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A Mirror for Humanity: Why the Cardassians are Trek’s Best Alien Race

From their first introduction on The Next Generation to later their central role on Deep Space Nine, the Cardassians were never just “plain and simple”.

In the Season 4 episode of Enterprise titled “The Forge”, there is a wonderfully insightful conversation between the Vulcan Ambassador to Earth, Soval and Admiral Maxwell Forrest of Earth’s Starfleet.

Soval: “We don’t know what to do about Humans. Of all the species we’ve made contact with, yours is the only one we can’t define. You have the arrogance of Andorians, the stubborn pride of Tellarites. One moment you’re as driven by your emotions as Klingons, and the next you confound us by suddenly embracing logic!” Forrest: “I’m sure those qualities are found in every species.” Soval: “Not in such confusing abundance.”

As much as those qualities define humanity, they also define the Cardassians as well, who are arguably the most compelling alien race in Star Trek because they serve such a striking parallel to much of human history, both past and present. And in doing so, they act as a cautionary tale about the dangers of our own species’ internal demons.

When you consider the other main alien races within the Trek universe, they don’t compare to the type of consistent characterization and development that the Cardassians received. The Andorians and the Tellarites, first seen in The Original Series episode “Journey to Babel”, are not seen again until Enterprise (if we’re not counting The Animated Series ), and even then, we as the audience don’t know that much about them outside of a handful of admittedly wonderful episodes. The Vulcans, surprisingly enough, also fall into this paradigm. Although a Vulcan is the most iconic alien being in all of Trek (in the form of Spock), outside of select scenes from the movies and a handful of episodes from The Original Series and Voyager , the audience doesn’t learn that much about Vulcan culture or society until Enterprise . And although we do learn a lot about Vulcans from that series, particularly how they used to be very much like humans in the past, the fact that they’re in a more evolved and advanced state from humanity takes away from their ability to act as a parallel to our lives now. The Romulans, like their Vulcan cousins, are often referenced in Trek canon, but from what we see of them in terms of characterization and development is often more one-dimensional in nature. The Klingons, probably the most well-known of the Trek races, certainly don’t suffer from a lack of screen time, on television or in the movies. But with a few exceptions, they are also one-note and archetypical in characterization, especially in The Next Generation era. The Bajorans, on the other hand, do not fall into this paradigm.  First introduced in TNG and later in Deep Space Nine , they are admittedly well-drawn both as a culture and as a society, particularly regarding their faith and spirituality. But speaking for myself, the Cardassians are more compelling due to their unique and tragic narrative denouement, something that the Bajorans lack. Cardassia ultimately endures a fate that is akin to the greatest of Greek tragedies and in doing so, truly acts as a cautionary tale for all of humanity.

A Cardassian delegation aboard the Enterprise-D

One of the first things that jump out to long-time fans of the franchise is the fact that the Cardassians didn’t have an origin based upon The Original Series . They were the relative newcomers to the galactic neighborhood, having been introduced in the third season TNG episode “The Wounded”. From their first portrayal here to their eventual role as the primary antagonists in Deep Space Nine , the Cardassians were conceived with the idea that they were going to be more three-dimensional than previous alien races.  The episode’s director, Chip Chalmers  noted  “We introduced a new enemy that’s finally able to speak on the level of Picard. They’re not grunting, they’re not giggling, they’re not mutes or all-knowing entities. Here are the Cardassians who also graduated first in their class and they’re able to carry on highly intelligent conversations with Picard, but they’re sinister as hell. It was fun to introduce a whole new alien race.” In this episode, we see the critical seeds of the more well-known aspects of the Cardassian mindset being planted: their militarism, their inherent suspicion of outsiders, and their penchant for duplicitousness and strategic maneuvering. Indeed, for Cardassia, the only instrument that can ensure order and security is a strong Nation State bound by common purpose, force of arms, and an unwavering sense of right and wrong that can ward off its enemies, both internal and external. In order to ensure the State’s survival, two institutions were key in Cardassian society: the military in the form of the Central Command and the intelligence and internal security apparatus in the form of the Obsidian Order.

