Title :
Inter Arma Enim Silent Leges
Series :
Rating :
Overall Ep :
165
First Aired :
3 Mar 1999
Stardate :
Unknown
Director :
Year :
Writers :
Season Ep :
YATI :
Take a good look at the "still" holograms of the Romulans. Some of them are blinking.
Factoid :
The title of this episode is latin for "In time of war, the law falls silent" according to Dr. Bashir. In fact it means "In the presence of arms, the laws grow silent." Ronald D. Moore came up with the title when he found a copy of a book by William Rehnquist dealing with the suspension of habeas corpus during the American Civil War. The jacket blurb described it as "a classic case of the old Roman dictum Inter arma silent leges."
The original concept had Bashir fooling Sloan and exposing him. Moore decided it was more interesting to have Bashir think he's ahead of Sloan, only for the end to reveal that Sloan was ahead of him all along.
The producers considered setting the Starship scenes aboard the Defiant, or perhaps building a new ship for the episode. It was decided to use an Intrepid class because it allowed the episode to use the standing Voyager sets, saving the cost of building new sets for the episode.
Plotline
Dr. Bashir is contacted by Sloan, the Section 31 operative from "Inquisition", who offers him the chance to gather intelligence while on a diplomatic mission to Romulus. But he soon finds that real spying is nothing like his holodeck re-creations.
Analysis
This is probably a better episode than I give it credit for - but I'm biased because I absolutely hate section 31.
