The Star Trek series has been one of the most popular science fiction franchises for more than half a century, lauded by fans and critics alike for its optimistic outlook on the future and ingenious tackling of problematic or taboo themes at the time like racism. The episode “Duet” of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine is one such example of talented writers using the Star Trek universe to tackle real-world issues. In “Duet”, director James L Conway tells the story of a suspected war criminal attempting to escape persecution. The story is a thinly veiled allegory for the atrocities committed during the Holocaust. Conway uses allegorises the Holocaust in Star Trek, tackling themes of vengeance, forgiveness and truth. In doing so, he starts a conversation with the audience the real-world historical event. In this essay, I argue that Conway depicts forgiveness as preferable to vengeance in “Duet”, sending a message of hope for humanity.
In “Duet”, Conway uses the Star Trek universe to create an allegory of the Holocaust. At the beginning of the episode, a Cardassian calling himself Marritza boards the space station to be treated for an illness known as Kalla-Nohra. Major Kira, a Bajoran, quickly realises that Marritza was present at a labour camp where Cardassian soldiers committed war crimes against the local populace.
Do you know what Cardassian policy was? Oh, I’m not even talking about the murder. Murder was just the end of the fun for them. First came the humiliation, mothers raped in front of their children, husbands beaten till their wives couldn’t recognise them, old people buried alive because they couldn’t work anymore. (“Duet”)
Kira describes atrocious war crimes which border on sadism. According to her, the Cardassians committed war crimes by killing unarmed civilian Bajorans and sexually assaulting female victims.
This description of Gallitep closely parallels Auschwitz, a concentration camp for Jews, Poles and Soviet prisoners-of-war created by Nazi Germany. In Auschwitz, prisoners had to cope with “abuse, starvation, forced labor, deportation, humiliation, and death” (Ephgrave 4). Like the Cardassians, Nazi prison guards raped “a significant number of” their female prisoners (Ephgrave 9). The Cardassians also share views on eugenics with the Nazis. Marritza describes Bajorans as “rabble” (“Duet”) using words like “cleansing” and “exterminating” (“Duet”) to describe their mass murder of Bajorans. The word “rabble” implies that Bajorans were genetically inferior to Cardassians as a species. “leansing” alludes to genocide, which the Nazis attempted to carry out on the Jewish people. Similar to the Cardassians, the Nazis believed that non-Aryans such as Jews and Slavs, were subhuman and racially inferior. Additionally, during his interrogation, Marritza claims that the Cardassian empire’s conquest is justified by the “greater glory of Cardassia” and their need for resources (“Duet”). His words parallel Nazi Germany’s lebensraum policy. Under the policy, Germany sought to occupy the lands of Central and Eastern Europe for the resources and land, replacing the indigenous people via genocide. This genocide was justified by the alleged genetic superiority of Aryans.
Conway militarises the Holocaust narrative by allegorising it in a science fiction universe. According to critic Darko Suvin, science fiction “defamiliarises reality and encourages the reader to contemplate upon the known world from a distanced perspective” (Cornea 3). Indeed, Conway substitutes Nazis for Cardassians, Jews for Bajorans and Auschwitz for Gallitep. In the fictional Star Trek universe, the victims and perpetrators are not human. They act, speak, and most importantly have a radically different appearance from humans, creating a “distanced perspective” for viewers. Despite the difference in appearance, viewers who notice parallels between the Holocaust and Gallitep are led to reconsider the scale of atrocities objectively. Hence, by creating an allegory for the Holocaust in the Star Trek universe, Conway starts a conversation with the audience about the Holocaust. How then should we respond to such atrocities in war?
Conway uses the Holocaust-Gallitep allegory to depict vengeance as a pointless reaction to past war crimes. In “Duet”, we observe the Bajoran. She admits to Dax that she wishes that Marritza is not merely “a file clerk” at Gallitep (“Duet”). She hopes that he is one of the perpetrators of war crimes, allowing her to punish him and get revenge. According to Kira, Marritza’s “punishment will let Bajor feel some satisfaction” (“Duet”). Kira seeks to quell Bajor’s simmering resentment towards Cardassia by punishing a supposed war criminal. Even though Marritza maintains that he a mere file clerk at Gallitep who did not commit any crimes, Kira interrogates him endlessly and privately hopes that he was a perpetrator of war crimes at Gallitep. Kira’s interrogation of Marritza is a personal crusade fuelled by her need for revenge.
