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I'm liking the show so far but...

as has been demonstrated, going back to DC Fontana, they've shown the moral gray areas people must face. It's always been that way, except when it isn't.
Wen you conspire to commit a murder you have gone way past the grey!
 
Wen you conspire to commit a murder you have gone way past the grey!
you and I have had this discussion before. i see it from your point of view, though I will always be of the opinion In the Pale Moonlight was one of the best star trek episodes. At the same time, I don't want Star Trek to give up on its higher ideals. Its important and it is a reason star trek works. If we leave the higher ideals only in the hands of a few torch carryers like Picard or Pike, it begins to imply that their society has failed. I hope in the end they reverse course on that and give us a society worth cheering for.
 
Wen you conspire to commit a murder you have gone way past the grey!

Sisko didn't know he was in a conspiracy to commit murder until after the fact. That was why he beat the shit out of Garak.

SISKO: Get up. You killed him.
GARAK: That's right.
SISKO: That's what you planned to do all along, isn't it. You knew the data rod wouldn't hold up to scrutiny. You just wanted to get him on the station so you could plant a bomb on his shuttle.
GARAK: It wasn't quite that simple. I did have hopes that the rod would somehow pass inspection, but I suspected that Tolar may not have been up to the task.
SISKO: And what about Tolar? Did you kill him too?
GARAK: Think of them both as tragic victims of war.

But at the end of the day, those two lives probably saved the Alpha Quadrant from falling under Dominion rule, and saved thousands, if not millions of lives. That was why Sisko could live with it.
 
but Sisko saved millions of lives that way
Hypothetically. We really do not know what would have happened, we really do not know that there was no other way. And it only worked because the writers let it to work. It could have easily doubled their problems had the Romulans found out.
 
you and I have had this discussion before. i see it from your point of view, though I will always be of the opinion In the Pale Moonlight was one of the best star trek episodes. At the same time, I don't want Star Trek to give up on its higher ideals. Its important and it is a reason star trek works. If we leave the higher ideals only in the hands of a few torch carryers like Picard or Pike, it begins to imply that their society has failed. I hope in the end they reverse course on that and give us a society worth cheering for.
I agree that in isolation it was a good episode. I just feel that they kinda dropped the ball after that. It fundamentally changed the character of Sisko, they really should have explored it more. And frankly, I would have preferred had it not worked so smoothly in the long run. It kinda was evil is smart, good is stupid solution. Anyway, I agree with your overall assessment.
 
Hypothetically. We really do not know what would have happened, we really do not know that there was no other way. And it only worked because the writers let it to work. It could have easily doubled their problems had the Romulans found out.
yes, his desicion was harder than Kirk's, because in Sisko's case, the outcome wasn't known.
 
I agree that in isolation it was a good episode. I just feel that they kinda dropped the ball after that. It fundamentally changed the character of Sisko, they really should have explored it more. And frankly, I would have preferred had it not worked so smoothly in the long run. It kinda was evil is smart, good is stupid solution. Anyway, I agree with your overall assessment.

The DS9 book "Hollow Men" by Una McCormack is a great read.
 
you and I have had this discussion before. i see it from your point of view, though I will always be of the opinion In the Pale Moonlight was one of the best star trek episodes. At the same time, I don't want Star Trek to give up on its higher ideals. Its important and it is a reason star trek works. If we leave the higher ideals only in the hands of a few torch carryers like Picard or Pike, it begins to imply that their society has failed. I hope in the end they reverse course on that and give us a society worth cheering for.
Truly that is what I want. I don't just want an optimistic future because "humanity evolved." I want that optimistic future to actually survive both internal and external threats and scrutiny. If the Federation is truly an optimistic future then it should be able to withstand such things.
 
I didn't let them win the war, just hold off the Dominion for a little longer.
Yes, but I meant no one ever found out, nor was there any ill effect, even on character level. The plan worked perfectly. There was no court martial, there was no Romulan reprisal, there was no Vreenak's teary children.
 
If I'm remembering the episode correctly, Starfleet ends up being in on the plan.
Sisko had to check with Starfleet Command to okay the plan of passing along the forged data rod to Vreenak. Starfleet probably gave him rather broad discretion to make it happen with whatever shady methods ended up being necessary. Based on Sisko erasing his personal log at the end, I got the sense that the "little" detail of Garak planting the bomb on Vreenak's shuttle was probably never going to be officially passed along to Starfleet Command. But they were so desperate that even if they did find out, they probably would have ignored it. After all, "Inter Arma..." etc.

Kor
 
...I got the sense that the "little" detail of Garak planting the bomb on Vreenak's shuttle was probably never going to be officially passed along to Starfleet Command.

Probably not. Because not even Sisko was aware of that part of the plan until after the fact.
 
I blame Sisko's goatee. Apparently goatees in Star Trek are intelligent but immoral symbiotic beings that make previously moral being turn evil. See: Spock, Sisko, Thomas Riker. Did I miss any?
that's why I wear a goatee. At least something about me is intelligent, even if it is just my evil symbiote
 
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