"Duet"

[Qonundrum]

The simplest title of all Trek lore also cleverly shrouds the theme as presented in the episode's very coda.

I'd never seen this episode before...

The music is the first of so many wonderful things that sets this series as being far superior to what TNG devolved into in most of its final three years.

Another is the multi-layered plot, whose only predictable twist is made surprisingly unpredictable as a result (sorry, no spoilers for this one).

The scripting has never been more exquisite for any DS9 episode, much less any other in Trek as far as I'm concerned. Twists, double crosses, character interchanges - of which Quark (not to be forgotten) is no exception of.

And the acting... nothing upon nothing tops this episode as well for everyone involved.

Rarely do I weep while watching television. This had the waterworks turned on, several times, increasingly so as the episode's biggest twists and payoffs took place.

Okay, one spoiler (it's a big one despite being over such a small scene, so I implore you not to click):

Spoiler

Spoiler: Cautioned, you were, sayeth Yoda

I screamed "No!!!!!", even long before Kira had. That's just how damn great and compelling this episode was, true to Trek's ideals while providing so many facets of so many levels.

Forget hyped episodes like "The Visitor", those just pale to albino dust in comparison to a genuine, bona fide all time great of television.

10/10.

With ease.

 

[kkt]

Yes. Arguably the best single episode in the Star Trek franchise. Note that the script is loosely based on a stage play; from Memory Alpha under "Duet":

• The plot of this episode was inspired by Robert Shaw's 1967 stage play The Man in the Glass Booth, which tells of a Jewish man accused of being a Nazi war criminal. That play, in turn, is based on actual events that took place after World War II, such as the Nuremberg Trials and the hunt for top-ranking Nazi officials who escaped Germany and made up new identities for themselves, such as Adolf Eichmann. Noted Michael Piller, "Ira Behr gave us the twist that gave it The Man in the Glass Booth kind of feeling, where the guy isn't who he says he is but is doing it for more noble reasons." (The Fifty-Year Mission: The Next 25 Years, p. 461)

 

[NCC-73515]

It's the episode that saved S1 from being completely irrelevant for me, and it undoes Allamaraine's damage

 

[Qonundrum]

It's the episode that saved S1 from being completely irrelevant for me, and it undoes Allamaraine's damage

IMHO, DS9/S1 had a number of robust stories, some experimental ones, and a couple duffers but even from the outset it's stories like "Duet" that really show that Trek can do. It makes me wish earlier S1 stories were a bit tighter but as far as first seasons of new shows go, DS9 > even TOS - and TOS was somewhat solid already.

 

[Armus]

Top notch Berman era Star Trek, anthologized DS9 at its finest. There were a lot of great Kira episodes during DS9's eary years and this episode is one of the best because it deals with Kira's feelings in a very adult and nuanced way. Kira rightfully hated the brutality of the occupation but she doesn't hate all Cardassians per se-in the end she met one who merited her empathy. This show makes a very nuanced and thoughtful statement.

 

[UnknownSample]

I hope The Man In the Glass Booth wasn't just ripped off. I hope the twist had its own originality.

 

[Orac]

Television writers stealing plots from movies? Preposterous!

 

[sekundant]

hope The Man In the Glass Booth wasn't just ripped off. I hope the twist had its own originality.

I wish I could see the piece at theater, but I read and watch it . Movie from 1975 with great Maximillian Scheel has cult status. I always thought it is a well-known fact and I was very surprised that it wasn't, especially here. And I can say, Duett is only a good adaption, nothing is original.

Another fact: Leonard Nimoy, his almighty, also played at "The Man In the Glass Booth" after canceling of TOS at 1971 for 300$/week salary and got some negatively reactions from San Diego Jewish community as a practicing jew. They convinced that the play was anti-Semitic. (acc. to "I am not Spock" )
So, maybe Duett was kind of homage for Nimoy.

 

[diankra]

An exceptional episode, though one dated by changing judicial attitudes towards genocidal crimes.
Marritza is cleared, but currently a clerk at a death camp would be guilty, as an accomplice in the enterprise, even if they didn't kill anyone themselves.

Add: obviously the attitudes of the 2370s would be different again. Duet reflects 1993, not 2019.

 

[matthunter]

An exceptional episode, though one dated by changing judicial attitudes towards genocidal crimes.
Marritza is cleared, but currently a clerk at a death camp would be guilty, as an accomplice in the enterprise, even if they didn't kill anyone themselves.

Add: obviously the attitudes of the 2370s would be different again. Duet reflects 1993, not 2019.

Kira's also still conflicted after this point. In Darkness and Light when she confronts the Cardassian who has been assassinating her former resistance cell members for an attack that left him scarred, even though he was just a functionary, she screams that she doesn't care if a Cardassian occupier was a torturer or "pressed shirts for a living", they were all equally guilty.

Explicitly, she only let Marritza off because he was noble and apologetic. "Just following orders" isn't an excuse for Kira even if you weren't necessarily military but a civilian support staffer. But then beautifully complex characters like this exemplify why such situations aren't always clear-cut.

