Star Trek: 10 Best Cardassian Episodes

The two-part of In Purgatory's Shadow and By Inferno's Light (when the Dominion War begin in earnest), this episode shows Gul Dukat plunging the Cardassian Union into its alliance with The Dominion. At the start of this two-parter, Dukat was a disgraced renegade operating out of a battered old ship, but by its conclusion, he is the supreme ruler of Cardassia, appointed by the Dominion. Almost everything that Dukat has ever wanted now lies within his grasp and there's little anyone can do about it.

While the Federation and the Klingons scramble on how to act in the face of this new threat, they are joined by the Romulans and they have to deal with a Changeling imposter having replaced one of the core crew. But the real story here lies with Worf, Martok, Garak and Enabram Tain. They have been kept prisoner in a Jem'Hadar facility and they must both warn the station of the imposter as well as facilitate their own escape. Garak and Tain finally have a moment of father and son, then Garak must confront his claustrophobia.

In the end it doesn't come to all-out war just yet, but Dukat has signalled to Captain Sisko that he intends to capture Deep Space Nine and the Wormhole, for the Cardassians serve the Dominion now. This state of affairs would go on until the very end of the war, when the weary Cardassian people would throw off the shackles of the Dominion and pay a dear price for it.