Star Trek: 20 Supporting Characters That Deserved More

Sigh. We're going to need a bigger fridge...

The illegitimate daughter of the Cardassian everyone loves to hate, Ziyal's mixed Cardassian and Bajoran heritage gave her a unique place in Deep Space Nine and a vast wealth of potential as a character.

And she absolutely had her moments to shine. She brought out another side to Dukat, the concerned, caring (albeit controlling) father...which somehow only made him feel all the more sinister when he did something abhorrent. Her instinct to create art on a backdrop of conflict said everything you needed to know about her optimism. Her beautiful kinship with Kira explored the hidden depths in both women. And even her budding relationship with Garak was wonderfully intriguing...if eyebrow-raising.

But as with so many others on this list...it's never enough.

For helping her Deep Space Nine friends escape, she was executed as a traitor to Cardassia. But that makes the plot device sound far grander than it really was. Dukat was heartbroken over his daughter's death...but that was the point.

Ziyal's death gave little to the overall plot or her own story, and that's underlined by the almost offhand way she was shot down by Damar in a corridor. Her death only really served as a catalyst for Dukat's crazy-megalomaniac evolution and to crystallise Garak's motivation. Sound familiar?

With her complicated heritage, hopeful disposition and remarkable life experience, Ziyal had so many more chapters still to explore, and there's no doubt she deserved better than the frosty ending she got.