Major Kira of Star Trek: Ds9: Woman of the Future, Creation of the 90S

Home , Alexander Siddig, Armin Shimerman, Aron Eisenberg, Bajoran, Benjamin Sisko, Cardassian

MAJOR KIRA OF STAR TREK: DS9: WOMAN OF THE FUTURE, CREATION OF THE 90S

Judith Clemens-Smucker

A Thesis

Submitted to the Graduate College of Bowling Green State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of

MASTER OF ARTS

December 2020

Committee:

Becca Cragin, Advisor

Jeffrey Brown

Kristen Rudisill

Judith Clemens-Smucker

Becca Cragin, Advisor

The 1990s were a time of resistance and change for women in the Western world. During this time popular culture offered consumers a few women of strength and power, including Star

Trek: Deep Space Nine’s Major Kira Nerys, a character encompassing a complex personality of non-traditional feminine identities. As the first continuing character in the Star Trek franchise to serve as a female second-in-command, Major Kira spoke to women of the 90s through her anger, passion, independence, and willingness to show compassion and love when merited. In this thesis I look at the building blocks of Major Kira to discover how it was possible to create a character in whom viewers could see the future as well as the current and relatable decade of the

90s. By laying out feminisms which surround 90s television and using original interviews with

Nana Visitor, who played Major Kira, and Marvin Rush, the Director of Photography on DS9, I examine the creation of Major Kira from her conception to her realization. I finish by using historical and cognitive poetics to analyze both the pilot episode “Emissary” and the season one episode “Duet,” which introduce Major Kira and display character growth. Through the creation of a fully-realized, relatable, futuristic woman who embodied intelligence, individualism, and adaptability, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine showed viewers the possibilities of becoming a person with such admirable traits during their own time.

For every girl and woman who dreams of a future with no limit to what she can achieve. v ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I am grateful to the many people who contributed to the writing of this thesis. Dr. Becca

Cragin served as my thesis chair. Her guidance and advice were invaluable, as were her quick turnaround emails and detailed suggestions. I am indebted to her for her gift of time and knowledge. Dr. Jeffrey A. Brown and Dr. Kristen Rudisill, the other members of my committee, were also free with their help, comments, and time, which I appreciate immensely. Rebekah

Patterson, the graduate secretary for the BGSU Popular Culture department, is amazing at her job, and kept me on track. I am so thankful for her assistance.

Nana Visitor, the woman who brought Major Kira to life, was happy and willing to answer interview questions, and I am forever grateful (and starstruck). She and the Major have been an inspiration to me since DS9’s original airing, and I still can’t quite believe I was able to communicate with her in real life. Marvin Rush, the Director of Photography who created the atmosphere in which the Major existed on set was also gracious with his time and information. I am thankful for everything he taught me during our conversations. Ms. Visitor and Mr. Rush made a great creative team, which is obvious if you watch the show.

Much love and thanks to my family, who never complained when I holed up in my office to research and write. A special thanks to Steve, who is willing to watch Star Trek with me, even though it has never been his thing before.

The world of Star Trek, in all of its various incarnations, offers hope during these days when hope feels largely elusive. I am grateful for the ways the franchise portrays a future in which we can envision a galaxy of joy, community, and equality. vi

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page

INTRODUCTION ...... 1

CHAPTER ONE. MAJOR KIRA IN THE CONTEXT OF FEMINIST TELEVISION OF THE

90S AND THE STAR TREK FRANCHISE ...... 9

Major Kira in the Context of 90s Postfeminist Television ...... 10

Major Kira in the Context of the Star Trek Television Series ...... 19

CHAPTER TWO. THE PHILOSOPHICAL AND TECHNOLOGICAL BACKGROUND OF

THE CREATION OF MAJOR KIRA ...... 35

The Process Behind Creating Major Kira ...... 35

Casting the Role ...... 39

Fitting Major Kira into the 90s and the Future ...... 41

Production Decisions Used to Create Major Kira ...... 49

Changes to the Character ...... 57

Fan Interaction ...... 62

CHAPTER THREE. THE INTRODUCTION OF MAJOR KIRA IN THE STAR TREK: DEEP

SPACE NINE PILOT “EMISSARY” ...... 67

CHAPTER FOUR. HOW “DUET” REPRESENTS THE CHARACTER AND GROWTH OF

MAJOR KIRA IN SEASON ONE ...... 82

Looking at “Duet” through the Lens of Historical Poetics ...... 83

Looking at “Duet” through the Lens of Cognitive Poetics ...... 87

Alignment and Allegiance ...... 96

Feminine and Masculine Coding Within an Emotional Mystery ...... 98 vii

Conclusion of Analysis ...... 99

CONCLUSION ...... 100

WORKS CITED ...... 108

Clemens-Smucker 1

INTRODUCTION

The 1990s were a time of resistance and change for women in the Western world. Third- wave feminism formed, females battled their way into the male-dominated workplace, and women began to feel they had a real voice. During this time, popular culture offered consumers a few women of strength and power, including such television icons as Murphy Brown (Candace

Bergin), Buffy Summers (Sarah Michelle Gellar) from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and Dana

Scully (Gillian Anderson) of The X-Files. Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (DS9), the third series in the Star Trek franchise, came on the air in 1993, the year after 1992’s proclaimed “Year of the

Woman,” when more women ran for and were elected to U.S. political office than at any time in history. DS9 introduced its own women of substance, including Major Kira Nerys (Nana

Visitor), a character encompassing the complex personality of soldier and freedom fighter, lover, friend, colleague, religious faithful, and PTSD survivor. As the first continuing character in the

Star Trek franchise to be a female second-in-command (Number One [Majel Barrett] of the original series [TOS] lasted only the pilot), Major Kira spoke to women of the 90s through her anger, passion, independence, and willingness to show compassion and love when merited. In this thesis I look at the building blocks of Major Kira to discover how it was possible to create a character in whom viewers could see the future as well as the current and relatable decade of the

90s. I research the process in which the Major was written as a woman in a future world, with the writers drawing from their current knowledge of history, society, popular culture, and feminism.

The writers presented the Major as a fictional character in whom viewers could envision a better, more cohesive version of humanity, while also showing a strong, identifiable woman of their present decade. Through the creation of a fully-realized, relatable, futuristic woman who embodied intelligence, individualism, and adaptability, the viewers were shown the possibilities Clemens-Smucker 2 of becoming a person of such admirable traits during their own time.

I identify as a competent viewer of DS9, knowing Star Trek well, and having viewed the series countless times. I became a Star Trek fan in 1987, when Star Trek: The Next Generation

(TNG) first aired and I was a senior in high school. I fell in love with the characters, the storytelling, the setting, and the messaging. Monday evenings became TNG night, and rarely did

I miss an episode, enjoying it even during my college years when I didn’t always have the time for episodic television. My VCR (Video Cassette Recorder, for those of you too young to remember) became my Star Trek companion for those nights I couldn’t watch in real time. DS9 began its run in 1993, during season six of TNG. Again I waited for and watched the episodes as they aired. During 1994-1995 I worked a job with long hours, and I can remember returning to my apartment and being dismayed upon realization that my VCR hadn’t worked as programmed

(or, more likely, I had somehow screwed up the programming). I then had to wait until reruns to catch up on what I missed, and do my best to fill in the gaps when the next week’s episode aired.

Today I watch and enjoy all of the Star Trek series, including the most recent, Star Trek: Picard

(PIC), but DS9 has a special place in my heart and in my multiple viewing history.

From the very beginning of DS9, Major Kira was my favorite character in the series. I loved all of the cast, from the dignified Commander Benjamin Sisko (Avery Brooks) to the humorous Quark (Armin Shimerman), but Kira held a special place in my personal fandom. She was confident and assertive, intelligent and decisive, kind but firm. Her relationships felt real and truthful, and her flaws, for she did have them, only made her more believable. When I decided to work toward my master’s in popular culture I had no doubt what I wanted to research; her character’s many dimensions, along with the many dimensions of the 90s, came together to form a desire to discover what made her tick and how that particular decade played into her creation. Clemens-Smucker 3

Many books, essays, and theses have been written about the Star Trek franchise since the

1960s, focusing on a wide array of subjects including, but not limited to, race, gender, sexuality, marketing, historical tie-ins, and fandom. TOS is most widely studied, with TNG coming in a close second. DS9, considered the black sheep of the family because of its titular stationary space station instead of a ship traveling the universe, is portrayed in many novels, but has inspired few scholarly books which delve into the heart of the series. There are complete books about technical aspects of creating the show, such the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion by

Terry J. Erdmann, Trek: Deep Space Nine, the Unauthorized Story, by James Van Hise, and The

Fifty-Year Mission: The Second Twenty-Five Years, by Mark A. Altman and Edward Gross.

There are also essays about DS9 within anthologies which include multiple series from different franchises, but there is little academic work which speaks solely about DS9 and its themes and ideology. One critical essay entitled “Kira Nerys, a Good Woman Fighting Well,” by Frank

Oglesbee (2004), describes Major Kira and her actions during several episodes, but does not delve deeply into how and why she was created. Sherry Ginn included a chapter about Star Trek and Major Kira in her book, Our Space, Our Place: Women in the Worlds of Science Fiction

Television, which does talk briefly about the beginnings of Major Kira (see chapter one of this thesis). However, no existing scholarship goes in-depth about the creation of her character from a

90s perspective. This thesis will fill in the gaps of academic work by studying Kira’s character and the process used to create the person she became, including an analysis of the importance of such a character on television.

As mentioned above, the 1990s, the era in which Major Kira Nerys was created, was a time of resistance and change for women. In the first part of chapter one I will examine the role of female television characters as related to third-wave and postmodern Feminism. Because Clemens-Smucker 4

Major Kira was written during this decade, her character was influenced by the surrounding political and cultural atmosphere. For background, I will use books and articles from the 90s era, scholarship written in the following years, and current academia, such as Allison Yarrow’s book,

90s Bitch: Media, Culture, and the Failed Promise of Gender Equality. There are many resources about fictional contemporaries of Major Kira, including characters on Murphy Brown,

Buffy the Vampire Slayer, The X-Files, Friends, and Beverly Hills 90210, among others. I will research how their presence during the same decade influenced or complemented the creation of

Kira. Through these resources I will illustrate the perspective on what was expected of fictional female characters at this time, and how DS9 pushed the boundaries on how a woman could be portrayed.

In the second part of chapter one I will look at other women in the Star Trek franchise.

First, I will talk about women from TOS and TNG, and discuss how they laid the groundwork for

Major Kira, allowing her to play the role of a commanding, fully-rounded woman. I will then speak about the women who came after Kira in Star Trek: Voyager (VOY), Star Trek: Enterprise

(ENT), Star Trek: Discovery (DIS), and PIC, looking at the way Kira made it possible for the female characters in those series to become captains, scientists, first officers, and crew members with both fire and flaws. Not all of the series felt like steps forward in feminist critique, and I will discuss that, as well. I will look only at live-action network or syndicated shows, although there are animated and fan-created series which deserve attention in other studies.

Nana Visitor, who portrayed Major Kira in the show, graciously agreed to answer questions about how she approached the role and how she saw it speaking to viewers both about their present lives and what we might expect in the future with regards to feminism, production, and acting choices. I was able to interview her twice about her experience. When I talked with Clemens-Smucker 5 her about being a television woman of the 90s, I asked how she saw Kira’s space there.

The 80s and 90s were certainly an influence for me on how I wanted to play

Kira. I wanted to do something completely different from the characters I

portrayed on other shows during that time. I was cast in the role, over and

over, of the woman defined by the man or the place in the household. The

bad girl killer, the victim, over and over. My dialogue was written to support

other characters or illicit their emotions — all very two dimensional. If you

had any kind of appetite as a woman on TV, it seemed to somehow be

distasteful — to be overtly sexual meant your character was about to die or

proven to be bad, there seemed to be a tacit agreement that unless you were

the fat friend, a scene at the dinner table should include you just playing

with your food or taking tiny bites that didn’t require overt chewing. I made

sure Kira had all sorts of appetites — attractive to other people or otherwise

— for food, sex, justice, connection, etc. (Visitor 7/27/20)

In summary, chapter one will analyze the role Visitor and her character Kira played in 90s television as compared to other similar female characters, and how Kira could be a feminist in the postfeminist worlds of both the 90s and three hundred years in the future.

Chapter two will explore the creation of Major Kira from the first days of creation to production and beyond, illustrating how she is a product of the 90s. Because Star Trek is a franchise which pushes boundaries, Kira was created to be an individual unlike other women seen on television. The DS9 writers looked at the current atmosphere of feminism, popular culture, and American culture, and developed a character who was not only a woman but a many-faceted individual who fought for her beliefs, having and showing compassion when Clemens-Smucker 6 appropriate. In this chapter I will discuss the process behind her creation, casting the role, fitting her into the 90s and the future, production values, changes to her character, and fan interaction.

During the first years of DS9 the studio received feedback that men were threatened by Kira, but the showrunners saw that as a sign that something was wrong with our society, rather than with

Major Kira herself. Kira was created to be a modern women, both in the 90s and in her own time, and is shown as a fully-realized character who has dueling, complex emotions about her violent past, her faith, and her relationships.

Visitor was extremely helpful in thinking through the creation process, and I also spoke with Marvin Rush, the Director of Photography for the first two seasons of DS9, who set the tone of the camerawork before moving on to VOY. Ms. Visitor told me Rush always “…lit and shot me like a hero, not a woman” (Visitor 1/23/20), which sums up the way the production team saw her character. In chapters two, three, and four I will use my interviews with Rush as a lens to view the way Kira appeared on the screen, and how that camerawork highlighted her strengths.

Rush had nothing but good things to say about working with Visitor, and about the way Kira was portrayed in the series. “Nana was an exceptionally beautiful person — spectacular and great to work with. She was the whole kit — beautiful, versatile, capable, heroic” (Rush 2/8/20). Rush was extremely generous with his time, and with the information he gave me about Kira and her role throughout the run of the show.

A show’s pilot says a lot about the way the series and its characters will unfold, and in chapter three I use Jason Mittell’s analytical approach from Complex TV: The Poetics of

Contemporary Television Storytelling to outline the ways “Emissary” foreshadowed who Kira would become throughout the years. The writing and the production of the pilot portrayed Kira in a way which held true throughout the first and following seasons, and invested viewers would Clemens-Smucker 7 be able to see the possibilities of Kira’s narrative without knowing so much that they wouldn’t come back for more. My analysis looks at the relationships and character traits of Kira as introduced in the pilot, the production values used to set the landscape and themes of the series and Kira herself, and the expectations viewers have at the end of the episode. Kira’s importance in the series is underlined by both the screen time and character study afforded her during

“Emissary,” which is equaled only by that given to Commander Sisko. We are introduced to many specific aspects of her character which we expect the series to expand upon in later episodes, including friends and enemies, her background as a soldier and freedom fighter, her personality, and her command skills.

Finally, in chapter four, I again use Mittell’s methods to analyze the season one episode

“Duet.” In this episode Kira is confronted with a Cardassian (the species which violently occupied her planet for many years) who is brought to the station because he is sick. The illness,

Kalla-Nohra Syndrome, could have come only if he was present at the Gallitep labor camp during the occupation, which means he was stationed at the very place Kira helped liberate. He claims to be Marritza, a file clerk, but is soon discovered to be Gul Darhe’el, a brutal, violent man who killed thousands of Bajorans at Gallitep. After further investigation, it becomes clear he is not actually Gul Darhe’el, but the file clerk he originally claimed to be. He altered himself to look like the evil military leader so he could be put on trial to account for his people’s sins. Kira finds compassion for the man and refuses to send him to court because she doesn’t want one more good person to die. While she is escorting him from the station, another Bajoran stabs

Marritza, killing him instantly. When Kira asks the Bajoran why he did it, he says it is because he was a Cardassian, and that’s enough. Kira tells him that “No…it’s not” (Piller 55). This episode brings together everything that makes up Kira’s character — her anger, violent past, Clemens-Smucker 8 hatred of the Cardassians, religion, investigatory skills, and finally her compassion and willingness to see someone as an individual, despite her instinctual feeling that he is an enemy.

“Duet” also is an example of a “bottle” show, which uses dialogue and character study instead of special effects, so I look at the way the production of the episode works to highlight the internal transformations of the characters. This episode, which Rush calls a “tour de force for Nana”

(Rush 7/25/20), showcases the way Kira has grown throughout the first season and highlights the areas of her personality and psyche she still needs to confront and either accept or change.

Visitor and Rush deepen the analysis with personal thoughts and anecdotes, which illustrate my arguments.

By creating and representing a fully-realized woman of the future who was relatable to people in the 90s and embodied non-traditional feminine traits, DS9 shows viewers the possibilities of becoming a person of renewal and strength during their own time. Major Kira

Nerys was created and portrayed as someone viewers could aspire to emulate.

Clemens-Smucker 9

CHAPTER ONE. MAJOR KIRA IN THE CONTEXT OF FEMINIST TELEVISION OF

THE 90S AND THE STAR TREK FRANCHISE

The late 80s and the 90s were filled with a new age of female protagonists who headlined television shows, held traditionally masculine roles, and challenged the vision of both feminism and the patriarchy. There were multiple break-out female television characters during this era who made a difference in how females were viewed and presented on television. In the throes of third-wave feminism, post-feminism, and the backlash in hegemonic male-centered society, these characters both moved female representation forward and exposed the sexist and misogynistic undercurrents which were still very present in both television production and society at large during the 1990s. Major Kira (Nana Visitor) was the first female to serve as a continuing second-in-command on a Star Trek show, so studying how and why she was created, and how she impacted the creation of characters who followed her, informs us about how television characters influence and support the creation of other new and progressive characters, especially those in a marginalized demographic. Looking at the most prominent of these female characters, I researched how Major Kira represented the culmination of other groundbreaking women television protagonists, and how she influenced a generation of women characters who came afterward. My research brought up several main areas of change and progress, as well as themes which harkened back to ideals of a male-run society.

Female protagonists were few and far between on television in the 90s, and when they were present there were many obstacles over which to climb. Their appearance was central in how they were perceived by viewers, as was their attitude about other women, men, children, work, and peripheral activities such as shopping, friendship, and romantic attachments. 90s ideals about women in the workplace were explored, as was motherhood (both single and with a Clemens-Smucker 10 partner), pregnancy, abortion, responsibility for their own behavior and the behavior of others

(mainly men), femininity, and women who trespassed into the more masculine fields, such as science and administration. Major Kira both followed and preceded other female characters of depth, and all of these women — and the studios which produced them — were a part of an industry which was growing and changing. In this chapter I look at several texts which explore these themes, including characterization, the third-wave/post-feminism dichotomy, and the way studios created and responded to the new wave of female characters. In addition, I analyze how these other characters and issues affected or were affected by Major Kira.

Major Kira in the Context of 90s Postfeminist Television

In her book 90s Bitch: Media, Culture, and the Failed Promise of Gender Equality

Allison Yarrow analyzes society as whole, examining how women were viewed, discussed, and treated during the decade. Using examples of television women, Yarrow argues that the 90s were not a progressive time for the female half of society, attributing this to the fact that besides being underrepresented on the screen, women were also underrepresented behind the camera (Yarrow

3). Citing examples from Friends, Beverly Hills 90210, and many other series, Yarrow shows how women were seen as either thin or fat, and the latter was always as a joke, while the former is sexualized. Another female trait often shown was that of women behaving in manipulative and spiteful manners, such as characters on Melrose Place and Beverly Hills 90210. These shows portrayed women obsessing about their appearance, shopping, and using “precious” dialogue to talk about their looks (Yarrow 24). Major Kira, while a beautiful woman, never had episodes which focused on her appearance. Instead, her slender stature was attributed to being fit and ready to fight actual battles (not word sparring about superficial matters). She was tough and often angry, even physical, but she did not use these traits to belittle or dominate other Clemens-Smucker 11 characters, as shown in those other 90s dramas.

Another 90s genre Yarrow discusses which moved the needle on the portrayal of women

(for bad or good) is Reality TV. Real World was the first show to break ground for this genre, and began by covering tough topics such as AIDS, abortion, and racism before devolving into more of the drama. Yarrow talks especially about two cast members, Tami and Melissa, and how they became viewed as “bitches” on the show, which overtook both their actual roles on the show and their societal significance. Yarrow explains how Reality TV created a universe in which women not only had no real choices, but don’t even want any. Kira, on the other hand, does have choices, and she isn’t afraid to make hard ones. DS9 covered a multitude of heavy topics in which Kira played a major role, including racism, violence, war, and torture. The show never stopped digging into these issues in order for Kira’s character arc to devolve into subjects such as feminine appearance, petty jealousy, or friendship drama. Rather, Kira ended the series as a highly respected colonel, the commanding officer of the space station.

In Allison Klein’s book What Would Murphy Brown Do? she analyzes primetime women, looking at several specific strong female characters throughout the past several decades of television. As the industry worked to represent women in a more realistic light, writers put female characters in many of the same situations actual women face. They work, take care of children and elderly parents, and navigate being married or single. Many of these characters are our role models, and they are imperfect, like those of us who watch and identify with them. TV characters can help open a window into the reality of American womanhood and help us acknowledge something we have always known — though our lives may be fraught with obstacles, there is never an excuse for not trying to achieve our dreams (Klein 13-4).

Klein’s analysis focuses often on the titular character of Murphy Brown, which premiered Clemens-Smucker 12 in 1988. As a working woman, Brown broke down walls only a few fictional women faced before, including such iconic characters as Mary Rogers (The Mary Tyler Moore Show),

Roseanne, and Elyse Keaton (Family Ties). Klein describes Brown as “the toughest, most stubborn and powerful woman audiences had seen to date” (Klein 169). During its years of production, Murphy Brown portrayed Brown as embodying traditionally male characteristics, including Brown’s prickly personality, excellence at a “man’s” job, and the decision to have a child as a single parent. Diane English, who created the show, says that

if she created the show today, she would write a different character, one less

hard, one who possesses some of the softer 1990s feminine traits or what

some scholars (and New York Times writers) would call ‘postfeminist’

traits. However, working women who were out proving themselves in the

1980s had to be tough. Therefore, Murphy had to be able to play in a man’s

world by men’s rules. She found her own way of doing so, as countless real

women were doing at the time (Klein 170).