  Gul Dukat of the Central Command and Garak, formerly of the Obsidian Order

However, it is important to remember that although a strong militaristic ethos has always infused Cardassian culture, the entire race is not uniformly depicted as such. A number of portrayals do indeed add much needed texture and nuance in this regard.  For example, in the season three DS9 episode titled “Destiny”, there is a marvelous portrayal of Cardassians that have other career paths than ones that aspire to be a glinn, gul, or even legate in the Central Command. As civilian scientists, Ulani Bejor and Gilora Rejal demonstrated that not every Cardassian necessarily desired to join the military or intelligence ranks. Furthermore, as female members of their race, they were able to provide texture and nuance about larger Cardassian gender dynamics, most notably around the idea that since females were perceived to be smarter than their male counterparts, they would naturally gravitate towards the sciences, whereas the males would often be inclined towards “less” intellectually rigorous pursuits such as the military and politics. It’s a shame that the DS9 writers didn’t carry this fascinating idea forward because it serves as a reverse mirror of our own society and how women are still underrepresented in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) fields today. It was even shown that consummate career military officers, such as Gul Dukat and Gul Madred, also had interests and passions for art, archaeology, philosophy, history, and other intellectual pursuits. There existed a Cardassian Institute for Art and an entire art movement on the homeworld called “The Valonnan School” that ostensibly emphasized impressionistic art. There were entire genres of diverse Cardassian literature that ranged from serialistic poetry to repetitive epics and enigma tales. And perhaps most telling, there even existed a Cardassian underground dissident movement, comprised of academics, scholars, young people, and other idealists, who opposed the stranglehold that the Central Command and the Obsidian Order had on Cardassian society and sought to restore the power of the civilian-led Detapa Council.

Two female Cardassian scientists, Ulani Bejor and Gilora Rejal

Through nearly all of these unique manifestations of Cardassian culture and thought, there is a singular theme that runs through them: the idea that individual needs are subordinate to the collective good of Cardassia. At the heart of this idea to promote the collective good lies the family. Indeed, in the second season DS9 episode “Cardassians”, Kotan Pa’Dar noted that “We care for our parents and our children with equal devotion. In some households, four generations eat at the same table. Family is everything.” Thus, it should come as no surprise that someone such as Elim Garak would consider “The Never Ending Sacrifice”, a literary epic focusing on seven generations of citizens devoted in service to the State, to be the “finest Cardassian novel ever written”. This creed is in essence a variation on the theme that Spock espoused in “The Wrath of Khan” and would later become an informal ethos for the Federation, and by extension humanity: “The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few”. But as evidenced by humanity’s own history, such an ethos can be manipulated and perverted to justify unspeakable crimes and atrocities and Cardassian history is no exception.

A striking example of how this desire for the collective good can be used for terrible ends is witnessing how the Cardassian judicial system operates. In the second season DS9 two-part episode “The Maquis”, Dukat lays out to Commander Sisko its underpinnings:

SISKO: They’ll be tried for their crimes under the Federation Code of Justice. DUKAT: And if they’re found innocent? SISKO: I doubt that they will, but if they are, they’ll be set free. DUKAT: How barbaric. On Cardassia, the verdict is always known before the trial begins. And it’s always the same. SISKO: In that case, why bother with a trial at all? DUKAT: Because the people demand it. They enjoy watching justice triumph over evil every time. They find it comforting. SISKO: Isn’t there ever a chance you might try an innocent man by mistake? DUKAT: Cardassians don’t make mistakes.

A Cardassian trial is publicly broadcast 

Thus, in the view of Cardassian jurisprudence, the individual rights of the accused to face their accuser and the presumption of innocence is completely irrelevant. Their entire concept of justice is precisely inverted from our own in order to vindicate the State, its prosecution, and its methodology in reaching a guilty verdict because it is simply inconceivable that the State, in its effort to promote the collective good, could ever be wrong. In the penultimate episode of that season entitled “The Tribunal”, we see in vivid detail how Cardassian justice is implemented. The following exchange between Miles O’Brien and his state appointed counsel in that episode is particularly revealing.

O’BRIEN: I’ve been told that I’ve already been charged, indicted, convicted, and sentenced. What would I need with a lawyer? KOVAT: Well, Mr. O’Brien, if it sounds immodest of me I apologize, but the role of public conservator is key to the productive functioning of our courts. I’m here to help you concede the wisdom of the state.

Kovat “defending” O’Brien before the Cardassian court

The very title of the state appointed counsel, “public conservator” illustrates the extent to which Cardassian justice is conservative in nature and only seeks to uphold a presumed incorruptible status quo. Such proceedings are then broadcast to the citizenry and to young children in particular in order to strengthen their belief and faith in Cardassian institutions and to provide a cautionary example that criminals in Cardassia are always guilty and should only seek the mercy of the court. This dual imperative of breaking the will of the presumed guilty and showing a younger generation the wisdom of such a process is demonstrated masterfully in TNG’s sixth season two-part episode “Chain of Command” when Madred not only invites his young daughter to the room where he is torturing Captain Picard, but also when it is shown that breaking Picard’s will into recognizing “five lights” is what ultimately mattered to him, instead of any Federation military secrets. Such a portrayal is a vivid and poignant reminder of the show trials, witch hunts, and inquisitions that have marred our own history when governments and regimes have used such dubious tactics in the pursuit of their own definition of “justice”.

