tribute to Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. There’s a lot to love here, especially as it treats DS9 with the respect it deserves, complete with a very realistic way to bring Jake Sisko (Cirroc Lofton) into the episode so he can interact with SAM. It’s also great to see that the Bajoran cadets at Starfleet Academy are still practicing the ancient religion their ancestors built around the Prophets, even in the 32nd century. The Kasqian distrust of “Organics” is reminiscent of the Changelings who are the Founders of the Dominion, as seen in DS9, except the term they used was “Solids” instead of “Organics.”

This episode doesn’t neatly tie up the mystery surrounding Benjamin Sisko, leaving room in future episodes or even seasons for this to be expanded upon, particularly by SAM as she continues her studies at Starfleet Academy. It will be great to see if any subsequent episodes pay tribute to either Deep Space Nine or Voyager, the latter of which can easily be referenced through The Doctor. As for anyone who hasn’t done so when they view this installment, hopefully they decide to watch Deep Space Nine as a result of this episode. Meanwhile, finding out who and what the sixth episode of Starfleet Academy will be about is intriguing. May the Prophets reveal it in due course…

Michelle Wyllie

In 1972, Michelle Wyllie was born in Aberdeen, where she still lives. She was first introduced to Star Trek by her late mother, who had been watching The Original Series during its run on Sky One in the late 1980s and early 1990s. From there on, Michelle started watching other Star Trek TV series, such as The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager and Enterprise. Her favourite of all the series is Deep Space Nine, although she has also watched Strange New Worlds, Picard and Lower Decks. When she is not watching Star Trek, her hobbies include creative writing. She is a member of the Lemon Tree Writers group in Aberdeen. Identity Theft, by Greg Cox, is the first novel she has ever reviewed and she hopes to improve her creative writing by doing more reviews in the future.