Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

Taboos

DS9 broke a few taboos during its run.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

• The episode "Rejoined" shows two female characters?one of whom being Jadzia Dax?embrace in a passionate kiss. Although the context of the kiss is that a previous host of the Dax symbiont was male and in love with the woman being kissed, the episode nonetheless attracted criticism. (Originally, the character of Dr. Lenara Kahn, the other party in the relationship, was to be played by a man.) The episode first ran on October 30, 1995, a year and a half before the controversial "out of the closet" shift in the sitcom Ellen.
• The sixth season episode "Time's Orphan" featured the Irish Chief O'Brien exclaim the British swear word "Bollocks!" Although it was unlikely to have caused much furor in the US, the word was edited out in daytime UK showings. In another episode, O'Brien refers to the Cardassians as "Cardie bastards".
• A seventh season episode shows the Mirror Universe versions of Kira Nerys and Ezri Dax kiss in a clearly lesbian or bisexual context, but this time there was little outcry.
• In the episode "Far Beyond the Stars", a character utters "For Christ's sake!" which is a phrase rarely allowed on American commercial television.
• Also in "Far Beyond the Stars," a character says the word "nigger". Cirroc Lofton was playing a 1950s' black man who was pessimistic that blacks would ever go to space except to "shine the shoes" of whites, whom he felt held blacks to be "nothing but niggers". Although not the first time the word had been used on American television (it was commonly used in dramas in the 1970s as well as the groundbreaking sitcom All in the Family), by the late 1990s utterance of the word on American television had become a virtual taboo, making its use here a rarity.
• The often-criticized episode "Profit and Lace" features a male (Quark) in drag, for the sake of ridicule.
• The episode "You are Cordially Invited..." features the first and only use of the word "slut" on the show. Sirella calls Dax a 'Risian slut' after observing a loud and raunchy party she was throwing.