Gul Dukat

Dukat, S.G. was a recurring character in fictional television series Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. He is a Cardassian leader and an antagonist of Benjamin Sisko. The character was played by actor Marc Alaimo.

Dukat appears throughout the series, being introduced in the pilot episode "Emissary", and is featured in the series' finale "What You Leave Behind".

Role

Dukat played a versatile role throughout the series and was often a nuanced character. In the words of Deep Space Nine co-executive producer Ronald D. Moore, "I don't think of him as being completely evil through and through ... He can be charming. He can be generous. He can do the right thing. All of that somehow makes his 'evil' actions all the more despicable, because we know that there was the potential in there for him to be a better person." Ultimately, despite the character's versatility, "Dukat is a bad guy. A very bad guy." Indeed, StarTrek.com describes him as "the most complex and fully developed villain in Star Trek history".

Appearances

Prior to the start of the series, Dukat holds the military title of Gul and is the head of the Cardassian occupation government of the planet Bajor as well as commander of the station Deep Space Nine (then referred to by its Cardassian name Terok Nor). Due to this background Dukat's early appearances range from being anti-heroic to antagonistic. In his debut appearance in the pilot episode "Emissary", he takes a Cardassian warship to Deep Space Nine to demand from the new Starfleet-appointed commander Benjamin Sisko one of the recently discovered Orbs of the Bajoran Prophets. In "Cardassians" Dukat is at the center of a conspiracy which his exiled Cardassian enemy Elim Garak and Dr. Julian Bashir are trying to unravel. In "Civil Defense" he tries to blackmail the crew of Deep Space Nine when they cannot disarm an accidentally-triggered Cardassian counter-insurgency program. He is allied with the main Starfleet characters against the Maquis rebels in "The Maquis" and "Defiant" and against the Klingons when they invade Cardassia in "The Way of the Warrior".

In the season 4 episode "Indiscretion", Kira Nerys accompanies Gul Dukat on a search for a lost Cardassian starship, where it is ultimately revealed he is trying to track down and kill his illegitimate half-Bajoran daughter Tora Ziyal. He ultimately resolves to take her home with him. The follow-up episode "Return to Grace" shows Dukat being disgraced with the Cardassian military as a result of this move, reduced to commanding a freighter with Ziyal and his deputy Damar. With Kira's help he commandeers a Klingon raider and sends his government their battle plans. When he hears that the Cardassian government still wants to negotiate with the Klingons he decides to use his new ship to launch a one-man war against the Klingon Empire, leaving Ziyal with Kira at Deep Space Nine. In this capacity he helps Sisko, Miles O'Brien, Odo and Worf infiltrate the Klingon Empire in the season five premiere "Apocalypse Rising".

Dukat's character takes a more villainous role in season five's "By Inferno's Light", where he is revealed to have negotiated Cardassia's joining The Dominion and becoming ruler of the planet in the process. He leads an invasion force which recaptures Deep Space Nine in the season finale "Call to Arms", effectively starting the Dominion War and retaking his old command. He loses the station again in the sixth season episode "Sacrifice of Angels", where Ziyal is also killed by Damar in retaliation for her helping the Federation. Mentally broken, Dukat is easily captured by Starfleet. He escapes their custody when he and Sisko are marooned in "Waltz", during which he hallucinates appearances of Kira, Damar and Weyoun, denies responsibility for atrocities committed by himself against the Bajorans and swears vengeance on all Bajor before escaping. Towards this end Dukat allies himself with—and is possessed by—the Pah-wraiths, the effective archenemies of the Bajoran Prophets, renders the latter's orbs useless and kills regular character Jadzia Dax in "Tears of the Prophets".

Dukat returns in season seven at the head of the cult of the Pah-wraiths in "Covenant", but quickly is disgraced in front of his followers by Kira and goes into hiding again. In "Penumbra" he seeks Damar's help to find a surgeon to make him look like a Bajoran. In this guise he convinces Kai Winn to join him in his efforts to free the Pah-wraiths from their imprisonment in the Bajoran Fire Caves in "Strange Bedfellows", even when she discovers his true identity in "The Changing Face of Evil". Their plan is put into action in the series finale "What You Leave Behind", where the Pah-wraiths choose him as their emissary instead of Winn. Sisko, emissary of the Prophets, arrives to stop him and at Winn's advice shoves himself, the Pah-wraiths' holy book and Dukat into the burning fire caves, sealing Dukat in the Fire Caves with the Pah-wraiths forever.

External links

• Template:Memoryalpha
• Dukat at Memory Beta