Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - Emissary (1993) Novelization Review

 Hey everyone! How were your weekends? Mine was nice and quiet. I had a video call with an old college buddy and that's pretty much it for actually doing stuff this weekend. Today I'm here for another book review. This time I'm going to be talking about the novelization for the pilot episode of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, "Emissary", written by J.M. Dillard, based on the episode script written by Michael Piller. So let's get into it.

One of the things I've always loved about novelizations of movies and TV show episodes is that you get inside the characters's heads and know exactly how they feel, which the show and movie versions can't always get quite right. The novelizations also tend to expand upon scenes that would just slow the story down in a two hour movie or 30 minute to an hour long episode. 

"Emissary" is probably the best series premiere of any Star Trek series. While "Encounter at Farpoint" is my favourite Star Trek pilot of all time, "Emissary" is the best one. It never feels like it lags at all at any point in the episode, unlike "Encounter at Farpoint" from TNG, and "Caretaker" from Voyager, which both feel like they're way too long. However, the episode does feel a little unfinished near the end when Sisko returns to DS9 from his encounter with the Wormhole Aliens/the Prophets simply because he's meant to have a second conversation with Kai Opaka following his debriefing by Captain Picard, but before his walk through the Promenade with Dax and O'Brien, which closes out the televised version of the episode. It's a deleted scene, but it's not on the season 1 DVD set or any of the complete series sets that have come out over the years.

The novelization ends with that particular deleted scene, rather than showing the new lease on life that DS9 has gotten thanks to the discovery of the wormhole. Which actually feels better to me if I'm being honest, because it gives the reader, and the audience a sense of excitement, because we don't return to Sisko's role as the Emissary or to the Prophets for most of the first season, until the season finale. In fact, it's really not until the Dominion arc in seasons 5, 6, and 7 that Sisko's role is more heavily examined.

An interesting thing about this novelization is that Keiko and Molly O'Brien are actually seen. In the televised version Chief O'Brien mentions them, but they don't actually appear. We also get stuff with Jake and Nog, which is actually from later episodes of the first season, but, due to Dillard not being able to see episodes while writing the novelization, as security around production of the show was really tight during the first season, she didn't know that the material with Jake and Nog had been moved out of the pilot and into subsequent episodes. Including the incident where Jake runs into Keiko.

I also felt that Sisko's progression is alot more fleshed out in the book. In the televised version it's alot quicker, simply because the episode is only two hours long (90 minutes without commercials) and there wasn't enough time to flesh out everything, since there was the parallel story of Sisko with the Prophets, and Kira trying to keep the Cardassians from attacking the station and gaining control of the wormhole. In the novel though, there was time for all of that. We also get some more details concerning the massacre at Setlik Three which Miles O'Brien and Captain Maxwell, from the TNG episode "The Wounded", were a part of.

Overall if you've never read this book, or any of the Star Trek episode novelizations, I recommend that you track them down. Unlike the Star Wars novels, which can be overly complicated due to their own legacy and lore, the Star Trek novels are fairly simple in terms of story and characters. The episode novelizations are pretty good looks at early versions of the episode's script, particularly with the pilot episodes, and a look at expanded versions of the adapted episodes.

That's going to be it for me for today, but I will be back tomorrow or Wednesday with my history with the Walt Disney Classics home video line, as well as a look at my original Walt Disney Classics VHS collection. So until then have a wonderful evening and I will talk to you all later. Take care.