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Gender: Male
Species: Cardassian
Affiliation: Cardassian Union,
Dominion,
Cult of the Pah-wraiths
Rank: Gul
Status: Trapped in Fire Caves (2375)
Father: Unnamed
Children: Seven (by his Cardassian wife), including Mekor;
Tora Ziyal (by Tora Naprem);
another child by Mika
Played by: Marc Alaimo

"One man's villain is another man's hero, captain."

Dukat, 2373

Template:Featuredremoval

Dukat, S.G. was a Cardassian military officer who served as Prefect of Bajor in the final years of the Bajoran Occupation. As the last person to hold the position, Dukat lost favor with Cardassian Central Command and fell into a downward spiral for several years. However, he became ruler of the Cardassian Union overnight after he negotiated Cardassia's entry into the Dominion. Following his defeat in Operation Return, he became a disciple of the Pah-wraiths and, along with Kai Winn Adami, attempted to release them into the Bajoran wormhole. Dukat was imprisoned in the Fire Caves with the Pah-wraiths after a fateful confrontation with the Emissary of the Prophets.

Dukat's 'initials' (S.G.) as stated in the episode "A Time to Stand" ("Permanent Documentation File, Dukat, S.G."), may in fact be indicating a type of rank as opposed to his initials, such as "Station Gul", as he was in command of Terok Nor at the time of this recording. See notes below for more information.

Career

One of Dukat's first assignments was as a newly-minted glinn aboard the Kornaire. Among his tasks as a glinn was cleaning out a compartment where three men had gone through an explosive decompression, after which he could not sleep for a week. (DS9: "Waltz") At some point prior to being stationed on Bajor, Dukat was a legate, but he lost favor with Cardassian Central Command and was reduced to the rank of Gul. (DS9: "Indiscretion") He later rejected the title of legate because he felt Gul was more "hands on". (DS9: "Ties of Blood and Water")

Dukat and Odo Occupation

Dukat and Odo

Prefect of Bajor

"I only hope you won't condemn us all for the boorish behavior of one man."
- Gul Dukat, 2346

By 2346, at the rank of gul, Dukat was made Prefect of Bajor. (DS9: "Wrongs Darker Than Death or Night") In 2360 he was assigned command of Terok Nor, the mining station and command post in orbit of Bajor that was later known as Deep Space 9. (DS9: "The Maquis, Part I") Dukat was the last Prefect of Bajor before the end of the Occupation. He was responsible for many atrocities committed against the Bajoran people, and became one of the most hated individuals in Bajoran history. (DS9: "Emissary")

According to Dukat, he was convinced that a gentler approach was needed to quell the Bajoran Resistance and make Bajor suitable for colonization. His first act as prefect was to cut labor camp output quotas by fifty percent, abolish child labor, and improve medical care and food rations. These measures led to a twenty percent drop in the camp death rates. However, the Resistance repaid him by destroying an orbital drydock on his one-month anniversary, killing two hundred Cardassians. During the Occupation, the Resistance attempted to assassinate Dukat five times, all of them unsuccessful. Dukat grew to hate the Bajorans for not acknowledging his "compassion" towards them. (DS9: "Things Past", "Waltz")

Kira Meru - Dukat

Dukat with Kira Meru

Despite his professed hatred for his charges, he conducted numerous affairs with Bajoran women, including Kira Meru, mother of Kira Nerys, and Tora Naprem, whom he claimed to love, and with whom he fathered a daughter, Tora Ziyal. (DS9: "Indiscretion", "Wrongs Darker Than Death or Night")

While prefect, Dukat reported to Legate Kell regularly; however, he did not have the respect from Kell that he was led to believe. Dukat created a counter-insurgency program to combat potential worker revolts on Terok Nor, but Kell secretly added a level to it in case Dukat tried to flee. The automated program was set to deal with various situations, the most severe of which was a complete takeover of the station. In the event that this happened, the program could initiate an auto-destruct sequence, and if Dukat tried to transport off the station while this sequence was in effect, his access codes would be nullified and he would be doomed to die with his station. (DS9: "Civil Defense")

