Every Star Trek fan worth his or her salt is very much
familiar with the seediness of Deep Space Nine, but is the Cardassian Elim
Garak the only confirmed “paedophile” in this 1990s era Star Trek series
spinoff?
By: Ringo Bones
Often cited by snarky science fiction critics as a mere
“sci-fi soap opera” - inexplicably, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine still managed to
become one of the longest-running spinoff of the original Star Trek TV series
started by Gene Roddenberry back in 1966. And every dedicated Star Trek fan
worth his or her salt is very familiar with the seediness of the Benjamin Sisko
commanded space station called Deep Space Nine that’s never found the closer
one gets back to the United Federation of Planets headquarters in planet
Earth’s San Francisco. But is the Cardassian Elim Garak (played by actor Andrew
Robinson) of Deep Space Nine the only confirmed “paedophile” in the Star Trek
universe?
Garak’s “paedophile” status was first noticed when the half
Bajoran – half Cardassian named Tora Ziyel (played by a young Cyia Batten when
she first appeared) appeared in Deep
Space Nine in the episode titled “Indiscretion” and then in “Return to Grace”.
Tora Ziyel was an illegitimate love-child of high ranking Cardassian officer
Gul Dukat (Skrain Dukat) and a Bajoran named Tora Naprem during the Cardassian
occupation of the planet Bajor. A time when the space station that was renamed
Deep Space Nine when Benjamin Sisko assumed command was still known by its
Cardassian name – Terok Nor.
Assuming that Tora Zyal was around 15 to 16 years of age
when she first appeared on DS-9 and as played by Cyia Batted and assuming she
is still of under-age status if one distinction still exists in the 24th
Century Star Trek universe, many regular viewers of Deep Space Nine did begin
to wonder given that Garak was starring at her a little funny during a tennis
match on the space station which even DS-9’s doctor-in-residence Dr. Julian
Bashir (played by Alexander Siddig) even started to notice. So obvious was
Garak’s intentions that Dr. Bashir even warned him and that DS-9’s security
chief Major Kira won’t take kindly to such inappropriate actions and would
certainly “kick Garak’s ass”.
Though the sexual tension between Garak and Tora Ziyal is so
thick from the viewer’s perspective (thicker than the tension between 2013 era
Billy Ray Cyrus and daughter Miley Cyrus?) it seems that this could be safely
assumed the screenwriter’s inspiration for the movie American Beauty that Garak
began to look like some dirty old man out to seduce an under-age teen girl. But
that “tension” got diffused when the relationship between the two evolved into
some “Platonism” given that they are the only two Cardassians who are
permanently living on the Space Station. In the later DS-9 episodes, towards
the series’ finale – both Elim Garak and Tora Ziyal became lovers – though Tora
Ziyal is has now grown older and played by “older” actors like Tracy Middendorf
and Melanie Smith. It seems though that Elim Garak’s paedophilia is only a
“phase” – a “mid-life crisis” perhaps?
