This episode is a clinic on how to be a villain. Marc Alaimo portrayal of Gul Dukat throughout the series has been brilliant. The characters' obsession with Sisko, Kira's, & the entire universe's view of him and the Cardassian's occupation of Bajour is truly remarkable to watch.
This all comes full circle is this episode when all is finally revealed to Sisko and to Dukat himself. Dukats acceptance of what he truly is and what he plans to do sets up the final episodes.
Marc will never get the credit he deserves if portraying Dukat and I doubt Dukat would end up on any TV villain list, which is a damn shame.
12 Reviews
Good Study of Dukat
Hitchcoc6 November 2018
Eventually, we get into a discussion of pure evil. Gul Dukat finds himself on a planet with Sisko, whom he has saved. Dukat is suffering a kind of nervous breakdown after the death of his daughter and the loss of DS9. What starts out with what appears a kind of compassionate, though reserved reconciliation, turns into Dukat's effort to use his advantage over Sisko (who has a severely damaged arm and other injuries from their crash). We realize quickly that they could be saved, but Dukat envisions a slow death for his adversary. As the story moves along, we see that Dukat has no compassion or empathy for the people he slaughtered--only disdain and fury. His daughter's death is really rather meaningless to him. I thought this was a pretty good episode.
The essence of Dukat
thevacinstaller23 August 2021
Warning: Spoilers
Previously, I did not view Dukat as a purely evil man (certainly mostly evil but capable of good) but with the loss of his daughter he has spiraled out of control.
This episode is essentially a giant spot light on the wonderful acting of Dukat/Weyoun/Kira. They all work wonderfully off one another.
I've always been fascinated by the insanity of dictators and getting to see an actor like Alamo present the intellectual process on the screen was a delight.
Additionally, I am 'that guy' who prefers when star trek is a few people standing around a room talking to one another for 45 minutes and this episode is exactly what I enjoy about star trek.
This episode is essentially a giant spot light on the wonderful acting of Dukat/Weyoun/Kira. They all work wonderfully off one another.
I've always been fascinated by the insanity of dictators and getting to see an actor like Alamo present the intellectual process on the screen was a delight.
Additionally, I am 'that guy' who prefers when star trek is a few people standing around a room talking to one another for 45 minutes and this episode is exactly what I enjoy about star trek.
Terrific drama.
angusfrederick25 May 2022
Culmination of Sisko-Dukat Dynamic
stmartin-6105230 March 2020
Warning: Spoilers
This episode shows Dukat in a complete mental breakdown. Dukat continues to try to convince himself and Sisko that his rule of Bajor was just. But ultimately, Dukat faces the reality of who he is and what he did... and he accepts it, embraces it, in the end. Sisko is willing to hear him out, despite his knowledge of what Dukat did to Bajor and despite his awareness of Dukat's mental breakdown. Sisko asks him a series of true or false about Dukat's involvement in the occupation. Sisko demands evidence that Dukat was not responsible for 5 million deaths. This scene is great. It is a culmination of the relationship between the two polarized leaders. While Dukat is not finished, in that he will be back, he has spiraled into an irreconcilable position of evil as a character. No redeeming quality is left.
Dramatic, thoughtful, provocative episode and one of my favorites of DS9.
Dramatic, thoughtful, provocative episode and one of my favorites of DS9.
Great watch.
deedeebug-6943720 March 2020
A Duet for The Sisko
XweAponX26 July 2012
Warning: Spoilers
In S1E19, Major Kira captures who she thinks is "The Butcher or Gallitepp." In that episode of which this one is a bookend of sorts, She confronts who she thinks is a Cardassian War Criminal, but in reality was Amin Marritza, a lowly file clerk who thought of himself as nothing but a coward, but who in reality was a brave man.
The Sisko is on The new Nebula-Class ship "Honshu" (Another ship of the same name was destroyed at Wolf 353 in ST:TNG "The Best of Both Worlds Part II)-Transporting Gul Dukat to his War Crimes Arraignment Hearing. And so The Sisko needs to confront Dukat, giving Dukat every opportunity of grace he can be allowed.