English wrote the character of Murphy Brown in a way which showed the progress — whether real or fantastical — of women in the workplace. This portrayal led the charge for other female characters who found themselves in a male-coded environment. Klein sets Brown firmly in the context of primetime women and how they led the way for other characters.

Major Kira, as a soldier and tough-speaking administrator, is also set in a world traditionally peopled by men. However, she is additionally a woman willing to act as a surrogate mother, by carrying another couple’s baby and by serving as a stand-in mother to an enemy’s daughter, despite the obstacles these situations present to her career. Just as English made sure

Brown “fought her battles the same way a man would” (Klein 171), Major Kira was also written Clemens-Smucker 13 and filmed not as a woman but as a commander and soldier. Nana Visitor said when she first saw the script for Kira she assumed it was written as a male character. “My first thought was that it didn’t read like a woman and I loved that. I loved that it was not skewed sexually” (What We Left

Behind, 21:59-22:12). Both Brown and Kira escaped traditional feminine work roles, language, and behaviors, their characters fitting the attempt by real women in the 90s to forge their way into the workplace and show they had what it took to be successful.

The essay “Buffy and the New Girl Order,” by Elana Levine, analyzes the iconic 90s show Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Levine sees the show as being a part of the era of the New

Woman, with the oppositional feminist forces which imbue the series. On the one hand, Buffy

Summers is a postmodernist girl, unencumbered by the patriarchy, and seeking self-fulfillment.

Levine ultimately argues, however, that Buffy is more entrenched in third-wave feminism, empowering all girls instead of just herself (Levine 171). Buffy is premised on the contradictions of her feminine and masculine sides – is she more of a pretty, petite high school girl, or a strong, confident slayer? Buffy downplays gender as being the central part of Buffy herself, adding to her identity multiple traits which balance each other out – she loves clothes and being girlie, but can turn right around and kill a vampire in a traditionally masculine way.

Kira is also positioned as someone with both feminine and masculine traits. While she is a soldier and a commander, she also always looks perfect, with lipstick and a fit physique, although she is consistently dressed in a uniform or traditional Bajoran garb instead of trendy clothes. She does not, however, participate in activities which are girlie, except for the times she plays a more feminine character on the holodeck (which feels awkward for her), or when she is pregnant. But even during her pregnancy she wears a uniform and commands respect. As Buffy ultimately does, Kira rejects the idea of postfeminist self-fulfillment to work instead for group Clemens-Smucker 14 cohesion. Kira is all about the greater good. For both women, as Levine states, the third-wave idea of having a feminine appearance while being a strong, self-confident woman goes against the stereotypical idea of the hairy, angry lesbian feminist of the 1970s (Levine 177). While appearance is not of great importance to Kira or what she represents as a person, she always looks professional and put together.

Dawn Heinecken’s book The Warrior Women of Television continues the discussion of

Buffy in this analysis which takes a close look at three 90s television shows depicting female action heroes: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, La Femme Nikita, and Aeon Flux. Heinecken says that while arguments could be made on either side of whether or not these are feminist texts, it is more productive to see these texts as narratives in which discussion about feminism can take place (Heinecken 151). She sees the three protagonists of these shows as offering more positive role modeling than many other female action figures which previously existed. These women spend their shows fighting male dominant authority structures for independence and control; they battle against being overwhelmed, losing their individuality (for the greater good) and having their bodies taken from their personal control (Heinecken 151-2). Kira, on the other hand, also has battles, but they are not just about being female and/or fighting for other women. She is fighting a regime (granted, it is a male-dominated regime), but within her own culture the spiritual leader is a woman, Kira has female colleagues in the command structure, and she has male colleagues who view and treat her as an equal both in work and in their personal lives.

One of the main arguments Heinecken makes against these three series and characters being feminist texts is that much is made of the idea of these women being responsible for controlling not just themselves, but other people, as well. The danger, Heinecken says, is that – just as in real life – victims are blamed while victimizers are excused, and these female Clemens-Smucker 15 characters are responsible for keeping male counterparts in check, policing their own sex lives for both themselves and their male partners, and keeping themselves safe from men who behave badly; all this while trying to save everyone else with their powers and/or strength (Heinecken

154-6). Ultimately, however, Heinecken sees these female protagonists as embattled bodies which signal broken boundaries, between public and private, and which transform the myth of heroism into a more feminist narrative (Heinecken 156). Kira, on the other hand, expects a lot of herself, but she is not expected by others to be able to solve every problem or control every man

(or woman). In fact, she is told multiple times that she cannot be responsible for the actions of those who are doing wrong, no matter how much she wants to, or feels that she should. She is broken in many ways by her past, but is not expected to deal with the brokenness by herself.

Dana Scully of The X-Files was another groundbreaking protagonist in the 90s. In her essay “Scully Hits the Glass Ceiling: Postmodernism, Postfeminism, Posthumanism, and The X-

Files” Linda Badley takes a deep look at Scully and what she did for television and feminism, saying Scully “has brought feminist issues such as the objectification of the female body and the gaze…into popular consciousness” (Badley 61). Specifically, Badley talks about the fact that while Scully is an attractive woman, she was presented as a no-nonsense scientist instead of as a sex object (although she did get voted “sexiest woman on television”) (Badley 62). Scully represented 90s ideals of gender equity and awareness, and, along with Gillian Anderson, who portrayed her, is consistently viewed as postfeminist by standing for excellence in a chosen career and being a high-profile example in a man’s world (Badley 74). Major Kira and Nana

Visitor also each stand for excellence. Major Kira as a character views her job as essential and worth doing well, and is viewed by her colleagues as trustworthy and qualified for her position.

In the same manner, Nana Visitor, since first auditioning for the role, was seen as talented and Clemens-Smucker 16 the person to best embody the Major. “Writing for Nana Visitor, [DS9 writer Peter Allan Fields] explains, is no chore. ‘It’s fun to write for somebody with depth, and from the beginning, I knew she had the talent’” (Erdmann 72). Visitor’s acting ability has been praised by industry colleagues, critics, and fans from the start of the production process to the present, when new viewers find DS9 on streaming services, syndication, or DVDs.

Gillian Anderson became pregnant during the filming of The X-Files, and Badley speaks about the ways the producers tried to “shoot around” her body and pregnancy (Badley 79). Nana

Visitor became pregnant during the shooting of DS9, and the writers, in an opposite process from

The X-Files writers, made it part of the plot rather than trying to obscure or hide it. Because The

X-Files did whatever it could to hide Anderson’s changing body, this meant her character turned into more of a technician, and she became a kind of Harawayan cyborg (Badley 79). The showrunners finally had Scully abducted by aliens, and created weird, out-of-body sexual and medical experiences to make it seem her body was going through changes which were alien and perhaps not even real. Their main goal was achieved, however, in that she was mainly off-screen during the most visible months of Anderson’s pregnancy. Visitor’s pregnancy, on the other hand, was up-front and center, and for the most part did not take away from her character’s career, independence, or authority, although during her final weeks of Visitor’s pregnancy the producers did cut back on her activities.

‘I’m so grateful that the writers hadn’t tried to hide my pregnancy or cut me

out of episodes completely,’ [Visitor] says. ‘But I was furious that I wasn’t

allowed to go into battle while I was pregnant. The other actors teased me

that I was taking it all too seriously, but I felt so left behind for all those

interesting shows. I mean, the tribble show! I was barely there. Then, for Clemens-Smucker 17

the last two weeks of my pregnancy, they said, ‘That’s it. You’re not

working anymore. I was furious,’ she says breaking into a huge laugh. ‘I

was like a caged animal. I just wanted to be at work going off on missions

with everybody else’ (Erdmann 417).

Anderson’s pregnancy happened a few years before Visitor’s, so the DS9 showrunners would have had the opportunity to see how The X-Files dealt with it, and learn from that studio’s experience. Many actors after Visitor’s and Anderson’s pregnancies also became pregnant during their series (Roxann Dawson of Star Trek: Voyager, Emily Deschanel of Bones, Lisa Kudrow of

Friends, Melissa Fumero of Brooklyn 99, Kerry Washington of Scandal, and Charisma Carpenter of Angel, to name a few), and those productions would have been able to see how Visitor’s pregnancy worked into the DS9 narrative. Some series wrote the pregnancies into the storylines

(Deschanel, Kudrow, and Carpenter), while others chose to hide the pregnancies the best they could (Fumero, Dawson, and Washington).

In a July, 2020 interview I asked Visitor if she thought her producers learned from and considered others (such as Scully) when deciding what to do about Visitor’s pregnancy. She responded: “I think the truth is that we had a strong feminist leading the show in Ira Steven Behr and he listened to his wonderful wife Laura when she encouraged him to not hide my pregnancy.

It’s important to remember that Kira was written by men – men who enthusiastically collaborated with each other and with me to create a new kind of woman for TV” (Visitor 7/27/20). So perhaps the writers took cues from other television shows, but Visitor believes it came down to the people – the men – in the DS9 writers’ room and their willingness to think progressively.

In her essay “The One with the Feminist Critique: Revisiting Millennial Postfeminism with Friends” Hannah Hamad dives into Friends, a sitcom very different from the science fiction Clemens-Smucker 18 of DS9, but which was also created during the 90s and had three main female protagonists.

Hamad argues that Friends has been largely ignored as a feminist text despite the prominence of the female leads, and that the show works strongly as a postfeminist narrative. The three main women (Rachel, Phoebe, and Monica) are largely non-political, seemingly unaware of how they are benefitting from feminists who came before them, and are concerned mostly with their own lives, rather than the societal group of women as a whole, which would point them more toward postfeminism than third-wave feminism (Hamad 694). While these three do have storylines about careers and dreams, they also fall into Diane Negra’s term of postfeminism retreatism, in which they are constantly looking for men to complete them (Hamad 695). Monica, in particular, is obsessed with the desire for domestic bliss, and spends much of the series searching for a mate, craving motherhood, and wanting to settle down. Rachel begins the series as a runaway bride (complete with wedding dress), then spends the series dating a variety of men, becoming a mother, finding a career, and ultimately choosing a mate over her dream job. Phoebe is more of a free spirit, even turning the tables and “playing the field” with multiple partners at a time (and carrying babies for her on-screen brother during the actress Lisa Kudrow’s real-life pregnancy), but much of her narrative is also spent looking for a mate. In contrast, while Major Kira does have several romantic partners throughout DS9, it is never her dream to settle down, or even to find a forever mate. Her career and her loyalty to her home world of Bajor supersede any desire for domestic partnership. Her relationships were conducted in an equal and loving manner, and for the most part did not interfere with her life on the station. Major Kira, while living in a postfeminist future, fits more within the third-wave feminist camp, since she is concerned with her society as a whole, and not just her own self-fulfillment.

Another aspect of Friends to consider alongside Major Kira is the idea of motherhood. Clemens-Smucker 19

Hamad argues that Friends denaturalizes motherhood for women and naturalizes it for men.

There are many episodes in which the women are shown to be incompetent with babies, while the three male friends (and an array of male strangers) are able to calm and care for babies while the women prove there is not an innate sense of mothering in their DNA (Hamad 703). As mentioned above, when Nana Visitor became pregnant during the filming of DS9 her pregnancy was woven into the plot, and Kira served as a surrogate for another couple on the station. She was shown carrying the baby and giving birth, but following the birth she was mostly cut off from any mothering instinct she may have had, since the baby was not technically hers (although she would occasionally babysit and introduce the baby as family). Since the 90s were a time when real-life women were attempting to show their competence in the workplace, it makes sense that the writers for both of these shows would have their main female characters dealing with the issue of whether they needed to — or could — choose work over motherhood.

Major Kira in the Context of the Star Trek Television Series

Besides female characters in other television series and franchises, as discussed above, there is also a long history of progressive females in the Star Trek franchise, including contemporary characters which continue to be created. From the first days of TOS in the ‘60s,

Gene Roddenberry fought to put women on the bridge. The pilot episode, “The Cage,” in fact, had a woman as Number One, the second-in-command to Captain Christopher Pike. When the series began, however, that female Number One was gone, replaced by the male character Spock

(Captain Pike was also replaced by the iconic Captain Kirk). The woman who remained on the bridge for the entire three-year run of the series was Lieutenant Uhura, an African-American

Starfleet officer played by Nichelle Nichols. While audiences mostly saw her as a sort of telephone operator, and her role was not as fully-rounded as female Star Trek characters are Clemens-Smucker 20 today, her place on the bridge and her position in Starfleet show what Roddenberry was trying to do. In her book Beyond Uhura: Star Trek and Other Memories, Nichols describes Uhura’s position. “As head of Communications, she commanded a corps of largely unseen communications technicians, linguists, and other specialists who worked in the bowels of the

Enterprise, in the ‘comm-center.’ A linguistics scholar and a top graduate of Starfleet Academy, she was a protégée of Mr. Spock…’” (Nichols 139). Unfortunately, the studio heads were not ready to let Uhura take on the kinds of storylines given to the white male bridge crew. “Uhura was a new kind of television woman in many ways,” Nichols says. “Yet even at this early point in the show, it was becoming uncomfortably obvious that whatever ambitious plans Gene had for my character, Uhura’s role was constantly being diminished” (Nichols 153). “Gene confided in me, and it was apparent in the first versions of the early scripts, that he was developing Uhura as a major character, and each first draft of a new script reflected that desire. So seeing my wonderful role being constantly cut with every rewrite was demoralizing” (Nichols 149). Despite the studio’s lack of faith in and prejudice against this African-American female character, Uhura has been a source of inspiration for women since her arrival on the small screen in 1966, including for Dr. Mae Jemison, astronaut on the space shuttle Discovery, who told Nichols that

“seeing Uhura on Star Trek when she was younger was a factor in her decision to become an astronaut” (Nichols 295). Roddenberry may not have gotten Nichols the screen time he (or she) desired, but his willingness to put an African-American woman on the bridge was progressive and influential, defying expectations for both her sex and race.

Following TOS was the next series in the franchise, Star Trek: The Next Generation

(TNG). DS9 began during season six of TNG in 1993, and the two shows ran concurrently for two seasons, until TNG finished its television series in 1994. TNG began with three women on Clemens-Smucker 21 the bridge crew: Counselor Deanna Troi (Marina Sirtis), Dr. Beverly Crusher (Gates McFadden), and Lieutenant Tasha Yar (Denise Crosby). Before the end of the first season, Yar was killed in a freak attack on an alien planet, leaving only Troi and Crusher in place as main female characters on the Enterprise. Most accounts of Security Chief Yar’s demise credit the departure of Denise

Crosby, who left at her own request after feeling her character did not get the character development afforded to other — mostly male — characters. Ericka Hoagland, in her essay

“Mothering the Universe on Star Trek,” argues that this could be the result of “the uncertainty and anxiety invoked by a powerful female occupying a traditionally male occupation. More specifically, her character may have tapped into the long-simmering debate over women in the military; very rarely are women shown as part of security teams in the franchise, suggesting that the militaristic and violent necessities of space travel are best handled by men” (Hoagland 133).

Following the death of Yar, the position was filled by the very masculine Klingon Lieutenant

Worf, for whom it would be no problem writing aggressive, masculine storylines.

Major Kira, as apparent in her title, is a soldier. Her history includes not only years in the

Bajoran military, but also as a resistance fighter and terrorist. She speaks often of her harrowing past which involves violence directed at her, and violence she herself perpetuated. Multiple episodes of DS9 deal with the guilt and anger she experiences as a result of these parts of her past. Lieutenant Yar also was a victim of violence throughout her life before finding her way to the Enterprise. She speaks of escaping rape gangs, of living on the streets, and of defending herself when necessary. Different TNG episodes have her fighting for herself and others. Kira is not often shown fighting, but she uses her skills as a hand-to-hand combatant and a spaceship commander when needed. In the years between the start of TNG and the beginning of DS9 it became possible for Kira to be both a woman and a soldier. Part of that transition can also be Clemens-Smucker 22 credited to the TNG character of Ensign Ro (Michelle Forbes), a Bajoran — also a terrorist who grew up in labor camps, as Kira did — who joins Starfleet only to eventually drop out and join a resistance group called the Maquis. In chapter two I will discuss how Forbes’ decision not to remain in the Star Trek franchise opened the way for the creation of Kira.

In Sherry Ginn’s book Our Space, Our Place: Women in the Worlds of Science Fiction

Television she compares Major Kira’s character to those of Deanna Troi and Beverly Crusher.

While they were prominent figures on TNG, many feminist critics have argued that Troi and

Crusher, being a counselor and a doctor, respectively, were still cast in “feminine” roles, caring for others. Ginn argues, however, they were much more than that. Crusher was portrayed as a physician, a wife and mother, and the commander of an entire department on the flagship of

Starfleet (as the Chief Medical Officer on the Enterprise), while Troi was a high-ranking bridge officer and psychologist who also found time for deep friendships, romantic involvements, and promotion within the ranks (Ginn 110-1). Executive producer Michael Piller addresses this specific issue of caretakers.

We went out of our way not to make the women on Deep Space Nine

caretakers, although I think Dax is somewhat of a caretaker — but she is

the science officer, so she has a technical expertise to bring to it. There was

no question that Kira was always going to be an action hero. We went out

of our way to create women who were contemporary and really showed us

a full range of female experience (Altman 456).

The role of Major Kira on DS9 is not a typical feminine one, since she is both a soldier and a commander, but she finds time for friendship, romantic relationships, and taking part in resistance strategy while serving as second-in-command on the station. After Uhura, Troi, Clemens-Smucker 23

Crusher, and Yar held such prominent positions on TOS and TNG, having a woman in this command role is a natural (and necessary) progression.

Costuming women has always been a question mark for female Star Trek characters, from Uhura’s miniskirt to the Spandex bodysuit of Seven-of-Nine (Jeri Ryan) in Star Trek:

Voyager (VOY). While most secondary and extra female characters wear standard uniforms, it has not always been the case for the main cast. Ginn brings up the problematic costuming of

Deanna Troi, and the way it has been a bone of contention in analyses of TNG. During the first several seasons the counselor wore pretty dresses or other form-fitting clothing instead of a standard uniform, in the producers’ hopes that her beauty would attract male viewers. Ginn believes fan input changed this, as Troi’s clothes became more standard throughout the series, until she was wearing a full uniform during the last seasons (Ginn 111). Troi’s uniform is blue, which designates science, since she is a psychologist. Dr. Crusher also wore a blue uniform, with the addition of a lab coat during the time when Gates McFadden, the actor, was pregnant.

Following her pregnancy, she still often wore the coat. Major Kira always wore a full Bajoran uniform (different from Starfleet) except for the rare occasions when she visited the holodeck or needed to disguise herself for a mission. She was not portrayed as a sex object, but rather as a competent officer who happened to also be beautiful. Ginn sees Kira as the next phase in Star

Trek women, and says she is an excellent example of a future female, taking on a role and storylines which were out of reach of Troi and Crusher (and Uhura) as far as the writers’ rooms were concerned (Ginn 116). While her uniform certainly did not distract from her beauty, it did not emphasize her sexuality.

Another recurring female character on TNG is Guinan (Whoopi Goldberg), the wise alien who plays both bartender and sage in the ship’s eating establishment, Ten Forward. This Clemens-Smucker 24 character was created when Goldberg, a fan of the show, approached Roddenberry and said “‘I really need to be part of this.’ They thought it was very interesting and Gene wanted to know why. When I explained to him that this was the only vision that had black people in the future, he thought that was very bizarre. I guess he didn’t realize that nobody else saw us there” (Altman

154). Guinan serves as a civilian (non-Starfleet) on the Enterprise, and as de facto counselor to those who approach her as a friend, including Counselor Troi herself. Being at least 500 years old, she has much experience on which to draw. As a civilian, she wears her chosen clothes, which are colorful flowing robes and geometric hats. She and Kira never meet, even though there are a few TNG/DS9 crossovers, but Kira does have a wise sage on DS9 in the form of Jadzia Dax

(Terry Farrell), the Chief Science Officer on the station.

Jadzia Dax is a member of a species called the Trill, in which a small percentage of the population is chosen to host a symbiont which spans many generations. Jadzia is the eighth person to host the Dax symbiont, which has joined with both female and male hosts throughout its long life. While a scientist in her own right, Jadzia joins with the symbiont Dax to add to her own knowledge with all of its past careers, relationships, and lifetimes. As this wise character

(called “Old Man” by Commander Sisko, Dax’s friend from the previous host), she offers Kira both friendship and guidance as the fiery Kira navigates her way through both professional and personal quandaries. In fact, the revised DS9 writers/directors guide, written by Rick Berman and

Michael Pillar in 1992, states “Dax admires Kira for her youthful energy, her purpose and her drive and becomes something of a mentor to her” (11-12). As I will discuss in chapter four,

Jadzia offers advice to Kira in the first season episode “Duet,” in which Kira must face her hatred of the Cardassians. In season six, Jadzia is killed by Dukat (Mark Alaimo), one of the show’s main villains, and the Dax symbiont is placed in Ezri (Nicole DeBoer), a younger Trill Clemens-Smucker 25 who was not prepared to be joined but was the nearest Trill at the time of Jadzia’s tragic death.

Ezri, as Troi, is a counselor, but one still in the first years of her practice. While she and Kira become friends, Ezri does not serve as a counselor to Major Kira (promoted to Colonel in Season

Seven) the way Jadzia did. Kira is a much more mature woman than Ezri at this point, and Ezri isn’t ready for the issues Kira might throw at her.

