d-borg: DS9 Babes...

Kira Nerys, played by Nana Visitor, is a main character in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.

Backstory

Per Bajoran custom, her surname, Kira, precedes her given name, Nerys. She has two brothers (Kira Reon and Kira Pohl), and her parents' names are Kira Taban and Kira Meru.

The back story of the character states that Kira Nerys was born 2343, in Dakhur province, Bajor, during the 50-year Cardassian occupation of the planet. She was raised in a labor camp. Her family were members of the artisan caste. At the age of 12, Kira was recruited into the Shakaar resistance cell, part of an underground movement which carried out guerrilla attacks against Cardassian military and civilians with the ultimate goal of ending the occupation.

Story

In the early episodes of the show, after Cardassia withdrew from Bajor, now at age 26, the recently-ranked Major Kira became an influential figure in Bajor's reconstruction and the politics of the region, due to her assignment to Deep Space Nine, and her closeness to Captain Benjamin Sisko, whom the Bajorans believed to be an emissary from the Bajoran Prophets.

Initially, Kira was opposed to the Federation presence on DS9, feeling that the Bajoran people should have nothing to do with the Federation. Over time, her sentiments changed and she became one of the strongest supporters of Bajor joining the Federation.

Though she is a member of the Bajoran Militia, Kira is an invaluable help to Starfleet, especially during the Dominion War. When the Dominion captures Deep Space Nine at the start of the war, Kira remains aboard the station as liaison officer, as part of Bajor's non-aggression pact with the Dominion. Her role allows her to organize a resistance cell, including Rom, Quark, and Jake Sisko. They smuggle intelligence to Starfleet which indicates that the Dominion has begun to dismantle the minefield preventing Dominion reinforcements from the Gamma Quadrant. She also manages to sabotage weapons systems, which then allows Starfleet to retake Deep Space Nine.

Kira's experience in the Bajoran Resistance earned her a Starfleet field commission as Commander in order to assist the Cardassian Resistance against the Dominion. Kira, Odo and Garak are smuggled into Cardassia to teach Damar the tactics of organizing a resistance movement with a decentralized command. Their resistance cell manages to infiltrate a Dominion shipyard and steal the Breen weapon that Federation ships were defenseless against. Their actions allowed Starfleet engineers to develop shields that could counter the weapon. At the conclusion of the war, Kira takes command of DS9 after the disappearance of Sisko. She is promoted to Colonel sometime earlier in 2374.

With the help of Vic Fontaine, Kira forms a romantic relationship with Odo, who had pined after her for years. They remain involved even after Odo leaves to rejoin the Great Link - he returns to the station during the events depicted in the novel "Unity" disguised as a Trelian woman named Wex. Having revealed himself to Kira during a conflict at one of the temples on Bajor, the two pick up where they left off even when Odo has to leave again.

Depiction after the series

Following the conclusion of the TV series Star Trek Deep Space Nine, the character of Kira Nerys takes charge of the Deep Space Nine space station as its permanent commanding officer. With the conclusion of the first wave of Deep Space Nine novels in "Unity", Bajor finally joins the Federation, and Kira is given the Starfleet rank of Captain. In "Unity," Kira opens every Bajoran Orb simultaneously in a sacred place in order to defeat a monstrous enemy, announcing, "You want Bajor? Here it is." This also caused the return of Benjamin Sisko from the Celestial Temple to the corporeal world.

Alternate universe

The character of Kira Nerys also exists in the mirror universe. In the DS9 episode "Crossover," Kira encounters her mirror self, who is Intendant of Terok Nor, with Garak as her first officer. Kira convinces the mirror-Sisko to rebel against the Intendant-Kira and start the Terran Resistance. This group is later successful in taking command of Terok Nor and capturing the Intendant, but she manages to escape with the help of mirror-Nog. Eventually the escaped Intendant convinces the alternate universe's Bareil Antos to travel to the regular universe in order to obtain an Orb of the Prophets. The mirror Kira falls in love with her double from the other universe. At the time Nana Visitor dismissed the concept of bisexuality, saying that she intended to portray this as "total narcissism on her part. It had nothing to do with sexuality." However, later episodes continued to show her surrounded by a mixed-gender harem, and eventually depicted her being in a romantic relationship with her universe's version of Ezri Tigan.

Casting

In the early stages of planning Deep Space Nine, the show's creators wanted to bring the character of Ensign Ro Laren (from Star Trek: The Next Generation.) Michelle Forbes turned down the offer, so a new Bajoran character was created. Nana Visitor had just given birth to a baby boy barely a couple of months before she was called to audition for the role of Kira Nerys, and her becoming a mother actually shaped her decision process for accepting or turning down roles. With the character of Kira Nerys, Visitor felt "completely engaged on every level by the part."

