Star Trekhas, over the years, shown that it is never afraid to tackle big political and societal issues. All the shows hold up a futuristic lens to the problems of today using science-fiction allegory. Right from the start, Gene Roddenberry filledThe Original Seriesbridge with a wide race of diversity, took a deep dive intothe psychological trauma of torture, and shined a light on the emotion aftermath left on previously occupied cultures. This latter topic was one thatDeep Space 9took special care to explore.
While it’s true that a lot of the show is devoted to exploring this narrative, there is one episode particularly devoted to it. “Duet” is a harrowing story, filled with complex political motivations and morality, with some moments of hope that by the end are unceremoniously destroyed. Within the context of the show, the Bajoran people were occupied and enslaved by the Cardassians. In fact,the Deep Space 9 station itself was an old Cardassian mining and refinery stationwhere the Bajoran slaves were put to work and treated awfully. By the time the show takes place, this is all in the past, as a peace has been brokered between the two. The Cardassians leave the Bajorans alone, but as an unfortunate consequence, many of them were also provided with immunity, and were never reprimanded for their actions during the occupation.
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The episode itself starts with a Cardassian coming to the station, and being accused by the Bajoran major Kira of playing a large role in the occupation, committing some truly horrific acts. This particular Cardassian issuffering from a medical conditionthat is only known to have originated from a specific labor camp named Gallitep, a place where the most atrocities of the occupation happened. Upon finding this out, Kira arrests him, operating under the common assumption that any Cardassian who was present at the camp was guilty. When questioning him, Kira finds out that he is not just any officer, but Gul Darheel, the Cardassian in charge of the whole operation.
The ensuing exchange between the two is a wonderful display of acting skills, and potentially one of the greatest performances between two actors in all ofStar Trek. Nana Visitor, who played Kira, perfectlyembodies all the injustice and painher character carries with her on a daily basis, angry at the world for all the pain the Cardassian caused her people. Harris Yukil, the actor behind the gray makeup of the Cardassian, is amazing as well. Among his most memorable lines is one that implies everything he did to the Bajorans meant nothing to him:
‘What you call genocide, I call a day’s work.’
However, the real kicker of this episode isn’t seeing the emotional turmoil that Kira is going through, but rather learning that the Cardassian isn’t Gul Darheel at all. He claims to be the infamous figure, but as the episode plays out, and Kira’s anger subsides somewhat, she realizes some things don’t quite add up. With the help ofthe station’s security officer Odo, and the unlikely aid of Gul Gukat, they discover he is not Darheel. Rather, he just a lowly officer who is trying to martyr himself to open the eyes of the Cardassian people to the atrocities committed during the occupation. He’s attempting to make his people take ownership for their actions. He is not the war criminal he pretends to be, but he was still at Gallitep. He was forced to partake in the acts of brutality, or else his family would have been killed.
The guilt he felt stayed with him after the occupation ended, and the ignorance of the Cardassian people just made it worse. It turns out that the majority of Carassians are unaware of the true extent of what their people did to the Bajorans, and those that did suspect or know remained silent. He made a decision to bring everything out into the open, and expose the true extent of what had happened to the Bajoran people en masse. To do this, he chose to pretend to be a Gul Darheel. While he would have been given political immunity, and the whole thing covered up by the Cardassian government, heinstead chose take responsibility for his actions, forcing his story into the limelight. He had to pretend to be someone higher ranking than he really was, as the confession of a grunt would not have had as much sway. People on both sides would have been forced to listen to one another, finally opening up communication, forcing Cardassia to change and helping Bajor to finally find closure.
Discovering all this puts Kira gets into a difficult situation, one where she finally sees a Cardassian as something other than a monster. She finally sees her prisoner as a good, but scared, man, who found himself in a situation where he could not escape. He is just as traumatized by the whole ordeal as the Bajorans who suffered under him. Now, he is taking a stand and owning what he was part of, hoping to take down the wall of ignorance with him. Knowing this, Kira realizes she can not allow him to put himself through more of this turmoil, and forgives him.
But just as audiences are lulled into a false sense of security and hope for what might come for the two races, an old Bajoran resistance fighter, pumped up with the same rage Kira felt at the start of the episode, stabs the Cardassian to death. It is a truly horrifying moment, and it’s a perfect example of howboth sides of the occupation are broken,almost to the point of no return.
