Star Trek: 10 Best Episodes Showcasing Female Empowerment

9. Kira Leads The Blockade Around Derna

Deep Space Nine's seventh season opened with the two-part story Image In The Sand and Shadows And Symbols. While the station felt the absence of Captain Sisko, newly-promoted Colonel Kira Nerys was tested by the Romulans. Having agreed to the use of Bajor's fourth moon, Derna, for medical reasons, the Colonel is horrified to discover the Romulans are fortifying it.

Kira's relationship with Starfleet echoes one of the outsider looking in, although this had many times worked to mutual advantage. Here, Starfleet's allyship with the Romulans threatens Kira's position. The potential annexation of a Bajoran moon seemed at odds to Starfleet's ethos, yet they seem willing to sacrifice Bajor's sovereignty to help end this war faster.

Kira then becomes a symbol of what's right, standing up against Romulan Warbirds with a rag-tag group of Bajoran (and one Karemma, for some reason) fighters. The episode deliberately echoes the Cuban Missile Crisis, with Bajor on the back foot. It may be Romulan vessels flying towards Kira but they are supported by their Federation allies.

In the end, Kira's resolution changes Admiral Ross's mind, leading to his insistence that the Romulans back down. In the entire sequence, Kira doesn't back down, nor does she blink. The question of whether she was actually bluffing remains more than twenty years later. Bluff or no, her hand was played, and she won.