Chatty December: Deep Space Nine
Favorite DS9 episode and why?
My favorite DS9 episode is In The Pale Moonlight. It's honestly one of the best hours of TV I've ever seen. On its own, it is what will make me try to get other people to watch the entire series.
Of course, to truly understand how awesome the episode is, you have to have watched the entire series up to that point. It's only in watching the whole series up to that point that you really get how deep the motivations are, what's really going on. Watching this episode cold, you're highly likely to come away thinking Sisko's just a traitor.
For those that need a refresher, here's the short synopsis of the episode:
The Dominion War is dragging on. The losses are mounting. The Federation stands to lose. And what's more, the Romulan Empire (currently in a nonagression pact with the Dominion) is basically sitting on the sidelines laughing. The Federation needs the Romulans to come into the war against the Dominion. And Sisko, hitting his breaking point with all the sacrifices and losses, decides that since the Dominion is too smart to risk antagonizing Romulus, he's going to arrange for forged intelligence that will have the same effect. By the end of the episode, he's succeeded; Romulus declares war on the Dominion.
That's the nutshell. But that doesn't begin to cover what HAPPENS. Sisko is pushed - by his own frustration, by his own need to save his people, by any means necessary - into fraud, theft, murder, and generally betraying EVERYTHING he's supposed to stand for as a Federation officer.
Put another way - if Picard found out what Sisko had done you'd get two solid hours of Sisko being lectured at and then Sisko being dragged off in handcuffs. Sisko becomes, in the course of this one episode, exactly the compromised officer that TNG spent many an hour tracking down and chastising thoroughly before having them tried in court.
But Sisko is not those men. He knows what he's doing is wrong. It's very clear that if he COULD turn himself in without undoing everything he worked for, he probably would. But he can't. The forgery he made, that drew Romulus into declaring war, only works if no one ever finds out it was a fake. Romulus would turn its attention on the Federation, which between the Dominion and Romulus would get its ass royally kicked. No one can ever know. And Sisko has to live with what he's done, knowing he can't tell anyone, ever.
The end of the episode is Sisko repeating, to himself, "I can live with this. I can live with this." Like he's trying to convince himself. In his eyes he's essentially sold his soul for the future of the Federation....but he's still sold his soul. That's something you can only see, as a viewer, if you've watched his development over the series to date, seen what he wouldn't sell out for. At no time does Sisko say or even think that it's okay because he's the one doing it. He knows it's wrong. He knows it's even more wrong because he's a Starfleet officer and he's supposed to be above such actions. It is as the title suggests; dancing with the devil.
On top of this, of course, there is some flat out STERLING acting by the rest of the cast, what they do and don't know of the plot, what they will and won't do. Where their lines in the sand are and how it affects the whole.
I've yet to see a Babylon 5 episode come even CLOSE to the level of complexity and depth you see in this episde. I've not seen it in any other show, really, at all. The only hour of television I can think of offhand that comes EVEN CLOSE to this level of "you will be punched in the gut if you watched the series up to this point" is the BtVS episode "The Body".
It is, frankly, fucking awesome television.
My favorite DS9 episode is In The Pale Moonlight. It's honestly one of the best hours of TV I've ever seen. On its own, it is what will make me try to get other people to watch the entire series.
Of course, to truly understand how awesome the episode is, you have to have watched the entire series up to that point. It's only in watching the whole series up to that point that you really get how deep the motivations are, what's really going on. Watching this episode cold, you're highly likely to come away thinking Sisko's just a traitor.
For those that need a refresher, here's the short synopsis of the episode:
The Dominion War is dragging on. The losses are mounting. The Federation stands to lose. And what's more, the Romulan Empire (currently in a nonagression pact with the Dominion) is basically sitting on the sidelines laughing. The Federation needs the Romulans to come into the war against the Dominion. And Sisko, hitting his breaking point with all the sacrifices and losses, decides that since the Dominion is too smart to risk antagonizing Romulus, he's going to arrange for forged intelligence that will have the same effect. By the end of the episode, he's succeeded; Romulus declares war on the Dominion.
That's the nutshell. But that doesn't begin to cover what HAPPENS. Sisko is pushed - by his own frustration, by his own need to save his people, by any means necessary - into fraud, theft, murder, and generally betraying EVERYTHING he's supposed to stand for as a Federation officer.
Put another way - if Picard found out what Sisko had done you'd get two solid hours of Sisko being lectured at and then Sisko being dragged off in handcuffs. Sisko becomes, in the course of this one episode, exactly the compromised officer that TNG spent many an hour tracking down and chastising thoroughly before having them tried in court.
But Sisko is not those men. He knows what he's doing is wrong. It's very clear that if he COULD turn himself in without undoing everything he worked for, he probably would. But he can't. The forgery he made, that drew Romulus into declaring war, only works if no one ever finds out it was a fake. Romulus would turn its attention on the Federation, which between the Dominion and Romulus would get its ass royally kicked. No one can ever know. And Sisko has to live with what he's done, knowing he can't tell anyone, ever.
The end of the episode is Sisko repeating, to himself, "I can live with this. I can live with this." Like he's trying to convince himself. In his eyes he's essentially sold his soul for the future of the Federation....but he's still sold his soul. That's something you can only see, as a viewer, if you've watched his development over the series to date, seen what he wouldn't sell out for. At no time does Sisko say or even think that it's okay because he's the one doing it. He knows it's wrong. He knows it's even more wrong because he's a Starfleet officer and he's supposed to be above such actions. It is as the title suggests; dancing with the devil.
On top of this, of course, there is some flat out STERLING acting by the rest of the cast, what they do and don't know of the plot, what they will and won't do. Where their lines in the sand are and how it affects the whole.
I've yet to see a Babylon 5 episode come even CLOSE to the level of complexity and depth you see in this episde. I've not seen it in any other show, really, at all. The only hour of television I can think of offhand that comes EVEN CLOSE to this level of "you will be punched in the gut if you watched the series up to this point" is the BtVS episode "The Body".
It is, frankly, fucking awesome television.