Star Trek: Deep Space Nine/Characters


Beware of unmarked spoilers!

Main Cast

Commander/Captain Benjamin Sisko (Avery Brooks)

"So you're the commander of Deep Space 9. And the Emissary of the Prophets. Decorated combat officer, widower, father, mentor and... oh, yes, the man who started the war with the Dominion. Somehow I thought you'd be taller..."

-- Senator Vreenak, "In the Pale Moonlight"

The Captain (though actually only ranked Commander until late Season 3), with a touch of the Warrior Poet thanks to his role as the Emissary, a (reluctant) religious icon to the Bajorans. In addition, he was a widower (from the infamous Wolf 359 battle in TNG) with a young son, Jake.

  • A Father to His Men: Throughout the series Sisko shows great concern for the people under his charge.
  • Anti-Hero: Type III. He enters Type IV and even Type V terrority in certain episodes (For the Uniform, In the Pale Moonlight).
  • Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence: At the end of the series Sisko is ascended into the celestial temple for an unspecified amount of time.
    • Emphasis on "unspecified": the Prophets are non-linear beings outside time.
  • Badass: Takes on several Jem'Hadar on his own and also leads several of the fleet battles.
  • Bald Black Leader Guy: Current trope image holder. Though he did have hair in earlier seasons he eventually went bald with a goatee.
  • Bald of Awesome: Sisko looks far more badass once he goes bald.
  • Blackmail: How he usually keeps Quark in-line or gets him to do something for the good of the station. Usually leads to Blackmail Is Such an Ugly Word.
  • Captain Smooth and Sergeant Rough: Sisko's a pretty irritable guy in own right, but he's more likely to treat you to a Death Glare and then storm out because he has more important things to do. That's when his Doberman (Kira) comes into the picture.
  • The Cast Showoff: The moment in "Far Beyond the Stars" when Sisko briefly breaks into song seems designed to showcase that Avery Brooks' voice is sexy both speaking and singing. And then, in "Badda Bing Badda Bang," they do it again.
  • Commanding Coolness: For three seasons.
  • The Chosen One: Being the Emissary. So much so that the Prophets arranged for his birth! As the Emissary to the Prophets, "The Sisko" has a destiny to fulfill, many trials to face, and an important role in Bajoran theology and prophecy.
  • Crystal Dragon Jesus: The Emissary is a messiah figure in the Bajoran religion.
  • Dark and Troubled Past: For the first episode at least. The Prophets help him get over it (giving him his life back, as was prophesied) when he teaches them the nature of linear existence and they make him explain why he keeps living in his own "past" if the point is to move forward.
  • Dating Catwoman: His relationship with Kasidy Yates when she turns out to be running supplies (medicine and food according to her) to the Maquis.
    • He also slept with both Intendant Kira and (an unjoined) Jadzia from the Mirror Universe.
  • Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: The only being to knock Q flat on his ass and get away with it.

Q: You hit me! Picard never hit me!
Sisko: I'm not Picard.

  • Mr. Fanservice: Has quite the female following.
  • Game of Nerds: And HOW? He uses it as a allegorical unpinning for the universe -- in the first episode!
  • A God I Am Not: Well, in his defense, he's only half-god.
  • Good Is Not Nice: Not if its pushed, anyway.
  • Heterosexual Life Partners: He was this close to his mentor and best friend, Curzon Dax. Then Curzon died and Dax became Jadzia Dax, with whom he was still Heterosexual Life Partners, to the point of still calling her "Old Man". The Jadzia died and Dax became Ezri Dax, who was a neurotic mess after an unexpected Joining that she had never prepared for, and they were Heterosexual Life Partners again, only this time he was Dax's mentor.
  • Hot Dad: Yates thinks so.
  • Important Haircut: Sisko grows a goatee and loses the buzz cut after he's promoted. It's around the same time the series started to get dark.
  • The Kirk
  • Men Don't Cry: Averted in the very first episode. Reliving the memory of your beloved spouse dying would be enough to make anyone cry.
  • The Messiah
  • Parents as People/Good Parents: He has a tough time raising Jake, but does a pretty good job of it anyway.
  • Platonic Life Partners: With Jadzia Dax. He was also very close friends (bordering on Heterosexual Life Partners and Ho Yay) with Dax's previous male host Curzon. Less so with Ezri because she was so much younger than him and had so much trouble adjusting to the joining that they almost swapped roles with Sisko becoming Dax's mentor.
    • Subverted when he traveled to the Parallel Universe. Where apparently he had sex with the alternate (Dax-less) Jadzia in order to maintain his cover as the alternate Sisko...
  • Politically-Correct History: This irritates him; it's one of the reasons he doesn't initially care to try out the Rat Pack era casino simulation.
  • Reasonable Authority Figure
  • Resigned to the Call: Sisko drags his heels all the way to his new assignment on DS9. It'a miserable job, and no one wants it. He quickly changes his tune after convening with the Prophets, who restore his hopes for the future.
    • Being the Emissary in general also turns into this, what with all the religious ceremonies that he has to take part in and everything else that comes with the job. "Accession," however, changes that viewpoint.
  • Retirony: Sisko plans to build a house on Bajor once the war is settled with.
  • Scary Black Man: Apparently Worf is intimidated by him. Worf. Intimidated by a human. He plays this to the hilt in "For the Uniform", when he orders biogenic weapons to be launched at a Maquis settlement to get Eddington to surrender.

Sisko: Commander, launch torpedoes.
[Worf stares at him in shock; hesitates]
Sisko: Commander, I said launch torpedoes!

    • In the third episode he has to deal with Kira interrupting an admiral's staff meeting to complain about Sisko's methods. The look on Kira's face is priceless.

Sisko (smiling politely): Go over my head again and I'll have yours on a platter.

  • Second Love: Kasidy is Sisko's, after Jennifer, who was killed in the pilot (at Wolf 359).
  • Smart People Play Chess: Several times throughout the series.
  • Stop Worshipping Me!: Feels this way about being the Emissary initially, but mostly keeps it to himself. He stays rather humble about the position even after he accepts it as part of his identity though
  • Team Chef: He claims his dad taught him everything he knows, and his dad is the owner and operator of a restaurant, so in a 24th century where cooking is mostly a hobby, he's a hobbyist (and a good one, we are told).
  • Unresolved Sexual Tension: Both Sisko and Dax have admitted that they share a mutal attraction towards the other, despite never acting on it, it would be too weird given their previous relationship. As he puts it, "She may not be Curzon, but she's still DAX!"
    • He does sleep with her mirror-universe counterpart while posing as their Ben Sisko though; an unjoined Jadzia was that Ben's mistress, and he had to maintain his cover when she threw herself at him after all…
  • Warrior Poet: Can sometimes do this, notable in In The Pale Moonlight.
  • Wouldn't Hit a Girl: He half-jokes about this whenever Dax manages to piss him off. He'll comment, "If you were still a man..." while knowing perfectly well that even if she's not really the "Old Man" anymore, Dax could still easily beat him.

Major/Colonel Kira Nerys (Nana Visitor)

Kira: You break the rules, you pay.
Odo: Wait a minute, I wanna be sure I heard that correctly. Because it doesn't sound like the Kira Nerys who has made a career out of breaking the rules.


The Bajoran lead and, at least initially, The Lancer. She resented Starfleet's presence, thinking of Bajor as having swapped one set of occupiers for another. Grew up as a Bajoran freedom fighter and is thus skilled in guerrilla warfare, as well as capable enough to take on a Klingon in hand-to-hand combat. Begins her story arc angry and broken, but slowly defrosts over the course of the series. Kira is her family name and Nerys is her given name, said last as part of Bajoran naming custom (like Japanese names).

