In a first bold move that would prove to be one of many over its seven-season run,Deep Space Nine opens withStar Treks new hero staring down the horrifying visage of its old one: Jean-Luc Picard, corrupted and perverted into Locutus of Borg. It sets a remarkable stage through which to meet the franchises latest protagonist, and over three decades later, those opening scenes aboard the USS Saratoga remain one ofStar Treks most haunting and compelling opening salvos.Thirty-two years ago today on January 3, 1993, Deep Space Nines pilot, Emissary, opened not on the titular space station that would become then-Commander Siskos home, but with a title card that took Trek back to what was then its greatest, and one of Starfleets lowest, points: the Battle of Wolf 359 inThe Next Generations season four opener, concluding one of the greatestTrek cliffhangers of all time in The Best of Both Worlds. There, the series had kept the slaughter of Wolf 359 off screen. Now, Star Trek was ready to show it, and put its new protagonist right at the very heart of that terror. Its an incredible gambit, one that immediately tells the audience that this new Star Trek series was not going to go where they expected. The scenes aboard theSaratoga as it prepares to be one of the many doomed vessels gathering to stop the Borg at Wolf 359 hold a remarkable mirror up to whatTrek was at the moment.Star Trek is used to scenes of Starfleet officers thriving under pressure, in the face of impossible odds, but there is a stark matter-of-factness to how DS9 depicts the events of the battle thatTNG never showed. TheSaratoga has no chance against Locutus, and Starfleet calm and collectedness is not given time to prevail in the face of the ship being immediately incapacitated, slaughtering the bridge crew. This is not an attack they roll about the bridge and get up from; most of them are just dead, as Sisko and a sole surviving Bolian lieutenant realize the ship is lost. The scenes outside the bridge are even worse: after years and years of depicting theEnterprise as a ship with a thriving civilian complement, one always safeguarded when it flew into battle, the corridors of the Saratogaa Miranda-class ship, tiny in comparison to the scale of the Galaxy-classare filled with wailing, injured civilians scrambling for life pods. It all climaxes, of course, with a humbling personal cost to Starfleets hubris for Sisko when he returns to his own quarters to find his wife Jennifer dead among the debris, and his son Jake barely alive, as he himself is forcibly dragged wailing in grief to a shuttle as the Saratoga explodes, the fireworks of its destruction reflected in the viewport Sisko vengefully glares out of. In just four and a half minutes, Star Trek fans have just watched their new star face tragedy unlike anything theyd really gotten to see before, and crucially, they had seen it through the eyes of a man who acted perhaps more like any of us would than the ideals of someone like Kirk or Picard would.Its this tragic, vulnerable humanity that informs the Sisko we meet throughout the rest of Emissaryshaping a focal figure far from what wed assume of a typical Star Trek protagonist. Hes petty, in the way he deals with both the people hes working with upon assignment to Deep Space Nine and with Starfleet itself when he finds himself face to face with Picard (now back to his heroic self and not expecting to be challenged in any way, let alone the way Sisko does). Hes still very clearly shaped by the trauma of Wolf 359, not fully processing it or even compartmentalizing itand it almost takes a literal act of god for him to even begin to do so, when his encounter with the wormhole entities the Bajorans worship as their spiritual gods is almost entirely compromised by the fact that Sisko cant move on from the loss of Jennifer. Its an unvarnished view of Starfleet in the shadows of what was, up to that point, one of its lowest points ever depicted on screen: a low point that is arguably only matched by whatDeep Space Nine itself would get into later in its run during the Dominion War. And that unvarnished view comes in the shape of Sisko himself, a man who is allowed to be vulnerable and flawed in ways that defy what we had come to expect (and still, for the most part, come to expectjust look at the friction even all these years later over how Discovery portrayed Michael Burnham, who fees like one of theStar Trek protagonists most shaped by Siskos legacy since). Its a shape that is formed from the minuteDeep Space Nine gets going, and one that is still defining the show all these years later. Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, whats next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.

