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

As the occupation was an allegory for so many atrocities in Earth's past, so too was Gul Dukat a stand-in for the dictators and warlords in history. While Marc Alaimo played the character to perfection, season four's Indiscretion continued a trend of softening the character, not least in the eyes of Major Kira.

The Maquis pt2 and The Way Of The Warrior had shown a different side to Dukat, and this episode, based on the fallout from the dissolution of the Soviet Union, with the Obsidian Order analogous to the KGB, was further intended to show a burgeoning friendship between the two. However, it was never intended that it would develop any further than that - something that writer Robert Hewitt Wolfe, and Nana Visitor, were adamant about.

Kira had spent her life fighting the Cardassians in every way, with Dukat serving as one of the most influential men during the occupation. While Marc Alaimo may have been keen to explore a potential romance between the two, Visitor emphatically stated that the idea of Kira and Dukat ever entertaining romantic feelings was disgusting to her.

Though there was a line added at the end of the episode, where Dukat says 'I'll let you know' to her, any hint of anything more was quickly brushed away in the follow-up episode Return To Grace.