Dukat is a complicated Cardassian, he is true Cardassian to the Core, but there is always something just not quite right about him. For a time, he was The Sisko's ally, at one point in the series, we even start believing that he has changed, and he is becoming a good man, especially with the recovery of his Half-Bajoran/Half-Cardassian daughter Ziyal, who was such a special person, she actually influenced Dukat, we hoped, even to become a good man.
But with the Loss of Ziyal at the hands of Damar, every ounce of goodness was stripped from Dukat. In a way, I do not blame him, we never realize just how much he treasured Ziyal until she was killed, and he went mad.
While The Sisko visits with him in the Brig of the Honshu, Dukat generates an outward air of stability. But anybody who has been through crushing circumstances like that, knows that he is just putting on a Front for The Sisko-He is still damaged, still needs a lot of treatment, still blames everyone except himself for the death of Ziyal.
But the Honshu is attacked by a swarm of Cardassian fighters, and is blown to bits. The Sisko wakes up underground on some God/Prophetforsaken planet, his arm in a metal cast, with Dukat, who initially seems to be helpful: Dukat is tending Sisko's wounds, appears to have even set up a rescue transmitter so they can be saved.
But little by Little, it is revealed that Dukat is a greatly disturbed individual. He is seeing images of Weyoun, Damar and Kira-Who are egging him on to do bad things. The way I take this is that since Dukat no longer has these real people:
Weyoun/Damar/Kira
To blame for his problems, he must needs create them in his mind so he can keep blaming them, and not himself.
But ultimately, what he really wants some kind of respect from The Sisko: Who at this time is not about to give him one ounce of it. Let's go over the facts:
1) While pretending to be The Sisko and The Federation's Ally, he's out making secret treaties with The Dominion for Cardassia, if only to be made Supreme Leader of that planet.
2) Number one is enough.
Before he did that thing, we were ready to accept that Dukat had seen sense: He had let the Goodness of Ziyal influence him to walk away from his past, where he was the overseer of Terok Nor: Grabbing Bajoran Women for his own (Ziyal was the product of such a thing), working Bajorans to Death, etc.
All of the Cards about Dukat are shown here: In the name of "trying to help the Bajoran People" he secretly was trying to eliminate them. He wanted nothing less than the slaughter of their entire race!
This elevates Dukat to the level, not of someone who "has a few dark areas in themselves" but to someone that clearly defines the absolute line between what is GOOD and what is utterly EVIL.
From this point on, we can no longer think, "Well, Dukat, he's just crazy because Damar killed Ziyal" or "He's a little Odd, but give him the chance and he'll do the right thing" - Wrong! Given the chance, he betrayed The Sisko and The Federation AND Ziyal.
The odd thing, or maybe it is the normal thing with people like this: They still think they are doing GOOD. So, Dukat tried to Kill The Sisko on The Planet- And he could have left him there without one further word or thought. But instead, he contacts The Defiant and tells them where they can find The Sisko.
This is not the last we see of Dukat, because as intrigued as he is with all things Bajor, he happens to find out all about the Kosst Amojan. But that is a story told in Season 7, mostly.
The Sisko is on The new Nebula-Class ship "Honshu" (Another ship of the same name was destroyed at Wolf 353 in ST:TNG "The Best of Both Worlds Part II)-Transporting Gul Dukat to his War Crimes Arraignment Hearing. And so The Sisko needs to confront Dukat, giving Dukat every opportunity of grace he can be allowed.
Dukat is a complicated Cardassian, he is true Cardassian to the Core, but there is always something just not quite right about him. For a time, he was The Sisko's ally, at one point in the series, we even start believing that he has changed, and he is becoming a good man, especially with the recovery of his Half-Bajoran/Half-Cardassian daughter Ziyal, who was such a special person, she actually influenced Dukat, we hoped, even to become a good man.
But with the Loss of Ziyal at the hands of Damar, every ounce of goodness was stripped from Dukat. In a way, I do not blame him, we never realize just how much he treasured Ziyal until she was killed, and he went mad.
While The Sisko visits with him in the Brig of the Honshu, Dukat generates an outward air of stability. But anybody who has been through crushing circumstances like that, knows that he is just putting on a Front for The Sisko-He is still damaged, still needs a lot of treatment, still blames everyone except himself for the death of Ziyal.
