Star Trek: 10 Best Cardassian Episodes

If there was a Cardassian more suited to exploring their culture with than Garak, then it can only be Gul Dukat. Over the years we've seen him manipulate, connive, torture, and kill to get what he wants and this episode is no exception. When Major Kira is contacted by a Bajoran smuggler who claims to have found a long-missing transport ship, she heads out to find it. Unfortunately, it was a Cardassian ship carrying Bajoran prisoners and Gul Dukat insists on accompanying her.

When they find the wreckage, Dukat examines the graves of the bodies they find outside. He is overcome with grief when he finds the body of one of the Bajoran women, whom he says was his mistress. Major Kira, unimpressed, suggests they press on because the number of graves does not equal how many Cardassians and Bajorans should have been on this ship. A short while later they find a mine workings, where both Cardassian and Bajoran are working as slaves for the Breen.

Together, Kira and Dukat liberate the prisoners and find Tora Ziyal amongst them. She is the daughter of Dukat and his Bajoran mistress, a mixed-race Cardassian/Bajoran, someone whose very existence could destroy Dukat's political standing. Dukat is ready to kill her, but Kira stops him and forces him to consider taking responsibility for his actions and his offspring. Dukat eventually relents and takes Ziyal home with him.

While compassion eventually wins out, the fact that Dukat was willing to kill his own child just for her mixed heritage is a damning portrait of Cardassian society.