Randomly decided to watch #DS9 “Emissary” for the first time in a decade or so. Great opening! We meet Sisko in battle against hopeless odds. He loses his wife and saves his son all in the first five minutes. Rooting interest established. 1
Struck by the handheld camera work in the opening sequence, which was unheard of for #StarTrek at the time. Adds tension, energy, and verisimilitude. 2
God I wish they’d pay to up res #DS9. It looks so grainy. 3
“We’ll take the pond with us” is a great line. Says so much about Sisko as a father and also the way the holo-tech is ingrained in Federation society. #DS9 4
First time we see #DS9 is from Jake’s POV. He thinks it looks cool. It’s clear from the scene that Sisko took this assignment because he thought it might be good for his son. The opening is completely grounded in the father/son relationship. 5
Sisko and Jake are foreground. #DS9 is behind them, obscured by Sisko’s loving gesture toward his son. Even when you think you’re going to get a clean shot of the station, their reflections cross over it. 6
No Wormhole in the opening credits of the pilot! #DS9 7
The beauty shots of the real life model of #DS9 still look good. 8
Sisko’s “Understood” to O’Brien about the state of #DS9 speaks to his character. He doesn’t want or need excuses. He understands O’Brien has other more pressing concerns. Moves on once he has his answer. 9
First shot of Quark and he looks like an extra. He’s packing his bar to go. Just a civilian trying to survive. Under all that make-up, @ShimermanArmin gives a look that just conveys so much. 10
Armin communicates weariness, anger, resignation, plus a “Who’s this Federation a-hole and what use is he?” All in one quick shot. That’s Acting, people! #Ds9 11
First big CU of Sisko is his reaction to “The Prophets await you.” The Emissary theme begins quietly but that shot tells you it’s a big deal. 12
Sisko’s chiding “okay” to Jake is the first laugh of the show. God, he loves his son. That shines through so brightly. #DS9 13
Sisko when told Picard wants to see him. “He does?” Stone cold. 14
Note that Sisko goes to Ops instead. Because F Picard. #DS9 15
“Sir, have you ever served with any Bajoran women?” “No, why?” “I was just wondering, sir.” O’Brien gives a knowing smile. Second laugh of the episode. #DS9 16
Sisko’s smile to Kira “We could do it in any order you like.” Avery’s performance in the #DS9 pilot has aged exceedingly well. 17
First Sisko/Kira scene is very strong. I feel like Nana is still finding her way here, but the dynamics between her and Avery are great. Interesting how solid Sisko is here. Very patient. And the smile when he decides to go with her to check on the break-in is gold. #DS9 18
Fun intros for Nog, Odo, and Quark, but no hint how important they’d all be. Also Sisko is already planning how to get Quark to do his bidding from the drop, like a boss. #DS9 19
Bedtime. I’ll pick up at the Picard scene when I next have some free time. But 16 minutes in, as a viewer, and I’m invested in this Sisko guy and therefore the show. #TVWriting lesson I suppose. #DS9 20
Picard can’t even talk about Wolf 359. Just bails on the whole thing. #DS9 21
It’s one hell of a scene though. Just crackles. 23
Sisko recruiting Quark as #DS9’s “community leader” is another great scene. Full of conflict, everyone the hero of their own tale. 24
Kira in a sleeveless t-shirt. The #DS9 pilot has something for everyone! This Kira/Sisko scene is a good example of disguised exposition. We learn about Kira’s backstory, but the scene plays through conflict and, yes, some sex appeal. Bogart would approve. 25
And also, boom, stakes. If you fail, Sidko, there will be a bloody civil war. 26
Nice matte painting! Bajor looks so pretty. I want to go there! And I don’t want a civil war to blow up those nice buildings. This isn’t just an establishing shot. It furthers the stakes. 27
I think Camille Saviola is a strong actress, but her Kai Opaka may be the one bit of casting that doesn’t quite click for me in the #DS9 pilot. Not sure why. She’s just not, for me, as inspirational and spiritual as the part demanded. 28
She’s perhaps too approachable and too “of the people.” Ultimately though, we decided she was too helpful to Sisko, too strong an ally, she made his journey too easy. Hence exit Kai Opaka and enter Kai Winn. 29
Of course, Sisko wins Jennifer over with his cooking. What else! (I forgot Sisko as cook was there from the jump). 30
Also forgot Jake falls asleep holding a baseball. Set up! #DS9 31
Quark’s is open for business! Sisko is making progress. And there’s our first look at Morn! #DS9 32
Quark’s looks like a fun place to visit. Part of the trick of a pilot is to seduce the audience into visiting the locations & characters again. In trying to be a bit edgier and grittier, #DS9 risked failing that task. Making Quark’s seem fun is supposed to counter that. 33
Bashir is such an awkward hound in s1. #DS9 34
Bashir’s colonialist attitude does not play with Kira! Bashir’s flailing is supposed to be endearing but I remember being annoyed by him when I first saw the #DS9 pilot. I think since he’s more my age, I disliked his stumbles. I wanted my peer to be more competent. 35
For better or worse, Bashir was the character I most identified with when I was writing for #DS9. Perhaps because of that, I really chaffed against him constantly making as ass of himself. But boy it gave him a great arc. 36
I’m struck again in this Dax scene how very different Dax was intended to be. Wise, centered, all about science. More Spock-like. It was an interesting approach but it wasn’t a good match for Terry and I like the roguish playful Dax we pivoted to so much more. #DS9 37
