Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (TV Series)

Emissary (1993)

Avery Brooks: Commander Benjamin 'Ben' Sisko

Photos 

Quotes 

• Sisko : [on the image of his dead wife on the Saratoga]  I don't know if you can understand. I see her like this, every time I close my eyes. In the darkness, in the blink of an eye, I see her... like this.

  Jennifer Prophet : None of your past experiences helped prepare you for this consequence.

  Sisko : And I have never figured out how to live without her.

  Jennifer Prophet : So, you choose to exist here.

  [Sisko nods] 

  Jennifer Prophet : It is not linear.

  Sisko : [sobs]  No. It's not linear.

• Sisko : In the end, it comes down to throwing one pitch after another, and seeing what happens. With each new consequence, the game begins to take shape.

  Alien Batter : And you have no idea what that shape is until it is completed?

  Sisko : That's right. In fact, the game wouldn't be worth playing if we knew what was going to happen.

  Jake Prophet : You value your ignorance of what is to come?

  Sisko : That may be the most important thing to understand about humans. It is the unknown that defines our existence. We are constantly searching, not just for answers to our questions, but for new questions. We are explorers. We explore our lives day by day, and we explore the galaxy, trying to expand the boundaries of our knowledge. And that is why I am here. Not to conquer you with weapons, or with ideas. But to coexist... and learn.

• Quark : Commander, I've made a career out of knowing when to leave. And this Bajoran provisional government is far too provisional for my taste. And when governments fall, people like me are lined up and shot.

  Commander Benjamin Sisko : There is that risk. But then, you are a gambler, Quark.

  Odo : And a thief.

  Commander Benjamin Sisko : You know, Quark, that poor boy is about to spend the best years of his life in a Bajoran prison. I'm a father myself. I know what your brother must be going through. The boy should be with his family, not in some cold jail cell. Think about it. It's up to you.

  [He exits] 

  Odo : You know, at first, I didn't think I was going to like him.

• Gul Dukat : [meeting Sisko in his office]  Excuse my presumption, but this was my office only two weeks ago. I'm not used to being on this side of the desk. I'll be honest with you, Commander. I miss this office. I was not happy to leave it.

  Commander Benjamin Sisko : Drop by any time you're feeling homesick.

• Commander Benjamin Sisko : My officers, Bajoran engineers, all their families depend on the shops and services of this promenade. If people like you abandon it, this is going to become a ghost town. We need someone to step forward and say "I'm staying. I'm rebuilding". We need a community leader, and it's going to be - you, Quark!

  Quark : [guffaws]  Community leader!

  Odo : Seems reasonable. You have all the character references of a politician.

• Commander Benjamin Sisko : [meeting with Captain Picard]  It's been a long time, Captain.

  Capt. Picard : [puzzled]  Have we met before?

  Commander Benjamin Sisko : [stony-faced]  Yes sir, we met in battle. I was on the Saratoga at Wolf 359.

• Chief Miles O'Brien : Sir, have you ever served with any Bajoran women?

  Commander Benjamin Sisko : No, why?

  Chief Miles O'Brien : I was just wondering, sir.

• Commander Benjamin Sisko : It's really quite simple, Quark. You're not going to leave.

  Quark : Not going to leave? But we're packed and ready to go.

  Commander Benjamin Sisko : Unpack.

  Quark : I don't understand, Commander. Why would you want me to stay?

  Constable Odo : I'm curious myself. The man is a gambler and a thief.

  Quark : I'm not a thief.

  Constable Odo : You are a thief!

  Quark : If I am, you haven't been able to prove it for four years.

• [Sisko's first line of the series] 

  Commander Benjamin Sisko : Move us to position alpha, Ensign.

• Gul Dukat : Allow me to assure you that we only want to be helpful in this difficult transition. You're far from the Federation fleet, alone in this remote outpost, with poor defense systems. Your Cardassian neighbors will be quick to respond to any problems you might have.

  Commander Benjamin Sisko : We'll try to keep the dog off your lawn.

• Major Kira : [seeing Sisko for the first time, testily]  Yes?

  Commander Benjamin Sisko : I'm Benjamin Sisko.

  Major Kira : I suppose you want the office.

  Commander Benjamin Sisko : [jovially]  Well, I thought I'd say 'hello' first, and then take the office. But we could do it in any order you like.

  Major Kira : [sarcastically]  Hello.

• Commander Benjamin Sisko : [after Bashir has invited Dax for dinner]  He's a little young for you, isn't he?

