2/14/2024 0 Comments Bar of gold pressed latinum worth![]() He is a man haunted by his crimes, but incapable of understanding what’s haunting him. The final shot of Dukat as he closes the shuttle’s rear door, with the trio of phantasms crowded behind him, is telling. Dukat doesn’t come across well in “Waltz,” and his final speech is a few screams shy of a Batman villain rant, but the fact that we get to see the demons he’s fighting against make him more complex than Sisko’s determination allows. His decision here, after seeing Dukat rant and rave for days before swearing to destroy all that Bajor is, is the sort of decision that DS9 handles better than any other Trek series before it: an in-character beat that is perfectly satisfying (if maybe a little over-the-top), but that doesn’t necessarily line up with our own view of the situation. Sisko reacts to crises emotionally as much as intellectually, and that passion typically serves him well. It makes sense from a character perspective Sisko is a smart, determined fighter, but he’s always been more warrior than philosopher, and in situations where something he cares about is threatened, he’s not going to quibble too much about details. While there’s no question Dukat has evil in him, I’m not sure I agree with Sisko’s line in the sand pronouncement. ![]() After spending time with the Cardassian under unusual circumstances, Sisko draws certain conclusions, solving Dukat as neatly as Alexander solved a certain knot: the enemy is an evil man, and Sisko is determined to stop him. But over the course of the hour, we learn that Dukat is a deeply damaged individual, fractured and tormented in ways that are very likely irreparable. When we meet him at the start of “Waltz,” after a long introductory voice-over from Sisko explaining the current situation-Dukat’s been in therapy, and is now heading to the Federation for some preliminary legal proceedings-he seems well enough. Dukat has been a commandant, an officiant, a father bent on murder, a revolutionary, a dictator, and, lately, a man with a broken mind, tormented by the simultaneous loss of his daughter (who, let’s remember, he was once determined to kill) and his thorough beating at the hands of anti-Dominion forces. I’m not an expert on Cardassian bureaucracy/power structures.) But the point isn’t his title: the point is figuring out what to do with a character who’s had the most dramatic rises and falls of anyone on the series. How do you solve a problem like Gul Dukat? Former Gul Dukat, actually I doubt he still retains his position post breakdown and capture. (Available on Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon.)
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |