I agree. Dukat is one of my all time favorite villains and one reason is because he is always, as I sometimes say, teetering on the edge of humanity. He can make you root for him and believe in his redemption, or that he has a lot of good in him but was just led astray by circumstance or ambition or bad judgment. But this episode is when you are forced to face that he is in reality deeply evil. Alaimo does a great job acting the descent into madness, which also reveals Dukat’s true character. And Brooks does a great job of both checking and playing off him. Definitely one of my favorite episodes/scenes.
Yeah I definitely see what you mean. I think treatment of women’s issues in lots of the old trek was really hit or miss. Though I actually think some of the later episodes of DS9 that deal more directly with challenges to the gender hierarchy on Ferenginar are pretty well done. In the earlier episodes, Ferengi discrimination against women is treated as something to be “tolerated” by the federation, but in some later episodes it is actively contested by Ferengi themselves.