History Recap / StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS01E01E02Emissary

** Sisko is puzzled but quite happy to meet Jennifer again, then has to return to the present where she's long dead. Later when he's using scenes from his past to communicate with the wormhole aliens, he keeps moving back-and-forth from happy times with Jennifer to her death--it takes a while to sink in that [[TheLostLenore he's the one doing this]], not the aliens.

* OurWormholesAreDifferent: InUniverse--Sisko and Dax comment on how different the Bajoran Wormhole is compared to all the others. This becomes a major plot point when they find out where the wormhole came from.
** From a strategic point-of-view, it's the first ''stable'' wormhole ever encountered.

* FreezeFrameBonus: An observant viewer will notice that one of the ships destroyed as Wolf 359 is ''Oberth''-class, whose combat capabilities are somewhere between "limited" and "nonexistent". The fact that such a ship is scrambled for the battle shows just how desperate Starfleet is to throw ''anything'' against the Borg.

** Wolf 359, as [[ForegoneConclusion the viewers of TNG already know]]. All the Federation ships' phaser fire doesn't even scratch the Borg cube. The Borg cube, by comparison, fires exactly ''three'' shots on-screen; the first one totally disintegrates the saucer section of an ''Excelsior''-class ship; the second catastrophically damages the ''Saratoga'', killing nearly everyone on-board, setting off a warp core breach and barely leaving the survivors time to escape; and the third (barely visible through the window while Sisko is trying to rescue Jake and Jennifer) {{One Hit Kill}}s an ''Oberth''-class ship.

* AffablyEvil: Gul Dukat. "Evil" might be a stretch based on his behavior in this episode (later backstory will show he was essentially Hitler to the Bajorans), but he is legitimately friendly and respectful - whilst simultaneously making subtle threats at Sisko.

* SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome:
** As it turns out, forcefully giving in your resignation to Captain Picard while making it clear that you dislike him for something that wasn't even his fault means that you can't just rescind it if you change your mind. Sisko had to apologise and confirm that he was ready before Picard dropped it.
** Deep Space 9 isn't a warship and was stripped of most anything valuable when the Cardassians left. It is no match for the Cardassian warships.

* ArmorPiercingQuestion: During his time interacting with the Prophets, Sisko is repeatedly drawn back to the scene of his wife's death. Despite his insistence that he doesn't want to be there, the Prophets keep asking him one thing:

* EatingTheEyeCandy: Even Sisko can't restrain a [[WolfWhistle whistle of appreciation]] at the [[ShowingOffTheNewBody new body that 'Old Man' Dax is wearing]].

* ManlyTears: Sisko over his wife's death.

-->'''Kira:''' Red alert. Shield up.
-->'''O'Brien:''' What shields? ''(OhCrap look from Kira)''

* [[NeverGiveTheCaptainAStraightAnswer Never Give The Commander A Straight Answer]]: Kira calls Sisko telling him there's something on the Promenade he might want to see. When Sisko arrives, he finds Community leader Quark's gambling establishment in full swing.

* ArmorPiercingResponse: At their first meeting, Picard notices that Sisko is a barely restrained bundle of rage. He asks the Commander if they've met before (the subtext being him inquiring if has offended the man), and when Sisko grits out that he was on the ''Saratoga'' at Wolf 359, Picard is visibly staggered.[[note]]Given how much everyone has been reminding him that he isn't at fault for Locutus's actions, this may be the first time that someone besides himself has blamed him for what happened.[[/note]]

* StableTimeLoop: The pilot sets one up for the series: the Prophets exist outside linear time. And it's implied that much of their actions stem from what Sisko, the first linear being to meet them, told them about themselves. They at first know nothing of the Orbs or the Bajorans worshipping them as gods. It's only through Sisko that they learn this, and proceed to act accordingly, sending their Orbs out in time. Which in turn is what allowed Sisko to find the wormhole and meet them in the first place. [[spoiler:Later episodes would show this runs much deeper]].

** The Orbs are introduced in a way that suggests they would be PlotCoupons, with Kai Opaka stating there were nine Orbs which Sisko must reclaim from the Cardassians. This is never mentioned again after this episode except for a brief mention in a later episode as returning the orbs being something Bajor's negotiating with Cardassia and later Sisko returning the Orb of Time from Cardassia acting as the set up for an episode.

* StableTimeLoop: The pilot sets one up for the series: the Prophets exist outside linear time. And it's implied that much of their actions stem from what Sisko, the first linear being to meet them, told them about themselves. They at first know nothing of the orbs or the Bajorans worshipping them as gods. It's only through Sisko that they learn this, and proceed to act accordingly, sending their orbs out in time. Which in turn is what allowed Sisko to find the wormhole and meet them in the first place. [[spoiler:Later episodes would show this runs much deeper]].

** The Prophets are depicted rather differently here to how they would be later in the series, and are shown as a race of isolationist {{Sufficiently Advanced Alien}}s who don't particularly care about corporeal beings (much less Bajorans). As the series went on, they were developed into BenevolentPrecursors who were revealed to have guided Bajoran civilization, and even certain aspects of Sisko's life. Note that this isn't actually inconsistent, due to the nature of their non-linear existence (in fact, Opaka had already said ''in this very episode'' that what Bajorans have learned from their Orbs has shaped their theology), but it can come across a little jarring after seeing later episodes, where the show more fully embraced the religious aspects of the Prophets.

* EstablishingSeriesMoment The opening scene. Every other installment of the franchise opened with an okay situation that eventually goes south. Here, it opens right in the middle of the devastating Wolf 359 battle, signifying a DarkerAndEdgier take on the mythos.

** The Prophets are depicted rather differently here to how they would be later in the series, and are shown as a race of isolationist {{Sufficiently Advanced Alien}}s who don't particularly care about corporeal beings (much less Bajorans). As the series went on, they were developed into BenevolentPrecursors who were revealed to have guided Bajoran civilization, and even certain aspects of Sisko's life. Note that this isn't actually inconsistent, due to the nature of their non-linear existence (in fact, Opaka already says that what Bajorans have learned from their Orbs has shaped their theology ''in this very episode''), but it can come across a little jarring after seeing later episodes, where the show more fully embraced the religious aspects of the Prophets.

** The Prophets are depicted rather differently here to how they would be later in the series, and are shown as a race of isolationist {{Sufficiently Advanced Alien}}s who don't particularly care about corporeal beings (much less Bajorans). As the series went on, they were developed into BenevolentPrecursors who were revealed to have guided Bajoran civilization, and even certain aspects of Sisko's life. Note that this isn't actually inconsistent, due to the nature of their non-linear existence (in fact, Opaka already says that what Bajorans have learned from the orbs has shaped their theology ''in this very episode''), but it can come across a little jarring after seeing later episodes, where the show more fully embraced the religious aspects of the Prophets.