  • Action Girl: Good lord, she beats the stuffing out of a serial killer while the equivalent of nine months pregnant.
  • Anti-Hero: Type IV/V. She is one of the most ruthless protagonists in Trek canon.
  • Badass: Manages to fight while pregnant.
  • Berserk Button: Cardassians, unsurprisingly.
  • Break the Cutie: That's quite the achievement but Trentin Fala, from 'The Darkness and the Light' episode managed to do that, twice. First, he killed all the friends Kira made during her days at the Shakaar Resistance cell, except Shakaar himself. Second, he cracked her armor by trashing her actions and ideology, backing it with some good points. She managed to defend herself, but considering what she said to the rescue team after their fight, it's obvious Kira thought he was right to some extent, even talking in the same maneer he had.
  • Broken Bird: The horrors she has seen - well, she can break your heart.
  • Child Soldier: Grew up as one. She survived.
  • Colonel Badass: Promoted in the seventh season.
  • Combat Pragmatist: Fair tactics do not keep you alive in the Bajoran Resistance. Kira, therefore, doesn't use them.
  • Dark and Troubled Past: Cardassian Occupation. In other words, she is a Holocaust survivor.
  • Defrosting Ice Queen: At the start of the series Kira is always all business and is suspicious of Starfleet. She calms down after Sisko saves her life and proves that he's willing to defend the Bajorans.
  • Deuteragonist: Initially. Demoted to Tritagonist after the arrival of Worf. Nana Visitor, to her credit, knew that her early prominence wouldn't last, and very much took it in stride. She still remains a critical character, although more of her adventures take place off-screen during the Dominion arc.
  • Establishing Character Moment: The first time we meet her, she's in the middle of a screaming match with the Bajoran provisional government, and when she sees Sisko the first words out of her mouth are a rather tart "I suppose you'll want the office." About the only thing we don't see in those first thirty seconds is her soft side - it takes us half a season to see that.
  • Fantastic Caste System: According to the old Bajoran caste system, she was supposed to be an artist. The castes were abandoned during the occupation, but her parents were still apparently disappointed and embarrassed that she never showed any artistic talent.
  • Fantastic Racism: Against Cardassians, because she was on the other end of it from them during their brutal occupation of her planet. Growing past it is part of her character development, beginning with the episode "Duet" and culminating perhaps in "Ties of Blood and Water".
  • Fiery Redhead
  • General Ripper: She's down a few pay grades, and more heroic (and principled) than most examples, but if you replace 'Enemy X' with 'the Cardassians', she fits perfectly. Getting out of this is, consequently, a major part of her Character Development.
  • Hot Amazon: Military hard-ass variety.
  • Hot-Blooded: Kira is very... passionate about what she believes in, although she is capable of controlling her emotions when the chips are down.
  • I Did What I Had to Do: As mentioned, she's a former Resistance fighter, and not of the prettier variety either.
Kira: None of you belonged on Bajor. It wasn't your world. For fifty years, you raped our planet! You lived on our land and you took the food out of our mouths, and I don't care whether you held a phaser in your hand or you ironed shirts for a living; you were all guilty and you were all legitimate targets!
—"The Darkness and the Light"
  • Interspecies Romance: Bajoran/Changeling.
  • The Lancer: At first.
  • Last-Name Basis: For the first few series, very rarely is she called by her given name, Nerys. Even into the later series, the only people who regularly call her this are Jadzia Dax, her closest friend, and Odo, her love interest. And even Odo only switches over once they actually get together.
  • Love Epiphany: Or as she calls it, a "moment of pure clarity." Good thing she doesn't waste time, because it took her the better part of a decade to figure it out.
  • Majorly Awesome: For most of the show's run.
  • The McCoy: A darker version, as she is not afraid to Pay Evil Unto Evil, a la her stint with the Resistance.
  • Moe Couplet: With Odo.
  • Number Two: Of Deep Space Nine and, initially, the Defiant (despite not being a member of Starfleet); essentially shares the role with Worf from season 4 onward.
  • Not So Different: With Garek, interestingly, while as liason to the Cardassian La Résistance. Most of the rebels were rather oafish soldiers and Garek and Kira were notable for having the most experience with sinister doings.
  • Oblivious to Love: Great Prophets! Odo had to flat-out tell her he'd been in love with her for years. More than once.
  • Pay Evil Unto Evil: Less so now that she's gotten tangled up with Starfleet, but this is definitely part of her past.
  • Power Hair
  • Reassigned to Antarctica: She first ended up on Deep Space Nine because she had annoyed her superiors.
  • Religious Bruiser
  • The Revolution Will Not Be Civilized: Her backstory as a leader of the Bajoran Resistance.
  • The Revolution Will Not Be Bureaucratized: Subverted. She has a hard time adapting to peace and annoyed her superiors(see Reassigned to Antarctica above) but in the end she knew when the time for fighting had ended and the time for rebuilding was begun.
  • Second Love: Odo is arguably this for her, after Vedek Bareil, who was tragically killed early in the series.
  • Shell-Shocked Veteran: The Occupation was not fun for her.
  • Supporting Leader: Leads the ground assault on Cardassia Prime. As irony would have it, her troops are composed of rebelling Cardassians, whom she trains using the same guerrilla tactics that overthrew Bajor's occupation.
  • Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Her part was originally written to be Star Trek: The Next Generation Recurring Character Ro Laren, but Michelle Forbes didn't want to commit to a TV series. By a couple episodes in, however, Kira had become a character in her own right and developed her own personality and history. Showrunners later remarked that Kira - who was emphatically not a member of Starfleet and didn't trust the Federation one whit - provided much more opportunity for drama and conflict.
  • Ten Hours In The Closet: Used to resolve a months-long disagreement between Odo and Kira (specifically, his falling under the influence of the Female Changeling) in "You are Cordially Invited" - so we never actually hear the discussion, we just find out that they've been up all night talking. Incidentally, Visitor and Auberjonois pitched a fit about this and insisted that any other arguments between the two be resolved onscreen.
  • Tsundere: Type 1, normally tsuntsun but liable to go deredere in certain romantic situations, usually around Odo.
  • Unresolved Sexual Tension: With O'Brien, during the time when she is the surrogate carrying Miles and Keiko's baby. Both Kira and O'Brien naturally freak out when they realise they're developing romantic feelings for the other, having gotten closer during this time.
  • Uptight Loves Wild: She's the "wild" one, being considerably more fiery than the much more sedate Odo.
  • What Measure Is a Humanoid?: Kira's not human, but close enough.
  • What the Hell, Hero?: More than a few people are uncomfortable about her terrorist past. She is unrepentant due to the I Did What I Had to Do nature of fighting the Cardassian Occupation. Nevertheless, it does cause her a not-insignificant amount of Angst.
  • When She Smiles: How Odo feels about her.
  • Will They or Won't They?: Almost a decade's worth with Odo before They Do.
  • Zip Me Up: Odo. Interestingly, this is after they've gotten together - so he kisses her shoulder along the way.

Odo (Rene Auberjonois)

Odo: What makes you think I'm going to follow him?
Garak: I happen to know that you're too dogged an investigator to allow the only witness in this case to simply disappear.
Odo: Oh, congratulations, your powers of deduction are truly astonishing. Now, if you will kindly disembark, I will get on with my "dogged" investigation.

Partially The Spock initially, later becoming The Judge. He was the constable (chief of security) of Deep Space Nine, having been in that position even during the Cardassian Occupation. A shapeshifter (or "Changeling", a clever double-meaning). Originally a bit angsty over not knowing his origins; eventually he discovers that his own people are the enemy, which doesn't really help with the angst bit. During the series, it's revealed that Odo's name is a shortened form of a Bajoran term, odo'ital ('unknown sample'), that the Cardassian overseers gave him during the Occupation. Unfortunately, Cardassian humor being what it is, Odo is literally translated as 'nothing.'

  • Always Save the Girl: He rewrote history to save Kira. Kira, however, wasn't pleased.
  • An Odd Place to Sleep: In a bucket. Beat that, Worf.
    • After losing and then regaining his shapeshifting powers, he tried to keep to sleeping in a bed (as he rather enjoyed it) but kept sliding off when he reverted to his gelatinous form.
  • And Another Thing: A staple of his investigative/interview technique, in the great tradition of Columbo.
  • By-The-Book Cop: With a dash of cowboy. He follows the rules to the letter, but isn't above letting the small fish go free in pursuit of a bigger offender. Contrast with Worf, who doesn't share Odo's discretion and bungles a few cases.
  • Character Tics: The short, businesslike nod he gives to acknowledge orders from his superiors. It's basically series shorthand for 'this is now guaranteed to happen'.
  • The Comically Serious
  • Dating Catwoman: A brief sexual relationship with the Female Changeling, under the guise of learning about solids and their personal habits. Really, she had hoped to brainwash him into letting go of Kira.
  • Deadpan Snarker: When he's not being The Comically Serious. Quark is his principal victim, naturally.
  • Does Not Like Guns: Prefers to use shapeshifting whenever possible.
  • Expressive Hair: Odo's hairstyle communicates his obsession with tidiness and order. Very rarely does Odo's hair fall past his face; when it does, it signals that he is figuratively and literally 'coming apart'.
  • Guttural Growler: Harumph!
  • Hates Small Talk: Inevitably leading up to making small talk with Worf about how they hate small talk.
  • I Can't Believe A Girl Like You Would Notice Me!: This is never actually said aloud after Odo finally gets Kira. That doesn't stop it from being written all over his face every time he so much as looks at her.
  • The Judge: Later on in the show. It's explained that his impartial attitude allowed him to be the security chief on DS9 even during the occupation.
    • In "Take Me Out to the Holosuite," Sisko names him umpire for the baseball game because he will be this no matter what.
  • Longing Look: Constantly at Kira.
  • Kuudere: He may seem cold and unfeeling on the outside, but those who know him admit that's he's just about the sweetest man alive. Mrs. Troi in particular is very good at bringing this out of him
  • Mode Lock / Brought Down to Normal: In "Broken Link", where the Founders lock him into the form of a normal humanoid in retaliation for his being the first Changeling to kill another. He regains his shapeshifting ability after the events of "The Begotten".
  • Lawful Neutral: In a sense. When the Cardassians recruit him they expect him to catch resistance members. However he is shown looking the other way when Kira does an Op on the station. He is interested in catching plain old-fashioned criminals not in fighting for the Cardassians or for the Resistance for that matter.
  • Moe Couplet: With Kira.
  • Mundane Utility: Shapeshifting is a wonderful talent for espionage. It also lets you give terrific massages.
  • My Greatest Failure: Allowing Dukat to execute three innocent Bajorans as retribution for a bomb attack. There was enough evidence to at the very least arrest, but had Odo dug deeper, he would have been able to find them innocent, instead of the amount needed to satisfy the Cardassian judicial system.
  • My Species Doth Protest Too Much: The Founders protest far too much.
  • Neat Freak: Is very upset after Dax shifts all the things in his room by centimeters.

Odo: "You humanoids are all alike, you have no sense of order! And Dax is the most humanoid person I know."

    • Unfortunately, without realizing it, by being this much of a neat freak, he's being a stereotypical Changeling.

Female Changeling: It is not justice you desire, Odo--but order, the same as we do.

  • Platonic Life Partners: With Mrs. Troi. Although it is non-romantic she is the only person (aside from Kira) that he admits to loving. He even married her to protect her and her child.
  • Rules Lawyer: Allow Odo to get his hands on a baseball rulebook, and weep.

"No player shall at any time make contact with the umpire in any manner. The prescribed penalty for the violation is immediate ejection from the game. Rule Number 4.06, Sub-Section A, paragraph four. Look it up, but do it in the stands. You're GONE!"

Doctor Julian Bashir (Siddig El Fadil a.k.a. Alexander Siddig)

"You may be inside my head, but you don't know me half as well as you think you do. Take Dax. I do have feelings for her. But the important thing is, she's my friend. You know? Friend? Hm? And I wouldn't exchange that friendship for anything. As far as my career is concerned, I may have been a good tennis player, but I am a great doctor. Maybe I could have been first in my class; but it wouldn't have changed anything in my life. I still would have chosen this assignment. This is where I belong."

Starts off alternately drooling after Dax, being painfully naive, or being an all-round Casanova Wannabe, and also coming off as a bit of an Upper Class Twit (prattling eagerly about frontier medicine gets up the locals' noses). Later his behavior gives way to some dark personal secrets. Notable as the first time that a US TV show recognised that not all English people are white.

  • Adorkable: How much of the cast feels about him later in the series.
  • Always Second Best: On purpose.
  • Ambiguously Brown: Though the name is clearly Arabic, nobody ever mentions where Bashir hails from - a fact which Siddig was personally proud of.
  • Bio Augmentation: Not by choice, and kept secret for most of the series.
  • Casanova Wannabe: His attempts to be suave always fail horribly.
  • Cerebus Retcon: The revelation about his genetic enhancements casts a much darker light on his initial Upper Class Twit-ish behavior.
  • Combat Medic: Holy cow, the medic just stabbed his captor in the neck! Justified, given the stakes, but somewhat unexpected.
    • Gives a good showing of himself in "The Siege of AR-558" as well.
  • Companion Cube: His teddy bear, Kukalaka.
  • Dogged Nice Guy: Towards Dax. It doesn't work with Jadzia. Does with Ezri.
  • Mr. Fanservice
  • Even the Guys Want Him
  • Fan of the Past: Bashir is a huge geek about 1960s spy fiction and something of a war history buff.
  • Fantastic Racism: His genetic augmentation nearly got him kicked out of Starfleet when they found out, due to the Federation's strict, almost draconian, laws against it. Every other augment in the series gets stuffed into a clinic/prison, though this is partially because the poor quality of their augmentation has left them extremely smart but lacking in social skills or common sense. Bashir is one of the few that doesn't have extreme personality quirks or dangerous amounts of ambition. Sisko mentions that Bashir is the first case they've dealt with in decades, making this a very rare occurrence indeed. Sisko also pointed out that the law is somewhat dated simply because it is so rarely enforced, so it may just be a case of them not getting around to updating the books. Its also possible that this is a much more common occurrence than anyone wants to admit, its just that its a lot harder to catch someone who several times more intelligent than the average human.
  • Foreshadowing: A throwaway moment occurs in the S4 episode Homefront, when Odo chats with O'Brien and Bashir right before a trip to Earth. O'Brien cheerfully asks Odo to say hi to O'Brien's parents in Dublin. Odo turns and asks Bashir if he has any family he'd like Odo to visit; Bashir immediately clams up and changes the subject, a hint at his strained relationship with his parents almost a full season before it's explicitly established.
  • Genre Savvy: At least in regards to James Bond novels.
  • Have You Tried Not Being a Monster??: How some feel about his augmentations.
  • Heterosexual Life Partners: Julian claims that Miles likes him more than Miles loves Keiko. Although Miles would like to deny this, he does admit to sometimes wishing that Keiko was more like Julian.
  • Hospital Hottie
  • Good with Numbers: He's able to do very complex calculations in his head.
  • Insufferable Genius: He tends to brag about beating a Vulcan in a racquetball match and his many medical miracles. Ironically, this is toned down after his augmentation is revealed.
    • Siddig has revealed that he deliberately made Bashir jerkish because he knew the show would run for years and he wanted to show Character Development. This turned out to fit well with the later idea that it's because of his genetically enhanced origins.
  • The Intern
  • The Medic: Even if it doesn't make any sense for a station doctor to be out in the field.
  • Multiple Choice Past: His reasons for going into medicine change from person to person. One of the reasons people thought the writers planned the reveal of his augmentations from the beginning, instead of a last-minute change.
  • Obfuscating Stupidity: Unsatisfied with the audiences' response to "bumbling" Bashir, the writers outed him as a genetically-enhanced über genius who has been operating under the radar.
  • Odd Friendship: With Garak.
  • Prophetic Name: The meaning of the name Bashir is "well-educated; wise".
    • Among the original names for the character was "Dr. Amaros", which is a bit on the nose.
  • Romantic Runner-Up: to Worf. Worf!
  • Satellite Character: Nope, not O'Brien. To Garak. Without his spy intrigue, Bashir wouldn't be included in some of the more interesting arcs (including Section 31).
  • Stupid Sexy Flanders
  • That Man Is Dead: He refuses to go by his childhood nickname 'Jules', insisting that Jules died on the operating table, and is now Julian.
    • A bit of clarification: Julian is his birth name, while Jules was an affectionate nickname. At fifteen, when he realized what had been done to him, he stopped going by it, to the point where, when he has a moment in private with his parents, he lashes out at them for using it.
  • Transhuman: A jarring 180 to the No Transhumanism Allowed usually employed in Star Trek.
  • Upper Class Twit: In earlier episodes, prior to Character Development.
  • Urban Legend Love Life: Even the actor is amazed at Bashir's amazingly bad luck with women. The two early objects of his affection end up with Rom and Worf respectively. Ouch.
    • Which is potentially why he ends up with Ezri, in all her tiny, cute awesomeness. After all those tough breaks karma owes him big time.
  • What Could Have Been: Alexander Siddig was originally considered for the role of Sisko because the producers had seen him in a movie where he was playing a much older man (with makeup to age him up). When they found out how young he actually was, he was cast in the Bashir role instead. Incidentally, "Julian Bashir" was initially named "Julian Ambrose," but the name was changed when Siddig was cast to reflect his Arab heritage.
  • What Measure Is a Non-Human?
  • Why Couldn't You Be Different?: As a small child, Bashir had several severe learning disabilities, so his parents had him undergo an illegal and extremely dangerous genetic treatment. Since then, it is implied that they were Stage Parents, pushing him towards a high-profile, high-status occupation, instead of letting him make up his own mind, as well as constantly monitoring his behavior so as not to end up in prison. This is the cause of Bashir's resentment and estrangement towards them.

Lieutenant/Lt. Commander Jadzia Dax (Terry Farrell)

"Worf, my love - let me make this very clear: I do not want to spend my honeymoon climbing, hiking, sweating, bleeding or suffering in any way."

The Spock, Really Seven Hundred Years Old (and the Action Girl sometimes), with the slight twist of being an attractive young female - albeit one inhabited by a symbiont with several centuries of memories and experience from hosts of both genders. Some fans claim she mutated into a Faux Action Girl after she got together with Worf, although she first showed her proficiency with the bat'leth in Season 2. For Season 7, she is replaced by Ezri Dax who is not at all similar. Luckily, her species had a built-in storyline reason that made this possible; symbionts need new hosts on occasion after all, and the joining adds the new personalities to the mix.

Jake Sisko (Cirroc Lofton)

Benjamin Sisko's son. A rather inexplicable member of the main cast, but he was always in the starting credits, even when guys like Garak and Nog started featuring more than him, and he had a tendency to vanish for several episodes at a time. However, some of the most critically acclaimed writing and acting on the series were the Jake/Ben Sisko scenes. He blessedly avoided becoming another Creator's Pet, for the most part, via actually suffering sometimes, in his growth as a character; also showed the impressive insanity--sorry, testicular fortitude--to remain behind and try to be a journalist covering Dominion-occupied DS9.

  • Absentee Actor: In the first six seasons, he would often vanish for multiple episodes at a time; more inexplicably he's missing from the majority of the last season. Hell, Morn appeared in more episodes than Jake!
  • Action Survivor
  • Adorkable: Especially when he's trying to pick up women.
  • Black and Nerdy
  • Intrepid Reporter
  • Military Brat
  • Most Writers Are Writers: The crew was not particularly happy with "The Muse", especially when they realized they had strayed well into this trope.
  • Tagalong Kid: This became unintentionally hilarious in the later seasons, as Lofton ended up being one of the tallest actors. For example, the episode "Valiant" has a crew full of cadets who barely reach his neck trying to order him around. They have to look up to point a phaser to his chin!
  • "Well Done, Son" Guy: Subverted, as he doesn't want to follow his father into Starfleet and worries that his father will be disappointed with his desire to be a writer.

Chief Miles O'Brien (Colm Meaney)

"How many times do I have to tell you to stop calling me "sir"? I'm not an officer."

Mr. Fixit - an Ascended Extra from Star Trek: The Next Generation, with a bigger role this time. Gets a bit of Ho Yay with Bashir later on when they almost become Heterosexual Life Partners. Subject of the annual "O'Brien Must Suffer" writers' in-joke. The only non-commissioned officer in the franchise to be a main character, he can easily be mistaken for the only one in the service. (The others were mostly very minor roles, dutifully enumerated on other wikis.) In the novelization of the pilot episode, O'Brien is slightly altered -- he accepted a promotion to Ensign and was no longer a noncom when the story began.

A note for trivia buffs: both he and Worf were present in the series premiere (and series finale) of TNG, and hold the records for "Appeared In The Most" (or "2nd Most" in O'Brien's case) "Episodes Of Star Trek Ever." (Majel Barrett Roddenberry, whose voice "appears" as the Federation computer's for something like 250 episodes, holds a different record.)

  • Ascended Extra: From a nameless con in the TNG premiere to a major character on another series.
  • Beware the Nice Ones: Devoted family man? Check. Dutiful officer? Check. Capable of taking on Brainwashed and Crazy former Obsidian Order operative Garak on a booby-trapped station with minimal supplies and almost no backup, and winning? Check.
  • Butt Monkey: "O'Brien must suffer."
  • Custom Uniform: His has short sleeves.
  • The Everyman
  • Fantastic Racism: Occasionally towards Cardassians, and has been known to utter the phrase "Cardy Bastards".
    • To clarify, O'Brien fought in the Federation-Cardassian War and was present at the Setlik III massacre, an event that affected him deeply. This was also the first time he'd ever killed someone, vaporising a Cardassian when he fired a phaser not knowing that it'd be set to maximum. As O'Brien summed up in TNG, he doesn't hate Cardassians, he hates what he became because of them.
  • Gadgeteer Genius
  • Happily Married
  • Limited Advancement Opportunities: Given his record of genius and heroism, you'd expect him to make Master Chief by the end of the series, but he stays an SCPO for the entire run (although it is possible that might be the top of the Starfleet NCO ranks, we haven't seen enough of them on screen to be sure). He does continually gain responsibilities and duties throughout the series, so there is a career progression of sorts going on.
  • Mr. Fixit: Well into Season 6, it is still strongly implied that the only reason all the mixed Federation and Cardassian technology on board DS9 runs anything close to smoothly is because he has been working on it non-stop from day one.
  • Timey-Wimey Ball: In the third-season episode "Visionary", O'Brien is sent to the future several times. Ultimately, "our" O'Brien dies and the one that comes back to the present is an O'Brien from two-and-a-half hours into the future.
  • Veteran Instructor: Sort of slips into the old-hand mentor role in the final two seasons, and the Grand Finale sees him return to Earth to become an official instructor at the Academy.

Quark (Armin Shimerman)

"Isn't there anything you... desire?"

A mix of Anti-Hero and Small Name, Big Ego (there were lots of Big Ego, Hidden Depths types featuring Quark). Being a Ferengi meant he was a member of a Planet of Hats of ultra-ruthless, ludicrously sexist capitalists. His brother Rom and his nephew Nog started out as the Too Dumb to Live-type, but it turned out they were just hiding behind these images too.

  • Anti-Hero: Type I
  • The Bartender
  • Can't Get Away with Nuthin'
  • The Complainer Is Always Wrong
  • Cowardly Lion
  • Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Kills at least half a dozen Jem'Hadar Super Soldiers in shootouts over the course of the series, despite how often he insists fighting is no way for a Ferengi to behave. When circumstances forced him into a duel with a Klingon, he escaped with his life by showing up anyway, throwing the fight and saying how it's effectively an execution ("Killing an unarmed ferengi... half his size"), goading his opponent into fighting anyway and causing Chancellor Gowron to intervene and admonish his opponent for such a dishonor. Quite a little Batman Gambit on his part.
  • Even Swindlers Have Standards: He goes into business with his cousin Gaila, an arms merchant, but changes his mind and ultimately wrecks Gaila's business because he can't stand to sell the death of millions.
    • When the Dominion takes over the station, Quark is initially okay with it. Sure, he misses the Federation, but business is good and (as he says) the current occupation is nowhere near as bad as the Cardassian one. However, his viewpoint changes over the course of the arc. Towards the end, he bemoans the current situation, saying he doesn't like the Cardassians and finds the Jem'Hadar creepy (not to mention they don't ever buy anything so all they do is take up space and scare away business). He culminates by saying, "I wanna sell root beer again!"
  • Determinator: Not often but in 'The Ascent' Quark, crashed on a uninhabited planet, refuses to die and attempts to signal for help simply to spite Odo.
  • Fang Thpeak: Especially in early episodes.
  • Friendly Enemy: He and Odo eventually arrive at this.
  • Good Old Ways: Why he doesn't get on with his 'ahead of the times' mother and why he's skeptical of Rom's new Ferenginar.
  • Hidden Depths: It's usually a B-Plot or sprinkled into background material, but Quark is not the typical Ferengi. His comment in "Bar Association" is telling; he can either cut everyone's hours (and salaries) by a third to keep the bar running, or fire half his staff. He chooses to keep everyone's job. He almost never resorts to violence to get anything done (other Ferengi have no such compunctions), and the reason why he gets so many Straw Man Has a Point moments is that he is entirely too human and can relate (his "Root Beer" speech is classic Quark). He gets into constant trouble with the Ferengi Commerce Authority because of his strangely compassionate side. Comes to a head in "Body Parts", where Brunt explains that his hatred of Quark is not due to any particular misdeed, but rather that he is a philanthropist by Ferengi standards.
    • On the other hand, this also explains why he's such a traditionalist. While other Ferengi are often shallow and greedy enough to do just about anything for profit, he considers the public welfare just as important.
    • He's also deeply religious, almost as spiritual as Kira in his own way. He's been seen praying and in one episode even had a dream about visiting the Ferengi equivalent of Heaven.
  • Honest John's Dealership: The Ferengi's Hat.
  • Jerk with a Heart of Gold: For all his scheming, he's not one to let innocent people get murdered to satiate his own greed.
  • Mayor of a Ghost Town: Began the series as this. Cunningly, Sisko snatches Quark before he can leave the station and appoints him "community leader"; a nice way of saying that if Quark doesn't stay, his nephew goes to jail.
  • The Millstone: Particularly in the show's early years. Quark often endangers the entire station in pursuit of an illegal transaction. One such incident (smuggling Verad onboard) almost got Jadzia killed -- this caused him to tone it down a little.
  • Not So Different / Straw Man Has a Point: Quark has a lot to say about the Federation, and hew-mons in particular. Sometimes his observations are devastatingly on target.
  • Shipper on Deck: As the station's eyes and ears (Ha!), Quark comments on the pairings occurring all around him. Even some that never actually took off, such as Sisko/Jadzia.
  • Small Name, Big Ego
  • The Unfavorite: His mother always preferred Rom, partly because Rom takes a lot after his late father. Quark and his mother have a lot in common, but are on opposite ends opinion-wise.
  • Worthy Opponent: Feels this way about Odo. Even in the second episode, he defends Odo against accusations of murder.

Lt. Commander Worf (Michael Dorn)

Ezri: Worf, you are the most honorable and decent man that I've ever met. And if you're willing to tolerate men like Gowron, then what hope is there for the Empire?

Proud Warrior Race Guy and often sufferer of The Worf Effect (obviously), another reassignment from the Enterprise-D, turning up with the show's Retool at the start of season 4. Notably, Worf suffered less of The Worf Effect on this show than The Next Generation. The conflicts of this series and heavy involvement with the Klingon Empire were more suited to his strengths and instincts. As well, Michael Dorn ensured that, should he come on to another series, he would be both unique among Klingons and he would have a chance to be Badass. Hence his fondness of Prune Juice over Blood Wine. See also his section on the Star Trek: The Next Generation character sheet.

Garak: Mr. Worf, you're no fun at all.
Worf: ... good.

  • Determinator: Famously stood his ground against ten Jem 'Hadar warriors in a Forced Prize Fight. When he finally does hit the mat, it's his opponent who calls it quits.

Ikat'ika: I yield. I cannot defeat this Klingon. I can only kill him, and that no longer holds my interest."

  • Deuteragonist: Essentially becomes this when he joins the cast; the entire Klingon War arc was more or less built around bringing his character onto the show.
  • Fire-Forged Friends: With Martok.
  • Happily Married: To Jadzia.
  • Heartbroken Badass: Worf is, quite simply, devastated after Jadzia is killed. He didn't suffer that much even after K'Ehleyr was murdered by Duras and his performance of the Klingon Death Ritual over her body is one of the few times he actually weeps.
  • Immigrant Patriotism: Played with. He is loyal to the Federation to the point of fighting against the Klingon Empire when they go to war. At the same time, he is obsessed with Klingon tradition more then most Klingons are. (Again, see the TNG character sheet for an accurate analysis of his mentality.)
  • Master Batlith man : Given that he can beat Jadzia in a friendly duel, Grilka's bodyguard in a real one, and actually kill Gowron in a Duel to the Death, he must be one of the best fighters to ever handle a bat'leth.
  • My Greatest Failure: In "Let He Who is Without Sin...", we learn that Worf's uptight nature is the result of a childhood soccer match, when young Worf accidentally headbutted an opposing player. Klingon foreheads being what they are, the kid died. This tragedy convinced Worf to reign in his Klingon passion.
  • Number Two: Is First Officer of the Defiant. In practice, he and Kira share this role, which is lampshaded in "Apocalypse Rising".
  • An Odd Place to Sleep: Right from Day One, Worf has trouble adjusting to the morally-grey atmosphere on the station. Following a string of disasters, he decides that the only way to adjust to life aboard the station is to live outside it, and makes the Defiant his crib.
  • Offered the Crown: After his killing of Gowron in "Tacking Into the Wind" he basically earned the right to rule the Klingon Empire. He chose wisely instead to hand it Martok. A bit of running theme with Worf. When ever he got involved with leadership of the Klingon people someone ends up dead and someone ends up a new leader.
  • Proud Warrior Race Guy
  • The Stoic
  • Warrior Poet: Loves Klingon Opera, Klingon legends, and Klingon traditions.
  • The Worf Effect: Starting to wane by this point, thank goodness.
  • Uptight Loves Wild: With Jadzia. Three guesses who is which.

Lieutenant Ezri Dax (Nicole de Boer)

"She's a Dax. Sometimes they don't think, they just do."

The new Trill host for the Dax symbiont, owing that only to chance. Ezri was serving on the ship taking Dax back to Trill when the symbiont became extremely ill and the only way to save its life was immediate implantation in a new host. As the only Trill onboard, Ezri reluctantly volunteered, and her unease at being a "joined" Trill, which was something prospective hosts are supposed to train for years to deal with, became a centerpiece of her character. She also had to deal with Dax influencing her feelings about Worf and Bashir, her own attraction to Bashir, and the fact that an officer of her general inexperience -- specifically, a Lieutenant Junior Grade Assistant Counselor -- was suddenly part of the Federation's front-line wartime command crew.

  • Cloudcuckoolander: As a result of having eight full lifetimes shoehorned into her head. She adjusts eventually.
  • Falling Into the Cockpit: Ezri was not planning to be a symbiont host and had no training. Her entire prep time was a 15-minute lecture from the Destiny's non-Trill Chief Medical Officer.
  • Naive Newcomer
  • The Nth Doctor: The ninth host of Dax.
  • Older Than They Look: She's got the same deal as Jadzia going on.
  • "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Is on the receiving one of Garak's. Later, she delivers one to Worf about the Klingon Empire being plagued with corruptness.
  • Stepford Snarker: She frequently makes sarcastic comments and uses Self Deprecating Humor to cover her real anxiety. The episode focusing on her family implies Ezri did this before she was joined.
  • The Cobbler's Children Have No Shoes: She's tasked with Garak's very difficult case when she is in desperate need of therapy herself.
  • Took a Level in Badass: Well, at least a half-level, especially after a particularly scathing "The Reason You Suck" Speech from Garak; they squeeze in a little character development for her in the single season she's on the show, and she ends up hunting down a Vulcan serial killer.
  • Well Done Daughter Girl: Somewhat. When she realized she would never get this, she joined Starfleet and didn't look back. (Until O'Brien goes missing on her home planet and she has to.)

Quark's Bar, Family & other Ferengi

Rom (Max Grodénchik)

"I've always been smart, brother. I just lack self-confidence."

Quark's younger brother and Nog's father. Initially nothing more than a goofy comic relief character, completely dominated by his brother, he was revealed to have Hidden Depths as the series went on.

  • Annoying Younger Sibling: But pretty much only as far as Quark is concerned.
  • Characterization Marches On: Rom was not only unnamed in his first appearance, he also was depicted with a vastly different characterization and even voice by Grodénchik. Later, he was thought of as being an idiot (Odo even said that he couldn't have fixed Quark's replicator, because he couldn't fix a straw if it was bent), but as it turns out, he's a highly competent engineer.

Rom: I've always been smart, brother. I've just lacked self-confidence.

  • Genius Ditz: A damn fine engineer, completely lacking in common sense and, worse for a Ferengi, business sense, until near the end of the show.

Quark: "Looks like your stupidity has saved you again."
Rom: "It comes in handy sometimes."

  • Mr. Fixit
  • Papa Wolf: As Quark found out, mess with Nog at your peril. Rom went as far as to threaten to burn the bar down.
  • Real Men Wear Pink: Provides Quark with sage advice for passing himself off as a woman. In fact, Rom almost knows too much about the subject.
  • Simpleton Voice
  • The Unfavorite: With everyone but his and Quark's mother.
  • Ugly Guy, Hot Wife: Eventually marries Dabo girl Leeta.
    • Pretty much everyone considers this a Crack Pairing in-universe, for varying reasons.
  • Undying Loyalty: He may not impress on first impressions, but you can trust Rom with your life. Or, as O'Brien learned in "The Assignment", the life of your wife.

Nog (Aron Eisenberg)

"I may be a Starfleet officer but I am still a Ferengi!"

Quark's nephew. Starts out as Jake's Book Dumb Ferengi best friend, but then joins Starfleet and becomes a shining example of a straight-up, by-the-book soldier. This occasionally lapses into New Meat, except that, because Starfleet is only Mildly Military, no one finds him the least bit annoying.

Leeta (Chase Masterson)

Morn (Mark Allen Shepherd)

"People love him. He's like a mascot. Everyone who comes in here expects to see him, and if they don't, it doesn't feel like home to them."
—Quark (Leaning on the Fourth Wall a bit)

A friend of Quark's and a permanent fixture at his bar. He never speaks a single line over the course of the series.

  • Acting for Two / Casting Gag: In "Who Mourns For Morn?", Quark tries to get a customer to sit on Morn's stool after he dies - that customer is Mark Shepherd out of his normal make-up.
  • Amusing Alien: They get a lot of mileage out of someone who never actually speaks.
  • Ascended Extra: Gets his own episode... and not only does he still not get any dialogue, he's presumed dead for most of it.
    • Allen Shepherd (sans makeup) is finally seen on-camera in this episode, keeping Morn's seat warm. Quark shoos him away, saying it's just not the same.
  • Bizarre Alien Biology: He kept over 100 bricks worth of liquid-latinum in his second stomach for over ten years with no ill effects, apart from massive hair-loss.
  • Expy: For Norm of Cheers. His name is even an anagram.
  • Faking the Dead: Has to pull this in the above episode due to his checkered past.
  • Informed Ability: Comedic version. He's quite the blabbermouth. You'd never know from watching.
    • He's also referred to as the resident Boisterous Bruiser on a couple of occasions and apparently has a tremendous singing voice.
    • Apparantly aslo a lady's man. See Kavorka Man.
  • Kavorka Man: If you pay attention, every appearance where he isn't drinking usually has him with a lady (sometimes two) in his arms. Dax admitted to being attracted to him but she figured he was way out of her league.
  • Momma's Boy: A vital message that changed the course of the Dominion War only got through because he smuggled it in one of the many presents he was rushing home to give his mother for her birthday.
  • Running Gag: Everyone always talks about qualities he has or actions he took we never get to see. Such has him being very talkative.
  • The Voiceless: You never actually see him speak.
    • He does however laugh. Once.

Grand Nagus Zek (Wallace Shawn)

I'm your Nagus. You have no secrets from me.

Leader of the Ferengi Alliance, he appears in almost every Ferengi episode. He is often toted as being the wealthiest Ferengi alive, but later on it is revealed that his mind is not what it used to be. He starts a relationship with Quark's mother, Ishka, who ends up becoming the woman behind the man by helping him with his memory problems. At the end of the show, he retires from the position and (at Ishka's suggestion) passes social reform granting female rights, environmental regulations, and many other things.

Ishka (Andrea Martin/ Cecily Adams)

Liquidator Brunt (Jeffrey Combs)

Vic Fontaine (James Darren)


Federation & Bajor

Kai Opaka (Camille Saviola)

Keiko O'Brian (Rosalind Chao)

Wife of Miles

Vedek/Kai Winn Adami (Louise Fletcher)

Traditionalist Bajoran religious leader who is introduced as generically The Fundamentalist, but develops into a far more complex antagonist for the heroes. Ends up in Sinister Minister territory, but has a much less cartoonish motivation than the usual: she's genuinely religious but becomes steadily more and more bitter that her gods keep, as she sees it, favouring foreigners and dilettantes over her, despite her lifelong service to them.