Gul Madred bonding with his daughter, with a tortured Picard nearby

The greatest manifestation of how the pursuit of the collective good can be perverted into something terrible is how the Cardassians acted in their dealings with the Bajorans and the Maquis. First introduced in the TNG Season 6 episode titled “Ensign Ro”, the Bajorans were a race that had been subjugated by the Cardassians forty years prior in a grand colonization effort, beginning in 2328 and ending in 2369. During this decades-long period known as “The Occupation”, Cardassians engineered a systematic and coordinated campaign of strip-mining, forced labor, and genocide to control, dominate, and exploit the people and physical resources of Bajor. Those that could escape the devastation being wrought on the surface of Bajor would relocate as refugees throughout the galaxy. And many others would also take part in the Resistance, an organized effort by the Bajorans using whatever tactics (guerrilla, terrorist, or otherwise) to force the Cardassians to withdraw from their homeworld. The Bajorans would eventually succeed in this goal, as seen in “Emissary”, the pilot episode of Deep Space Nine . However, the moral compromises the Bajorans had to make in order to achieve this, when taken into context with the harsh conditions imposed by Cardassia, is a striking and sobering commentary on our own current socio-political issues of displacement, resistance, terrorism, and occupation. And this was achieved because it was always intended to serve such a purpose. Producers Michael Piller and Rick Berman at the time noted that “The Bajorans are the PLO (Palestinian Liberation Organization), but they’re also the Kurds, the Jews, and the American Indians. They are any racially bound group of people who have been deprived of their home by a powerful force”, who in this case was the Cardassian Empire.

  A Cardassian guard closes a gate on Bajoran slave workers

They added, “When you talk about a civilization like the Bajorans who were great architects and builders with enormous artistic skills centuries before humans were even standing erect, you might be thinking a lot more about Indians than Palestinians.” The parallel to the historic plight of Native Americans is especially poignant because it deals directly with another fractious relationship the Cardassians had, this time with the Maquis: Federation colonists who were displaced by the new borders established by the Federation’s peace treaty with Cardassia and refused to leave their homes. They eventually adopted the name “Maquis”, a term dating back to the French underground resistance to the Nazis during the Second World War. The original concept behind the Maquis was conceived of in TNG’s Season 7 episode entitled “Journey’s End”, which featured descendants of Native Americans resettling on a Federation colony near the Cardassian border only to face the threat of forced relocation. The Maquis would eventually come to encompass many other Federation settlers caught behind these new borders, as well as disaffected and disillusioned Starfleet officers who felt that the Federation had sold out its own citizens to appease a duplicitous and aggressive adversary. Consequently, the Maquis would actively engage in insurgent and terrorist actions against both the Federation and the Cardassians in defense of their “independent nation”.

The Maquis and the Cardassians, locked in battle

Cardassian actions to stamp out both the Bajoran and Maquis resistance were cruel, brutal and unrelenting. The Empire’s desire to secure its own collective good at the expense of others would lead to the use of harsh and brutal tactics that often precipitated the use of such tactics in return and perpetuated a bitter cycle of violence. The irony is that these tactics were ultimately counter-productive for Cardassia. Bajor won its independence regardless and the Maquis stubbornly refused to be suppressed. As we have witnessed, there is nothing more dangerous than a national ego that has been bruised. It has spawned two world wars in our own recent history, and countless other conflicts in the past. Cardassia, stinging from its own self-perceived weakness in dealing with the Bajorans and the Maquis and only exacerbated by its recent military losses to the Klingons, would eventually make the ultimate deal with the devil. Under the sway of a charismatic leader in the form of Gul Dukat, Cardassia joined the Dominion with grand notions of renewed patriotism and restored glory.  However, none of this would come to pass. Instead, Dukat’s actions would help plunge the entire Alpha Quadrant into a war that would ultimately leave Cardassia completely broken and its people devastated, with over 800 million of its own citizens dead at war’s end.

  Gul Dukat leading Cardassian and Jem’Hadar forces under the banner of the Dominion

Throughout the broad strokes of Cardassian society and culture, it’s evident we can see so many parallels to our own history. As we ourselves have witnessed, the appeal of patriotism, self-pride, the rule of law, the security of order, and the desire for the collective good are all powerful and beneficial motivators. But they can also be corrupted, manipulated, and exploited to justify unspeakable acts in the name of ensuring and preserving those very same things. But the most important aspect of a mirror is how it reflects everything, both the good and the bad. Thus, the most vital component of the Cardassian mirror for humanity is one that actually represents redemption. And in the grand story of Cardassia, there is no other person that better represents redemption than Damar.

A younger Damar as the model Cardassian soldier

Initially only introduced as a tertiary character and one that was little more than a background henchman for Dukat, the character of Damar eventually became the embodiment of the entire Cardassian people. As the ultimate archetype of a true patriot, he believed that everything done in the name of Cardassia was worth doing and he personally relished in the brutal excesses and military conquests of the State. But only near the end, when he realized what a terrible cost such an attitude inflicted, both on his people and to him personally, Damar became the catalyst for the Cardassians to openly rebel against the Dominion. In doing so, he helped his people break free from the centuries-long cycle of aggression that had finally brought their society to ruin. And much like the symbols of our own history who became martyrs in defense of a greater ideal, Damar’s death in defense of the idea that Cardassia could choose its own fate, one that was no longer driven solely by aggression, was not only his attempt at personal redemption, but also redemption for his entire civilization.

