|
| Reviewer : |
Tyyr |
Rating : |
 |
| Review : |
ITPML is one of the reasons that DS9 was great. The biggest single part of it is that it restores some humanity to Trek that had been sorely lacking in TOS and TNG. There's no way this episode could have been made in Gene's day, it would have never left the meeting room and anyone endorsing it might just have been fired. DS9 was never my favorite Trek series when it began. I didn't watch it as religiously as I did TNG but I still found myself coming back time and again. There was something oddly unTrekish about it that was strangely compelling. The first few seasons were rather blah, but when the Dominion war started it got interesting. ITPML was one of those episodes that hooked me and made me watch DS9 religiously. I mean what else was I gonna watch? Voyager? DS9 was the last bit of Trek I watched in somewhat isolation. I didn't know any trekkies prior to leaving for college and the internet was still a big and wierd place for a kid with a 56k modem so I never discussed the show that much, I still don't. So it really surprised me to find out that there were people who not only didn't like ITPML, but absolutely loathed it. I still have trouble fathoming it. Does it betray Gene's original vision for Trek? Of course it does. I'd argue that Gene's vision needed to be betrayed though. While we all love the TOS and TNG casts it was hard if almost impossible to relate to them. Many times the aliens in the shows were more human than the humans, and I'm not just talking about the Pakleds. DS9, and ITPML specifically, showed us humans being humans in the future. Kirk or Picard would have NEVER done what Sisko did, Kirk would have fought on valiantly or tried to talk the Romulans into help. That or just screwed the female half of the Senate until they gave in. Picard would have gone into convulsions at the meer suggestion of compromising the principles of the Federation then spent the rest of the season ranting about them. Sisko however does what needs to be done. That alone was a departure from Trek, what made it such a refutation of Gene's vision of humanity in the future was that at the end of it Sisko admits that he'd do it again, even knowing all that would go down. He accepts Garak's reasoning, that the lives of two men and Sisko's guilty conscience are a small price to pay to save the Alpha quadrant. In any other series the captain would have flat rejected that idea. That's what makes DS9 some of the best Trek ever and convinces me that it picked up all the real talent from TNG and sadly left the scraps, B&B, for Voyager. I suppose I've spent a lot of time talking about the ramifications of the episode and very little about the episode itself. What's really to discuss though, ignoring all the baggage that ITPML brings with it at its core it is a fantastic episode. Brilliantly written, acted, directed and shot. I think that ultimately Sisko's guilty conscience stems from the fact that his Federation conscience is screaming at him the whole time that what he's doing is wrong and he's ok with that. If he could just condemn his own actions and move on there wouldn't have been any soul bearing in his log. The problem was that he was conflicted. Sure it was wrong but ultimately knowing it was necessary. All his shady dealing led to the deaths of two men and even though he didn't pull the trigger his actions put them in front of the man who did. It also committed and entire people to war under false pretenses. He used the Romulans to get what he wanted. He saved the Federation by throwing the Romulans in front of the Dominion. Millions of Romulans would die that might otherwise have lived. He's done some less than reputable things before that was nothing compared to this. |
|
| Reviewer : |
Indefatigable |
Rating : |
|
| Review : |
One of my all-time favourite episodes. Unfortunately, I only saw the second half of it. This was about good people doing bad things, the wrong thing for the right reasons. Garak may be an amoral pathological liar, but was still doing this to help his friends and ultimately to save his planet from the Dominion. Andrew Robinson put in his usual good performance, getting plenty of great lines as ever, and Avery Brooks also did very well, from what I see. Stephen McHattie's Vreenek was convincing as well, for what little we saw of him. It was interesting how he effectively signed his own death warrant by threatening to expose the fraud. If he had kept quiet, he might have survived. Finally, Sisko should keep on telling himself that he can live with it, maybe it will be true one day. I will make sure I see the whole episode next time. |
|
| Reviewer : |
Pete2631 |
Rating : |
|
| Review : |
I thought this episode was brilliant and true to trek in that it was relavant to the 'human condition'. Genes vision may have been of a utopian society but more than that it was about challenging current issues through science fiction. In a time of Cold War where people probably weren't completely sure if tomorrow would be the end he wrote about a time when humans had put their problems behind them and unified. This episode I would say is about values and how difficult it can be not to bend them when the going gets tough. It's not the first time that subject has been touched on in this series as it is again in the Section 31 episodes. Sisko said 'the road to hell is paved with good intentions'. It goes to show that humans are not perfect but in Captain Sisko recognising that in himself and battling with his conscience over it is what makes him human but not bad/evil. I think his bit at the end of saying that he would do it again is more a matter of not him admitting that what he did was neccesarily correct but that he doesn't hold regrets and can take responsibility for his actions. A good leader always reviews what he does. |
|
| Reviewer : |
Satan |
Rating : |
|
| Review : |
This has to be one of the darkest episodes in the entire Star Trek franchise, and that may be the reason why it is so compelling. Star Trek has a habit of not really following through with the consequences of war and the concept of doing what is necessary to win, but DS9 changed all that. This episode deals with the Federation's need for another ally, specifically the Romulan's, since they are the other superpower in the Alpha Quadrant. Sisko and Garak do make an attempt to find legitimate proof that the Dominion is planning to attack the Romulan's, but when their efforts fail they make the decision to do what needs to be done and manufacture the evidence themselves. The falsified evidence does not hold up to scrutiny from a Romulan senator, so Garak plants a bomb on his shuttle and makes it look like Dominion sabotage. The end result: The Romulan's blame the Dominion for assassinating one of their senators and join the war on the side of the Federation and Klingon's. The man who made the fake evidence is murdered by Garak and Sisko has to live with being an accessory to murder and lying to gain an ally. It's an episode that Gene Rodenberry would have never allowed, but to be honest it really doesn't matter because decisions like the one Sisko made are decisions that need to be made in war. It's an example of how DS9 took risks and challenged the very foundation of Star Trek, and episodes like "In the Pale Moonlight" are what made it a truly great series. |
|
