Top 20 Episodes of Star Trek Deep Space Nine #10: In Purgatory's Shadow/By Inferno's Light

Well, I’ve put this off long enough. It’s time to kick off the top ten with a bang by covering one of the most pivotal and game changing episodes in the entire series. There’s a lot to cover here, so let’s dive right in.

This two-parter takes place in the middle of season five, during a time when the dominion was a prominent threat, but the conflict had not escalated into open war just yet. And, like many great DS9 episodes, we start with Garak. Remember Improbable Cause & The Die is Cast, the two-parter we covered earlier in the countdown in which Garak’s mentor, Enabran Tain invited him along on a campaign against the homeworld of the founders? Well, at the end of that episode, Tain’s plan had failed, and while Garak managed to escape with the help of Odo, Tain wasn’t so lucky and he, along with several others, were presumed dead. However, Garak soon learns that Tain may not have met his end just yet when he receives a coded message from his mentor. While at first, Garak tries to play it off like it’s nothing, the DS9 crew figure it out and Garak requests the use of a shuttle in order to find Tain and any other possible survivors. Ordinarily the federation would go along with this, but there’s a snag. It seems the signal originated from the Gamma Quadrant, deep in dominion space and this is more than likely a trap. Reluctantly, Sisko gives him his ship, but on the condition that Worf come along as well.

More on Worf and Garak in a second, but first, we need to discuss a certain someone who plays a big part in this episode. I am astounded that it’s taken me this long to even mention him on this countdown, but it’s time to talk about Gul Dukat. Dukat is a high-ranking Cardassian officer and the closest thing Deep Space Nin has to a main villain. While occasionally, his interests align with that of the heroes, he’s never truly been on their side. Before the events of the series, Dukat was the man in charge of overseeing Bajor during the occupation. The decision by his government to withdraw from Bajor never quite sat well with him, and when Sisko was named Emissary, he became even more resentful. We’ll be discussing this in greater detail later on, but the thing to understand about Dukat is that he is perhaps even more dedicated to Cardassia than Garak is. He truly believed that the occupation of Bajor was to the benefit of the Bajoran people, and by shunning him and embracing Sisko, he feels the Bajoran are ungrateful for all he has done for them. What’s more, the withdraw from Bajor, according to Dukat, was a display of weakness on the part of his people, and now that they’ve been weakened even further after a brutal war with the Klingons, Dukat is willing to do whatever it takes to restore Cardassia to it’s former glory. When earlier in the episode, he sees his daughter, Zial, flirting with Garak, a man he considers his greatest enemy, Dukat has finally been driven over the edge and as we’ll soon see, is forced to take drastic steps to restore Cardassia.

But back with Worf and Garak, one thing I really need to comment on is the chemistry between Michael Dorn and Andrew Robinson. I especially like the scene in which Garak goes on a tirade about how much he wants to join Starfleet, that a frustrated Worf almost buys until Garak lays it on a bit too thick. When questioned about the deception, Garak says that lying is a skill, and like any skill, in order to keep it sharp, one needs to practice. Anywho, they track the source of the message to a dominion prison camp and the two are immediately captured. At the camp they do indeed find Tain as well as the real general Martok, the one we’ve seen up to this point revealed as a Changeling back in Apocalypse Rising, and, even more surprising, the real Dr. Bashir, the one on the station being a Changeling infiltrator who has likely been there for months.

Tain is in really bad shape and likely hasn’t much time, so he and Garak share one final moment. You may be wondering why Garak exhibits so much loyalty towards Tain, especially when you consider that Tain was responsible for his exile in the first place. Well, in their final moment together we learn the reason. As it turns out, Tain wasn’t just Garak’s mentor, he was also Garak’s father. Andrew Robinson absolutely steals the show with this scene. While the Wire may have given us the deepest insight into Garak’s character, this may be the only time where we see him completely drop his defenses and allow his true emotions to come through. While Tain isn’t exactly the type to say “I love you,” he does, in his own roundabout way, admit to being proud of Garak before passing on.

But enough of that touching farewell, we’re stuck in a Dominion Prison camp and we need to get out. While Worf is forced to battle the Jem’hadar in one on one fist fights, Garak needs to send a coded SOS to Deep Space Nine. Unfortunately, this involves the very claustrophobic Garak crawling inside a very small and poorly lit space for hours at a time to tinker with some wires. Worf’s not fairing much better, he may be winning his fights, but despite Martok’s praises, his body still has it’s limits, and if he fights any more, he will surely die. Meanwhile, back at the station, a huge fleet of dominion ships has emerged from the other side of the wormhole and is heading towards Cardassia. Much to the shock and horror of our heroes, the fleet is being lead by none other than Gul Dukat, who has negotiated a deal to make Cardassia part of the Dominion, with himself as the head of the new government. Through the Dominion, Dukat has seen away to restore Cardassia to its former Glory. And once Cardassian space is purged of all Klingon fighters and Maqui resistance cells, the rest of the Alpha Quadrant is next. It seems that the Klingons, the Federation and even the Romulans have no choice but to put aside their differences to combat this threat, but what they don’t know is that by doing so, they are playing right into the Dominions hand. Back at the prison, all Cardassian prisoners are released and embraced as members of the Dominion, but Dukat, being the type to hold a grudge, has specifically stated that Garak is to be left to rot, which means its back to the cabinet of claustrophobia for him. Meanwhile, the odds have finally caught up to Worf as he fights the lead Jem’hadar who’s kicking his ass with relative ease. But even so, Worf’s Klingon pride refuses to allow him to surrender. Even when Martok tells him that honor has been satisfied and that there is no shame in giving up, Worf still struggles to his feet. In my favorite scene in the episode, the lead Jem’hadar withdraws from the match, stating that he cannot defeat this Klingon, he can only kill him, and that does not interest him.

Like I said, this is episode was a huge game changer. The Dominion threat is made even greater by their newly forged alliance with the Cardassians, Martok is found and becomes a regular on the show, and Dukat completes his transition from occasional antagonist to primary villain of the series. But more than that, it’s a great episode with some outstanding performances, particularly from Robinson and Dorn, both in their individual scenes and the ones they share with one another. However, next time we’ll deal with something considerably more light-hearted as a group of Ferengi tries to prove that they can be just as tough as anyone else.