Why does Kira wear a Starfleet Uniform in later seasons?

[Admiral Archer]

DISCLAIMER: I have seen a few episodes of Deep Space Nine, enough that I know I don't want to watch the whole series. Not that I didn't enjoy the episodes I saw, but it just seems so...heavy. So any comments which say something to the effect of "Just watch the show" will be ignored, thank you very much.

On to the topic at hand. In later seasons of DS9 which I have seen advertised, Kira is depicted wearing a Starfleet Uniform. When did she join Starfleet? Did she? Data says in TNG that in order to wear a Starfleet uniform you need to attend four years at the academy (although we have seen enlisted personnel wearing uniforms as well). So does she join as an enlisted crewmember? I'm just not sure why she wears a uniform. Personally, I liked the idea of a character who stood apart from Starfleet, as an ally but also a representative of another government. Odo to my knowledge never wore a Starfleet Uniform, so why does Kira? SPOILERS ARE WELCOME!!!

 

[Mathieu]

Kira never joined Starfleet. She wore a Starfleet uniform only because Sisko (correct me if I'm wrong) wanted her to give advice to Damar and the other Cardassian rebels to help them fight against the Dominion (Kira being a former rebel herself, she was the most qualified for the job). Sisko thought it would be easier to send her there wearing a Starfleet uniform because the Cardassians would thus see her as a Federation envoy rather than as a Bajoran envoy. I hope I made it clear enough.

 

[DS9forever]

Kira was given a Starfleet commission in "When It Rains" and wore the uniform until the final episode. At the end of said finale, she goes back to wearing her Bajoran uniform.

 

[NCC-73515]

Exactly - They explain at the beginning of that arc that she'll get a field commission so the Cardassian rebels have less trouble working with her

 

[Timo]

A fun related pseudofact: Kira's Starfleet rank is full Commander, with three bright pips. This corresponds to an Army-style rank of Lieutenant Colonel.

Now, Kira's earlier rank of Major was unambiguous. But when she got promoted to Colonel, she got a new rank badge we had never seen before, and this was not described in any detail in dialogue - so the audience was left wondering whether this means full Colonel, meaning she would have skipped one rank for some reason, or Lieutenant Colonel, the logical one rank up from Major and normally addressed as "Colonel" unless extra precision is needed.

Well, now we sorta know... Sisko might think swapping the uniform puts the Cardassians less ill at ease. He sure wouldn't artificially promote Kira to boot.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Admiral Archer]

Thanks to everyone for the answers! This is so informative I may go back and watch this story arc!

 

[DS9forever]

In the novels, Kira's commission is reactivated when Bajor joins the Federation, but she gets promoted to captain.

 

[Timelord79 (he/him)]

Just out of curiosity?
What exactly did you watch of DS9 that you would categorize it as “heavy” in comparison to other Star Trek shows?

 

[fireproof78]

Thanks to everyone for the answers! This is so informative I may go back and watch this story arc!

What keeps you from just watching it out of pure curiosity?

 

[Captain pl1ngpl0ng]

DS9 is the best of star trek..... you may ignore this but.... PLEASE watch the show!!

 

[Oddish]

the audience was left wondering whether this means full Colonel, meaning she would have skipped one rank for some reason, or Lieutenant Colonel, the logical one rank up from Major and normally addressed as "Colonel" unless extra precision is needed.

No guarantee that the Bajoran militia's rank system precisely duplicates the human army's. As far as we know, they don't have four different levels of general, either. Certainly not one where a major outranks a lieutenant, but a lieutenant general outranks a major general.

 

[UssGlenn]

No guarantee that the Bajoran militia's rank system precisely duplicates the human army's. As far as we know, they don't have four different levels of general, either. Certainly not one where a major outranks a lieutenant, but a lieutenant general outranks a major general.

But the Bajoran rank isn't "Major" or "Colonel" either, it's just translated to that. So we can assume the names are assigned to their logical equivalent.

