DS9 Character Development
More DS9 thoughts…I was thinking about ways you could sum up the characters in as few a words as possible at both the start and end of the story and when I thought about it, it really showed just how developed most of the characters are in the story.
Sisko starts out finding his feet with his first command and soon proves to be a very able choice…But by the end of the show he’s decided to leave his command behind and willingly follows the Prophets. Even in Starfleet terms towards the end of the series he had Admiral Ross leaning over his shoulder most of the time.
Freedom Fighter to The Establishment
At the start Kira is argumentative and hostile and not at all comfortable in a uniform. By the end of the show she is a seasoned military officer who is level-headed and understanding, even going so far as to help liberate the homeworld of her former oppressors.
Stickler for the Rules to Revolutionary
Initially Odo only has his job. He had no friends, no family, nor any idea about the rest of his people. Everything he has he pours into his role as security chief, and he is meticulous in his work. By the end of the show he knows exactly who he is, and makes a deal with the leader of his kind (basically telling her if she stands trial for his crimes he’ll cure the rest of the Great Link of their disease), but by rejoining the Great Link, he is able to share with them his thoughts and feelings on living and loving solids…It’s a very clever type of revolution.
Worldy Woman to Naive Newbie
When we meet Jadzia Dax she embodies the wisdom of Dax’s lifetimes. She is coolheaded, confident, dominant when she needs to be, and caring when she needs to be. She runs rings around Bashir and Quark and their advances towards er, and is more than capable of handling Worf. By the end of the show however Jadzia is tragically gone, replaced by Ezri, who never wanted to be joined in the first place, and is utterly lacking in confidence. Despite this however she is still a brilliant young woman with much to offer, and by the end of DS9 she’s beginning to find her feet.
Naive Newbie to Jaded Veteran
Julian wasn’t liked at first, even if he was one of my favourites from the get-go. He arrived on the station brimming with confidence that bordered on arrogance, and seemed to take everything at face value. He had a love of mysteries and enjoyed talking with Garak, partly perhaps because he had fantasies about the glamorous lives of spies.By the end of the war however, he is tired, worn out and revealed to be a fraud in a sense - his naivety is a front to hide the fact he is an Augment. He also ended up entangled in the spy game himself and found he greatly disliked it.
Profiteer to Humanitarian
Quark is often perceived to be a one-note character, but he’s far from it. For most of the story he is seen as a typical Ferengi, consumed by the need to make money, but along the way we learn a lot about him, and about his true motivations and how far he’ll go to help people, even instigating a jail break to save his brother and sister-in-law. He also makes a very important point to Sisko, that while his people are money-obsessed, they don’t have half the horrors in their past that humanity has. He even turns down the opportunity to become the richest man on his homeworld (albeit because he doesn’t want to implement progressive reforms), on a point of principal.
Rom starts off as Quark’s meek little brother. Through the course of the show rather than remaining in his brother’s shadow he forges his own path in life, becoming an engineer, marrying an intelligent non-Ferengi woman, encouraging Nog to follow his own path in life, pushing for labour law reforms and finally being named the leader of the Ferengi race.
Nog is introduced as a mischievous degenerate, and Sisko even tries to forbade his son Jake from befriending him. He is only interested in making money and pulling pranks.Sometime later however, Nog decides to break from Ferengi tradition and decides to enroll in the academy, becoming the first Ferengi to do so. Due to the war he earns his officer’s commission early and is embroiled in the worst of the fighting, even losing a leg in the process. By the end of the war he’s a seasoned combat veteran, respected by all.
Probably the most obvious one on this list, but sadly Jake missed out on a lot of development when compared to most of the cast. In the start however he is a little boy, still grieving for his mother and adjusting to living on a station with few friends. By the end of the series he’s lost both of his parents and is living with his pregnant stepmother, having survived the worst of the war as one of its few frontline news correspondents.
Our Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy starts off as an enigma - is he a tailor or a spy (turns out he’s both). As an out of favour spy he still leaks information back to Cardassia, as he’s desperate to end his exile. He is shown to be cold and ruthless when he thinks he’s close to being welcomed back into the fold. When Cardassia sides with the Dominion however, his attitude changes and he aligns with Starfleet,opting to aide them in the hopes of liberating his people. Eventually he’s part of the group who lead the rebellion on Cardassia. He helps secure freedom for his people, but at almost unfathomable cost. By the end of the show the man of many lies becomes a man of one very painful truth - that the home he longed for is gone.
And here’s two who didn’t change:(much)
Miles was already a highly competent enlisted man, and was already a war veteran when he moved to DS9. By the end of the show he was definitely a more serious man, and was more worn down by his service. which is perhaps why he opted to return to Earth. But the core of him as a character never changed.
You could write a thesis on him, or go mad trying to. It became very obvious very early after his introduction that Dukat was a crazy man (albeit a high intelligent and evil crazy man) pretending to be normal. By the end of the show the only thing that had changed was that as a result of his breakdown over Ziyal’s death, he could no longer hide the fact he was stark raving mad.
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