DS9 - "Emissary"

Is there a better way to start a series than with the epic battle of Wolf 359?  No.  Did it work?  Mostly.

The battle itself had great special effects work, with the notable exception of the way the ships maneuvered.  While I can buy the Voyager swiftly diving and banking into turns, the bulky Nebula- and Miranda-class ships should barely be able to move at all, let alone turn on a dime.  One very important thing for Trek battles is that the ships have to move realistically for their design; generally, the larger and/or wider a ship is, the less maneuverable.

There's a notable use of shaky-cam here as the Saratoga is rocked by weapons fire.  It's certainly not up to the shaky-cam standards of today (yes, there are standards), but it still works well at establishing the desperation and intensity of the scene.  However, Avery Brooks and his portrayal of Benjamin Sisko don't work so well.

Throughout the entire episode, Sisko comes across as insincere, inconsistent, and slightly creepy.

 

He looks like he's going to molest a small child.

At the "big emotional moment" of the prologue, when Sisko is forced to leave behind his dead wife's body, Avery Brooks overacts to the point of overshadowing Shatner himself.  It's uncomfortably cheesy.  Also, his portrayal is inconsistent, going back and forth from overly pleasant to suddenly dark.  While this is consistent with someone who's dealing with deep emotional issues, it doesn't quite seem real.  One minute Sisko acts as if Deep Space 9 is the greatest thing since inertial dampeners, and the next he's telling Picard how much he hates the job and wants to retire.

 

Even Picard is disgusted at Sisko's acting

Picard may be the best part of the entire episode.  Patrick Stewart does an amazing job here, showing Picard's more grim side.  He doesn't remind Sisko about the fact that Locutus and Picard are technically not the same person; he simply continues on with his job.

 Old (left) and New (right)

The new uniforms are nice; I wonder why they decided to change them for DS9 but not TNG?  They're much more uniform-like and less casual.  There's a great bit of consistency in this department, as the new characters arriving to the station wear the TNG-style jumpsuits, yet are wearing the new costumes after they (apparently) have time to change.

Jadzia Dax is extremely hot.

Julian Bashir is a very fun character, and immediately likable.

Kira Nerys is surprisingly also likable in her own odd way.  She seems to be one of the only original characters here that seems completely real and genuine.

Odo is an odd one.
His speech about his origins seems slightly forced. I would have liked an introduction to his character motivations in a manner that made a little more sense.  The CG effects for his liquid morphing are stellar for the time period, however.

O'Brien's goodbye scene with Picard was a very nice bit.  It's not often that we get to see Picard actually show his emotional attachments for his crewmembers, so this was a rare treat.  The music during the scene was excellent as well, blending the TNG theme straight into the DS9 theme as O'Brien beams from the Enterprise to DS9. Now that I think about it, however, wasn't the Enterprise docked?  Why did O'brien need to beam to a place he could have walked to?  Must be for the whole "the transporter chief is being transported away" irony factor.

Holycrapitsawormhole!!!

The alternate reality-inside-a-wormhole scenes have to be some of the weirdest in Trek history.  Sisko meets new noncorporeal alien life forms, and what does he do? Argue about geometry.

It doesn't even make sense; how could a species not understand the concepts of four-dimensional space, yet use those same concepts to communicate with Sisko?

At the very least, one interesting quote came out of the end of that absurd discussion: "It is the unknown that defines our existence."  This is the basic tenet of Trek: that humanity is defined by our desire to grow and learn beyond ourselves.  Still, this message could have been communicated better.

"Emissary" is a very good introduction to DS9; it just doesn't have a lot there to entertain us as an actual story.