 

[Oddish]

But the Bajoran rank isn't "Major" or "Colonel" either, it's just translated to that. So we can assume the names are assigned to their logical equivalent.

And they might have only one rank that corresponds to that level of authority and responsibility, where our army has two.

Or maybe Kira is just a light colonel. We usually still call them "colonel".

 

[Nerys Myk]

And they might have only one rank that corresponds to that level of authority and responsibility, where our army has two.

Or maybe Kira is just a light colonel. We usually still call them "colonel".

Never heard that term before.

 

[Ar-Pharazon]

Never heard that term before.

It seems to be a term for a Lieutenant Colonel in the US Air Force, Army or Marines. I've never heard the term either.

 

[TommyR01D]

But the Bajoran rank isn't "Major" or "Colonel" either, it's just translated to that. So we can assume the names are assigned to their logical equivalent.

I direct readers who haven't already seen it to the thread on this topic from January.

 

[Oddish]

It's pretty straightforward. Kira was send to Cardassia to train local insurrectionists. She received a Starfleet commission at equivalent rank, to give her better status among them.

In some books, when Bajor joins the Federation, the militia is folded into Starfleet, so Kira would become a Starfleet commander on a permanent basis.

 

[krsplat]

Taking a quick glance at the difference between the uniforms,
it seems they got a uniform later on that had a more prominent collar.
The 'more prominent collar' is supposed to mean that #1 is almost like a coach on the field now.

The "more prominent collar" on a uniform designates an amount of coaching experience,
or if not in coaching terms then it could be replaced with an equivalent militaristic term.
--The character might have upranked, from a pro to a vet, so to speak.

That would be explaining the uniform change in terms of team sports though.
-I know that doesn't make sense in terms of Bajor / Starfleet uniforms.
However, the '"prominence of the collar"' is a quick way to describe the alteration's functional effect.

 

[Admiral Archer]

Just out of curiosity?
What exactly did you watch of DS9 that you would categorize it as “heavy” in comparison to other Star Trek shows?

I've seen several episodes which just felt very gloomy and depressing in general, as well as being morally ambiguous, which I find is very un-Trek like. When I watch Star Trek, I want optimistic escapism. Our world is generally a horrible place, and I want to get a feeling that someday it won't have to be that way. Episodes such as "In the Pale Moonlight", for example, seemed to say that even if we achieve a better future for humankind, the whole thing is built on lies. It's a concept I don't particularly like, that in order to even maintain a footing in the war against the Dominion, the Allies had to manipulate the truth. This flies right in the face of my favorite Captain's stance on "The First Duty" of every Starfleet Officer in TNG. When the writers of Star Trek VI decided to end the war with the Klingons, they didn't make Kirk lie or cheat to achieve peace. And Sisko here is presented with no choice except to be all of the things he admitted to doing in his Captain's log, all to preserve the Federation. Asking big moral questions is a HUGE part of Star Trek, but in my humble opinion having the Captain basically abandon his morals not to definitively end the war, but just to give them a slight chance of success, makes me wonder if this is a Federation that SHOULD be saved at all. What other unspeakable crimes have been committed then covered up to preserve the name of the Federation? I shudder to think. And this is just ONE episode. I've seen many more. "The Jem'Hadar", "The Search", "The Changing Face of Evil, "Paradise Lost" and even the first episode of the show, "Emissary", ALL had story aspects I just couldn't stomach. But I've written a whole essay on just one episode, so that's probably more than anyone needed to know. As an aside, I don't blame Sisko for what he did. The poor man had been through enough. But I don't know about you guys, but I don't watch Star Trek for the tortured souls. I watch for the people who have built a society that I would want to live in myself, one that isn't built on lies.

 

[at Quark's]

^ I can understand. Everyone watches Trek for his own reasons.

Personally, I liked the fact that DS9 acknowledged that there simply are situations where there is not always an unambiguously 'moral' way out to take, and that in some dire situations you may even be forced to commit the lesser of two evils. But again, I can see how that clashes with the desire for optimistic escapism.