6-19. In the Pale Moonlight.

Sisko is haunted after sacrificing his
integrity for a chance at victory.

THE PLOT

The war is going badly. The Dominion are striking at the Federation through Romulan space, thanks to the non-aggression pact the Romulans signed, and this is proving to be crippling for Starfleet - as shown by the casualty reports posted every Friday, with every Friday bringing station staff new heartache as they read the names of more friends and loved ones who are now gone forever.

Sisko is certain that the Dominion will attack Romulus as soon as the Federation is dealt with. If he can prove this, then he has a good chance of breaking that nonaggression pact and possibly even bringing the Romulans into the war. He goes to Garak, who agrees to call in favors with his Cardassian contacts. But the Dominion is as watchful as it is ruthless, and every agent Garak communicates with quickly ends up dead.

That's when Garak proposes another solution. If they can't find evidence of a Dominion plot against the Romulans, then why not fabricate some? He comes up with a plan to create an entirely authentic-seeming forged data record, to present to Sen. Vreenak (Stephen McHattie), the Romulans' most outspoken supporter of the Dominion; if they can convince Vreenak, Garak reasons, then the entire Romulan Empire will fall in line.

As the plan unfolds, Sisko is forced again and again to compromise his integrity. If the ruse succeeds, he will secure a powerful ally for the Federation. But at what point does the cost become too great?


CHARACTERS

Capt. Sisko: Avery Brooks' stagier tendencies are on full display in the framing device that sees Sisko recording his thoughts on the events after the fact. But the emoting feels entirely in-character. As Sisko recalls the story for our benefit, he wrestles with himself to decide whether the things he did were justified. He crosses one small line after another: He agrees to fake evidence; he frees forger Grathon Tlar (Howard Shangraw) to achieve this; he covers up a crime Grathon commits on the station... On and on, keeping his eyes latched to the promise of an ultimate greater good at the end. As he records his log, Sisko seems to be weighing whether his choices were correct and he should move onto his next challenge, or whether he went too far and should resign his commission. By the end, he reaches a decision... and erases his entire personal log to make sure there is no trace of what may be considered a confession.

Quark: It's critical to Sisko's plans that there be no record of Grathon's presence on the station - So when the forger physically assaults Quark, he must stop the Ferengi from pressing charges. He asks Quark what it will take to make the situation go away, and the Ferengi's eyes light up at seeing the noble Starfleet captain reduced to offering a bribe. To his credit, Quark doesn't make Sisko squirm too badly. He secures a handful of largely reasonable concessions from the captain, then lets the matter go. But the very fact of this transaction is his true reward, as he tells Sisko when their business is concluded: "Thank you for restoring my faith in the 98th RUle of Acquisition: Every man has his price."

Weyoun/Damar: Seen only in the forged holo recording - Which, as Garak gleefully notes, is made convincing with the addition of (a bit of bickering and mutual loathing quote). Casey Biggs and Jeffrey Combs do a splendid job of playing convincing replicas of Damar and Weyoun - They aren't quite the real thing, but they're very close to it... Which, for this episode's purposes, is exactly right.

Garak: I commented back in my review of Empok Nor that Garak had been allowed to become too safe a character. This episode restores him to his proper status as someone who may be an ally, but one who is as ruthless as he is formidable. Garak is a little like a dark side Jiminy Cricket on Sisko's shoulder, prodding the captain to just one more compromise... And furthering a plan of his own all the while. The best part of the episode's treatment of Garak is that every single thing he says is absolutely correct, right down to his observation that Sisko came to him because he specifically needed someone like him, someone willing to do the dark and nasty things required to make the plan work. In a very real sense, Garak is the hero of the episode, arguably the hero of the entire Dominion War... Which doesn't make him any less frightening. Just like Sisko, he would do all of this again; unlike Sisko, he isn't particularly bothered by what he had to do to make this victory possible.


THOUGHTS

"I lied. I cheated. I bribed men to cover the crimes of other men. I am an accessory to murder. But the most damning thing of all? I think I can live with it. And if I had to do it all over again, I would."
-Benjamin Sisko, allowing the ends to justify the means.

Back in the Season Four finale, Broken Link, Garak was stopped and arrested while attempting to destroy the changelings' home world. Even then, it was more than clear to everyone that the war was inevitable, and potentially unwinnable. If one could step into the series now, not quite two years later, and ask the characters (even those who would have died on the planet) if they wished Garak had succeeded, I suspect most of them would say "Yes."

One of the reasons In the Pale Moonlight works so splendidly is that Sisko's desperation here has been building all season. Even after he won back the station and convinced the Prophets to keep Dominion reinforcements from coming through the wormhole, the outlook has remained bleak. In Statistical Probabilities, Bashir and his group of augments flat-out told anyone who would listen that it was a mathematical impossibility for Starfleet to win the war. In Far Beyond the Stars, the stream of bad news and casualty reports had Sisko on the brink of resigning. Starfleet has been losing the war ever since it began - So there's a ring of inevitability to the news that the Dominion has started taking control of key Federation planets.

This is what pushes Sisko to accept Garak's advice, and what keeps pushing him as he falls ever deeper into the rabbit hole of deceptions, crimes, and cover-ups. It's revealing to watch Sisko and Garak in this story. Sisko starts feeling the strain of lies almost immediately, and that strain grows throughout the episode. Garak simply takes it all in stride, moving from lie to pleasantly-worded threat to caustic observation with ease... And why not? For Sisko, this is all strange and terrible - something that has made the world of his station into a treacherous foreign land. For Garak, this is his natural habitat.

Sisko's ending speech, a bit of which is quoted above, is of course a stunner. But the entire episode is peppered with great scenes and wonderful lines, from Quark's enjoyment at Sisko's compromised integrity to the scene in which Sisko and Garak take turns threatening Grathon - Sisko hot, Garak cold, and both of them absolutely lethal.

The script is credited to Michael Taylor, who previously penned the excellent fourth season episode The Visitor. The broadcast version was heavily rewritten by Ronald D. Moore, who has penned more excellent Trek episodes than would be reasonable to list. And it's from a (radically different) story premise by Peter Allen Fields, who wrote such early gems as Duet, Necessary Evil, and Crossover. Given the pedigree, it was probably inevitable that this would be good. But it's more than just good - This is a serious candidate for the series' best episode, and an absolute cinch for any DS9 Top Five.

Indispensible viewing, by any measure.


Overall Rating: 10/10.

Previous Episode: Inquisition
Next Episode: His Way

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6-8. Resurrection.

Vedek Bareil's mirror universe counterpart
looks into the Orb of Prophecy.

THE PLOT

It's a typical day in Ops... right up until the moment that a transporter activates, beaming a very familiar figure onto the station: the late, lamented Vedek Bareil (Philip Anglim)!

This is not the Bareil Kira had been in love with, the man who died making (an ultimately temporary) peace with the Cardassians. This Bareil is from the Mirror Universe, and is a petty thief fleeing across the border between realities in hopes of a better life. Much to Sisko's concern, Kira takes the man under her wing, introducing him to Bajoran religion and culture. She finds the lines increasingly blurry between her Bareil and this very different yet strangely similar, man, and the two soon become lovers.

After Kira shows him the Orb of Prophecy, the Bajoran artifact that allows glimpses of possible futures, Bareil becomes moody and starts lingering outside the Bajoran temple. Kira believes he's just wrestling with his first "Orb experience," but Quark has a very different take on his behavior: A thief, casing the site of his next robbery.

After all, who knows a thief better than another thief?


CHARACTERS

Capt. Sisko: Given that his last involvement with the Mirror Universe involved the Mirror version of his dead wife, he has a strong understanding of what Kira is going through. "I knew she wasn't my wife. But sometimes she would smile at me a certain way, and then the light would hit her eyes, and it was my Jennifer. At least, that's what I wanted to believe." He is the one member of the crew who can really understand what Kira is going through - which makes it all the more disappointing that he's barely seen again after this. I would at least have liked one scene between Sisko and Bareil, as I suspect a conversation between them would have been interesting.

Major Kira/The Intendant: Nana Visitor is terrific, as usual, and does much to keep this weak script afloat. Kira's confusion, then enthusiasm, over spending time with this alternate Bareil is very clear throughout. Though she sleeps with him, and clearly grows fond of him, there isn't much sense that she is even close to loving him. He's an echo of something precious that she lost three years earlier. Like any foray into the DS9 Mirror Universe, we also get to see the Intendant - but in this case, the episode probably shouldn't have bothered, as this script gives us a flattened cartoon version of this previously multilayered villain. Gone is the sense of danger, that she might turn on a dime from kittenish to murderous. Gone also is the sense of need, the craving to be adored and admired. All that's left is a strutting, purring sex kitten - basically, a more violent version of Jessica Rabbit.

Quark: His work with the Resistance seems to have raised him a bit in Kira's estimation. In previous seasons, had he intimated to Kira that her love interest was planning to rob from the Bajoran temple, she probably would have threatened him and almost certainly would not have taken him seriously. Now she does take him seriously, and her following up on his words is what prevents the temple from being robbed.

Bareil: This episode returns Philip Anglim to the series for the first time since Season Three's Life Support. He does a fair job of playing this very different Bareil, a thief who wears the face of a widely respected holy man. It's a concept that could have been richly mined, had this new Bareil been retained in the recurring cast. Sadly, this is a standalone, so we simply get a standard conflicted scoundrel, though Anglim and Nana Visitor still play well off each other and make a convincing screen couple - which strongly highlights what a weak replacement Shakaar was, even on the rare occasions he was genuinely present.


THOUGHTS

Resurrection is the first "filler" episode since before the Dominion War started. Save for a quick reference to a lack of Dominion activity, this is unconnected to the larger events of the preceding episode. It's also a Mirror Universe episode, one which attempts to do something different with the concept by having a Mirror character come to the "prime" universe.

Sadly, despite a few bright moments, this is the first Mirror Universe episode that I would describe as a failure, and is easily the weakest episode of what has been to this point an outstanding season.

This cannot be laid at the feet of the actors. The regulars are in good form, and Philip Anglim does a solid job of making the Mirror Bareil just enough like "our" Bareil that we can see how Kira sees her old lover in him, but different enough that we never make the mistake of seeing him as the same character. Levar Burton's direction isn't terribly atmospheric, but it is competent for the demands of the episode.

No, the problem is the script. Having established the concept of the Mirror Bareil coming to our universe, writer Michael Taylor's story fails to do anything to capitalize on it. The first half tries to be a character piece, and has some good moments. I enjoyed the dinner scene with Bareil and Kira joining Worf and Dax. Bareil swipes Worf's sword to prove his prowess as a thief, earning Worf's respect (it was probably a choice between that and killing him, and Dax would have likely disapproved of the latter). The relationship material between the two characters works, in large part because of the chemistry between Anglim and Visitor, and Bareil's discomfort at being recognized as a man he is nothing like works reasonably well, though like too much here it is under-explored.

Then, a little past the halfway point, it turns into a caper comedy. A bad one. There's nothing clever about the caper. Bareil's plan to steal the Orb of Prophecy appears to amount to nothing more than "walk in and take it," with no sign of any real security for him to bypass and no sense of danger whatsoever. He is conflicted after looking into the Orb and seeing his "prime universe" self... but nothing terribly interesting is done with that idea, either.

Had the episode been content to be a character piece, with the new Bareil either adjusting to a life in this universe or having to go back to his own, it might have worked passably well. Had the entire piece been a caper story, with a bit more life and cleverness to the caper, that might also have worked. One could certainly imagine Mirror Bareil pairing with Quark and possibly Garak to make a tidy profit. But by trying to be both, it succeeds as neither.

That's not even mentioning the scene in which the Intendant tries to impersonate Kira, not very convincingly, and the Bajoran guard isn't even slightly suspicious. This episode takes place in the context of a war with shapeshifters, and a member of the station's command staff was already impersonated by a changeling. Upon seeing Kira behaving out of character and unable to provide her security code, surely the guard should have responded in some other way than giving her a neck massage?

I could gloss over that bit of stupidity if the episode itself was good. But in an already weak episode, such a poorly-judged moment stands out all the more.


Overall Rating: 4/10.

Previous Episode: You Are Cordially Invited...
Next Episode: Statistical Probabilities

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5-8. Things Past.

Odo is forced to face a secret from his past.

THE PLOT

Sisko, Odo, Garak, and Dax are returning to the station after attending a Bajoran conference devoted to the Cardassian Occupation. Garak drew some attention by ill-advisedly discussing the benefits of the Occupation, but the real star was Odo. His even-handed stewardship of the security of Terok Nor (as Deep Space 9 was then known) earned him the respect of both Cardassians and Bajorans - respect Odo isn't entirely comfortable with.

By the time their runabout arrives at the station, the four are in a comatose state, and Dr. Bashir's attempts to revive them prove futile. He observes that their neural activity indicates that they are actually conscious...

...And so they are, but not of Deep Space 9's Medlab. They awake on Terok Nor, under the Cardassian Occupation. They are dressed as Bajorans, and despite being members of various races they are perceived as Bajorans. Dax catches the eye of station commander Gul Dukat, who has her brought to him to relieve his "loneliness." Meanwhile, Sisko, Garak, and Odo discover the identities of the Bajorans whose place they have taken.

They have assumed the identities of three men whose names Odo knows all too well. They were three Bajorans who were executed for a crime they didn't commit: Attempting to assassinate Gul Dukat. And the day of the attempted assassination? This very day...