Scholarly reception

The Journal of the American Academy of Psychoanalysis finds the character of Kira "emotionally difficult" (D. V. Forest, 2005 2005, vol. 33, no 1 (11 ref.), pp. 71-82 [12 page(s) (article)]). In Star Trek and Sacred Ground: Explorations of Star Trek, Religion, and American Culture (ed. Jennifer Porter, 1999), it is noted that Kira was not shown worshipping privately until the 1997 episode Ties of Blood and Water.

Jadzia Dax, played by Terry Farrell, was a main character during the first six seasons of the science fiction television series Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. She is the station's chief science officer, and is close friends with commander Benjamin Sisko and Bajoran first officer Kira Nerys. Later in the series, she becomes involved with the Klingon character Worf, and they marry during the sixth season of the show. Her character is killed by Gul Dukat during the sixth season finale (due to Terry Farrell's desire to pursue a role on the upcoming TV Show Becker with Ted Danson). The character of Dax re-emerges in the seventh season premiere in the form of Ezri Dax.

Jadzia Dax is a joined Trill. Though she appears to be a young woman, Jadzia lives in symbiosis with a wise and long-lived creature, known as a symbiont, named Dax. The two share a single, conscious mind, and her personality is a blending of the characteristics of both the host and the symbiont. As such, Dax has access to all the skills and memories of the symbiont's seven previous hosts.

At the beginning of the series, Jadzia has just recently been joined with the symbiont Dax after the natural death of the previous host, Curzon Dax. Curzon had been a friend and mentor to station Commander Benjamin Sisko, and Jadzia and Sisko continue this friendship despite the change in circumstances. Throughout the series, Sisko refers to Dax by the affectionate nickname "Old Man." She begins the series at the rank of Lieutenant; at the start of the fourth season, she becomes a Lieutenant Commander and remains one until her death in the sixth-season finale.

During the first few seasons, Dax is pursued romantically by Dr. Julian Bashir. Dax consistently but politely rebuffs him, though she later admits that she somewhat enjoyed the attention (cf. "Starship Down"). After Jadzia's death, Dax's new host Ezri begins dating Bashir.

During the first season of the show, Dax is often portrayed as somewhat reserved and aloof. In the early second season episode "The Siege", she is ill-at-ease in the spider-filled caverns of a Bajoran moon, and is later disoriented by Kira's reckless piloting of a Bajoran starfighter. The writers' portrayal of the character begins to change in the second season, as they emphasize Dax's gusto for life and extensive knowledge of other cultures:

The second-season episode "Rules of Acquisition" begins with a scene in which Dax plays tongo with a group of Ferengi. She seems surprisingly at home in this setting, calmly ignoring their sexist overtures and showing considerable skill at the game. Later in the episode, she remarks that the Ferengi are among the most interesting races she has encountered.
Later that season, Dax joins a group of Klingons in a revenge quest ("Blood Oath"). In this episode, it is revealed the Curzon Dax was a Federation diplomat to the Klingon Empire, and swore a blood oath against "the Albino" with the Klingons Kang, Koloth, and Kor. Jadzia takes up the blood oath, and against Sisko's wishes she travels to the Albino's planet and participates in the revenge killing of the Albino and his minions.

Jadzia's connection to the Klingon culture would become increasingly important as the series progressed, especially after the fourth-season arrival of Worf. In the episode "The Sword of Kahless", Dax joins Worf and Kor in the search for the titular Klingon artifact. In "Sons of Mogh", she supports Worf's attempt to kill his brother Kurn, and in "Soldiers of the Empire" she and Worf go on a tense mission aboard a Klingon ship. Jadzia would eventually marry Worf and join him as a member of the Klingon House of Martok.

Joined nature

Romantic Interests

Jadzia Dax was initially pursued by Dr. Julian Bashir aboard the station. The Ferengi bar owner, Quark, also has a special affection for the Trill scientist, even after the Dax symbiont was transferred to Ezri. However, her most notable and serious suitors include

Deral, played by Brett Cullen, a prominent member of the recurring planet Meridian
Dr. Lenara Kahn, played by Susanna Thompson, a Trill theoretical quantum physicist and the current host of Nilani Kahn, the widow of Torias Dax
Lt. Commander Worf, a Klingon

Dax and Worf

In the fourth season, Michael Dorn joins the cast of Deep Space Nine as the Klingon character Worf. Perhaps because of her past interactions with Klingons, Dax is fairly flirtatious with Worf. Worf appears at first to be oblivious to this attention, and in the fifth-season episode "Looking for par'Mach in All the Wrong Places" he becomes enamored with a female Klingon named Grilka. This is resolved by the end of the episode, with Quark ironically winning the heart of Grilka, and Worf becoming romantically involved with Dax.