  • Even Evil Has Standards: She schemes, plots assassinations, undermines Sisko at every turn, but when she finds out that the Bajoran 'spiritual guide' she slept with is Gul Dukat, she looks like she's going to throw up.
  • Heel Face Turn: About five minutes before the end.
  • Hey, It's That Guy!: Nurse Ratched is now a spiritual leader??
  • Holier Than Thou: If she's onscreen with Sisko, expect her to make a dig at him for being foreign. If she's onscreen with Kira, expect "gentle" reminders about just who is the Kai.
  • It's All About Me: Although she's a believer, she spends most of her time as Kai trying to wrestle influence away from Sisko. This is probably why the Prophets give her the cold shoulder.
  • Jerkass: She is the high queen of being passive-aggressive. And bombing schools.
  • Large Ham: It is very, very easy to see Louise Fletcher positively luxuriating in the sheer hamminess of this character.
  • Redemption Equals Death: Gives Sisko key information immediately before Dukat kills her.
  • Sinister Minister: She kicks off her first major role plotting the assassination of a rival who was favored to become Kai. Shortly after that, she involves herself in a coup that intends to expel the Federation.
  • Spanner in the Works: Her appearance frequently throws Starfleet for a loop. And she deliberately disrupts the Reckoning, a battle between the Prophets and Pah-Wraiths that has been prophesied for thousands of years.
  • The Unfavourite: In a religious sense. Despite her Kai title and obstination, the prophets will never give her an audience, even if she's using orbs, that were created so Bajorans could have access at any time to their Gods. It's particularly noticeable because everyone else who try will get one. Hell, even Quark had it on his first try. Even worse, when she finally meets one, even kneeling before it to show her devotion, it proceeds to ignore her spectacularly.

Vedek Bareil Antos (Philip Anglim)

Lt. Commander Michael Eddington (Kenneth Marshall)

"People don't enter Starfleet to become commanders, or admirals for that matter, it's the captain's chair that everyone has their eye on. That's what I wanted when I joined up. You don't get to be a captain wearing a gold uniform."

Initially assigned to Deep Space 9 as Chief of Starfleet Security after first contact with the Dominion. This was done in part due to a lack of trust Starfleet Command had for Odo. Ironically, Eddington would eventually betray his uniform and join the Maquis.

Kasidy Yates (Penny Johnson)

Shakaar Edon (Duncan Regehr)

Leader of the eponymous Shakaar resistance cell during the Cardassian Occupation, and former comrade-in-arms of Major Kira. He became a farmer after the Occupation ended, and was eventually elected as First Minister of Bajor.

  • Absentee Actor: Shakaar is seen in only three episodes, though mentioned many other times. Planned appearances were removed from several scripts due to budgetary reasons or because the script was already too crowded.
  • Casanova: Described by Gul Dukat as such to Major Kira. Whether or not this is true is suspect, given Dukat's likely ulterior motives.
  • Romantic False Lead: For Odo and Major Kira. Probably his most defining characteristic.
  • Unexpected Successor: From farmer to First Minister in about a month or so.

Joseph Sisko (Brock Peters)

Vice Admiral William Ross (Barry Jenner)

A senior Starfleet military commander and Captain Sisko's direct superior during the Dominion War.

  • Reasonable Authority Figure: If he is not the most reasonable Starfleet admiral in the entirety of Trek, then he is certainly the second most.
  • Throw It In: A joking reference by Odo to Ross as "Bill" in the first episode of season 7 was taken literally by the writing staff, resulting in his canonical first name.

Luther Sloan (William Sadler)

"The Federation needs men like you, doctor. Men of conscience. Men of principle. Men who can sleep at night... You're also the reason Section Thirty-One exists -- someone has to protect men like you from a universe that doesn't share your sense of right and wrong."

An operative of Section 31, a clandestine black ops organization within the Federation and independent of Starfleet. Sloan and the others of his agency have dedicated their lives to eliminating threats to the Federation's survival by any means necessary, even if it means violating the very freedoms and principles that Federation citizens are supposed to hold dear.

Cardassian Union

Elim Garak (Andrew Robinson)

"Lately, I've noticed that everyone seems to trust me. It's quite unnerving. I'm still trying to get used to it."

A Cardassian tailor (and Magnificent Bastard) with a Mysterious Past as a top-notch spy, field agent and torturer for the feared Cardassian Obsidian Order; his moral ambiguity, unique skills and network of shady contacts become rather important in later seasons.

  • Almighty Janitor: This lowly tailor is plugged into more resources than the whole of Starfleet combined.
    • Well, except Section 31, but he gives them a run for their money.
  • Ambiguously Gay: According to his actor he initially played Garak as being Omnisexual.
  • Apologetic Attacker: Practically begs for the information he needs, he doesn't want to have to keep torturing Odo.
  • Beware the Silly Ones
  • Catch Phrase: "There may be hope for you yet" He utters the phrase pretty much anytime he observes a principled or noble character show signs of cynicism or suspicion (particularly if they indicate they don't trust him)
  • Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: His desire to engage in this kind of behaviour becomes less and less as time goes by due to the influence of the Federation and, in particular, a couple of personal relationships mainly with Bashir and Odo.
  • Claustrophobia: He suffers from a acute version that becomes a plot point on several occasions.
  • Consummate Liar: It's so difficult for most people to be able to tell when he's being truthful or lying that the default reaction is to assume he's always lying. He himself encourages this attitude. This has the useful side-effect of him being able to protect important information because he'll even lie about trivial things, resulting in people not being able to tell what's important and what's not. There are a very few who learn how to read him accurately, most notably Odo.
  • Crazy Prepared: At one point Garek spots an assassin sent after him and deliberately blows up his own shop so security will protect him. The Crazy Prepared part? Garek builds the bomb with a specific type of pheromone trigger favored by the assassin's species to make the frame sticks. Apparently he had one lying around just in case.
  • Curiosity Causes Conversion: According to Robinson, Garak is intrigued by Bashir's motiveless compassion for others - something totally alien to Cardassians at this point in their history.
  • Deadpan Snarker: After getting beaten by Klingons, Garak tells Bashir that he got the better end of the deal.

Bashir: They broke seven of your transverse ribs and fractured your clavicle.
Garak: Ah, but I got off several cutting remarks which no doubt did serious damage to their egos! Thanks to your ministrations, I'll be back on my feet in no time, whereas the damage I did will last a lifetime.

    • Garak has several deadpan-snark moments in virtually every episode he appears in. He's probably the Trek universe's Most Triumphant Example.
  • Don't Call Me "Sir"!: Just "plain, simple Garak!".
  • Double Reverse Quadruple Agent: The Cardassians may secretly employ him to keep eyes and ears on DS9, but they also seem to have good reasons for making sure he stays out of Cardassia.
  • Fake Defector
  • Fake Guest Star: introduced in the second episode of the show. Appears in all seven seasons. Becomes absolutely central to the plot. Doesn't appear in the opening credits because Robinson asked not to.
  • Hey, It's That Guy!: Seems Scorpio is helping out the good guys this time.
  • Improbable Weapon User: He once kills an engineer with a flux coupler.
  • Knowledge Broker: It's one of the reasons why Sisko's team and later the Federation finds him so useful to keep around.
  • Mysterious Past
  • Odd Friendship: Initially with Bashir and later with Odo as well. An odd dynamic eventually even begins to form with Worf and O'Brien as well.
  • Patriotic Fervor
  • Recurring Character
  • Retired Monster: He was a very successful operative for the Obsidian Order, and is not apologetic about this in the slightest.
  • Self-Deprecation: Improbable military knowledge? He reads a lot! Unusual and fancy engineering equipment? It's a common tailor's tool! Ability to ooze power and order around Guls like you own them while spouting active and valid codes despite having been in exile for years? Overheard it while hemming a woman's dress! Expert ability to rewrite high-class military encryption software? Any tailor can do it!
  • Self-Proclaimed Liar: And a legend in his own lifetime.
  • Shoot the Dog: The go-to guy for this on the station.

That's why you came to me, isn't it, Captain? Because you knew I could do those things that you weren't capable of doing.

  • Strange Bedfellows: The fate of Cardassia and the Alpha Quadrant ends up requiring Garak, Kira and Damar to put aside their three-way loathing of each other and work together. By the end of series, there are even signs of a Fire-Forged Friends beginning to form between Garak and Kira.
  • Token Heroic Orc: To an extent. Garak doesn't mind Cardassia's military expansionism, per se. The tipping point is when his homeworld is overrun by the Dominion due to a couple short-sighted opportunists, like Dukat.
  • Token Evil Teammate
  • That Man Is Dead: Claims to be responsible for the death of his best friend, Elim. This is then revealed to actually be Garak's first name.
  • The Exile
  • What the Hell, Hero?: He tells Sisko off after Sisko's self-righteous reprimanding of him over the murder of a Romulan diplomat, given that Sisko knew exactly the kind of person Garak was and more or less what he would do if Sisko tried to recruit him to frame up the Dominion.
  • "Well Done, Son" Guy: It was only on Tain's deathbed that Garak received some recognition.

Gul Dukat (Marc Alaimo)

"There is no problem that cannot be solved by a disciplined Cardassian mind."