VOY began during season three of DS9, and the two shows ran concurrently until DS9 finished in 1999. VOY furthered the role of women as scientists, following the examples of

Beverly Crusher, Deanna Troi, and Jadzia Dax. In her essay “The Woman Scientist in Star Trek:

Voyager,” Robin Roberts argues that VOY presents science and gender in a new way, showing science from a feminine and feminist perspective (Roberts, 2000, 283). Kathryn Janeway (Kate

Mulgrew) was the first female captain to head a Star Trek series, and rose to that position through her experience as a scientist. Her chief engineer is B’Elanna Torres (Roxanne Dawson), a half-human/half-Klingon woman who came to Janeway as a rebel from the Maquis, but soon turned into her colleague. The 90s, when both DS9 and VOY were aired (although VOY spanned into the early 2000s), were a time when men still dominated science in universities, which of course led to men dominating the scientific workplace (Roberts, 2000, 278). Roberts argues that

Janeway starts out the series with a masculine bent toward science, and gradually changes to a more feminist vision. Torres also portrays a feminist approach to science, using alternative, creative techniques to run the ship. Because she is a woman and of mixed race, Roberts sees

Torres as the Other in this setting, and since she and Janeway work well together (while also arguing and coming to consensus), this shows the importance of women working in concert to overcome ethnic, cultural, and political differences (Roberts, 2000, 282). VOY concludes with

Janeway and Torres being not only colleagues as fellow Starfleet officers, but chosen family. Clemens-Smucker 26

The Fourth season of VOY introduces Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan), who becomes the third main cast female scientist on VOY. She is also of mixed race, being half human and half Borg.

When she comes on board Voyager, she is more Borg than human, but eventually is stripped of her Borg apparatus (involuntarily) and becomes the mostly-human ex-Borg with extensive scientific knowledge. Roberts, in an essay entitled “Science, Race, and Gender in Star Trek:

Voyager,” says that “in its emphasis on machines, the Borg represent logic and the mechanical, which in Western society are seen as masculine. Seven of Nine, however, emphasizes the feminine side of the Borg; first, in her own biology, which is decidedly female, and, second, in her struggle with her mulatta status” (Roberts, 2000a, 215). Seven, Janeway, and Torres create a formidable scientific team, ultimately destroying much of the Borg’s network and finding their way back to earth.

Kira is not a scientist as are Dax, Janeway, Torres, and Seven, but a soldier and commander. However, she does work well with Jadzia Dax, and is willing to learn and to try out- of-the-box thinking. From the pilot episode of DS9 (“Emissary”) Kira shows her respect for science and her scientific colleagues, and appreciates their input and guidance, using their knowledge as tools for her command. As Troi and Crusher from TNG were forerunners to Kira as a woman in command, Kira herself eases the way for Janeway and Torres to be both commanders and scientists, and for Seven of Nine to serve as an essential crew member.

As with Dana Scully of The X-Files and many other female characters listed above, the women in VOY at some point deal with the issue of reproduction. With Torres on VOY, this takes the form of her as a biological mother in the last season (interestingly not when Dawson, the actress, was pregnant a few seasons earlier), but also as a scientific mother in the episode

“Prototype,” when she finds a robotic race and wants to help them reproduce despite Janeway’s Clemens-Smucker 27 denial of permission. Things go wrong, and Torres has to terminate the robots. The episode is used as an analogy for abortion, and even some of the same language is used as it is in abortion counseling (“You did what was necessary.”) (Roberts, 2000, 287-8). Kira does not face the abortion analogy, but does deal with her own pregnancy as well as many suffering Bajoran children whom she tries to save, and acts as a sort of stepmother to her enemy Dukat’s daughter, whom she takes under her wing. Roberts sees VOY as a series which deserves to be recognized as feminist science fiction, and I believe this could also be used for DS9.

The next show in the franchise was Star Trek: Enterprise (ENT), which chronologically takes place before TOS, but aired over thirty years later, from 2001-2005. Two women appear as main characters on the show, including T’Pol (Jolene Blalock) and Hoshi Sato (Linda Park) who serve as First Officer/Science Officer and Communications Officer, respectively. T’Pol is a

Vulcan, which is trickier in this series than in TOS, since humans and Vulcans are in the early stages of getting to know each other and no trust has been secured. Sato is a young Asian-

American, yanked from a teaching position because the captain feels she is the only one for the job. In an early review, Laura Fries of Variety spelled out their roles pretty clearly.

Blalock, as the prickly T'Pol, has Spock's love of logic and Seven of Nine's

form-fitting wardrobe from ‘Voyager.’ Her part is a blatant beacon to the

young male audience, although the sexual tension and possibility of

romantic adventures could be a ploy to attract female viewers as well. Other

characters are merely introduced in the pilot but given plenty of ammunition

for future episodes. They include Hoshi Sato (Linda Park), a

communications officer and crack linguist who becomes the first human to

interpret Klingon… (Fries) Clemens-Smucker 28

Blalock is clearly sexualized throughout the series, wearing form-fitting suits uncharacteristic of a Vulcan and forced to slather antibiotic gel all over her body when returning from missions, while Sato is often treated like a child, spending more time screaming in fear and asking naive questions than the rest of the crew combined.

After the growth of strong female characters throughout TNG, DS9, and VOY, ENT presents as a step backward. In his book Living with Star Trek: American Culture and the Star

Trek Universe, Lincoln Geraghty says

In terms of gender, Enterprise’s world is chauvinistic because only two of

the main crew are female: T’Pol’s only role is to stand in the background

and warn the captain about his actions; Hoshi resembles Lt. Uhura — she

steps in to hail Starfleet and be mollycoddled by her male crewmates on

away-missions. These criticisms of Star Trek’s treatment of race and gender

are not new; they were often aimed at Gene Roddenberry and the original

series and are the subject of many academic works. However, [Donna]

Minkowitz believes that following the progress seen in TNG, DS9 and

especially Voyager, these developments are a step backward in science

fiction broadcasting (Geraghty 139-40).

While T’Pol is technically the science officer and second-in-command, her presentation in revealing clothing — both the uniform and her often-worn pajamas, in addition to mirror universe clothes we are subjected to on multiple occasions — as well as the undermining of both her authority and intelligence by the male crew members creates an atmosphere in which her knowledge and role are not taken seriously. Sato, herself a world-class linguist (as Uhura on

TOS), is never allowed to satisfactorily explore her background and depth of character. Major Clemens-Smucker 29

Kira, on air two series prior to ENT (but created fewer than ten years earlier), is not treated with either kind of subjugation, which makes it even more discouraging that the females on a Star

Trek series less than a decade later are so poorly represented. Zara T. Wilkinson, in her essay

“Where No Girl Has Gone Before? Teenage Girls in Star Trek’s Strong Female Future,” argues that the women in DS9 and VOY “exhibit a breadth of backgrounds, job duties and personality types that other Star Trek series, despite their strong female characters, cannot rival” (Wilkinson

220). Of course, Wilkinson’s book was published in 2017, before the advent of Star Trek:

Discovery (DIS) and Star Trek: Picard (PIC).

DIS first aired in 2017. Its main character is Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green), a female science-specialist and second-in-command to Captain Philippa Georgiou (Michelle

Yeoh). While hierarchical changes happen immediately on the show, Burnham remains the focal character. (Plans are currently being made for a spin-off show featuring Georgiou.) Burnham is smart and independent, and her scientific expertise is a large part of her character and her role on the starship Discovery. A second main female character on DIS is Sylvia Tilly (Mary Wiseman), a cadet whose ambition is to become a captain. She also is smart and motivated (while socially awkward), but also the kindest character in the series. Showrunner Anthony Harberts says Tilly is “sort of the soul of our show” (Carollo) because of what she has to teach others through her personality and her cadet status (the first Starfleet cadet to be featured as a main character in a

Star Trek series). In her article “Visible/invisible: Female astronauts and technology in Star

Trek: Discovery and National Geographic’s Mars,” Amanda Keeler says DIS emphasizes “the purposeful centrality and depth of female characters and their central positions of authority as female astronauts and ship leaders…” (Keeler 128). Discovery “gives its female astronauts the narrative means and opportunity to demonstrate individual intellectual prowess, which also Clemens-Smucker 30 serves as a metaphor for the real-world competence and contributions of female astronauts”

(Keeler 148). In DS9 Kira often takes charge of the station or the starship Defiant, proving her value as a commander (and ship’s captain) as well as the astronaut mentioned by Keeler. In these roles she proves the worth of women in command positions, making Burnham’s position on DIS easy to believe without any stretch of the imagination.

In January, 2020, the newest series of the Star Trek franchise premiered, with PIC.

Because this series is so recent, there is not much academic writing about the women or gender politics of the show. It is, however, the first of the franchise to feature as many women as men.

In fact, there are as many women — sometimes more — listed in the opening acting credits as there are men, a first for any show in the Star Trek franchise. The women in this series are complex and intelligent, and as much a focus of the plots as the male characters. Dr. Soji Asha

(Isa Briones) is a synth, or android, around whom the show circles. At the beginning of the series she believes she is human, and is a highly regarded anthropologist working to restore Borg drones to their former selves. Raffi Musiker (Michelle Hurd) is a former first officer of Picard’s, whom he drafts into helping in his newest mission, despite her struggles with drug addiction. Dr.

Agnes Jurati (Alison Pill) is a former Starfleet doctor, now an expert in the science of synthetic life. All of these women are intelligent and accomplished, and their backgrounds are explored as deeply as the men’s. While Major Kira’s life — both present and past — is explored as much, or more than, the men’s in DS9, she is one of only two women who received this treatment on the show. After the backsliding of ENT, it is encouraging to see the franchise returning to, and surpassing, the screen time given to women in past series.

While PIC’s production team is made up of mostly men, there was one decision which helped give the show a healthy dose of female perspective. Hanelle Culpepper, a director who Clemens-Smucker 31 also worked on DIS, was chosen to direct the first three episodes of PIC. As mentioned above,

Allison Yarrow, in her book 90s Bitch, blames a portion of the problematic aspects of 90s shows on the fact that not many women were behind the camera. Here, Culpepper was given first shot.

When asked why this is important, Culpepper replied

It's like doing a feature. You're working with the writers to set the tone and

the look of it. You're helping cast the main roles. It's pretty exciting—you're

really setting up all the groundwork. When you come in as a guest director,

you bring in your own style, but essentially you're making what you want

to do fit into the tone and the look that's already been established for the

show, while the main cast has probably already worked out their characters.

You'll be involved with guest stars, but you're not really involved in

developing the main characters. So that's why it's so cool to be a part of a

pilot: It's the closest you can get to doing a feature, without actually doing

a feature (Whalen).

Culpepper is the first woman to launch a Star Trek series as director, and this gives hope that more women will be given this opportunity in the future. Of the 176 episodes of DS9, only eight were directed by women (one by Gabrielle Beaumont and seven by Kim Friedman). Despite this, however, Visitor says she felt supported by the production team in her work as Kira. She said

“she rarely heard from the writing staff or producers about her character and the directions she might take Kira. ‘As a matter of fact, I’ve never felt any pressure from them in the sense that

“They” want it this way — which is wonderful and lovely. They give us the space and the respect to do what we do’” (Reeves-Stevens 180). As mentioned previously, the male writing staff was considered feminist by Visitor, and she felt that in their support of her work. Clemens-Smucker 32

The Star Trek franchise, while progressive in many ways when it comes to women

(Uhura on the bridge in 1966, bridge officers in all series), has lacked the female voice in many aspects of production and creation throughout its earliest series. However, it has been on the forefront in many ways in both the television industry and society, and, with the advent of DIS and PIC, seems to be moving more toward equality in both screen time and behind the scenes work. This does not take away, however, from what women like Major Kira did in the past.

Rather, it shows that building on her strength and complexity as a character, women can and should be as present as men within these series. Kira has been an inspiration to those characters she works with on the space station, the real-world greater television industry, and viewers in the

90s and today. Visitor herself viewed Kira as an inspiration.

I’ve had women write to me and say they’re trying to be more like Kira, that

they’re trying to get down to their feelings. And I’m realizing that even

though there’s a perception that women are very close to their feelings, I’m

seeing in these letters that that’s not necessarily true. Women have a hard

time. They might know what the feeling is, but to express it, to act on it,

that’s something entirely different. As a matter of fact, Kira’s helped me,

personally, in that way. It’s like a muscle, you know. I’m in this world of

Kira and dealing with what she deals with, and those traits in me and that

way of thinking are being exercised within me, so Nana is becoming more

like Kira in certain ways of thinking. She’s a very healthy woman in many

ways. The only bad thing is that sometimes it’s very hard because she had a

lot of tragedy. Everything that we can imagine in today’s world, she went

through it. Starvation and killing the enemy, all of it. But when I see the Clemens-Smucker 33

response from women, and from men, and from fourteen-year-old boys who

aren’t having a problem seeing a woman be first officer, and seeing a woman

in charge, I think this character’s maybe changing one person’s views, and

that’s terribly important” (Reeves-Stevens 196).

While Visitor understands the value of changing one person’s views, there is no doubt Kira has affected many lives. In the documentary What We Left Behind: Looking Back at Star Trek: Deep

Space Nine, many people, from young girls to adult women, articulate just what she means to them. “I like the character Kira Nerys. She’s sassy, she stands up for herself.” “She was feisty and angry, the same way I was when I was a kid.” “She’s tough, smart, and kick-ass.” “Women can be strong and be passionate, just like men can” (22:13-22:32). There are many places to see and hear people – women, especially – who express their gratitude for the character of Major

Kira. These are just a few who speak for others.

The late 80s and 90s were a time of progression and digression on the small screen.

Major Kira holds a place in the canon of female characters who pushed boundaries, lived in traditionally male spaces, and worked traditionally male jobs. Kira and women such as Murphy

Brown, Buffy Summers, and Dana Scully portrayed women of strength and independence in what normally would be considered masculine jobs — military commanders, hard-hitting journalists, vampire killers, FBI agents. These characters showed progress and the exploration of femininity through the voice of feminism, although sometimes crossing lines between the self- fulfillment of postfeminism and the more societal goals of third-wave feminism. Friends, a show not often thought of as a feminist text, explored the idea of postfeminism, with the three women searching for fulfillment, whether through work or family. Other female characters of the 90s, such as the casts of Real World, Melrose Place, and Beverly Hills 90210 also spoke to how Clemens-Smucker 34 women were viewed during this era, often in a misogynistic, patriarchal, or decidedly non- feminist voice, while at the same time allowing women to headline nationally televised series.

The Star Trek franchise, begun in the ‘60s and reaching into the present, has been an inspiration for many women, while also dealing with problematic feminist issues of past decades.

The character of Major Kira was a culmination of Star Trek women who came before, in TOS and TNG, which allowed her a depth of character and a role in the postfeminist future where women can be military commanders, lovers, friends, and resistance fighters. In turn, Kira allowed for the progression of women in other Star Trek series, where they are scientists, captains, bridge officers, and soldiers. While there have been missteps, such as the portrayals of the women in ENT, Kira and the women in the Star Trek franchise show us what is possible in the future, where no woman has gone before.

Clemens-Smucker 35

CHAPTER TWO. THE PHILOSOPHICAL AND TECHNOLOGICAL BACKGROUND

OF THE CREATION OF MAJOR KIRA

The creation and message of Major Kira can be viewed in several steps: the decision to make her a main character, the casting of Nana Visitor, the way the character fit into both the 90s and the future, the production values used to film her, changes to the character throughout the years the show was produced, and the way she was and is viewed by fans. In this chapter I will be looking at each of these items separately, for each layer of decisions and influences added to who Major Kira became, and how she grew throughout the series.

The Process Behind Creating Major Kira

When ideas for DS9 first circulated, Kira wasn’t even supposed to be a central character.

The original writers/directors guide from April, 1992 (known as the show’s bible) for DS9 mentions her in the list of series characters, but she is named last, with a single descriptive sentence: “First Officer Kira Nerys (Nana Visttor) (sic) is a hotheaded Bajoran who doesn’t trust the Federation” (Berman 15). No other mention is made of her throughout the entire manuscript.

The reason for this was simple. She wasn’t supposed to exist as we came to know her.

As production began for DS9, the plan was to move Ensign Ro Laren (Michelle Forbes), a Bajoran Starfleet officer, to the space station from the Enterprise. Ro, a Bajoran who joined

Starfleet only to disobey orders and be imprisoned after a court martial, was introduced in season five of TNG. The episode “Ensign Ro” brings her out of prison to help with a mission entrusted to the Enterprise crew. Ro appeared in eight TNG episodes before being asked to join the cast of

DS9. Rick Berman and Michael Pillar, the executive producers of both TNG and DS9, wrote Ro into the show’s plan, and expected her to be a major contributing character. The show’s bible listed Ro as one of the main cast, and she is mentioned in the beginning of the section outlining Clemens-Smucker 36 background information for the show, which sets her up in a prominent place in the pilot. “The two-hour premiere episode has the ENTERPRISE visit alien space station, DEEP SPACE 9 and beam down several of the ship’s officers for permanent duty, including Transporter Chief Miles

O’Brien (Colm Meaney) and Ensign Ro Laren (Michelle Forbes)” (7). Her character’s description, in addition to stating her tumultuous Starfleet history, says she “doesn’t always see it

Starfleet’s way, but is assigned to Deep Space Nine because — among other reasons — she is a

Bajoran” (12). The description of the space station itself is even positioned and explained in relation to Ro. “The space station of DEEP SPACE 9 is not a Federation starbase but is designated a Federation starbase. Ensign Ro’s race, the Bajorans — a war torn mystical race — built the station at the height of its glory” (7-8). And also, “We are near the planet Bajor, where

Ensign Ro Originated” (9). This storyline was created, obviously, with Ro in mind. Her people and her planet, besides Starfleet itself, were the focus of the show.

Forbes, however, while she enjoyed appearing on the occasional TNG episode, decided against joining the new series in order to pursue other acting dreams. With the success of TNG it could be expected that agreeing to a contract with DS9 might be a commitment of several years.

Forbes was not willing to go that far, and declined the role. This put the producers in a bind.

They knew they wanted a Bajoran as a main character, but who?

It turned out there was one positive to the loss of Ro as a character. From the beginning of Star Trek, Gene Roddenberry, the original creator, made it clear that there was to be no conflict among the Starfleet crew – this was a group of people who believed in each other and followed strict hierarchy. This made the creators of DS9 wonder, how could there be much conflict between the regular series characters, namely Ro and Commander Sisko, if they were both part of Starfleet? In hindsight they saw this could pose a problem for writing. When Forbes Clemens-Smucker 37 declined the role, they realized this could put a whole new conflict in motion because “if Sisko’s

Bajoran liaison officer was not Starfleet, if she was not under any obligation to follow his orders or even like him, a whole new character dynamic came into play (Reese-Stevens 105).

Michael Piller, co-executive producer, said “there was a great deal more conflict in having the

Bajoran not be Starfleet… Kira Nerys could do things that are not appropriate Starfleet behavior.

We created this character, and it was really a matter of rewriting two or three scenes that defined where she was from and a couple of speeches in other scenes…(Altman 448). And thus, Major

Kira stepped up to become the Bajoran character they ultimately realized they wanted. Her new description, updated from the original writers/directors guide in the new September 10, 1992 bible (absorbing some of the language from Ro’s original information), expanded her one- sentence description to several paragraphs.

A former “Major” in the Bajoran underground, Kira is now an outspoken

critic of the provisional government. Having fought for freedom all her life,

it has angered her to see the older leaders throw it away through their petty

dissensions. She’s been trying without success to reach the Kai herself to

air her grievances. It’s very possible that she was sent by the government to

be the Bajoran administrator at the station simply to get her outspoken voice

out of earshot.

At first, Kira is not a supporter of Federation involvement at DS9,

preferring Bajor to remain independent of all outside interests. As the

representative of the Bajorans on board the space station, she has no

confidence in Sisko when he arrives. In fact, she’s working in his office

when he gets there. Clemens-Smucker 38

Kira loathes the Cardassians. She committed atrocities against them

in the name of freedom, some of which bother her. When others in the

Bajoran underground begin a new wave of terrorism, she is forced into a

moral quandary about tracking them down and bringing them to justice.

Former terrorists consider her a turncoat.

She will come to respect and bond with Sisko although they will

continue to have different agendas as new issues arise (Berman 8-9).

Besides this description, Kira is mentioned in the bible in the character information for several other members of the crew: Jadzia Dax as someone with whom she develops a very close relationship (11); Odo as someone with whom she has a “Bajoran fellowship” and whom she finds delightful (because of his negative attitude toward authority) (14); Quark as an obvious adversary (14); and as the antithesis of Dr. Julian Amaros (name changed to Bashir before it aired) because she is streetwise, sadder but wiser, and cynical, as compared to his naive, charming, and cocky personality (15). Because Forbes declined the regular series role of Ro,

Kira became integral to the show in plots and relationship dynamics among the crew.

As I mentioned in chapter one, Major Kira is the first female regular season character to serve as the second-in-command on a Star Trek show. According to co-executive producer Rick

Berman, this wasn’t an answer to feminist calls for representation. It just felt right. “For a first officer, you have two ways to go: male or female. It just seemed making the character female was the right thing to do. I don’t think we did it to be politically correct. I don’t think we did it to mimic the original Star Trek pilot, ‘The Cage.’ We did it because it felt right as we were creating the characters” (Altman 450-1). Keeping in mind that this was the nineties, and thus the idea of non-binary characters was not part of the creation process, they were stuck with the male/female Clemens-Smucker 39 dichotomy. I theorize that the reason it felt right to have a female in a commanding role was because the times demanded it. There had been two Star Trek series with women on the bridge, but no female character in a top commanding recurring role. It was time to see a woman take charge. Major Kira was the perfect person to do that. The next step, after her conception, was to find the right person to play her.

Casting the Role

From the first time the producers saw Nana Visitor audition, they knew they wanted her for the part. She was an experienced actor and dancer, growing up with show business parents.

While living in New York she danced in multiple productions on Broadway and on tour, and appeared on daytime soap operas. After moving to Los Angeles in 1985 she was featured on shows such as Murder, She Wrote, thirtysomething, L.A. Law, and Matlock, until she was cast in a recurring role on NBC’s Working Girl. Finally in 1992 she auditioned for DS9. David Carson, who directed the pilot episode, said “The casting of Kira was difficult…I was very pleased when

[Visitor] walked into the room, and I think that once she did, she was the only Kira that we thought could play the role” (Altman 449). Ira Steven Behr, the showrunner, was in complete agreement. “The only actor who auditioned that I really bought into was Nana. Even though she modulated that performance quite a bit. But I believed Nana right off the bat” (Altman 450). So the producers and director knew who they wanted. Unfortunately, it wasn’t that simple.

