Dukat (Star Trek)

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Dukat redirects here. For the ancient gold coin, see ducat; for other uses, see Dukat (disambiguation).

Gul Dukat
Dukat, S.G.
Species:	Cardassian
Gender:	Male
Eye color:	Blue
Home planet:	Cardassia Prime
Affiliation:	The Pah-Wraiths, formerly the Cardassian Union
Posting:	Kornaire Prefect of Bajor/Overseer of the Cardassian Occupation Terok Nor commanding officer Commanding officer of the Second Order Cardassia Prime Chief military advisor to the Detapa Council Groumall commanding officer Leader of the Cardassian Union Emissary of the Pah-Wraiths
Rank:	Gul Legate (demoted)
Portrayed by:	Marc Alaimo

In the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine television series, Dukat, S.G. was a Cardassian leader and a recurring antagonist of Benjamin Sisko. He was played by Marc Alaimo. He appeared throughout the show, being introduced in the pilot episode "Emissary", and featuring in the show finale "What You Leave Behind".

Dukat previously held the military rank of Gul, and was therefore often referred to as "Gul Dukat." Tall, charismatic, and strong-willed, he starts as more of an anti-hero, but then becomes one of the series' main villains. He sought confirmation from his adversaries of his belief that he was a gentle and fair leader. Each time he failed to get that confirmation, he would react violently, accusing the people who didn't "appreciate" him of forcing him into hostile action.

For a time, he believed that he had earned the friendship of Sisko and Major Kira Nerys, and for a while he did seem to have gained their respect, if by reluctance. This usually happened after a crisis would force them to cooperate with each other, but they still distrusted, and sometimes disliked, him thoroughly. Kira rebuffed his constant attempts to woo her and gain her approval, and Sisko would eventually describe him as "truly evil", especially after his ordeal with an insane Dukat while stranded on a barren planet ("Waltz"). This all comes true after he betrays them.

Contents 1 Prefect of Bajor 2 Fall from grace 3 Tora Ziyal 4 Return to power 5 Madness and the pah-wraiths 6 Appearances 7 External links

[edit] Prefect of Bajor

During the Cardassian occupation of Bajor, Dukat served as Prefect of that planet and commanded Terok Nor, an orbital space station that contained ore-processing facilities maintained by Bajoran slave labor. Dukat believed himself to be a kind and benevolent overseer who cared deeply for the Bajoran people; he maintained that he tried to rule Bajor with a "softer" and "gentler" hand than the Cardassian Central Command required him to. As evidence, he pointed to the abolition of child labor and improved conditions in the labor camps (the latter, of course, being relative). However, he blamed the frequent terrorist acts against the Cardassians for forcing him to make harsh retributions, and he came to hate the Bajoran people for refusing to appreciate him or to let their technologically and culturally superior masters guide them into a better future. ("Emissary"; et al.)

[edit] Fall from grace

When the Cardassians finally left Bajor, the Bajorans requested Federation assistance. Starfleet dispatched a crew led by Commander Benjamin Sisko to take control of Terok Nor, which was renamed Deep Space Nine. Shortly thereafter, they discovered the first known stable wormhole in the quadrant and moved the station nearer to stake the Bajorans' claim to it. Dukat's failure to recapture the station after this important discovery made him very unpopular with the Cardassian government. Dukat vowed someday to retake the station from Sisko and Starfleet. ("Emissary")

[edit] Tora Ziyal

Dukat had a daughter, Tora Ziyal, born from an illicit relationship with a Bajoran slave woman during the occupation. He sent her away as a 13 year old child without acknowledging his fatherhood because he feared that public knowledge of the relationship would hurt his political standing. Thought to be lost with the crew and passengers of the missing transport Ravinok, Ziyal was found alive six years later. Dukat was prepared to kill her to keep his indiscretion secret, but Kira convinced him to take her back to Deep Space Nine instead. Father and daughter soon became very close. In fact, Ziyal was one of the few people who gave Dukat the admiration he craved. ("Indiscretion")

[edit] Return to power

As a result of this act of kindness, Dukat became a pariah; he was demoted to command of the freighter Groumall and assigned routine duties transporting supplies. During this time, the Cardassian Union and the Klingon Empire had become bitter enemies. In response to Klingon incursions into Cardassian space, Dukat commandeered a B'rel class starship with the assistance of Major Kira Nerys and began an independent campaign to repel the Klingons. As his successes grew, Dukat managed to restore some of his prestige with the Cardassian leadership, and made himself a hero in the eyes of his daughter. ("Return to Grace"; "Apocalypse Rising")

Dukat became leader of the Cardassian Union when it formally allied with the Dominion. ("By Inferno's Light") The Dominion-Cardassian alliance succeeded in reclaiming Deep Space Nine but was forced to give it up after a decisive battle. When Glinn Damar, Dukat's second-in-command, killed Tora Ziyal for having secretly aided the resistance, her father lost his mind. ("Sacrifice of Angels")

[edit] Madness and the pah-wraiths

Though he was captured by Starfleet during the reconquest of Deep Space Nine, he later managed to escape after the starship transporting him was attacked and destroyed. While stranded near the crash site with his hated enemy Benjamin Sisko, Dukat, who had supposedly been cured of his madness by Federation doctors, began to suffer from severe delusions and hallucinations. Before making his getaway, he confessed to Sisko that he felt no remorse for the deaths of the 5 million Bajorans who perished during his reign as Prefect of Bajor and he swore to wipe out every Bajoran in the galaxy. ("Waltz") It is notable that he previously told his daughter that he did regret the Occupation ("Return to Grace"), but this could be a lie he told to get closer to his daughter, or it could be that this side of his personality was lost when he lost his daughter and descended into madness.

