Star Trek: Second Skin

Episode: "Second Skin"

Series: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

Season 3, Episode 5

Original Air Date: October 24, 1994

via Memory Alpha

Garak episode!

Kira is kidnapped by Cardassians and surgically altered to look like a Cardassian.  Her captors tell her that she is, in fact, one of them, an agent for the Obsidian Order who had been sent to Bajor to live as an embedded spy among the resistance.  She is being held in the home of Tekeny Ghemor, a high-ranking government official who clearly believes that Kira is actually his long-lost daughter, Iliana.

"Second Skin" is the best episode of the series so far.  It's not an easy call.  I like "Necessary Evil" a lot, too.  And the jockeying for the top spots is only going to get tougher moving forward.  Why is this week's show the best?

The basic idea is a good one for starters.  What really sells it is the doubt we see growing within Kira as her ordeal progresses.  At first, she's convinced the Iliana story is ludicrous and to her credit, she never cracks under pressure from the agent.  But we, as viewers, see the doubt in her face, especially as she comes to believe that Tekeny truly did have a daughter who had accepted the assignment.  Plus the recordings she sees of Iliana and the cryogenically preserved corpse of the other Kira (both played by Nana Visitor, of course) certainly do look like her.  There was an idea among the creators to preserve the mystery through to the end, with Bashir ultimately telling her he couldn't be sure whether she was the real Kira or the Cardassian-produced impostor.  Even though the notion was scrapped, the lead up was strong enough that it could have worked.

The original choice for the lead in "Second Skin" was O'Brien rather than Kira.  What a lost opportunity that would have been.  While Miles has a well-established hatred of the Cardassians as the enemy across the battlefield, for Kira, it's the hatred of the oppressor.  That runs a lot deeper.  As doubt creeps in for her, so does self-loathing.  What if she had been the monster herself all along?  Plus, the emotional range of Kira's character allows for tenderness to develop between her and Tekeny.  After all, he really did lose a daughter whether it was Kira or not.  By the end, Tekeny and Kira genuinely care for one another.  Their parting scene is deeply moving.  It couldn't have been that way with Miles.  Besides, he already got his touching moment in "The Wounded."

Of course, Garak gets to shine.  He plays a key role in Kira's rescue, enjoying fine verbal sparring with Commander Sisko and a couple of Cardassians along the way.  His best line: "Treason, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder.

Screenwriter Robert Hewitt Wolfe claimed two Philip K. Dick stories as influences for "Second Skin": Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep and "We Can Remember It for You Wholesale."  Unfortunately, the Iliana story never went any further than this one installment.  Tekeny comes back for an appearance in Season 5, though Iliana is only a minor plot point.

Acting Notes

via Criminal Minds Wiki

Lawrence Pressman played Tekeny Ghemor.  Pressman was born in Cynthiana, Kentucky, July 10, 1939.  In television, he had regular cast roles in Doogie Howser, M.D., Ladies' Man and Mulligan's Stew.  Films include Shaft, The Hellstrom Chronicles and 9 to 5.  This is his first of three DS9 appearances.