Visitor’s agent was against her taking the role. When she was offered the part after only her second audition, her manager tried to talk her out of accepting because of concerns about the show going into syndication (to be sold to television stations, rather than a specific network) instead of network television. But Berman stated, “Visitor nailed the role of Major Kira on her first reading” (Reeves-Stevens 193) and they knew they wanted her. Visitor also wanted to take Clemens-Smucker 40 the role, despite her manager’s advice. She says

my love for my character — and it’s hard not to recognize the quality of the

writing — made me go, Well, all right, you think I’m throwing my career

away at this time of my life — which is a critical time for an actress: So be

it. This is the way I’m going. This is what I became an actor to do. This kind

of role. Not playing a woman in relation to other people: a mother, or a wife,

or a prostitute, or a killer. She’s fully realized. My agent’s reluctance made

the decision-making process a little longer, but once that conflict was

resolved, getting the role was very quick (Reeves-Stevens 193).

She wanted the role because it felt different. It felt real. And it felt like something women should have been doing on television all along. “I was very sure that I was Major Kira, and it seemed that they were, too, and that was that” (UPN 1:15-1:19) Visitor said. She also explained that

Kira’s forceful presence was right there on the page. That was one reason I

was so excited when I read the script and read a woman who was a powerful

woman. She was first officer, so she was in command, but she wasn’t just

politically correct. She’s not perfect. She doesn’t do everything just right

and always know the right thing to think and do. She makes mistakes, she’s

not sure within herself. The fact that she is a woman suddenly wasn’t an

issue anymore. It was a species who had spirituality, who had

aggressiveness, who had ideas of her own. She’s a truthful, emotional being,

and that was very exciting. It was a matter of me filling out the spaces of

the character (Altman 451).

She wanted the role, and she took it. Clemens-Smucker 41

Berman, however, doesn’t agree that the character was already fully realized, or as whole as Visitor saw her. “Nana says the character was all on the page, but I don’t think that’s really true. We create characters and then we hire actors to play those characters, and the actors bring, in many instances, as much to those characters as we did in creating them. It’s that marriage that ends up becoming either a character that works or doesn’t” (Altman 451). Berman and his team believed Visitor was the only one who could do that with Kira Nerys.

Finally, Visitor said yes, and the contract was signed.

Fitting Major Kira into the 90s and the Future

As a show running concurrently with TNG, DS9 was viewed very differently by writers and fans. Instead of being aboard a starship, this was a community on a space station where adventures came to them rather than the other way around. Instead of a luxury-class starship, they made do in a dark, inhospitable environment with outdated equipment and systems which were destroyed by the Cardassians as they left at the end of their occupation of Bajor. The show was gritty and dark and desperate, about warring societies and disparate species trying to live together — if not in peace, at least without daily violence. How did this fit into the decade during which it was created, and how did the production team see it as compared to TNG? It was a project of presenting something different and something which felt contemporary and real.

Rick Berman explained the appeal of this premise by comparing it to what

we would think about a person who visits Los Angeles’s fashionable

Beverly Center shopping mall and decides to stay, in contrast to what we

would think about a person visiting South Central Los Angeles after the

1992 riots making the same decision. A city torn apart is a much more

interesting setting than a shopping center, and a person who would stay to Clemens-Smucker 42

rebuild a torn-apart city is much more interesting than one who has not faced

such a complex and potentially troublesome dilemma (Reeves-Stevens 64).

Kira, being a former terrorist and victim of oppression, fits directly into this darkness, and deals with it in some way in almost every episode. Her hatred of the Cardassians and her grief over her past color everything she feels and does politically, and complicates her spiritual life.

The darkness associated with DS9 was not necessarily welcomed by 90s fans. They liked the freer spirit and brighter environment of TNG, and weren’t sure about embracing this new kind of stationary show. “We were definitely the black sheep of the family,” Visitor said. “I remember sitting with Armin Shimerman on set and saying, ‘They don’t really get us, the Star

Trek fans.’ And they didn’t at the time, but we said, ‘Ten, twenty years from now they’ll get it.’

That’s proven to be true; people are discovering it now thanks to streaming. They’re rediscovering the show and it’s nice to see. And the show holds up” (Altman 545). People see the way the show was able to tackle issues the other series couldn’t. Today, with the era of binge- watching, people can marathon the whole thing at once and understand how it works together as a more serialized show. “I would say that Deep Space Nine is a much more adult series than any of the other Star Trek shows,” Michael Piller says. “It’s much more psychological and it forces people to confront things that aren’t always comfortable” (Altman 469). One of these subjects is racism. In an interview on UPN, Visitor was asked “There is deepness to your character because you’re really talking about intolerance, you’re kind of talking about racism, you’re talking about the very things that affect us here on earth, aren’t you?” She responded, “Absolutely. And what makes me different from someone else on the station? Just, actually, a little prosthetic on my nose. So that’s very telling, it’s skin deep, all the differences” (UPN 1:46-2:05). Much of Kira’s narrative arc is about her hatred of Cardassians and rage over the way they treated her people. I Clemens-Smucker 43 will discuss this in depth in chapter four, during my analysis of “Duet.”

As discussed in chapter one, the 90s were a time of great change for women both in society and on television. While Major Kira was a woman living over three hundred years in the future, she was being written, because we don’t have Star Trek’s time traveling capabilities, during current times, and with the sensibilities of what was going on in the world at that time.

Writers of course must take what they know and try to adjust it for future days, and actors take what they know and make it true to the character. In a January 2020? interview during which

Nana Visitor graciously answered questions about the creation and life of Major Kira, I asked her if there were certain current events (of the 90s), people, or politics which she felt shaped her character.

I was a creation of the time I live in, so the 90s were my time and I brought

my experience as a woman of that time period to the role. I believe I don’t

have to look far for the truth in any character: Since I am chosen to bring

someone to life, it’s my soul that gets processed through a character’s life

experience. That mixture will always be unique. I use a past present future

thought that helps me know that the storytelling I’m doing is important and

important to be truthful about, even though that truth may be inconvenient

or uncomfortable to play. If my character, for instance, is mourning the

death of an alien world, one that she never even visited, I reduce the whole

big thought to one true emotion: empathy. Then, I think: there has been, for

sure, a person no longer on the planet, who felt deep pure empathy. I find

the truth in the story I am telling to honor that past person’s humanness.

Then, I think of someone in the future feeling pain because they are Clemens-Smucker 44

experiencing the same difficult emotions my character is and finding some

kind of connection to the character because of it. Doing this grounds me to

the present moment in the storytelling (Visitor 1/23/20).

I followed this up by asking Visitor if she remembered conversations with the creative team about Major Kira being a woman in the future, and how things would be different or the same about and for her, since she was being created in the 90s. She said “The conversations were about what life would be like in the future, and it of course got processed through the limitations of a 90s understanding of life so far” (Visitor 1/23/20). Visitor believes Kira, even though she lives hundreds of years in the future, would respond in the same emotive ways as a person of the

90s (or today), and I in turn believe that is why Kira still feels relevant to viewers such as myself, who watched the show when it first aired and are now re-watching it, or viewers who are brand- new to the series, seeing Kira for the first time.

The creation of the character, as touched on above, was very much a team effort. Visitor told me “It becomes a woven fabric — how I interpret their words, how they see that interpretation and spin something further. Pretty soon, we all start to understand how she will respond in most circumstances and then she starts to take on a life of her own” (Visitor 1/23/20).

Visitor embodied Kira and poured much of herself into her, so much so that she would even dream Kira’s dreams. But originally the idea came from the writers and the producers, only to be expanded on by Visitor’s creativeness.

One extremely important aspect of the character, according to Visitor, is that she has come out of the Cardassian occupation with PTSD. Visitor speaks about this often when discussing the life of her character. In a 2018 interview on space.com, Visitor said

‘Kira's character was ahead of her time…In 1993, when DS9 first began Clemens-Smucker 45

airing episodes, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) was known as a

medical condition; it was added to the third edition of the Diagnostic and

Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders in the 1980s, based on the

experience of treating Vietnam War soldiers. Yet PTSD was still an obscure

disorder in the 1990s…Today, it's more widely recognized.’ One of her own

sons fought in Afghanistan and came back with the disorder” (Howell).

Visitor believes PTSD is a timely topic, not only for soldiers, but for others who experience trauma.

"If you thought about taking a woman from any war-torn country today, who is fighting on one side or the other, and moved her to America or anywhere else that was a safe haven, she will have post-traumatic stress” (Howell). When we consider the refugee crises our world is experiencing today, there is no doubt Kira and Bajor are both relevant and contemporary.

I asked Visitor if there were specific current events she remembered thinking about during filming episodes specifically about Kira’s history, personal life, and her PTSD, and if there were ways she wanted Kira to speak to people of the 20th century. She said

I experienced trauma personally, and it informed a lot of what I did. I think

I just wanted to portray this character as a Being first — her sex was

secondary. I wanted it not to matter as to how she saw life. I didn’t want her

to have to be ‘feminine’ in the ways society dictated. I wanted her to be

unselfconscious about her appetites, longing, and foibles. She ‘got’ to make

mistakes along the way. I saw that as something I wanted in my own life”

(Visitor 1/23/20).

Visitor embodied Kira in many ways, learning from her experience as the character, as well as portraying the character for others to view. Kira and DS9 are still speaking to viewers — old and Clemens-Smucker 46 new — today. As the space.com interview states,

Twenty-five years later, DS9 is still wowing viewers with its

prescience. The series gained popularity and ran until 1999. And it's still

exerting an influence on the ‘Star Trek’ stories told; several characters from

it (including Kira) were added in a recent expansion to the ‘Star Trek

Online’ game…[Visitor stated] that Kira and DS9 would continue to have

relevance for people who weren't even born yet when the series aired”

(Howell).

Even if young people don’t find their way to the show through the actual episodes, they have other popular culture ways to learn about DS9 through a game console.

Another important aspect of Kira’s character is the way she forms relationships on the station. One which is very focal to the show is that of Kira’s relationship with Commander Sisko

(Avery Brooks) (later Captain), her only superior officer on the station. Winrich Kolbe, who directed seven episodes of DS9, spoke of the way politics worked into the show, and how so much of what they were trying to do was personified in the Kira/Sisko relationship. In the pilot episode (“Emissary”) we are told that Sisko specifically asked for a Bajoran first officer. Kolbe talks about why that choice was made.

[Sisko] wanted somebody who comes from the background of Kira, who

was in the underground against the Cardassians. A nationalist, so to speak.

It intrigued me because I felt that, yes, we are changing, but we are not

necessarily becoming more advanced. There’s nationalism two thousand

years from now, and it will always be there, because it’s something

genetically inside us. Like racism, which is something that’s always coming Clemens-Smucker 47

out. We only seemingly live in a better social society if we are able to combat

it, but the moment we let our guard down, bingo, there’s the conflict. I like

that in DS9 when it came down to the Kira/Sisko conflict. It’s politics, but

it’s the politics of Starfleet, of the larger unit that says, ‘We want to expand

our influence,’ and the small unit, which is the planet Bajor, which says,

‘Hey, it’s all very nice, but you’re taking over. We don’t want you, either’

(Altman 448-9).

Kolbe’s statement speaks to one more reason DS9 is still relevant today, over two decades later.

Politics still divide us, and this show gives examples of healthy ways in which differences can be resolved through relationship and diplomacy. In chapter four I will discuss a specific situation which shows how the respect between Kira and Sisko determines how decisions are made in the episode “Duet.”

Kira has working relationships with the crew of DS9, and she loves them, but friendships are rare. When they do occur, they are deep, as is her relationship with Jadzia Dax. As mentioned in chapter one, Dax is a mentor to Kira, but the two of them also have a mutual love for each other. Because of the unique aspects of their characters, their friendship holds interest not always found in more shallow female characters. David Livingston, who directed seventeen episodes of

DS9, says

Nana and Terry are great together, especially when they’re discussing sexual

stuff, because although it’s two women talking it always ends up kind of

bizarre. Kira is kind of macho, a very masculine kind of woman in a military

uniform, who has a sexual side, but most of the time is running around

acting really rigid. And Dax has been both a man and a woman several Clemens-Smucker 48

times, so the dynamics between the two are a lot more interesting than just

two women talking” (Erdmann 134).

While this comment has an underlying sexist feel, he makes a point by acknowledging the way women’s friendships are often written. This could be fixed by getting more women in the writers’ room, but that is a subject beyond the scope of this thesis, and of course past time for repair for

DS9 (plus, as discussed above, Visitor considered the all-male writers’ room to be feminist).

Other shows in the Star Trek franchise, such as DIS and PIC, have perhaps learned from seeing relationships such as Kira’s with Jadzia Dax (Terry Farrell), and now have the opportunity to show female friendships from a deeper angle.

As far as Kira’s romantic relationships were concerned, Visitor told me that “I thought my love interests were very 90s choices. Good looking, obvious choices. Odo, however, even though I was against the concept of good friends becoming lovers, was a really bold choice, looking back on it” (Visitor 1/23/20). Much has been made about the romantic relationship between Kira and Odo, whether people oppose it or expand it through fan fiction. Visitor and

Rene Auberjonois, who played Odo, were both unsure when it first was written into the script, because their characters had such a deep friendship. “‘I’m not much of a fan of Kira and Odo being together,’ Visitor remarks [in 2000], ‘but they found a way to make it all make sense. I’ve always felt that I have to open my mouth and pick my fights. And even though I knew that there’s a certain amount of fights that I’m going to lose, I always do it anyway. That was one that

I lost” (Erdmann 560). The passing years, as mentioned above, have changed Visitor’s view on the romance, and I can say as a viewer that it does have a certain sweetness to it, since they have been through so much together only to realize they are in love. The relationship ends in the last episode when Odo decides he must return to his people, and I’m sure I was not the only viewer Clemens-Smucker 49 to expend many tears on the tying up of that loose thread.

The main idea of DS9 was to show the equality and diversity of the future, including both gender and race, concepts which were being brought to light and explored in the 90s. Kira was a large part of the message the show brought to its audience. In their book The Making of Star

Trek: Deep Space Nine, Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens boil it down.

Today, Star Trek is an experience shared by millions. Its jargon has entered

our vocabulary, its characters and technology are icons of the future

throughout the world. It has, in some small sense, helped create our present

by being part of the fabric of our society. Let’s hope that it has brought more

to us than an appreciation of technology. Let’s hope that a generation of

children will grow up accepting without doubt that a man of color can

command a space station and a woman can be his equal. Let’s hope those

children know that what makes us human is not our differences on the

outside, but all that is the same within us (Reeves-Stevens 258).

All races, sexes, species, and genders are welcome in Star Trek, and there is great diversity in how people are shown as members of society in the world of DS9. Kira, as a Bajoran woman with a traditionally masculine backstory and assertive personality, was the embodiment of those ideals.

Production Decisions Used to Create Major Kira

There are many production decisions to be made when creating the technical aspects of a character on a television show, and a multitude of things to take into account. There are contemporary trends, the character’s personality traits and employment considerations, the physical body of the actor, the studio’s wishes, and fan considerations, among other things. Two Clemens-Smucker 50 of the most prominent decisions for Kira had to do with costuming and lighting.

In our January interview I asked Visitor about the production aspects of filming Kira, how she felt the camera, costumes, and make-up contributed to her character. I also asked if she felt she was filmed differently from other characters. She said “This was where the nineties showed. I was padded. My hair seemed to be very important. But at the same time, my role wasn’t that of ‘the pretty one,’ and our DP [Director of Photography] Marvin Rush once told me he lit and shot me like a hero, not a woman. Which was fine with me” (Visitor 1/23/20). She was right about the hair — there were changes throughout the series, and we all know that era had a lot of ideas about hair.

In the pilot episode Kira sported a kind of fluffy page-boy cut, which to her was a bit much. By the time they shot the third episode [“Past Prologue”] the hair had changed. “’That was my doing,’” admits Nana Visitor. “’I pushed for it. I just didn’t feel that Major Kira would style her hair every day. She wouldn’t care! I wanted a hairstyle that looked like she just woke up in the morning looking like that’” (Erdmann 21). When they started season seven, Major Kira was promoted to Colonel, and Visitor didn’t feel the short haircut fit anymore, so she went a bit longer and darker. Viewers had issues with it at first, but by the middle of the season had mostly forgotten it had ever been different.

Visitor laughs at the thought that anyone pays that much attention. ‘It’s hard

to come up with a hairdo that works for Kira,’ she admits. ‘For years she

was literally a hand-to-hand combat fighter. She hung out underneath

houses and blew things up. I just couldn’t see her fussing with her hair back

then, so I hacked it all off. But now she’s a colonel and she’s in a more

administrative job. Her hair is more sophisticated, and appropriate to her Clemens-Smucker 51

age and her position (Erdmann 593-4).

Flashback episodes also have Kira as a young freedom-fighter, which showed her with long hair tied back. This was obviously done to create a difference between the present and the past, and it did work to add a more youthful appearance.

Kira’s costumes changed more often than her hair. The series began with her wearing a two-piece military uniform with a tunic and a wide belt. In episode seventeen, “The Forsaken,” that changed to a one-piece spandex bodysuit, which showed off her slender figure without being too revealing. This change came after she felt ready. “‘The [original] uniform wasn’t terribly becoming,’ admits Visitor, although the problem lay more in the fact that she’d recently had a baby than in Robert Blackman’s costume design. ‘I had no idea I would be in a military uniform six weeks after giving birth’” (Erdmann 59)! Her uniform changed again in season four, which caused much discussion among the fan community. Why had she changed? What was the purpose?

Costume Designer Robert Blackman says, ‘Her old uniform was a bit more

mannish. We reduced the shoulder pads and opened the neck a little, made

the color darker. We just made it more body conscious.’ [Ira Steven] Behr

notes that the change instigated a flurry of negative comment on the net,

accusing the producers of attempting to turn Kira into ‘a Baywatch babe.’

‘It had nothing to do with that,’ insists Behr. ‘This is all I know about the

costume change: we’d been talking to Nana Visitor about lightening Kira

up a little bit. She’d been on the station for three years and we felt it was

time for her to take a less adversarial relationship with her coworkers. In the

course of the conversation, Nana mentioned that her current uniform with Clemens-Smucker 52

all the corduroy padding made it tough for her to move. And that was the

last I heard about it until I saw this new uniform, which included high

heels’” (Erdmann 257).

As mentioned above, many fans were not happy about the change, citing that other Bajorans’ uniforms were not changed, and that this sexualized Kira in a way the series had avoided in the first three seasons. Knowing Visitor asked for a more flexible uniform makes sense with the change, and when compared to the spandex suit plastered on Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan) in VOY perhaps it isn’t quite so egregious.

Kira’s next costume change came in season five, when Visitor became pregnant. Rather than alter her current uniform to hide the pregnancy, they simply had her become suddenly pregnant through a plot point, so she could go right into maternity clothes. After she gave birth she had to wear pregnancy padding for a few weeks until Kira herself went into labor, but by season six she was back in her one-piece until the season seven change, when she was promoted to colonel, received a costume change, and grew out her hair. “I asked for the costume change, too. I wanted a ‘suit’ something with a jacket so that if Kira were talking to someone, they’d definitely be looking her in the eye because there was nothing else to look at! Television being what it is, I didn’t quite win on that one, but I got my hair,’ she says, giggling” (Erdmann 594).

Since television is “what it is,” the 90s came to play in this aspect, with the need to show off

Visitor’s body since she was an attractive female actor and the industry (and certain viewers) valued that. However, there were definitely other good things the studio allowed.

As discussed in chapter one, 90s television was still fairly stuck on women’s appearance.

I asked Visitor if she felt the showrunners embraced Kira’s ability to live life, and allowed her to show the emotion, exhaustion, and joy that come with being a fully realized person. “They Clemens-Smucker 53 certainly did allow it,” she said. “I pushed the concept pretty far for the time” (Visitor 1/23/20).

Visitor has expressed her thankfulness she wasn’t expected to look — or feel — perfect every day. In The Making of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine the Reeves-Stevenses say

Visitor has such dedication to her work and enthusiasm for her role that she

even sees the positive aspects of going without sleep. ‘The great thing is

that Kira has a face that can age — that has more than just glamor — so if

I don’t sleep all night, and I look tired — hey! It’s part of what Kira is. She

lives life. It’s almost more of a European take,’ Visitor explains, ‘It’s like

being a woman in Paris, smoking a cigarette and wearing a black turtleneck

and looking like she had a wild night and whatever, and there’s nothing

wrong with that! You’re living life! You’re having fun. Something’s going

on in your emotional life. So,’ she says with a grin, ‘since I don’t have a

choice, I’ve taken the European view! The more lines on my face the more

interesting.’ With an attitude like that, it’s no wonder that Kira has become

one of Deep Space Nine’s most interesting characters, and a role model to

thousands of viewers ” (Reeves-Stevens 195).

Dedicated viewers will appreciate the many close-ups which reveal worry lines, exhaustion, and age. They are a part of Kira, and help give her the authority which makes her believable.

When Visitor’s manager did not want her to take the role (mentioned above) Visitor stated she was at a career point that was “a critical time for an actress” (Reeves-Stevens 193).

This had to do with her physical body, her face, and her appearance. She was no longer an ingenue, and she had to considered where her career was headed. The possibility of a multi-year contract to play a character she loved was rare. Clemens-Smucker 54

Nana Visitor was thirty-six at the time we spoke with her. The critical phase

she refers to is that time when female actors move from being typecast as

‘pretty young things’ to being typecast as ‘old.’ Good female actors who are

fortunate enough to combine hard work with luck sometimes slip between

these two extremes to establish themselves as actors who, like Visitor, can

play fully-realized characters, adding years and many good parts to their

careers. Male actors do not face this crossroads as early in their careers,

because far more emphasis is placed on a woman’s age than on a man’s”

(Reeves-Stevens 193).

In this instance, the studio valued her work, and didn’t allow traditional industry standards to be an obstacle. Visitor was ready to do what she wanted and take the part, despite the guidance she received.

