Star Trek: 10 Things You Didn't Know About Gul Dukat
3. Shooting With Dukat Was A Difficult Process
Facial prosthetics and make up are a mainstay of the Star Trek franchise, and a huge amount of credit goes to the actors underneath all this rubber. Monotonously time-consuming, always uncomfortable, and sometimes even painful, the life of a Star Trek alien is not an easy one, and Gul Dukat is no exception.
To prepare for shooting, Alaimo would often arrive onset at 2 am as the make up process could take anything up to seven hours. Once finished, shooting schedules would add another headache to the mix as actors could only work twelve-hour turnarounds, leaving a maximum of five hours to shoot, assuming other actors weren't also on the clock.
Of all the difficult shooting days, the most draining would come at the very end of the series run, as Dukat and Sisko duke it out in The Fire Caves. Due to a misstep in fight choreography, Sisko actor Avery Brooks ended up punching Alaimo in the face and halting shooting. Although the prosthetics effectively hid a sizeable black eye, Alaimo would be out of action for several days, leading to a few shots of this climactic showdown to end the show where the actors aren't even in the same room.