DS9 Flashback: Duet

Deep Space Nine was chugging along with a largely forgettable first season. You could say that a typical episode was perhaps a touch better than the average first season episode of The Next Generation, but that really wasn't setting a high bar. Compared to the quality Next Gen was delivering at the time (it its sixth season), Deep Space Nine was a clear and distant second.

Then came "Duet."

A Cardassian visitor to the station is detained at Major Kira's insistence, as his chronic medical condition indicates he's a war criminal who was present at a notorious labor camp. Though he initially hides his identity, the Cardassian is soon discovered to be Gul Darhe'el, the leader of the camp and architect of its atrocities against the Bajoran people. But when further investigation exposes inconsistencies in his story, Kira is forced to confront the possibility that simply being Cardassian is not itself a crime -- and that not every member of the race who oppressed her world is deserving of her rage.

Watching Deep Space Nine up to this point, it is hard to explain how suddenly, in just one episode, the quality increased so dramatically. In any case, it absolutely began with a script far superior to any that had come before. Still, there was no reason to expect that. The story pitch came from Lisa Rich and Jeanne Carrigan-Fauci, the same duo who'd contributed the deeply goofy "Move Along Home." (Apology accepted.) They wondered "what would happen if you had to defend your worst enemy?" -- and smartly realized that Kira was the character to best tell that story.

With the season's budget depleted, the production seized on this opportunity for a "bottle episode" that could be filmed cheaply, using only existing sets and minimal visual effects. Staff writer Peter Allan Fields is credited with the script, though lots of help reportedly came from Ira Steven Behr, who worked with him to craft the first of what would become a Deep Space Nine staple, the "long Cardassian monologue," as Behr called it. ("Cardassians love to speak.")

The script is sophisticated in so many ways. It has no need for a B-story to fill the hour; they wisely identified that Kira's emotional turmoil was the only plot line this episode required. Exposition is handled more deftly; the way even Quark talks with respect about the Gallitep prison camp tells you it's serious business, while leaving the particular horrors to your own imagination. The foreshadowing is careful and subtle; when Odo releases a Bajoran criminal from a cell early in the episode, there's no reason to suspect he'll be back for the story's climax. The friendships between characters play a central role, and in particular we're shown that Dax has one with Kira already growing as deep as the long-running bond she has with Sisko.

The episode does all this while essentially playing with fire. Drawing such a direct allegory to a Nazi concentration camp and mining that for drama could easily have come off crass. Instead, the episode chillingly depicts how one side's monster is another side's hero. At times, Kira is made to duck the admission that she too killed civilians during the occupation. The script weaves in other great accents too, such as a cunning moment of misogyny when the Cardassian calls Kira a "girl" in a clear attempt to provoke her.

Despite all this nuance on the page, it seems that some people involved with the show didn't know, going into filming, what a hit they had on their hands. The feeling was the director Jim Conway had drawn a tough assignment, having to deal with this story that had little conventional action.

What probably made the difference was the casting of veteran character actor Harris Yulin as the Cardassian Aamin Marritza. Yulin gives a towering performance, digging into all the monstrous qualities of the Darhe'el persona with a sickening verve -- the consummate villain for Kira to focus all her rage upon. And Yulin is nothing short of brilliant in the pivotal final scene where the "performance" strays too close to reality; Marritza's facade cracks and a torrential grief comes pouring out.

With a great actor to play off of, Nana Visitor ups her own game to deliver her best performance of the season. She'd delivered moving moments of unchecked emotion already, but her work here is better still for being more restrained and realistic. Visitor shows reverence at the thought Kira might meet a Bajoran war hero. She's a ball of rage when she comes to interrogate "Darhe'el," and stripped bare by the emotional beating he gives her instead. She's brought up short when forced to question if she's just out for vengeance. And her delivery of the final line of the episode is killer. ("No. It's not.") This episode shows that Kira has evolved even since we first met her (maybe those Federation ideals are rubbing off), and Nana Visitor makes everything she possibly can of the opportunity.

Perhaps the greatest compliment this episode could be given came from Armin Shimerman. Ask an actor about their favorite episode of their own TV show, and they'll inevitably cite one that revolve around their character. Yet even though this episode barely includes Quark, Shimerman called this his favorite episode of the entire series, an example of "the writing and the directing and the acting all coalescing perfectly."

Other observations:

• Gul Dukat returns for the first time since the pilot episode. There's still little evidence here of how important a role the character would play over the life of the show, but having an adversary recur at all is an important first step.

• The "Shakaar resistance cell," in which Kira fought during the occupation, is first mentioned here. This would get fleshed out in much greater detail in the seasons to come.

Armin Shimerman was not alone in loving this episode; you can find more than a few ranked lists of Deep Space Nine episodes that put this one on the very top. I wouldn't go quite that far, as I can think of a handful episodes I'm looking forward to even more as I work my way through the series. Still, this is unquestionably the highlight of season one, an absolute grade A installment. It's the moment when Deep Space Nine really arrived.