In the beginning, their relationship is very sexual, with the strong implication that their encounters are somewhat rough (the above episode ends with Worf and Dax visiting the infirmary with various bruises and other injuries). In the season 5 finale "Call to Arms", the station is overrun by Dominion forces, and Dax and Worf are assigned to different starships for the Dominion War. Near the end of the episode, they agree to get married after the war is over. Worf and Dax's marriage is the centerpiece of season 6 episode "You Are Cordially Invited...". During the episode, Dax must obtain permission from the lady Sirella to join the House of Martok. At first Dax is loath to pay Sirella the required respect, and the lady is unwilling to accede to Dax's request. The situation is resolved by the conclusion, with Sirella admitting during the ceremony that nothing can stand between "the beating of two Klingon hearts".

Death

Jadzia is killed in "Tears of the Prophets", the finale of the sixth season. She and Worf had been trying to conceive, despite the doubts of Dr. Bashir that such a pregnancy was possible. After Major Kira tells Jadzia she has been praying for a conception, Jadzia receives encouraging test results from Julian, and goes to the station's temple to thank the Prophets. It now appears a pregnancy will be possible. The Cardassian Dukat arrives, possessed by a Pah-wraith, with the intention of destroying the orb-like Bajoran artifacts known as the Tears of the Prophets. Jadzia is no match for Dukat while he is infused with the Pah-wraith; he kills Jadzia and destroys the orbs. Upon her death in the infirmary, an agonized Worf screams out a Klingon wail of sorrow for his beloved or to let the Klingon afterworld know a warrior was on the way (Heart of Glory). Her untimely death shakes the crew to its core: by the beginning of season 7, Sisko has left the station in despair, and Worf has been risking his life on increasingly dangerous missions.

Though the host Jadzia is dead, the symbiont Dax survives and is implanted in a Trill named Ezri Tigan. The resulting joined Trill Ezri Dax becomes a main character during the seventh and last season of the series. Several episodes focus on Ezri Dax resolving her relationship with Worf, and the subsequent development of a romantic relationship with Dr. Julian Bashir.

Ezri Dax (played by Nicole de Boer) is a counselor aboard Deep Space Nine in the seventh season of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.

The role of Ezri Tigan Dax was created when Terry Farrell (who played Jadzia Dax) decided to leave the show and her character was killed by Dukat.

When Nicole de Boer read for the role in 1998, she was considered "one of the busiest actresses in Canada but a relative unknown south of the border".She used her own camera to tape her audition. DeBoer admits that prior to being called to the show she did not know what a Trill was. But she made sure to study, and watched previous shows, though careful not "to watch a whole bunch of Jadzia stuff."

Story overview

Ezri Dax was introduced in the first episode of season seven. The back story states that Ensign Ezri Tigan, a Trill Starfleet officer, upon leaving Starfleet Academy was assigned to the USS Destiny as assistant ship's counselor. She had no interest in becoming joined with a Trill symbiont.

After Lieutenant Commander Jadzia Dax is killed aboard Deep Space Nine, the Dax symbiont is saved by Dr. Julian Bashir and sent to Trill. However, the symbiont becomes gravely ill during its journey on the Destiny and, as the only Trill on board, Ezri is asked to join with Dax in order to save its life.Ezri is Dax's ninth host.

Upon joining, Ezri is assigned to Deep Space Nine and promoted early, because of her extensive Starfleet experience and knowledge from the Dax symbiont, to lieutenant, junior grade. She serves as counselor.

Jadzia was married to Lieutenant Commander Worf, who at first refuses to speak to Ezri, convinced that Jadzia has gone on to Sto-Vo-Kor and can no longer exist through the Dax symbiont. However, the two later become friends and, briefly, lovers.

Toward the end of the series, Ezri begins a romance with Dr. Julian Bashir.

Depiction after the series

In Pocket Books' non-canon DS9 Relaunch novels, Ezri remains on Deep Space Nine but moves from counseling to command, receiving a promotion to lieutenant and becoming executive officer of the USS Defiant. Following a mission on the Trill homeworld, she and Bashir end their romance but decide to remain close friends. In the Star Trek: Destiny trilogy Dax has become captain of the Vesta class ship USS Aventine.

Reception

Compared to Jadzia, Ezri comes across as very insecure. Some fans derided Ezri Dax as "Ally McTrill" (in reference to the title character on Ally McBeal), and one TV Guide reviewer took a cue from the fans. Nicole de Boer, however, took this as a compliment.

Ezri Dax was the only member of the main cast not to be made into an action figure by Playmates Toys.