Star Trek: 10 Things You Didn't Know About Kira Nerys

Nana Visitor had a long connection with Star Trek before she ever donned the nose ridges. In fact, according to her, it was the only science fiction show that she watched in her earlier years, often falling into her lap before going out to work.

Visitor had spent years in her career performing on stage, appearing nightly, with time for her to catch dinner first. She would work during the day, then cook and eat - just in time to catch Star Trek, around 6 or 6.30 each evening.

As she said herself, this was at a time when there were no recordings available - you either caught the episode on broadcast, or you missed it and just hoped to catch the next one. While Star Trek may have fallen in her path by pure opportunity, it became one of the formative shows in her career.

While Major Kira wasn't the first role in Visitor's career, it was most probably her biggest role at that point. She had worked as a jobbing actor for so long that settling into a main role was something of a breath of relief, which of course is not to say that it was any easier for her - Star Trek famously runs seriously long hours, every day of filming.