But the Honshu is attacked by a swarm of Cardassian fighters, and is blown to bits. The Sisko wakes up underground on some God/Prophetforsaken planet, his arm in a metal cast, with Dukat, who initially seems to be helpful: Dukat is tending Sisko's wounds, appears to have even set up a rescue transmitter so they can be saved.
But little by Little, it is revealed that Dukat is a greatly disturbed individual. He is seeing images of Weyoun, Damar and Kira-Who are egging him on to do bad things. The way I take this is that since Dukat no longer has these real people:
Weyoun/Damar/Kira
To blame for his problems, he must needs create them in his mind so he can keep blaming them, and not himself.
But ultimately, what he really wants some kind of respect from The Sisko: Who at this time is not about to give him one ounce of it. Let's go over the facts:
1) While pretending to be The Sisko and The Federation's Ally, he's out making secret treaties with The Dominion for Cardassia, if only to be made Supreme Leader of that planet.
2) Number one is enough.
Before he did that thing, we were ready to accept that Dukat had seen sense: He had let the Goodness of Ziyal influence him to walk away from his past, where he was the overseer of Terok Nor: Grabbing Bajoran Women for his own (Ziyal was the product of such a thing), working Bajorans to Death, etc.
All of the Cards about Dukat are shown here: In the name of "trying to help the Bajoran People" he secretly was trying to eliminate them. He wanted nothing less than the slaughter of their entire race!
This elevates Dukat to the level, not of someone who "has a few dark areas in themselves" but to someone that clearly defines the absolute line between what is GOOD and what is utterly EVIL.
From this point on, we can no longer think, "Well, Dukat, he's just crazy because Damar killed Ziyal" or "He's a little Odd, but give him the chance and he'll do the right thing" - Wrong! Given the chance, he betrayed The Sisko and The Federation AND Ziyal.
The odd thing, or maybe it is the normal thing with people like this: They still think they are doing GOOD. So, Dukat tried to Kill The Sisko on The Planet- And he could have left him there without one further word or thought. But instead, he contacts The Defiant and tells them where they can find The Sisko.
This is not the last we see of Dukat, because as intrigued as he is with all things Bajor, he happens to find out all about the Kosst Amojan. But that is a story told in Season 7, mostly.
Stranded with ones enemy!
Tweekums9 August 2010
Warning: Spoilers
While Sisko escorting Dakat for a hearing into his crimes their ship comes under attack. Sisko is wounded but Dukat saves his life and gets him to a shuttle and down to a nearby planet. It appears that Dukat has told Sisko some untruths about their situation when we see him talking to Weyoun however it soon becomes clear that Weyoun is just an hallucination. Weyoun isn't the only person he sees Damar also appears to him and encourages him to kill Sisko. While the two of them talk the crew of DS9 search for them although their time is limited as they must leave the search to escort a troop transport very soon.
While not an action packed episode it was interesting to see Sisko and Dukat interact as their situations are reversed; Marc Alaimo and Avery Brooks put in good performances in what was effectively a two-hander, Marc Alaimo was especially good as he got more and more insane and eventually ended up raving like a mad man. It was a nice touch when just as we think they have been found it turns out the Defiant has just found two other survivors on a different planet. Of course by the end Sisko was rescued but it was a nice surprise that Dukat escaped; he is too good a villain to remain in captivity.
While not an action packed episode it was interesting to see Sisko and Dukat interact as their situations are reversed; Marc Alaimo and Avery Brooks put in good performances in what was effectively a two-hander, Marc Alaimo was especially good as he got more and more insane and eventually ended up raving like a mad man. It was a nice touch when just as we think they have been found it turns out the Defiant has just found two other survivors on a different planet. Of course by the end Sisko was rescued but it was a nice surprise that Dukat escaped; he is too good a villain to remain in captivity.
Sisko needs a heavy typewriter
snoozejonc23 April 2023
Dukat and Sisko have a heart to heart.
This is a solid character episode with a memorable central performance.
There is not much about the plot to reveal other than Dukat features heavily and Alaimo puts his heart into the performance. It is quite reminiscent of the movie 'Misery' where we have a psycho looking after/holding captive an injured patient. On occasions the dialogue is bit obvious with exposition and it can sound marginally awkward, but most of it works very well, particularly as Alaimo delivers it so well.