Damar leading the rallying cry of rebellion against the Dominion

  The ruins of Cardassia Prime following the war

When everything said is done, I can’t think of a greater example of a more powerful allegory in Star Trek than the ones told about the Cardassian people. It contains every element of humanity’s own ugly past and present, touching everything from torture, terrorism, slavery, genocide, colonialism, and xenophobia, all terrible acts that unfortunately still haunt us today. But it also balances out this portrayal by showing a race that is not solely defined by these actions. The Cardassians weren’t just fierce prideful warriors, they were passionate poets and writers, talented artists, brilliant scientists, and insightful philosophers as well. And they were also fathers, mothers, sons, and daughters.  In providing such a rich milieu of depth and complexity, the Cardassians are in my opinion the best and most compelling alien race in Star Trek. And in the process, they act as the perfect mirror for humanity, reminding us to always be vigilant against our own internal demons, lest they destroy all of us as well.

Addendum : For those that wish to continue the epic tale of the Cardassians, I highly recommend the excellent Star Trek books of Una McCormack, which can be found here . Known around Trek literary circles as “The Queen of Cardassia”, Ms. McCormack uses her background as a sociologist to further build the world of the Cardassians, particularly in chronicling their struggle and triumphs following the devastating Dominion War.

Acknowledgements : I also like to thank Mark Mitchell, Norman Lao, and my wonderful wife Nicole, for their invaluable help in proofreading and editing this article!

Will Nguyen lives in the Boston area. You can tweet him at @Will_Nguyen . He’s also a regular contributor to Warp 5, a weekly Enterprise show on Trek.fm , a dedicated podcast network that talks about every aspect of the Trek universe from television, the movies, literature, and everything in between.

Will Nguyen is an avowed Star Trek cosplayer and fan. You can follow Will on Twitter @boomerniner .

11 Comments

Felipe Franco

April 19, 2015 at 3:25 am

i Love this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_CHFtjXc5qo

I think all the fans we like the Cardassians, they were complex and with a great history.

I like books in the Cardassian Union at the end was rebuilt into a prosperous democratic state which has good relations with its vecionos and eventually joins the kithomer accords

Jeff O'Connor

April 25, 2015 at 6:27 am

What a beautiful article. Thank you so much for summing up just why I fell in love with the Cardassians. When I was a kid I’m sure most of this stuff flew over my head, but now as an adult whenever I rewatch DS9 I pick up on another layer of depth. It’s great to see it all compiled in a single place!

Ms. McCormack’s novels are indeed terrific continuations, too.

Will Nguyen

April 29, 2015 at 4:19 pm

Thank you so much for the kind words! Thanks for reading.

Adam Hirsch

April 29, 2015 at 1:13 am

“…define humanity, they also define the Cardassians ….a striking parallel to much of human history,” fun fact kardas(cardas) is the word for sibling in turkic languages

Harry Hollins

April 13, 2016 at 1:28 pm

My favorite species. Well written, you understand them well.

Christopher Dalton

November 22, 2016 at 11:00 am

Never liked the Cardassians and I never will. They got what they deserved in the end. The downfall of their entire race and their society ruined.

A clear message of where the state of humanity is going if it does not straighten its act out and for the better.

November 25, 2016 at 11:29 pm

They also goes along with the deterioration of the temperament of Star Trek which Mr. Roddenberry himself created and enforced while he was alive. After his passing, the canon of Star Trek deteriorated away from his nearly-ideal utopia and a goal to strive for and turned into the cliché and proverbial lion’s den where peace and utopia and righteousness are mere plot pawns. Star Trek is dead.

Winnie the GRIZZ

May 31, 2017 at 11:00 pm

While the Federation was presented as a Utopian society, there were others that were still a dystopia allegory. The first episode I can think of is the white blacks vs. the black whites eventually killing each other TOS. That is also part of what made Star Trek good science fiction. Aren’t the Romulans also a xenophobic echo of the Roman empire, and the Ferengi unrestrained capitalism, etc.etc.?The Cardassian story arc was much longer than one episode, and the Enterprise/Voyager couldn’t waltz away from the problem (which was never resolved or even returned to except for Kahn in Star Trek 2). Watching through DS9 again, I see myself watching Bajor, the Federation, the Klingons, the Cardassians, and even the Romulans striving to achieve their nearly-ideal utopia. Maybe this is a better Star Trek than Captain Kirk taking a heavy battleship into the heart of the Dominion and using his libido on a Changeling woman in a bikini to solve the problem. End of episode; now onto romancing the Borg queen.

