Episode Spotlight: DS9's In The Pale Moonlight

Episode Spotlight

DS9's In The Pale Moonlight

Arguably one of the best, heaviest, grey-area-est episodes of DS9 and I would daresay the entire franchise.  The episode opens after the fact with Sisko relating the events of the last two weeks in his personal log.  Getting fed up with posting weekly casualty reports in the wardroom and seeing that the Federation/Klingon alliance would not be able to win the war with the Dominion without help, Sisko resolves to bring the Romulans (heretofore neutral, having signed a non-aggression pact with the Dominion) into the war on the alliance side.  Sisko and Garak, the plain, simple tailor who turned out to be a former member of the Obsidian Order, hatch a plan to provide the Romulans with evidence of Dominion duplicity.  After being unable to obtain genuine proof, they decide to manufacture said proof. Sisko uses his influence to get a convicted criminal released from a Klingon prison and transported to DS9 to create the proof: a forgery of a holo-recording of a top secret meeting of Dominion leadership at which the invasion of Romulus is being planned.  Sisko also trades biomimetic gels, a highly dangerous and tightly controlled substance which could be used for bioengineering or bioweapons production to a third party in exchange for a one-time Cardassian optolithic data rod onto which the forgery would be recorded.  When the criminal, Grathon Tolar stabs Quark after the bartender attempts to defend one of his Dabo girls from the drunk Tolar, Sisko bribes Quark to not press charges, in order to not have any record on Tolar being on the station.  Sisko manages to get a high ranking Romulan Senator, Vreenak, to clandestinely divert to DS9 after his diplomatic meeting with Dominion representatives on Soukara. Sisko presents Vreenak with the genuine data rod containing the forged holoprogram.  Vreenak, incredulous, says he wants to examine the rod.  A short time later a very nervous Sisko is called to Vreenak's quarters where the Romulan announces his discovery: "It's a faaaaaaaake!!!".  He then storms off the station, threatening to reveal the deception to the entire Alpha Quadrant.  Defeated, Sisko waits for the worst, only to receive news that a shuttle carrying Senator Vreenak has been destroyed en route back to Romulus from a meeting with the Dominion.  Sisko confronts Garak; he knows that Garak planted a bomb on Vreenak's ship, thus making him guilty of murder and making Sisko guilty as an accessory.  Garak justifies this by saying that he knew that Tolar's forgery would probably not stand up to scrutiny and that the result will be the same: the Romulans, finding the damaged data rod containing the recording will dismiss any imperfections as damage from the explosion and learning that the Dominion was planning to invade will break their treaty and enter the war.  And Garak is correct.  The Romulans enter the war, attacking Dominion bases along their border.  Sisko muses that while this is a huge victory for "the good guys" and could be the big turning point of the entire war, the blood is on his hands.  He will have to live with the guilt of lying, trading illicit substances, bribing people to cover the crimes of others, being an accessory to murder.  But he can live with it.

What an episode!  This episode epitomizes Deep Space Nine's penchant for looking at shades of grey.  Sisko working with Garak to carry out extralegal activities with an ultimately honorable goal (bringing the Romulans into the war of the Federation/Klingon side could turn the tide of the war and save uncounted lives), and the consequences of that for Sisko emotionally is a nice exploration of the character and a great example of "desperate times call for desperate measures".  Granted Sisko will not see any real repercussions, the entire incident is classified and hidden, and it must be-god knows what would happen if the Romulans found out.  Also Sisko explicitly said to Garak that the plan had Starfleet and the Federations blessing.  To quote Cicero and borrow the title of a later DS9 episode: "inter arma enim silent leges" In time of war, laws fall silent.  At the same time the episode also leaves the question: do the ends really justify the means?  Normally what Sisko did here would be unconscionable for any Starfleet captain (Kirk, Picard, Janeway) but in this very narrow instance: yes, they do.  But only because as Sisko pointed out the stakes were so damn high.  This is without question one of DS9's very best episodes.

Favorite Quotes:

Garak: (to Sisko) That is why you came to me, isn't it, captain?  Because you knew I could do the things you weren't capable of doing yourself?  Well, it worked.  And you'll get what you wanted: a war between the Romulans and the Dominion.  And if your conscience is bothering you, you should soothe it with the knowledge that you may have just 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.

Sisko: (in his personal log) I lied.  I cheated.  I bribed men to cover up the crimes of other men.  I was an accessory to murder.  But most damning of all... I think I can live with it.  And if I had to do it all over again... I would.  Garak was right about one thing - a guilty conscience is a small price to pay for the safety of the Alpha Quadrant.  So I'll learn to live with it.  Because I can live with it.  I can live with it.  Computer - erase that entire personal log.