Avery Brooks is also great and the interplay between the characters lays the foundations for later episodes.
For me it's a 7.5/10, but I round upwards.
This is a solid character episode with a memorable central performance.
There is not much about the plot to reveal other than Dukat features heavily and Alaimo puts his heart into the performance. It is quite reminiscent of the movie 'Misery' where we have a psycho looking after/holding captive an injured patient. On occasions the dialogue is bit obvious with exposition and it can sound marginally awkward, but most of it works very well, particularly as Alaimo delivers it so well.
Avery Brooks is also great and the interplay between the characters lays the foundations for later episodes.
For me it's a 7.5/10, but I round upwards.
simplifies Dukat a bit too much
Zephyr7074 June 2019
Warning: Spoilers
Enjoyable episode. Dukat is always a great addition to any episode and is one of my favorite characters due to his complexity and backstory. Making him go crazy and turn pure evil simplifies his character a bit too much for me and makes him a one dimensional villain. You could argue that his madness drove him to insanity, but this episode makes it clear that at his core he is just a purely evil man and sets the stage for a good vs evil campaign. This seems a bit boring in my view, but as the show closed out it makes sense to close arcs. A shame as Gil Dukat must be one of the best characters on the show and the actor really has presence during his scenes.
Just in case you didn't get it fist time, Dukat is evil, evil so very evil, so very, very -- EVIL!
nigel-1885410 January 2020
You know that term white witch, it's supposed to describe a person who practices magic just like an ordinary witch only a white witch is good. Oh right that's okay then, he/she being good, everything is hunky dory and we need not bother about plagues of toads and such only -- what exactly does good mean? Is this witch good all the time, some paragon of virtue, illuminating the world with their beneficence, because that would be quite unique seeing that most ordinary people don't even approach that level of consistent benevolence . We might be good some of the time, we might not but it's a practical certainty that aren't gonna be good all of the time, in fact it might be likely that we're bad quite a lot of the time.
In fairy tales we have the good fairy and evil step sister stereotypes, in reality though, it's a little different. Yeah we understand that Hitler was evil if he was evil wasn't the same true of Stalin, good ol' uncle Joe they used to call him when Russia was an ally in the war, it was convenient to label him a despot until Adolf had chomped on his cyanide pill. And what about Harry Truman, dropping the bomb, killing tens of thousands in an instant and condemning many more to a lingering death, what could possibly be more evil than that?
Real life just isn't like fairy tales, good vs evil isn't just a dichotomy trivially resolved for the convenience of the plot, it's something we confront every day. There's the casual deceit of politics and the media, the ever present hypocrisy of public life, and the petty conflicts and drama of our own personal lives, all can be viewed as conflicts between good and evil.
I could go on but you get the general idea, while the concepts of good and evil are intrinsic to a lot of drama they tend to get stylized and assigned to specific roles. It's a case of black hat/white hat or in the case of Deep Space 9 Cardassian/Bajoran. To be fair there was some attempt to explore the grey areas of morality with the Federation vs Marquis conflict portrayed in TNG, but they couldn't quite get it done right. The Marquis were optionally stereotyped as either idealistic dupes or irresponsible rebels for the convenience of a particular plot.
The stereotyping continued with DS9, the Bajorans had suffered a long occupation, ruthlessly imposed by the despicable Cardassians. The occupation was portrayed as something like the Belgian rule of the Congo crossed with German occupation of France in the second world war. Rapacious exploitation of resources and labour along with mindless repression and spontaneous acts of barbarism. A tale of woe and misery indeed but happily all this his behind them because now the Federation is here all is sweetness and light. Yeah because that happens all the time in the real world when a repressive regime is overturned don't it? All was proceeding as expected in DS9, with the writers and script editors working a rich vein in the stereotype mines and then along comes Mark Alaimo and his portrayal of the character Gul Dukat...
It's still difficult to try and understand what happened but somehow, no matter how hard the writers tried to write him as lame caricature, Alaimo managed to make the character of Dukat resonate. They'd make him pompous, arrogant, deluded, foolish, randy as a coot, licentious, vein, oafish, murderous and Alaimo would just stride through the role and make it work. So DS9 became the Mark Alaimo show whenever his character featured in an episode.
