Warning: SPOILERS for Star Trek: Starfleet Academy Season 1, Episode 5 – “Series Acclimation Mill”Star Trek: Starfleet Academy brilliantly calls back to Star Trek: Deep Space Nine‘s famous baseball episode, which introduced the Vulcan enemy that Captain Benjamin Sisko (Avery Brooks) genuinely hated. Written by Kirsten Beyer and Tawny Newsome, and directed by Larry Teng, Star Trek: Starfleet Academy episode 5 is a love letter to Captain Sisko and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.
In Star Trek: Starfleet Academy episode 5, Series Acclimation Mil aka SAM (Kerrice Brooks) recruits her fellow Starfleet Academy cadets to help her investigate the life and disappearance of Captain Sisko at the end of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. SAM seeks clarity on her mission as Emissary to her people, the Kasqians, by understanding Sisko’s role as Emissary of the Prophets of Bajor.
To SAM’s surprise, Darem Reymi (George Hawkins) casually drops, “I know the cadet bar where Sisko used to hang out. He got punched there by a Vulcan once.” This sends Starfleet Academy’s cadets to The Academy, a San Francisco Bar that used to be young Benjamin Sisko’s hangout, and leads to a fascinating nod to Star Trek: Deep Space Nine by Star Trek: Starfleet Academy.
Star Trek: Starfleet Academy’s Callback To Sisko’s Most Humiliating Moment Explained
Starfleet Academy’s cadets drop into The Academy, the bar that used to be The Launching Pad in the 24th century, when Benjamin Sisko was a Starfleet cadet. Referencing The Launching Pad and Sisko getting punched by a Vulcan is a callback to Star Trek: Deep Space Nine season 7, episode 4, “Take Me Out to the Holosuite.”
Fondly known as Star Trek: Deep Space Nine‘s baseball episode, Captain Sisko turns his senior staff into the Niners to play holosuite baseball against the Logicians, an all-Vulcan squad led by Captain Solok (Gregory Wagowski). Sisko has many enemies, like Gul Dukat (Marc Alaimo) and the Dominion, but Solok ranks as Benjamin’s oldest foe, and one of his most hated.
As Sisko explained to Kasidy Yates (Penny Johnson Jerald), when he was a Starfleet cadet, he was drunk at The Launching Pad and got into “a wrestling match” against Solok, who mocked humans’ inferiority to Vulcans. Not only was Sisko physically bested, but to add insult to injury, Solok continued to humiliate Benjamin.
According to Captain Sisko, Solok wrote five papers mocking Benjamin, using their wrestling match as an example of Vulcans’ superiority over humans. Solok authored a dozen more such papers in the years after he and Sisko graduated from Starfleet Academy.
Finally, Solok arrived on Deep Space Nine to humiliate Sisko at baseball, Benjamin’s favorite game, although the Vulcan’s plan ultimately backfired.
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine’s Baseball Episode Inspired Starfleet Academy
Captain Sisko’s history has been repeating itself throughout Star Trek: Starfleet Academy. In Star Trek: Starfleet Academy episode 5, SAM, Darem, Jay-Den Kraag (Karim Diané), Caleb Mir (Sandro Rosta), Ocam Sadal (Romeo Carere), and Genesis Lythe (Bella Shepard) face off against their rivals from the War College at The Academy bar.
The War College even has its own Vulcan, B’Avi (Alexander Eling), who mocks and provokes Darem and Caleb, just like Solok did to Benjamin Sisko 800 years earlier. Inevitably, the War College and Starfleet Academy’s cadets brawled at The Academy bar as Sisko and Solok did, although Starfleet Academy gave as good as they got.
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine‘s baseball episode ended with the Logicians easily winning the game, but Solok was frustrated by Captain Sisko and his team celebrating a “manufactured triumph” because they managed to score one point over the Vulcans.
When Starfleet Academy played Calica against the War College in Star Trek: Starfleet Academy episode 3, the cadets led by Darem Reymi were trounced until Genesis Lythe changed tactics, giving her team their sole point in the game. Starfleet Academy celebrated as if they had won, just like the Niners did in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.