Possibly the finest Magnificent Bastard the franchise has seen, and eventual Big Bad. Wavered between Kick the Dog and Pet the Dog moments (especially with his daughter) before things transpired to make him nice and crazy, at which point he crossed the Moral Event Horizon, especially from the end of Season 6 onward.

  • Affably Evil: At first, anyways; Dukat can be quite charming when he wants to be.
  • Ambition Is Evil
  • And I Must Scream: Sealed away in the Fire Caves with the Pah-Wraiths... forever.
  • Anti-Villain: Considered by some fans to fit this trope. Dukat's behavior in Season 7 was a deliberate move by the writers to avert that.
  • Big Bad
  • Dark Messiah
  • Easily Forgiven: Ziyal shrugging off her father's attempt to murder her. What this says about Cardassian culture, one can only speculate.
  • Even Evil Has Loved Ones: He genuinely cares for his illegitimate daughter, Ziyal, and her death drives him over the edge.
  • Evil Counterpart: As the Emissary to the Pah-Wraiths.
  • Family Values Villain
  • Friendly Enemy
  • Heel Face Turn: When he captained the one-ship Cardassian resistance to the Klingon invasion and occupation.
    • Face Heel Turn: When he then sold out his people to the Dominion, both to finally defeat the Klingons and also to get the level of personal power he felt he deserved.
  • Heel Realization: He actually embraces it, and becomes a much less complex villain afterwards. "Exactly! I should have killed them all!"
    • A fact actually justified because the authors were literally horrified than fans of the show defended Dukat's actions, despite his obviously evil choices and motives. That wasn't well-received. Fans kept defending Dukat, trashing the authors for ruining his character in the process and Marc Alaimo himself felt like it was a letdown.
  • Insane Admiral: Briefly promoted to Legate, the Cardassian equivalent of Admiral. Dukat requested to be bumped back down to Gul (despite reigning as de facto dictator of his homeworld), apparently as a gesture of modesty. It might have also been a snub at his superiors for ignoring his abilities for so long.
  • Jerkass Dissonance: This became a problem. Eventually, even the actor got in on the act; Marc Alaimo believed that Dukat was essentially good, and was saddened when he had to punch an old guy in Season 7.
  • Kavorka Man: Among Bajoran women, anyway.
  • Kicked Upstairs: At the start of the series. It's his frustration at his inability to fix this that drives Dukat toward the Dominion.
  • Magic Plastic Surgery: While masquerading as "Anjohl Tennan", a Bajoran farmer.
  • No Name Given: Dukat's first name is never stated in canon, though the non-canonical first name of "Skrain" has been adopted by many fans. At one point he identifies himself as "Dukat, S.G." though it's been suggested by Word of God that this is a title (like Ph.D., M.D., or R.N.).
  • Jumping Off the Slippery Slope
  • The Quisling: For Dukat, a few months of being a lowly guerrilla fighter made a pact with The Dominion look mighty attractive.
  • Reasonable Authority Figure: Before he signs an alliance with the Dominion.
  • Red Eyes, Take Warning
  • Resenter: Like Sisko, Dukat too once presided over Bajor as an outsider. The difference is that Dukat was reviled, whereas the Bajorans embraced Sisko as their spiritual idol. Ouch.
  • Sanity Slippage
  • Sinister Minister: As leader of the Pai-Wraith cult.
  • Troll: His behavior in "Civil Defense". When Cardassian security programs take control of the station, he teleports in purely to be as smug as possible before teleporting out. Then he finds out that he can't.
  • Tyrant Takes the Helm: Manages to re-take Deep Space Nine with Jem'Hadar help.
  • Visionary Villain: Dukat assumed his post on Bajor with the firm intention of offering more carrot, and less stick. However, rather than shower affection on their new shogun, the Bajorans raised their heads (to Dukat's astonishment) and overthrew the Cardassian forces. Word of God says that Dukat's deep-seated hate for the Bajorans is rooted in the fact that they refused to love him.
  • Unholy Matrimony: With Kai Winn.
  • Wicked Cultured
  • Worthy Opponent: Even as enemies, Dukat holds Sisko in high esteem and even craves his approval.
  • Would Hurt a Child: Spends an episode scouring the desert for his illegitimate, mixed-race daughter - so he can kill her, thereby erasing any evidence of his private habits. Luckily, Kira talks him out of it.

Damar (Casey Biggs)

"They'll just make another copy of him, you know. You should've killed me. There's only one Damar."

Dukat's right-hand man, he did little of note until killing Dukat's daughter Ziyal for treachery (she had been sabotaging DS9 during the Cardassian-Dominion re-occupation of Bajor), which directly led to Dukat's going completely batshit insane. Afterwards he became leader of the Cardassian Union and was shown to be a visibly troubled man both uncomfortable with power and increasingly dissatisfied with the actions of the Dominion. In the show's final episodes, he led La Résistance on Cardassia and ended up getting killed for his trouble.

  • The Alcoholic: In many appearances, he often is seen drinking a lot of Kanar. This nearly backfires on him during the occupation of DS9, when Quark gets him to spill classified information while drunk.
  • Ascended Extra: Damar was originally just a crewmember on Dukat's ship. Biggs originally thought he was just a glorified extra in his first episode.
  • Character Development: Perhaps the single most extreme example in all of Star Trek.
  • Died Mid-Sentence Damar died trying to give a rallying speech to his troops. Word of God is that originally he was simply going to die; but Casey Biggs decided he should say something. He still has no idea what the rest of sentence was going to be.
  • Heel Face Turn
  • La Résistance:
  • Mook Promotion
  • No Honor Among Thieves: With Weyoun. It's hinted that Damar tried bumping him off via a "transporter accident". Vorta being what they are, though, it didn't take.
  • Rage Within the Machine: Before officially forming the Cardassian Resistance and separating from the Dominion.

Tora Ziyal (Cyia Batten/ Tracy Middendorf/ Melanie Smith)

Dukat's daughter by his Bajoran mistress, Tora Naprem. Despite her lineage, she is largely sane, and well-liked by most of the station's inhabitants.

  • All Girls Want Bad Boys: Garak.
  • Dating What Daddy Hates: Her relationship with Garak.
  • Dawson Casting: Ziyal is around about 20-21 years old during most of her major appearances in seasons five and six; she was being played by then-34-year-old Melanie Smith.
    • Tracy Middendorf's one appearance as Ziyal is also a less-extreme example; 19-year-old Ziyal was being played by an actress who was, at the time of filming, 25 years old.
  • Missing Mom
  • Mad Scientist's Beautiful Daughter: A tragic inversion - her death drives Dukat mad.
  • Morality Pet: Is this for Dukat. Ultimately, this ends badly.
  • Nonhuman Humanoid Hybrid: Half-Cardassian, half-Bajoran.
  • The Other Darrin: Twice. There was a little drama about this behind the scenes, evidently - then-22-year-old Cyia Batten played her brilliantly in Ziyal's debut appearances, but was replaced when they wanted someone "older" to pair up with Garak (despite Ziyal canonically being all of 19 years old when rescued).
  • Unlocking the Talent: Tragically subverted. She was receiving mentoring off-screen for a rare artistic gift that she was deliberately keeping secret so she could earn a prestigious university place by merit rather than through her father making connections on her behalf. Experts consider her art to be a callback to both a great Bajoran artist and a great Cardassian artist. She intends to use her mixed culture and the fact people can see both Cardassian techniques and Bajoran techniques in her work as a way of trying to bring the two worlds together and the university professors thinks her talent is good enough for her dream. And then she's murdered.

Klingon Empire

General Martok (J. G. Hertzler)

Another Proud Warrior Race Guy, but this time a better representative of the Klingon race as a whole than Worf ever was. He was the chief military commander of the Klingon Empire and was usually seen right next to Chancellor Gowron. Arguably the Klingons' most Reasonable Authority Figure (if not the only one) since Chancellor Gorkon of Star Trek VI.

  • Cowardly Lion: His experiences in the Jem'Hadar prison camp left him more shaken than initially thought. On his first command afterwards, he passes up opportunities for victories and his crew starts to consider him a coward. Worf manages to find a way to restore Martok's confidence, unsurprisingly.
  • Eyepatch of Power: Except he doesn't actually wear an eyepatch.
  • Fire-Forged Friends: With Worf.
  • Four-Star Badass
  • Happily Married: He seems a bit of a Henpecked Husband, but when he describes his marriage to Sisko, it's clear he would have it no other way... when his wife sweeps imperiously onto the station, Martok watches with clear love and admiration.

"Magnificent, isn't she."

  • Hero of Another Story
  • Reasonable Authority Figure
  • Proud Warrior Race Guy
  • Scars Are Forever: Subverted. He refuses a prosthetic eye when its offered, wearing the scars as a badge of honour from having recieved them in battle with a Jem'hadar. Its also possible he knows that they make him even more intimidating to his opponents.
  • Self-Made Man: Passed for promotion by Kor, a noble who feels his lineage was unacceptable. Serves as civilian auxiliary, wins promotion for heroism and then claws his way up to flag rank. In other words, he is a Badass even by Klingon standards.

