Cirroc Lofton On His Emotional Return As Jake Sisko In Star Trek: Starfleet Academy

2 hours ago 5

Published Feb 5, 2026, 1:01 PM EST

John Orquiola is a New & Classic TV Editor, Senior Writer, and Interviewer with a special focus on Star Trek. John has over 4,000 published articles at SR, and he has interviewed the biggest names in Star Trek on the red carpet and VIP events, among other beloved shows, movies, and franchises.

Warning: SPOILERS for Star Trek: Starfleet Academy Season 1, Episode 5 - "Series Acclimation Mil"Cirroc Lofton explains the full story of his long-awaited comeback as Jake Sisko in Star Trek: Starfleet Academy. Written by Kirsten Beyer and Tawny Newsome, and directed by Larry Teng, Star Trek: Starfleet Academy episode 5 honors the legacy of Avery Brooks as Captain Benjamin Sisko in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.

When Series Acclimation Mil aka SAM (Kerrice Brooks) investigates the disappearance of Captain Sisko at the end of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, the holographic cadet gains insight into The Sisko as the Emissary of the Prophets from Benjamin's son, Jake Sisko. Star Trek: Starfleet Academy is the first time Cirroc Lofton has played Jake since 1999.

Cirroc Lofton was joined by Tawny Newsome, who plays Professor Illa Dax in Star Trek: Starfleet Academy episode 5, in an exclusive interview with ScreenRant's John Orquiola. Lofton and Newsome detail how his return as Jake Sisko happened, and why Star Trek: Starfleet Academy was the right project for Cirroc's highly-anticipated comeback. Read their quotes below:

Cirroc Lofton: I've been excited for a year inside my head about this. I couldn't wait for everybody to see it. Starfleet Academy, it's a perfect segue for Jake, who was the youngest kid on Star Trek, to now be a part of welcoming and ushering in the next young generation of Star Trek cast members. So I mean, there's so many meta levels to how this makes sense in so many different ways, from honoring the old to celebrating the future, to the Dax character, to all of these things that just tie in to make this a special episode. Kerrice Brooks brought it to life.

ScreenRant: Tell me about how this process came about. How did your guest spot come about? Because I remember STLV 2024, I remember you guys having dinner. I remember thinking way back when, like, something's up here.

Tawny Newsome: I mean, I probably started talking to Cirroc about this when our season one writers’ room started in spring of 2023. Before the strike, before this episode was explicitly a Sisko episode. I mean, I started pounding my fist on a table demanding it be a Sisko episode. And like I said, I knew from jump we needed to get Mr. Brooks's blessing and involvement, and so I immediately went to Cirroc. I said, ’Let's go to lunch and let's talk about how we can do this together.’ So that's why he needs to be an EP on this he was in there.

Cirroc Lofton: This was another kind of full-circle moment for me. They film [Starfleet Academy] in Toronto, and after the end of Deep Space Nine, actually overlapping the seventh season, I did another show, and it was filming in Toronto. The first time I lived outside of my mom's home was when I lived in Toronto to film this show. And so, getting a chance to go back there kind of brought back all of these memories of me being in Toronto right on the tail end of season seven. And now doing Star Trek in Toronto, it meant a lot to me to be there and do it. Keeping the secret all this time was probably harder than actually doing the project. Because [that secret was] incredible work. I wanted to say something so badly. People asked me, ‘Do you think you'll ever be on Star Trek again?’ I'm like, ‘Maybe.’

ScreenRant: At Comic Con, when they showed the first trailer last July, they showed the shot of Kerrice walking up to the image of Sisko. I was watching it from here, and I thought to myself, I remember I said out loud, ‘They got Cirroc!’ And I couldn't prove it, but my spider sense went off. I can't ask you, you can't say anything. So I just had to sit on it until I saw the episode. I interviewed Kerrice the other day, and I was teasing her about you a little bit. Because it's been 27 years since you played Jake. So I was like, ‘Was he rusty?’

Tawny Newsome: Like, no. I can say as a writer and a producer, no, no, no rust whatsoever.

Cirroc Lofton: I was excited. I was nervous. I was like a kid in a candy store all over again. And actually, there were some people that I didn't have scenes with who I’m now seeing as I'm watching the show, I'm like, ‘Oh, you're that guy and you're that guy,’ but they were just around the set and introduced themselves. I worked with Kerrice most of the time. I remember Tawny was there on the set. So I was happy to have somebody there and just talking me through the scenes and being there with me. That was special.

But there were other people that I would have liked to have met. Holly Hunter is fantastic in this show, and I'm enjoying her performances. I would have loved to have met her. Didn't get a chance. And Bob Picardo, another guy I love, just from seeing him everywhere. But I got a chance to really get a one-on-one moment with Kerrice, and we really worked these scenes out together. And the reason why it shines is because she brought so much to the table.

ScreenRant: Well, so did you, man. They were both beautiful scenes, just the interactions, the interplay, the emotion behind it. It's just incredible to watch. 27 years you waited to play Jake. This was the right time, right? This is the right project. I'm glad you didn't come back and do a voice-over as an animated Jake. I'm glad this was it. This was the moment. It was the right moment for you.

Cirroc Lofton: It was a moment that I thought would never happen. But Tawny made it happen. She gets all the credit from me. I just thought it would never happen. But I will say this: what was important for me in this particular episode, and what made something special to me, is that Avery Brooks, as Captain Sisko, did so much for Jake and Cirroc, so they're kind of intertwined together. And what I thought was special about this episode was SAM's character needed somebody to help give her support and give her confidence, and that's what Sisko did for Jake. And I feel like Jake now is finally getting a chance to pay that forward to SAM's character and say, ‘Let me be somebody in your life who can fill you up with confidence and help your self esteem, and let you know that you are everything that you want to be. And anything is possible for you.’

I think having that word of encouragement, that's the paying it forward, that's the completion of the cycle. I got it from here, and now I give it back here. And I think that's what we all should be doing in our lives, paying forward the blessings that we get, paying forward the gratitude, the opportunities. That was a special thing for me to do as Jake.

Cirroc Lofton is the first and, thus far, only member of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine's cast to reprise his character in live-action in a Star Trek on Paramount+ series. Other DS9 actors returned to voice their animated characters in Star Trek: Lower Decks.

Nana Visitor as Colonel Kira Nerys, Armin Shimerman as Quark, Max Grodenchik as Grand Nagus Rom, Chase Masterson as First Clerk Leeta, and Alexander Siddig and Andrew Robinson as alternate universe versions of Dr. Julian Bashir and Elim Garak appeared on Star Trek: Lower Decks.

A Jake Sisko comeback was always more challenging because Captain Sisko's son isn't a member of Starfleet. As a writer, there were opportunities to plug Jake into Star Trek series as a reporter for the Federation News service. While that could have been fun, it wouldn't have been as impactful as Jake's return in Star Trek: Starfleet Academy.

Jake Sisko's powerful scenes with Kerrice Brooks' SAM in Star Trek: Starfleet Academy were worthy of Cirroc Lofton's 27-year wait. Jake heartwarmingly spoke about and for his father, Captain Sisko and, as Lofton explained, Jake "paid it forward" to SAM, giving the photonic cadet confidence as an Emissary the way Benjamin always supported Jake as a writer and as his son.

Cirroc Lofton, who hosts The 7th Rule podcast, lived with the difficulty of keeping his return as Jake Sisko a secret for over a year. Happily, Lofton's efforts paid off. 27 years later, Jake Sisko's comeback in Star Trek: Starfleet Academy was truly worth waiting for.