decision regarding Rugal incomprehensible!

Rugal doesn't have to be that interesting for the fights about him to be interesting.

Check out Una McCormack's novel The Never-Ending Sacrifice about his life on Cardassia, including from a civilian's POV on the rise of the civilian government, Dukat's coup, and the Dominion War.

 

Making Rugal a recurring character seems like something the writers might have tried to do if this episode had occurred later in the series run when things were a bit more serialized. At this point the series was still doing a lot of one-offs Though I'm not entirely sure how he could have integrated (well) with the overall arc. One concern is that adding him in would have detracted from Nog's development.

It's been a long time since I read TNES, but if I recall correctly, Ziyal does get name-checked in some manner?

 

That's the way things goes when you mess with Garak!

 

Given that Garak can vaporize you where you stand, then quip: "A pity, I rather liked him", maybe Rugal got off lucky.

 

That scene with Garak is excellent!
One of my reasons for liking the character. He can be so sarcastic!

 

I’d be up for an Entek/Garak prequel series!

 

I've just finished reading The Never Ending Sacrifice!

An excellent book which will be among my all time-favorites, like the masterpiece about Garak, A Stitch In Time by Andrew J Robinson and the Voyager book The Black Shore by Greg Cox.

Spoiler: The Never Ending Sacrifice

it's really a great read with many twist and turns following Rugal's life from the moment he did bite Garak on Deep Space Nine and everyhing started.

Rugal is a sympathetic character and it's easy to like, especially since there are a certain similarity to what happened in m y own life. When I was a kid I had to move away from amy hometown and spend 12 years in a town I didn't like and never adapted to. But I had my own family with me since we were all forced to move. Anyway, I promised each and everyone that I would go back to my hometown which I did as soon as I was old enough to care for myself. End of similarities.

Rugal's situation was a lot more complicated since he actually was Cardassian and expected to be and become a Cardassian too. I'm still surprised how he managed to do that and also a bit surprised that he never tried to leave Cardassia and escape to Bajor.

Anyway, his journey is very exciting and have many unexpected twists and turns. It takes us through the downfall of the Obsidian Order, the attempts to create amore democratic society, Dukat's coup, cardassia joining the Dominion and the consequences of that, the war and the destruction of Cardassia.

I had expected to see more of Dukat, Weyoun and Damar and the events during the war but you can't get everything you want. besides that, Rugal's adventures are exciting as they are. However, I find the period he spent at the planet Ithic a bit sad and depressive.

Therefore it's uplifting and enlightning to read the final chapters when everything sorts of starting to go in the right direction for him.

His decision to become a Federation citizen is a bit surprising actually buit in a way understandable.

I had expected to see more of Garak in the book but when he finally shows up again at the end and helps Rugal to sort out everything, he is brilliant as expected!

Also nice to see O'Brien being involved in the story and that he's back in action again, this time with helping out the cardassians after the war. I never bought that thing about O'Brien going back to earth and teach at the Academy. he belongs out there, most likely on the station Deep Space Nine with Bashir, Vic Fontaine and all their holodeck adventures.

Not to mention that there is a "happy ending" at the end of the story which I did wish for but never thought would happen!

The only thing I actually missed was a possible encounter with Sisko. It would have been interesting to see Rugal and Sisko meet and discuss Sisko's decision which sent Rugal to Cardassia and see what Sisko would say about it after everything that happened.

I also like Uma Mc Cormack's detailed information about Cardassia and Cardassian life in general. It seems that she has put a lot of effort in studying everuthing which has to do with Cardassia, read A Stitch In Time by Andrew J Robinson and learned a lot from that book and continued to develop Cardassian life from there. I also liked her book The Crimson Shadow which I bought last year and is re-reading now.

 

Glad you liked it!

Cardassian society is just so interesting to me. The TNG and especially DS9 writers set up some great things and it's been a treat to see how the novels have expanded upon them. I'd never want to grow up in a society like that, but it's easy to see how it got there.

 

There is also something very inspiring about the novels' depiction of building a democratic Cardassia post-Dominion genocide attempt.

 

I agree with you here. The Cardassian society is very interesting.

I think that also made the Cardassians so interesting as villains, which they were in TNG and DS9. They weren't super-beings or plain evil. They were very complex.

Garak is the best example of that. A product of the Cardassian society but in the long run able to think for himself, change and work for something different.

Dukat on the other hand was Star Trek's best villain, also due to the negative aspects of Cardassian society.

 

Even Dukat had some nuances, at least until he lost Ziyal and went crazy.

 

That's right!

And therefore he was the best villain!

In fact, there were times when I thought Dukat would turn into a good character, as when he and Kira liberated Tora Ziyal and Dukat decided not to kill her.

And there were also times when I wondered if Garak was good or evil.

That was made those characters so interesting!

 

I think Kira might have had an influence as well. In her own words: "If you hurt that girl, I promise you... I'll kill you."

 

Yes, she had.
But still, it looked like Dukat could end up among the good people for a while during that time when he had some cooperation with Sisko, Kira and the others on DS9.
And then he took a turn to the worst when he made cardassia join the Dominion.
That's what made Dukat and the whole series so interesting, all those twists and turns, the new scenarios which constantly came up.