Star Trek: 10 Reasons With Sisko & Kira's Relationship Is Key To Deep Space Nine

This human/Bajoran alliance is what made DS9 work.

Kira Sisko Star Trek Deep Space Nine
CBS

Since Star Trek first hit the airwaves in 1966, there have been numerous TV series. One specific group of them were set in the same timeline and produced hundreds of episodes between them. The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine and Voyager were released back to back to back in the same era.

While The Next Generation and Voyager were about starships exploring space, Deep Space Nine was about life on a space station. The Federation had moved into an old Cardassian base to help the Bajorans recover from the occupation. While there, they discovered a wormhole the the Delta Quadrant that changed everything.

As part of his command, Benjamin Sisko requested a Bajoran first officer. That's how Major Kira Nerys ended up as his second in command and his main liaison with Bajor. But their relationship transcended a simple captain and first officer narrative.

Over time, Sisko and Kira grew to become friends and eventually family. They shared the mutual mission of rebuilding Bajor, not just to join the Federation but to take the place in the galaxy it should have occupied before the Cardassians came along.

10. They're Survivors

Kira Sisko Star Trek Deep Space Nine
Paramount

Surviving traumatic experiences can bond people together. In the case of Kira and Sisko, that was definitely the situation. Throughout the course of Deep Space Nine, the duo stood side by side through battles, invasions and outright war. Coming out the other side of those moments forged a connection difficult to break.

But their bond as survivors goes much deeper than that.

Kira grew up as a resistance fighter during the occupation of Bajor by the Cardassians. Alongside her fellow cell members, she tried to pay her people's oppressors back for every horror visited upon them. This war made Kira who she was but it also left scars, the kind that someone like Sisko could see.

Sisko's tale of survival was much different than Kira's. His stemmed from the confrontation with the Borg at Wolf 359. Led by Locutus, the name given to the Picard when he was assimilated, Sisko's ship was one of many that were destroyed. He and his Jake barely escaped with their lives. His wife did not.

Both Kira and Sisko carried the long term pain from these events with them to Deep Space Nine. It was there that they found ways to move on, in no small part to the support they gave each other.

Contributor

Ian Goodwillie is a freelance writer based out of Saskatoon, SK, Canada. He has a BA in English Literature from the University of Saskatchewan and completed the Writing Program at Vancouver Film School. More importantly, Ian is also a wrestling fan, comic book reader, video game player and photographer. He loves to write and writes about what he loves. Ian's also an unrepentant, unapologetic Cougar Town fan, a show he will defend until the day he dies.