So in my DS9 marathon, I finally watched "In the Pale Moonlight". Some points.
It's a good episode. I was spoiled well beforehand so I more or less knew what would happen, but still it is entertaining even when spoiled. The best thing about the episode is the soundtrack, ominous, relentless, never letting you go. I only noticed the unusual high quality of it in the last scenes, very appropriate.
I enjoy the idea of Sisko "being able to live with it". This is the tragedy of this episode, which is the cost of the "bargain" of having Romulus entering the war against the Dominion. I am extremely tired of such "bargains". Whenever something "good" is to happen in these episodes, they are always followed by some sort of bargain, some sort of misfortune or sacrifice that "balances" it all out. It's one really pathetic truth that one easily identifies with all the hippie "Karma" bull**** that pervades Star Trek episodes and other similar writing stuff: If Kirk is to "rebirth" and find he has a son, then Spock has to die in TWOK. In the next movie, if Spock is to come back, then his son must die, and so on and so on. "Gods" want sacrifices, they bestow upon us their gifts only so far as we suffer equally important casualties. In Star Trek, these "Gods" are called "Scripts" and they demand perfectly harmonious equations of these sorts.
Not "In the Pale Moonlight". Yes, they did emphasize how this will hurt Sisko's self respect. But I have to agree with Garak: it was a ****ing bargain, and I think the real tragedy, the real reason why this episode works so well as a tragedy, is that Sisko can "live with it". That is, there is no pay. There is no sacrifice to be made to the gods of the script. That's the real scary stuff.
And of course, there's also a tiny aspect that I couldn't but notice. The idea of a black representative of the Liberal Empire showcasing a manufactured evidence to outside representatives of a preemptive strike from a malevolent third party was all too foreshadowing of a certain presentation in the UN from a certain black US representative regarding a certain malevolent third party. That was also in the back of my mind, especially considering the most recent news in Iraq and how even the most conservative pundits are conceding all the arguments to the liberals regarding the start of that war.
