10 Reasons Why What You Leave Behind Is The Best Star Trek Finale
4. The Final Showdown
In every iteration of Star Trek, there are the characters who you simply know will have epic endings. Spock and Kirk had their great scenes, while Picard and Riker both have their big moments as well. So, when it came to Captain Sisko, what could they do differently so that this arc ended in the most satisfying way possible?
Turn him into a god, of course.
That final scene between Sisko and Dukat, played to absolute perfection by Avery Brooks and Marc Alaimo, sums up the central struggle in the series, along with ending the thread of the Emissary. As both of them topple into the flames, they both find themselves where they should be, in a way.
Dukat is with the Pah-Wraiths, trapped in the Fire Caves forever. Sisko now exists in the Celestial Temple, one with the Prophets.
While there is a sad ending of sorts here, the question of time is a fun idea to play with. Assuming that his fate is not revealed in any future entry, Sisko may well have returned to the station mere months later. Time has no meaning with the Prophets. Conversely, the documentary What We Left Behind imagines an opening to an eighth season where Sisko returns twenty years later, so who is to say?
Either way, the last battle between good and evil is won in the way we knew must it must, giving a fiery solution to the problem of the Pah-Wraiths.