‘ACCESSION’ (DS9)
Please feel free to comment on my review.
In this ‘DS9’ episode, Sisko is faced with the choice of whether he wants to become the Emissary of the Bajoran Prophets or not. He’s also given an opportunity to step down as the Emissary for a bit. 😐
It starts when an ancient Bajoran sailing ship, like the one in ‘Explorers’, emerges from the wormhole in space. The DS9 crew recover one passenger who happens to be Richard Libertini as Akorem Laan.
Akorem happens to be a revered Bajoran poet who disappeared 200 years ago. He claims to have been chosen by the Prophets as their Emissary –a role thought to have belonged to Captain Sisko. 😐
Throughout the series, Sisko has never been comfortable with being the Bajorans’ messiah figure. He willingly steps aside for Akorem to take over as the Emissary without hesitation or resistance here. 😐
This was intriguing to explore in the ‘DS9’ TV series as Sisko has to find a way of whether he wants to be a Bajoran messiah figurehead again or not. Akorem’s changes to Bajor might prompt Sisko in that.
Akorem believes that the Prophets brought back to Bajor to restore its traditional caste system. This was abandoned during the 50 year Cardassian occupation of Bajor which did turn many into soldiers.
Robert Symonds as Vedek Porta supports Akorem in his endeavours. Porta tells Major Kira that she must resign her military commission and become an artist instead. That was her family’s profession.
There’s quite a touching scene where Kira informs Sisko that she’ll have to resign her commission on DS9 because of the caste system. Sisko tells Kira no-one can replace her and the two like each other.
Another issue arises here. Sisko warns Akorem that the caste-based discrimination he’ll introduce on Bajor will prevent them from joining the Federation. Akorem however is adamant in his objectives. 😦
This episode also features the return of Camille Saviola as Kai Opaka, who was Bajor’s former spiritual leader that appeared in ‘Emissary’. Sadly she appears only as a dream to Captain Sisko here.
In the dream Sisko has, Opaka tells him that he has lost sight of who he is. When he has a check-up from Dr. Bashir the next day, Sisko is told that he experienced an ‘orb shadow’ – like a hallucination.
They’re reminders from the Prophets to people who ignore their will. Sisko asks Bashir to give him something in order to ignore it further, but it doesn’t stop him from being anxious over the situation.
Eventually, it goes out of hand when Vedek Porta murders a fellow priest whose caste is considered spiritually clean. Sisko believes that this has gone on long enough and he confronts Akorem about it.
Sisko challenges Akorem for the role of the Emissary and they decide that the only way to settle this matter is to go to wormhole itself. Once inside the wormhole, the two commune with the Prophets.
They ask what the Prophets want from them and the Prophets say that Sisko is in fact their Emissary and ‘of Bajor’. They had brought Akorem to the present for Sisko’s benefit in order to accept his role.
Akorem is soon sent back to his own era with no memory of what happened to him in the future. Sisko is soon returned to his own time. He becomes the Emissary of the Prophets once again on DS9.
It was nice to see that scene he has with Major Kira where they discover that ‘The Call of the Prophets’ by Akorem Laan now exists as a complete poem instead of incomplete. It’s pretty peculiar.
This episode also features the return of Rosalind Chao as Keiko O’Brien and Hana Hatae as Molly O’Brien. Chief O’Brien is pleased to see them again and is hoping to spend plenty of time with him. 🙂
It will mean of course having to sacrifice the free time he had with Bashir whilst Keiko and Molly were away. O’Brien struggles to spend time with Keiko, especially when she seems too busy for him.
Molly also prefers to do colouring herself without her dad’s help. Hmm. Thankfully, Keiko notices O’Brien missing his free time with Bashir and encourages both separately to meet with each other. 🙂
Oh Keiko’s going to have another baby. Forgot to mention that! ‘Accession’ is a pretty good ‘DS9’ episode. I am pleased it resolved Sisko’s discomfort about being the Emissary of the Prophet here. 🙂
‘Accession’ (DS9) rating – 8/10
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