A really good example in my mind of successfully adjusting a character to better fit the actor. #DS9 38
Gotta take care of the dog and such. Will watch and tweet more when I have time. 40
Okay, where were we. Oh, yeah. 40 minutes in and the villain FINALLY appears. Not sure Michael could get away with that these days. But he used the time before Dukat showed up to really set up the characters and themes, so it works for me. #DS9 41
Dukat is the worst, right from go. So polite and so malevolent. Love him. Marc Alaimo jumps off the screen. #DS9 42
What are you up to, Kira? What a non-suspicious bag. #DS9 44
Odo never studied conservation of mass! #DS9 45
When I was on the #DS9 staff I came up with an explanation of where Odo's mass goes when he morphs (5 dimensional being who rotates himself through 4d space), but it never made it onto screen. None of the other writers were bothered by it, but it made me crazy. 46
This is a very elaborate Odo morph. Three stages. The morphs were cutting edge VFX back then. Each shot cost us about 10K, so we had to use them judiciously. But for TV pilots, you get to spend a bit more, so Odo gets to morph his heart out. #DS9 47
Hello Rio Grande! The first named #DS9 runabout and the only one that survived the entire series. The runabouts were a great concept, but they had serious limitations for shooting, and those limitations would eventually lead us to creating the Defiant. 48
At .25 light speed, the Rio Grande would cover the 3100 kilometers between it and the anomaly in about 1/100th of a second, but I doubt many people did the math in their head while watching and realized it didn't make sense. #DS9 (I did the math.) 48
As I've said in other posts, Terry ended up being great as Dax but I think it's fair to say she struggled with Dax as originally written. But I like the Dax we adjusted to better anyway. #DS9 50
As far as the tech does though, it's very hard to find actors who can do this well. We looked long and hard on #Andromeda to find Gordon Michael Woolvett and part of why he got the Harper part was because he could just nail this kind of stuff. #DS9 51
But really, the bigger lesson, for me, is that even in a space opera, a little tech talk goes a long way. 52
Hello Wormhole! 49 minutes in and we finally get to #DS9's biggest conceit. 53
80 kph is space is basically a dead stop. DON'T DO THE MATH! 54
Buckle up, people. #DS9 is about to get trippy! 55
The visual effects in the Prophets sequence were super cutting edge back in the day. Still look pretty good today. We had great VFX guys on #DS9! 56
Thread might be broken. If you can't see the tweets that follow this one, try going here:
Forgot that moving #DS9 was Kira's idea. Pretty cool that she gets one of the big hero moments in the pilot. 57
Odo backstory! Rene nails it of course, allowing Odo to be vulnerable and open for the first time in the pilot. #DS9 58
Sisko tells the Prophets: "We can't go back into the past to get something we left behind, so... it's lost." 7 seasons later, "What We Leave Behind" was the #DS9 finale and I have no idea whether @IraStevenBehr did that callback on purpose, but I bet he did and it's beautiful. 60
This entire Prophets sequence is so beautifully written. Mind expanding science fiction deeply rooted in character. Michael PIller at his best. Just great. 61
"I don't want to be here." "Then why do you exist here?"
Lump in my throat. I appreciated this back in the day, but now that I'm closer to Michael's age when he wrote it, I love it even more. #DS9 62
Lump in my throat. I appreciated this back in the day, but now that I'm closer to Michael's age when he wrote it, I love it even more. #DS9 62
That's a Homestead Grays baseball cap Sisko is wearing, a Negro League team. I'm not sure if that was Michael's idea or Avery's. Probably Avery's. But it's an early sign that #DS9 was not going to just pretend Sisko's race didn't matter. Lovely touch. 63
Michael's explanation of linear time via baseball is the most Michael scene ever. He LOVED baseball. "You value your ignorance of what is to come?" "In the end, that may be the most important thing to understand about humans. It is the unknown that defines our existence." #DS9 64
O'Brien and Kira sharing their mutual horrible experiences with the Cardassians is a nice touch, and reinforces the stakes of this moment. #DS9 67
Sisko teaches the Prophets what it means to exist linearly. They teach him that his existence is not entirely linear. That he's trapped in a moment of time. Great stuff and Avery brings his A game to this scene. #DS9 68
Kira's bluff is badass. This is the moment I feel in love with her character. @NanaVisitor totally delivers. #DS9 69
Gul Jasad is smart though. He calls her bluff. The best villains are just as competent as the best heroes. It's never satisfying to win against stupid foes. And #DS9 is now in deep trouble, which allows our heroes to shine. 70
Reluctant heroes can be interesting, but they're tough to sustain and Michael smartly makes Sisko embrace his calling by the end of the #DS9 pilot. 72
The show ends with our team in place, the Promenade abuzz, the promise of adventure to come. I'm in! What about you? #DS9 73
AND the @CBSAllAccess app just rolled right into episode 2 and of course the first thing up in Garak and Bashir. Man, I want to keep going but I can't. Thanks for sticking with me for this multi-day, broken up, unplanned live tweet of Emissary. Live long and prosper. #DS9 74/74