Kor (John Colicos)

Legendary Klingon warrior, Dahar Master (A rank for legendary Klingon Warriors) and former enemy of a certain equally-legendary James T. Kirk. Old Klingon battle comrade of Jadzia's who goes on revenge quest with her over the loss of his son. Enemy of Martok's because of career rivalry. Forgiven by Martok at his death.

Koloth (William Campbell) and Kang (Michael Ansara)

Peers of Kor and fellow Dahar Masters, also ex-enemies of Kirk and friends of Dax. Kang is the de-facto leader of the old trio, while Koloth is more the brains of the three.

Odo: "How did you get in here?"
Koloth:"I am Koloth."
Odo:"That doesn't answer my question."
Koloth:"Yes, it does."

Gowron (Robert O'Reilly)

Chancellor of the Klingon Empire

  • Anti-Villain: Generally villainous but not without redeeming characteristics.
  • Corrupt Politician
  • Moral Event Horizon: Out of jealousy, he deliberately sacrifices Klingon lives to make Martok look like an incompetant general.
  • Reasonable Authority Figure: Played with, in some episodes. He is corrupt and reckless, but he is smart and cunning, and can give sound judgements in interclan disputes. He is also not a coward whatever else he is, and is willing to take on Worf in a duel. When his own self-interest and ambition are not at stake he can be a Reasonable Authority Figure.

Grilka(Mary Kay Adams)

Klingon Noblewoman in The House of Quark and Looking for Par'mach in all the Wrong Places. Abducted and married Quark to save time while she gets a dispensation to rule as a female. Meets him again in Looking for Par'mach

The Dominion

General Dominion Tropes

The Founders

Changelings, of the same type Odo is. They run the Dominion and are revered as gods by its other races (or at least the Vorta). They spend most of their time in the "Great Link," a huge puddle of liquefied Changeling that basically covers the surface of their planet, but many years ago they sent out 1000 individuals of their race to make contact with the "Solids" of the galaxy. And Now You Know how Odo got to the Alpha Quadrant.

The Vorta

The Vorta are a race of aliens genetically engineered to serve the Founders as lieutenants, ambassadors and generals.

  • Cyanide Pill: The termination implant; they are supposed to activate it immediately upon capture, but not all do. Apparently the Founders made them a little too devious.
  • Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette: Every Vorta we see.
  • Expendable Clone: Part of the Vorta's schtick was that they were grown as clones and had the memories of their identical predecessor imprinted on them.
  • Happiness in Slavery
  • Henchmen Race
  • Mind Over Matter: One Vorta, Eris from "The Jem'Hadar", is shown to use telekinetic blasts. Ronald D. Moore stated that this was an ability the Founders gave to some Vorta, not an inherent trait.
  • Rubber Forehead Aliens
  • Violet Eyes: All Vorta have them.
  • Younger Than They Look: Many Vorta, being clones, are younger than they look. Consider Weyoun, who has a propensity for getting killed (often). Many of the Weyoun clones are merely months or even weeks old when we meet them, and *some* have lifespans shorter than a year.

The Jem'Hadar

Also genetically-engineere by the Founders, the Jem'Hadar are bred to fight and die on behalf of the Dominion. They are all Gattaca Babies (there are no females) and are kept under control due to a genetic and inherent addiction to a drug called Ketracel White.

The Female Changeling (Salome Jens)

What you can control cannot hurt you.

Ostensibly the leader of the Dominion, the public face of the Founders, and Weyoun's boss. She straddled the line between Reasonable Authority Figure and Complete Monster, and would have been the Big Bad of the series had Dukat not gone crazy.

Weyoun (Jeffrey Combs)

The most visible member of the Vorta race on DS9, he became an antagonistic foil to Sisko after the beginning of the Dominion War. A Smug Snake par excellence. Had a tendency to get killed a lot, but luckily for him the Vorta were genetically engineered in such a way that this wasn't that big of a big deal.

  • A Man Is Not a Virgin: Given that the Vorta are cloned, and given that they have no family, one can assume that they have no need for sex, and therefore do not have sex... and given that Weyoun is quite the badass... I'm gonna call this one averted.
  • Acting for Two: Jeffrey Combs also played the recurring Ferengi Administrator Brunt.
  • Affably Evil: Comes with his job. Also the others of his species (the Vorta), who are the Founders' "carrot" race (with the Jem'Hadar as the "stick"), but Weyoun is the finest of them. Genetically engineered to be efficient, evil, and oh so polite. Also, useful for a diplomat, immune to most poisons.
    • Although he is specifically designed to be polite and persuasive, most characters (especially some of the Cardassians, who are supposedly on the same side) find him intensely irritating.
  • Alternative Character Interpretation: Ingratiating, deceptive snake? Or loyal, selfless Founder dog? One alternative interpretation isn't so much as who he is or what he does, but how he's seen. When you take into consideration that he (along with all the Vorta) is a family-less clone who was never born and had no childhood, but instead was callously created by the Founders with the express purpose of serving them, it's actually kind of heartbreaking. In universe, absolutely nobody likes Weyoun. And he doesn't even seem to be all that aware of this. He's also commented about his lack of aesthetics, stating that no Vorta has any sense of art because the Founders didn't think it was important for them to have it. Still, he has said wistfully, it would be nice to carry a tune... the Vorta (with Weyoun being the most extreme example) would do anything for the Founders, and the Founders are quite apathetic most of the time.
    • The closest anyone ever gets to admitting friendship for Weyoun is when the Female Changeling calls him a trusted and loyal adviser. The look of sheer rapture on his face is almost heartbreaking in its sincerity.
  • Appeal to Vanity: Susceptible to this brand of advertising. Just look at the Cellular Regeneration and Entertainment Chamber!
  • Ascended Extra: First appeared in "To the Death" and was promptly killed off. The concept of Vorta cloning was created solely to bring Combs back as Weyoun.
  • Bandwagon Technique: One of the arguments he uses when trying to persuade people over to the dark side- I mean, the Dominion.
  • The Chessmaster: Oh, my god.
  • Combat Pragmatist: Of the more strategic type than actual throw-downs, but... yep.
  • Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette
  • Evil Virtues: Hard work, Loyalty, Patience, Responsibility, Selflessness...
    • Temperance too. Though it is not clear that counts for a creature bred to have almost no fleshly desires anyway.
  • Genre Savvy
  • Ho Yay: "Do you remember the first time I brought you scones?" Too bad this was just a holo-recording. That scene had Ho Yay written all over it.
  • I'd Tell You, But Then I'd Have To Kill You: A scene between Weyoun, Damar, and Damar's lady friend, in the Important War Room.

Weyoun: I have news.
Damar: Well?
Weyoun: Your friend doesn't want to hear this.
Damar: And why doesn't my friend want to hear this?
Weyoun: Because if she did, I would be forced to have her executed.
[She leaves.]
Weyoun: What a pleasant woman.

  • Out of Continues: Once Damar blows up his cloning facilities. Oops.
  • Pet the Dog: Well, he did let Nog and Jake have the Willie Mays card.
    • Also pet himself by the Female Changeling, who acknowledges him as "the only solid I ever trusted."
  • The Renfield
  • Properly Paranoid
  • Sissy Villain
  • Smug Snake
  • Tampering with Food and Drink: The Dominion probably noted that their diplomats are often victims of this, so they engineered them to be immune to most poisons. Weyoun takes a swig from one to prove his point.
  • Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: With Dukat, and later (even more hilariously) Damar.
  • The Thirty-Six Stratagems: Required reading for all higher ranked Vorta, along with Sisko's psychological profile.
  • Too Dumb to Live: How his clones usually die. Questioning a Jem'Hadar's loyalty to the Dominion? Getting too close to Worf? Mocking the widespread destruction across Cardassia to a Cardassian?
    • Damar burst out laughing when Worf killed him, and mocked the next clone about it as well.
  • The Unfettered: Most definitely qualifies for his often frightening devotion to the Founders and their cause. He would do ANYTHING for them... the only 'right' or 'wrong' that exists for this character is whether or not something will serve the Founders.
  • Villains Out Shopping: He gets a few of these moments. There's one where he is analyzing (or trying to analyze) a painting, and even asks Major Kira (a good guy who is under an occupation force that is under his command) what she thinks of it... genuinely, with no sinister undertones whatsoever, making it extra creepy to some, yet creepily cute to others. There's also a clip from the final montage of the fabulous episode "In The Cards", showing Weyoun thoroughly enjoying the crack-pot "Cellular Regeneration And Entertainment Chamber". Like I said. Fabulous.
  • Your Favorite: When a holo-image of Weyoun says to Bashir, "Do you remember the first time I brought you scones?" in that magnificent voice of his, after delivering said scones on a tray (with jam and tea, just the way Bashir likes it!) to a flustered and freaked out Bashir.

Weyoun 6

Others

Tosk

I am Tosk: The Hunted.

From episode Captive Pursuit. Member of a race bred by aliens to be hunted in ritual Blood Sport determined to play his assigned role for the honor of his race. Teddy-bear-like, but not to be messed with.

  1. ↑ Anyone know if this got more "realistic" later on? I vaguely recall them saying he couldn't do X or Y because it would be too small, but I also recall him covering another human like a new skin.
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