Summary
- “The Visitor” remains a powerful and emotional episode of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.
- Avery Brooks’ love for Cirroc Lofton, who played Jake Sisko, was real and genuine on and off-screen.
- The episode accurately portrayed the strong bond between Captain Sisko and his son, challenging the traditional portrayal of fathers and sons in Star Trek.
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine‘s Avery Brooks looks back on the classic season 4 episode, “The Visitor,” which centered on the loving relationship between Captain Benjamin Sisko and his son Jake. “The Visitor” saw the young Jake (Cirroc Lofton) lose his father, which altered the course of his life. The older Jake Sisko (Tony Todd) dedicated his life to bringing his dad back, and he sacrifices himself to restore the timeline in the past so that the Siskos can remain together on Deep Space Nine.
In the Star Trek oral history “The Fifty-Year Mission: The Next 25 Years” by Mark A. Altman and Edward Gross, Avery Brooks discusses his approach to acting in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine‘s “The Visitor,” and Brooks says the emotion Captain Sisko felt for Jake on-screen was as real as his own love for Cirroc Lofton. Read his quote below:
The preparation for an episode like that is that every day is brand-new. You wake up every day with the full knowledge after you are awake to be grateful for this day, and therefore you go to work or do whatever it is. All I’m interested in is telling the truth. It’s so simple in another way, because I loved Cirroc Lofton then and I love him now. Most of what you witnessed in the exchange between us, and indeed Tony Todd in the assistance, most of what you saw was real.
“The Visitor” Is One Of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine’s Greatest Episodes
“The Visitor” still holds up today.
“The Visitor” holds up as one of the most emotional, touching, and best episodes of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. Directed by David Livingston from a script by Michael Taylor, “The Visitor” tackles a subject that was unique to Deep Space Nine: the central father-son relationship between Ben and Jake Sisko. Star Trek has a spotty record when it comes to depticing fathers and sons, but DS9 broke that mold by making Captain Sisko a widower and a father who was as dedicated to raising Jake properly as he was to his Starfleet career.
I loved Cirroc Lofton then and I love him now.
Tony Todd playing the older version of Cirroc Lofton’s Jake Sisko was also seamless and powerful. In a way, “The Visitor” predicted the ending of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine as Captain Sisko did leave the linear plane to become one with the Prophets of Bajor, leaving Jake behind. But by the time Ben ascended as The Emissary in DS9‘s finale, Jake was older and better prepared to shoulder life without his father. It’s heartening to know from Avery Brooks’ own words that the emotion on-screen in “The Visitor” was as genuine off-screen as what was seen in the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode.
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine is available to stream on Paramount+.
Source: “The Fifty-Year Mission: The Next 25 Years: From The Next Generation to J. J. Abrams: The Complete, Uncensored, and Unauthorized Oral History of Star Trek” by Mark A. Altman and Edward Gross
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Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
- Release Date:
- 1993-01-03
- Cast:
- Avery Brooks, Rene Auberjonois, Cirroc Lofton, Colm Meaney, Armin Shimerman, Alexander Siddig, Nana Visitor, Michael Dorn, Nicole de Boer
- Genres:
- Action, Adventure, Drama, Sci-Fi
- Rating:
- TV-PG
- Seasons:
- 7
- Story By:
- Gene Roddenberry
- Writers:
- Rick Berman, Michael Piller
- Network:
- CBS
- Streaming Service(s):
- Paramount+
- Franchise(s):
- Star Trek
- Showrunner:
- Michael Piller, Ira Steven Behr