I imagine his was not a circumstance that was particularly well appreciated in Trek town as it's pretty evident that Watlz is an effort to hammer a nail through the heart of Dukat's fan appeal. Well they pretty much succeeded, turning him into a gibbering imbecile, ranting his malevolence in terms so literal he may as well be wearing a badge with the word 'evil' printed on it. Of course in doing so, they pretty much threw the show's credibility, which was pretty low already, into the deepest part or the ditch.
In fairy tales we have the good fairy and evil step sister stereotypes, in reality though, it's a little different. Yeah we understand that Hitler was evil if he was evil wasn't the same true of Stalin, good ol' uncle Joe they used to call him when Russia was an ally in the war, it was convenient to label him a despot until Adolf had chomped on his cyanide pill. And what about Harry Truman, dropping the bomb, killing tens of thousands in an instant and condemning many more to a lingering death, what could possibly be more evil than that?
Real life just isn't like fairy tales, good vs evil isn't just a dichotomy trivially resolved for the convenience of the plot, it's something we confront every day. There's the casual deceit of politics and the media, the ever present hypocrisy of public life, and the petty conflicts and drama of our own personal lives, all can be viewed as conflicts between good and evil.
I could go on but you get the general idea, while the concepts of good and evil are intrinsic to a lot of drama they tend to get stylized and assigned to specific roles. It's a case of black hat/white hat or in the case of Deep Space 9 Cardassian/Bajoran. To be fair there was some attempt to explore the grey areas of morality with the Federation vs Marquis conflict portrayed in TNG, but they couldn't quite get it done right. The Marquis were optionally stereotyped as either idealistic dupes or irresponsible rebels for the convenience of a particular plot.
The stereotyping continued with DS9, the Bajorans had suffered a long occupation, ruthlessly imposed by the despicable Cardassians. The occupation was portrayed as something like the Belgian rule of the Congo crossed with German occupation of France in the second world war. Rapacious exploitation of resources and labour along with mindless repression and spontaneous acts of barbarism. A tale of woe and misery indeed but happily all this his behind them because now the Federation is here all is sweetness and light. Yeah because that happens all the time in the real world when a repressive regime is overturned don't it? All was proceeding as expected in DS9, with the writers and script editors working a rich vein in the stereotype mines and then along comes Mark Alaimo and his portrayal of the character Gul Dukat...
It's still difficult to try and understand what happened but somehow, no matter how hard the writers tried to write him as lame caricature, Alaimo managed to make the character of Dukat resonate. They'd make him pompous, arrogant, deluded, foolish, randy as a coot, licentious, vein, oafish, murderous and Alaimo would just stride through the role and make it work. So DS9 became the Mark Alaimo show whenever his character featured in an episode.
I imagine his was not a circumstance that was particularly well appreciated in Trek town as it's pretty evident that Watlz is an effort to hammer a nail through the heart of Dukat's fan appeal. Well they pretty much succeeded, turning him into a gibbering imbecile, ranting his malevolence in terms so literal he may as well be wearing a badge with the word 'evil' printed on it. Of course in doing so, they pretty much threw the show's credibility, which was pretty low already, into the deepest part or the ditch.
Extremely talky....and over the course of the show, a bit tedious.
planktonrules18 January 2015
The beginning of this episode finds Captain Sisko on a ship that is holding the prisoner, Gul Dukat. Soon, however, the ship is attacked and Sisko awakens to find himself in a cave with Dukat. It seems that they managed to somehow escape and are hiding on a very inhospitable planet. Sisko is injured and dependent on his 'host'. This is bad enough since Dukat is a mass-murderer and war criminal. However, it becomes clear that there's much more to it--Dukat has lost his mind and is seeing and hearing people that simply aren't there. It also eventually becomes clear that unless Sisko escapes that Dukat might kill him, as he's obviously impaired and really, really flaky.
The biggest problem with this one is that too much time is spend with this pair. They talk, talk, talk and after a while it really drags down the episode. While not a terrible episode, it's certainly one you'll wish was shorter!
The biggest problem with this one is that too much time is spend with this pair. They talk, talk, talk and after a while it really drags down the episode. While not a terrible episode, it's certainly one you'll wish was shorter!
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