May 31, 2017 at 11:15 pm

Mrs. Grizz here (AKA Free the Birds) Recently, it occurred to me that all of the worst Star Trek enemies have something in common: they are all, to some degree, Statists. The Borg and the Founders were the ultimate Collectivists. The Klingons, Cardassians, and Romulans were all large empires ruled by a very small ruling class. Average citizens are not given much, if any, say in the governance of their respective empires. This goes against the American ideal of individualism and self-government. Gene Roddenberry’s vision of the future was very much like this, and even the Prime Directive allowed cultures not in the Federation to be self-governing, rather than imposing our culture, ideals, religion, economic and political system on them.

August 22, 2019 at 8:31 pm

So they made a more “three-dimensional” race of aliens by basically just making them NAZIS? Great writing guys.

Simon Foston

Excellent article. It makes me want a lot more Cardassian stories in Star Trek.

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Published Mar 17, 2021

Defining Alien Names, From Cardassian to Vulcan

Check out the history and real world connections behind the names

StarTrek.com

In the 1990s, American pop culture did not have many references to my parents’ native India. James Bond went to India, once. Indiana Jones, too. But those movies were already a decade old. Star Trek would occasionally drop an Indian name or cameo. Narendra III. Khan Noonien Singh. Lal. Vijay Amritraj, the tennis player, was almost lost to the whale probe. But that movie, too, was a decade old.

And so when Deep Space Nine began airing, my father got a chuckle out of the Jem’Hadar.

What did these dour alien soldiers, so desperately in need of moisturizer, have to do with India? As far as I could tell, nothing. In fact, my mother was more excited to see Salli Elise Richardson play Commander Sisko’s love interest, after mistaking her for an Indian actress. Then my father explained it to me: In the old days, jemadars were junior officers in the British Indian Army.

To me, this unlocked an entirely new dimension of Star Trek . It was a universe under the universe, literally subspace. I always took Star Trek to be a fully formed creation, transmitted wholesale from Hollywood to my living room. I never quite appreciated that writers and producers were making it up as they went along, day after day, looking for inspiration wherever it may be found.

Star Trek ’s alien empires were not named by punching random keys on the keyboard. But neither was there a single-minded, Tolkien-esque effort to map the galaxy.

A Timeline Through the Star Trek Universe

In the years that followed, I pieced together real-world stories behind alien names. It was just the sort of trivia that stuck with me. The Indian words were easy. For other species, I figured it out from different sources. David Alexander’s Star Trek Creator: The Unauthorized Biography of Gene Roddenberry was a brick of a book that I received as a birthday present. Stephen Edward Poe’s A Vision of the Future – Star Trek: Voyager , at least, had a soft cover. Beyond that were DVD commentaries, the old Star Trek: Communicator magazine, and (once it was invented) Google. On occasion, I even figured it out from what I learned in school. How else was anyone supposed to learn about Roman mythology?

These were my findings:

Contrary to a lot of speculation in the 21st Century, “Cardassian” was not a reference to the Kardashians. The Cardassian species first appeared in Star Trek: The Next Generation in 1991, four years before Robert Kardashian served on O.J. Simpson’s defense team, and 16 years before Keeping Up With the Kardashians debuted.

So what was the origin of the name? Star Trek: The Next Generation writer Jeri Taylor realized her original name for the species, “Circassian,” was a real ethnic group (from the Caucasus region of Asia, near Turkey). So she tweaked the name by playing with the sounds. Interestingly enough, the surname “Kardashian” is Turkish or Armenian in origin.

This is an SAT vocabulary word, defined as the territory of a sovereign. Notably, the British Empire referred to its self-governing territories as dominions (and the jemadar being the muscle of the dominion suddenly made a lot more sense). In Star Trek: Deep Space Nin e, the Dominion was the rare galactic power not named after a particular alien race. The Dominion was intended to be an anti-Federation, a distorted reflection of the Federation made up of numerous species. So it was fitting that, just as the Federation had a common name, so did the Dominion.

StarTrek.com has previously discussed the Ferengi name , with farangi being the Persian word for “foreigner.” I found this curious, as firangi is also a Hindi word ascribed to Western foreigners. As it turns out, the Hindi word has its roots in the Persian word, which has its roots in the Middle East’s exposure to Frankish traders during the Middle Ages. The Franks became the farangi, who became the firangi. In the 1980s, Gene Roddenberry used the name for Star Trek: The Next Generation ’s newest villains.

As previously mentioned, jemadar was a rank for junior commissioned officers during the British Raj. The word is Urdu in origin, used in other contexts to describe leaders or officials. In Star Trek: Deep Space Nine , the Jem’Hadar were one species of the Dominion, bred as foot soldiers. However, the name was not meant to draw a direct comparison to jemadars. Writer Robert Hewitt Wolfe recalled developing the species, and simply looking up “soldier” in the thesaurus.

Fitting with American social anxieties of the 1990s, the Kazon’s infighting factions were intended to draw allusions to street gangs. Their original name, however, was slightly different: Gazon. The producers of Star Trek: Voyager changed the name to avoid drawing a comparison to another news topic of the time: the Gaza Strip in the Middle East.

