Intendant Kira Nerys was a Bajoran officer in the armed forces of the Klingon-Cardassian Alliance in the mirror universe.
History[]
Mirror Kira and Kira
Kira was the Intendant of the Alliance space station Terok Nor, with her second in command Elim Garak. Kira ruled over the station with an iron fist, but used varying methods to do her job. She was manipulative where necessary, but ruthless and violent on other occasions, often rounding up Terran slaves and executing them randomly. However, she did often view certain people with affection, allowing them privileges in return for their loyalty and dedication. When Major Kira Nerys crossed through the Bajoran wormhole into her universe in 2370, the Intendant became enamored with her counterpart. (DS9: "Crossover")
Kira often displayed hedonistic tendencies, surrounding herself in her quarters with Human slaves both male and female. She also displayed sadistic behavior as she had no obvious moral difficulties about having people tortured or killed. By 2375, she had also, apparently, engaged in a relationship with Ezri Tigan. (DS9: "The Emperor's New Cloak")
She was particularly fond of Benjamin Sisko. She allowed him to have a ship and a crew, which he used to commit acts of piracy in order to collect tribute for her. She was horrified when Sisko turned against her and formed the Terran Rebellion. (DS9: "Crossover")
When he returned to the station to rescue Jennifer Sisko, Sisko used this fondness to manipulate Kira into allowing him to see her. (DS9: "Through the Looking Glass")
Kira was captured by the rebels in 2372 and tortured for information, but escaped having been freed by Nog, killing him shortly afterwards. (DS9: "Shattered Mirror")
In 2374, Kira and Bareil Antos crossed over from their universe in order to steal a Bajoran orb. She was prevented from doing so by Major Kira Nerys. (DS9: "Resurrection")
By 2375, Kira's failure to stop the rebels resulted in her being forced to bargain for her life. When Zek made the mistake of visiting Kira's universe to open trade negotiations, he was quickly captured. Kira arranged for Ezri Tigan to force Quark and Rom to deliver a cloaking device to the Regent's flagship, where she was imprisoned. After Rom sabotaged the cloak, leaving the flagship defenseless against the ISS Defiant, Kira parted ways with Ezri seeking to part ways with the lost vessel aboard one of its escape shuttles. (DS9: "The Emperor's New Cloak")
Memorable quotes[]
"I'm Kira Nerys."
"That makes two of us."
"You know, I bet if we put our... heads together, we could create a little excitement for ourselves."
"You sentenced my wife to death."
"Isn't that a coincidence? I was hoping you weren't married."
- - Intendant Kira and Terran guard (DS9: "Shattered Mirror")
"I'd be very disappointed if you didn't find the major... intoxicating. After all, she is me... Or the next best thing to me."
- - Intendant Kira to Mirror Bareil Antos (DS9: "Resurrection")
Appendices[]
Appearances[]
Background information[]
Characterization[]
Like her counterpart, Intendant Kira was played by Nana Visitor.
Of the Intendant, Nana Visitor stated in the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion, p. ?, "It's very much me. I mean, I hope I don't send people to their deaths or anything like that, but yeah, that is more of who I am." Visitor also described the mirror Kira as "a spoiled brat with an ego gone awry." Speaking in 1999, she said, "She's interesting because she's Kira, she's got all, you know, it's all the same, everything is exactly the same, except in this other world, her ego's twisted one way, where Kira's twisted another. So where Kira thinks of others, and finds a justification for her life in doing things for other people, the Intendant's justification for life is in doing things for herself. She is completely the most self-involved, self-centered person, she's like a child in that sense, which makes her funny, but in her childish way, she cares so little for other people she thinks nothing of disposing of them, using them, it doesn't matter, which makes her very scary. I walked that line; sometimes I got it right, sometimes I didn't, sometimes she just became diva, sometimes it was very effective. But it was an interesting character to play." (Crew Dossier: Kira Nerys, DS9 Season 1 DVD, Special Features)
Speaking about the Intendant's apparent sexual orientation, which is revealed as bisexual in the episodes "Through the Looking Glass" and "The Emperor's New Cloak", Visitor revealed, "I never intended for the intendant to be bisexual. I think that was an assumption that everyone, including the writers, made after the character fell for Kira in ['Crossover[!]']. But that had been total narcissism on her part. It had nothing to do with sexuality. I never liked that people took her for bisexual because she's an evil character. There are so few gay characters on TV, and we really don't need an evil one." (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion, p. ?) Visitor also said, "When she comes over [to the prime universe] and meets Kira, she falls in love with Kira. My intention, always, was that it was pure narcissism. It was simply someone that looked like her, it had nothing to do with it being a woman. But in subsequent episodes, she became, you know, it just didn't matter. I assume, you know, lizards would have been alright with her too." (Crew Dossier: Kira Nerys, DS9 Season 1 DVD, Special Features)
The Intendant's provocative uniform was created out of stretch vinyl and included three-and-one-half inch heels. Of the costume, Robert Blackman stated, "If you were to put the two uniforms together, you'd say, 'Well it's kind of a shiny gray version of the rust.' It's not that I've exposed more of her body - it's exposed pretty much the same way it always is. What's the difference? She's the difference. It's how Nana wears it. It's what she does. She walks like a provocative woman, with her legs crossing in front. She uses her hips, and a whole other kind of body English than she normally uses." (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion, p. 144)
Reception[]
Brian Fuller commented: "...you look at the strength of Kira Nerys, and when you go to the Mirror Universe, you see the explicit queerness of that character in a way that sets up Willow's line from 'Buffy', where she meets her Doppelgänger and was like, 'I think I'm a little queer'. [1]
In 2012, StarTrek.com placed Intendant Kira at number five in a list of the top ten recurring characters in DS9. one-trek-mind-9-top-10-ds9-supporting-characters
In The New Trek Programme Guide, the authors described Intendant Kira "as a flamboyant mixture of Cleopatra and Mae West."
Trivia[]
The Intendant is the only mirror universe character to appear in all five Deep Space Nine episodes dealing with that universe as well as the only mirror universe character to meet his or her primary universe counterpart on screen.
There is an unofficial running gag that The mirror universe version of Kira always seems to kill or order the death (either directly or indirectly via subordinates) of a mirror universe Ferengi in every Deep Space Nine mirror universe episode (with the exception of "Resurrection", however even though this episode has mirror universe characters it takes place in the prime universe during the entire episode). First, it was Kira ordering Quark's death in "Crossover", then it was Rom executed by Elim Garak after torture in "Through the Looking Glass", then it was personally murdering Nog in "Shattered Mirror", and finally when she personally murdered Brunt in "The Emperor's New Cloak". This was never mentioned by the writers but we can assume that since the prime universe of Kira originally at first annoyed the greed, sexism and typical cowardice of the Ferengi race (Especially for her distain for Quark for being a collaborator with the Cardassians on Terok Nor during the Occupation of Bajor). Although Kira Nerys of the prime universe eventually came to respect the Ferengi she knew - and even grew to care about them - it may have intentionally been written as an in house joke between Kira's previously rocky relationship with the Ferengi.
Apocrypha[]
Intendant Kira was killed in the novel Warpath and replaced by the Obsidian Order Agent Iliana Ghemor who was surgically altered to replace Kira in the prime universe. A different author also killed Iliana Ghemor off in The Soul Key. The events between Intendant Kira's last television appearance, and her death are portrayed in the novella Saturn's Children.
External link[]
- Kira Nerys (mirror) at Memory Beta, the wiki for licensed Star Trek works