Alexander Siddig revealed on the Star Trek-themed 7th Rule podcast, that his co-star Nana Visitor had a brother involved in the CIA and MKUltra.
Alexander Siddig was on the latest episode of the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine themed 7th Rule Podcast and dropped a juicy personal detail about Nana Visitor’s family life that frankly, still has me floored. While discussing the James Bond/spy-themed DS9 episode, “Our Man Bashir”, Siddig was asked who in the cast enjoyed the spy-themed, ’60s influence, episode the most besides himself. Siddig named Visitor, who played Kira Nerys on the series.
There’s nothing crazy about saying Visitor likes to do period pieces, but the rationale as to why is what caught me and many others off guard. Apparently, Siddig theorized that Visitor enjoyed playing the “black widow” character in the episode so much was due to her own personal life, namely that her brother was in fact a real-life spy.
"It touched on elements of her real life, you know because her brother was a CIA guy and a very shady individual, who was part of the original ’60s experiments. I guess it was the Pentagon using the early LSD-potential, all that stuff. You should ask her about it.She knew or had been told all about the real-life version of the black widow that her brother worked with and they worked together and go off to foreign countries and on missions and do pretty terrible things frankly.…So she got to play a pretty glam version of that."
For those not sure what he’s referring to, the United States conducted LSD-experiments on test subjects in the ’60s under the operation name MKUltra. The program was done specifically to see if they could develop agents with mind control or mind-reading abilities. Many of the test subjects were unaware of the total effects of the drug trials and the cost of the experiments on their mind and body. By Siddig’s tone and verbiage, it’s heavily implied that Visitor’s brother conducted or helped enact these experiments.
It’s rather fascinating to hear that Visitor’s brother was involved in this type of lifestyle. While some may question Siddig’s claims, you have to remember that he and Visitor were involved for a long time during their days shooting DS9. The two were married for four years and had a child together. So it’s fair to say that Siddig would be a credible source on this tale.
Hopefully, someone follows up this story in Visitor’s next interview because it’s beyond fascinating.