  Lt. Jadzia Dax : He's twenty-seven, I'm twenty-eight.

  Commander Benjamin Sisko : Three*hundred* twenty-eight maybe.

• Jennifer Sisko : You're awfully sure of yourself.

  Ben Sisko : It's not every day you meet the girl you're going to marry.

  Jennifer Sisko : Do you use this routine a lot with women?

  Ben Sisko : No, never before - and never again.

• Commander Benjamin Sisko : In the meantime, I will do the job I've been ordered to do to the best of my ability, sir!

• [after an orb experience] 

  Kai Opaka : Nine orbs, like this one, have appeared in the skies over the past 10,000 years. The Cardassians took the others. You must find the Celestial Temple before they do.

  Sisko : The Celestial Temple?

  Kai Opaka : Tradition says the orbs were sent by the Prophets to teach us. What we have learned has shaped our theology. The Cardassians will do ANYTHING to decipher their powers. If they discover the Celestial Temple... they could destroy it.

  Sisko : What makes you think *I* can find your... temple?

  Kai Opaka : [gives Sisko the orb ark]  This will help you.

  Sisko : Kai Opaka, I...

  Kai Opaka : I can't unite my people till I know the Prophets have been warned. You will find the temple. Not for Bajor, not for the Federation, but for your own pagh. It is quite simply, Commander, the journey you have always been destined to take.

• Commander Benjamin Sisko : Commence station log, Deep Space Nine, Commander Benjamin Sisko, stardate 46388.2. - At the request of the Bajoran provisional government, Starfleet has agreed to establish a Federation presence in this system, following the withdrawal of the Cardassian occupational forces. The first contingent of officers including my Chief of Operations, Miles O'Brien, arrived two days ago on the Enterprise.

• [O'Brien is showing Sisko around on ops] 

  Chief O'Brien : Uh, that's the prefect's office up there.

  Commander Benjamin Sisko : So all others have to look up with respect. Cardassian architecture.

  Chief O'Brien : Yes, sir. Major Kira's been using it.

• Sisko : I was just talking with our good neighbor Quark. He's laying odds that the government's going to fall.

  Major Kira : Quark knows a good bet when he hears one. This government will be gone in a week, and so will you.

  Sisko : What happens to Bajor then?

  Major Kira : Civil war.

• Commander Benjamin Sisko : [from a log entry]  Meanwhile, our medical and science officers are arriving, and I'm looking forward to a reunion with a very old friend.

• Commander Benjamin Sisko : [on Dax's new "appearance"]  This is going to take some getting used to.

  Lt. Jadzia Dax : Don't be ridiculous, I'm still the same old Dax - more or less.

• Commander Benjamin Sisko : Dax, we might have just discovered the first stable wormhole known to exist!

• Commander Benjamin Sisko : [looking at an orb]  What is it?

  Kai Opaka : The Tear of the Prophet.

• Ben Sisko : The sound of children playing - what could be more beautiful?

  Jennifer Sisko : So you like children?

  Ben Sisko : That almost sounds like a domestic enquiry.

  Jennifer Sisko : I've heard Starfleet officers don't want families because they complicate their lives.

  Ben Sisko : Starfleet officers don't often find mates who want to raise families on a starship.

  Jennifer Sisko : That almost sounds like a domestic enquiry.

  Ben Sisko : I think it was.

• Sisko : It can be argued that a human is ultimately the sum of his experiences.

• [Sisko is trying to explain 'past' to the Prophets] 

  Jake Prophet : What comes before now is no different than what is now. Or what is to come. It is one's existence.

  Sisko : Then for you, there is no linear time.

• Alien Batter : Aggressive. Adversarial.

  Sisko : Competition, for fun. It's a game that Jake and I play on the holodeck. It's called 'baseball'!

  Jake Prophet : Baseball? What is this?

  Sisko : I was afraid you'd ask that.

• [Picard and Sisko are discussing Bajor's possible membership in the Federation] 

  Commander Benjamin Sisko : Is it going to happen?

  Capt. Picard : Not easily. The ruling parties are at each other's throats. Factions that were united against the Cardassians have resumed old conflicts.

  Commander Benjamin Sisko : Sounds like they're not ready.

  Capt. Picard : Your job is to do everything, short of violating the Prime Directive, to make sure that they are.

• Kai Opaka : Commander - I cannot give you what you deny yourself.

  Commander Benjamin Sisko : I'm sorry?

  Kai Opaka : Look for solutions from within, Commander.