Kira is abducted by Cardassians and taken to their homeworld... but it's only the beginning of her horror. She awakens having been altered to appear Cardassian, and then is told she is Cardassian. All her memories, her sense of self, are implanted. The truth, according to a Cardassian intelligence agent named Entek, is that "Kira" is a persona given to a Cardassian sleeper spy. Now she's been retrieved to report all she's learned while embedded aboard Deep Space Nine. Unwilling to accept this story, Kira's only hope may be the Cardassian who claims to be her father.
Writer Robert Hewitt Wolfe was well aware of Star Trek's other "alien disguise" episodes, and conceived this story to be something different. He wanted a regular character to actually become an alien. Specifically, his original concept was to reveal that Miles O'Brien had been killed and replaced by a Cardassian sleeper agent two decades earlier -- that every moment we've ever seen of O'Brien, we were really watching this unknowing imposter. His idea hit an insurmountable hurdle when he couldn't explain how O'Brien had fathered an entirely human daughter, Molly.
Wolfe then turned to Kira, another character who would be equally horrified to learn of a secret Cardassian origin. And the way Wolfe wanted to leave the story, it would never be truly resolved whether Kira was really Cardassian or Bajoran. It wouldn't matter, he thought. That was the message: you are your actions, not your genetics. Through gradual rewrites, though, this element was taken out of the story.
What remained, however, was still a great episode. Like "Duet" before it, this is a story that really forces Kira to reckon with the race that oppressed her people -- and to learn that there are actually noble and compassionate Cardassians. It's a more personal lesson here; in "Duet," Aamin Marritza was doing the honorable thing for his people, while here, Tekeny Ghemor shows kindness specifically to Kira. He shows the genuine love of an adoptive father, and she is truly taken aback that this level of emotion is even possible in a Cardassian.
Nana Visitor gives an amazing performance. She tracks Kira's emotional unraveling every step of the way. When Kira is defiantly giving false information to her "handler," Entek, we see that she's projecting more confidence than she actually feels. When she confronts her own dead body, we see her struggle to maintain her sense of identity, hurling accusations of trickery by hologram or cloning. Ultimately, we see everything stripped away as she cowers in a corner of the screen, muttering "I don't know" in response to every question she's asked.
The performance is even more impressive when you know that Nana Visitor is claustrophobic, and was fighting through that sensation throughout her long hours in the uncomfortable Cardassian makeup. Reportedly, she was so desperate to get out of the makeup on one day of filming that, even though the shots that director Les Landau wanted weren't complete, she began ripping off the makeup with her own hands, insisting they'd have to finish the next day. That's how good Visitor is in this episode -- she shows us all these layers of Kira, both surface and hidden, all without giving us even a hint of how she herself was really feeling.
It's also a strong episode for Garak. The character is now playing with the fact that people know he was a spy. In talking about the thrill of traveling to alien worlds, he mentions "earning their trust" as an enjoyable part. (That monologue is also clever exposition to remind us that in his exile, he's not supposed to leave the station.) He uses his knowledge to get a rescue party to Cardassia. And lest we think he's gone too soft, he kills his rival Entek in cold blood. Also, speaking of claustrophobia, we get a hint that Garak suffers from it when he talks about the cramped Defiant quarters; this character trait would be picked up on in a later season.
Other observations:
- This is also a subtly strong episode for Sisko. In his calculating extortion of Garak, we see that he's willing to bend or break the rules in certain situations. (Odo's smile also tells us he approves of Sisko's choice.)
- The theme of clashing truths is peppered throughout the episode. Dax, Kira, and Quark discuss whether an experience in the holosuite is as good as one in the real world. The Defiant crew tries technological trickery to pass the ship off as a freighter. Odo gets behind his adversaries by assuming the form of a bag that Sisko casually throws into a room as he enters.
- Actor Lawrence Pressman, who plays Ghemor, is a busy working actor. I think at the time, I may have known him best from Doogie Howser, M.D. But his list of credits is long. He'd even be back at the end of this season of Deep Space Nine, playing a completely different character.
- It seems like Les Landau did get all the shots he wanted, claustrophobia or no. There are some noticeably great compositions here, including a sharp focus on a speechless Kira as Entek and Ghemor argue out of focus behind her, and the moment when Kira smashes her mirrored reflection.
- One tactic Entek uses to sell the story of Kira's Cardassian origins is to reveal information he claims was implanted in her mind. Kira is sure she's never told anyone the story, yet Entek does know it. How?
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