By the following year, 2374, the still-insane Dukat, believing that he had found a way to wreak his vengeance on Bajor, performed an ancient ritual that summoned a pah-wraith, one of the ancient race of evil beings who are the sworn enemies of the Bajoran Prophets. The pah-wraith possessed Dukat and compelled him to bring it to Deep Space Nine, where he released it into the same room as the Bajoran Orb of Contemplation. The creature entered the Orb and caused it, and all the other Orbs, to go dark, thus sealing the wormhole. During the course of this scheme, Dukat murdered Lieutenant Commander Jadzia Dax, the station's science officer and the newlywed wife of Lieutenant Commander Worf. ("Tears of the Prophets")

Although Sisko was eventually able to cleanse the Orb and reopen the wormhole, the temporary disappearance of their "Celestial Temple" caused many Bajorans to question their faith in the Prophets. Some of these Bajorans joined the newly-formed Cult of the Pah-Wraiths, which was actually a front for Dukat. ("Image in the Sand"; "Shadows and Symbols")

Settling on the abandoned Cardassian space station Empok Nor, he founded a community of cultists who worshipped him as the Messiah and fathered another half-Bajoran child with a cultist named Mika. After kidnapping Major Kira and bringing her to the station, Dukat attempted to coerce the cultists into committing mass suicide to cover up his intended murder of Mika, but he was foiled by Kira. Although Federation forces reached the station in time to save the cultists, Dukat himself escaped. ("Covenant")

Traveling to Cardassia, Dukat subjected himself to plastic surgery, taking on the appearance of a Bajoran farmer named Anjohl Tennan. ("Penumbra") Thus disguised, he continued on to Bajor, where he wormed his way into the confidence and affection of Kai Winn, the ambitious Bajoran spiritual leader. Preying on the Kai's bitterness over Sisko, a non-Bajoran, having such a prominent role in her religion, Dukat deceived her into believing that the visions she was receiving from the pah-wraiths were actually from the Prophets. Slowly, he seduced and corrupted the Kai with these visions and turned her against the Prophets, eventually convincing her to worship the pah-wraiths in their stead. ("Til Death Do Us Part"; "Strange Bedfellows")

Revealing his true identity to the Kai, Dukat convinced her to read the mythical Book of Kosst Amojan, a dark tome that held the secrets of the pah-wraiths. In doing so, he arranged for her to murder her assistant, thus sealing her bond with the pah-wraiths. ("The Changing Face of Evil") When Dukat himself attempted to read from the Book, however, he was blinded. Interpreting this as a sign from the pah-wraiths (and feeling betrayed by Dukat), Winn cast the still-blind Cardassian into the street. ("When It Rains...")

After weeks of sightless wandering, Dukat's vision was finally restored to him by the pah-wraiths, who ordered him to join Kai Winn in freeing them from their prison in the Bajoran Fire Caves. Now armed with the Book, the two conspirators traveled there and began the ritual, igniting the Caves' long-dormant flames. As part of the ritual, Winn poisoned Dukat and offered him up as a sacrifice to the pah-wraiths. However, the evil spirits had other plans for the mad Cardassian. Declaring him to be their Emissary, they resurrected him, with his true Cardassian appearance restored, and filled his body with their dark power. As Benjamin Sisko arrived to stop them, fulfilling his destiny as Emissary of the Prophets, the Kai turned away from both Dukat and the pah-wraiths and attempted to stop him, but the pah-wraiths killed her. Realizing what had to be done, Sisko plunged into the flames with both the Book and Dukat, sealing the Fire Caves and imprisoning Dukat and the pah-wraiths together forever. ("What You Leave Behind")

[edit] Appearances

Dukat appears in the following Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episodes:

Season 1 Emissary, Parts I and II Duet Season 2 The Homecoming Cardassians Necessary Evil The Maquis, Parts I and II Season 3 Civil Defense Defiant Explorers Season 4 The Way of the Warrior, Parts I and II Indiscretion Return to Grace Season 5 Apocalypse Rising Things Past In Purgatory's Shadow By Inferno's Light Ties of Blood and Water Call to Arms

Season 6 A Time to Stand Sons and Daughters Behind the Lines Favor the Bold Sacrifice of Angels Waltz Far Beyond the Stars Wrongs Darker than Death or Night Tears of the Prophets Season 7 Covenant Penumbra 'Til Death Do Us Part Strange Bedfellows The Changing Face of Evil When It Rains... What You Leave Behind, Parts I and II

[edit] External links

• Dukat article at Memory Alpha, a Star Trek wiki.

Regular characters on Star Trek
The Original Series	Kirk | Spock | McCoy | Scott | Uhura | Sulu | Chekov | Chapel | Rand
Animated Series	Arex | M'Ress
The Next Generation	Picard | Riker | Data | La Forge | Worf | B. Crusher | Troi | W. Crusher | Yar | Pulaski
Deep Space Nine	B. Sisko | Kira | J. Dax | Odo | Bashir | O'Brien | Worf | J. Sisko | Quark | Rom | Nog | E. Dax | Garak | Martok | Damar | Dukat | Weyoun | Winn
Voyager	Janeway | Chakotay | Tuvok | Paris | Torres | Kim | Doctor | Neelix | Seven | Kes
Enterprise	Archer | T'Pol | Tucker | Reed | Phlox | Sato | Mayweather