What ever happened to... Avery Brooks?

 

 Now, when people are asked to name a captain from a Star Trek series, there are normally two which beam down straight to the tip of their tongue: James T Kirk and Jean-Luc Picard. Played respectively by William Shatner and Patrick Stewart, these two characters have become icons of modern science fiction. One, for his devil-may-care, blast-the-to-hell attitude and one for his refined, calm, Earl Grey drinking demeanour.

For me, however, there is one Star Trek captain who is constantly overlooked and that is uber-cool Benjamin Sisko, played by the marvellous Avery Brooks.

For those of you who never saw Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (DS9 to those who want something a bit snappier), Sisko was the captain of a space station that stood between the constantly arguing/warring races of Cardassians and Bajorans, one race being the former oppressor of the other. Not only that, but just outside the vast panoramic windows stood a wormhole that led through to a distant part of the galaxy that was inhabited by the power-hungry, shape-shifting folk called The Dominion. Oh, and there were god-like temporal beings in the wormhole too, just for good measure.

So there, in the midst of all of these disparate parties, stood DS9 captained by the good captain Sisko. Not exactly a job one would cherish.

I always felt that Brooks played the role with real gravitas. He had that deep baritone that rumbled like distant thunder and a grin that flashed at just the right moment with either glee or thinly-veiled malice. What is more, unlike any other Star Trek captain, he had a hero’s “death” in the last ever episode. However, after DS9 and Sisko parted company, Brooks seemed to vanish from our screens. Shatner and Stewart both went on to have careers post-Star Trek, so what happened to Brooks?

Well, film-wise, not a lot. According to imdb he starred as Detective Leon Jackson in 15 Minutes, a 2001 film with Robert DeNiro as the leading man, then after that Brooks simply vanished from our screens.

It would appear that the cinema’s loss has been the stage’s gain as Brooks returned to his theatre roots. In 2003 he appeared in the The Oedipus Plays. In 2005 he starred asOthello for the RSC. In 2007 he starred in Marlowe’s Tamburlaine. In 2008 he appeared in Miller’s Death of a Salesman. Then in 2008, he took the tile role in Paul Robeson.

So it would appear that far from leading a quiet retirement communing with the Prophets in a wormhole, our former Captain Sisko has indeed been very busy and I, for one, hope that he will tread the boards over here in the UK sometime soon so that I can catch a glimpse of that smooth coolness he brought to a great sci-fi franchise.

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