Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Season 1 Episode 2

Do yourself a favor and just watch Emissary as it was intended and as it appears on DVD, netflix, and most other platforms: as one episode and not divided in half. Unfortunately, when its shown on TV as two separate episodes there are scenes cut out to make room for the extra credit sequences and the "last time, on Deep Space Nine" bit.



That said, the second half is slower than the first, but a satisfying resolution nonetheless. The remainder of my review appears under "part 1". (You may proceed with the thumbs down for this awful review!)

The second half of "Emissary" relies a lot on lengthy scenes of Sisko's interrogation by the Prophets of Bajor - an idea that runs way too long. Michael Piller's insistence on using baseball as a metaphor for humanity is too heavy-handed. (Though I enjoyed the baseball references throughout the series.)





The other plot - Kira and O'Brien holding off a far superior Cardassian force - is kind of fun, with some fireworks. There are several jokes at Bashir's naivete, which was pretty egregious at this point in the series. That said, the on-station sequences feel like the setup they're intended to be rather than being great in its own right. Better stuff lay ahead.

Personally, I loved this episode...





We get to see more about the Bajorans, the Ferengi, the Trill, and the Cardassians here... and end up with the prospect of meeting a lot more new species...





Of course, this brings in the risk of starting a new war, like what ends up happening later in the series. Not everyone is going to be happy about having the new wormhole available to anyone and everyone in the Alpha Quadrant, but it does bring the prospect of being able to mine different things that the Federation, and others, may or may not need in the future.

Emissary is a very well done pilot episode and a great start to Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. This is definitely one of the best pilots for a Star Trek series. A lot of the actors played their roles perfectly right from the start, especially Alexander Siddig (Dr. Julian Bashir). I absolutely loved Dr. Bashir right from the start, and he has definitely always been my favorite character from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, and my favorite good guy character out of all of the main characters from Star Trek as a whole. My only complaint about this episode is the sequences with the wormhole aliens. Those parts were just both weird and obnoxious. All in all, I thought that this episode was very well done with it being the first episode of a series.