“Time is definitely not on your side. Dominion shipyards are operating at 100% capacity. Yours are still being rebuilt. The Dominion is breeding legions of Jem’Hadar soldiers everyday. You’re experiencing manpower shortage. But most important, the Dominion is resolved to win the war at any cost.”
Love, love, love this episode. Best part of the whole thing? The Romulan slamming the data rod down on the counter, hissing: “It’s a fake!” One of the best of DS9.
I must respectfully disagree. I think the best part was the very end. When Sisko asks himself if he can live with his decision (“All it cost was one officer’s self-respect”), decides he can, then deletes the whole log. There’s something about that moment, when you realize the truth will never be known, that really got to me when I was watching it.
That is truly one of the best trek episodes ever.
Just a moment ago,( I’m in bed with flu), I was reading an excelent book (which I can’t recommend more), “The Zimmerman Telegram” by Barbara Tuchman. In the first chapter she describes how the English manage to get of the germans by convincing a young austrian clerk (his mother was english and they sent him a letter by one of his english relatives in which he/she asks the clerk to help “the motherland”), he was so afraid that it took him three monts to copy the code book, at the end he insisted that the english agent take him together with the code back to London. The english agreed, the clerk was never seen again…
War is a nasty buisness. Star Trek, with all it’s prime directives, presents the Federation as the New Jerusalem. DS9, did it better, they are the good guys but they live in a horrible place.-
The federation was going to loose, there was a chance, it involved the romulans (the best alien race ever), it also involved cheating.
Personally, (and I will bring great debates into Cafe Society), If I can’t justify Bush I also can’t justify Captain Sisko. In fact Bush only lied, he didn’t kill anyone to achieve his ends, Sisko murdered the crew of a Romulan ship.
It was a great episode, it showed that the federetion weren’t such good guys after all, I doubt, though, that Star Trek creator would have aproved.
I was talking about this episode this morning.
The thing is, and the saving grace is, that Sisko doesn’t like what he has done. He also was not in on the ‘blow up the Romulan shuttle’ part of the plan so the damaged fake rod would be taken as authentic.
It’s very similuar to when Kirk decided to arm the population in A Private Little War. He didn’t want to do it but he knew it must be done.
I agree fully with you and as a card carrying Bush hating liberal, this dichotomy gives me no amount of consternation. It’s also probably the best example I can give of why DS9 is my favorite series. It seriously makes you stop and think about the ends justifying the means and whether or not it’s all worth it in the end.
I’m getting chills just thinking about this and it’s been five years since I’ve seen the episode.
Without further venturing into GD, my memory agrees with what a few others have already posted. Sisko had no knowledge that the Romulan ship would be destroyed. That was Garak’s plan. Garak obtained the data rod, and recruited Sisko. Sisko only knew about a plan to deceive the Romulans. Garak blew up the ship on his own and without asking permission first. OTTOMH
Sisko ‘How could you blow up a ship filled with innocent people?!’
Garak ‘Romulan soldiers are hardly innocent captain.’
S ‘They were here peacefully!’
G ‘Yes, and the bomb I used will make it appear that the Dominion destroyed them for that reason. When the Romulans examine the wreckage, they will find the rod. Any flaws will be attributed to the explosion. The Romulans will be convinced that the Dominion destroyed the ship in order to destroy the rod and prevent an alliance with the Federation. Naturally, this will cause the Romulans to enter into an alliance with you.’