Even though is set in the 3190s—roughly 790 years after the final Next Generation-era series—familiar faces from Star Trek’s past can still appear. But including legacy characters in this Trek timeline requires careful canonical maneuvering.
Near-immortal figures like the AI hologram known as the Doctor (Robert Picardo) can show up, as can other long-lived Trek species and beings. As we learned in 2020, this means the Trill are very active in the 32nd century. And in Starfleet Academy’s nostalgic fifth episode, “Series Acclimation Mil,” the most famous Trill of all is part of the story. Here’s how the Lower Decks veteran and Trekkie favorite revived a Deep Space Nine character for the modern era. Spoilers ahead.
centers on SAM (Kerrice Brooks) as she tries to solve the mystery of Captain Sisko (Avery Brooks)—a mystery born at the end of when Sisko ascended to another plane of existence to live with the Prophets of the Celestial Temple. By the 32nd century, this story has become a myth, and SAM’s historical research leads her to numerous Deep Space Nine Easter eggs, including a hologram of Sisko’s son, Jake (still played by Cirroc Lofton). But the biggest canonical twist is that Tawny Newsome is revealed as the latest host of the Trill symbiont Dax.
“We carefully navigated the question of who made the most sense within canon and who could physically be that age,” Newsome tells Inverse, revealing that she and co-writer Kirsten Beyer thought deeply about how much DS9 canon would impact the episode. “We asked: Who would be the only one with the only copy of Jake’s book, and when should we reveal it’s Dax?”
Newsome first appears as Illa, a professor at Starfleet Academy. SAM notices Illa’s spots and realizes she’s part Trill. For context: some Trill are bonded with a symbiont that lives inside them, carrying their memories to a new host when the current one dies. DS9 introduced us to Dax’s previous hosts, but we mostly knew Jadzia Dax (Terry Farrell) and later, in Season 7, Ezri Dax (Nicole de Boer). Newsome confirms she drew heavily from both actresses to play Illa Dax.
“I threw in some Dax-like touches,” Newsome says with a laugh. “Along with honoring Avery Brooks, I wanted to pay tribute to Terry Farrell and Nicole de Boer—who embodied that character and brought her to our screens and hearts. So it was important to me to honor some of their physical mannerisms and vocal quirks.”
Newsome notes that co-writing and starring in the episode let her achieve something she’d wanted to do since joining the franchise on Lower Decks: create a modern tribute to Deep Space Nine.
“I felt there was a big gap in how much we’ve honored and talked about Deep Space Nine, Mr. Brooks, and Sisko himself,” Newsome says. “So along with my co-writer, , I wanted to do my best to fix that.”