The Ladies of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

Felicia M. Bell as Jennifer Sisko

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Jennifer Sisko was killed by the Borg, led by Captain Jean-Luc Picard as Locutus of Borg at the Battle of Wolf 359 before Star Trek: Deep Space Nine began (Emissary).  She was the wife of then-Lieutenant Commander Benjamin Sisko, First Officer of the USS Saratoga, one of the many ships lost at Wolf 359.  We see her in Commander Sisko's memory of the battle.  She also appears as one of the "Prophets" when he discovers the wormhole and explains the concept of linear time to the non corporeal alien entities living there.  "Chief O'Brien" kidnaps Captain Sisko during his third year in command of Deep Space Nine (Through the Looking Glass), and takes him to Terok Nor in the mirror universe that Major Kira and Doctor Bashir accidentally visited a year earlier.   Miles O'Brien, called Smiley by Benjamin Sisko in the mirror universe, explains that Captain Sisko's mirror universe counterpart, the leader of the Terran rebellion against the Klingon/Cardassian Alliance, has been killed.  He wants the captain to pose as his dead double to convince a Terran scientist, Jennifer Sisko, currently working with the Alliance, to join the rebels.  She is building a device that will betray the secret location of the rebels, so he must convince her to join them before she completes her work or the rebels will have to kill her.  Benjamin Sisko is not willing to watch Jennifer die again, so he agrees to intervene.  He meets the rebel counterparts of Julian Bashir, Rom, Tuvok, and Jadzia Dax, who was Benjamin Sisko's mistress in this universe.  Only Smiley O'Brien knows that Sisko is an impostor.  Kira Nerys, the Intendent and ruler of Terok Nor, has convinced Jennifer that the bloodshed against the Terrans will end once her device is completed.   Benjamin Sisko and O'Brien take a rebel ship to Terok Nor, where they are immediately captured and taken to the Intendent, who sends O'Brien to ore processing with the slaves and takes Sisko to her quarters.  He later meets Jennifer, who despises him, and apologizes for his past treatment of her.  He then tells her he has come to rescue her, and tries to convince her that the Alliance is her real enemy; that it plans to kill the rebels once they are found.  Benjamin wins her confidence and signals O'Brien in ore processing.  O'Brien receives the signal and causes a malfunction that allows him and the Terrans to escape.  Jennifer agrees to leave with Sisko, they meet O'Brien, then head for a waiting ship, but they are cornered by Kira and her troops before they reach the ship.  Kira waits for Sisko to surrender, but he slips away and herds the group into the ore processing center, and they seal themselves inside.  Kira and her soldiers finally force their way in, and Sisko calmly tells her that he has activated the station's self-destruct sequence, which only he can stop.   She reluctantly agrees to let Benjamin, Jennifer, O'Brien, and the rest of the Terrans go in order to stop the destruction.  Benjamin Sisko and the others return to the rebel encampment, and Jennifer tells him she realized almost immediately that he was not really her husband.  She kisses him goodbye, and he returns to his own universe.   Jake Sisko can hardly believe his eyes when his father introduces him to a woman who acts and appears just like his late mother, Jennifer Sisko (Shattered Mirror).  His father tells him that she is Jennifer, or at least her double from the mirror universe.  Benjamin Sisko leaves the two of them alone for awhile, but they are both missing when he returns.  A small transporter device is all that remains.  He uses it to transport to the mirror universe, and appears on the Terok Nor.  Smiley O'Brien tells him that the rebels of this universe have taken control of the station and need his help in their fight against the Alliance forces.   They have built their own Defiant, but they need him to help finish it.  Jake was brought to Terok Nor by the duplicate version of his mother in order to ensure his cooperation.  He has only a few days to finish the Defiant before an approaching Alliance fleet arrives to destroy them.  He ends up commanding the Defiant in the ensuing battle and successfully defends Terok Nor.  Jake, meanwhile, has become very close to the alternate Jennifer and follows her everywhere she goes.  They run into the Intendant, who kills Jennifer, leaving father and son to mourn her death a second time.

