Emissary

This Story: Season 1 Episodes 1-2 (production code 721, or 401 & 402)
DS9 Overall: Episodes 1 & 2 (although originally broadcast as just one)
Trek Overall: Story 270, Episodes 281 & 282
Airdate: 4 Jan 1993
Story by Rick Berman & Michael Piller
Teleplay by Michael Piller
Directed by David Carson

Notes

• The first episode of the series, and as such the first episode for all the cast.
• The only exceptions to that were Miles, Keiko, & Molly O’Brien who had previously appeared on TNG.  Armin Shimerman also appeared on TNG, but not as his character here (Quark).
• Patrick Stewart cameos here both as Jean-Luc-Picard and as Locutus of Borg.  Stewart also speaks the fist words of the series (as he did in TNG as well).
• As originally broadcast this was a single episode, but ever since the original broadcast it’s been classified as “two” episodes.
• Dr. Bashir is credited as being played by “Siddig El Fahil”, but he later changed his name to a more American sounding “Alexander Siddig”. His full legal name is “Siddig El Tahir El Fadil El Siddig Abdurrahman Mohammed Ahmed Abdel Karim El Mahdi” (quite the mouthful).
• The only episode in any incarnation of Star Trek (including TNG) that shows actual battle footage from the battle of Wolf 359 which was originally mentioned in the TNG story “The Best of Both Worlds“.  It is the only appearance of the Borg on Deep Space Nine.
• In the Wolf 359 sequence, the captain is played by J.G. Hertzler.  He would later play the recurring Klingon character Martok in the series.
• Mark Alaimo plays the main bad guy, Gul Dukat.  He was on TNG several times as various different background characters.  This was the first of 35 episode of Deep Space Nine he appeared in.
• Max Grodénchik first appears as Rom here, although in these early stages, he’s simply credited as “pit boss”.
• The opening titles of this episode are the only ones not to show the wormhole, because at this time that had not yet been in the series.  All subsequent episodes do show the wormhole in the titles.
• One of only two episodes of Star Trek where the Enterprise-D visits Deep Space Nine.  The other is TNG’s “Birthright Part I“.
• This story was turned into a novel, which is now out of print, but is available digitally as a Kindle book.
• This episode was nominated for four Emmy awards.  It won for “Outstanding Individual Achievement in Special Visual Effects”.
• The first time we see Picard face someone who has had family members killed from his actions as Locutus at Wolf 359.  Picard’s visual reaction was quite well done.

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