25 Best Episodes Of Star Trek EVER

Deep Space Nine was dark. Discovery has gone a little darker, but Deep Space Nine managed to show its darkness amid a corona of light. Here, Harris Yulin portrays Amin Maritza, a Cardassian man who is impersonating the Cardassian equivalent of a concentration camp Commandant. The episode twists and weaves through his attempts at becoming this man, all the while Major Kira is pursuing him. She is the one to immediately have him arrested. She is the one who recognises his face. She confronts him.

Yulin's speech on the beliefs of the Cardassian's during the occupation is deeply unsettling because he absolutely sells that he believes in what he is saying. Kira is repulsed by his words. She recoils, confronted with true evil. Listening to the descriptions of her fellow Bajorans suffering at the hands of his people is enough to fuel the hatred boiling within. And that's exactly what he wants.

But she discovers the truth. He has been posing as this man to force the Cardassian people to see that they are guilty of his crimes. Guilt by complicity. Kira, the representative of the oppressed, forgives him and releases him, seeing him as just another victim of the Occupation. He laments that now no one will face the truth.

Before he can leave, he is stabbed by a Bajoran man and killed, simply for the fact that he was Cardassian. No greater purpose. No greater reason. A meaningless death, another pitiful victim. The episode closes on this sad note and Deep Space Nine solidified its place as the darkest that Trek had yet offered.