By Chris Snellgrove
| Published 10 seconds ago

The latest episode of Starfleet Academy had one of its 32nd-century cadets researching a legendary 24th-century figure: Benjamin Sisko, the captain of Deep Space Nine. While the show’s broad humor threatened to drag things down, this episode succeeded as a love letter to Sisko and the man who played him, Avery Brooks. On a larger level, the episode also works as a tribute to Deep Space Nine, the best Star Trek show ever made.

Accordingly, the show threw out DS9 references with almost as much speed and ferocity as Sisko’s fastball. With everything going on (from bar fights to farting fish to literal glitter vomit), it’s easy to miss these cool callbacks. But we’ve got you covered: just keep reading to discover all of the Deep Space Nine Easter eggs you may have missed in this week’s episode of Starfleet Academy!

Baseball, Mitt, And Hat

At one point in her investigation, SAM enters the Sisko Museum, filled with notable artifacts from his life. One of the first things we see is a baseball and a baseball glove, included in the museum because Sisko was such a fan of this outdated American sport. Presumably, the ball in the museum is the same one that was originally given to Sisko by an alien recreation of Buck Bokai, a fictional baseball hero.

Sisko kept that same ball in his office on Deep Space Nine, and he frequently played with it during tense situations like an old-school fidget. At one point, he and his crew engaged in a disastrous baseball game against one of his old Starfleet Academy rivals, a Vulcan whose superior strength meant he was always destined to win. Still, Sisko’s squad came to enjoy the camaraderie of simply playing baseball together, and the museum also houses the hat he wore when leading his team, The Niners.

Typewriter And Glasses

One of the more surprising inclusions in Starfleet Academy’s Sisko Museum is a typewriter; this is a nod to “Far Beyond the Stars,” in which Sisko experiences visions of living as a sci-fi writer named Benny Russell in 1950s America. The episode portrayed Russell as a Black writer held back by the racism of his time period, but this doesn’t keep him from writing a story about a fictional space station, Deep Space Nine. The episode tells a powerful story about race and racism while provocatively suggesting that the entire show Star Trek fans have been watching might all be in the head of a forgotten ‘50s writer.

It’s interesting to see the typewriter (and Benny’s glasses) in the Sisko Museum, especially since it never seemed like the captain filed an official report about what Starfleet would have likely considered a mental break. But he may have confided about Benny to Dax, who was also present when another delusion nearly kept him from opening the Orb of the Emissary. Considering this episode’s revelation that the Dax symbiont is alive and well and teaching at the academy, the presence of the typewriter makes a lot more sense. 

Anslem

In the most recent Starfleet Academy episode, the latest incarnation of Dax hands SAM Anslem, a book written by Jake Sisko. After opening the book, she interacts with what might be an intelligent hologram of the younger Sisko, or maybe he (being technically part-Prophet) simply transcended time and space. But what makes this book so special in the first place, and why was SAM so surprised to discover Jake finished it?

In the Deep Space Nine episode “The Muse,” young Jake comes under the influence of Onaya, an alien creature who feeds off creative energy; basically, she kills people, but only after unlocking their full potential. Under her influence, Jake begins Anslem, his first novel, but he doesn’t finish it because his father drives away Onaya. Deep Space Nine never revealed if Jake had finished Anslem in the main timeline, but Starfleet Academy confirmed that he secretly completed the book but decided against publishing it.

Orb Of The Emissary

When he was first stationed on Deep Space Nine, Benjamin Sisko was very skeptical about the Bajoran religion, but that all changed when their godlike Prophets (which he called wormhole aliens) selected him to become Space Jesus. After that, Sisko quickly learned about all the Bajoran beliefs, including the idea that the Prophets sent down special orbs to help guide and communicate with their chosen people. One of those was called the Orb of the Emissary and, in timey-wimey fashion, it held the Prophet that possessed Sisko’s mother and ensured that he was conceived.

When Sisko finds the orb and releases the Prophet, the powerful alien is able to cast out the evil pah-wraith inside the wormhole; this restores hope to the Bajoran people and makes the wormhole functional again. So, what we see in the Sisko Museum in Starfleet Academy isn’t just any orb. It’s the one that is tied to both the beginning of the Sisko and, ultimately, the end of the Dominion War, making it one of the coolest artifacts in the entire galaxy.

The Return Of Jake Sisko

Jake Sisko shows up in this episode of Starfleet Academy as an adult. He’s only a hologram, but an interactive one, so he talks SAM. Reprising the role is Cirroc Lofton, who also played Jake on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.

The Return Of Dax

As mentioned previously, the Dax symbiote shows up on Starfleet Academy, in a new host called Illa Dax (played by Tawny Newsome). This Dax isn’t a Trill; she’s a Cardassian-Trill hybrid.