After costuming, another extremely important and visual part of the technical side of production is filming, which involves lighting, positioning, and distance, among many other considerations. I was able to interview Marvin Rush, the Director of Photography mentioned above, about how he shot Kira. We spoke in February of 2020, and he told me the photographer, the cameraman, and the actor are a team, working together with lighting and the shots to make sure everything looks good and the story is well told. I mentioned that Visitor said he always shot her as a hero and not as a woman, and I asked him what exactly that meant. He explained that to shoot someone as a hero means to put the camera at a slightly lower angle, because you look up to heroes. The camera films from lower than eye level, from waist up, looking up. To get a tighter close up (of which there were many of Kira) you can raise the camera, but you never get even with the eyes. The eyes dominate, the eyes are strong. Tall is strong, and filming from Clemens-Smucker 55 below gives that illusion. Visitor was exceptionally versatile, which was what was so striking and spectacular about her.

I thought she was an action figure and she was essentially a “male”

character. When I say that I mean in a classic sense. She was playing the

role of what would ordinarily in past times be a male character, a heroic

character, not a shrinking violet. She played it as a thoughtful badass.

Society has definitely moved in that direction, but in those years it was not

common. It was nascent. It didn’t matter to me that she was female (Rush

2/8/20).

He explained that most women cannot be filmed from a lower angle and still look their best.

Most of the time you film women from eye level, not from under their chin. Dramatic lighting doesn’t work with most women, because it casts distracting nose shadows, or, if they have imperfections or deep eye sockets, women are viewed as less attractive, while men are considered tough. Standards are different for a guy, with pock marks, etc., but this is not true with women. “Those things may be changing,” Rush said, “guys are lighting women more

‘masculinely’ now, and that may be because society has changed. In those days it wouldn’t have worked” (Rush 2/8/20). He explained that the audience wants to like the people that are the heroes, and if you make them look unattractive, you push the audience away. It’s an illusion, whereas reality often is not pretty or dramatic. On camera you’re trying to create feeling and mood and move the story along to create tension, so you don’t want to distract the audience with someone who doesn’t look the way they think they should.

Rush said Visitor was an exception to the rule. He wanted to photograph her as a hero because of Kira’s character, and with a different actress he might not have been able to do that Clemens-Smucker 56

“because you don’t get hired as a photographer if you make the women look unattractive. I always feel bad if I don’t make the actresses look great. Some guys honestly don’t care, and they’ll look for more character lighting than beauty lighting. I enjoy lighting women, I like working with women, making them look their best. I invest a certain amount of energy into that”

(Rush 2/8/20). When I asked how it was different with Visitor, Rush explained that it really comes down to bone structure, which of course is something you are born with, not something you can change. Visitor could take camera angle from low; he could use a classically male angle and she would still look tough and beautiful. Since Nana’s eye sockets are more forward and flatter than other women’s, the heroic lighting’s steep angle didn’t make them dark. She was always in extremely good physical shape, she took care of herself, she was lean, she had a dancer’s body, which Rush described as a “Pilates” body. “A dance exercise routine tends to make every single muscle in harmony, not just bulging muscles, but symmetry. She had that physique. Her eating regimen, all the things you can do to make yourself look your best, don’t smoke, get sleep, she was in great shape. She made it easier for me” (Rush 2-8-20). He told me she brought balletic physicality to her character, and recalled a specific scene (although he could not remember the episode name) in which those talents made everything work.

One sequence, it was an underground set, I had these shafts of sunlight

coming through openings in the ceiling, a cavern. I remember on that set

she was moving in and out through the shafts of light. The light was very

steep, and I remember thinking I may be pushing the envelope with this

angle. She looked amazing even when she hit these downlights, her body

movements were so beautiful to watch, almost balletic, so elegantly able to

move through space, able to hit a mark perfectly, hit a look angle perfectly. Clemens-Smucker 57

We would start wide, and end close up, as she moved toward the camera. I

remember that sequence like it was yesterday. She nailed every mark and

ended up with a perfect close up. It was completely natural. That was Kira,

that was Nana. She was a spectacular. A lovely person, a spectacular

physical specimen. The whole kit. Beautiful, versatile, capable, heroic”

(Rush 2/8/20).

He describes Visitor as her character is often described — as a hero. It makes one think that the production team knew exactly what they were doing when they cast her as Major Kira.

Between Visitor’s talents and the technical aspects of costuming and filming, Major Kira came to life. Next we will discuss character changes which were made over the years.

Changes to the Character

As mentioned above, Kira was put on the station by Sisko’s request (in the story) and by the desire of the production team to have someone to create conflict, since conflict between

Starfleet members was unlikely. Kira (and Visitor) performed this so well it made people in the

90s uncomfortable. This frustrated the creative team.

In The Fifty-Year Mission: The Next Twenty-Five Years, Ira Steven Behr stated “I saw that men were threatened by Kira and they said they didn’t like her because she’s too strong, but that’s because we live in a screwed up society, not because she’s a bad character” (Altman 460).

Michael Piller agreed. “Kira was coming across to us in the early going as a little bit too hard, and I think we moved her into a more accessible kind of voice” (Altman 450). When I asked

Visitor if she felt changes were made because people didn’t feel comfortable with Kira she said

I think concessions were made. My character was referred to as a bitch by

fans early on, and I think I had to pull back and soften a little in order to Clemens-Smucker 58

have longevity. Although I understand it isn’t really true, there’s the old

story of turning the heat up slowly to boil a frog without it noticing. I didn’t

want to give up what I knew to be true: anger is the first defense of someone

with PTSD, but I wanted the right to keep telling her story. That I had to

make concessions in order to keep doing it was another sign of the nineties

(Visitor 1/23/20).

Concessions to soften Kira did not ultimately make her weak. In the season three episode

“Shakaar,” Kira is reunited with Shakaar, a Bajoran man who was the leader of her resistance cell during the occupation. Shakaar leads a fugitive band (including Kira), but eventually turns himself in and decides to run for prime minister of Bajor. It was thought by the DS9 production team that perhaps Shakaar could become a love interest for Kira. Because of that, casting was important. Finally “Duncan Regehr was cast as Shakaar, with the belief that the character and actor could hold their own against Visitor’s Kira” (Erdmann 244). “Softening” Kira apparently did not mean she was now seen as submissive in any way, and was still a force to be dealt with, as was Visitor herself.

Another example of an episode about which her softening was discussed is the season five “Ties of Blood and Water.” Ghemor, a Cardassian from season three’s “Second Skin” who has become sort of a second father to Kira, comes to the station. She is happy to see him, and introduces him to Kirayoshi, the O’Briens’s baby to whom she has given birth as a surrogate. In this episode Kira finds out both that Ghemor is dying and that he took part in a certain massacre of Bajorans during the occupation. She refuses to comfort him on his deathbed until the final minutes, when she returns to his bedside so he will not die alone. Terry J. Erdmann says

“Although she’s often seen as the strongest character on the station, in many ways, Kira also is Clemens-Smucker 59 the saddest. The scene where Kira introduces Ghemor to Kirayoshi points that up nicely. ‘This is her family,’ says Robert Hewitt Wolfe [writer of the teleplay]. ‘The father that is not her father.

The baby that is not her baby. That’s Kira’s family’” (Erdmann 441-2). She is shown here to have struggles with emotions, with feeling love and compassion, but ultimately her empathy wins out. “There are some people who say to me, ‘You know, I miss the Kira from earlier in the series, who’s a fighter and quick to argue.’ Visitor smiles. ‘And I cite shows like this, that make

Kira mature and emotionally sophisticated, more complex, more ready to react a different way other than viscerally’” (Erdmann 442). This episode also highlights how she is now seen as a hero on Bajor, and her maturity aids in the way she relates to her home planet.

Another character change, as referenced above, happened in season four when Visitor became pregnant during her marriage to fellow cast member Alexander Siddig (previously known as Siddig El-Fadir, who played Dr. Julian Bashir). As discussed in chapter one, Visitor told the production team about her pregnancy, and rather than try to hide it they wrote it into the series’ plot. This took place in season four in the episode “Body Parts,” when Kira and Keiko

O’Brien (Rosalind Chao) are in a runabout accident, and Keiko’s baby is surgically implanted into Kira to save its life.

‘We had learned shortly before we got to work on this show that Nana was

pregnant,’ [writer] Ron Moore explains. ‘By happenstance, we had just

made Keiko pregnant (‘Accession’), and we didn’t want two pregnant

women walking around the station. So we wondered what we were gonna

do. Gates McFadden had been pregnant during one season of TNG, and it

had meant sticking her behind a desk in a lab coat all the time. We sure

didn’t want to do that to Nana’ (Erdmann 351). Clemens-Smucker 60

Visitor was extremely pleased with this turn of events.

‘Suddenly my baby was part of the plot!’ she says. ‘I was very grateful that

they thought of such a clever way to allow me to be pregnant on the show

and not just be filmed from the neck up, which really would have limited

everything I could do. I’m hugely grateful for that. The writers took it

completely in their stride, that their warrior was going to have a baby. And

they made it work brilliantly’ (Erdmann 352)

This is one example of how a long-term show is affected by the real lives, and the actual physical bodies, of the actors. It was not a given during the 90s that pregnant actors would be given screen time, or even kept on a series. Shows didn’t want to portray their characters as pregnant, and female actors were sometimes afraid to inform their studios of their pregnancies. Obviously

Visitor was an important part of DS9, and the production team was willing to do what it took to make it work.

The season five episode “The Begotten” allowed Visitor to get rid of the pregnancy pad she had been wearing during the weeks following the birth of her son Django. She wasn’t entirely pleased with this, as her body was still in post-pregnancy shape.

‘It was time to go back to the one-piece uniform that would show all the

late-night baked potatoes I’d had,’ sighs Visitor. ‘But [costume designer]

Bob Blackman and I decided that it was kind of nice for women to see that

there’s an aftereffect to pregnancy. So many times on television, women are

pregnant and then — boom! — they’re back to a size eight. And I know in

real life that happens to some women, but certainly not all women and

certainly not me’ (Erdmann 360)! Clemens-Smucker 61

It is interesting to see that she notes a size eight as an expected normal size at that point, while today’s “normal” would expect something much smaller. As mentioned in chapter one, the 90s changed how women appeared on television, with much discussion about whether they were thin or fat. Visitor’s comment perhaps fits into the conversation before size zero became the expectation.

Having a baby while working was not without disappointments altogether. Visitor feels some possibilities for narrative were missed. Erdmann’s Deep Space Nine Companion states

While Visitor was pleased with the way the writers had worked her real-life

pregnancy into the show’s ongoing plot line, in retrospect she feels they

missed out on one important aspect of the situation. ‘During the whole baby

span on the show, I just wished that there were more scenes between Keiko

and myself,’ she says. ‘My older son, Buster, has a stepmother, and the

dynamic between us is fascinating. It’s such an important thing, two women

being responsible for a child and sharing that child. I suppose if you haven’t

lived through it, it would be a hard thing to perceive. And also, it’s not ‘The

Kira Show,’ after all. It’s about going out on the Defiant, and doing battle’”

(Erdmann 360-1).

Again, had there been more women involved in writing the stories and teleplays, perhaps this kind of interaction may have taken place.

Ultimately, these two changes, softening her character and adding the pregnancy storyline

(which of course was a large part of the softening of her character), added to her character’s dimensions and made her a deeper, more complex being. As in any real person’s life, experiences come up which are not expected, and which made someone more fully rounded. The final Clemens-Smucker 62 season, largely in service of the Dominion war plot line, culminated in Kira’s promotion and her ability to lead a group of Cardassian resistance fighters after hating the species her entire life. In the first seasons of the series she would not have been able to serve in this way, but seven years later she has matured, learned more about herself, and come to terms with the idea that all

Cardassians are not evil. We will discuss this more fully in chapter four.

Fan Interaction

It has long been known that fans serve as an important and active piece of the Star Trek universe, and are the main reason the original series survived. In her book Enterprising Women:

Television Fandom and the Creation of Popular Myth, Camille Bacon-Smith says

Star Trek, the granddaddy of the media sources for the art [fan-created

texts], survived two cancellation attempts by its network, NBC, because

loyal fans organized write-in salvage campaigns that generated hundreds of

thousands of letters…The write-in campaign has become so important in

the industry that some producers exhort their fans to rally letter-writers

around their own flagging series (4-5).

While this particular letter-writing campaign happened in the late ‘60s, contemporary examples exist, such as when Brooklyn 99 was canceled by FOX. There was such an outpouring of grief and anger on the internet that NBC picked the series up within twenty-four hours. Other such saves came for One Day at a Time, Lucifer, Designated Survivor, and Last Man Standing. An eclectic group of productions, all with a dedicated fan-base who wasn’t afraid to let its feelings be known. The fans saved these shows, much as the fans saved TOS in the ‘60s.

DS9 famously was not an immediate fan favorite. Many complained it was too dark…too serialized…too stationary… Many aspects had the fans questioning if it really deserved a spot in Clemens-Smucker 63 the Star Trek franchise. Fans wanted the brightly lit starship exploring the universe, but DS9 gave them the opposite, a dark, angular, alien space station set at one place in the universe. They couldn’t see how this could be called a Star Trek show. Serialization was also a huge problem.

Rather than a complete single episode experience with plot closure, DS9 carried viewers through longer arcs, and if an episode was missed, it made it hard to get back into what was happening since those were the days before streaming. I can vividly remember coming back to my apartment during my long days working at Actors’ Theater of Louisville only to find that my

VCR hadn’t caught the show. It was rather devastating at the time, but I was one of the fans who simply jumped back in the next week, no matter how far the overall narrative arc had moved during the past episode. Visitor credits this serialization to the lack of fans early on. “‘People are now used to serialized TV shows, and people want to sit down and binge-watch — I certainly do,’ Visitor said. ‘That was the big problem with 'Deep Space Nine.' People didn't think it was possible to get to an episode you missed, and to hop back in was difficult. Now it's a preferred way’” (Howell). Visitor attends multiple fan conventions throughout each year, and appreciates her interaction with the people there, many of whom are first-time viewers who find the show through streaming services. “I get to meet new people [at the conventions], young people who are getting into the show through Netflix, which is amazing. It’s this constant influx and it’s a reminder of how influential Star Trek is. And how far reaching” (Fandom 4:18-4:37). In the Star

Trek Facebook group of which I am a part, not a week goes by when there’s not someone saying they never got into DS9 when it first aired, but now they’re giving it a second chance, and they can’t stop watching. Many even say it is now their favorite series. With such a serialized show, the ability to watch episodes back-to-back makes a huge difference in how people experience the sometimes season-long narrative arcs. Clemens-Smucker 64

Despite the naysayers in 1993, there were still many fans in the early days, and Visitor has always been someone who loves interacting with the people who enjoy her work. In an interview with Fandom Spotlite in 2018, the interviewer asked Visitor what she thinks of the fandom. Visitor didn’t hesitate before saying

Oh, I respect them. I listen to them. It was really useful when the show was

running to go to the conventions and hear what they paid attention to, what

was important to them. It informed my performances, certainly. So it was a

kind of give and take between all of us. I don’t know if fandom was aware

of it, but it certainly had an effect. But the thing is…they were the experts

on what the show was about” (Fandom :43-1:16).

She listened to fans, and as mentioned earlier, we know fans and their responses make a difference, whether it’s a change in Deanna Troi’s costume or whether or not Major Kira needed to show a softer side.

One way fans currently interact with DS9 is through fan fiction. Much non-canon work, mostly slash fiction, has been written about Kira, often involving her romantic relationships with other characters. The most common pairings to be found are Kira/Odo (a canon relationship),

Kira/Dukat, Kira/Jadzia Dax, and Kira/Intendant Kira (Kira’s mirror universe counterpart). Fan fiction can also be found under the General Audience label (Gen), which does not explore romantic relationships, but other aspects of Kira’s life (facetofcathy). Most of the fan fiction seems to explore the darker side of Kira’s character, whether in relationships or consequences following her military and terrorist activities. While there was some fan fiction written about

Kira during the run of the show, the majority of it came after the series ended, so it could obviously not be expected to change storylines, unless it would affect texts such as novelizations Clemens-Smucker 65 or Star Trek Online (video game), of which Visitor is currently a part.

Another important way fans relate to the show is through the military background of Kira and others of the crew. DS9 focuses very much on the Dominion war during the last three seasons, and speaks to veterans who are viewers. Thomas Zeller is a Star Trek fan and military veteran who was deployed to Afghanistan. He became disabled during his tour and says

I’ve obviously had many disturbing thoughts and feelings. Hard memories

and loss. I started watching DS9 again and amazingly found an outlet that

was truly helpful. Long before America or I became well associated with

religious extremism and suicide bombers we saw that on DS9. We saw the

toll of battle and the casualty figures coming in on the faces and the feelings

of the characters. And we saw them in the midst of deep desperate battle

and the loss of limbs and the struggle to recover. Episodes like ‘The

Sacrifice of Angels’ and ‘The Siege of AR-558’ resonate in my

consciousness. They are familiar, certainly, but because they take place in

an imaginary future far, far from here they are not too close, but just close

enough to be cathartic and helpful without tearing me apart” (Altman 530).

Kira’s role as a resistance fighter, Bajoran army officer, and PTSD survivor is a part of this familiarity, something real-life veterans like Zeller can identify with. “Little did I imagine that anything like a TV show would help me, but it did — and it still does” (Altman 531). Star Trek is more than entertainment to people such as Zeller. It is a form of therapy.

As mentioned above, Visitor is a frequent speaker at conventions, and her fans flock to meet and see her. She says, as Nichelle Nichols before her, that she constantly has people coming up to her at conventions, saying they were inspired to get into the space field because of Clemens-Smucker 66 her. “One person arrived at an autograph table with a video of a Mars landing, saying he helped land that system on the Red Planet, she recalled. ‘Oh my God, you want my autograph? I want yours!’ she quipped. And when she visits NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, she added, she gets treated like a rock star” (Howell). Visitor still, almost thirty years since the beginning of the series, is affecting the lives of those who love her, and love Kira.

The creation of a character such as Major Kira takes a village — or at least a production team. From the beginning, with the producers and showrunners who imagined her into existence, to the costumers and photographers, to the fans, and ultimately to Nana Visitor, all have had some part in making her who she was, and who she is today. In the next chapter I will look at the pilot episode and analyze how it introduced Major Kira and set up viewer expectations for the series.

Clemens-Smucker 67

CHAPTER THREE. THE INTRODUCTION OF MAJOR KIRA IN THE STAR TREK:

DEEP SPACE NINE PILOT “EMISSARY”

The pilot of any television series is, of course, the first glimpse viewers have of what the show will offer. From the style of storytelling to the setting to the characters, enough is fleshed out to (hopefully) motivate viewers to tune in again for the next episode. Jason Mittell, in his book Complex TV: The Poetics of Contemporary Television Storytelling, outlines the specific aspects of a pilot that tell viewers what they can expect from the continuing narrative. Mittell says a pilot works in several ways to inform the viewers: it teaches us how to watch the series, manages our expectations of what is to come, inspires us to keep watching, establishes setting, characters, and narrative situation, and shows us the norms of form, style, and themes. Using

Mittell’s approach, I will break down the character portion of the pilot of DS9 (“Emissary”) to analyze how Major Kira was introduced. All quotes from the teleplay are from “Emissary,” written by Michael Piller, with numbers identifying the section where they appear in the script.

“Emissary” introduces us to the entire crew of DS9, but not all are shown in equal depth.

Michael Piller, co-executive producer of DS9, talked about the idea that the first season had specific shows to help the audience get to know the different characters. The pilot, however, was reserved for deeper dives into just two people. “We did Sisko in the pilot, we did some Kira in the pilot, and then each one after that exposed more of the characters” (Altman 459). Piller’s comment makes it clear Kira was an important character for the audience to begin to get to know immediately, during the first episode of the series. So the questions become, what does the pilot tell us about Kira? How important are those first moments of introduction? What should we expect as far as storytelling when it comes to Kira’s character? We learn a lot of important things about Kira in the pilot, including her background, her most intimate friendships and enmities, her Clemens-Smucker 68 personality, her command style, and her skills. We will delve into each of these more specifically. But first, let’s start with just a bit about the overarching theme of the show, which was a darker narrative than previous Star Trek series.

Rick Berman and Michael Piller were coming up with the beginnings of the show when the 1992 riots in Los Angeles took place. While this didn’t change the entire story and environment of the show, it did affect the feeling. Rick Berman said

We were looking for a direction, and, as is typical of Michael, he was

frustrated and felt that something wasn’t working. He did a rewrite that was

not a major rewrite at all, but it was a rewrite that brought into it the ideas

that we had discussed all along that had to do with the 1992 Los Angeles

riots; the idea of people rebuilding and of people living in an area that had

been damaged and had been violated. And the spirit that goes into the

rebuilding of it (Altman 424).

The show was made to be dark, to be gritty, and to show people both in recovery mode (after being occupied by a hostile force) and in reconstruction mode. Kira was one of these people, and as we will see below, this is made apparent from the first time we see her.

Before we meet Kira, however, we see the station, our home for this series, from afar. We first see Commander Benjamin Sisko (Avery Brooks) during the prologue, and we know he is on his way to the station when we head into the front matter. The theme song, a majestic orchestral piece, was written by Dennis McCarthy, a composer who created music for several series in the

Star Trek franchise. When the music begins we see an expanse of space with only stars and blackness. As the music plays the camera pans and the station, seen from far away, comes into view. The title centers on the screen above the station, and a runabout space shuttle flies from the Clemens-Smucker 69 station toward the front of the screen, transitioning us to rotating close ups of the outside of the space station with its many lights, docking areas, levels, and rounded shape. The names of the cast and their characters are listed one by one as the music plays, and we view the station from multiple, always moving angles. Nana Visitor’s name comes last, since cast members are displayed alphabetically. After her name fades we see another runabout leaving the station, and end again on the starry black sky. The main body of the script is then ready to begin.

For this analysis I will be looking at the scenes which involve Kira. In each scene I will show dialogue which speaks to her personality, command style, relationship to others, or potential for growth. The plot actions I highlight are chosen specifically to illustrate these same characteristics, and to show how Kira instigates interactions or responds to them. Where another is present, it is to observe that person’s relationship to Kira and the way their character reacts to her words, actions, or presence.