The Klingon language is one of the most famous fictional languages, and volumes have been written about the Klingons as an allegory for the Soviet Union. Less well known is the real-world story behind the name.The Klingon species was named after Wilbur Lee Clingan, Gene Roddenberry’s former colleague in the Los Angeles Police Department. Star Trek was not Clingan’s only brush with show business: He also served as a consultant for the 1960s police procedural show Dragnet . In early Star Trek episodes, some characters pronounced the name closer to “kling-in” than “kling-on,” in line with its origin.

When Gene Roddenberry needed to extend Star Trek: The Next Generation ’s pilot episode to two hours, he devised Q, the omnipotent trickster from a race also known as the Q. Similar to naming the Klingons after someone he knew, he named Q after Janet Quarton, former president of the UK-based fan club Star Trek Action Group.

Romulan and Reman

In Roman mythology, Romulus and Remus were twin brothers who founded the city of Rome. In Star Trek , the characterization of the Romulans and Remans nearly broke the fourth wall, with references to centurions, proconsuls, praetors, and a senate. Quite literally, the “Romulan Star Empire” was just a syllable away from the “Roman Star Empire.” Until I realized this, I never fully appreciated that Captain Kirk was fighting Romans in Space!

This one I caught immediately as a child, as I watched Star Trek: Insurrection in the theater. Sona is a Hindi word meaning “gold.”

The villainous Son’a (who, like the Jem’Hadar, could benefit from a better skin care regimen) had little to do with gold — notwithstanding the warm colors of the film. Some of the most memorable images from Insurrection were the gold-foiled collector ship of the Son’a, and the churning ambers and reds of the Briar Patch.

Just as the villains of Star Trek: Voyager reflected the 1990s, the villains of Enterprise reflected the 2000s. When developing the series, producer Rick Berman named the Suliban after the Taliban, drawing on his personal experience as a documentarian in Afghanistan.

The Vaadwaur looked to be recurring villains in the later seasons of Star Trek: Voyager , but ultimately they caused trouble in just a single episode. Their calling card was the use of subspace tunnels to travel incredible distances, and to appear and to vanish without warning. In Hindi, vah dvaar best translates to “that door.” Had the Vaadwaur become recurring villains, I wondered if their subspace tunnels would have been the door to get Voyager home.

Vulcan is another character from Roman mythology, this time the god of fire. “Vulcan” was also the name given to an apocryphal planet in the 19th century, a hellish world believed to be closer than Mercury to the Sun. Although the name did not align with the cool demeanor of Mr. Spock, it did fit his unbearably hot homeworld.

As I compiled this list for StarTrek.com, I confirmed I was not crazy: There was an Indian influence in Star Trek . What was going on? Western science fiction tended to draw from Western mythology, but Hindi words? The British Raj?

In researching, I learned the doomed Narendra III outpost was named after Naren Shankar, an Indian-American writer who worked on multiple Star Trek series. Meanwhile, Gene Roddenberry’s naming of the Ferengi carried weight in cultures spanning the breadth of Asia. The Jem’Hadar’s name came from the thesaurus.

Star Trek , as I have learned over and over, is not a singular vision. It is a sandbox, in which generations of creative minds have left behind themes, coincidences, and happy accidents. As viewers jump into the sandbox, there is no wrong way to play.

Nitesh Srivastava (he/him) is a writer and marketer who lives in Des Plaines, Illinois. You can find him on Twitter at @niteshsrivastav

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Cardassian starships

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The following is a list of known starships used by the Cardassians and Cardassian Union :

See also [ ]

• Unnamed Cardassian starships
• Cardassian starship classes
• Dominion starship classes

External links [ ]

• Star Trek Ships: Expanded - Cardassian Union at The STArchive
• Cardassian Union Web – Cardassian ships, wars, images, etc. (in Spanish)

Star Trek: The Cardassian Race, Explained

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Over the years, Star Trek has slowly and steadily expanded. New shows exploding onto the small screen even today, and each one brings with it a new host of characters, alien races, and vastly complex intergalactic socio-political atmospheres.

While new is good, there are still races that return time and again to play important parts in the various shows. Vulcans are one timeless classic, but there are some races that make a big impact in a show, only to be delegated to the background after the show concludes. One of the biggest examples is the highly antagonistic Cardassians.

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What is the Cardassian Race?

The Cardassian race is, like many races in the Star Trek franchise, humanoid in appearance , though they are distinguished by the ridges on their foreheads, cheeks, and necks. The Cardassians hold dominion within the Alpha Quadrent. Their space and domain are creatively named the Cardassian Union, at the center of which is their home world Cardassia Prime. Their appearance is memorable, with the dinosaur-like head ridges and gray skin. However, it was their personality and attitude that made them stand out from the rest of Star Trek ’s memorable aliens.

