Why ‘Starfleet Academy’ Brought Back a ‘Deep Space Nine’ Icon

Last week’s phenomenal episode of Starfleet Academy shone a spotlight on the legacy of the Sisko family throughout the years after Deep Space Nine—but it’s hard to celebrate the life of Ben Sisko without at least one of his closest friends. But the decision to bring back Dax and the symbiont’s latest host was apparently a decision that put all the pieces of the puzzle together perfectly.

“Series Acclimation Mil†introduced to Professor Illa, a seemingly Cardassian teacher at the academy whose course focused on seemingly unsolvable questions like the true fate of Captain Sisko after the events of Deep Space Nine. Encouraging the titular Sam in her journey to explore Sisko’s past, it’s eventually revealed that Illa is in fact Illa Dax, the latest host of the Trill symbiont that had spent so many years across various lives, from Curzon to Jadzia to Ezri, being one of their beloved Benjamin’s closest confidants.

But according to episode co-writer (and Lower Decks star) Tawny Newsome, the addition of Illa as a Dax specifically wasn’t initially on the table. “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,†Newsome recently explained to Collider. “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.’â€

Star Trek: Discovery had previously established that symbionts could live for a very long time, especially if they took breaks from being joined to a Trill host by living in their natural habitats on Trill, the underground pools of the Caves of Mak’ala. In DS9, for example, it was revealed that Dax itself was born and lived in the pools for 150 years before joining with its first-ever host, Lela—but now we know with Illa palling around in the 32nd century spreading the good word of the Sisko, the Dax symbiont is now one of the oldest in Trill history.

“It really excited Noga Landau, our showrunner. It excited all of us. And we went, ‘Okay, yeah, let’s make this Dax,’†Newsome continued. “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.â€

As much as it would’ve been an interesting reflection, 800 years later, to see a Cardassian woman carrying on Sisko’s legacy considering their people’s history with him and the aftermath of the occupation of Bajor, making Illa a Cardassian-Trill hybrid (equally as interesting, perhaps, with Starfleet Academy‘s preponderance for hybrid characters in its cast!) so she could be Illa Dax was a perfectly sentimental way to amplify what the episode was saying about Sisko’s legacy.

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