10 Best Individual Performances In Star Trek
6. They Were Clean, Major
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: Duet (S1EP19)
It should say something about the strength of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine that not only are there already several performances from the show listed here already, but we now discuss one from the very first season. Any long term fan of the franchise will know that Star Trek has a varied history with debut seasons, but Deep Space Nine came out firing.
Harris Yulin guest stars as Amin Maritza, or is it Gul Darheel, in the episode Duet. When the Cardassian arrives on the station, he is immediately imprisoned by Major Kira. When questioned on this, she explains that, as the sufferer of a rare condition, he could only have contracted it at the Gallitep labour camp – the site of a brutal massacre of Bajoran civilians.
What follows is a game of chess between Kira and the man, as she challenges him about his alleged crimes. When he is ‘identified’ as Darheel, Yulin delivers a truly terrifying speech about how good it had felt to utterly destroy so many Bajorans, along with ordering his men to go out and kill more. He orates wildly, telling her that his men came back covered in blood, yet felt clean – because they were clean. Kira can only stare at him, horrified.
To then have the character switch, once it is revealed that he is not, in fact, Darheel, but Maritza, who had been a filing clerk at the camp, from a proud war criminal, to a broken, devastated victim, is horrific.
Yulin as Darheel was frightening, but Yulin as Maritza was truly crushing. He breaks down, confessing he altered his appearance in the hope that the execution of ‘Darheel’ might give the Bajorans a sense of closure. Kira releases him, unable to face another innocent death in the Occupation’s legacy. The senseless murder of Maritza mere moments later only compounds the message that hate is both destructive and pointless.