From the first scene after the intro, the pilot episode leans heavily into the theme of rebuilding. The station, upon our first sight of it, is in chaos — broken instruments, looted stores on the promenade (the shopping center), and fleeing shopkeepers. The air is smoky, lights flash as if in warning, and people have to step over debris as they walk through the hallways. The camera swoops from high to low, rounding corners and traveling through the ruins. Lighting is dark and shadowy, and we aren’t certain what all might be hiding in the corners. A bleak beginning to what we expect, as a Star Trek show, to be an ultimately hopeful series.

We see instantly that the station is a place in flux. There are various alien species, a much more sinister atmosphere than earlier Star Trek series, and architecture that is vastly different from the starships which make up the main setting in other shows. Tension on the station is high, as leadership is set to change from the Bajorans — who actually own the station — to Starfleet. Clemens-Smucker 70

Here we begin the story, and with it we are introduced first to Commander Sisko, and then to

Major Kira, who we will follow through the narrative. From her first appearance, we know immediately what kind of person she is, and what we should expect from her moving forward.

Commander Benjamin Sisko comes onto the station for his first glimpse of his new home, should he choose to accept the position. His guide is Chief O’Brien (Colm Meaney), a crossover from TNG who is now one of the main cast members of DS9. They are walking to

Sisko’s office when Major Kira is first mentioned. O’Brien says, “I discussed [the lack of equipment and defenses] with Major Kira, the attaché assigned here by the Bajoran government…” (26). In this very first mention of Kira, before we even see her, we know she is a

Major, she is Bajoran, and that the Bajoran government assigned her to the job on the station. We understand she is not part of Starfleet, and since she was assigned, we know this was a position she was given, not one she necessarily chose.

When Sisko and O’Brien arrive at the bottom of the stairs leading up toward the office,

Sisko is discussing the architecture of “ops,” the area of the station equivalent to a bridge on a starship — the place decisions are made and actions taken which affect the entire station. “That’s the prefect’s office up there,” O’Brien says. Sisko looks up and says, “So all others have to look up with respect” (30-31). Sisko is gazing up at the office, a symbol of how he and others are meant to view the person inside. O’Brien continues the conversation by saying, “Yessir. Major

Kira has been using it…” (31). Because of her use of the office and O’Brien’s matter-of-fact statement about her, we get the feeling all others on the station do look up to her as their commanding officer, and we feel a bit intimidated, thinking about what she is going to be like.

Sisko and O’Brien hear Kira’s angry voice through the office door, and Sisko moves toward the office. “I guess it’s time to meet Major Kira…” O’Brien says, “Sir, have you ever served with Clemens-Smucker 71 any Bajoran women?” “No,” Sisko says. “Why?” O’Brien, not at all disrespectfully, says, “I was just wondering, sir” (31). We are forewarned by Sisko’s glance upward toward the office, Kira’s raised voice, and O’Brien’s thoughtful question that Sisko — and we as viewers — are about to meet someone with strength.

As Sisko enters the office we see Kira wearing a rust-colored Bajoran military uniform.

She is a “striking” (script adjective, 32) woman, in her thirties. She is speaking forcefully and we see her first from behind as she yells into a monitor where a man’s head and shoulders are visible. The camera moves to show a close up of her face, a camera tool used often for her scenes. “It has just become meaningless,” she is saying forcefully. “You are throwing it all away.

All of you.” The Bajoran bureaucrat on the monitor says, “You’re being a fool” (31). “Oh well, then,” she yells, “don’t ask for my opinion next time!” (32). She smacks a keyboard to turn off the monitor and rounds on Sisko. “Yes?” Sisko smiles. “I’m Benjamin Sisko.” She is obviously annoyed. “I suppose you want the office” (31). Sisko asks if something is bothering her, and she takes the opportunity to tell him that she has the “bad habit of telling the truth” and doesn’t believe the Federation (Starfleet) has any business being there on the Bajoran station. She and the provisional government don’t agree on many things, she tells him, and that is probably why they sent her to this “god-forsaken” place (31). She continues, “I have been fighting for Bajoran independence since I was old enough to pick up a phaser…finally, we drive out the

Cardassians…and what do our new leaders do…call up the Federation and invite them in…”

(32). Through this dialogue and Kira’s actions and behavior we as viewers see immediately that

Kira is opposed to Sisko’s presence, along with everyone else who has come aboard from the

Federation. We know already that she is fiery and unafraid, and she will not back down to anyone, whether it be the Bajoran bureaucrat on the monitor or Sisko himself. Clemens-Smucker 72

An alarm goes off and Kira presses a panel to ask someone if they are seeing something.

Odo (Rene Auberjonois), who is the station’s Constable (later Chief of Security), a shapeshifter, and Kira’s friend, appears on the monitor and tells Kira he will meet her at the designated area.

Kira tells Sisko, “We’ve been having a lot of break-ins lately…no need to come along,

Commander” (32). She makes it clear she has it covered, but he follows anyway. When they arrive, the thieves, including a young Ferengi named Nog (Aron Eisenberg) who becomes a recurring character, try to run, but Kira yells, “Hold it!” and cuts them off” (34). When the thieves are subdued, Kira explains to Sisko that Quark (Armin Shimerman), the Ferengi bar owner on the station, probably sent them there to steal the ore samples. In this instance she demonstrates her knowledge of the people involved, the items they stole, and the layout of the station. In the camerawork of this scene Kira is filmed from below, as a hero (see chapter two), showing us again that she is to be respected (and perhaps feared).

The next time we see Kira she is on the promenade clearing away fragments of a broken wall and throwing them into a trash bin, a task “Usually far too mundane a job for an officer”

(scene description, 45). Her jacket is off, and she wears a sleeveless shirt. Sisko is surprised (as perhaps viewers are) to see her working in that manner, but we see that to her it is just part of being a member of the community. She explains that “‘Everyone else is busy repairing the primary systems.’ She pauses to make a point. ‘I suppose Starfleet officers aren’t used to getting their hands dirty’” (45). She smirks at him, and he starts to help. Again, Kira is filmed from below as they work. During this section Kira tells Sisko that when she lived in the refugee camps they learned to do whatever had to be done, and it didn’t matter who you were. Here we begin to learn details of her personal history (alluded to in section 32), and that she grew up a victim of war. She tells Sisko about Quark, of her belief that the provisional government will be Clemens-Smucker 73 gone in a week, along with Starfleet, and then there will be a civil war. She says the only one who can prevent it is Kai Opaka, the spiritual leader of their world. Kira believes their planet’s religion is the only thing keeping them together. This is the first we hear of what for Kira will be a large part of her character’s continuing story, as well as an important part of who she is in the present time. We, as first episode viewers, are given the hint that the Bajoran religion will come up many times in the series, as will Kira’s beliefs. At the end of this scene, Sisko kneels to help her pick up some pieces, symbolizing the way they will work together throughout the series (45-

46). They are already becoming a team.

Several scenes later, we see that a small chink has been created in Kira’s armor when she calls Sisko to the promenade to show him that Quark has re-opened his bar, an event Sisko had encouraged. The fact that Kira invited Sisko to come see it is a small showing of the camaraderie they built as they were working together to clear away the broken wall (67). This is a sign of things to come, and a hint that their relationship, while contentious at the beginning, has potential to at least be civil.

When Lt. Cmdr. Dax (Terry Farrell) and Dr. Julian Bashir (Siddig El-Fadir, name later changed to Alexander Siddig) arrive on the station, Kira and Sisko go to meet them. Kira says,

“Commander, if you’d like me to give them a tour of the station…” (71) While Sisko has her take only Dr. Bashir, what is important here is that while Kira is acting in deference to Sisko, she is at the same time reminding him of her knowledge of the station, which is still far greater than his. Kira is not going to let him forget she knows what she is doing there.

Kira takes the doctor to sick bay, and through their interaction we see more in depth her love for Bajor. Bashir is a young, rather naive, and somewhat arrogant young man. When she apologizes for the looted state of sick bay, he responds that it’s perfect “Frontier medicine.” She Clemens-Smucker 74 responds unfavorably; he is insulting her home. He tells her he didn’t want a cushy job, but rather something in the wilderness. She goes very still, and it is apparent she is angry. “This wilderness is my home.” When he says, “I didn’t mean—” she gets in his face and speaks in a threatening manner, while smiling. “The Cardassians left behind a lot of injured people,

‘Doctor.’ You can make yourself useful by bringing some of your Federation Medicine to the

‘natives.’ You’ll find them a friendly, simple folk” (73). Bashir is shaken by her reaction, and we see without a doubt that Kira is not one to let anyone talk badly about her home. Having some young upstart come in and insult her world is not going to fly with her.

Later in ops, we are introduced to Kira’s enemy and nemesis who will plague her for the entire series of DS9, although viewers do not know that at this juncture. Kira is at the command center when O’Brien informs her there is a message coming in from a huge Cardassian warship.

It is Gul Dukat (Mark Alaimo). We see Kira from below as she spits, “Dukat. He used to be the

Cardassian Prefect of Bajor…” (90). Kira’s behavior and line delivery make it clear she hates

Dukat. Kira despises everything about him; this first mention of him, and her reaction, foreshadows everything that is to come. While not knowing the extent of Kira’s hatred, the audience can easily see there is much about this relationship to be discovered.

Kira’s next scene lets us know the way people on the station will work together, and that we have a lot to look forward to with their camaraderie and the way they deal with each other.

Kira walks with O’Brien into Quark’s busy bar and bangs a mug on a table. She is visibly annoyed. “Can we have your attention, please. This establishment is being closed” (99). Quark explodes and moves to confront her, but O’Brien blocks him, saying Quark will have to take it up with Sisko. We are confused at first that Kira would need O’Brien protecting her, but after

Quark gives the Cardassians a bag to collect their winnings he shoots Kira a look, and we see a Clemens-Smucker 75 close-up of her intense face, which tells us there is more going on here than we know (100). We soon learn that Kira, O’Brien, and Quark are in it together, setting up a plot to spy on the

Cardassians. The bag is Odo in a different form, and he is carried onto the Cardassian ship, where he plans to crash their computer. We see in this scene how Kira and others on the station work together to root out evil. This is a theme we return to again and again in DS9, and it is set up here in the pilot for the first time, giving viewers the satisfaction of knowing people on the station have each other’s backs.

Kira and Odo have a relationship which goes back years, and when she sees that the

Cardassians’ computer is down, she says with satisfaction, “Odo’s done it” (108). She is clearly pleased her old friend was successful. Later, when Odo transports back into ops, Kira congratulates him, and we see her obvious affection for him (114). Many times throughout the series Kira and Odo act as a team, and they have a deep relationship which reaches back to when

Kira was a young resistance fighter and Odo worked for the Cardassians. This close relationship is made plain here in the pilot, and the audience, if paying attention, can see that just as with

Dukat, there is much here to be discovered.

During the second half of “Emissary” we see another side of Kira. Most of her time is spent in either ops or a shuttle, in command while Sisko is gone. She is filmed almost always as a hero from a lower angle, and she shows confidence and skill as she gives orders and makes decisions. The officers follow her commands without hesitation, and she asks for and receives their expertise when needed. She records official 1st officer logs, and is creative in her command, looking for out-of-the box solutions to problems.

In this part of the episode we find out about a wormhole which has opened up near the station, and into which Sisko and Dax have disappeared in a runabout. Kira realizes this Clemens-Smucker 76 significant discovery could change the future of Bajor. She says, “That wormhole might just reshape the future of this entire quadrant. The Bajorans have to stake a claim to it” (172). “And I have to admit that claim will be a lot stronger if there’s a Federation presence to back it up”

(173). Kira shows here that she is willing to see Bajor’s future be shaped by something new and out of her control, and also that perhaps she was wrong about her absolute defiance against the

Federation’s presence on the station. This indicates her ability to learn and to be flexible, which are growing points for her throughout the series.

Kira and the crew can’t seem to locate Sisko and Dax’s runabout, but they do sense another object which they beam aboard. It is Dax, who had been placed in a special probe. She tells them she and Sisko met some hostile aliens in the wormhole and Sisko is still inside. Kira makes a decision to move the station closer to the wormhole in order to claim it and guarantee

Bajor’s future success, but O’Brien says it isn’t possible. She insists it has to happen, and Dax comes up with a solution O’Brien agrees with. O’Brien, even though he originally thought it couldn’t be done, takes Kira’s lead. Kira proves once again that she is worthy of trust and obedience, and she doesn’t back down when told something is impossible.

Kira knows she has to go after Sisko, and she shows her bravery by deciding to lead the away team herself. She leaves O’Brien in charge of ops while she heads to a runabout so she can rescue Sisko from the wormhole. In command, she tells Dax she is with her, and Bashir that it is his time to be a hero (173). On their way out Odo stops Kira and says he wants to go, too. Her affection for and protectiveness of him is apparent when she says she can’t justify it, and it may not be safe. The filming here is very heroic and commanding with Kira in the forefront and Dax and Bashir blurry in the background. Odo tells her his reasoning, and she listens carefully. After debating, she allows him to accompany her. Again, we see here both their trusting friendship and Clemens-Smucker 77 his respect for her and her command.

We soon see Dax and Kira in the pilot seats of the runabout, showing us that Kira knows how to fly, and giving us another opportunity to see her command a different kind of situation. A

Cardassian ship is headed for the wormhole. Kira hails it, identifying her ship and saying “Major

Kira Nerys in command” (198). She realizes the other pilot is Dukat. She very obviously hates him, but still feels she must warn him there is danger. He doesn’t listen, going into the wormhole anyway, and the wormhole explodes. Kira is stunned, but she recovers quickly and she and her crew go back to the station. During this scene we see Kira’s capability at navigating a craft, overcoming her feelings to help someone she hates, and dealing with crisis.

Back on the station, Kira is again in command in ops. She watches three Cardassian warships cross the border, and makes a 1st officer’s log detailing this, indicating that their scans reveal no trace of the wormhole or Dukat’s ship. The station is now at the wormhole coordinates, moved there because of Kira’s creative thinking. Kira asks O’Brien to now create a high energy

Thoron field to keep the Cardassians from scanning the station’s defense systems, showing her knowledge of the science necessary, as well as her command to ask for this to be done (236). Gul

Jasad (Joel Swetow), a Cardassian from the lead ship, hails the station. Kira swallows her distaste of Cardassians and tells him about the wormhole and Dukat’s disappearance into it.

“You expect me to believe that someone created a wormhole, and now conveniently disassembled it?” he asks. He is furious. Kira tells him, “That’s exactly what I expect you to believe” (237). She does not back down from his anger, and she obviously thinks that if he doesn’t believe her, it’s his own fault. The Cardassians take hostile action, and Kira confidently calls for red alert and shields up. She looks unflustered, and when the Cardassians hail her again,

Jasad says he is going to attack the station. Kira knows the station does not have strong shields, Clemens-Smucker 78 and she plays for time, saying she needs a day to make preparations to surrender. Jasad tells her she has an hour (239). Rather than panic, she immediately begins making plans.

We see her again from below as she decides what to do. She calmly asks Odo to move personnel to safer locations, and asks where the Enterprise is (the Starfleet flagship which brought some of the crew). When she is told it is already a day’s travel away, she calmly says they need to hold out until the Enterprise can return, and asks O’Brien if he agrees that surrender is not a preferable option. O’Brien mentions that she knows what the Cardassians do to prisoners. We understand that Kira absolutely knows what it is to be tortured by Cardassians, since we were told early on that she grew up under their oppressive state. She does not want to end up in that situation again.

Kira comes down from the upper deck, looking strong and confident. She tells O’Brien to fire six torpedoes at the Cardassians to give them her answer about whether or not they are surrendering. When O’Brien reminds her they only have six torpedoes, she says, “We’re not going to win this battle with torpedoes, Chief” (247). She knows she has to outsmart the

Cardassians, and at this point we are convinced she has the ability to do it. Jasad urgently hails the station. Kira is on the top level in a commanding position. She asks him if he thinks Starfleet would have left the station without defensive capabilities. He doesn’t believe she has many weapons and says “Your space station could not defend itself against one Cardassian warship.”

She smiles. “You’re probably right, Jasad. And if you were dealing with a Starfleet officer, they’d probably admit we have a hopeless cause here…but I’m just a Bajoran who’s been fighting a hopeless cause against Cardassians all her life… So if you want a war, I’ll give you one” (250, emphasis mine). This is Kira’s whole outlook on life, and underscores everything she will do in the rest of the series. This is an on-point description to the audience of who she is and Clemens-Smucker 79 what they can expect from her. O’Brien looks at her with admiration and says, “Major, remind me never to get into a game of Roladan Wild Draw with you” (250). She is pleased. Soon, the

Cardassians send out a sub-space message asking for reinforcements, which means a delay.

Bashir cheers, “Yes!” but Kira tells him it is too soon for a victory celebration. She knows it is not over.

The Cardassian ships move into an attack formation and Kira says quietly, “Battle stations” (253). The Cardassians attack. After the station shakes and there are several explosions

Kira calmly asks for a damage report and for alternate ways to route power. Odo calls up saying people are injured and the shields are failing. Kira knows it is hopeless and she must make a terrible decision. “Signal the lead Cardassian ship that we will proceed with the—” The wormhole bursts open. Kira hails Jasad and challenges him. “What did I tell you, Jasad…There’s your wormhole” (264). As she told Sisko in the very first scene – she had a bad habit of telling the truth. Even to Cardassians.

Sisko comes back through the wormhole. “Our friend Dukat had a few problems on the other side of the wormhole. I see you’ve had a few of your own.” Kira responds, “A few,

Commander.” She smiles with relief and pride. We have seen her face her worst fear — to be taken over once again by the Cardassians — and come out victorious on the other side. She handled the crisis with calmness and confidence, so we know that whatever the show throws at her in following episodes, she will give it a fight.

In the final scene Kira is at Quark’s. She tells him he “can’t cheat every customer who walks through your door anymore, Quark. You’re a community leader now.” Quark puts his hand on her hip. “Very well. Very well. Perhaps we could discuss these new rules over a drink…” Without hesitation she says, “If you don’t take that hand off my hip, you’ll never be Clemens-Smucker 80 able to raise a glass with it again” (274). She leaves as Quark watches her with admiration. This is a precursor of how their relationship will go, and also the kind of humor we can expect from

Kira and those she works with.

So, what does “Emissary” tell us about Major Kira? Quite a lot. Most of it we learn within moments. In single scenes we are told about her background as a Bajoran prisoner and resistance fighter, her enmity with Dukat, her knowledge of the station and its inhabitants, her skills, and her faith in the Bajoran religion. Over the course of the pilot we learn about her close friendship with Odo, her command style, her loyalty to Bajor, her ability to make decisions under pressure, and her willingness to work with others. Through other people we see how she is viewed by her subordinates and colleagues, her enemies, and her friends.

Kira is introduced with camerawork which shows her as someone to be respected, filming her from a low angle to show her heroism, and we see many close ups of her face, which show her intensity. She is dressed in a military uniform which squares her shoulders, and which gives us the supporting information that she is part of a hierarchical organization with rules and regulations. Her character is not without humor, however. She does not tell jokes, but we see the humor of her statement to Quark about taking his hand off of her hip; she will not let a violation like that go, and we know we will be able to enjoy her strength and command.

As a pilot, “Emissary” gives us a lot of information about the show, its style and tone, the kind of narrative it will tell, and what place it will hold in the Star Trek universe. Looking at it from a character perspective, it gives us a lot to digest about who Major Kira is and what kind of things we can expect from her character. Just as the station is dark, with the need for restoration, so is Kira’s outlook on life; she has many demons to face, and much darkness to overcome. Each scene involving the Major informs us of something important about her, which gives us Clemens-Smucker 81 expectations for what we will see in upcoming episodes, and what we have to look forward to.

Besides her strengths and background, we see areas of possible growth, such as the need to deal with the Federation moving into the station, Sisko taking over command, and her hesitation to accept having another entity in charge. We are given enough information to feel that we know her, but not so much that we feel all mysteries are explained. We know there will be a lot more to come.

Next, in chapter four, we will look at “Duet,” a season one episode which investigates further Kira’s hatred of the Cardassians and the history between their peoples. Again, we will use

Jason Mittell’s approach, this time using what he calls Poetics and Complexity.

Clemens-Smucker 82

CHAPTER FOUR. HOW “DUET” REPRESENTS THE CHARACTER AND GROWTH

OF MAJOR KIRA IN SEASON ONE

In this final chapter I will be analyzing “Duet,” a season one episode which explores

Major Kira’s love of Bajor as well as her racism and hatred toward the Cardassian people. The episode is a fan favorite (as evidenced by multiple “best of” lists which name the episode in its top rankings), but it is also special to those on the cast and crew. Michael Piller praised the theme of the show by saying “Premises that explore some nature of the human condition are the best shows. ‘Duet,’ which I find was probably the best show of the first season, was two characters in a room — very simple and very eloquent. It’s one of my favorite kinds of shows” (Reeves-

Stevens 279). In a personal interview on July 25, 2020, Marvin Rush, the Director of

Photography during the first two years of DS9 (see chapter two) said, “The best Star Treks in general are the ones that are essentially a morality play. And [“Duet”] is an example of that”

(Rush 7/25/20). Other actors usually name a favorite episode as one in which their character is featured, but Armin Shimerman, who played Quark, says “My favorite episode, ironically, is one that I had very little to do with. And that’s ‘Duet.’ That, I think, is a wonderful episode, with the writing and the directing and the acting all coalescing perfectly” (Erdmann 64). The creation of

“Duet,” one of the quieter, more intimate shows of the first season, turned out to be one of the series’ most favorably critiqued by all involved.

For the analysis of this episode, I will again be using the approach Jason Mittell explains in his book Complex TV: The Poetics of Contemporary Television Storytelling. The idea of

Poetics, as Mittell uses them, is to look at a text and ask, “How does this work?” His methods of using Historical and Cognitive Poetics will help us analyze this particular story and how it fits into Kira’s development as a character within the overall story of DS9 and the Star Trek Clemens-Smucker 83 franchise as a whole. I will also touch on feminine and masculine coding, and how this episode is viewed through that lens. Kira, as we’ve discussed in previous chapters, is unusual in her gender representation, and this episode is a prime example of the way that works. All quotes are from the teleplay for “Duet,” written by Peter Allan Fields, with numbers identifying the section where they appear in the script.

