Star Trek's Cirroc Lofton Has His Own Ideas On What Jake Sisko's Been Doing Since DS9

Jake Sisko (Cirroc Lofton) was perhaps one of the more underutilized characters on "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine." Jake was the teenage son of Captain Benjamin Sisko (Avery Brooks) and was brought on board Deep Space Nine while the station was still being rebuilt after a hasty retreat from its former owners, the Cardassians. Jake and Ben had multiple intriguing DS9 episodes together, including an excellent story where they attempted to fly an ancient, solar-powered starship together. Jake was also best friends with Nog (Aron Eisenberg), a local Ferengi troublemaker. 

Jake, however, only got a few episodes of his own, albeit a few good ones. In "The Visitor" (October 9, 1995), Jake saw Ben get sucked into a wormhole-related subspace pocket dimension. Everyone assumed Ben was dead, but every few months, and then every few years, he would appear from subspace for a few moments, having not aged. The episode saw Jake age into an old man (played by Tony Todd) as he tried to rescue his father from his weird time trap. "The Visitor" is quite good. 

But otherwise, Jake — from a production standpoint — served more or less as an antidote to Wesley Crusher (Wil Wheaton), the teenage boy character from "Star Trek: The Next Generation." Jake, unlike Wesley, had no Starfleet ambitions and possessed no desperate need to impress the adults in his life. He wasn't a narc or a goody-goody. Indeed, he forged his own path as a journalist and as a novelist and was free to make mistakes. Jake was rarely more than a supporting player, but his presence was welcome. 

It's been 30 years since the debut of "Deep Space Nine," and Lofton, talking to Screen Rant, had a few ideas as to what the 44-year-old Jake might be up to now. 

It's worth remembering that "Star Trek" has entered into a very nostalgia-heavy period. Several of Paramount's current Trek shows are dedicated to legacy characters or rely on references to past shows. Villains from "Deep Space Nine" were major players in the most recent season of "Star Trek: Picard" and a new episode of "Star Trek: Lower Decks" took place on Deep Space Nine. On the "Lower Decks" episode, "Hear All, Trust Nothing" (September 29, 2022), audiences could see that Colonel Kira (Nana Visitor) and Quark (Armin Shimerman) still lived on the station, but there was no update on the show's 30 other central characters. Jake Sisko hasn't been seen on screen since the last episode of "Deep Space Nine" in 1999. 

In the 24 years since then, Jake must have developed a lot as a character and grown into a fascinating middle-aged man. According to Lofton, Jake has likely undergone a spiritual transformation. He said: 

"Yeah, I have thought about it. And because there's no real closure to how Sisko leaves from Jake's life, I would imagine that Jake would be seeking that kind of closure and be trying to communicate with his father in some way or another. If that meant, you know, studying the Bajoran faith, if that meant trying to have an experience with the Orbs and seeking those Orbs to find contact The Sisko, I think he would do something to that effect."

At the end of DS9, Ben Sisko entered a nearby wormhole — a central feature of the series — and conjoined with a species of non-corporal aliens that lived inside. The aliens were worshiped by the Bajorans as divine prophets. Ben was deemed a holy figure — the Emissary — and he later more or less evolved into a god. 

The Orbs, meanwhile, were artifacts that allowed corporeal beings to telepathically communicate with the Prophets. They were hourglass-shaped and possessed ineffable spiritual energies, and each one teaches a different spiritual lesson. Unlike other Trek shows, "Deep Space Nine" tackled spirituality and religion, as well as the corruption of churches, very frankly. At the beginning of the series, Benjamin Sisko rejected his status as the Bajoran Emissary. By the end, he embraced his fate. In so doing, however, Sisko seems to have vanished forever. Jake lost his father but seemed to be too determined a character to just let him go. It makes sense that Jake would convert to the Bajoran faith, meditate with the Orbs, and attempt to make contact again. 

If not studying religion, Lofton felt that Jake might be living an equally ascetic life on board a solar-powered cosmic sailing vessel, the same model that he and Ben flew in the episode "Explorers" (May 8, 1995). Lofton said: 

"The other thing I contemplate is that he might be in one of those Bajoran solar sail ships that he took a trip with his dad in, and maybe take a solo trip trying to find himself and reflect on the memories that he had with his dad. So I think those are the kinds of things Jake could be doing." 

In Lofton's mind, Jake grew into an introspective, enlightened person. Whether or not he has a successful career as a novelist or reporter, Lofton doesn't say, but his character's devotion to growth and calm is admirable. One might easily be able to picture Jake as a monk.