Star Trek Legend Explains How ‘Starfleet Academy’ Landed Its Biggest Legacy Moment Yet

Editor's Note: The following article contains spoilers for the Starfleet Academy episode "Series Acclimation Mil."

Star Trek: Starfleet Academy's most recent episode, "Series Acclimation Mil," was meant for fans both new and old to Star Trek. Not only has the episode continued to move the plot while spending quality time on new characters, but it also honored characters nostalgic to many longtime Star Trek fans, with quite a surprise right at the end.

The episode was written by Star Trek alum Tawny Newsome, best known for her role as Mariner on Star Trek: Lower Decks, and Kirsten Beyer, who's been writing for the franchise for decades. During the episode, SAM (Kerrice Brooks), who is the holographic Emissary of her home planet, is tasked with enrolling in a class to hopefully give a satisfactory report to her makers back home. When that happens, she meets Professor Illa, played by Newsome. In the class, SAM takes it upon herself to solve the disappearance of Starfleet Captain Benjamin Sikso (Avery Brooks), who went missing at the end of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. The logline for "Series Acclimation Mil" is:

"Sam sets out to solve an ancient Starfleet mystery and embarks on a journey of self-discovery; Nahla agrees to help a fellow chancellor with an elaborate alien ritual."

In the episode, it would appear that solving the disappearance of Benjamin Sisko turned out to really be about the friends SAM made along the way. Rather than giving any canonical answer to Sisko's whereabouts, the episode was filled with nostalgia and one particular twist. The twist came after the episode had a remarkably satisfying conclusion — with not one, but two, cameos from Cirroc Lofton, who played Captain Sisko's son Jake in Deep Space Nine — and also provided incredible character growth for SAM. Then came the twist that Newsome says was actually the final piece of the puzzle, which worked so seamlessly that it had this author standing up like she was watching a sporting event.

It's revealed that Newsome's Professor Illa is actually part Trill, and not only that, but the current host of the Dax Symbiont. Newsome explains, "I was the last piece of this puzzle. I did not intend to write myself in at all. Because it didn’t occur to me that I would be anyone other than Mariner." She says that it didn't feel right given the overall "magnitude" of the episode. But regardless, Newsome says:

"I love Professor Illa, who was constructed by me and Kirsten [Beyer] and she was meant to be the perfect shepherd for this story. It was so important that we had someone who it made sense that she would have the only copy of Jake’s book. A lot of intentionality went into who could this be? And then when we all kind of went, 'Oh, you know, the Trill lifespan could be this long. This could be Dax,' it really excited Noga Landau, our showrunner. It excited all of us. And we went, 'Okay, yeah, let’s make this Dax.' And then, as I said, I was the last piece of the puzzle [laughs] when they said, 'Okay, and Tawny is going to do it.' It was quite a surprise, I think, for all of us. But I had really great support from showrunners and from Kirsten."

Who Is Dax in Star Trek?

So, maybe you're tuning into Starfleet Academy as a brand-new fan of the franchise because you love Holly Hunter, or maybe you've only seen the more recent iterations of the franchise and have yet to dip your toes in the vast back catalog of shows. You might then ask: Why is it such a huge deal that Newsome is playing the most recent host to the Dax Symbiont? If so, we're happy to explain how multiple aspects of Newsome's character reveal so much about what has happened between the events of Deep Space Nine and when Starfleet Academy is set, some 800 years later.

Dax is a character Newsome has wanted to see return to the franchise for years now. The Trill are a species of aliens that have the option to go through a process that "joins" them with a slug-like alien that holds the memories, mannerisms, etc. of all who have previously joined with the Symbiont. Dax was first played by Terry Farrell in DS9 as Jadzia Dax, then, after her character was killed at the end of Season 6, the Symbiont went into Ezri, played by Nicole de Boer, during an accident while transporting the Symbiont after Jadzia's death.

Not only does Newsome's character make for the 10th confirmed Dax host (with many hosts likely passing between Ezri and Illa in the 32nd century), but what some fans may not catch upon first watch is that Illa is also of Cardassian descent. Outside the Dominion — which was recently referenced in the third and final season of Star Trek: Picard — the Cardassians were the biggest threat to the Federation during the run of Deep Space Nine. Sisko comes aboard the space station, helping to run it after the Cardassian occupation of Bajor. During the series, there were Cardassian dissidents who had opposed alliances with the Dominion, so this tells fans so much about the Cardassians' eventual socio-political standings within the greater world of Star Trek in the 800+ years between DS9 and Starfleet Academy.

If you'd like to watch "Series Acclimation Mill" with fresh eyes after this twist, Starfleet Academy is available to stream exclusively on Paramount+.