Cardassian officer

"I've found that when one has a difficult job to do, personal reasons can be quite an incentive."
- Dukat, 2372

Dukat strongly opposed the Cardassian withdrawal from Bajor in 2369, a move which damaged his career as it occurred during his administration. After the withdrawal, Dukat became the commander of the Second Order. He played a major role in many interactions between the Cardassian military and the Federation for the next three years, and made several visits to his former command post, Deep Space 9, under various circumstances. (DS9: "Cardassians")

Dukat pledge bracelet indiscretion

Dukat at the crash site where his former lover, Tora Naprem, died

Dukat was implicated in the supplying of illegal weapons to Cardassian citizens in the Demilitarized Zone in 2370 by his political enemies, including Legate Parn. Dukat assisted Commander Benjamin Sisko in his investigation of the Maquis, so as to prove his innocence. He was briefly abducted by the Maquis, but he was rescued by Sisko. It emerged that the Cardassian Central Command was actually responsible for violating the Federation-Cardassian Treaty. (DS9: "The Maquis, Part I")

When the Cardassian Union underwent a revolution in 2372, Dukat sided with the victorious Detapa Council. He was promoted to Legate, and was made chief military adviser. Following the Klingon invasion of the Union, Dukat was able to evacuate the Council members to Federation space aboard the cruiser Prakesh, with the timely assistance of the USS Defiant. (DS9: "The Way of the Warrior")

Later that year, Dukat accompanied Kira Nerys to Dozaria to find the wreck of the Ravinok, a transport that had been lost several years earlier with Dukat's mistress, Tora Naprem, and his half-Bajoran daughter, Tora Ziyal, aboard. Dukat had initially intended to kill both Ziyal and Naprem, had they survived. However, after he found his daughter alive, he decided to take her with him back to Cardassia, despite the effect it would have on his career. (DS9: "Indiscretion")

Dukat Kira cargo exercise

In command of the Cardassian freighter Groumall

Fighting the Klingons

"Everything I have lost, I will regain."
- Dukat, 2372

After he returned with Ziyal, Dukat was demoted and given command of a small freighter, the Groumall. His family disowned him, his wife and children left him, and both he and Ziyal were shunned by Cardassian society. The Groumall transported Kira to the outpost at Korma in 2372. After finding the outpost destroyed, Dukat and Kira were able to capture the Klingon Bird-of-Prey responsible. Dukat urged the Detapa Council to use his captured intelligence to mount a new offensive against the Klingons, but they rejected his proposal, preferring to seek a diplomatic option. (DS9: "Return to Grace")

Disgusted with the Council's unwillingness to fight, Dukat began to carry on his own one-ship war against the Klingons. In 2373, he and his ship helped an undercover Starfleet team, led by Sisko, infiltrate Klingon military headquarters on Ty'Gokor to expose a Changeling. (DS9: "Apocalypse Rising")

Dukat joins Dominion

Announcing Cardassia's union with the Dominion

Alliance with the Dominion

"Cardassia will be made whole. All that we have lost will be ours again. And anyone who stands in our way will be destroyed. This I vow with my life's blood: for my son, for all our sons."
- Gul Dukat, 2373

By 2373, Dukat became convinced that the only way to regain Cardassia's former glory was for them to join the Dominion. In secret talks, he negotiated Cardassia's entry into the Dominion with himself as ruler. Dukat promised to the Cardassian people that under his leadership, all that Cardassia lost would be regained. His move was initially celebrated by most Cardassians, who had suffered defeat and humiliation for years at the hands of the Federation and Klingons (DS9: "By Inferno's Light"). Dukat chose not to promote himself back to legate, since he saw the rank of gul as more "hands-on". (DS9: "Ties of Blood and Water") One of Dukat's first acts was to have his Dominion allies release all surviving Cardassians from Internment Camp 371 with one exception – Elim Garak, who had not only killed Dukat's father but had also fallen in love with Tora Ziyal. (DS9: "By Inferno's Light")