Yet the other cast members remind Kira that mindless vengeance will not bring her any closure. Dax warns Kira that her thirst for revenge is clouding her judgement: “It sounds like you’re trying too hard to believe what you’re saying if you punish him without reason, it won’t mean anything.” (“Duet”) Dax understands Kira’s inner struggle to believe that punishing Marritza will bring her closure. On one hand, Kira wants revenge for Gallitep by punishing Marritza. On the other, she has to deal with the possibility that Marritza is innocent. Kira will not gain any “satisfaction” or do any good for Bajor by punishing Marritza without sufficient proof. “engeance isn’t enough” for Kira. Punishing Cardassian soldiers will not gain Kira any closure. Even Marritza’s taunting follows the same thread. After taking on Gul Darhe’el’s persona, Marritza says:
Don’t you see? It doesn’t change anything. Kill me, torture me, it doesn’t matter. You’ve already lost, Major. You can never undo what I’ve accomplished. The dead will still be dead. What will you do now, Major? (“Duet”)
Marritza’s words have a tone of resignation, due to the fact that he is only pretending to be Gul Darhe’el. He is secretly guilty for Cardassia’s actions at Gallitep. Whether Kira decides to indict him or not, history cannot be changed and the dead Bajorans will “still be dead”. Both Marritza and Kira have “already lost” as the real Gul Darhe’el’s actions will remain forever. Any further vengeance against Cardassians is meaningless and will not “change anything”, for the events of the past cannot be altered. Hence, the depiction of Kira’s interactions with the other cast members emphasise the futility of vengeance, showing that it is a useless reaction to war crimes of the past.
Conway asserts that forgiveness, not revenge, is the path to healing and recovery. At the end of “Duet”, Major Kira and the crew find out that Marritza was in fact only a file clerk and not Gul Darhe’el, the Butcher of Gallitep. He did not have any part in the massacre of Bajoran civilians. Despite her earlier zeal about capturing and punishing Marritza as a war criminal, Kira decides to let him go as “nough good people have already died. I won’t help kill another.” (“Duet”) Kira acknowledges Marritza as “another” good person as he did not participate in the Cardassian killing of civilians and in fact felt remorse over Cardassia’s actions.
Kira’s divergence from her initial zeal reflects how she has understood the pointlessness of revenge. She judges Marritza by his actions, not for being a Cardassian, showing her ability to move past her resentment towards the Cardassians and possibly cooperate with them. She also acknowledges his plan for creating “a new Cardassia” (“Duet”) by pretending to be Gul Darhe’el, recognising that there were Cardassians who felt remorse over the army’s actions to Bajor. At the end of the episode, Conway frames Kira and Marritza walking side by side within a cinematic two-shot, depicting them as equals. With Kira’s forgiveness of Marritza, Bajor and Cardassia can work towards a better future together.
In “Speakers for the Dead: Star Trek, The Holocaust, and the Representation of Atrocity”, historian and anthropologist Matthew Kapell argues that Dark Space Nine’s representation of the Holocaust is only “a representation of the American representation of the Holocaust a misappropriation of atrocity” (Kapell 5). He argues that the Star Trek writers have misrepresented the Holocaust by disregarding the victims’ experiences in favour of archetypes such as “survivor”, “rescuer” and “liberator”, filled by characters such as Major Kira. This Americanisation of historical events dramatises and creates an inaccurate allegory for the Holocaust.
While Kapell might be right that Star Trek’s allegory is overly dramatised, Conway’s point about moving forward from the past remains poignant. Vengeful actions like Kainon’s murder of Marritza are meaningless, only serving to prolong the hatred between Bajorans and Cardassians. Instead, the climax of the “Duet” comes when Major Kira forgives Marritza and walks by his side, symbolising their moving forward from the past wrongs committed at Gallitep. Conway asserts that forgiveness is the path to healing. When viewed in the context of the Holocaust allegory, we see that Conway’s message applies not only to the fictional world but our own as well. Forgiveness is preferable to vengeance, which only creates more hate.
In conclusion, Conway creates uses the Star Trek universe to create an allegory for the Holocaust. He defamiliarises the event using a science fiction setting, allowing audiences to examine the atrocities and outcomes of the Holocaust with a fresh view. Using this allegory, Conway asserts that vengeance is a pointless reaction to war crimes which prolongs hate between both parties. Instead, forgiveness, portrayed by Major Kira and Marritza standing side by side, is the path to healing and moving past the atrocities of war.
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Works Cited
“Duet.” Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. Syndication, 13 Jun 1993. Netflix, https://www.netflix.com/watch/70205824?
Cornea, Christine. ” INTRODUCTION: THE FORMATION OF THE GENRE.” In Science Fiction Cinema: Between Fantasy and Reality, 1-28. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2007. Accessed November 7, 2020. http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.3366/j.ctt1r28mq.6.
Ephgrave, Nicole. “On Women’s Bodies: Experiences of Dehumanization during the Holocaust”. Journal of Women’s History, Volume 28, Number 2, Summer 2016, pp. 12-32
Kapell, Mathew. “Speakers for the Dead: Star Trek, The Holocaust, and the Representation of Atrocity.” Extrapolation, vol. 41, no. 2, 2000, p. 104. Gale Academic OneFile, http://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A63771528/AONE?u=nantecun&sid=AONE&xid=5742b20a. Accessed 7 Nov. 2020.