Alt Version of Season 6-7

[Mr Light]

My very first post at the TrekBBS was an alternate version of the series finale back in 1999... I don't even remember what it was anymore though

Anyway I'm in the middle of my first rewatch of the series since it went off the air and I just finished "Sacrifice of Angels", my all time favorite episode.

To me it's the high point of the series, and everything is a little downhill afterwards. Not that I didn't enjoy S6-7, but it just lacked a certain something that S4-5 had.

The biggest problem with the last two years, of course, is Psycho Dukat and the Pagh Wraiths. So here's my take:

At the end of "Angels", Sisko gets the Prophets to close the wormhole, Damar kills Ziyal, and Dukat snaps.

BUT: here Dukat snaps by killing Damar and goes back with Weyoun to Cardassia to remain the leader. However now he's just completely unhinged and willing to wipe out Bajor and the Federation. So he's a darker more violent version of the character willing to follow the Dominion.

And Sisko's penance for the Prophets' aid? It's not something they intentionally do to him. The consequence of the Prophets intervening in mortal affairs unleashes the Pagh Wraiths to action.

They form some kind of alliance with the Dominion. They get to kill the Prophets, and the Dominion gets their wormhole back home for reinforcements.

The series finale would be a massive battle at DS9 as the Dominion and the Wraiths go for the wormhole to kill the Prophets.

 

[Melakon]

If they'd really wanted to write a bummer ending, they could have blown up the station, killing everyone aboard except Sisko, who was splattering Dukat's brains over the rocks in the Fire Caves.

 

[T'Girl]

They get to kill the Prophets

Non-corporeal beings who exist at all points in time simultaneously, how can they be "killed."

The series finale would be a massive battle at DS9 ...

I enjoyed the special effects heavy Sacrifice of Angels, but going that route repeatedly would be tiresome.

 

[Jono]

They get to kill the Prophets

Non-corporeal beings who exist at all points in time simultaneously, how can they be "killed."

Chronitons.

 

[Bry_Sinclair]

An interesting concept, but I prefer how it went on screen, showing another facet to war and the other factions at work with their own agendas. Besides, it gave us some great scenes of Kai Winn doing what she does best, quenching her thirst for power and butting heads with Sisko and Kira.

Dukat is also egotisitical enough to consider himself the equal (though he probably believes himself as the better) of the Emissary.

 

[VST]

Yeah the route Dukat went was terrific, tapping into his egotism to prop him up as a religious zealot - he'd done the 'flawed leader' part during the siege of DS9 arc, keeping that going would have just been repetitive & tired.

Plus we wouldn't have had the joy of 'Waltz', which was a powerhouse of a Sisko/Dukat episode.

 

[Mr Light]

I didn't think anyone liked the Pagh-Wraith-Dukat storyline

 

[Bry_Sinclair]

Could've done without the Dukat/Winn hook up though

Ewww!

 

[Melakon]

Dukat/Winn just shows how much of a sleazebag he was willing to be to obtain his goals.

 

[dub]

I didn't think anyone liked the Pagh-Wraith-Dukat storyline

You can laugh at me too, because I enjoyed it!

 

[Amaris]

"Sacrifice of Angels" may be the one time I truly pitied Gul Dukat. I think the S6-7 seasons were solid; though I could have done with a bit less Jesus/Antichrist imagery present in the final episodes. Still, the series ended on a great note, and I was satisfied, overall.

I actually enjoy the earlier seasons much more (particularly S1-S3), because they dealt less with the overarching war that would come later.

 

[VST]

I didn't think anyone liked the Pagh-Wraith-Dukat storyline

Hell yeah, that was a great left turn for the character! How dull would it have been after 'Sacrifice of Angels' if he'd just gone back to being the same Dukat? Having him go mad & then reinvent himself as a religious maniac cemented him as a Khan-like super villain & added a unique component to how DS9 ended.

It baffles me why people *wouldnt* enjoy that!

 

[Mr Light]

OK my rewatch has taken me all the up to the final episode!

And I have another thought about my theory.

In "Sacrifice of Angels", Dukat goes back to Cardassia pissed off and evil.

But then his character arc becomes what Damar got; he gets increasingly outraged at the Dominion taking over, and eventually becomes a freedom fighter working with Kira to liberate Cardassia.

That would have been so much more interesting than Damar as a hero, or the skeevy Dukat/Winn thing.

It would have been a redemptive ending to the character and a logical continuation with his Season 4 travails. And it would have brought the Kira/Dukat relationship further along, and given us more Dukat/Garak which is my all time favorite pairing.

Damar could have been left behind as the evil Dominion puppet who they have to kill in the finale.

 

[Bad Thoughts]

I didn't mind psycho Dukat, or at least I don't think that what was wrong with psycho Dukat was manifest in SOA. On the other hand, I didn't feel Ziyal's death was compelling other than because it would affect Dukat. Rom would have made a better "sacrifice":a quicky execution of a character in the middle of some heroic development.

 

[Ward3]

I am apparently one of the few who like the Winn/Dukat hookup. Agreed, nobody really wants to watch old alien villains hook up, but if they were going to take that approach with the Pagh Wraiths, that makes perfect sense. I am not entirely committed to Dukat as an emissary of the Pagh Wraiths, and agree that he should have been done at the end of Waltz, but, if the writers were going to give Kai Winn Adami her final fall, who better to give it to her than Dukat? How much more shame and humiliation could there be?

Besides, I am not against older folks hooking up, being an older folk myself now