Deep Space Nine’s pilot stands out because hardly anyone actually wants to be there. resents being assigned to such a remote, unimportant outpost. Odo isn’t keen on collaborating with the Federation, and Major Kira is openly hostile toward it. For Lieutenant Dax, it’s just another assignment, while Chief O’Brien finds his role particularly challenging. The only person eager to work on the frontier—young Doctor Bashir—is depicted as naive in his excitement.
Naturally, the orbiting Bajor doesn’t stay obscure for long. The pilot episode reveals the discovery of a wormhole leading to the far-off Gamma Quadrant, which is inhabited by aliens the Bajorans worship as divine Prophets. Things get more complex when Sisko forms a one-of-a-kind bond with the Prophets, prompting the Bajorans to name him the Emissary of a faith he doesn’t fully believe in.
A large part of Deep Space Nine centers on Sisko grappling with his position as a sort of savior, so it was intriguing when Season 4’s “Accession”—which premiered 30 years ago this week—gave him an escape. By this point, roughly halfway through DS9’s series run, Sisko had accepted his role as Bajor’s Emissary but still wasn’t excited about it. So when a Bajoran named Akorem Laan emerges from the wormhole claiming to be the true Emissary, Sisko is glad to hand over the title.
Unfortunately, Akorem hails from 200 years in the past and is stunned to learn Bajor has discarded its ancient caste system. Major Kira explains that everyone had to set aside their old identities to fight the Cardassian Occupation—a clever way to introduce a new aspect to an already established species. But Akorem argues that Bajor can only recover from the Occupation by reverting to its traditional ways, leading Kira to suddenly find herself fumbling with clay figurines while those she considers “inferior” bow and scrape to not bother her.
All of a sudden, no one is content. Caste-based prejudice will derail Bajor’s bid to join the Federation, making Sisko feel like a failure both as a Federation officer and a friend to Bajor. Kira, meanwhile, is caught between her faith and her total lack of skill as the artist she’s “meant” to be. When she announces she’s resigning from the Bajoran Militia to live a quiet life as an apprentice, she doesn’t appear happy about it.
“Accession” attempts to pose meaningful questions about duty and belief, and adding a slice-of-life subplot about Chief O’Brien readjusting to family life while balancing his close friendship with Doctor Bashir makes for a lot to fit into 45 minutes. Not all of it lands—even though the Emissary is important, it’s hard to believe so many Bajorans would instantly embrace a decades-old caste system again, let alone commit murder to uphold it in the episode’s darkest scene. And while Odo notes that Kira’s faith, which has her switching from one Emissary to another, “seems to have led you to something of a contradiction,” that conflict is never really resolved; instead, it’s brushed aside with a quick trip to the wormhole aliens to
Akorem recognizes his mistake and is sent back to his own time, and “Accession” awkwardly glosses over the Godfather-like undertones of Sisko taking his religious rival on a shuttle trip and returning alone to declare the Prophets chose him. As a bold exploration of faith, it’s about what you’d expect from a mid-budget, mid-1990s sci-fi series. But as a midpoint for Deep Space Nine overall, it’s a suitable milestone.
“Accession” felt like a nod to the past during Deep Space Nine’s shift from a show focused on Bajor to one about the , and Sisko’s role as Emissary would become as grand as the stakes themselves. However, this episode starts with him blessing a new marriage with the same enthusiasm as someone going for a tooth pull, but ends with him willingly agreeing to attend Bajor’s version of a quinceañera—a small change that helps explain his fierce defense of Bajor in later years.
As for Kira, while most of her initial hostility toward Sisko’s role as a Federation lackey vanished once he became central to her faith, “Accession” still highlights the awkward reality of your Messiah being the same person who approves your budget. Kira spends much of DS9 trying to view Sisko first as her commanding officer, but it’s clear she’ll miss him as a spiritual leader as much as an organizational one. When she’s taken aback by Sisko’s heartfelt reaction to her resignation plans, she realizes she’ll also miss him as a friend.
That dynamic of boss, savior, and friend would prove crucial for what lay ahead, as Bajor would be drawn into larger narrative arcs. More immediately, Sisko would grow a bit more at ease. Deep Space Nine didn’t always know how to handle the Emissary role, but in “Accession,” both the series and the character understood that he wouldn’t be the same without it.
Deep Space Nine streams on Paramount+.