Duet is commonly thought of as one of the Best DS9 episodes, with good reason. The acting is top notch (especially Harris Yulin) and the writing is very good. Yet, when it came time to buy the episode, I just couldn't pull the trigger. I thought about it, and I think I know why:
1) Duet really isn't 24th century science fiction. Its a thinly vieled "Holocaust" story. The Cardassians are Nazis. The Bajorian Labor camp is Dachau. Kira is the Jewish Nazi Hunter seeking justice. One could take the script, change a few names, and produce it as a straightforward TV legal drama. In fact, many of the internet reviews treat this episode with a seriousness/reverance usually reserved for "Schindler's List".
And that's the problem. Leaving aside histories and novels, we have numerous documentaries, films, and TV shows, addressing the REAL Nazis, concontration camps, and war crime trials, Why do we need a SF TV show, supposedly set in the 24th Century, dealing with the same situations and the same moral dilemmas? Especially in a thinly disguised, 2nd hand way?
2) Its much worse on Rewatch. Once you know that Harris Yulin is the file clerk and just pretending to be the Big war criminal, then all the time spent in the episode discovering that, is rather dull. And that's most of the episode.
3) I don't watch DS9 to get despressed. Too much of the episode is an unpleasant retelling of Bajorian suffering in the concentration camp. Or Yulin's character creepily boasting how he "exterminated the Bajorian Scum". Who wants to watch that more than once?
4) And it doesn't really have a point. It doesn't really affect the DS9 story arc. It doesn't really expand our understanding of the main characters. Yeah, maybe Kira learns not to be so self-rightous and jump to conclusions. Or maybe tone down the Cardassian hate. But even that's not clear - because a couple episodes later and she's still hating the Cardassians. Its really a stand-alone episode.
5) I didn't buy the whole premise. So, a file clerk (drafted into the Army) feels so guilty about war crimes he didn't commit, that he changes his appearance, and deliberately tries to get arrested, convicted, and executed? That seems unbelievable and overly dramatic. In other words, Fake.
6) I've never bought the Cardassian need for concentration camps, forced labor, or the starvation of the Bajorians. In the 24th century, the Cardassians wouldn't need to use manual labor to: mine minerals, process ore or grow food. They have spaceships, replicators, and advanced machinery! And they could easily punish the Bajorians by wiping out the whole planet with a push of a button. There was no need for them to get their hands dirty by setting up labor camps and slowly exterminating them.
At the same time, the "backward" Bajorians find it incredibly easy to get sophicated bombs and explosives. Where is that technical knowledge coming from? They're supposedly a Century behind the Cardassians, and a peaceful people.
