Trivia / Star Trek: Deep Space Nine S01E01/E02 "Emissary"

• Actor-Inspired Element: Possible example with Sisko wearing a Homestead Grays baseball hat during the Prophets sequence. Robert Hewitt Wolfe believes that idea came from either Michael Piller (an avowed Baseball fanatic) or Avery Brooks. Given the Grays' place in African American history^note The Grays were one of the most famous Negro League baseball teams during the first half of the 20th Century., Wolfe thinks it probably was Brooks.
• Deleted Scene:
  • Sisko meets with Kai Opaka for a second time, so as to return the Orb. He tells her that fourteen planets have contacted the Federation to open trade links through Bajoran space. He tries to tell her he believes the Prophets to be wormhole aliens, but she tells him she does not wish to hear. Opaka tells him, "That is why a disbeliever was destined to seek them – one should never look into the eyes of one's own gods". Opaka also tells Sisko that his journey is only just beginning. Rick Berman commented:
  There's a wonderful scene where Sisko goes back down to Bajor to return the Orb to Kai Opaka that we took out. Cutting is horrible, especially when it's something so close to you as the pilot was.
  • A conversation between Sisko, in his office aboard DS9, and an official at a university on Earth.
• Exiled from Continuity: Despite their impact on Sisko's backstory, this is the only appearance of the Borg on the show. The reason, according to Robert Hewitt Wolfe, is because they and the Voyager Writers Rooms were given a mandate after the latter's premiere: The Borg (plus Q) would be exclusively available only to Voyager from thereon out. On the plus side...

  Wolfe: In exchange, we got the entire Alpha Quadrant, so fair trade.

• The Other Marty: When filming began, Gul Dukat was played by Michael MacRae. The producers felt his performance lacked a certain presence and recast the part with Marc Alaimo.
• Recast as a Regular: J. G. Hertzler, who would later play the recurring character of General Martok, plays the Vulcan captain of USS Saratoga. Marc Alaimo returns as Gul Dukat after previously playing a few different aliens in various episodes of TNG, including the Cardassian Gul Macet.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Orbs were meant to be shaped like a literal tear, hence their name Tears of the Prophets. (One production staff member reportedly kept pointing out how bizarre it was that something called an orb was meant to be tear-shaped or, as it turned out, hourglass-shaped...)
  • There was a pirate character and contact of Quark with a base in Bajor's asteroid belt who informed the Cardassians about the wormhole, but this was cut.
  • Morn was actually supposed to be 'telling the funniest joke in the universe' in the background when Quark's bar was introduced, and it was only by accident that he ended up being The Voiceless.
• You Look Familiar: Marc Alaimo makes his first appearance as Gul Dukat after three guest spots on Star Trek: The Next Generation, most notably the role of Gul Macet in "The Wounded". The Star Trek Novel 'Verse went on to establish that Dukat and Macet are cousins and that the latter is very displeased by the resemblance, since he's much nicer and more honorable than his infamous relative. Macet even joins Damar's rebellion against the Dominion and leads the assault force that destroys one of their main cloning facilities in the Alpha Quadrant in "The Changing Face of Evil".

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