CHARACTERS

Capt. Sisko: As soon as he realizes where and when they are, he focuses on the immediate priority of not attracting any Cardassian attention. Once out of sight, he allows the others to discuss what could be occurring - but again moves them on once Dukat makes his appearance. It doesn't take long for him to recognize that Odo is agitated, but he doesn't press him until late in the episode because there is always a more immediate priority. When he does confront the constable, however, he does so with such fire that Odo is actually grateful when the Cardassian security chief, Thrax (Kurtwood Smith) comes for him.

Odo: Uncomfortable with the degree of respect he is given for his role during the Occupation. "I tried to bring order to a chaotic situation, that's all," he protests, bringing to mind what we already know about the Changeling predisposition to maintaining order above all. It's an early hint of the revelation to come, one that Odo tries very hard to keep his friends from learning and that he seems to even be trying to deny to himself. Rene Auberjonois is excellent as usual, and his pleas with Thrax to conduct a more thorough investigation (pleas he knows are doomed before he makes them) are particularly effective.

Dax: As far back as season One, I've been impressed by how good a nonverbal performer Terry Farrell is. She shows this very strongly in her scene with Dukat. She is "selected" by Cardassian guards and brought to him. She doesn't know what is about to happen - Cardassian interrogation, sexual assault, possibly both - and is visibly frightened. When Dukat presents himself pleasantly, even offering her a drink, her hand shakes as she is thrown by the incongruity of his demeanor. Then she sees that he wants her as a companion, wants her trust, and she smiles slightly, as she realizes how she can use his neediness to her advantage.

Garak: This is Garak's first Season Five appearance (presumably, after some time in the brig for his deeds in Broken Link), and both the character and actor Andrew J. Robinson are on terrific form. On the surface, Garak almost appears to be comedy relief, commenting sardonically on their situation and sniffing at his recollections of the Occupation being "tidier." But he never stops thinking. When Dax is "selected," he steps forward to attempt to bribe the guard out of taking her. That fails, and he earns a punch in the nose for his trouble... But being Garak, he takes advantage of the situation to pick the man's pocket for some gear that allows him to figure out a key piece of the puzzle. Also being Garak, he spends the time awaiting execution thinking up and evaluating excuses that might save his own skin.

Gul Dukat: It's a treat to see Dukat back when he was in power. As in Season Two's Necessary Evil, there are indications that he at least wanted to be a benevolent dictator to the Bajorans - likely for his benefit, however. His interactions with Dax show that he craves approval, not just of his men but of his subjects. He relishes holding the power of life and death over the Bajorans, but he also wants to be beloved by them. An unrealistic expectation, to put it mildly, but then he did go on to amorously pursue Kira, so it's not like he's ever been realistic in his self-image.


THOUGHTS

Things Past acts very much as a companion piece to the outstanding Season Two episode, Necessary Evil. That episode flashed back to the start of Odo's career on Terok Nor, the name for the Cardassian-run Deep Space 9 during the Occupation of Bajor. It also showed the start of his friendship with Kira, and revealed a secret about Kira's past.

Things Past returns us to Terok Nor through the magic of Technobabble, only this time it is Odo who has the guilty secret. The Terok Nor setting remains terrific, and director Levar Burton doesn't hesitate to go for broke with the grittiness of the setting. Everything is dark, varying shades of shadow punctuated by harsh shafts of light. Colors are subdued to the point of being a step removed from monochrome, and the Cardassian guards (usually seen overhead) are a near-constant presence. The atmosphere is superb, almost as strong as it was in the earlier episode.

Michael Taylor's script is a good one. The opening scene seems light-hearted, but it introduces the major idea of the episode: Odo's attempts to bring order to the station during the Occupation, and his discomfort, even guilt at the praise he receives. We get just enough scenes with Worf and Bashir to establish that the four are only mentally in the past but that damage inflicted there can affect them physically. But we only get those scenes, restricted to the episode's first half, with no other cutaways to dilute the tension. What humor there is is of the darkly sardonic variety. As even temporary victories, such as Dax knocking out Dukat and rescuing the others, are snatched away, the situation becomes ever more hopeless - and the visual style becomes ever more enclosed and claustrophobic.

Though Kira only barely appears in the episode, her one scene is a superb one, in a tag that mirrors the ending of Necessary Evil. In that episode, Odo confronted Kira with the truth. This time, it's Kira's turn to confront Odo with his shameful secret. There's even an oblique reference to the earlier episode, as she acknowledges that she's far from perfect and that "anyone who lived through the Occupation had to get a little dirty."

The episode ends perfectly, with the two on opposite sides of the room. Each has now had his or her worst secret revealed to the other, and each has now taken a turn disappointing the other. And it's on this note that we cut to the station exterior and the credits.


Overall Rating: 10/10.

Previous Episode: Let He Who Is Without Sin...
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