Star Trek: Deep Space Nine was a new type of franchise offering because it was far from the utopian future Gene Roddenberry offered with Star Trek: The Next Generation. DS9 is set in a world struggling to free itself from the occupation of hostile aliens, with the help of the Federation and Starfleet. And, according to actress Nana Visitor, it was her character's ethics and beliefs, not her gender, that formed Major Kira Nerys as a person, and those were the episodes that she enjoyed most.
Visitor, who has an impressive acting background in movies, voice acting, and especially television, recently spoke to ScreenRant about her time on Deep Space Nine, and why the ethics and beliefs of her character were so important to her. As a Bajoran, Kira was strong in her faith, and Visitor spoke at length about this facet of her personality during the interview. Vistor recalled some of her favorite scripts by saying:
"There were so many. There were times that I got to depict the nuance of life, the gray of life, anytime Kira was morally [challenged], ethics mattered so much to her. Anytime her ethics were possibly questionable, those were my favorite stories, because it's so human. I mean, Kira was such a human character taken out of any cultural need to be performative in a female way at all."
Kira's evolution throughout the series is proof of the importance of her humanity as she navigates a morally gray world where people are not always who they present themselves to be. To protect herself, Kira relies on her strong sense of ethics in circumstances that affect her and her people.
Regarding this, Visitor said, "Unless she was back with her mother, and Dukat, and the pleasure women. That was a different story. And I look like a wet cat. I look at those things where I'm all dressed up sexy, and I look like a wet cat. And I go, 'Yeah, that was the right thing. That's what Kira would have felt.' It was just, 'This ain't right.' But the moral ambiguity, the questions, the failing, being given a chance to to fix her mistakes or see herself in a new light. Those were my favorite shows."
Visitor enjoyed a variety of other DS9 episodes as well, which she revealed during in the same sit-down by saying:
"I loved the show where I was pregnant and captured by a Cardassian and confronted with what I had done. Those were amazing shows. I also love the silly ones, like, where I got to be a ridiculous Russian spy."
It's unclear where Kira might have ended up without her strong sense of personal ethics and the desire to help her people recover from the Cardassian occupation. Kira might have been just another frightened survivor, but I believe that her morals would have urged her to join the Bajoran resistance eventually.
Do you believe that Major Kira's ethics and morals gave her an edge as she fought to free her people? Share your thoughts and comments regarding one of Deep Space Nine's most beloved characters on the Redshirts Always Die Facebook and X pages.