The production team did consult with Avery Brooks, which is why he received the Thank You credit at the end.
https://winteriscoming.net/avery-brooks-more-involved-with-starfleet-academy-deep-space-nine-episode-than-you-think > On Feb 10, 2026, at 12:43, Rick Moen via Basfa <[email protected]> wrote: > > As I said during the meeting, I absolutely concur with Yochanan > in appreciating the most recent Star Trek: Starfleet Academy's > story line about holographic (er, photonic) cadet "Sam" (technically > SAM, acronym for "Series Acclimation Mil") trying to solve the mystery > of Commander Benjamin Sisko's ultimate fate (as shown in ST:DS9's > two-part finale, "What You Leave Behind", that aired May 1999). > > The current writers, 27 years down the pike, clearly meant well. > It hit all the right notes -- except for that one jarring note they > didn't realize they were hitting, the one that made me wince. > > I'm about to rain on Yochanan's parade. Sorry, chaver. > > > Lead actor Avery Brooks, when he saw the script in 1999, came to > scriptwriter/showrunner Ira Steven Behr and asked him to make one change > he considered vital -- which request he granted, and established (and > redefined) canon about Sisko, for a very good reason: > > Brooks thought it would be very unfortunate to show his character Sisko > _leaving_ his second wife Kasidy Yates, his son Jake, and his unborn > second son, never to see them again -- even though (in the script) this > was not his choice, but rather that of the god-like Bajoran Prophets, > and even though that had always been Sisko's destiny since his birth > getting covertly engineered by a Bajoran Prophet possessing a human > woman back in New Orleans, so that Sisko could become the Prophets' > Emissary. > > Brooks felt that Sisko's wife and young son deserved better, and that a > loving father, and moreover a Black role figure, _would come back_. So, > the writers added a scene where Sisko appears in a vision to Kasidy, to > reassure her and Jake that he _would_ return. > > Sisko: "It’s hard to say. Maybe a year, maybe yesterday. But I will be > back." > Yates: "And I will be waiting.” > > At the time, this canonical offscreen reunion mattered to me, because > I'd seen the other outcome, when a brave widow being told by two solemn > Pan Am officials, early on the cold morning of Dec. 26, 1968, that her > husband and father of her two children would never return from his final > flight, the doomed Flight 799. I always felt she deserved better. Her > name was Faye W. Moen. I knew this brave widow and role model for 53 > years, and her husband Captain Arthur Moen for 10. > > The ST:SA writers just broke Paramount's important, meaningful promise > to now-retired actor Mr. Avery Brooks, and changed Trek canon -- very > unfortunately -- unless one's headcanon arranges to have it both ways, > by assuming Benjamin Lafayette Sisko _did_ return to Kasidy and Jake, > about 800 years before the ST:SA timeline, but chose to never tell > either Starfleet or Sam. > > It is unfortunate that the writers messed up -- but there's only so much > faithfulness to narrative (or to solemn promises) one can expect after > almost 3 decades. > > Further to that: You might have assumed, given the use of an Avery > Brooks voiceover in his very distinctive baritone, that the retired Mr. > Brooks gave his blessing to this change of his character's story, by > recording that voiceover for them: "Devine laws are simpler than human > ones, which is why it takes a lifetime to be able to understand them. > Only love can understand them. Only love can interpret these words, as > they were meant to be interpreted." This was followed by a screen > showing "Thank you, Avery." > > Unfortunately for this interpretation, the showrunners borrowed that > audio clip from an unrelated recording Mr. Brooks made decades ago, for > some other purpose. It is highly unlikely he was even asked about its > recent reuse. > > Brooks is a private man, but I read that he married in 1976, raised > three kids with his one and only wife, and never left. A faithful man, > a role model, a university professor at Rutgers. I don't know if the > rest of us deserve him, but his family and students do. > https://web.archive.org/web/20160806103100/http://www.deseretnews.com/article/66065/AVERY-BROOKS-IS-JUST-AS-COOL-AND-IMPOSING-IN-PERSON.html > > > _______________________________________________ > Basfa mailing list > [email protected] > http://lists.basfa.org/listinfo.cgi/basfa-basfa.org
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