In the months after his taking office, Dukat made good on his promises by expelling the Klingons from Cardassian space and wiping out the Maquis with his newly gained Dominion allies. Dukat commanded the Dominion forces which retook Terok Nor from the Federation in late 2373. In the following weeks, Dukat directed the Dominion War from his old command, winning many early victories against the Federation and the Klingon Empire. Bringing in Dominion reinforcements from the Gamma Quadrant by re-opening the Bajoran wormhole was to be his greatest triumph. (DS9: "Call to Arms", "A Time to Stand")

However, victory was snatched from his grasp when the Dominion reinforcements were eliminated by the Prophets. As allied forces retook the station during Operation Return, Dukat – driven half-mad by his rapid change of fortune – descended into insanity after the murder of his beloved daughter Ziyal by Damar, his second-in-command. He refused to evacuate with the rest of the Dominion forces, and was captured by Starfleet. (DS9: "Sacrifice of Angels")

Madness

Dukat psychotic

Falling into insanity following the death of his daughter, Ziyal

"They thought I was their enemy. They don't know what it is to be my enemy, but they will."
- Dukat, 2374

Afterward, Dukat began suffering from hallucinations and fits of paranoia, and was treated by Federation doctors. After he was declared "recovered", Dukat was to be taken to a Special Jury at Starbase 621 aboard the USS Honshu to stand trial for war crimes. However, the Honshu was intercepted by Cardassian warships, and Dukat escaped to a nearby planet in a shuttlecraft with his nemesis, Benjamin Sisko. Dukat's hallucinations returned, and he attempted to kill Sisko before escaping in the shuttle. During his time on the planet, Dukat embraced his hatred for the Bajoran people, promising to one day return and rain destruction on all of Bajor. Even more than before, his actions got increasingly proactively evil. (DS9: "Waltz")

Dukat covenant

Part of the Cult of the Pah-wraiths

Pact with the Pah-wraiths

"Everyone has their reasons. That's what's so frightening. People can find a way to justify any action, no matter how evil."
- Kira Nerys

Dukat was fond of Bajoran springwine. (DS9: "Wrongs Darker Than Death or Night")

In late 2374, Dukat believed he had found a way to destroy the Bajoran people and their Emissary. Having immersed himself in the ancient Bajoran texts, he discovered that the wormhole was actually the Celestial Temple. He returned to Cardassia Prime and enacted an ancient Bajoran ritual to release a Pah-wraith into his body. Thus possessed, he traveled to Deep Space 9 and released it into the Celestial Temple via the Orb of Contemplation, causing the wormhole to disappear. In the process, Dukat killed Jadzia Dax, who was simply in his way. (DS9: "Tears of the Prophets")

Anjohltennan

Dukat posing as Anjohl Tennan

His inhabitation by the Pah-wraith had turned Dukat into their believer; subsequently he retreated to station Empok Nor and founded a community of members from the Cult of the Pah-wraiths. He was worshiped as a messiah, and fathered another half-Bajoran child with Mika. Dukat never publicly admitted fatherhood. Dukat attempted to have the cult members commit suicide to conceal his attempt to kill Mika. When he was exposed, he fled again. (DS9: "Covenant")

Dukat falling into Fire Caves

Falling into the flames of the Fire Caves on Bajor

In late 2375, Dukat secretly underwent cosmetic surgery on Cardassia Prime to pose as a Bajoran farmer, Anjohl Tennan. He then traveled to Deep Space 9 and gained the confidence of Kai Winn Adami and even became romantically involved with her - albeit for ulterior motives - and with the assistance of false visions given to Winn by the Pah-wraiths, he slowly convinced her to join him as a follower of the Pah-wraiths. The two plotted to release the Pah-wraiths from their prison in the Fire Caves, using the Book of the Kosst Amojan.

