"City", BOBW, and "Moonlight"

[Lord Garth]

Look up anyone list of best episodes for TOS, TNG, and DS9 and most of them will have "City on the Edge of Forever", "The Best of Both Worlds, and "In the Pale Moonlight" at the top. If not the top, they'll always at least be in there.

Today I was thinking about what they all have in common.

"City on the Edge of Forever": Kirk has to sacrifice Edith Keeler, who he fell in love with, to save the future and, along with it, the Federation. This sounds a lot easier than it is to do and puts Kirk through the wringer.

"The Best of Both Worlds": Picard has to stop a Borg invasion which would lead to the destruction the Federation. Picard is kidnapped and transformed into Locutus. Then, as Locutus, he helps destroy several Starfleet ships. Though not his technically not his fault fault, his actions as Locutus and the actual assimilation process itself puts Picard through the wringer.

"In the Pale Moonlight": The Federation is losing the war against the Dominion and will fall unless another allie is found to help them fight the Dominion. Desperate, Sisko takes Garak's suggestion and arranges for a criminal to forge a recording where the Dominion plan to attack Romulus. Though Starfleet approved the plan and Romulan Senator Vreenak was killed before exposing Sisko after he learned of the forgery, it put Sisko through the wringer.

All in three cases, the Captains were put into impossible situations they had to grapple with while fighting to save their society.

 

[T'Girl]

While "City" is generally a good episode, personally I wouldn't place it in TOS's top ten.

 

[lurok]

Ditto. Not that big a fan of BoBW either though I admit it's the most re-watchable of TNG episodes. Interesting thesis though I do love episodes where captains have to make tough choices.

 

[R. Star]

They're all good episodes, and certainly the theme for sacrifice is evident, but I wouldn't put any of them at the top of their franchises.

For me it would be "Balance of Terror" "Darmok" and "The Visitor"

The connection between Kirk and the Romulan commander really carried Balance of Terror. You could almost picture them as two friends playing a game of chess in the episode "in another time."

Darmok, while the language was a bit silly, really set forth what Trek was about. Two people reaching out to each other despite their differences to form a common bond. Captain Dathon even giving his life just so his people and Picard's could possibly become friends.

The Visitor was just a story of the love of a son for his father and the complete depth of the concept. I'd argue this one is the best episode in all of Trek. Jake giving everything to save his father and Sisko just wanting Jake to be happy. You can't watch this one without feeling something.

While I guess you could argue these three put their respective characters through "the wringer" they really all where about the connection between one character and another more than any adversity.

 

[BillJ]

Big stakes usually lead to big drama if done right.

 

[SchwEnt]

All in three cases, the Captains were put into impossible situations they had to grapple with while fighting to save their society.

I'm not saying this isn't true. But I do contend that this is not unique to these three eps. Indeed, I think the captain in an impossible situation, grappling to save society, can be said of very many eps. That alone doesn't seem to elevate these very many eps to the same greatness of the three eps.

 

[R. Star]

Personally I think it gets rather cliche that they're saving all known civilization one out of three episodes.

 

[Greg Cox]

You know, I think it's more than just the fact that captains are put through the wringer. It's that all of those eps end on a dark or ambiguous note, as opposed to some happy-smiley ending where everybody is joking on the bridge and nothing of the consequence seems to have happened.

Kirk is responsible for the death of the woman he loves, and is still feeling it at the end. "Let's get the hell out of here."

Picard is assimilated and Riker must fire on him.

Sisko is still wrestling with his soiled conscience at the end of the ep.

Bad stuff happens, and it's not necessarily fixed at the end.

 

[Cyke101]

You know, I think it's more than just the fact that captains are put through the wringer. It's that all of those eps end on a dark or ambiguous note, as opposed to some happy-smiley ending where everybody is joking on the bridge and nothing of the consequence seems to have happened.

Kirk is responsible for the death of the woman he loves, and is still feeling it at the end. "Let's get the hell out of here."

Picard is assimilated and Riker must fire on him.

Sisko is still wrestling with his soiled conscience at the end of the ep.

Bad stuff happens, and it's not necessarily fixed at the end.

I agree. I think part of it is simply because the captains are the main characters of the show, and thus would have to be at the center anyway. But while I agree with the thesis to a point, I'd have to argue that BoBW seems to be a tad more of a Riker story than a Picard story, and that Picard had to be the one undergoing great pain *because* he's the captain. But really, from a characterization standpoint, the story is about Riker's career, and Part 2 is about Riker trying to live up to Picard's shadow. Narratively speaking, Picard had to become Locutus to up the stakes that Riker, Picard's close and sincere protege, would have to face.

 

[SchwEnt]

You know, I think it's more than just the fact that captains are put through the wringer. It's that all of those eps end on a dark or ambiguous note, as opposed to some happy-smiley ending where everybody is joking on the bridge and nothing of the consequence seems to have happened.

Kirk is responsible for the death of the woman he loves, and is still feeling it at the end. "Let's get the hell out of here."

Picard is assimilated and Riker must fire on him.

Sisko is still wrestling with his soiled conscience at the end of the ep.

Bad stuff happens, and it's not necessarily fixed at the end.

Ah, but so much of DS9 is like this, ending on a dark or ambiguous note. Many eps are without any good fix at the end, particularly effective because the people and events and places and consequences will still be around next week. Would that account for why so very much of DS9 is so great?

 

[JRoss]

"City" isn't so highly rated by me, either. I think that "Journey to Babel" and "Amok Time" are superior.