The latest episode of Star Trek: Starfleet Academy, “Series Acclimation Mil,” is a heartfelt tribute to Deep Space Nine. While Sam’s quest to uncover the fate of Benjamin Sisko takes center stage — featuring a touching cameo from his son Jake Sisko (Cirroc Lofton) and a surprising voiceover from Benjamin Sisko himself (Avery Brooks) — the episode also delivered another unexpected surprise.
Toward the end of the episode, it’s revealed that Professor Illa’s full name is Illa Dax, confirming that she is a Trill host for the Dax symbiont. The reveal also creates a bridge to Deep Space Nine, connecting Star Trek: Starfleet Academy’s 32nd-century timeline to the beloved classic series.
In Star Trek canon, Trills are a humanoid species that can be joined with a symbiont, a worm-like lifeform that resides inside the host and carries the memories and experiences of all its previous hosts. As such, Illa Dax remembers the experiences of both Jadzia Dax and Ezri Dax from Deep Space Nine, and explains how she knew of Sikso's love of tomatoes in his gumbo.
According to series writer Tawny Newsome, who also plays Professor Illa (in addition to her role as Mariner in Lower Decks), introducing Dax into Starfleet Academy was "the last piece" of the episode's puzzle.
"I did not intend to write myself in at all. Because it didn’t occur to me that I would be anyone other than Mariner. And I thought it would be a little too cheeky to have some future version of Mariner or some descendant. It just seemed too irreverent for the magnitude of this episode," Newsome explained to Trek Movie.
"So no, I love Professor Illa, who was constructed by me and Kirsten [Beyer] and she was meant to be the perfect shepherd for this story," she continued. "It was so important that we had someone who it made sense that she would have the only copy of Jake’s book. A lot of intentionality went into who could this be? And then when we all kind of went, “Oh, you know, the Trill lifespan could be this long. This could be Dax,” it really excited Noga Landau, our showrunner."
"It excited all of us," Newsome added. "And we went, “Okay, yeah, let’s make this Dax.” And then, as I said, I was the last piece of the puzzle [laughs] when they said, “Okay, and Tawny is going to do it” it was quite a surprise, I think, for all of us. But I had really great support from showrunners and from Kirsten."
The introduction of the Dax symbiont in Starfleet Academy serves as another direct connection to Deep Space Nine, but it also raises questions about franchise continuity. Born in 2018, the Dax symbiont was 357 years old in 2375, when Ezri Dax became its ninth host during Season 7 of Deep Space Nine. Canon has established that Trill symbionts can live up to 800 years.
With Starfleet Academy set in 3195, that would make the Dax symbiont approximately 1,177 years old. While technological advances or evolutionary changes could account for this extended lifespan, the episode itself never addresses how that gap is explained. It’s not a major oversight, but one that longtime Star Trek fans are likely to notice.
With its nods to Deep Space Nine, Series Acclimation Mil has been deemed one of the best episodes of Starfleet Academy thus far. But what are your thoughts on the series as a whole?