Looking at “Duet” through the Lens of Historical Poetics

Historical Poetics, a term Mittell borrows from film scholar David Bordwell, analyzes formal elements such as production, circulation, and reception of a show, including the way innovations changed the television dynamics of a particular series. One of the main things Mittell talks about as forming what he calls Complex TV is serialization. Mittell says serial narratives, like DS9, are stories which encompass more than just a single episode contained within one story. Serial narratives use the episodic approach, but the episodes build on each other, creating a world in which it matters what happened before, while each episode affects what happens after.

Mittell explains serialization as being made up of four parts: the story world, characters, events, and temporality. Before we get into the story world of this episode, however, let’s take a look at the formal Historical Poetics of the episode, including where “Duet” fits in the Star Trek universe, and within DS9 in particular.

“Duet” is the nineteenth episode of DS9. It falls between “Dramatis Personae,” which tells the story of the crew members as they are affected by an energy matrix which causes them to turn on each other until Odo (Rene Aberjonois) can counteract it, and “In the Hands of the

Prophets,” the last episode of season one, in which Kira is confronted with the knowledge that spiritual leader Vedek Winn (Louise Fletcher) does not have the Bajoran people at heart when she attempts to both turn the Bajoran people against the Federation and assassinate Vedek Bariel Clemens-Smucker 84

(Philip Anglim), her political rival and Kira’s friend (later lover). “Dramatis Personae” begins with a conflict between Kira and Commander Sisko (Avery Brooks) over allowing Valerians on the station; the Valerians ran a weapons-grade chemical called dolomide to Cardassian forces during the occupation, and continue to supply the Cardassians with weapons even after the treaty has been signed. While the Valerians are not ultimately the villains of the episode, they are just one of many crooked peoples who team up with the Cardassians over the run of the series, and are on Kira’s bad side because of her hatred toward anyone involved with her planet’s former oppressors. The episode, besides informing us of Cardassian occupation background, explores the relationships between Kira and others in the crew. “In the Hands of the Prophets” confronts

Kira’s faith and her willingness to admit mistakes and ultimately agree with Sisko about the criminality of Vedek Winn. While tension between Kira and Sisko infiltrates the show, by the end we see the positive progress their relationship has made throughout not just that episode, but during the entire season.

As background for “Duet,” it is helpful to know where the Bajoran/Cardassian conflict began in the overarching narrative of the Star Trek franchise, and how it continued. “Duet,” as mentioned above, is situated in the first season of DS9, which aired 27 years after TOS and during season six of TNG. The Bajoran people were introduced in season five of TNG, when

Ensign Ro (Michelle Forbes) was written into the show as a recurring character (see chapter two). We learned about Bajor and the conflict with the Cardassians in TNG, so when DS9 began, viewers who watched TNG were familiar with the people and the planet. Following DS9 is VOY, which benefited from ideas spawned in DS9. During season two of DS9 the Maquis, a group of freedom fighters which included Bajorans, was introduced (“The Maquis, Parts 1 and 2”) in episodes 20 and 21. The Maquis is made up of Federation colonists who find themselves living Clemens-Smucker 85 in Cardassian territory after the peace treaty is signed. A group of various species, the colonists resist the Cardassians, and aren’t afraid to use violence. The Maquis show up in a number of DS9 episodes, but really come to fruition in VOY, when the crew of Voyager chases some Maquis ships and ends up 70,000 light years away from Federation space, in the Delta Quadrant. Before

Voyager heads out after the Maquis during the episode, however, they stop over at Deep Space

Nine during “Caretaker,” VOY’s pilot, and we see some of the VOY crew interact with people on

DS9.

“Duet” (originally “The Higher Law”) is a story by two women, Lisa Rich and Jeanne

Carrigen-Fauci (who together wrote the season one episode “Move Along Home”). Peter Allan

Fields wrote the teleplay, and James Conway directed. At this point in the season the studio had used up the majority of its budget on earlier episodes, and needed to shoot a “bottle show,” which means they needed to stay on set with as few extras as possible.

‘We had to come up with some very creative ways to do shows that did not

cost a lot of money,’ Piller said. ‘Duet’ was pitched to us by two of our

interns, who wanted to do something about a war criminal. In the context it

was pitched, it didn’t turn me on. The idea of a war criminal found aboard

DS9 seemed to me to be an interesting concept, but at first it seemed to me

to be a Judgment at Nuremberg court show. We had done ‘Dax,’ which was

a court show, and didn’t want to do another. Ira Behr gave us the twist that

gave it The Man in the Glass Booth [a play by Robert Shaw] kind of feeling,

where the guy isn’t who he says he is but is doing it for more noble reasons.

The writing is really quite powerful’ (Altman 461).

“‘The basic premise,’ says Carrigan-Fauci, ‘was, ‘What would happen if you had to Clemens-Smucker 86 defend your worst enemy? What if you had to be responsible for his life’’” (Erdmann

65)? When they were able to cast Harris Yulin, a particular favorite of Fields’, as Kira’s counterpart, the production team was especially pleased, and felt Visitor and Yulin, along with director Conway, rose to the challenge (Erdmann 65). Unlike most other episodes in the series, there is not a subplot which fills in time or complements the main story arc.

This comes back to both the intimacy and intricacy of the plot, as well as the need to keep costs low. Budgetary considerations also meant there were not a lot of special effects, and the story remained a close study of relationships, personal struggle, and belief. “Bottle shows are loaded with dialogue,” Rush told me. “The writer realizes there’s nothing else to hang it on, no battle, no special effects. The only way to make a bottle show work is to create meaningful and powerful drama” (Rush 7/25/20). “Duet” was a great vehicle for relationship building, which we will dig into below.

The audience when DS9 first aired was comprised of both diehard Star Trek fans and those who watched only DS9 in the Star Trek franchise. Most people came to the show through

TOS and TNG, and knew the Star Trek universe well. That first year, as all television shows in that era, DS9 aired in a particular time slot in the television schedule, which Mittell calls

Scheduling as Orientation (264). This allowed viewers to understand the story world chronologically by knowing when the episodes were to be aired and planning to watch as they occurred on the small screen. In current times, all series of Star Trek can be streamed, and many new viewers come to DS9 in this way. As discussed in chapter two, the seriality of DS9 is more accessible today because people don’t have to worry about missing an episode and catching up.

Since the series can be streamed episode to episode, long story arcs can be watched and digested in a short amount of time without the inconvenience of missing part of the story. Whether Clemens-Smucker 87 watched in the 90s on television or today through streaming or DVD, by this time in the first season viewers have had time to get to know the characters and are well acquainted with Major

Kira, her hatred of the Cardassians, and her relationships with the people who live and work on the space station.

As mentioned in chapters two and three, DS9 was written to fill a different space from the other entries of the franchise. The producers and showrunners created the show to delve into specific issues of our real world, such as the 1992 Los Angeles riots and the conflict in the

Middle East, and to explore the way reconstruction and renewal can be pursued. They also borrowed heavily from WWII and the Holocaust, using the Bajoran/Cardassian conflict to mirror many of the atrocities committed by the Nazis. In his article “Speakers for the Dead: Star Trek,

The Holocaust, and the Representation of Atrocity,” Matthew Kappel says that “As Mack

Hassler and Clyde Wilcox have shown in their recent edited volume, Political Science Fiction, maybe all science fiction is political. However, this backstory makes DS9 by far the most political of the Trek shows. The planet in question is called Bajor and the inhabitants are the

Bajorans, but in significant ways they evoke the Hebrew people of Earth” (Kapell, 104). As a viewer, if you know anything about history, you cannot avoid the comparison between the show and the Holocaust. Neither TOS nor TNG focused on any one issue in nearly the same depth, length, or number of episodes as did DS9. Other aspects of production decisions about the show and about Kira in particular can be found in chapter two of this thesis.

Looking at “Duet” through the Lens of Cognitive Poetics

Cognitive poetics, or narrative comprehension, is another important part of understanding both a serialized television show and individual episodes. Mittell says that when we watch a show “we learn about characters’ backstories, relationships, interior motivations, and beliefs Clemens-Smucker 88 throughout a series. We gather information about the story world’s geography, history, temporality, and particular norms and rules, especially in genres with somewhat unreal universes, such as science fiction and fantasy” (166-7). “Duet,” while a specific story which takes place in the window of screen time allotted an episode, also builds on information we have learned in the first eighteen episodes, as well as in TOS and TNG. While we could watch the episode as a stand- alone, the meaning is deeper when we understand the characters and narrative through our knowledge of and investment in the characters. In my analysis below I will use Cognitive Poetics to show how the episode is part of the larger, overarching narrative of the series.

The arc of the story comes about in this way. A freighter arrives at DS9, on which a passenger is suffering from what the captain says is Kalla-Nohra Syndrome, a disease specific to a mining accident at Gallitep, a labor camp where Bajorans were held during the Cardassian occupation. Kira, assuming the patient is a surviving Bajoran, asks permission to meet the passenger in sick bay. When she arrives, however, she sees that the patient is a Cardassian and immediately calls for Odo to come arrest him. Kira explains to Sisko that the only way the

Cardassian could have Kalla-Nohra is if he was part of the oppressing complement at the camp.

When Sisko goes to see the man, who says his name is Aamin Marritza (Harris Yulin), two things occur: the Bajoran in the adjoining cell, Kainon (Tony Rizzoli), awakens and demands to be released because he doesn’t want to be in jail with “one of them;” and Marritza says he is suffering from another similar disease and has never been to Bajor…he is simply a file clerk. Back at Sisko’s office, Kaval, the Bajoran Minister of State (Ted Sorel) tells Sisko that if

Marritza was at Gallitep, he expects Sisko to hand him over. Kira asks Sisko to allow her to investigate the man’s identity, and after considering her request, he agrees.

It is proven by medical tests that Marritza does have Kalla-Nohra, and he admits to Kira Clemens-Smucker 89 that he was at Gallitep, but insists he served only as a file clerk. Kira finds herself wishing he were someone else, someone worse, because she wants to punish him for being at Gallitep at all.

Dax (Terry Farrell) gently prods Kira to think about what she is doing and how she is feeling, saying that Kira knows vengeance is not enough; Marritza needs to be guilty of something atrocious, or punishment won’t mean anything.

Odo (Rene Auberjonois) is able to get an old photograph from the labor camp, but the man tagged as Aamin Marritza is not the man in the cell. He is listed on the photograph as Gul

Darhe’el, the man who ran the labor camp and was known as the Butcher of Gallitep. Kira confronts Darhe’el and he is thrilled to admit that yes, he was the one who ran the camp. He was the best at his job, he says, which was exterminating Bajorans, while Kira ran around with her little Shakaar resistance cell and annoyed Cardassians.

After this confrontation Odo asks Kira how Gul Darhe’el, one of the highest ranking military leaders of Cardassia, would know who she was, let alone what resistance cell she was a part of. They do more digging, and Kira’s nemesis Gul Dukat (Mark Alaimo) tells Odo that Gul

Darhe’el isn’t alive anymore — he died years ago. In addition, he wasn’t on Gallitep the day of the mining accident, so there was no way he would have contracted Kalla-Nohra. Dr. Bashir

(Alexander Siddig El-Fadir) also tells Kira that the man is taking a drug used only by people who have altered their appearance.

When Kira brings this news to the man in the cell, he tries to keep up the story, but eventually breaks down and admits he really is Aamin Marritza, the file clerk. He is ashamed he was so cowardly he couldn’t do anything to help the suffering Bajorans at Gallitep, and he wanted to come back as Gul Darhe’el so he would be charged for his crimes. But Kira has seen the good heart in Marritza and releases him. She is walking him to his ship back to Cardassia Clemens-Smucker 90 when Kainon, the Bajoran from the jail, runs up and stabs him. Kainon screams that being

Cardassian was enough for him to deserve to die. Kira, distraught, says that no, it wasn’t.

Now that we see the structure of the episode we can return to the four aspects of serial narratives, which are part of Cognitive Poetics: storyworld, characters, events, and temporality.

The storyworld of DS9, as discussed above and in other chapters, is part of the world of Star

Trek, and thus indoctrinated viewers understand key elements such as Starfleet, the Federation of

Planets, intergalactic species such as Bajorans, Cardassians, Klingons, and Ferengi, and space travel on large and small ships. Viewers know that the hierarchy of Starfleet command is understood and followed by the main characters, and that in the world of Starfleet people want to do the right thing to keep the peace and live with integrity among all species. Of course there are those exceptions within the various episodes and narrative arcs who play the parts of villains, but overall we understand that the future is a better place, where people — on earth, as well as many other planets — have learned to live together peacefully, and strife such as hunger and most disease has been eradicated.

Unlike the first two series, DS9 is set on a space station far from earth, close to the planet

Bajor. All episodes take place at least partially on the station, and in others, as “Duet,” every moment of the action is contained within its walls. Since the storyworld of DS9 is a serialized, cumulative telling of tales, “Duet” adds onto the story of Kira, building on her background of childhood internment camps, her hatred of Cardassians, her prickly personality, her relationships with people on the station, and her persistent quest for truth and doing what is right.

The characters in “Duet” consist of the main cast, whom we know from previous episodes, named characters which are introduced for this particular story, and unnamed extras we will not come to know except as part of the setting. Kira’s relationships with Dax, Sisko, and Clemens-Smucker 91

Odo are stretched and strengthened through the narrative of “Duet,” although Kira’s relationship with Aamin Marritza takes up most of the emotive space of the episode. Kainon is involved for only a few scenes, but delivers the final tragedy of the story, to which Kira responds and is ultimately changed.

Kira and Dax start out the episode having a casual, fun conversation about pranks they played when they were children and how they weren’t afraid to break some rules, which comes back in Kira’s story during this episode when she admits to Sisko that she knows throwing

Marritza into a cell wasn’t exactly policy, or even legal, “But it’s right” (16). Later in the story we see the deeper relationship Kira and Dax share when Dax challenges Kira’s views of vengeance and her willingness to bend the rules while seeking something to ease her pain. We observe their closeness through both conversations, that they are intimate enough to share childhood memories as well as heavy adult issues, and that Dax isn’t afraid to gently call Kira out when she can’t see herself clearly.

In “Emissary,” discussed in chapter three, we were introduced to the deep and longstanding relationship between Kira and Odo. Throughout season one this is supported through episodic texts, and we see it again here in “Duet.” When Kira calls Odo from sick bay as soon as she sees the Cardassian and asks for security, he responds without hesitation, backing her up without further explanation, responding simply, “I’m on my way, Major” (12). In the remainder of the episode we see them working as a team, whether it is questioning Marritza together, Odo backing Kira up during conversations with Sisko, Odo going the extra mile to get information from Dukat, discussing gaps in Marritza’s story, or Odo accompanying Kira and

Marritza through the promenade when Marritza’s identity has been discovered. The way Kira and Odo work together is natural and smooth, and Odo is shown to always have Kira’s best Clemens-Smucker 92 interests at heart, whether it is finding information for her or kindly guiding her to the truth. We can see there is more to be told about their story, and the way they work together adds a feeling of warmth to the episode.

Kira’s relationship with Sisko is more complex. Because he is her commander she is beholden to his orders. In the first scene when she asks permission to meet the passenger in sick bay, filming is done so that Sisko is above her, as opposed to “Emissary” and many other episodes in which Kira is shot mostly as a hero (see chapters two and three). She is Sisko’s subordinate in this situation, which is mirrored in the filming. “In other episodes I shot Kira from below because she was a heroic, strong, physical character” Rush told me. “When she was being powerful and dominant physically or emotionally, I could use the lower camera angle. Here she was asking for permission, trying to convince Sisko to let her do something. She is subservient in that situation. She can’t have power in that moment” (Rush 7/25/20). Later in the episode, however, we see Kira and Sisko sitting together at a table in the promenade. Sisko says he has given Odo the authority to investigate the prisoner, and when Kira tells him Minister Kaval of the Bajoran government put her in charge he reminds her that Minister Kaval does not run the station. Kira respond that “the Federation’s got no right telling us how to deal with our criminals” (21). Sisko assures her that if Marritza is found to be a criminal she can have him.

Kira then pleads with him as his first officer, and promises she will conduct herself accordingly.

When he still doesn’t answer, she asks him as a friend — she is a Bajoran, and she asks to do it for the victims who can’t ask. Finally Sisko relents, and she thanks him. During this exchange they are each filmed at eye level, as equals, as friends.

As mentioned, Kira’s relationship with Marritza carries the heavy emotional punch of the episode. Kira first views him with suspicion and hatred, which throughout the episode changes to Clemens-Smucker 93 confusion and guilt, to pity, and finally to respect. Her feelings for him vary depending on where she is in the journey of exploring his story and her own desire for vengeance. During their various conversations we see through many close-up shots the way her emotions are tearing her apart; we see the emotion in her eyes and the way her face works through her feelings.

When you don’t have action and a lot of movement in the story,” Rush said,

“one of the things you can do is put the camera on a big close up. You can

see emotional content more clearly and more forcefully in a close up, see

an internal action you can’t see from an away shot. There is not a lot of low

angle stuff [in “Duet”] because Jim Conway wanted to let the faces of the

actors tell the story, and there’s not a lot of movement. The face itself

becomes movement” (Rush 7/25/20).

Since we see Kira’s emotions through her face in much of the episode, we do what Mittell describes as mind reading. We intuit that Kira wants to believe Marritza is someone who deserves her hostility, who is laughing at her and at all Bajorans, but eventually she sees the truth. Marritza is a man of deep sorrow and shame, who can’t come to terms with the horrible actions of his people. The following conversation encapsulates much of his pain, as well as the guilt with which Kira herself is dealing.

MARRITZA. …let’s get to the real issue. How many Cardassians did you kill? I mean

personally.

KIRA. I didn’t keep count.

MARRITZA. Oh, I think you did. And I’m sure your total wasn’t limited to military

personnel. After all, the most effective terrorist weapon was random violence.

KIRA. (rises to leave) Clemens-Smucker 94

MARRITZA. Don’t leave now, Major. Not when it’s finally getting good. How many

Cardassian civilians did you kill?

KIRA. Look, I regret a lot of what I had to do.

MARRITZA. How convenient for you.

KIRA. We had no choice! We were fighting for survival!

MARRITZA. So were we! We had an empire to protect. We needed your resources!

Everything I did was for the greater glory of Cardassia! And if you spineless scum

had to be ground under, so much the better! All that mattered was Cardassia! I

loved my homeland! That’s what justified my action; that’s what gave me my

strength.

KIRA. Nothing justifies genocide.

MARRITZA. What you call genocide, I called a day’s work! (43)

Within this conversation lies the thrust of the entire episode. Kira’s guilt about hating

Cardassians is fueled by the guilt she felt about what she “had to do.” Marritza’s guilt about what his people did is fueled by the idea that all of it was done for the “greater glory of Cardassia.” He speaks the language he would have heard during the occupation to explain why the Cardassians had taken over the Bajorans — “We needed your resources!” He preaches in this section as if he really believes what he is saying, that he as Gul Darhe’el really was acting for the greater good.

It is only later we — and Kira — see he was speaking with great guilt and shame. The reasons he was given for the Cardassians’ treatment of the Bajorans resound with emptiness. Kira, speaking of her own violence, doesn’t want to look directly at her own actions during the occupation.

Together they are speaking past each other; each feels horror and regret at what took place during those years. When the truth comes out and Kira realizes Marritza’s great pain and sorrow Clemens-Smucker 95 because of the actions of his people, she is able to overcome her darkest feelings to understand that — at least in this one case — a Cardassian could be someone of merit. Her depth of pain when he is murdered shows the hope she held for a few moments, that she, a Bajoran, could work together with a Cardassian toward even a small spark of peace. Her feelings are spoken in the final scene, just before Marritza’s murder. She tells him, “If Cardassia is going to change it’s going to need people like you” (52). Unfortunately, he dies moments later, and Kira’s newfound hopes are destroyed.

The events and temporality, parts three and four of Mittell’s analysis of a serial narrative, are closely intertwined within the story, as the current narrative takes place only because of historical happenings. Were it not for the Cardassian occupation, Kira’s backstory would be completely different, as would the relations between worlds. Kainon would not hate the

Cardassians, and Marritza would be free to live out his life as a file clerk on his beloved homeworld. Because the past happened the way it did, Kira, Marritza, and Kainon behave and respond as their background dictates, with the Bajorans’ distrust of, and hatred toward,

Cardassians, and Marritza’s guilt over the sins of his people.

Clues to the mystery of Marritza’s identity come from both the past and the present. His history of military service at Gallitep caused him to become ill with Kalla-Nohra, the photo from the past indicates something is off with identification, and Gul Darhe’el’s death from years earlier precludes the idea that he is in the station’s prison. Present discoveries which lead to the truth include the medical tests which indicate both Kalla-Nohra and the presence of the drug used after Marritza’s physical alterations, as well as Dukat’s willingness to share information.

These are the final betrayals which dispel the falsehoods perpetrated by Marritza. He wanted these discoveries to be made, and believed they would be, or his changed appearance and trip to Clemens-Smucker 96

DS9 would have been in vain.

Alignment and Allegiance

In addition to Historical and Cognitive Poetics, Mittell names Alignment and Attachment, other ways to look at the text and read what it is attempting to say. One of the main outcomes of

“Duet” is that the viewer receives a deeper alignment with and attachment to Kira. We feel a renewed alignment and connection to her because we have access to her interior state of emotions and morality through the scenes in which she confronts her racism, her hostility, and her desire to see Marritza punished for the pain she and her people suffered at the hands of the

Cardassians. We also feel a greater allegiance toward her because we see her struggles, and we become emotionally invested in what Roberta Pearson calls a “higher degree of self-awareness” and “life-transforming decisions” (Mittell 134). At the beginning of the episode we observe

Kira’s communication with the Kobheerian captain (non-Bajoran humanoid species) and observe none of the hatred or racism she shows toward Cardassians, and during her conversation with

Dax mid-episode they stand in the midst of people of many species about whom Kira shows no negative feelings, or even any awareness that they are present and different. We understand that

Kira is not a xenophobe; she has reasons for her hostility which have to do with personal experience, and not the simple fact that Cardassians are a different species. In this episode alone she interacts with humans, Trills, Ferengi, shapeshifters, and many other species, so therefore her struggle to accept the idea that not all Cardassians are evil is one which feels truthful to us. She begins the episode in tune with Kainon, the Bajoran prisoner, but ends the episode with the discovery that his blind hatred is no way to live. We are able to see her character growth and character education (Mittell’s terms for maturation and learning a life lesson) and believe she has the ability to make this change. This character transformation (Mittell’s word for a gradual shift Clemens-Smucker 97 of morality, attitudes, and sense of self, manifested in altered actions and long-term repercussions) is what keeps viewers coming back to see how and if a character will change.

