According to The Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion, this episode was proclaimed to be DS9's “highest-ranked episode” according to Sci-Fi Entertainment magazine. And the Star Trek Communicator recorded that members of the Official Star Trek Fan Club voted the episode in the series Top Ten.
For the most part, since Gene Roddenberry died in 1991, both Rick Berman and the late Michael Piller tried never to waver from the creators ideals of the 23rd and 24th Century. What began in TOS was continued in TNG, with Starfleet officers who acted, essentially, like Boy Scouts. They were to be trustworthy, loyal, friendly, obedient and brave. During DS9's run, the series found those ideals difficult to maintain as the conflict with the Dominion became the series main focus.
In the Pale Moonlight was a late season six story, and opens with a troubled Sisko in his quarters, talking out a private log entry. The events of the last two-weeks have has forced him to consider where things went wrong, and where he went wrong.
We flash back two-weeks, as Sisko is going over the ever increasing casualty list in the Wardroom. He sees the number of Starfleet personal who’ve been killed; the wounded, the missing. Sisko notes that the starship Cairo disappeared after a Jem’Hadar attacked them near the Romulan Neutral Zone. He muses that this would not had happen if the Romulans had not signed a nonaggression treaty with the Dominion.
Sisko believes that eventually the Dominion will invade Romulus, and probably a scenario already exists somewhere deep in Cardassian Prime. In a fateful decision, Sisko ask Elim Garak, the lone Cardassian on DS9 and a ever resourceful former spy, to see if any of his contacts on his onetime homeworld know of any planned invasion.
When Garak reports back, Sisko is more frustrated. Garak informs him that while they might be a few willing to help, they’ve all been killed with in hours of talking to Garak. Then the Cardassian, logically, suggests that if Sisko needs relevant evidence that the Dominion is indeed plotting an invasion of Romulus, why not manufacture it?
At first, Sisko would not want to do that, after all he has codes to stand by as a Starfleet officer. But when news reaches DS9 that Betazed has been invaded, he makes the decision that sets him down a dark “road to hell.”
We’ve seen Sisko obsessed before, most notably in For the Uniform and Rapture. But its in this episode that the obsession becomes ever chilling. Also, more so, because its fueled by Garak, who clearly enjoys pushing the captain to the edge. Never before have we seen a Trek captain break so many ethics (even Kirk himself), as he resorts to bribery, releasing criminals and keeping secrets from his colleagues. Sisko tries to believe that this all for the greater good, while Garak seems to enjoying it immensely, because that is what he is good at -scheming.
And while the plan eventually comes together, and the Romulans join in the war, Sisko’s moral sense is eating at him. But its Garak who puts all of it perspective:
“That’s why you came to me , isn’t it, Captain? Because you knew I could do those things that you weren’t capable of doing. Well, it worked, and you’ll get what you want: a war between the Romulans and the Dominion. And if your consciences is bothering you, you should soothe it with the knowledge that you may have saved the entire Alpha Quadrant and all it cost was the life of one Romulan Senator, one criminal and the self-respect of one Starfleet officer. I don’t know about you, but I’d call that a bargain.”
And as we return to Sisko in his quarters, finally finished with his log, he realizes that he was an accessory to murder. But in being so, the Romulans have entered the conflict. But, as he says, “I can live with it.”
There is a sting in this story that forces the audience to make up their own minds about how the events of the episode and the questions that are raised. In the Pale Moonlight was about as far as one can get from Gene Roddenberry’s ideal Starfleet officer, but it also clearly showed how “easily” one can turn down that “road to hell.”
For the most part, since Gene Roddenberry died in 1991, both Rick Berman and the late Michael Piller tried never to waver from the creators ideals of the 23rd and 24th Century. What began in TOS was continued in TNG, with Starfleet officers who acted, essentially, like Boy Scouts. They were to be trustworthy, loyal, friendly, obedient and brave. During DS9's run, the series found those ideals difficult to maintain as the conflict with the Dominion became the series main focus.
In the Pale Moonlight was a late season six story, and opens with a troubled Sisko in his quarters, talking out a private log entry. The events of the last two-weeks have has forced him to consider where things went wrong, and where he went wrong.
We flash back two-weeks, as Sisko is going over the ever increasing casualty list in the Wardroom. He sees the number of Starfleet personal who’ve been killed; the wounded, the missing. Sisko notes that the starship Cairo disappeared after a Jem’Hadar attacked them near the Romulan Neutral Zone. He muses that this would not had happen if the Romulans had not signed a nonaggression treaty with the Dominion.
Sisko believes that eventually the Dominion will invade Romulus, and probably a scenario already exists somewhere deep in Cardassian Prime. In a fateful decision, Sisko ask Elim Garak, the lone Cardassian on DS9 and a ever resourceful former spy, to see if any of his contacts on his onetime homeworld know of any planned invasion.
When Garak reports back, Sisko is more frustrated. Garak informs him that while they might be a few willing to help, they’ve all been killed with in hours of talking to Garak. Then the Cardassian, logically, suggests that if Sisko needs relevant evidence that the Dominion is indeed plotting an invasion of Romulus, why not manufacture it?
At first, Sisko would not want to do that, after all he has codes to stand by as a Starfleet officer. But when news reaches DS9 that Betazed has been invaded, he makes the decision that sets him down a dark “road to hell.”
We’ve seen Sisko obsessed before, most notably in For the Uniform and Rapture. But its in this episode that the obsession becomes ever chilling. Also, more so, because its fueled by Garak, who clearly enjoys pushing the captain to the edge. Never before have we seen a Trek captain break so many ethics (even Kirk himself), as he resorts to bribery, releasing criminals and keeping secrets from his colleagues. Sisko tries to believe that this all for the greater good, while Garak seems to enjoying it immensely, because that is what he is good at -scheming.
And while the plan eventually comes together, and the Romulans join in the war, Sisko’s moral sense is eating at him. But its Garak who puts all of it perspective:
“That’s why you came to me , isn’t it, Captain? Because you knew I could do those things that you weren’t capable of doing. Well, it worked, and you’ll get what you want: a war between the Romulans and the Dominion. And if your consciences is bothering you, you should soothe it with the knowledge that you may have saved the entire Alpha Quadrant and all it cost was the life of one Romulan Senator, one criminal and the self-respect of one Starfleet officer. I don’t know about you, but I’d call that a bargain.”
And as we return to Sisko in his quarters, finally finished with his log, he realizes that he was an accessory to murder. But in being so, the Romulans have entered the conflict. But, as he says, “I can live with it.”
There is a sting in this story that forces the audience to make up their own minds about how the events of the episode and the questions that are raised. In the Pale Moonlight was about as far as one can get from Gene Roddenberry’s ideal Starfleet officer, but it also clearly showed how “easily” one can turn down that “road to hell.”
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