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Zelda fans can now get the Great Deku Tree Lego set at major retailers. Launched last September as a Lego Store exclusive, the first building set based on The Legend of Zelda is now available at Amazon, Best Buy, Walmart, and Target. The superb 2,500-piece Great Deku Tree Display Model is a 2-in-1 package that lets fans build the Deku Tree as depicted in Breath of the Wild or Ocarina of Time.Buy The Great Deku Tree Lego Set at:AmazonBest BuyWalmartTargetLego StoreIt's worth noting the Great Deku Tree is currently on backorder from the Lego Store and won't ship for two months, so it's certainly possible other retailers will sell out, too. As of now, all major retailers have the Great Deku Tree in stock and can ship it now. Lego The Legend of Zelda: Great Deku Tree costs $300, but My Best Buy Plus/Total members save 10%, which drops the price down to $270. My Best Buy Plus costs $50/year, so new members will already be getting $30 of that fee back with this one purchase. All in-stock Lego sets are eligible for this perk, including the brand-new Mario Kart lineup. The Lego Mario Kart lineup is more budget friendly, with all six vehicle playsets adding up to $220. If you bought all of the Mario Kart sets and the new Zelda set, the membership will be fully paid off.Continue Reading at GameSpot

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While corporations from Lowes to Harley-Davidson abandon their once-vaunted efforts at improving diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in their human relations, one company has dedicated itself so heavily to these efforts that its physically designed DEI into its new office.Virgin Media O2, the recently merged media and telecommunications company based in the U.K., has just opened a new headquarters in London, which has been designed specifically to accommodate diversity, equity, and inclusion in the workplace. Led by the architecture and design firm Gensler, the office covers the top six floors of an existing buildingfloors four through nineincluding some ground floor customer-facing retail space. And all of its 81,750 square feet have been carefully considered to meet the needs of an uncommonly wide range of users. The furniture is designed to accommodate a variety of human shapes, sizes, and mobility levels. Workspaces on each floor are positioned near windows offering the wellness benefits of natural light and great views. There are private workstations, where users can block out all sounds, and meeting rooms equally comfortable for people in wheelchairs, on two feet, or streaming in via video call. Informal meeting areas were designed on each floor to enable the kind of professional and social cross-pollination valued by large companies. Dubbed accidental meeting points or AMPs, theyre meant for small gatherings, informal discussions, or simply taking a tea break. Some also offer areas where employees can go to get work done away from their own workspace. With each floor themed according to one of VM O2s telecommunications servicesincluding sports broadcasts, gaming, music, and streamingAMPs are outfitted in different colors and designs. The gaming floor, for example, has a carpet resembling pixels; the sports floor has bleacher-style seating; and the black and white furniture on the music floor was inspired by piano keys. So people seeking more vibrancy or more quietude can go to the AMP that best fits those needs. One of the main ways in which to create and design space for everyone is making sure that you have variety, says Megan Dobstaff, a design director at Gensler who led the project.[Photo: Courtesy ofGareth Gardnerfor Gensler]Designing a DEI-centric officeTo develop the DEI design, Gensler collaborated with BW: Workplace Experts, and received significant guidance from VM O2 employee focus groups, DEI representatives, and an in-house brand team. These consultations helped shape how Genslers designers accommodated people with different sensory sensitivities, mobility levels, and neurodiverse conditions.Working with VM O2s DEI employee representative group, nicknamed Ultraviolet, was especially informative. They offered the designers specific examples of team members who had been undeserved or ignored by previous office environments. Accommodating them was often easier than expected, says Dobstaff: Adding easily controlled dimmers throughout the space on all floors and temperature controls to meeting rooms, testing colors for optimized tonal contrasts in furniture coverings so the edges would be visible to partially sighted people and others for those with color blindness. Theres no reason why we shouldnt be driving that forward, and making space purposeful for all the different types of people who are going to be using it, Dobstaff adds.In terms of specific accessibility and inclusion, VM O2s offices have gender-neutral toilets, also retreat rooms with blackout curtains for neurodivergent employees and visitors experiencing overstimulation or a panic attack. There are multi-faith rooms with Wudu facilities where adherents can wash their feet in gender-separate spaces and pray. There are sinks accessible to people of all statures, microwaves in the ninth-floor caf that can be opened by right-handed people and others for left-handed people, and cabinets that can be opened by people who have no hands.[Photo: Courtesy ofGareth Gardnerfor Gensler]Dobstaff says the project was more focused on diversity and accessibility than any other shed worked on but expects other projects to take DEI office design issues more seriously going forward.What it taught me is we should never just be making a design decision for an arbitrary reason, she says. Theres always some type of consideration that you could add basically to any design decision, whether thats sensory, whether thats visual, whether its accessibility, or cognitive. Theres always something.