Sisko's no-win scenario was made all the more riveting by the fact that we could all see it happening, inch by inch. The story boils down to an examination of what Sisko is prepared to do in order to help save the Alpha Quadrant from the Dominion is the Federation worth Sisko turning his back on all of his usual Starfleet ethics? That's an interesting question, and one that the episode handled well: it gave Sisko a no-win scenario, had him deal with it, then left it to the viewer to decide whether it was worth it. That's ominous enough without Sisko then going out of the way to call attention to it.) (It was a bit overdone at times, however one example is when flashback-Sisko tells Garak that he is prepared to do whatever it takes to bring the Romulans in. Far from blunting the effectiveness of what actually transpired, however, that choice made the viewers wonder exactly what kind of disaster occurred: did the plan fail? Have the Romulans actually entered the war on the Dominion's side? Is the Federation only inches from defeat? What exactly is going on? It's an interesting way to build suspense, to be sure. The definite advantage of having Sisko dictate the log, however, is that we knew in advance that there was some sort of disaster as a result of his choices - odds are most viewers would have expected it anyway, but this reinforced it. (One question that kept occurring to me was why we ended up with so many shots of Sisko speaking directly into the camera: even if it's a visual log, it's an odd thing for him to do, and having the log effectively switch camera angles from time to time is just weird.) There have been times when that sort of voice-over narration has hurt a great deal (consider TNG's " Suspicions" for starters), and times when it's fit in very nicely (" Whispers" comes to mind from a few seasons back on DS9) this time it worked reasonably well, with a few questionable choices.
Putting Sisko at the heart of the show certainly makes sense a more interesting stylistic choice was having the episode effectively take place in flashback as he's dictating his personal log.
Where "Inquisition" raised questions about whether protecting the Federation at all costs was a valuable goal by introducing an outside conspiracy, "In the Pale Moonlight" aimed a little more squarely at the very heart of the show, one Captain Benjamin Sisko. "In the Pale Moonlight" serves as a nice reinforcement of some of the questions raised by "Inquisition", in fact. That by itself certainly isn't enough to guarantee a good show (consider " Sacrifice of Angels", which while intriguing in spots was certainly a letdown in others), but the simple fact of having a goal and an obvious reason for a story to unfold is always a good start. In brief: Occasionally clunky execution, but a nice plot.īetween last week's " Inquisition" and this week's "In the Pale Moonlight", break time is definitely over: the immediate crisis at hand, the war, is snapping back into focus. WARNING: DS9 spoilers await, shining "In the Pale Moonlight".
0 kommentar(er)
