10 Star Trek Episodes That Hit Different Now
3. The Darkness And The Light
Major Kira was, from the beginning, framed as a former Bajoran terrorist who had fought to get the Cardassians off her homeworld. She, like many others, was trying to learn to exist in this new order, in peacetime, with the Federation offering their help - much like the Cardassians had, sixty years before.
That was controversial enough in 1992. There were several episodes through Deep Space Nine's run that focused on Kira's terrorist past, but The Darkness And The Light is one that really swung for the fences. The episode sees several members of Kira's former resistance cell murdered by a survivor of one of their attacks.
Silarin Prin takes Kira prisoner, seeking contrition from her. He receives none - she exclaims that in her eyes, every Cardassian on Bajoran soil was as guilty as each other, whether they held a weapon or not. The scene ends with Kira killing the man.
The attacks on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon in 2001 have changed the reaction to this episode entirely. The idea of terrorism brought so close to home for so many in the West saw a dramatic change in both media portrayals of terrorism and gave rise to a wave of xenophobia and, in particular, anti-Muslim sentiment.
As Nana Visitor stated in a recent interview with the Clonestar Pod, it was unlikely an episode like this would have been made in the wake of 9/11, and indeed the entire character of Kira may not have been anything like the one audiences got to see in the 90s.