Star Trek: 10 Things You Didn't Know About Kira Nerys
1. Nana Visitor Wanted Her To Go Full Starfleet
When the show wrapped, Nana Visitor was interviewed about where she believed the character of Kira would end up. First and foremost, she was adamant that Kira receive another promotion. The original script for ...When It Rains described her Starfleet commission as lieutenant, rather than a full commander. Thankfully, that was amended in the final episode.
The documentary What We Left Behind shows Kira as a Vedek, but this wasn't what Visitor wanted. She wanted that promotion, she wanted Kira to command the USS Defiant, and eventually, become a full member of Starfleet.
She felt that it was important for this character, one who had exemplified the message of Deep Space Nine - learning to live again, walking with Starfleet to do it - to join the organisation fully. This, she felt, would offer a test - can someone who had lived such a hard life truly adapt to following the Prime Directive, no matter the cost?
It would be easy to say yes to this - how many members of non-Federation worlds had the audience seen serving in Starfleet? Yet how many of those officers had received as much exploration and screen-time as Major, later Colonel, Kira Nerys?