Terok Nor's Dukat Shrine

Like what do you mean this man ran concentration camps on Bajor while fetishizing Bajoran women and had a half Bajoran daughter outside of his marriage who he almost killed then disowned. Then after she dies, Dukat breaks with reality, reveals to Kira he assaulted her mother and started a Pah-Wraith cult where he has another half Bajoran kid before trying to kill entire his entire cult to cover it.

And that’s not even his rock bottom because he has plastic surgery to do full Bajoran face and seduces the fascist pope then goes blind for one episode before becoming the evil emissary.

Like truly ten out of ten no notes.

Gul Dukat - S2x08 "Necessary Evil" (2) Face close-ups, neck ridges/scales, and several of Marc Alaimo's expressions :)

Rest of the batch of screenshots for this scene! Same scene as the previous post - Dukat calling Odo to the Chemist's Shop during the first flashback scene in S2x08, when Terok Nor is still under the Bajoran Occupation. (Next post will be a different scene.)

Another reason I love "Necessary Evil" is because Gul Dukat's neck ridges/scales have a variety of different appearances with each of his guest roles (this similarly occurs with Garak's scales).

This episode is my favorite make-up application for Gul Dukat's scales during the early seasons. I love this version's scale definition in the front of his neck, and the transition to a more faded, subtler suggestion along the back. Some episodes have the back scales very defined, and others even more subtle - this episode hits my favorite balance.

I read somewhere that the creators of the show decided the in-lore explanation for these differing appearances is because Cardassians periodically shed their scales, like real-world reptiles. It makes me wonder what their shed scales might look like! (If it's shown somewhere and I've forgotten/haven't seen it, feel free to let me know.)

An additional reason I love this scene is the moment depicted in screenshot 7. This is the only moment (in this scene) where, in the script, it describes Dukat "drops his mask," and he shows his true ferocity to Odo - beneath his usual veneer of charismatic, "overly-polite" charm.

I adore the way Alaimo portrays this moment - he perfectly captures this "mask drop" described in the script. He conveys an entirely different personality - you immediately feel the sharpness and bite in that single line ("Don't push me, Odo."). The way Alaimo stretches the pause - you can feel the tension - and then he seamlessly melts back into his charming, disarmingly-friendly mannerisms toward Odo once more. Knowing he has left Odo with little choice than to investigate the murder.