Welcome to the new Star Trek series… and we begin during the TNG season three finale, but this time from the perspective of the first officer aboard the U.S.S. Saratoga.

Following a savage blow from the Borg Cube (makes you think that the writers created these guys too powerful, something that they could never live up to without our hero ship being a God…)

Sorry, so following on from that savage blow the Saratoga is crippled, and our Commander Sisko orders an evacuation before the warp core explodes. We follow him to an observation deck where his wife and son have been crushed by falling cross beams (seriously Starfleet… design your ships to better withstand impacts!)

With his son injured but OK, Sisko turns his attention to Jennifer – his wife – who is unresponsive. While pining over her lifeless body, a Bolian Lieutenant drags him to the escape pod where Sisko watches the ship explode.

Three years later… and we find Jake fishing from a bridge, but he’s really in the holodeck aboard a ship headed for space station Deep Space Nine. After lying to his son about lots of kids to play with, the father and son leave the holodeck and look out a window to see the monolithic station orbiting Bajor.

After the opening titles we’re on board the station and meet Chief O’Brien who walks us through the station giving background on what’s going on. After being stopped by a Monk on the Promenade, they continue to the Sisko’s quarters… a spartan room with a cushion on the floor for a bed.

When O’Brien mentions Captain Picard wants to see him, Sisko shifts uneasy then explains they’ll have to rough it for a while. Back to the tour, and we’re now in Ops where the Prefect’s office is above everyone – good ol’ Cardassian Architecture.

A belligerent Major Kira Neyrs is on the comm to some official who she promptly cuts off then has a go at Sisko, whinging that she has been sent to this “God forsaken place” … which he mentions was his idea.

To introduce our “out-of-step” security chief we’re first shown Ferengi kid Nog who’s robbing a shop with some alien… we learn that Chief of Security Odo is a shapeshifter after morphing his head to avoid a weapon flung airborn by the ND alien.

Sisko rebuffs Quark’s attempts to save Nog from the brig and he’s then summoned to the Enterprise. In the Obersavation Lounge, Sisko enters to an enthused Picard. Our commander promptly opens the airlock by mentioning the last time they met (at Wolf 359.)

This meeting shows us that Deep Space Nine is going to be different then what has come before, with Sisko’s shields up he requests Picard find a replacement and he is curtly dismissed.

Cut to Odo’s office, Quark, Sisko and Odo are discussing the future. Sisko requests Quark stick around and become a community leader in exchange for Nog’s freedom. Appealing to his Ferengi side, Sisko convinces him to stay.

On the promenade, Kira is tidying up and while Sisko lends a hand he learns about Kai Opaka and how spiritual the Bajoran people are… then the Monk reappears and insists that “it is time…” (for pie!?)

Our first look at the Bajoran capital (which never gets a name…) is of a beautiful matte painting that’s been ravaged by war. On the ground, in a temple Kai Opaka greets Sisko and grabs his ear. (Boy, I’m glad they decided against the foot rubbing pagh search!)

Opaka senses something in him, so she turns off the pond sitting in the middle of the alfresco room and they walk underground to an Orb – a tear of the prophet. As she opens it, Sisko is “transported” back to Earth… and the day he met Jennifer.

Back on Bajor, Opaka gives Sisko the orb and asks him to find the Celestial Temple. On DS9, Sisko is watching Jake sleep when he’s called to the Promenade – which has become a hive of activity as Quark’s is open for business.

Another ship with the medical and science officers has docked and here comes the good Doctor Bashir and Lieutenant Jadzia Dax. After smirking her way out of date, Dax and Sisko head straight for the orb in the lab, as Kira and Bashir enter the infirmary.

Kira snaps at him after he calls her home and this station the frontier (a wagon train if you will…) Bashir, in his “I’m just out of the academy and am so green you wouldn’t be able to tell if I was human or an Orion slave girl” way sputters but cant say much more.

In the lab, Dax has an orb experience about the implantation ceremony where she received the symbiont, meanwhile O’Brien takes one last look at the D’s bridge before she leaves (and it really will be, after Riker crashes into Veridian III…) and Sisko meets Gul “Kill him now before he becomes a super badass” Duak (who arrives like a chicken, after the D leaves)… the two commanders beat their chests for a bit… meanwhile Dax has tracked down the possible origin of the Orbs.

Sisko joins her and checks out the Cardassians hanging about nerviously close. So they devise a plan to smuggle Odo on board their ship as a duffle bag full of loot from Quarks. Odo promptly disables the shields and sensors and beams back.

Dax and Sisko are now on board one of our new fandangled runabouts – an expensive mans shuttlecraft – and are charting the Denorius Belt when wouldn’t you know it a wormhole opens up, swallows them whole then knocks them about.

Running scans on the other side, they realise they’ve crossed 90, 000 light years to the Gamma Quadrant. Eager to report back, they about face and head back the way they came.

But this time they “land” and after Dax is transported back to the station by the Prophets, Sisko has a good old long winded (and what will become typical) nonsensical discussion about life and the universe. Only to be interrupted by the Cardies chasing the runabout and hurting the “wormhole aliens.”

All the while Kira, in charge of the station, is posturing with more Cardassian’s who’ve arrived to investigate the disappearance of Dukat. A nice little battle follows blowing up the nice clean promenade.

After some convincing that we really do mean no harm, we see the runabout exit the wormhole with the Galor-class ship in tow… a great sight. Kira gets the final laugh with that. The Cardies leave, and then D arrives.

Picard, in Sisko’s office, says they’re finding a replacement… but since his name appears in the opening credits Sisko decides to stay.