The Basic Play That Impressed Deep Area 9’s Most Stunning Episode

By Chris Snellgrove
| Revealed 28 seconds in the past

In the event you’re a fan of Star Trek: Deep Area 9, then you recognize the present had a rocky first season, however the episode “Duet” highlighted the present’s full potential. This was an episode the place we realized extra in regards to the atrocities of the Cardassians towards the Bajorans and extra about how Kira has navigated her transition from freedom fighter to navy official.  What most Deep Area 9 followers don’t learn about this episode, although, is that it was straight impressed by The Man within the Glass Sales space, a well-known play by Robert Shaw.

The Man In The Glass Sales space

In the event you’ve by no means seen the 1967 play, The Man within the Glass Sales space is a few Jewish man who will get arrested by Israeli authorities for being a Nazi warfare felony. The trial towards him appears to be going effectively till the shock reveal that he intentionally altered medical information to impersonate his outdated Nazi tormentor. Within the Deep Area 9 episode “Duet,” we get a equally surprising reveal when a Cardassian posing as a serious warfare felony is revealed to be a minor authorities functionary who altered his personal information in hopes that his prosecution would make clear the brutalities that Cardassians inflicted on the Bajorans.

Initially, the story was pitched to Deep Area 9 showrunner Michael Piller by two of his interns, and so they had a really completely different concept of what “Duet” needs to be like. They conceived of an episode through which the Cardassian actually was a warfare felony and that Kira can be put within the unenviable place of defending him. There was apparent dramatic potential in such a premise, however Piller didn’t love the preliminary concept as a result of he thought it was an excessive amount of like Judgment at Nuremberg, a 1961 movie that simply occurred to star future Star Trek icon William Shatner.

In accordance with Piller, it was Deep Area 9 producer and future showrunner Ira Steven Behr who “gave us the twist that gave it The Man within the Glass Sales space form of feeling, the place the man isn’t who he says he’s however is doing it for extra noble causes.” This twist made the episode’s premise really feel contemporary as a result of we hardly ever obtained to see any Cardassians who appeared remorseful about their warfare crimes towards the Bajorans. We additionally obtained to see Kira’s personal perceptions evolve as she stopped seeing the accused man as simply one other enemy and began seeing him as somebody with stunning quantities of compassionate depth.

Whereas The Man within the Glass Sales space is a traditional play that was tailored into an equally traditional movie, you may argue that Deep Area 9 improves upon its system with “Duet.” Considerably frustratingly, the sooner story by no means explains precisely why its Jewish protagonist would exit of his option to be caught and tried as his Nazi tormentor. In “Duet,” we all know that the Cardassian impersonating a warfare felony has a righteous trigger…specifically, to unfold galactic consciousness of his folks’s evil actions whilst he helped carry closure to the Bajoran folks.

We’re massive believers that Deep Area 9 is Star Trek’s finest present, and “Duet” stays certainly one of its most beautiful episodes. It’s meaty, full of monologues, and fleshes out the franchise’s world whereas giving us a glance into the inside depths of Kira, one of many present’s most compelling characters. Wanting again, although,it’s fairly sobering to appreciate that with out Robert Shaw’s The Man within the Glass Sales space, DS9’s earliest masterpiece could have by no means made it to the air in any respect.