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I have a theory about why, in-universe, Captain Benjamin Sisko (Avery Brooks) decided to shave his head bald and grow a goatee in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. Sisko was a Starfleet Commander when he was assigned to run Deep Space Nine, a former Cardassian space station orbiting the planet Bajor. Commander Sisko began Star Trek: Deep Space Nine clean-shaven and with a full head of hair, and there wasn't a direct explanation within the series for what prompted Benjamin to drastically change his look (for the better).

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine season 4's premiere, "The Way of the Warrior," introduced the new-look Captain Benjamin Sisko. Although it took three seasons of DS9, Sisko was finally promoted to Captain, but the transformation wasn't complete until Ben shaved his head and grew his goatee. In addition, Sisko gained command of his own starship, the USS Defiant. All of these additions...

One of the most pivotal events of Star Trek's 21st century happens right now. Star Trek: Deep Space Nine season 3, episodes 11 & 12, "Past Tense", takes Commander Benjamin Sisko (Avery Brooks), Dr. Julian Bashir (Alexander Siddig), and Lieutenant Jadzia Dax (Terry Farrell) back to the first week of September 2024. Dax is helped by billionaire Chris Brynner (Jim Metzler), whereas the police assume that Sisko and Bashir are part of San Francisco's unhoused population, and take them to the city's Sanctuary District, where disenfranchised residents are subject to systemic violence, inequity, and hostility. This tension leads to the historic Bell Riots, and the start of sweeping social changes.

This part of the Star Trek timeline was recently revisited in Star Trek: Picard season 2, when La Sirena's crew traveled to Los Angeles in April 2024. As a nod to Star Trek: DS9's "Past Tense", signs for Los Angeles' Sanctuary District are visible in the background of Picard's sets.

Although "Star Trek" takes place in an ostensibly utopian future free from war, want, money, and discrimination, the show's original creator, Gene Roddenberry, felt that humanity required a reckoning before that utopia could begin. According to "Star Trek" lore, Earth would have to nearly destroy itself in a series of devastating wars before the scant survivors would be able to pick themselves up, construct faster-than-light travel, and prepare themselves to meet their closest alien neighbors. The original "Star Trek" takes place about two centuries after the end of World War III, giving humankind a chance to rebuild itself into a utopia.

Back in the 21st century, however, not everything was rosy. Indeed, the two-part "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine" episode "Past Tense" threw its main characters back in time — via a transporter accident — to the year 2024 when everything seemed to be at its worst. Earth in 2024 was overrun with poverty,...

The Bell Riots in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine highlighted the social inequality of 21st century America, which is still relevant today. Commander Sisko's role in ensuring the Bell Riots happened, despite accidental interference, was crucial to the founding of the utopian Federation. Star Trek: Strange New Worlds' timeline changes may affect the Bell Riots, but the harsh realities of the 21st century suggest they are still an important and relevant story.

Commander Benjamin Sisko (Avery Brooks) risked breaking history when he was forced to participate in the historic Bell Riots in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine season 3. In the two-part episode "Past Tense", a transporter malfunction sends Sisko, Dr. Julian Bashir (Alexander Siddig), and Lt. Jadzia Dax (Terry Farrell) back in time to 21st century Earth. Arriving in San Francisco in 2024, they discovered that the American government housed their homeless, and unemployed citizens in ironically-named Sanctuary Districts, which...

Warning: Spoilers for Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 2, Episode 8 - "Under The Cloak Of War"

Clint Howard returns to Star Trek: Strange New Worlds as Commander Buck Martinez, the Chief Medical Officer who brings Nurse Chapel to J'Gal. "Under the Cloak of War" is the darkest and most morally challenging episode yet, as Ambassador Dak'Rah's presence disrupts the Enterprise and brings up painful memories of the Klingon War. Clint Howard has had multiple roles in the Star Trek franchise, including playing Balok in The Original Series and appearing in Deep Space Nine, Enterprise, and Discovery.

Clint Howard, one of the first guest stars in Star Trek: The Original Series, returns in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 2, episode 8. Following up on the Klingon War as seen in Star Trek: Discovery season 2, Strange New Worlds season 2, episode 8, "Under the Cloak of War," sees Ambassador Dak'Rah (Robert Wisdom) arrive on the USS Enterprise.

As Star Trek: Deep Space Nine's Captain Benjamin Sisko (Avery Brooks) was one of Star Trek's most complex Captains, he has numerous best DS9 episodes to choose from. Sisko was a single father to Jake (Cirroc Lofton), a widower, a Starfleet officer, and a religious figure and many of his episodes centered around the clash between these aspects of his character. As DS9's Dominion War arc gathered steam, Sisko demonstrated the ways in which he was a very different Star Trek Captain from his predecessors.

Like Captain James T. Kirk (William Shatner), Sisko was a maverick who would bend the rules to save lives. On occasion, Sisko would go much further than merely bending the rules, but he was always able to justify his actions in the context of the greater good. Sisko's flexible approach to Star Trek's Prime Directive emphasized his differences from Captain Jean-Luc...