The pair entered the Fire Caves, where Winn poisoned Dukat as a sacrifice to complete the release ritual. However, the Pah-wraiths rejected Winn and chose Dukat as their Emissary, restoring him to life and imbuing him with their power. After Dukat killed Winn, Sisko plunged himself and Dukat into the fires, which destroyed the book and trapped Dukat forever in the prison with the Pah-wraiths. Sisko himself was rescued by the Prophets. (DS9: "The Changing Face of Evil", "What You Leave Behind")

Family and personal relationships

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Dukat's father was arrested and executed by the Cardassian government in an incident involving some arms dealers. Dukat blamed Obsidian Order operative Elim Garak for his father's death and ordered his execution at least twice. (DS9: "The Wire", "Improbable Cause", "By Inferno's Light")

Dukat was married and had seven children with his wife, including a son named Mekor. However, he also kept several Bajoran mistresses when he was Prefect on Terok Nor. The first was Kira Meru, with whom he fell in love and was involved for seven years. Years later Dukat formed an attraction to Meru's daughter, Kira Nerys, the first officer of Deep Space Nine. (DS9: "The Maquis, Part I", "Defiant", "Wrongs Darker Than Death or Night")

Benjamin Sisko

Dukat had a strange relationship with Benjamin Sisko, in many ways his counterpart and opposite. Dukat saw Sisko as a friend and viewed him with a great deal of respect, although that view was not shared by Sisko. (DS9: "Waltz")

Damar

Dukat's closest friend was Damar, who had served under him when he commanded the stolen Klingon Bird-of-Prey. Dukat found Damar "useful" and despite the fact it was Damar who shot and killed his daughter, he later forgave Damar and came to him for help, as well as encouraging him to once again become the brave man he had fought with years before. Dukat also had a good working relationship with his Dominion ally Weyoun and although they would occasionally antagonize one another there was a mutual respect between the two. Dukat even gave Weyoun a picture his daughter Ziyal had painted. (DS9: "Tears of the Prophets", "Penumbra", "'Til Death Do Us Part")

Elim Garak

Kira Nerys

Kira Meru

Tora Ziyal

Towards the end of the Occupation, Dukat fell in love with another Bajoran woman, Tora Naprem, and the two had a daughter named Tora Ziyal. Dukat sent the pair away to Lissepia in 2366, though their ship was downed by the Breen on Dozaria. Ziyal survived and was forced to labor in a Breen dilithium mine until Dukat rescued her in 2372. After returning to Cardassia Prime with his half-Bajoran daughter, Dukat was severely ostracized. His wife and children left him and his mother disowned him. (DS9: "Indiscretion", "Return to Grace")

Upon his first encounter with Ziyal, tradition had it, that he had to kill her. However, he could not get himself to do this and thus Ziyal remained on DS9 under the care of Kira, with whom she had formed a close relationship. During ghe first Dominion offensive, Ziyal helped Kira and others in their efforts to sabotage the Station and turn it back into Federation hands. After the Dominion was forced to abandon DS9, Damar - who saw Ziyal as a traitor - shot her right in front of Dukat. She died in his arms; an experience that left Dukat deeply scarred and, together with the defeat in the war efforts, was merely the beginning of his psychological downward spiral into madness and ultimate doom. He spent many months in psychological care and kept calling out Ziyal's name.