See Some Photos of Jennifer Sisko

Felicia M. Bell has learned that death is not always final in science fiction.  "They told me everything’s possible in the future.  They said my returning was a possibility, and it was a pleasant surprise when I did."   Felicia’s role as Jennifer Sisko was unique from the beginning.  She portrayed both the wife of Commander Benjamin Sisko and a personification of one of the Prophets.  "Actually, my first exposure to the character in the pilot was as the alien.  The alien character was very interesting since they didn't have a linear relationship to life.  It’s wonderful as an actor to have a character who only exists in the present, and try to really cultivate that point of view.  It’s incredibly conscious, which was a challenging, wonderful exercise for me."   Jennifer Sisko died in the battle at Wolf 359, but Felicia M. Bell returned twice as an alternate-universe version of Jennifer.  The original Star Trek episode, Mirror, Mirror, introduced the idea of a parallel or mirror universe.  The idea surfaced again in the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode, Crossover.  The resurrection of Jennifer Sisko might seem unusual to some people, but Felicia says didn’t find it strange to play the character again.  "It was sad knowing she would die, in that I didn’t think I would get to come back, but then it was a surprise when I did.  It’s interesting that they liked the character and my interpretation of her so much that they used this alternate universe to keep her alive.   That's an extreme compliment."  She had an opportunity to play the second of two similar, yet different, women.  "It was easy to play her in the Mirror Universe because she had a different relationship there with Ben Sisko.  She had not had as charmed a marriage as the first Jennifer did.  In many ways, she was the antithesis of the original.  You have to look for the nuances because time has gone by and people change. But Jennifer had very specific tasks each time, so it wasn't a huge stretch."  Felicia says there were common characteristics the two Jennifers shared in both universes.  "I infused both characters with a sense of morality.   They’re both very moral people, especially the alternate Jennifer because she’s fighting for a cause much larger than she is, and she sacrificed her own personal experience of life to work for the greater good, so to speak."  She says the casting process for "Emissary" was pretty routine.  "I just auditioned, and was cast.  Star Trek wasn’t something I had any particular interest in.  It was just a regular audition.  I went in a couple of times, but that’ normal.  When I was cast, then I got very interested in the show right away."  Trying to get a feeling for a new character put Felicia M. Bell in the same position as the regular cast at the beginning of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.   "You always have to build a backstory in your mind.  You create a whole life for the character, and a relationship with every person and thing you encounter.   That’s just part of what an actor does.  Unfortunately, my character died in the pilot.  So, I had figured her out and then she was gone."  She remembers well her first day of shooting.  "I got the job just the day before that beach shot, so within a 24-hour period, I was doing all that stuff.  We arrived at the beach at 4:30 AM and were still filming at 9:30 that night.  They had to add artificial lighting to create sunlight since it was supposed to be daytime, and I was shivering because it was so cold.  And I remember meeting Avery Brooks for the first time."  She says about Shattered Mirror, "It was kind of disappointing to get that script and learn I was dying again.  I did get to get shot by a phaser, which actually was a lot of fun.  I had never done a stunt like that before.   When I was shot, I fell back onto a mattress.  Then, they had a stunt person actually hit the floor because they didn't want to risk me getting hurt."  She has nothing but good to say of the cast members.  "Avery and Cirroc are the best.  It has been amazing to see how much Cirroc has grown with each episode.   When we did the pilot, he was just a kid, and now he’ so tall.  I love working with Colm Meaney, too, because he’s really funny.  Colm keeps everyone laughing.  I worked with Aron Eisenberg and that was great.  I’ve worked with Nana Visitor in both Mirror episodes, and she's wonderful.  I really like working with her.  She played a villain deliciously.  I’m working with good people, and it’s a blast."  Felicia knew of Star Trek’s popularity before her role as Jennifer Sisko, but she still was surprised but the extent of that popularity.  "I had no idea how universally popular it is.   I’ve been in London, New Zealand, and Australia, and been stopped in the street by people who know my character.  That’s pretty awesome.  A friend of mine who lives in South Africa told me the other day, ‘I just watched you on Star Trek.’  I get fan mail from Germany.  It’s amazingly popular, and I’m really touched by it all."  She says of her personal interests, "I like to know about truth and mysticism, world religions, people who've lived and accomplished incredible things like Gandhi, and history.  I will read the occasional novel with a well-told story and the classics."  Will Jennifer Sisko be back?   "I wouldn't rule out that possibility.  I was speaking with David Livingston, one of the producers, and he told me, ‘You know, you never know.’   I really like working with the people on this show.  I've had nothing but really wonderful experiences, so it would be wonderful to come back."   Felicia’s other credits include Jessica Rogers in the series Night Man (1997), the regular character Doctor Simone Ravelle Hardy in General Hospital (1993-1997) ; Matubu’s Secretary in Big One; The Great Los Angeles Earthquake (1990); the recurring character Glynnis Turner in Days of Our Lives (1990-1991); Trina in the Any Day Now episode, It's A Man’s World (1999); Janna Mikami in the ER episode, The Miracle Worker (1998); and Carol Winters in the Hunter episode, Naked Justice (1988).

See Some Photos of Felicia M. Bell

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