Cardassians are among the most ruthless of species known to the Federation. They managed to even surpass the mighty Klingons in their ferocity. Their main attribute is extreme xenophobia toward other races, considering themselves to be superior. The biggest example of this was their occupation and enslavement of the Bajorans, whom they put to work, tortured, and oppressed much like what Nazi Germany did to others during WWII. They are referred to by many as natural predators. To quote the Cardassian enemy and much-disliked Captain Jellico , they have an "instinctive need to establish a dominant position in any social gathering."

Alongside their historic brutality, the Cardassians are known to be extremely intelligent, often due to rigorous training since childhood. They are known to possess photographic memory, and often were able to resist Vulcan mind melds , a staggering feat of resilience and mental discipline. Their hearing, however, was said to be less sensitive than that of humans, and, at least according to Patrick Stewart, they smelled pretty bad.

When Do Cardassians First Appear?

While the Cardassians played a massive part in Deep Space 9 's story, they were actually first introduced in The Next Generation . They appeared as a tentative enemy of the Federation throughout their appearances. The fairly militaristic Starfleet had several run-ins with them prior to their first appearance in TNG, despite there being a peace treaty in place between their cultures.

The Cardassians first showed their faces in the episode "The Wounded," which first showed their nefarious nature. However, it was when TNG introduced the notion of the Bajoran occupation and the famed Maquis rebels in season 5 that they began to make a name for themselves as serious antagonists. The episode “Chain of Command” is burned into many a fan’s mind as a prime example of the Cardassians' brutality. In the episode, Picard is captured and tortured by a Cardassian officer named Gul Madred, actions not only sanctioned but encouraged by their government.

Cardassian appearances in TNG left such an impact that they became a main focus of the DS9 series that followed. The titular space station was an old Cardassian station where Bajorans were put to work during the horrific occupation that ended several years prior. The show focused heavily on the tensions between the two races under an uneasy peace treaty, showing not only the emotional aftermath of occupation on both parties , but the awkward line the Federation had to walk to keep peace.

Who is the Most Popular Cardassian Character?

It was in DS9 that some of the most popular Cardassians characters where introduced. The three most memorable are Gul Dukat, Garak, and Legate Damar.

Of course, popular does not always mean well-liked. Gul Dukat was a masterfully created villain, hated by many fans but at the same time oddly relatable. He was not always an active villain. Instead, he spent most of his time trying to politically undermine Starfleet for the nefarious gains of Cardassia, all while maintaining and keeping (at least appearing to keep to) the treaty. He ultimately snapped after the death of his daughter and became the unhinged villain he was always supposed to be. He was a slippery character, cunning, smart, and manipulative, all fantastic traits for a great series villain.

Legate Damar

Legate Damar was another great Cardassian figure, whose story is memorable perhaps because of how devastating it was . He replaced as head of the Cardassian Union during the Dominion war, and went from being a big bad guy to one who sacrificed everything to bring peace to the Quadrant. He saved not only the Cardassians, but the Federation, from being entirely wiped out by the Founder dictatorship. He was the first political leader of Cardassia that could have actually made a difference, and brought Cardassians into a new era of peace in which they could make amends for the sins of the past. This was all nipped in the bud. Not only was he brutally killed right in the last moments of war, but his entire family met their deaths too.

Of course, there could not be a list of favorite Cardassians without including the franchise's best anti-hero and talented tailor Garak. Garak, an ex-spy for the very secretive and often downright evil Cardassian Obsidian Order ( basically their equivalent to the Federation's section 31 ), played a massive part in changing the franchise forever . His actions in the famous episode “In the Pale Moonlight” set the tone for the much darker DS9 series .

However, it was his camp, playful, and often innuendo-ridden persona that made fans fall in love with him. They knew he was dangerous, but it was all so perfectly hidden behind an expert facade that made him so interesting. Occasionally, cracks would show, no more so than in his wonderful monologue in the aforementioned episode. But even then he remained a wonderful enigma that was enjoyable to watch.

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Star trek: the cardassian occupation of bajor, explained.

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The Cardassian Occupation of Bajor showed the darker side of the Star Trek universe, but its history was actually quite complicated. Starting when the Cardassian Empire seized control of the peaceful planet of Bajor, the Occupation completely changed the trajectory of the planet and the Federation as well. The Occupation showed that the Federation's ideals of peace and harmony weren't shared by all, but Starfleet's inactivity was also a dark mark on their history. Though the Occupation did eventually end, the repercussions continued to rock the Alpha Quadrant for decades after the Cardassians withdrew from Bajor and was one of the defining storylines of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine ​​​​​​.

As seen in Bajoran characters like Ro Laren and Kira Nerys, the Cardassian Occupation changed the makeup of the Bajoran people, and they were forced into militaristic resistance. It's a fascinating time in Star Trek history because it was one of the few major events that happened outside the purview of the Federation, and showed they weren't perfect. Star Trek was always a moralistic franchise, but the Cardassians' activity on Bajor showed that gray areas could exist in the black-and-white world of the final frontier. It also opened the door for a plethora of amazing stories as Bajor attempted to pick up the pieces after years of tyranny.