Appendices

Appearances

Background Information

  • Marc Alaimo was not the first choice to play Dukat. For "Emissary", another actor was cast in the role, but after a day's shooting, the producers decided that they had miscast, and they asked Alaimo to come in and take over the role. (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion)
  • Dukat's initials (S.G.) come from the episode DS9: "A Time to Stand", in which Dukat records a permanent documentation file identifying himself as "Dukat, S.G." DS9 producer Ronald D. Moore jokingly gave Dukat's first name as "Elmo" on several occasions, (AOL chat, 1997) but in the novels published by Pocket Books, Dukat's first name is identified as "Skrain." Moore commented: "The initials probably represent some rank or association or achievement (like Ph.d, or A.S.C., or J.D.)." (AOL chat, 1997)
  • StarTrek.com describes Dukat as "probably the most complex and fully developed bad guy in Star Trek history." [1]
  • In 2002, Dukat placed fourth in TV Zone's list of the top twenty science fiction television villains. The Borg Queen was second, Weyoun was eighth, Q was eleventh and Seska was nineteenth.
  • Nana Visitor has said of Dukat, "This was a character who was the worst people we have had on Earth, this is who this man was." (Hidden File 02, DS9 Season 6 DVD special features)
  • On Dukat's role as villain, Ronald D. Moore has commented: "I don't think of him as being completely evil through and through to the point where every thought, every impulse is shaded by a nefarious agenda or horrid motive. We've seen other aspects to this guy over the years. 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. But sometimes the clichés are true: Hitler loved his dog. No human being (and by extension, no Cardassian) is one hundred percent pure evil. But there is a "critical mass", if you will, where the dark deeds attributed to one person become so overwhelming that they swamp all the redeeming characteristics. Dukat is a bad guy. A very bad guy. He has a lot of blood on his hands and it's hard to see how his smile and innate charm can wipe that clean." (AOL chat, 1998)
  • In 2003, Marc Alaimo commented on his portrayal of Dukat, "I thought the character was terrific. It was one of the first times I'd been able to really sort of expand a multifaceted character like that, instead of one dimensional, which is I think the way they wanted to go with Dukat in the beginning, but I started to sort of branch off emotionally, and they picked up on it, and they gave me all these wonderful multifaceted character moments. I was pretty proud of my work throughout the whole seven years of it." (Hidden File 01, DS9 Season 7 DVD special features)
  • The stunt costume used for Dukat in DS9: "Covenant" was auctioned off in the It's A Wrap! sale and auction on eBay, as well as the Breen coolsuit worn by Alaimo in the episode "Indiscretion". [2]

Apocrypha

In the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine relaunch novels, specifically Demons of Air and Darkness, the resemblance between Dukat and Macet (both played by Marc Alaimo) is explained, stating that they are cousins.

In the Millennium series, which begins shortly before Dukat released the Pah-Wraith that drove him to Deep Space 9 where he killed Jadzia and briefly closed the wormhole, Dukat's discovery of Sisko's apparent death with the creation of the Pah-wraith wormhole drove him to once again create the Cult of the Pah-wraiths on Empok Nor (now relocated to DS9's original position), becoming one with Kosst Amojan. Regarding himself as the Pah-wraith Emissary, Dukat developed a vendetta against Weyoun, who had proclaimed himself the Emissary of the True Prophets and sought to end the universe by combining the two wormholes. When the Defiant reappeared, Dukat briefly confronted Sisko and Weyoun after luring the two into the mirror universe, but, when this attempt to kill them failed, Dukat returned to our reality and managed to capture O'Brien, Quark, Rom, and Garak. With these prisoners/crew, Dukat forced them to take an advanced Klingon ship to follow Weyoun and the Defiant into the wormholes before the end of the universe.

Having been easily knocked out by his former "prisoners" after freeing them from their Pah-Wraith induced Hells, Dukat was no longer empowered by the Pah-Wraiths as their "conflict" with the Prophets was now over. Dukat subsequently managed to escape to a past version of Deep Space 9, where he committed a murder that Odo had been investigating prior to the destruction of the station, but, in a somewhat ironic twist (given that his alternate past self would go on to kill her), after the crew prevented the red wormhole from ever opening, Dukat was shot in the back by Dax when he was distracted.


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