After watching the four TNG movies in a row I wasn't super stoked to see Netflix had combined Emissary into one 90 minute episode. But I shouldn't have worried, I was entertained and looking forward to what was going to happen next the entire time. I am pretty sure I hadn't seen this since it originally aired. I totally didn't remember any of the stuff with the battle of Wolf 359. All I remembered was that Sisko didn't like Picard for some reason, but given the events of this episode it makes sense and is pretty much resolved. The characters are well introduced and seem to mostly be mature versions of themselves other than Bashir who clearly has some growing up to do.
The episode opens in the middle of the battle of Wolf 359 and things aren't going well on Sisko's ship. They are crippled by the Borg and forced to evacuate. Ben is able to save his son Jake but his wife Jennifer is trapped under debris and already dead. Sisko don't want to leave her never the less but gets dragged to the escape pod. Cut to three years later and Ben has been assigned to the remote outpost of Deep Space 9 and his son Jake isn't too excited about it. When he arrives the station is in disarray. The Cardassians pretty much wrecked the place when they left. He finds Major Kira Nerys in what is now his office and she makes it clear she doesn't think Starfleet is going to stick around long since she doesn't think her government will make it long. They don't get to finish there argument though, there is a fight on the promenade. Sisko decides Odo isn't getting things under control fast enough and opens fire with his phaser. Instead of thanking him Odo tells him to put is his weapon away, they aren't allowed on the promenade.
At the center of the fight is Nog and it looks like he is going to be spending some time in jail. His uncle Quark shows up to try to negotiate his release, but Odo isn't having it. Sisko heads of the Enterprise to meet with Picard. He is openly hostile with him over the events with the Borg and tells him he would like to be transferred away from the station. Picard says he will pass it along and dismisses him. Back on the station Quark is preparing to leave forever but Sisko convinces him to stay and be a leader of the community in exchange for lenient treatment for Nog. Next Sisko heads down to Bajor to meet with Kai Opaka, head of the Bajoran religion. She talks about his spirit a bit before taking him into a secret chamber and showing him one of the orbs of the prophets which gives him a vision of meeting his wife for the first time. She explains there are other orbs but they were captured by the Cardassians and gives him the orb to try and find the "celestial temple."
Sisko head back up to the station as Dr. Bashir and Jadzia Dax arrive. Bashir is full of confidence and clearly excited to be out on the frontier which Kira finds offensive. On the Enterprise O'Brien is preparing to leave but doesn't want to say good bye. Picard follows him to the transporter room and personally beams him over. Dax has been working on the orb and figured out where she things the celestial temple may be, but the Cardassians have also arrived and Sisko doesn't want them to find it first or at all really. Kira shows up at Quarks where the Cardassians are gathered to gamble and tells them the place is closing. They gather their winnings and head back to the ship sure they were only kicked out for winning too much. But the bag of money is actually Odo who disables their ship before getting beamed back by O'Brien.
Dax and Sisko head for the site of the temple in a runabout. They arrive and are surprised to find a wormhole! It takes them to the Gamma Quadrent, a relatively unexplored region of space far from the Federation. When they try to go back the runabout stops for no apparent reason. Then they detect a breathable atmosphere, then they land, still in the wormhole. They get out and see very different things. Dax is in a grassy field and Sisko is in a rocky hellscape. Dax gets taken out of the wormhole by an orb but Sisko is trapped inside experiencing strange non-time experiencing aliens talking to him through his memories. Gul Dukat follows them through but something goes wrong and the aliens seal the wormhole with Dukat's ship trapped in the Gamma Quadrent and Sisko inside. O'Brien is given the job of moving the station to the mouth of the wormhole to claim it. As they arrive at the former location of the wormhole three Cardassian warships show up and demand they surrender for destroying Dukat's ship somehow.
Things are looking grim, the station isn't equipped to defend itself but Kira isn't going to surrender to the Cardassians she has spent her life fighting against. O'Brien creates a field to mask them from sensors and makes it look like they have a bunch of weapons. They call for the Enterprise but it is two days away at that point. Kira fires all their torpedoes off the Cardassian bow but they don't fall for the bluff and start attacking. Things aren't going well and it is all O'Brien can do to keep the station in once piece. In the wormhole Sisko is trying to convince the aliens that his species isn't destructive and in the process realizes he has been stuck in the moment his wife died ever since it happened. Just as Kira is about to surrender the wormhole opens with Sisko flying the runabout towing the Cardassian ship. The others break off their attack. Sisko meets with Picard the next day and tells him he has reconsidered and wants to stay at DS9. Picard clearly doesn't know what happened, but agrees to not request a transfer from Starfleet.
Review; The best Trek pilot so far Emissary does all the things you want from a first episode. All the characters (except Worf of course) are introduced and we see where they are starting from. I remembered not liking Sisko first season, but he does rather well in the pilot.
8 out of 10
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