Cirroc Lofton’s Return As Jake Sisko Impressed Star Trek: Starfleet Academy’s Kerrice Brooks

February 6, 2026

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Warning: SPOILERS for Star Trek: Starfleet Academy Season 1, Episode 5 – “Series Acclimation Mil”Kerrice Brooks reveals how working with Star Trek: Deep Space Nine icon Cirroc Lofton in Star Trek: Starfleet Academy episode 5 made her “step up my game.” Directed by Larry Teng, and written by Kirsten Beyer and Tawny Newsome, Star Trek: Starfleet Academy episode 5 is a tribute to Avery Brooks as Captain Benjamin Sisko and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.

In Star Trek: Starfleet Academy episode 5, SAM aka Series Acclimation Mil (Kerrice Brooks) investigates the disappearance of Captain Sisko at the end of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine as she comes to terms with what it means to be the Emissary for her people, the Kasq. SAM is counseled by Benjamin’s son, Jake Sisko (Cirroc Lofton), who gives SAM the encouragement she needs.

In an exclusive interview with ScreenRant’s John Orquiola about Star Trek: Starfleet Academy episode 5, Kerrice Brooks describes her “special” experience of working with Cirroc Lofton, who reprised Jake Sisko for the first time since Star Trek: Deep Space Nine ended in 1999. Brooks says that “there was no way” they could have done the episode without Cirroc. Read their quote below:

ScreenRant: I don’t know if you realize this, or maybe you know it now, but you are the only person who has acted opposite Cirroc in Star Trek since 1999 when Deep Space Nine ended. Because he’s been out of the franchise.

Kerrice Brooks: Holy sh*t. I didn’t really realize that.

ScreenRant: Yeah, this is his first time back. He’s been waiting all this time.

Kerrice Brooks: He’s so special, I don’t know why.

ScreenRant: It’s one of those things where, how do you write Jake Sisko into an episode of Star Trek? Because he’s not in Starfleet.

Kerrice Brooks: It’s gotta be so specific, yeah.

ScreenRant: What was it like working with Cirroc? Was he rusty? Cirroc is my friend, so I’m gonna tease him anyway when I talk to him.

Kerrice Brooks: [laughs] Oh sh*t, no, he actually wasn’t. ‘Was he rusty?’ I mean, he wasn’t rusty at all. Cirroc was everything. Shout out to Cirroc. He made me step up my game in a lot of ways. I can’t say he was rusty. I will say there was one [time] where we shot like five scenes a day, and I just did not know that one by heart, because it was the last scene. I was hoping to God we did not get to it, but we ended up getting to it, and so we were in it together, but I felt really taken care of by him.

Yo, he was amazing. I felt like he was literally the big brother that I needed as SAM, but also as Kerrice. Bro, he was amazing. It’s crazy. I don’t know if he’s really ventured out [into acting after DS9] too, too much. He told me a little bit about his life. I feel like it’s been pretty private, but I think [acting is] a muscle memory. And watching him on that podium give that speech, and he doesn’t necessarily know he’s giving it to me, he’s giving it to the audience, without being dramatic, with the f*cking spotlight behind him. It was like watching an angel. It really is muscle memory.

And then he gave me [a scarf] for an interview. He gave me this, and it means ‘sister,’ I think, in the Ethiopian culture, which he is, and it’s meant so much to me. He’s just so giving, so selfless. He’s funny as f*ck. He’s funny as sh*t, like there was no way I could have done that without him. I like to be honest, there was no way I could have done that without him.

Kerrice Brooks’ scenes with Cirroc Lofton as SAM and Jake Sisko are among the most powerful and resonant moments in Star Trek: Starfleet Academy episode 5. As SAM fears she “isn’t enough” and can’t be her people’s Emissary, Jake assures the first Kasqian in Starfleet that she is enough.

Even after 27 years, Cirroc Lofton didn’t miss a beat playing Jake Sisko, who was an avatar of Captain Sisko’s son that was 33 years older than the teenager Jake was when Star Trek: Deep Space Nine ended. Jake was “his best self,” and how well the more mature Jake turned out surely makes his father proud.

Cirroc Lofton gave Kerrice Brooks a beautiful Ethiopian-style scarf that the young actor wore when she joined her Star Trek: Starfleet Academy castmates on The Kelly Clarkson Show. Lofton’s gift to Brooks (no relation to Avery) echoes how Jake Sisko gave SAM the gift of self-belief that she is worthy to be an Emissary.

While Cirroc Lofton as Jake Sisko, Tawny Newsome as Illa Dax, and Avery Brooks’ climactic voiceover made Star Trek: Starfleet Academy epsiode 5 incredibly special for Star Trek: Deep Space Nine fans, it is Kerrice Brooks’ incredible performance as SAM that centers the hour as one of the finest Star Trek episodes of the Paramount+ streaming era.