Benjamin Sisko
Born in 2332 in
New Orleans,
Louisiana, Benjamin is the son of
Joseph Sisko, a
Cajun/
Creole chef and owner of "Sisko's" restaurant. His biological mother is a
wormhole alien and Bajoran Prophet who took physical form, "Sarah", in order to be his mother. Sarah was briefly married to Joseph Sisko, but she disappeared two days after Ben's first birthday. She died in an accident several years later. Benjamin is unaware of these details until well into his adulthood and long after he otherwise makes contact with the Prophets. Ben has a sister named Judith.
Sisko entered
Starfleet Academy in 2350. During his sophomore year, he was in a field-study assignment on Starbase 137. He met
Jennifer Sisko shortly after graduating from the Academy; the two eventually wed and had a son,
Jake Sisko.
The joined
Trill Curzon Dax mentored Sisko when the two served aboard the USS
Lexington early in Sisko's career. The symbiotic nature of joined Trill becomes a significant aspect to Sisko's later relationships with his DS9 science officer
Jadzia Dax, who inherited the
Dax symbiont from Curzon, and DS9 counselor
Ezri Dax, who inherits Dax upon Jadzia's untimely death.
Sisko served aboard the
USS Okinawa under Captain Leyton, who saw command potential in Sisko. Leyton promoted Sisko to lieutenant commander and made him his executive officer. It was during this assignment that Sisko and Leyton fought in the war between the Federation and the
Tzenkethi.
Sisko eventually transferred to the USS
Saratoga as its first officer. In early 2367, the ship fights the
Borg in the
Battle of Wolf 359.
Locutus, a drone created from the assimilated Captain
Jean-Luc Picard, uses Picard's knowledge to annihilate the Starfleet force; Jennifer Sisko is among the 11,000 casualties.
Sisko was then assigned to the
Utopia Planitia Fleet Yards on
Mars, overseeing the development of new ships, including the
USS Defiant.
In 2369, Sisko is assigned to the
Bajoran sector to command space station
Deep Space Nine and to help Bajor's recovery from the recently-concluded
Cardassian occupation, shepperding them toward possible membership in the
United Federation of Planets. Sisko and his son Jake reluctantly take up residence on the station; recognizing that the then-decrepit station is not an "ideal environment" in which to raise a son, Sisko contemplates resigning his commission. Adding to Sisko's discomfort is the presence of Jean-Luc Picard, who briefs him on his mission - Sisko continues to harbor resentment toward Picard for his role, however unwilling, in the death of his wife.
Upon Sisko's first visit to Bajor, Bajor's religious leader,
Kai Opaka Sulan, labels him "the Emissary of the Prophets" and gives him one of the "
Tears of the Prophets": a mysterious glowing orb that supposedly comes from Bajor's
Prophets. By studying the orb and nearby stellar phenomenon,
Jadzia Dax finds a locus of unusual activity in the nearby Denorios Belt. Traveling there, Dax and Sisko discover the first known stable
wormhole, which leads to the
Gamma Quadrant, and the mysterious aliens living within it. The devoutly spiritual Bajorans believe them to be their "Celestial Temple" and Prophets, respectively. These aliens live outside linear time; Sisko's first contact with the aliens is awkward and difficult for both parties, but the encounter helps Sisko recognize that he is needlessly holding onto grief over his deceased wife. After leaving the wormhole, Sisko embraces the opportunity to move forward and to command the station ‐ which is moved to the mouth of the wormhole in order to firmly claim it for Bajor. Shortly after Sisko's arrival, DS9 becomes a new hub of scientific, commercial and political activity.
The wormhole's discovery cements in Opaka's and other Bajorans' minds the notion that Sisko is the Emissary of the Prophets – a title and set of responsibilities with which Sisko is initially ill at ease. However, Sisko warms up to and eventually embraces his fated role in the Bajoran faith. When Sisko suicidally leads the
Defiant into the wormhole to intercept a Dominion fleet, the Prophets intervene: Sisko at this point has not fulfilled his destiny and, to ensure that he survives, the Prophets erase the Dominion forces from existence.
Sisko plays a critical role in the intrigue of the Alpha Quadrant. During the Klingon invasion of Cardassia, he is crucial to exposing the
Founder impersonating Klingon general
Martok. Sisko's exploits continue during
the Dominion's invasion of the Alpha Quadrant, eventually working alongside
Vice Admiral William Ross to help plan massive actions against the Dominion and their Cardassian and Breen allies. Sisko's contributions to the war effort are sometimes more surreptitious, such as his clandestine work with
Garak to bring the Romulans into, and thus turn the tide of, the war.
Sisko fulfills the Prophets' destiny for him in the series' finale, "
What You Leave Behind", by confronting the
Kosst Amojan-possessed
Skrain Dukat. Sisko pushes Dukat into the fiery abyss of the Bajoran Fire Caves, and Sisko is pulled into the Prophets' plane of existence to live with and learn from them. Ben imparts a farewell to his new – and pregnant – wife, Kasidy Yates, informing her that he does not know when he will be able to return to her.
Benjamin Sisko can also be identified as two other characters in the Star Trek universe:
Benny Russell
In the episode "
Far Beyond the Stars", alien interference results in Sisko briefly living the life of "Benny Russell", an
African-American science fiction short story writer in 1950s America. Every day, Russell faces the prejudices of his world – his publisher does not even allow his photograph to be printed. Russell writes a story called "Deep Space Nine" that takes place in a universe without prejudice and bigotry. But, his publisher refuses to release the story because he makes the commander of the space station a black man. This injustice eventually drives Benny insane; soon after, Sisko finds himself back in the 24th century, questioning the nature of reality.
But later, in "
Shadows and Symbols", the second episode of the seventh and final season, Sisko experiences more flashbacks to his "life" as Benny, now in a mental institution, obsessively writing synchronously the episode on the wall. Although it seems to be left ambiguous as to whether Benny is real or the Prophets' creation, at the end of this episode the wormhole alien he was hunting says, "The Kosst Amojan tried to stop you with a false vision" implying that the Kosst Amojan (aka the Pah-wraith, another wormhole entity) was implanting the Russell fantasy into Sisko's mind to throw him off his mission.
In a June 2006
interview, former producer
Ira Steven Behr said that he contemplated making the entire Deep Space Nine series a writing of the character Benny Russell.
Gabriel Bell
Due to a time travel incident depicted in "
Past Tense", Sisko unintentionally takes the place of Gabriel Bell, an important figure in early
21st century America. The real Bell dies as a result of Sisko's presence, so Sisko takes his place in order to preserve the timeline. "Bell" instigates the
Bell Riots, which helped change the course of human history. Although Sisko is successful in fulfilling Bell's destiny and preserving the timeline, historical images of Bell show Sisko's image.
*Initially, Sisko has hair. The show's producers asked Avery Brooks to retain his hair in order to distinguish Sisko from Brooks' previous role of Hawk from
Spenser: For Hire and its
spinoff,
A Man Called Hawk. In the fourth season of
DS9, the decision was made to allow Sisko to shave his head and grow a beard. This coincided with Brooks' appearance as Hawk in several
Spenser reunion telefilms.
*Sisko loves
baseball, a sport that has largely disappeared by the
24th century but is kept alive by a small group of aficionados. He keeps a baseball in his office and often clutches it when deep in thought.
*
*
Emissary of the Prophets article at Memory Alpha
*
StarTrek.com: Benjamin Sisko
