Ari

For the Pandronian, please see Ari bn Bem.

Ari was a male Cardassian soldier in the 24th century Cardassian Union until his death in 2371. However, he opposed the seemingly limitless authority of the Central Command and the Obsidian Order, and so became part of the Cardassian dissident movement.

Ari served as an aide or other form of associate to Legate Tekeny Ghemor in the 2370s. As Ghemor himself was a leader in the movement, Ari was fiercely loyal to him.

When Ghemor's apparent daughter, Iliana Ghemor (really Kira Nerys) came under increasing danger through interrogation from Order operative Entek, Ghemor asked Ari to help her escape Cardassia. However, Entek surprised them, as it was a plot to expose Ghemor as a dissident. Ari made a move to attack, but Entek quickly killed him with a phaser. (DS9: "Second Skin")

Ari was played by Billy Burke.

The script for "Second Skin" states the pronunciation of Ari's name as "ARE-ee." Additionally, it describes him as "a young Cardassian soldier, barely out of his teens" [1]

Burke commented: "I think [DS9] was whatever year I moved to Hollywood; I came down kind of late. I had done a couple of indie films up in Washington, which is where I’m from, but yeah, Star Trek was, I think, my very first gig. It may have been one scene, it may have been two, but I just remember going, 'This is so foreign to me, this style of what they’re doing.' Star Trek, that show anyway, felt to me almost pseudo-Shakespearian, and I am a bit of a naturalist, so it was a challenge for me. Not only that, I remember the makeup being probably five hours applying, and five hours taking it off… Yeah, it was a big deal." [2]

External links[]

Ari (Cardassian) at Memory Beta, the wiki for licensed Star Trek works