 

[kkt]

Kira's also still conflicted after this point. In Darkness and Light when she confronts the Cardassian who has been assassinating her former resistance cell members for an attack that left him scarred, even though he was just a functionary, she screams that she doesn't care if a Cardassian occupier was a torturer or "pressed shirts for a living", they were all equally guilty.

Explicitly, she only let Marritza off because he was noble and apologetic. "Just following orders" isn't an excuse for Kira even if you weren't necessarily military but a civilian support staffer. But then beautifully complex characters like this exemplify why such situations aren't always clear-cut.

Yes. "Duet" was a shift in Kira's thinking. At the beginning of the episode, to Kira all Cardassians who were on Bajor were evil. By the end she shifted to allowing that some of them had redeeming features.

She might have been willing to allow that Prin in "Darkness and Light" was unfairly victimized by being maimed by the Bajoran attack during the occupation if Prin hadn't been assassinating her friends and kidnapped her many years later.

 

[Peach Wookiee]

Yeah, Prin crossed the line and didn't acknowledge that the Occupation was wrong. Rather like Dukat.

 

[Timo]

Likewise, from the other side of the glass in the booth, Kira didn't acknowledge that the Freedom Fighting was wrong, which is the truly interesting aspect of "Darkness and Light".

The reflection in the glass is there all right. Resistance movements ITRW generally concentrate on hurting local collaborators, as the actual occupying forces are too well protected and the reprisals too big a risk. Kira remains unapologetic even if elusive about doing that ("Necessary Evil" in addition to "Duet"), even though she also has killings of actual Cardassians under her belt ("Shakaar" et al.). Dukat's deriding comments in "Battle Lines" about her having been a minor operative running errands highlight this, sending Kira into a bout of indignation...

"Duet" is nuanced there, too, as Marritza's belittling of Kira's contribution to the Resistance cleverly serves a double purpose, first of frustrating Kira and then of revealing Marritza's ploy. Kira is in fact driven to regret the things she did. And when it turns out this was all part of a devious manipulation, it's rather understandable she never ever returns to that kind of admitting of weakness on her part. "Darkness and Light" might play out differently had Kira not been through "Duet" first!

Timo Saloniemi

 

[UnknownSample]

Kira said they were all guilty, but didn't say equally guilty. And I doubt that today, a file clerk is considered equally guilty, same as the people making the decisions or doing the shooting. There are gradations. Being a "legitimate target" means they have to take their chances by being there doing those various jobs, not that they deserved death as much as the actual killers.

 

[Charles Phipps]

In Kira's case, people are complex and I think whenever someone says that Janeway doesn't make sense or characters act "out of character" I point out that people's actions, statements, and moods can be wildly inconsistent while still being the same person. Kira isn't racist against all Cardassians anymore but generally favored any and all methods to get them off the planet. Also, she's not going to agree with someone who has kidnapped and tortured her. Indeed, I'd say she's entirely capable of having a doublethink about the subject. Marritza may have been someone she felt didn't deserve to die but if she'd been able to sneak a bomb into the Gul's office that killed him, she would have been okay with that as well.

One thing I do like about this episode is that Marritza's plan is terrible. In the Federation, he would have easily been found out and it's very likely unless he'd gotten to Bajor and they held a kangaroo court quickly then executed him--which was possible--it would have failed miserably there too. It's a desperation plan but one that begins and ends with the already ridiculous flaw of the fact the Gul he's impersonating is dead on Cardassia w/ a state funeral.

It's not going to cause Cardassia to face their crimes. It's just going to confuse the hell out of them.

 

[Bry_Sinclair]

One thing I do like about this episode is that Marritza's plan is terrible. In the Federation, he would have easily been found out and it's very likely unless he'd gotten to Bajor and they held a kangaroo court quickly then executed him--which was possible--it would have failed miserably there too. It's a desperation plan but one that begins and ends with the already ridiculous flaw of the fact the Gul he's impersonating is dead on Cardassia w/ a state funeral.

It's not going to cause Cardassia to face their crimes. It's just going to confuse the hell out of them.

I think it shows just how damaged the man was by his experience during the Occupation, that he'd go through such a medical procedure and concoct such a story, that any officers in the Central Command would say is a lie, just to try and make his people face up to what they did and acknowledge the damage they did.

"Duet" is an absolutely brilliant piece of story telling, and whilst some of the plot points may be predicable, how they got there with the characters was brilliant to watch. Seeing Kira go from someone so hell bent on getting revenge, to empathising and connecting with someone from a species she has hated all her life, is brilliant and an episode I could watch again and again (it's also part of the reason that Kira will always be my favourite character of Trek and would argue she is the best of any series).

 

[Peach Wookiee]

Timo, in season 1, Major Kira acknowledged what she did and even wondered if the Prophets would forgive her for all she did. She also recognized that there wasn't another way at the time to stop the Occupation throughout the series. I think that's why she and Chief O'Brien came to really understand each other. They were from different worlds but she would understand fully what he said to Glin Daro in TNG's "The Wounded": "It's not you I hate, Cardassian. It's what I became because of you."