DS9 introduced some great enemies to the Star Trek canon during the Dominion War, but two all-timer villains were in place from season one.
Summary
- DS9 introduced multi-layered villains like Gul Dukat and Winn Adami, who challenged the traditional two-dimensional portrayal of Star Trek antagonists.
- Gul Dukat’s character complexity made him fascinating, as he saw himself as a benevolent leader despite committing unspeakable crimes.
- Winn Adami’s religious fervor and political scheming added to her unsettling character, eventually leading to her alliance with Dukat in a toxic partnership.
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine season 1 introduced two of the Star Trek franchise’s greatest-ever villains. Before Deep Space Nine premiered in 1993, villains on TV and elsewhere in Star Trek tended to be two-dimensional figures. There were notable exceptions, like Ricardo Montalban’s Khan Noonien-Singh or Denise Crosby’s Sela. Still, more often than not, villains in Star Trek didn’t last long beyond their initial defeat. DS9 changed all this, thanks to its more multi-layered approach to character, showing that even the most upstanding Starfleet officers like Captain Benjamin Sisko (Avery Brooks) could commit dark acts.
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine‘s cast of characters is the biggest Star Trek ensemble to date, aiding the more nuanced approach to character and motivation and allowing for heroes to become villains. DS9‘s season 1 finale hints at this through the character of Neela (Robin Christopher), assistant to Chief Miles O’Brien (Colm Meaney), who betrays her mentor by becoming embroiled in the deadly political scheming of Vedek Winn (Louise Fletcher). Oscar-winning actress Louise Fletcher would become one of Star Trek‘s most complex and compelling villains alongside Marc Alaimo’s Gul Dukat.
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Kai Winn & Gul Dukat Are 2 Of Star Trek’s Most Fascinating Villains
Winn Adami and Gul Dukat are fascinating Star Trek villains because neither character is wholly evil. Gul Dukat commits unspeakable crimes throughout Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, selling his people out to the Dominion and killing Jadzia Dax (Terry Farrell) in his relentless pursuit of vengeance against Bajor. As Bajor’s former prefect, Dukat had built this image of himself as a benevolent leader, who saw the Bajorans as ungrateful for rejecting his rule. Gul Dukat was a fascinating villain because he never saw himself as one, something which was explored in some of his best episodes. The layers to Gul Dukat’s character meant that he wasn’t always the villain in the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episodes in which he appeared.
Meanwhile, from her first appearance as Vedek Winn in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine‘s season 1 finale, Louise Fletcher embraced the ambiguity of the character. Winn is a spiritual person, who has a layer of benevolence that belies a dark religious fervor. The way that Vedek Winn makes Keiko O’Brien (Rosalind Chao) into a scapegoat to further advance her own political and spiritual career is insidious and deeply unsettling. Winn’s politicking and nefarious scheming only get worse when she becomes Kai later in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. However, once she attains the highest Bajoran office, it’s still not enough, forcing her to become further embittered and villainous.
DS9’s Season 1 Finale Foreshadowed Kai Winn & Dukat’s Fates
The scene in which Sisko and Winn first meet in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine‘s season 1 finale sets up her alliance with Gul Dukat and the pair’s eventual fate. The Vedek reveals that Opaka once told Winn that Sisko was the Emissary to the Bajoran Prophets because “one should never look into the eyes of one’s own gods.” That’s the only thing that Winn Adami has ever wanted, to get as close to her gods as possible. She later came to believe that the Prophets had turned their backs on her, hardening her into one of the architects of Sisko’s “death” in the DS9 finale.
Plotting to destroy Sisko and Bajor once and for all, Gul Dukat invoked an ancient ritual to become bonded with the Bajoran devils. Dukat and Winn entered into a toxic partnership, with the Bajoran religious leader scheming to become Emissary to the Pah-wraiths. As hinted at in the scene from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine season 1, Winn was so driven to become closer to the Bajoran gods that she instead settled for their devils. When they rejected her too, she had no choice but to warn Sisko about Dukat, redeeming the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine villain before she perished in the Bajoran fire caves.