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The Cardassians Occupied Bajor To Exploit Their Resources

Though the exact start date was never established in the canon, the Cardassian Occupation essentially began in the year 2319 when the powerful alien race known as the Cardassians began installing a presence on the peaceful planet of Bajor. Initially cordial in their dealings, the Cardassians grew bolder and bolder with their incursions until they began a more forceful military presence in the year 2338. The Cardassian Empire sustained itself by conquering planets in order to exploit their natural resources, and Bajor was yet another victim to fall to their vampiric imperial tactics. Unfortunately for the Bajorans, the start of the Occupation was met with little notice from the galaxy-at-large.

Before the arrival of the Cardassians, the Bajorans were an entirely peaceful people, a trait that made them easy prey for the Occupation. Renowned for their artistry, architecture, and spirituality, the Bajorans were forced to abandon many of the guiding principles of their Prophets when fighting off their colonizers. Subjected to brutal forced labor and mass executions, the people of the planet were eventually exploited as a resource as rich as the minerals underground. This terrible treatment solidified the resistance against the Occupation, and many of Bajor's people were forced into a life of conflict to win their freedom.

The Federation Didn't Directly Interfere With The Occupation

Though they positioned themselves as keepers of peace throughout the galaxy, the Federation's principle of non-interference offered little to no help to the Bajoran people for almost five decades. The Federation itself engaged in a prolonged conflict with the Cardassians between the 2340s and 2360s, yet they were not involved with the Occupation in any way. Presumably, being at odds with the Cardassians would have made a diplomatic solution to the Occupation very difficult, but their inaction was a driving force behind Bajor not joining the Federation . Even though they were engaged in war, the Federation still made no move to stop the injustice that was happening to the Bajorans.

The driving force behind Starfleet's lack of motivation was the fact that it would have violated their Prime Directive to get involved. While the Prime Directive was mostly cited to stop interference with pre-warp civilizations, it also prohibited Starfleet from interfering with the political workings of any planet, regardless of their warp capabilities. Since Cardassia claimed Bajor as a conquered territory, it technically made it off-limits for involvement, though the injustice of the situation was known to Starfleet's top brass. Captain Kirk would have violated the Prime Directive to save the day, but most Starfleet officers toed the line.

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The Occupation Ended When It Was No Longer Profitable

As shown by the smug demeanor of most Cardassian characters in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine , the Occupation's eventual collapse was hardly viewed as a failure by the Cardassian population at large. Cardassians didn't view the end of the Occupation as defeat, but as a strategic withdrawal when the venture was no longer worth the risk. No single factor was the exact reason the withdrawal took place, but it actually took a series of pressures for the Cardassians to finally end their half-century of terror on Bajor. Even if the Federation was too late, they did actually play a part in the ending of the story along with the resistance.

The Cardassians were essentially DS9 's classic villains for the entire series, and their constant reappearance on the station offered clues as to why the Occupation came crashing down. The truth rested somewhere between the official Cardassian story of " strategic withdrawal " and the Bajoran tales of glory, and the Federation was owed a small piece of credit as well. Even after the war between them ended, the Federation continued to put pressure on the Cardassians whenever they attempted to assert themselves outside their territory. Even if they weren't pressuring the Cardassians to withdraw from Bajor, they did force them to spread their empire too thin, which weakened the Occupation.

While the Federation was fighting its war against Cardassia, the Bajorans had assembled an effective resistance movement that had been able to vex the Cardassians to the point of making the Occupation an unprofitable enterprise. With a formerly peaceful populace in revolt, the overwhelming military might of the Cardassians was no match for the tenacious fighting of the Bajoran guerillas, and things began to slip out of control for the occupiers. With losses looming and financial ruin imminent, the Cardassians who were in favor of the Occupation began to feel pressure from their own government to withdraw, which was the final nail in the coffin by 2369.

The Aftermath Of The Resistance

Unfortunately for the Bajorans, the end of the Occupation was hardly the end of the fallout from the Cardassians on Bajor. Though they had formed an elite resistance, the militaristic mindset that they had to adopt wouldn't simply go away once the Cardassians departed. The return of Major Kira in Star Trek: Lower Decks showed just how much of an emotional impact the resistance had on all Bajorans, and their post-Occupation provisional government was rife with infighting and xenophobia. Not without due cause, many Bajorans viewed the Federation suspiciously, and that suspicion equated them to a new form of occupier.

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As illustrated by the appearance of the Maquis, a terrorist organization made up of former Federation colonists who resisted the Cardassians, the guerilla mindset could often be indiscriminate and cause more harm than good. The political struggles of the Bajorans in the post-Occupation years put them at high risk of completely collapsing, and the Cardassians were able to inflict damage despite being withdrawn. Fortunately, the ending of Star Trek 's DS9 series offered a shimmer of hope as Major Kira took her rightful place as commander of the space station to usher in a new era for Bajor.

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