Star Trek: Deep Space Nine — 6x11 — Waltz

Aired 1998-01-08

SpaceOpera.com rating:7

Average reader rating:6.74

Synopsis

En route to Gul Dukat's war crimes investigation, Sisko meets with the former Cardassian leader, now a prisoner.

Filler rating: not filler

Numerous major long term plot threads are serviced here.

Remarkable scenes

The sight of a new Federation starship. Sure we've seen the design before, but not so up close and personal.
Dukat's hallucinations.
Sisko discovering that the comm. system was in fact not working and Dukat was faking it.
Sisko repairing the comm. system while Dukat was away.
Dukat confronting Sisko about what Sisko "really thinks" about him. I love how Dukat was talking to his hallucinations in front of Sisko and how Sisko slowly began to realize what was going on; how crazy Dukat had really become. I also loved the behavior of the Kira hallucination.
Sisko's angry conversation with Dukat after Dukat beat him with a metal pipe.
Dukat justifying his actions as Prefect of Bajor.
Sisko egging Dukat on, getting him to boast about how much he hated Bajorans and how he should have killed them all when he had the chance.
Dukat: "I should have killed every last one of them! I should have turned their planet into a graveyard the likes of which the galaxy had never seen! I should have killed them all!" Sisko: "And that is why you're not an evil man?"
Sisko: "You know old man, sometimes life seems so complicated. Nothing is truly good or truly evil. Everything seems to be a shade of gray. And then you spend some time with a man like Dukat and you realize that there is such a thing as truly evil."

Review

A great episode that shows us just how truly sadistic Dukat has always been. The dialog between Dukat and Sisko in this episode is very well crafted; Dukat clearly has always had this obsession that goes far beyond rivalry with Sisko. While I liked the episode in the sense that it shows us what happens to Dukat, which was kind of a loose thread, it is kind of a cheap way to get Dukat out of Federation hands and back into bad guy land again. And I would've liked to have seen the battle between the Cardassian ships and the Federation ship Dukat and Sisko were on, so I subtract from the score a bit.

4 reader comments

I liked how Dukat's rationalizations in this episode echoed some of the Iraq war rationalizations. As the western world was going to bring a superior but bloody democracy to Iraq, Dukat was going to give Cardassian superiority to the Bajorans.
The Iraqis, like the Bajorans, did not quite accept that superiority.
Of course, then Dukat pulls a Hitler, and starts terrorizing the population, which is where the comparison ends.
by Remco | 06/26/2009 at 8:24 pm

Musically speaking a waltz has three beats per measure which lines up with the three voices in Dukat's head. Sisko's arm cast thingy reminded me of C-3PO. Brilliant performances by both main actors in this one.
by Christopher Wright | 12/21/2011 at 1:04 am

I have to agree. That was a fantastic performance by the actor who plays Dukat. I think he might be my favorite Star Trek villain in the entire franchise.
by Zorak | 06/23/2016 at 3:04 am

Dukat is the anti-Sisko, this episode is a phenomenal insight into the post-Ziyal Dukat… but he shows that there has always been shades of his depravity from the very beginning. Fantastic acting, fantastic character. Easiest 10 I have given.
by Gaius Gracchua | 11/27/2021 at 9:13 pm