In season 7 of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Captain Benjamin Sisko is given his own equivalent of Captain Jean-Luc Picard’s choice to play poker with the USS Enterprise-D crew in the series finale of Star Trek: The Next Generation. As the show’s epic Dominion War story arc winds down, the final stretch of episodes is a serialized tale that concludes with the United Federation of Planets’ victory over the Cardassian and Dominion alliance. However, before the show committed itself to wrapping up the Dominion War, it gave Captain Sisko and his crew a lighthearted holosuite adventure in the style of the 1960s Ocean’s Eleven in the episode, “Badda Bing Badda Bang.”
In this episode, Captain Sisko and his crew help Vic Fontaine, a holographic Las Vegas casino owner, when his establishment is taken over by mobsters. Captain Sisko initially resists participating in the heist, but ultimately joins in after a talk with his love, Kasidy Yates. After the heist is successful, Sisko surprises the crew by singing a duet with Vic Fontaine and delivering an unforgettable rendition of “The Best Is Yet To Come.”
Sisko’s joining his crew in Vic Fontaine’s casino is reminiscent of when Captain Picard finally played poker with the USS Enterprise-D’s crew at the end of “All Good Things…”, The Next Generation’s legendary series finale. However, Sisko’s reasons for avoiding Vic Fontaine for years are more significant than Picard’s. Sisko’s avoidance stemmed from his feelings towards the holosuite program’s era, Las Vegas 1962, a time when Black people could be employed in Las Vegas casinos but were not welcome as customers. Benjamin felt Vic’s program was a lie that obfuscated the truth of that time period. But Kasidy pointed out that Fontaine’s fantasy is a vision of how things “should have been,” which doesn’t erase the past but is a reminder of how far Black people have come in Star Trek’s 24th century. Sisko ultimately realizes the wisdom of that, swallows his pride, and ends up having a fantastic time with Vic Fontaine.
In conclusion, Sisko’s duet with Vic Fontaine is his version of Picard playing poker in The Next Generation’s finale, but with more significant personal growth for the character.