Kira’s ability to see Marritza as a good man gives us hope she will be able to come to terms with her past, and that moving forward she will continue to grow as a person and a character. As we see in the following episode, “In the Hands of the Prophets,” Kira must confront her views about the Bajoran faith, and her growth in “Duet” deepens those changes.

In my January interview with Visitor I asked how she prepared for “Duet,” if there were specific ways she studied and considered people who had suffered in the Holocaust, and how she could use that preparation for a story which takes place so far in the future. She said, “I immersed myself in Kira’s world and in real time, went through her past and what I imagined was painful and full of things that I know happen when cruelty and power mix. Loss is loss is loss (to take the popular saying to a darker place). I did it so relentlessly I had dreams that were

Kira’s, not my own. But when I did the scenes they felt like the truth to me” (Visitor 1/23/20).

Visitor also spoke about this episode in The Fifty Year Mission: The Next Twenty-Five Years.

The action comes out of big issues on this show. There’s action and intrigue,

but the writing really lets us deal with issues we’re not embarrassed to

commit ourselves to as actors and people. On a sitcom, very often it’s

‘Should I let Johnny stay out after midnight or not?’ It’s an important issue,

but not quite so much as Holocaust victims and facing evil in one person

and how you deal with that, which is one thing that I had to deal with in

‘Duet.’ It was kind of harrowing to have to deal with that subject matter

every day, but the harder it is, the more rewarding it is (Altman 461).

Visitor viewed Kira’s character growth as important and visceral; something real that not Clemens-Smucker 98 only she, but we as viewers, see and internalize.

Feminine and Masculine Coding Within an Emotional Mystery

As an episode so drenched in emotion and inner turmoil, most critics would read “Duet” coded as feminine; on the other hand, the episode is also coded as masculine because it is a mystery, traditionally a masculine type of story about thinking instead of feeling. Coding “Duet,” however, is complex. If we simply see the logic of figuring out a puzzle as masculine and the emotional issues as feminine, we miss other coding present in the episode. As discussed in previous chapters, the character of Kira, while a woman, performs a role which holds many non- traditionally feminine aspects. She is a soldier, she is in command, and she behaves in ways which are not usually attributed to women (especially women of the 80s and 90s) either in real life or on television — assertive, decisive, angry, hostile, physically strong, and firm. Many of her emotional responses refer back to her years as a soldier and resistance fighter, as well as her time as an inhabitant of a labor camp, so she does not have the typical, traditionally female behaviors usually attributed to television women. Kira, with her hybrid coding, is a feminist of the 90s, albeit living three hundred years in the future. She joins the other female characters of chapter one by pushing the boundaries of what it means to be a woman on TV. Because of this mixture of coding, “Duet” offers a blend of gendered appeals to viewers, both emotional and logical. Kira is at the center of a masculine coded story, responding with emotions which are both volatile and understandable, so they don’t necessarily fit the traditional coding of femininity.

Because of the way “Duet” is set up, we follow regular narrative strategies for an episode with a puzzle element. A mystery presents itself in the first scene and we aren’t sure how Kira will move forward. As the investigation progresses, we learn facts along with Kira, not knowing Clemens-Smucker 99 until she does that Aamin Marritza is playing a dangerous and deadly game with his own life. We don’t know who to believe, or whether anything he is telling us is true, until we are hit with the narrative special effect which comes in the form of the photographic twist. Even without regular explosive and fantastic special effects, we are given spectacle through engineering of a photograph which surprises not only Kira and her co-workers, but us as viewers. We relish being manipulated creatively, and because of our ignorance of Marritza’s plan until Kira discovers the truth, we are actively engaged and successfully surprised. The puzzle, investigation, and solution are satisfying, with all of the clues there for the finding, should we go back and look.

Conclusion of Analysis

“Duet” serves as an appropriate text to analyze Kira and her character’s role in DS9. In this analysis we looked at the episode first through Historical Poetics, where we saw how it fits in the Star Trek franchise, the genesis of its creation, and the way viewers approached it on the original air dates and today with streaming. Cognitive Poetics allowed us to study the storyworld, where we looked at the specific parameters of DS9, the way the episode delved into Kira’s relationships, and how events and temporality worked together to create the plot and its discoveries. Our alignment with and allegiance to Kira are strengthened through this episode, as we invest time and emotion in her growth as a character. Finally, we looked at the hybrid gender coding of the episode to see that although the episode qualifies as a masculine coded mystery, feminine coding is also present through the relationship building and emotional investment. Kira herself is a coding hybrid, with her feminine and masculine attributes and her ability to change and dig deeply within herself to discover the truth of her feelings and grow as a person.

Clemens-Smucker 100

CONCLUSION

“And with that thought of the ability of one fictional character in an

imaginary setting to change some people’s views and to provide inspiration

to others, we have moved 180 degrees from the simple, nonemotional

business decisions that first led to Deep Space Nine’s creation, and found

the true core of what can be so good and so worthwhile in television.

– Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens,

The Making of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

Through the creation of Major Kira Nerys, a fully-realized, relatable, futuristic woman who embodied intelligence, individualism, and adaptability, viewers were and are shown the possibilities of becoming a person of such admirable traits during their own time. There was a great lack of female protagonists on television in the 90s, and the women who were present on the screen had to deal with many struggles and obstacles. Women on TV, as in real life, were most often viewed as objects, either thin or fat, sexy or not. There were a few remarkable female protagonists, however, who challenged both feminism and the patriarchy by taking on traditionally masculine roles and putting to the side some of the more superficial subjects attributed to women. Major Kira was beautiful, but she never had episodes which focused on her outward appearance. She was slender, but never viewed as weak. She was tough and often angry, but never used those traits to show superiority, or to denigrate others. DS9, rather than focusing

Kira’s character on traditionally feminine traits of appearance, jealousy, and personal drama, chose to delve into deeper narrative elements such as racism, violence, and loyalty. Kira is positioned as a hybrid character of feminine and masculine traits, and while her appearance was Clemens-Smucker 101 not ultimately important to her actions, it also was not sacrificed for her personality, as is often expected of feminists.

As DS9 and a few other shows worked to portray women in a way more representative of real women of the 90s, writers put female characters in real-life situations. They were seen at work, taking care of family members, and navigating being married or single. Kira, as a commander and soldier, escapes traditional feminine roles to focus on her job and keeping people safe. While this does not mean she avoids relationships altogether, finding a partner is not the main narrative of her character. Kira ends the series as a highly respected colonel, the commanding officer of the space station.

Kira represents 90s ideals of gender equity and awareness, and can be viewed as postfeminist by standing for excellence in her career, a high-profile example in what would traditionally be considered a man’s world. She views her job as essential and worth doing to the best of her ability, and is viewed by her colleagues with respect. Her romantic relationships are loving and equal, and never serve as obstructions to her work. Even her pregnancy, whether as the character or actor, is seen as simply a part of the situation, and does not, for the most part, interfere with what needs to happen. Nana Visitor’s acting ability has been praised by coworkers and viewers alike, so she herself brings postfeminism to the job, both working hard and commanding respect from those who surround her. Kira and Visitor do, however, reject the self- fulfillment of postfeminism, looking to better the world around them for all women. While living in a postfeminist future and embodying some aspects of postfeminism, Kira’s life and behavior fits also within the third-wave feminist camp, since she is concerned with others around her.

The Star Trek franchise has a long history of empowering women, from Uhura on TOS to contemporary characters which continue to be created. Following Uhura, the characters Troi, Clemens-Smucker 102

Crusher, Yar, and Guinan of TNG laid down work which made Kira’s character possible by showing women on the bridge crew, commanding others, and enjoying full lives. Jadzia and Ezri

Dax were equal companions on DS9, showing other aspects of how to be feminine in a 90s show.

Following DS9, VOY was able to have not only a female captain of a starship headline a show, but three female scientists who were made possible by characters such as Kira leading the way.

ENT can be seen as a step backward because of its sexualized and marginalized female characters, but the more recent series, DIS and PIC, show more promise with female leads who are commanders, scientists, and even more flawed than previous characters.

Visitor herself viewed Kira as an inspiration, and she continues to receive letters and accolades for how she and Kira inspired women around the world. I asked Visitor in what ways she found that exploring Kira, a woman of the future, explored the women of the 90s, and what the character said about feminism.

I think it’s interesting that Kira was an angry militant that had been under

an occupation that used its underclass as slaves. Although Bajorans could

stand in for any culture that has been dominated, they can easily stand in for

women as well I think. To understand her struggle and what was directly

underneath her anger could be seen as a portal for understanding the

struggle women have experienced as well as exposing the mistaken beliefs

of any kind of female inferiority that she disproved in the way she lived

(Visitor 7/23/20).

Not only is Kira an inspiration to characters on DS9 and other Star Trek shows, she is someone viewers both from the 90s and contemporary times aspire to be.

The creation of Major Kira as a main character came first out of the decision of another Clemens-Smucker 103 woman not to take a role. When Michelle Forbes turned down the part of Ensign Ro, who was designed to be the main Bajoran Starfleet officer on the space station, the writers had to come up with someone new. In retrospect, it turned out better than they planned, because Kira, as a

Bajoran national, was able to oppose Commander Sisko in ways another Starfleet officer could not. Kira’s character went from being a one-sentence description in the show’s bible to being one of the two people introduced in detail during the pilot.

When Nana Visitor auditioned for the role of Major Kira, the production team immediately knew she was the right one. Although Visitor’s manager advised her not to take the part, she chose to sign anyway. The role was everything she wanted in a character — someone who was not there to help identify another character through her role as a mother, a wife, a prostitute, or a killer. Kira was her own person, and this was the kind of role Visitor had been looking for, and she did not want to turn it down. The production staff saw in her what they needed for Kira, and expressed their opinions that Visitor filled in the corners of the character, making her the fully-rounded person she became.

The concept of DS9 was to show the equality and diversity possible in the future, but of course the show was created using the limited knowledge of what the 90s were like. Different identities of gender, sex, race, and species were all a part of the DS9 landscape, which made it possible to explore narratives about issues of the 90s without specifically naming current events.

Kira, being Bajoran and representing a hybrid of feminine and masculine ideals, was the right person to bring some of those narratives to light, including racism, which was one of her main character points. She was also someone living with PTSD, which was an important medical condition newly accepted as a disorder in the 90s. While much more understood and treated today, the fact that Kira suffered from PTSD was a step toward acknowledging the seriousness of Clemens-Smucker 104 the condition. While there were other aspects of her character that screamed 90s, such as her padded figure and bland romantic relationships, there was much which pushed the boundaries of what acceptable behaviors were for a woman on television, including her job, her fiery temper, and her physical strength.

The production values surrounding Kira were important in depicting her as a commanding figure on the show. Marvin Rush explained how he always shot her as a hero, which was made possible by Visitor’s physical presence. Instead of shooting her to be simply attractive (although that was a consideration) he also wanted her to be seen as heroic. The costumes she wore were both fitting for her rank and complimentary to her physical attributes.

Visitor herself requested costume changes and different hair styles throughout the years, wanting to highlight aspects of Kira’s personality; Kira, a soldier and commander, wouldn’t be spending time in front of the mirror each morning. She would just get up and go. Major Kira was written as a hero, and the production staff made sure their part of the representation created that image.

Kira did change throughout the series, as any growing character does. Three major changes came about through the years. After the first few seasons, certain viewers complained she was too aggressive and intimidating. While the production staff considered that a problem with our society rather than the concept itself, they did soften her just a bit. Part of that softening came when Visitor herself became pregnant and they wrote the pregnancy into the script. While she still did her job, the image of a pregnant woman did have an impact in how she was seen.

Finally, Kira was promoted to the rank of Colonel during the final season, rewarding her years of commitment to Bajor, as well as her ability to do her job well.

Fan interaction has been an important part of both DS9 and Major Kira, and Visitor has always listened to the voices of viewers. Back in the 90s hearing from fans was important in her Clemens-Smucker 105 own interpretation of Kira, for she believed invested fans were the experts on the series.

Throughout the past decades Visitor has continued to interact with viewers both new and old, as people both re-watch the series and find it fresh through streaming services. Streaming allows for a new kind of binge-watching which complements the serialized arcs of DS9, and Visitor attends conferences every year just to be among fans. The fact that she responded favorably to interviews for this thesis highlights her commitment to continuing the life and relevance of Kira and what she says about people and our world.

The pilot of the series, “Emissary,” introduced us to the show and what to expect from the storylines and characters, its style and tone, and what place it would hold in the Star Trek universe. It also gave us a lot of information about Kira and Sisko, the two characters with the most information shared during this first episode, proving their importance to the overarching narrative of the show. Every scene involving Kira taught us something important about her life, including her background as a soldier and freedom fighter, her friends and enemies, and her command style and skills. By the end of the episode we learned enough about Kira to get an idea who she is, and to understand there was still much to discover, including her strengths, as well as possible areas of growth. We felt we knew quite a bit about her, but understood there were more mysteries to be explained; there will be a lot more of interest to come.

The season one episode “Duet” expanded on the information we learned in the pilot and in other previous episodes. “Duet” showcased the way Kira grew throughout the first season, and highlighted the areas of her personality and psyche she still needed to confront and either accept or change. Using Historical and Cognitive Poetics, we were able to see how “Duet” fits within both the series and the Star Trek franchise. We looked at how the episode came about, the way it was produced, and how viewers accepted it. Our investment in Kira’s character is strengthened Clemens-Smucker 106 by her growth in this episode, and our alignment with and allegiance to her grew because of her ability to change and transform. We understood that Kira is a hybrid of feminine and masculine coding, with the emotional heights of this episode coupled with the logical mysteries she solved.

“Duet” leads into the final episode of the season, which ends the narrative arc of the first season by highlighting her ability to dig deep into herself and see that not everything is how she believed it to be. We understand she is a character with strong emotions and beliefs, but she is able and willing to realize when she needs to see things in a new light.

DS9 is a product of the 90s, but still speaks to issues alive in our current society. We see today that racism still affects the lives of people all around the world. Women must fight for equal pay and freedom from sexualization and sexual harassment. Wars are fought world over because of lack of both resources and compassion. The messages of DS9 still resonate today.

Beyond the messages of the show, we see through this study that what is happening in our world inserts itself into current popular culture, no matter when those stories take place. By looking at the creation of Major Kira we see how the 90s played a part in everything about her; her appearance, romantic partners, personality, and career all spoke to what was going on in the workplaces, salons, homes, and politics of the time during which she was being written. So too are popular culture texts being written today which reflect our national and global issues. It should be possible to take any contemporary text and see something of our culture written there.

While there have been missteps in the Star Trek universe, such as the hesitancy of the studio to allow Uhura a fully-realized characterization in TOS and the sexualized and narrow portrayals of the women in ENT, Major Kira and the women in the greater Star Trek franchise show us what is possible in the future. We see a day when women are in command, excelling in the scientific fields, and revered as worthy of respect and loyalty. Major Kira represents the ideal Clemens-Smucker 107 of how it should be, a world where women have the freedom to succeed without apology, and to grow and change without judgement. We see a world, a time, where there is no question of whether or not women can or should serve and live in the same capacity as men. We see a world where no woman has gone before.

Clemens-Smucker 108

WORKS CITED

Altman, Mark A. & Edward Gross. The Fifty-Year Mission: The Complete, Uncensored,

Unauthorized Oral History of Star Trek, The Next 25 Years. Thomas Dunne Books, 2016.

Bacon-Smith, Camille. Enterprising Women: Television Fandom and the Creation of Popular

Myth. University of Pennsylvania Press, 1992.

Badley, Linda. “Scully Hits the Glass Ceiling: Postmodernism, Postfeminism, Posthumanism,

and The X-Files.” Fantasy Girls: Gender in the New Universe of Science Fiction and

Fantasy Television, Edited by Elyce Rae Helford, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.,

2000.

Berman, Rick, and Michael Piller. Star Trek Deep Space Nine: writers/directors guide.

Paramount, 1992.

Carollo, Lilly. “Star Trek: Discovery’s showrunners on what to expect from the first Trek TV

series in 16 years.” Vox, 22 Sept. 2017, www.vox.com/fall-tv/2017/9/22/16338658/star-

trek-discovery-cbs-preview-showrunners-anthony-rapp.

Erdmann, Terry J. Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion. Pocket Books, 2000.

Facetofcathy. “Kira Nerys.” Fanlore, accessed 7 Apr. 2020, fanlore.org/wiki/Kira_Nerys.

Fandom Spotlite. “Nana Visitor (Star Trek Deep Space Nine) Interview.” YouTube, 13 Feb. 2018,

www.youtube.com/watch?v=lVJBE-zZLyw.

Fields, Peter Allan. “Duet.” Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, season one, episode 19, 13 June 1993.

Fries, Laura. “Tv Reviews.” Variety, vol. 384, no. 7, Oct. 2001, p. 47. EBSCOhost,

search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=f3h&AN=5310514&site=ehost-

live&scope=site. Clemens-Smucker 109

Geraghty, Lincoln. Living with Star Trek: American Culture and the Star Trek Universe. I.B.

Taurus and Company, 2007.

Ginn, Sherry. Our Space, Our Place: Women in the Worlds of Science Fiction Television.

University Press of America, 2005.

Hamad, Hannah. “The One with the Feminist Critique: Revisiting Millennial Postfeminism with

Friends.” Television & New Media, vol. 19, no. 8, Dec. 2018, pp. 692–707,

doi:10.1177/1527476418779624.

Heinecken, Dawn. The Warrior Women of Television. Peter Lang Publishing, Inc., 2003.

Hoagland, Ericka. “Mothering the Universe on Star Trek.” To Boldly Go: Essays on Gender and

Identity in the Star Trek Universe, McFarland & Company, 2017, pp. 126-142.

Howell, Elizabeth. “Nana Visitor of 'Deep Space Nine' Talks 'Star Trek' Past and Future.”

Space.com, 12 June 2018, www.space.com/40852-star-trek-deep-space-nine-nana-

visitor-interview.html.

Kapell, Matthew. “Speakers for the Dead: Star Trek, The Holocaust, and the Representation of

Atrocity.” Extrapolation, vol. 41, no. 2, pp. 104-114.

Keeler, Amanda. "Visible/invisible: Female astronauts and technology in Star Trek: Discovery

and National Geographic’s Mars.” Science Fiction Film and Television, vol. 12, no. 1,

2019, pp. 127-150. OhioLINK Electronic Journal Center,

rave.ohiolink.edu/ejournals/article/364383371.

Klein, Allison. What Would Murphy Brown Do? Seal Press, 2006.

Levine, Elana. “Buffy and the New Girl Order.” Undead TV: Essays on Buffy the Vampire

Slayer, Edited by Elana Levine and Lisa Parks, Duke University Press, 2007, pp 168-189. Clemens-Smucker 110

Mittell, Jason. Complex TV: The Poetics of Contemporary Television Storytelling. New York

University Press, 2015.

Nichols, Nichelle. Beyond Uhura: Star Trek and Other Memories. Boulevard Books, 1994.

Oglesbee, Frank W. “Kira Nerys: a good woman fighting well.” Extrapolation, vol. 45, no. 3,

2004, pp. 263+, Gale Literature Resource Center.

Piller, Michael. “Emissary.” Deep Space Nine, season one, episodes 1 and 2, 3 Jan. 1993.

“Prototype.” Star Trek: Voyager, directed by Jonathan Frakes, UPN, 15 Jan. 1996.

Reeves-Stevens, Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens. The Making of Star Trek Deep Space Nine.

Pocket Books, 1994.

Roberts, Robin. “Science, Race, and Gender in Star Trek: Voyager.” Fantasy Girls: Gender in

the New Universe of Science Fiction and Fantasy Television, edited by Elyce Rae

Helford, Rowman & Littlefield, 2000a, pp. 203-221.

Roberts, Robin. “The Woman Scientist in Star Trek: Voyager.” Future Females, edited by

Marleen S. Barr, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 2000, pp. 277-290.

Rush, Marvin. Personal Interview. 8 Feb. 2020.

Rush, Marvin. Personal Interview. 25 July 2020.

UPN News 13. “Nana Visitor interviewed on UPN News 13 - 02/08/1996.” YouTube, 3 May

2010, www.youtube.com/watch?v=dTnGHE1NnmQ.

Van Hise, James. Trek, Deep Space Nine: The Unauthorized Story. Pioneer, 1993.

Visitor, Nana. Personal Interview. 23 Jan. 2020.

Visitor, Nana. Personal Interview. 27 July 2020.

Whalen, Andrew. “'Picard' Is the First 'Star Trek' Series Launched By a Woman Director—Here's

How She Did It.” Newsweek, 31 Mar. 2020, www.newsweek.com/picard-star-trek-series- Clemens-Smucker 111

premiere-episode-director-hanelle-culpepper-pilot-remembrance-1495328.

What We Left Behind: Looking Back at Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. Directed by Ira Steven Behr

and David Zappone, Shout! Factory, 2019, Amazon Prime,

www.amazon.com/gp/video/detail/B07TBP98MG/ref=atv_dl_rdr?autoplay=1

Wilkinson, Zara T. “Where No Girl Has Gone Before? Teenage Girls in Star Trek’s Strong

Female Future.” To Boldly Go: Essays on Gender and Identity in the Star Trek Universe,

edited by Nadine Farghaly and Simon Bacon, McFarland & Company, Inc., 2017.

Yarrow, Allison. 90s Bitch: Media, Culture, and the Failed Promise of Gender Equality. Harper

Perennial, 2018.