Best of Starshit: IT'S A FAAAAAAAAKE

So... In the Pale Moonlight is probably the best episode of DS9. There may be others which are technically better TV but Moonlight is the best DS9 episode because it encapsulates everything which made DS9 special and different in Star Trek: The moral grayness, the sensation of people in over their heads, the high stakes and Garak.

Garak is the best thing that ever happened in Star Trek and Andy 'he did feel lucky punk' Robinson was remarkable in the role. Bravo that man- Bravo.

In the Pale Moonlight is set during the first year of the Dominion War (or season 6). It took DS9 five years to finally give us the massive space war (the antagonists weren't even introduced until the end of season 2). Part of this is because DS9, unlike Babylon 5, wasn't planned out. Another part tho, is that DS9 earned it's big space war.

The war is going badly for the Federation- heck the very first encounter with the Dominion cost Starfleet the USS Oydessy...

That's a Galaxy Class cruiser getting kamakazied there and the captain and crew did nothing wrong. The implication is that if it had been the Enterprise, things would have gone the same way.

The Federation and Klingons are losing the war and only an Alpha Quadrant Big 3 Alliance will tip the scales. That means bringing the isolationist Romulans aboard.

The Romulans are an militarist offshoot race of the Vulcans who were intended to be the OG Star Trek's main villians because someone figured they could just re-use the Spock ears. Unfortunately, those ears needed to be modelled to the actor's ears before the day of shooting and SAG rules stated that the make-up call counted as a full day's work. Therefore the Klingons were invented because Fu-Manchu mustaches and brown face paint ("Mexican Bandit No. 2") was all it took to make an OG Klingon (this comes from Stephen Whitfield's "The Making of Star Trek").

Sisko realises he can't rely on the neighbourly feelings of the Romans-in-Space so he asks Garak to find evidence that the Dominion are planning an invasion of the Romulan Star Empire.

Garak, however , doubts such evidence exists. Instead he has another suggestion...

Garak knows a guy who can help but the guy just stabbed Quark in his bar, meaning Sisko must continue his descent into darkness...

(That's not really Bashir btw- you may recall this from an earlier installment of Best of Starshit:

https://rdrama.net/h/kino/post/226890/the-best-of-starshit-garak-talks

So that's a changeling who apparently just lets all this shit happen- massive plot hole but... meh)

So the evidence is faked and all that's required is to make sure that Mr. Stabby-Stabby gets paid off...

So now it's time to say hi to the Romulans. The Roms have a history of cool rides but Senator Vreenak's stealth ship takes the cake. This thing is a fricking cool whip...

Obviously we all know what happens next: Vreenak spots the forgery and a meme is born...

https://youtube.com/watch?v=-bLtVVfaQd0&list=PLxidGOcLnJh21CFCPcZ-iKDcAuAcuXeg8

Paramount have blocked this video in HK but maybe you'll have more luck.

Vreenak heads back to Romulus to tell all the other Pointy-Ears about the Federation's duplicity (and probably be quietly impressed tbh) but... remember Garak saying he was going to get a closer look at the Romulan ship?

Which just leaves Sisko to wrestle with his conscious...

The general consensus is that Picard would have never have gotten involved in any of this. Picard, however would probably have gone screaming after Q to send the nasty Dominion away. Sisko didn't have that option...

The one time they put Q in DS9 there was a resounding feeling that it was a mistake and that he didn't fit. That or he couldn't cope with an empowered gentleman of color. Fricking Extra-Dimensional-Supremacist.

Check out my other Starshit Effortposts:

https://rdrama.net/h/kino/post/226933/best-of-starshit-there-are-four

https://rdrama.net/h/kino/post/227166/best-of-starshit-the-measure-of